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Characters / Friendship Is Magic: Cozy Glow

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cozy_glow_vector_5.PNG
"With Twilight and her lackeys out of my way, all of Equestria will bow to me! The future Empress of Friendship!"

Voiced by: Sunni Westbrook

A Pegasus filly who attends the School of Friendship. Unknown to everyone else, she secretly plots to drain all magic from Equestria and overthrow Celestia, Luna, and Twilight. In the process, she manipulates everypony around her and becomes pen pals with Lord Tirek. However, her plans were foiled by the Young Six and her misdeeds were exposed to everyone she's fooled. The Princesses decided to imprison her in Tartarus with Tirek, though after she spends months trapped there, she was summoned by Grogar, who decided to have her join his alliance so they can defeat Twilight and take over Equestria once and for all.


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    Tropes A to E 
  • Accidental Misnaming: In "The Beginning of the End - Part 1". Due to her lack of familiarity with him, she initially calls Grogar "Grofar".
  • The Ace: Despite being a filly, she's skilled at cooking, drawing, possibly knitting, and making sculptures, not to mention the Mane Six dolls in "Frenemies" are heavily implied to have been made by her. Made even more impressive by the fact that she doesn't have fingers or a unicorn horn, meaning she primarily has to do these things with her mouth. She also becomes an Instant Expert with alicorn magic.
  • Alpha Bitch: She takes on this role when running the School of Friendship in Twilight's absence, becoming the most well-liked student in school due to her apparent kindness and cuteness, and manipulating the other students into doing what she wants.
  • Ambition Is Evil: When Tirek questions whether her plan to drain all magic from Equestria was a little excessive, Cozy responds with "Eh, I think big."
  • Arc Villainess: For Season 8, infiltrating the School of Friendship and slowly gathering information to enact an Evil Plan.
  • Attention Whore: When the students of the School of Friendship begin to evacuate the school after an energy bubble begins to explode, Cozy Glow gets frustrated, wanting them to pay attention to her.
  • Ax-Crazy: As the ending of "School Raze – Part 1" clearly shows, especially given her actions and deranged laughter. Even more on display in the finale, where she acts outright psychotic and openly murderous.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: Of Grogar's Legion of Doom, in which she's the only foal (albeit an unrepentantly evil one).
  • Badass Adorable: This adorable little filly is a power-hungry mastermind who almost succeded in taking over Equestria.
  • Badass Normal: The first major villain to be a non-magic-user, instead relying on her wits and some magical artifacts, until she uses the magic of Grogar's Bewitching Bell to become an alicorn in the Season 9 finale.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: She ends up turning all the students against Neighsay when he tries to take over the School of Friendship during the absence of the Mane Six and run it by EEA rules, leaving to them restraining him to a chair with chains. With him out of the way, she takes over the school herself. Ironically, her treatment of Neighsay caused him to pull a Heel–Face Turn, especially after the Student Six decided to rescue him.
  • Bait the Dog: When the CMC attempt to distract her, she tricks them into going into the School of Friendship's closet, then traps them in it.
  • Batman Gambit: When the magic begins to vanish from Equestria, she plants the idea to investigate Tirek in the Mane Six's head, providing them with the means to get into Tartarus without magic, but not to get out, trapping them.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: She's an adorable filly, but also a villainous Chessmaster.
  • Big Bad Triumvirate: Forms one with Tirek and Chrysalis during the series finale after Grogar is revealed to be Discord.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Don't trust that nice and cute exterior one bit. She initially appears to be a sweet and helpful little filly, but the end of Season 8 reveals that was all an act, since she's really much more manipulative and cruel. In Season 9, she doesn't bother to hide her true nature as much.
  • Blatant Lies: In "Frenemies", she claims that the "real" her is "cute and loveable" and not the annoying Jerkass Tirek accuses her of being, while behaving as the latter.
  • Boomerang Bigot: She shows a hatred of ponies despite being one herself. She repeatedly refers to her enemies as "you/those ponies", and she demonstrates a hatred for the things they hold custom, such as their concept of friendship and their holidays.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: She has a tendency to act this way when she doesn't get what she wants. In "Frenemies", she throws a tantrum after being unable to talk Rusty Bucket into helping her, stomping her hooves and screeching about how ponies are supposed to do what she asks them to.
  • Broken Pedestal: Became this to the CMC and the School of Friendship's students after her true colors are exposed to them.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: She's quite willing to admit that she likes being bad. She refers to herself as the "Empress of Friendship" in contrast to Twilight being the "Princess of Friendship", clearly viewing "empress" as being more evil than "princess", as well as openly mocking the Elements of Harmony and gloating over her actions. In "Frememies", she starts the Villain Song titled "Better Way to Be Bad". In "The Ending of The End Part 1", when Grogar asks why the trio didn't tell him they had the bell, she answers "We're villains, duh."
  • Catchphrase: Cozy Glow likes to say "Golly!", possibly hinting at her being inspired by Shirley Temple. At one point in "Marks for Effort", she gets Apple Bloom to say it too.
  • Character Development: Throughout Season 9, she gradually learns to work better with her allies in the Legion of Doom.
  • The Chessmaster: Fittingly, her cutie mark is a chess piece (a rook, to be precise).
    • In "Marks for Effort", she sets herself up as a False Friend to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, then intentionally fails a test and tells Twilight the CMC tutored her in order to make her think the CMC need to attend the School of Friendship. When Twilight instead bans them from the school, she doesn't let it slow her down, convincing Twilight and Starlight to let them back into the school as teachers by the end of the episode.
    • In "School Raze – Part 2", she is able to convince Chancellor Neighsay she's helping him, and then undercut him when she is able to convince the students to revolt against him and the Student Six later. Combined with her chess-mastery and Batman Gambit in Part 1, the only flaw in her plan was not accounting for the Tree of Harmony to rescue the Student Six, which foils her plan at the very last second. The show lampshades to this trope when Cozy pulls out marionette puppets of the Mane Six while taunting Neighsay about her plan, showing her manipulative skills.
  • Child Prodigy: She's only a filly, but she's smart enough to eventually become Twilight's personal assistant at the School of Friendship. She's also very skilled in a number of activities (such as cooking, drawing and sculpting) and is later revealed to be a highly calculating Chessmaster who hides behind a cute facade.
  • Children Are Innocent: She is portayed this way in all of her appearances prior to "School Raze", which reveals that she is anything but this.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: Her ambition is to lead all of Equestria by herself, before she's even graduated school.
    "All of Equestria will bow to me! The future Empress of Friendship!"
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Cozy Glow loves betraying others. Whether it be her "friends", her villain partners, or anyone really, you can count her to throw them under the bus if it suits her (or at least attempt to).
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: In the series finale, she tries to absorb Discord's chaos magic, but completely loses control of it and humiliatingly has to return it to Grogar's bell.
  • Color-Coded Wizardry: When she becomes an alicorn, her magical aura is blood red.
  • Combat Pragmatist: In "The Ending of the End - Part 1", she brought Grogar's bell with her when she attacked Canterlot, using it to drain Celestia and Luna's magic when they tried to bring her down.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: She's the first Arc Villain to be a non-magic user (the only magic she uses is through artifacts). Also, unlike the other villains, she doesn't underestimate The Power of Friendship, but her philosophy towards it (more "friends" equals more power) still makes her incapable of truly understanding the idea. And while most other villains scream a Big "NO!" or undergo a Villainous Breakdown when they get defeated, Cozy Glow smiles when she gets defeated.
  • Control Freak: One of her most defining traits, aside from her lust for power and faked innocence. Once she becomes the new Headmare of the School of Friendship, she has no problem ordering the other students around to do the things she wants them to, including forming a mob against Neighsay and the Young Six. In the series finale, she priorizes trying to get Tirek and Chrysalis to get along in order to get them to obey her over their conquest of Equestria, which is arguably her greatest desire. It's telling that she absolutely cannot control Discord's chaos magic.
  • Create Your Own Hero: Her entire plan and turning against Neighsay put him in a position where he was rescued by non-pony creatures, showing him that his paranoia and speciesism towards them was wrong, and allows him to make amends with Twilight, even going so far as to use what magic he still had left to go to Canterlot and warn the Royal Sisters of Cozy's plan, having Celestia and Luna bring the Royal Guard with them and Neighsay to arrest Cozy.
  • Creepy Child: Her general sociopathy, plan to take over Equestria and the fact that she is working with Tirek out of all people certainly puts her into this category.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Her "fight" against the Canterlot Royal Guards consists solely of her shielding herself from all their attacks and gating them down the moat. When Celestia and Luna try to blast her, she drains them of all their magic using Grogar's bell.
    Cozy Glow: That's the problem with you magic-types! You're so reliant on all your special power, you forget to use your brains!
  • Curb Stomp Cushion: While the Mane Six succeed in overpowering her alicorn form, she does manage to dodge some of their attacks and get a couple of blasts in. It takes some time for her to fully be overpowered and brought to the ground despite her just being a filly who never used magic before, and even when she is, she's saved by Tirek and Chrysalis.
  • Cute and Psycho: She traps Starlight, has disturbing mood swings and laughs maniacally while performing a sinister magical ritual.
  • Deadpan Snarker: In "The Ending of the End – Part 1", she asks Twilight if she gained the belief that friendship can defeat her and her allies from a "daily affirmation calendar".
  • Death Glare: She directs one at Neighsay quite a few times, though he's not always aware of it.
  • Deceptive Disciple: She was a pupil of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and apparently one of their model students, before she turned out to be evil and was defeated and imprisoned.
  • Deliberately Cute Child: She intentionally plays the act of a sweet little filly to get to enact her Evil Plan.
  • Demoted to Dragon: In Season 9, she goes from the Big Bad of Season 8 to one of Grogar's flunkies. This is until the finale, when Grogar is revealed to be Discord and she instead becomes part of a Big Bad Triumvirate.
  • Determinator: Cozy Glow's biggest quality is that she will stop at nothing to achieve her goals, carefully planning things through in the process.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Deliberately invokes this. She tricks the Mane Six into trapping themselves in Tartarus using a key that can unlock anything, intentionally not telling the Mane Six that It Only Works Once. This is all so she can go about her Evil Plan without them around.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: She was this from "Marks for Effort" to "School Raze – Part 1", being trusted by everypony around her despite the clear implication that she's planning something bad, at least from a meta point of view.
  • Didn't See That Coming: During "School Raze", she trapped Starlight Glimmer (who had been made acting headmare while the Mane Six and Spike investigated the magic drain) in her magic-draining bubble, then announced to everyone that she had been put in charge of the school. This backfired on her when Neighsay arrived to warn Twilight about the magic drain. He was disgusted to hear Twilight had supposedly left a foal in charge of the school, and saw it as the final incentive he needed to take it over himself.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
    • She traps Starlight Glimmer, one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria, in an energy bubble (though, to be fair, Starlight was not at her best, due to being affected by the magic drain Cozy Glow herself had set in motion).
    • In the Season 9 finale, she drains Celestia and Luna of their magic and mocks them afterwards (albeit with help from Grogar's bell).
  • Dissonant Serenity: Even when she gets captured by the Royal Guard, she is more annoyed than anything.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: Happens to her after her Evil Plan is foiled, ending up right next to her pen pal Tirek inside of a cage. She's freed by Grogar/Discord in the following episode.
  • The Dragon: Invoked by her. While all three of them have been Demoted to Dragon, she claims Grogar left her in charge of Chrysalis and Tirek while he was away from the lair. The latter two don't seem to buy it, though, knowing her true nature.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: Cozy is well aware of how powerful friendship is, but she completely misunderstands what makes it powerful. Similar to how Chrysalis saw the Elements of Harmony as a weapon, she believes friendship is a tool for her to use to make herself more powerful and the more friends you have, the more powerful you are. This causes her to make hollow friendships with everyone and act as a False Friend to them, just so long as they can benefit her. When she is defeated by the Young Six after they use the real Power of Friendship against her, she openly mocks the Elements of Harmony and claims she can make new friends without them.
  • Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Cozy Glow speaks with a downplayed version of this, especially when the Crusaders first meet her. It's especially noticeable when she says the words "trouble" and "friendship". It's later revealed that this was just Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • Emerging from the Shadows: Does this at the end of part 1 of "School Raze", when Starlight is captured and her true nature is revealed.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: She's the first of the villain trio to receive power from Grogar's bell, upgrading into a gargantuan alicorn form. This power turns out to be too much for her quickly, however, and she settles for taking a fraction of that power into the final battle.
  • Enfant Terrible: Out of her and the other antagonistic fillies we've seen (Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and Babs Seed), she is the most deranged, evil, intelligent, and genuinely malicious, intending to take over Equestria instead of (just) being a Jerkass bully. In the end, she proves to be just as outright psychotic as the other major villains. Also unlike them, she is deemed to be so Beyond Redemption that she's imprisoned in Tartarus, and later turned to stone with the likes of Chrysalis and Tirek, possibly forever.
  • Entitled Bitch: She expects ponies to do whatever she tells them to do, no matter how badly she treats them.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: In "School Raze – Part 2", she agrees that Neighsay nearly ruined the school in his last appearance, and stands up for Twilight's teaching methods.
  • Evil All Along: She turns out to be the Arc Villainess of Season 8, revealed in the season finale.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
    • In "Marks for Effort", she is unable to understand why the Crusaders would want to help her, thinking that they obviously want something in return.
    • Zigzagged in "School Raze". Cozy Glow is well aware that the power of friendship is the greatest in Equestria, unlike most of the other major villains who scoff at the idea and end up getting blindsided by it. Unfortunately, she is still completely incapable of truly understanding the idea, fixating on the 'power' aspect of it and coveting it for her own as a means to an end, rendering all her "friendships" hollow. As she finds out the painful way.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • Spike. Both are the youngest members of their respective groups and are of a different species than the other members, as well as being the Wise Beyond Their Years Only Sane Man, though their teammates often fail to take them seriously. Additionally, both served as Twilight's assistant, albeit in different aspects.
    • She becomes one to Sandbar after joining Grogar's Legion of Doom. Both are the only non-magic using ponies of their respective groups, but while Sandbar is laid-back, agreeable, and keeps his friends together when they disagree, Cozy Glow is a sociopath putting on the facade of a Nice Girl and actively exploits it to manipulate and dominate her co-conspirators to her own benefit and is as much a source of bickering in her group as Tirek and Chrysalis, at least initially.
    • To Stygian, with both being the "normal" and powerless one out of their respective groups, and can be disrespected by the other members. Unlike Stygian, however, Cozy Glow truly did try to betray her teammates.
  • Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: While doing a friendship test, she answers the question "Who is the Princess of Friendship?" with "Your Mom".
  • Evil Laugh: Does this after revealing her plan to take over Equestria and has another one after having the School of Friendship's students lock Neighsay in chains.
  • Evil Orphan: Cozy Glow's parents are never seen or brought up, not even when she gets imprisoned in Tartarus or turned into stone. When asked about the whereabouts of Cozy's parents, Word of God responded with "Who says she has parents?", implying Cozy Glow is indeed an orphan.invoked
  • Evil Versus Evil: Despite personally approving of friendship and being able to hold amicable relationships with other villains, she ends up butting heads with Neighsay when his attempts to forcibly restore order interfere with her masterplan. She plays this, as with all her machinations, in a very deceptive way as she tries to buddy up to him initially, even standing by him when he delivers his New Era Speech. When she ends up backstabbing him, he's genuinely flabbergasted that a child and a pony could be so evil.

    Tropes F to P 
  • Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: This cute, sweet little filly harbors the brain of a devious and manipulative villain that rivals the rest of the franchise's villains.
  • The Fake Cutie: She's certainly cute enough, but this is all a front so that no one suspects her of doing anything wrong.
  • False Friend: To everyone, as she sees friendship as a means to acquire power and thus would make lots and lots of friends to get lots and lots of power.
  • Fantastic Racism: In "What Lies Beneath", she exhibits some serious Condescending Compassion towards the Young Six (including Sandbar, since he was friends with non-ponies).
  • The Farmer and the Viper: To thank Twilight for showing her kindness and teaching her about friendship, she imprisons her in Tartarus and attempts to take over her school.
  • Fatal Flaw: How she sees The Power of Friendship, believing it's a powerful weapon that can be used for her needs and to collect more friends than anypony could, completely missing the actual "friendship" part. Twlight lampshades this when calling her out.
    Cozy: Friendship is power! You might be the Princess of Friendship, but as Headmare of this school, I can collect even more friends than you!
    Twilight: You're the one who doesn't get it, Cozy. Friendship is powerful, but power isn't why you make friends. I'm sorry I couldn't teach you that.
  • Faux Affably Evil: She pretends to be nice and sweet, but only to manipulate people: she only cares about herself.
  • Final Boss: Successfully backstabs Grogar/Discord to become the final villain of the series, sharing the role with Chrysalis and Tirek.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Cozy Glow is a pretty cute name for the kind of pony she is, which is lampshaded by Tirek. She's one of the Final Bosses of the series and proves to be one of the most dangerous villains in the series.
  • Foil:
    • To Twilight Sparkle. Whereas Twilight is an unambiguously kind princess who opened the school to spread her teachings about selfless, altruistic friendship, Cozy Glow is a Machiavellian schemer who considers friendship a "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" network of favors and influencers, that'll enable her to claw her way to the top of the Equestrian power hierarchy.
    • To Starlight Glimmer, who she interacts with the most out of the adult characters. Both ponies were introduced to the series as seemingly sweet and kind, but turned out to be manipulative and had incorrect views on friendship (as either a ruling class or a means of power). However, while Starlight's actions were out of misguided good intentions, Cozy Glow has nothing but selfish hidden agendas for herself.
    • To Chancellor Neighsay. Both are antagonists who strongly believe in The Power of Friendship, but miss the point and only see it as a means of force. However, their villainous actions vary. Neighsay attempts to prevent friendship from being learned by non-ponies who could potentially threaten Equestria, while Cozy Glow plans to conquer Equestria by taking Twilight's place in an Equestria without magic. Also, while Neighsay eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn, Cozy Glow remains evil after her defeat.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • "Marks for Effort" and "What Lies Beneath" both featured some subtle clues regarding her true nature.
      • Her cutie mark is of a rook, symbolizing her nature as The Chessmaster.
      • When the CMC offer to help her, she initially questions it, asking what is in it for them. In the finale, she is revealed to only seek friendship for her own benefit.
      • When guessing the Elements of Harmony, she guesses Generosity and Magic respectively as "intelligence" and "control".
      • Right before she reveals to the CMC that she failed her test, she very briefly displays a smirk.
      • When she visits Starlight for a guidance counseling session, Starlight offers her some "empathy cocoa". Cozy never once drinks any of it, implying she has a Lack of Empathy (which is proven in "School Raze", as she drains all the magic from Equestria, traps the Mane Six in Tartarus, and leaves the Young Six and Starlight to be pulled into another realm along with all of Equestria's magic, showing no remorse whatsoever).
      • Cozy says to Starlight, "I guess I still have a lot to learn about friendship." She turns out to be right, as she sees friendship as a source of power and doesn't understand what it really is.
      • At the beginning of "What Lies Beneath", she is the only student who was excited upon the announcement of Twilight's upcoming test while the others groaned.
      • During said episode, she shows some Condescending Compassion towards the Young Six by saying that friendship isn't in their nature. This shows that Cozy might not be as nice as she appears to be.
      • At the end of the episode, she tells the Young Six "Just let Cozy take care of everything" and looks at the vent that leads to the Tree of Harmony, complete with a Traitor Shot on her face.
    • In the Season 9 premiere, she builds a rock sculpture of her and Tirek. In the finale, they are turned into stone along with Chrysalis.
  • For the Evulz: Well, we can only assume this is the case, considering no explanation is given on why she desires evil and power so much.
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: After being imprisoned in Tartarus, she tells Tirek "Hey neighbor. Wanna be friends?" while sporting a Slasher Smile and looking at the camera, almost as if she's speaking to the audience.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Of Grogar's Legion of Doom, she's seen as annoying by both Tirek and Chrysalis.
  • Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She has artistic interests and continuously seeks to maintain a cute exterior, but is also obsessed with destruction and getting her hooves dirty.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: She crowns herself the "Empress of Friendship" once she gets rid of the Mane Six, Starlight, the Student Six, and Neighsay.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Her manipulation of Rusty Bucket works too well; he comes to care about her so much he refuses to let her to the top of Mt. Everhoof for her own safety.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: She intentionally fails her test so that the Crusaders can become students, openly admitting to Twilight that they tutored her in hopes of "proving" they're bad at friendship. Instead, Twilight believes that the CMC intentionally taught Cozy Glow the wrong answers out of spite for not being allowed to attend the School of Friendship, and outright bans them from the school.
  • Hated by All: By the end of "School Raze – Part 2", she ends up with this status when her true colors are exposed to everyone she's fooled. She doesn't seem to care, though. And in the series finale, all of Equestria rises up against her and her partners.
  • Hidden Depths: "Frenemies" reveals that she's a very decent artist.
  • Her Own Worst Enemy: What ultimately prevented Cozy from getting to live a long, happy life was her own faked nice exterior and love of throwing any potential allies under the bus. Prior to being sent to Tartarus, she had it all: lots of friends, a very high position, and the trust and closeness of Equestria's soon to be ruler. Yet she had to throw it all away in favor of attempting to drain Equestria's magic and betraying all her "friends". Even after her release, she could've formed a close, trusting relationship with Tirek and Chrysalis, but instead opted for a loose Teeth-Clenched Teamwork (to be fair, the other two were equally if not more willing to not become friends with each other). At the end of the day, while it can be argued Cozy Glow's imprisonment in stone was overly harsh due to her being a child, it cannot be denied that she brought it upon herself.
  • Hypocrite:
    • Twice in the "School Raze" two-parter:
      • In part one, she mocks Smolder for being a "scheming dragon", yet she herself is in the middle of a major scheme to take over Equestria.
      • In part two, while trying to pin the blame for the magic drain on the Young Six, she asks them how "they" could do that after everything Twilight did for them. Twilight had taught Cozy about friendship, and even made her her assistant, and Cozy repaid Twilight by tricking her into getting her and her friends trapped, and taking over Twilight's school for herself.
    • In "Frenemies", she berates Tirek for his "I'm smarter than you" attitude, even though she herself has boasted to the Young Six over supposedly knowing friendship and Equestria's history better than them.
    • In Season 9, though Cozy repeadly urges Chrysalis and Tirek to get along and work together peacefully without betrayal, what does she do when she gains Discord's chaos magic? She insults them and tries to betray and blast them.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Deconstructed. Recognizing that friendship is an actual source of magic and power that can be used with the proper knowledge, she aspires to make everyone like her and be her friend—not because she actually believes in the true power of friendship, but because she believes more friends means more power.
  • Innocently Insensitive: She can sometimes be this, such as unintentionally getting the CMC expelled from the School of Friendship in "Marks for Effort" and exhibiting Condescending Compassion towards the Young Six in "What Lies Beneath". She turns out to be anything but innocent, though.
  • Insufferable Genius: Shows shades of this in "What Lies Beneath", acting condescendingly towards the Young Six via her vast knowledge as a student. And that's while still putting on her Bitch in Sheep's Clothing act.
  • Interspecies Friendship: With Tirek, whom she is pen pals with. Also counts as a Mayfly–December Friendship, since he's at least a thousand years older than her. Though the two of them act less as "friends" and more as "uneasy allies".
  • Ironic Name: She's anything but cozy. In addition, a "warm glow" is sometimes used to describe the feeling people get from selfless acts (in other words, Good Feels Good). This is exactly the sort of thing students are supposed to be learning from the friendship lessons, but she's just interested in using them to her own advantage.
  • It's All About Me: She wants to take all the magic for herself and only cares about herself, seeing others as a way to get what she wants. Perhaps best exemplified when she is taking over the school and starts putting her stuff on Twilight's desk... which includes a picture of herself. Not her family, not her friends, just her.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk:
    • When the CMC attempt to distract her now that they've found out about her true colors, Cozy Glow acts friendly towards them at first, then distracts them and locks them in a closet and berates them for thinking they could fool her.
    • The Pet the Dog moment she had towards Tirek in "The Beginning of the End", in which she builds a "best friends" rock sculpture of them? Nope, Tirek states that it was just an attempt by her to manipulate him in "Frenemies". The ending of the aforementioned episode making her seem like the Token Good Teammate of Grogar's group by having her attempt to get Chrysalis and Tirek to become friends? That was only for her own selfish benefit and not because she cares about them.
  • Karmic Butt-Monkey: She's a selfish Manipulative Bitch who definitely has comical misfortune befall her more often than not. She's injured by the explosion of her magic-draining bubble, literally flicked by Tirek, gotten Tirek falling on her, attacked by a snowball, spun around more than once, and overpowered and ambushed by the Mane Six.
  • Kick the Dog: In "Frenemies", when he refuses to let her get to the top of the mountain, Cozy Glow tells Rusty Bucket that she never actually wanted to be friends with him. Also counts as Brutal Honesty.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: She and Tirek both immediately back down in the finale when they're de-powered. Not that it saves them.
  • Lack of Empathy: Has absolutely no empathy for any living thing other than herself. (Becomes one of her fatal flaws.)
  • Large Ham: Not only does she love to scream a lot when she's angry, even her facial expressions are over-the-top.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Leader Wannabe: In "Frenemies", she repeatedly insists that Grogar placed her in charge of the Legion of Doom. The others dispute that claim, and even if it were true, they're not going to lower themselves to serve a filly.
  • Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The Dark Feminine to Sweetie Belle's Light Feminine.
  • Light Is Not Good: Has pastel blues and pink color scheme and a light-based name. Totally trustworthy. Even more blatant following her transformation into an alicorn, in which her horn (which can be seen as the equivalent of a halo), magic, large wings, white chest plate, and tendency to hold the Bewitching Bell make her greatly resemble an angel, yet she acts completely insane and psychotic in addition to using her powers for things like attempted murder.
  • Little Miss Badass: Played for Drama. Of all the various creatures, monsters and Eldritch Abomination oponents the Mane 6 fought, the smartest, most cruel and dangerous, the one with the closest Near-Villain Victory is... a pegasi filly?
  • Manipulative Bitch: Easily turns out to be the best ever seen on the show. She's spent her entire screentime preparing her Evil Plan and played everyone like a fiddle. In-universe, no one saw her reveal as the Arc Villainess of the season coming.
  • Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe example. While Cozy Glow knows how powerful friendship is, she interprets it as "make as many friends as possible because that way you'll gain the power to take over Equestria" instead of making friends simply because it's a good thing to do.
  • Murder by Inaction: Implied. Though it was her magic-draining plot that caused the students on Cloudsale to nearly fall to their deaths (as part of a field trip she helped take place), Cozy Glow doesn't appear bothered upon finding out about this.
  • Mysterious Past: No one knows where she came from, if her parents are around, or what led her to become evil.
  • Narcissist: She sees others as a way to get what she wants and keeps several pictures of herself in the School of Friendship.
  • Nice Girl: Subverted, as it's just what she pretends to be in order to make more False Friends.
  • No-Nonsense Nemesis: In the Season 9 finale, she shows this when she attacks Canterlot Castle. She stuns Twilight upon entering the room, sends the guards through a portal to the outside, brings Grogar's bell to drain Celestia and Luna's magic, and upon capturing most of the Mane Six, she is in favor of disposing of them immediately. Fortunately for them, Chrysalis shoots this down.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: She tends to get physically close to Tirek, much to his annoyance.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Her pretending that she couldn't remember Tirek's name off the top of her head is one of the most blatant examples of her doing this.
  • Obviously Evil: In a meta sense, anyway. "Marks for Effort" has her demonstrate some rather devious manipulation and planning that Starlight even remarks on, she briefly shows a Slasher Smile when the Crusaders lecture her on the Elements of Harmony, guesses two of the Elements as "intelligence" and "control", and is obviously playing up the Deliberately Cute Child bit more than is real. Subsequent appearances make it increasingly apparent that Cozy is up to something nefarious before her designs for taking over Equestria are revealed.
  • Ocular Gushers: She announces to the CMC that she failed her test by crying with a huge stream of tears.
  • Odd Name Out: "Cozy Glow" doesn't fit the pegasi Fantastic Naming Convention of being flight or weather related, nor is it related to their cutie mark. Her light-based name better fits unicorn magical theme naming. This hints there's something deceptive about her and the greater magical threat she'd pose.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: She was somehow able to outsmart Starlight and trap her in a magic sphere, but it isn't shown or explained how.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • She has this reaction when the Mane Six return from Tartarus and has an even bigger one when she finds herself surrounded by the students, Neighsay, Celestia, Luna, and the Royal Guard, fully re-energized with their restored magic, and all shooting a Death Glare at her for her crimes.
    • Has one in the Season 9 finale when she finds herself outplayed when every ally that Equestria has made, even Tempest Shadow, arrives to stop her, Chrysalis, and Tirek, as she is unable to make any strategic moves due to the sheer number of allies attacking her all at once.
  • Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: She's younger than all of her enemies, except the CMC.
  • Only Sane Man: Is surprisingly this for Grogar's group of villains in Season 9, at least until such a role goes to Tirek. As the only one with even a remote understanding of friendship and interest in it, even if it's self-serving, Cozy Glow actively tries to make Tirek and Chrysalis work together as friends rather than engage in petty, prideful squabbling. In "Frenemies", she mentions that Grogar put her in charge of Tirek and Chrysalis.
  • Perky Female Minion: Once she joins the Legion of Doom in season 9 of the series, Cozy Glow is quite perky and upbeat in comparison to her co-conspirators, especially the brooding Tirek (whom she most often hangs around) and the overly serious Big Bad Grogar.
  • Pet the Dog:
    • She does seem to have some affection for the CMC initially, as she does try to get them enlisted into Twilight's school. She was clearly hoping they would be her allies once she executed her plan. But when this doesn't happen, her affection for them fades and she discards them as friends.
    • Her bond with Tirek seems to be genuine. In the Season 9 premiere, she's even created a "best friends" rock sculpture of the two of them, which she is very happy to show him. She also feels the need to say "No offense, you look great" after mentioning that he is really old.
    • It's later zigzagged in "Frenemies", in which Tirek says that her friendliness towards him was just another one of her manipulations, and that he's not falling for them. In the latter part of the episode, however, she does start to bond with Tirek and Chrysalis over their shared hatred of the heroes, and they learn to work together in order to get Grogar's bell.
    • In "The Summer Sun Setback", she casually plays chess with Tirek.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She may just be a Pegasus filly, but that's no reason to underestimate the threat she poses to Equestria. After she turns herself into an alicorn, her magic is very powerful and she puts it to very good use, to the point where it can drill huge craters in the ground, and apparently, a single blast would've killed the Main Six (and Spike) had it hit them.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: She spreads the same racist rhetoric in the season 8 finale Neighsay previously did, only subtler; When Smolder questions her being left in charge of the school, Cozy puts the crowd to rest by comparing ponies favorably to 'scheming' dragons, passing it off as a kind reassurance. Whether or not she actually believed this, or only pretended to for her plan to work, is unknown.
  • The Power of Friendship: Zigzagged. She's at least smart enough to recognize that the things people say about "friendship is magic" are correct, given what it's been capable of in the past. The trouble is that Cozy Glow sees friendship as a source of power and a means of control rather than a way to improve oneself.

    Tropes R to Y 
  • Rabble Rouser: Without magic or fighting ability, this is her primary power. In "School Raze", she twice manages to win a crowd over to her side, even turning them against other students, just by talking and painting herself as the reasonable, well-meaning individual.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Considering her true nature as a Manipulative Bitch, the eye color fits nicely.
  • Red Herring: Season 8 contains a lot of foreshadowing that she's working with Chancellor Neighsay to undermine the School of Friendship, including that she may have helped Flim and Flam start Friendship University, and in "What Lies Beneath" she makes numerous speciesist comments about the Student Six that echo things Neighsay has said. They have nothing to do with each other at all, and even end up being enemies — Cozy is actually working with Tirek.
  • Redemption Rejection: She is completely unrepentant of her actions and gloats over them. As a result, she is immediately sentenced to Tartarus.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Contrary to what their appearances and color schemes would imply, she's actually the Red Oni to Lord Tirek's Blue Oni. She is an Ax-Crazy Bratty Half-Pint who is very excitable, talkative, and open about her desire to destroy Twilight and her friends, whereas Tirek remains calm even when destroying everything around him, committing crimes, or taunting his foes.
  • Regal Ringlets: Her Mane and Tail are curled into small childish ringlets.
  • Rewatch Bonus: Once you know her true nature, it casts all her early appearances in a new light.
  • Sadist:
    • During "Better Way to be Bad", she sings about how the trio comprising her, Chrysalis, and Tirek will "crush [their] enemies to dust, and laugh as they all scream", with a Slasher Smile on her face.
    • In "The Summer Sun Setback", she describes ruining the Summer Sun Celebration as being the "best road trip ever".
    • In both parts of "The Ending of the End", she is all too eager to outright destroy Twilight and her friends as quickly as possible, relishing the idea.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She declares that if she can't make more friends and gain more power in Equestria, then she'll just have to do it somewhere else, but is immediately stopped.
  • Shadow Archetype: She is this to Diamond Tiara of all people. Both are female fillies who are Alpha Bitches/Enfant Terribles who show no remorse for their actions and have a Lack of Empathy against The Power of Friendship. Also both take a lot of sadistic pleasure when it comes to being Hate Sinks and ruining everypony's fun and lives. However, that is where the similarities end. On one side, Diamond Tiara is a filly who is Sour Outside, Sad Inside and is actually under a lot of stress thanks to her horrible mother Spoiled Rich, and is able to reform thanks to the CMC reaching out to her and convincing her (and by proxy, Silver Spoon) to come out of her shell and be a better person. On the other side, Cozy Glow is a filly who has the Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon facade built for her true intentions and sees The Power of Friendship as a tool of gaining more power, decides to become a straight-up villain, is a complete False Friend to everyone she sees, and is irredeemable to the very end and had to be put down for good by permanent petrification along with Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis.
  • Shorter Means Smarter: She's by far the smallest and youngest member of Grogar's Legion of Doom, but is also the Only Sane Woman.
  • Shut Up, Kirk!:
    • Before she's arrested, she shuts down Twilight's typical friendship speech by saying that she can get more friends than her, even without the Elements of Harmony.
    • She does this again in "The Ending of the End", twice mocking Twilight's friendship speeches.
  • Slasher Smile: Briefly shows one after correctly naming the Element of Magic. Her final shot when jailed in Tartarus gives her an especially cruel one - it even provides the image for the episode recap. In season 9, since her facade is no longer necessary, she begins giving increasingly psychopathic ones as things progress.
  • Smarter Than You Look: She first appears to be a naive and simple-minded young filly, but is really an evil manipulator and chessmaster.
    Cozy Glow: Do you three think you can fool me!? I know a diversion when I see it!
  • The Sociopath: Is one of the biggest ones in the series, along with Chrysalis and Sombra. She is masterful at faking emotions to manipulate people into doing what she wants, when she cares nothing about them and would throw everyone under the bus in the name of claiming absolute power for herself.
  • The Starscream: Fond of this. During "School Raze", she pretends to concede the role of Headmare to Neighsay, only to turn against him quickly. At the end of "Frenemies", she and the other members of the Legion of Doom agree to keep Grogar's bell for themselves and plot against him.
  • The Stool Pigeon: During the Cold Open of "Frenemies", Cozy Glow tells Grogar that Tirek has left food out again.
  • Sugary Malice: Occasionally displays shades of her sweet facade even after revealing her true colors.
  • Taken for Granite: Her ultimate fate, along with Tirek and Chrysalis. She gets Depowered, said to be Beyond Redemption by Celestia, then turned to stone, presumably permanently.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Her alliance with the other members of the Legion of Doom is just barely held together by Grogar's threats of violence. They do manage a better working relationship once they decide to put aside any differences until Grogar and all their enemies are crushed, though.
  • Tempting Fate: She shouldn't have made the remark that not even the Tree of Harmony would be able to stop her when she was in her Near-Villain Victory. Cue said living magical flora intervening and ruining Cozy's plan at the last second.
  • They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Cozy is an ordinary filly who acts all cute and nice, but is actually evil and manipulative inside.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: In "The Ending of the End - Part 2", when the Mane Six, the Pillars and the Student Six combine their friendship energy for one big Combined Energy Attack. She knows full well that she, Tirek, Chrysalis are boned, even with the Chaos Magic.
  • Token Human: Or rather, token pony, since the majority of characters are such. After Sombra's defection and subsequent destruction, she becomes the only pony member of Grogar's Legion of Doom.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to Chrysalis's tomboy. Cozy gets what she wants via faked kindness, whereas Chrysalis prefers confrontation.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: She was never truly nice in the first place, but in "Frenemies" she screams in fury the second she is denied something, when, as mentioned below, she used to only show her true colors when she believed she was alone. It seems like imprisonment in Tartarus, combined with the failure of her magic draining plan that almost went off without a hitch, did a number on her.
  • Traitor Shot: In "What Lies Beneath", she looks down in a grate at the end of the episode, saying "Just let Cozy take care of everything." to the Young Six.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Exaggerated. She's a young filly who has no qualms about attempting to take over Equestria as the Empress of Friendship.
  • Uncanny Valley Girl: Cozy Glow is the sweetest girl in school, top of her class, always willing to lend a hoof. She's beloved by all, so much so that people gladly accepted her with open arms when she briefly took over as principal. She is, of course, one of the craftiest and most villain in the show's run who got the closest to winning out of anyone.
  • Underestimating Badassery:
    • As mentioned in Tempting Fate, she didn't expect the Tree of Harmony to still retain its magic and be able to rescue the Young Six.
    • Humorously enough, she does this to herself in the Season 9 premiere, stating that she only couldn't take over Equestria because she's "just a kid", even though she nearly managed to permanently drain all of Equestria's magic and has proved herself to be as much of a competent villain as Tirek, Sombra, and Chrysalis.
  • The Unreveal: We learn nothing about her. Not her backstory, not her family, not even whether or not she's still in stone by the epilogue of the series.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: In "The Ending of the End", Grogar's magic turns her into an alicorn with the powers to match, but her lack of experience shows when she is overwhelmed by the Mane Six ganging up on her.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Downplayed. Especially for a child, Cozy Glow is extremely dangerous and threatening. On the other hoof, though, she is able to reduce Tirek and Chrysalis, who are normally terrifying villains, to comedy with her antics.
  • Villain Decay: In season 9. In the previous season, she easily manipulated Twilight and the entire School of Friendship into trusting her and doing what she wanted them to do and only showed her true colors when she was alone (or at least thought she was), with hardly anyone suspecting her of foul play until her plan was nearly complete. Now, she is openly hostile whenever she is denied something and other villains only find her cute façade to be annoying. Tirek, being a manipulator himself, has been wise to her attempts to use him ever since they met in Tartarus and informs her she isn't fooling him at all. She is also unable to manipulate Rusty Bucket, a pony who knows nothing of her true nature (though this is only because she chose to reveal her true colors herself). However, this trope is downplayed given that she manages to get Grogar's bell in her possession alongside Chrysalis and Tirek, and finally totally subverted in the series finale when she and the Legion of Doom backstab him and claim the title of Final Bosses for themselves.
  • Villain Has a Point:
    • Even if it was just another one of her manipulations, Cozy Glow is entirely correct in her arguments against Neighsay. When he's going around saying that he knows how to run the School of Friendship, Cozy Glow points out that he's saying he understands friendship better than the Princess of Friendship, who was supported by Celestia and Luna. Neighsay tacitly admits it's hard to counter that point.
    • She is correct that Chrysalis and Tirek need to get along if they want to please Grogar and take over Equestria.
  • Villainous Friendship: In "Frenemies", she proves capable of bonding with Tirek and Chrysalis over their shared hatred of the heroes.
  • Villainous Underdog: She's got a lot stacked against her, being a normal pegasus with no magical powers (and a filly) but manages to be one of the show's most competent villains through sheer wit and charisma.
  • Villain Song: While Tirek and Chrysalis participate as well, she's the one who sings the most of "Better Way to Be Bad".
  • Villain with Good Publicity: No-one suspects her of trapping the Mane Six in Tartarus, or anything evil she's done for that matter.
  • Walking Spoiler: She's the Arc Villainess of the Season 8 finale, enacting a scheme with Tirek to take over the School of Friendship and absorb the magic of Equestria, and in all her prior appearances she's slowly been gathering intel on how to go about it.
  • The Watson: A rare villainous example. She's too young to have heard of Grogar, allowing him to explain his exploits to her for the audience's benefit.
  • Winged Unicorn: Grogar's Bell upgrades her into one in the finale. She becomes an even bigger one using Discord's chaos magic, but that proves ineffective when she can't figure out how it works.
  • Wise Beyond Her Years: Despite being an Enfant Terrible, Cozy Glow is very mature and wise for her age (in her own way).
  • Wham Line: "Enjoying yourself in there, Starlight? I'm sorry I had to lock you in, but what else could I do? You were going to ruin all my plans."
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Things don't always go according to her plan, but she's quick to improvise.
    • In "Marks for Effort", she didn't count on Twilight banning the Crusaders from the school, but she still finds a way to exploit the situation, manipulating Starlight into deciding the Crusaders are worthy to be teachers, then taking the fall for them so that Twilight will let them back in. Twilight's initial overreaction even works in her favor, since it made Twilight look worse to the Crusaders in comparison.
    • She didn't see Starlight not coming with the Mane Six to Tartarus, but manages to deal with it by trapping her inside an energy bubble. She also didn't see Neighsay interfering with her plans for the School of Friendship, so she turns the rest of the students into an angry mob to get him out of the way, citing what he tried to do in the past.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
    • Once a False Friend is no longer needed, Cozy Glow imprisons them in one way or another. Just ask the Mane Six, the CMC, Starlight, and Chancellor Neighsay.
    • In "The Ending of the End – Part 1", after she absorbs Discord's magic, she tries to turn on the others and rule Equestria by herself. "Tries" because she gets into the awkward position of not being able to control said chaos magic and has to beg them to put it back into Grogar's bell, and it's only the fact that they were more amused by the attempt than anything that they agree. However, it's possible this attempt was a side-effect of the chaos magic messing with her mind.
  • You Fool!: After tricking Tirek and Chrysalis into letting her have Discord's chaos magic, Cozy Glow straight-up calls them fools.
  • You Monster!: Downplayed. In "She's All Yak", Sandbar denounces her and Sombra as two ponies worse than Yona.
  • Youthful Freckles: She has three white "birdcatcher spots" on each cheek, similar to Applejack, which serve to enhance her cute appearance.

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