.
Dear Cozy Glow,
this is Moondancer, again.
“Yeah, again,” Cozy Glow repeated. “You are persistent, Moondancer, why sending another letter? I thought silence for three weeks makes it clear enough that I don't care. Your brain must be pretty dumb if you can't even take a hint like that.”
It's been a while since I wrote you and because you haven't responded, I figured you probably won't anymore...
“Oh, hey, some real brain activity!” Cozy set up a fake shock expression, framing her widely opened mouth with her forehooves. “How long did it take you to figure that out, Moondancer? You really are one genius!”
So, instead, I decided to write you again.
Now Cozy Glow frowned and all the mockery and fake cheer disappeared from her face. “So, instead, I decided to harass you, Cozy Glow!” the filly reworded the sentence. “Golly, Moondancer, am I your toy now?! I don't even understand why I keep reading your shit. Did you put a freaking spell to allure me to keep reading on this letter?!” There was no sign of regret over the switch to a more aggressive language in Cozy Glow's face.
And I want to apologize. I guess something in my letter must have upset you and that's why you didn't respond. I'm not sure what it was,
“Oh, go ahead and guess, Moondancer!” Cozy Glow snarked. “Show me your best theories!”
but whatever I said to upset you, I am sorry that I did. That's not my intention, I want to make you happy, Cozy Glow, not angry.
“Want that I feel good, make me happy!” Cozy Glow chirped. “A lot of care from a pony who doesn't even know me.” She cast her eyes down and her face darkened somewhat. “You're a liar, Moondancer.”
And I hope I can make up for it by talking about something that's fun. Yesterday, I visited the vendor I told you about again. After buying your relaxation bracelet, I asked him to make me my own and he finally had it finished yesterday! The word on mine is “Silence”. It's a reference to libraries. They are always silent and it is so relaxing to sit there and read a good book! And with this bracelet, I can carry this feeling with me wherever I go!
“Wooooooooh!” Cozy Glow returned to mock the letter.
Now both of us have a relaxation bracelet, isn't this amazing? I really hope you like your own, it was a perfect surprise find of a gift for you!
“Cerberus had a blast with it.” For a split-second, a vicious grin appeared on Cozy Glow's face. Then it turned into a disappointed frown. “First fail number one and now fail number two. Moondancer, you really don't understand anything.”
Cozy Glow's hooves began shaking and she couldn't hold the letter anymore. It dropped to the metallic bottom of the cage. Unable to sit any longer, Cozy Glow curled up, with her back pointing at Tirek, so he wouldn't see the tears that began flowing down her face.
.
Agreed. Even a small step can be big progress
10072726
And people that study years to know about the child mind and how to help, and not princesses that throw them to a hole in a cage and with no toilet. Cozy did not seem to have friends, she had allies.
The deeper these letters go, the more it is becoming clear how much impact having some pony care about her prior to the events of School Raze, or even before going to the School Of Friendship, is a root of the problem.
I think there is more to this collection of letters to Cozy Glow. I am starting to see how there are real life elements at play. For instance, why does it take negative attention getting activity to get a response? Cozy Glow had to know she'd lose her gift of flight with all magic drained from Equestria. However she still went through with the plan with the unrealistic expectation that making all ponies equal would make her the 'Go To Friend'.
The goal of her plan, if looked beyond the eyes of a frustrated child, makes no sense as forcing a situation to occur that could allow you to benefit from your talents doesn't mean you will get that outcome.
Let's say her plan did work. Tirek would have no magic, ponies would have no magic,all the unique creatures would fade out of existance, and the ponies would all just become simple tiny horses. Equestria would fall into a great depression as it would take years-and-years to rebuild society given the loss of magic.
In the end, Cozy Glow would feel just as empty as she did before enacting the spell circle. She'd see how she couldn't fly to help ponies with their troubles. She'd also find that, being known as the source of this trouble, how no pony wants anything to do with her. If anything, she'd be constantly 'booed' and verbally assaulted for bringing about the end of Equestria as it has been known.
Cozy would, by this point, realize her effort immensely backfired and would need to deal with all the pain and guilt in which was 'supposed' to be her ticket to being able to be more than what she perceived herself to be.
Perhaps, in her past, she was never encouraged nor treated well? Then you have her family just sending her to the school to 'fix her'. She's got no friends and her parents basically tossed her away to be 'some pony else's problem'. This is even if she has a parent. Heck, she could have been in a number of foster homes and orphanages before they just found her too difficult to work with prior to being just thrown into The School Of Friendship. This would make the school seem just like another sad part of her life.
***
Long to short, I believe her crying at the end is how she is realizing how she wished ponies would've cared about her, included her, and supported her before she caused such a disaster.
It is never implied Cozy Glow becomes very close to the CMC. We also don't see Starlight Glimmer having additional sessions with the troubled filly. By this time, Cozy has become very good at masking her feelings as she's had no real attachments. So it is more a blunder on The Mane 6, CMC, and even Student 6 for not having given her the 'friendship' she really needed outside of the events that transpired over "Marks For Effort".
And, lastly, her efforts to work alongside twilight Sparkle never seemed to really get her more than the same acknowledgment Spike always got for what he did. However, unlike Spike, Cozy was really putting forth her all to get some creature to say, "Thanks, cozy. We should hang out some time.". She probably got to where she felt she was being 'used' and 'under valued' as all the talk of friendship is only really shown to her in that single episode. Getting a "Thanks!" or "What would I do without you." is for someone who you work for and not a 'friend'.
10073206
If they had just tried to treat her with the same effort and compassion they did Discord we would have had a much more believable ending for her at the very least. The whole problem with the School of Friendship was that it frequently limited reasons to form actual friendships. The staff were purely professional (and as a result standoffish) and the students had minimal onscreen interaction with each other. We are given no reason to believe that it was the kind of environment that would foster genuine friendship, let alone be sufficient to cause the reformation of any individual that attended it.
10063223
Like a more believable version of The Evil Bell series with Cozy as the would be conqueror? I would read that.
10072910
You think it is that bad? That prisoners in Tartarus are not offered access to a toilet and have to do it in their cages and sleep in their own filth? It is definitely easy to see where that thought comes from, Tartarus does not appear like a place that even has a toilet to begin with. But I think you should know Celestia and Luna a little bit better that they wouldn't go that far to keep their prisoners in such horrible conditions, especially not if the prisoner happens to be a young filly.
Celestia and Luna are very harsh with villains and they sometimes make hard decisions for the protection of Equestria, such as locking up a young filly inside a cage in an underworld prison. But they are also good, benevolent rulers, who give mercy to those who deserve it and strive for it, and as such, it should be clear that they are rulers who treat their enemies better than their enemies treated them. Which, among other things, includes sanitary conditions in Tartarus.
Cozy might not receive a comfy pillow in her cage, but based on what we know about Celestia and Luna, I'm sure she is allowed to leave her cage with a guard in tow for such purposes as using a toilet or doing trots in one of Tartarus' chambers.
10073206
You're making good points here and you come rather close to the problem Cozy has. I can't confirm nor deny any specific guesses, as always this story is meant to follow Cozy's progression and its readers are supposed to find out along the way and alongside Cozy's therapists, but there is a major hole in your theory that I need to address:
Being known as the source of the trouble, how? If her plan had worked, nopony would have known that she is the cause of the vanished magic. The moment her plan was destined to fail was when Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Sandbar discovered her contraption in the school's basement and saw her monologueing there. But what if they would have never went into the basement? It was by complete chance that Sandbar saw Cozy going down there, so what if he wouldn't have seen her? Her plan would have very likely succeeded then and, in that case, how would anypony know that it was her who sent the magic away then?
If that would have been how it all happened, then only Starlight, Tirek and Twilight and her friends would have known that Cozy is behind the disappearance of magic from Equestria. Starlight was already taken care of by Cozy, she would get have gotten sent to another realm with all the magic and then she couldn't tell anypony what she found out.
Tirek wouldn't tell anyone, since he and Cozy made the plan together, and even if he would betray Cozy afterwards, he'd more likely dispose of her all by himself by killing her.
And Twilight and her friends, if Tirek wouldn't somehow kill them too, Cozy would have it easy to come up with a plan for them. Celestia and Luna knew they were heading to Tartarus, but with all the magic gone, it would have taken them long enough to find a way inside for Cozy to come up with something to get rid of them.
Nopony could have realistically blamed her for anything that happened if the outcome had been like that. All left to do for Cozy then would have been to make more "friends" and to spread her influence and power slowly across Equestria, until she has the entire kingdom under her control and even gotten Celestia, Luna and Cadance dethroned.
I also need to mention something about this:
Cozy Glow's ability to fly would have been fine, as pegasi do not fly with magic, but with muscle strength in the same way as birds fly, or, non-pegasi are able to trot and gallop. This has been confirmed on several occasions throughout G4 and in the most notable way in the Season 8 Finale.
I am, however, not blaming you for still believing that pegasi fly with magic. As someone who is unable to see that pegasi were flying during the entirety of the events in the Season 8 Finale, including after all the magic of Equestria had been sucked up by Cozy's contraption, it makes sense for you to still think that way. It merely frustrates me that the fandom in general desperately clings to this theory when pegasi so obviously don't fly with the aid of magic.
A such, I find it very hilarious how at least two different pegasi; Rainbow Dash and Cozy herself, were flying numerous times in the Season 8 Finale, both before creatures lost their magical abilities on Day 2 and after that happened, yet there are still some who insist that pegasi need magic to fly.
During the sunset of Day 3, after they managed to escape Tartarus, Twilight was moaning how they have failed, as she knew from Starswirl's discovery that all magic is gone from Equestria now. And yet Cozy Glow was still flying after that happened and Rainbow Dash was flying a very short time before this sunset. But there are still many who claim that pegasi fly with magic. It is pure stubbornness at this point, combined with the lack of ability to admit to being in the wrong with something.
To say this again, this criticism is not aimed at you. You have a very good, personal reason for still believing in this theory. But the vast majority of the fandom, all those who are able to see the evidence, should know better at this point and admit that their theory of pegasus flight through magic has been wrong all the time.
On the contrary, there was much implication and demonstration that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belled cared very much for Cozy and that they have shown her this care, as well.
While it seems unlikely that Cozy needed Starlight's counselling again, Cozy Glow had very little focus in Season 8 after "Marks for Effort" and outside of episodes that were specifically hinting at her plan and her true intentions. With that, it's left to our imagination when and how often she was hanging out with Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle during her short time at the school. But we do know that she was hanging out with them very often, regardless, that is something the events in "Marks for Effort" sufficiently established.
10075399
This isn't really related to the story, but I see the need to point out here that we have seen a lot of interactions between the students of Twilight's friendship school. Your comment here gives me the impression that the background of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and thus the ponies and creatures who roam there, is not only mostly overlooked these days, but that looking at it is also frowned upon.
As one of the seemingly very few left in the fandom who pays attention to background ponies/creatures, I can confirm that interactions between students are seen plenty in the individual episodes that show the friendship school. A prime example is Hyper Sonic's chat with Citrus Bit during the Amity Ball that we have seen in Season 9:
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But there are plenty more examples of students being seen talking and interacting with each other, which are worth checking out.
I really and truly thank you for explaining that aspect of the Pegasi in the season 8 finale. This most definitely puts holes in my theory for Cozy Glow and her end outcome. (People have told me she is quite fast for a filly Pegasus. Like a RD that made some bad life choices.)
The basis of Pegasi losing their ability to fly came from what I recalled of the Season 4 finale. I had usable sight at this time and remember how Tirek was taking the 'magic' from the Pegasi. This made me believe that an aspect of magic aided them in flight. So I thank you for clearing this up.
Another interesting point regarding the season 8 finale is how days still passed.Unless both Celestia and Luna were using some hardcore, magical artifacts neither the sun, nor moon, would move. If the celestial bodies did then it would show that Celestia and Luna have been fooling ponies regarding the way in which their world works for many years.
***
You also mention that you can notice Cozy scheming in episodes after 'Marks For Effort'? I know the obvious one in 'What Lies Beneath' but I'm guessing the others were visual clues?
I still dislike how Cozy was never properly given a back story as to why she did what she did and how she knew what to do to reach Tirek and correspond with him for as long as she did. She, from what I could hear, suffers from the "I'm evil because, well, I'm evil!". Given no other characters, notably villains, were portrayed so one dimensionally is troubling. It more makes the Mane 6, the princesses, the CMC, and everyone else seem like they are trying to 'sweep under the rug' a very obvious oversight in caring for a filly under their care.
***
Again, thanks for clearing up the Pegasus thing. (Not seeing a single episode since the end of Season 6, which I barely saw, really stinks)
10083633
In social settings yes, but I don't see them learning friendship because of their classes but in spit of them.
Even after the EEA is kicked out Twilight is still trying to teach in the manner of a tradition school setting, as opposed to attempting something more free flowing, even though she herself was implied to be tutored one on one with Celestia in addition to her regular studies.
It makes little sense that she'd abandon more one on one involved teaching so completely, something she learned about way back in Testing Testing 1, 2, 3, and used to great effect up until now.
It also makes it all the more ironic that the one who betrayed her was also the only one who seemed to have any interests in her lessons (or at least faked it) as we see in the beginning of What Lies Beneath when Cozy is giving out answers to Silverstream and Gallus and is the only one to applaud their upcoming test.