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Pitiful introduction to a potential villain for an over-arching narrative.

We had no build-up to her involvement due to us having spent too much time focusing on Posey and the crystal crisis, this character wasn't shown to be remotely involved in the central conflict of the Pilot, and aside from her being an Alicorn; we have no clue as to her motivation outside of wanting to take over Equestria: like nearly every other cookie cutter villain that G4 had produced. Even worse, we do not know her name.

If this was to be the central antagonist, than I have absolutely no desire to be interested in the plot (not that I have ever since The Ending of The End) nor do I care as to how exactly the Mane Five are to deal with her should they meet, since there's also seemingly no apparent connection shown between them on top of the lack of information regarding Alicorns that both G4 and G5 deeply suffers from. I am not giving her an F, or a Double F-, I'm giving "Shadowy Alicorn" a Super F!

You cannot introduce an over-arching villain at the very end of a Pilot since it defeats the purpose of introducing the villain in the first place. If she was introduced or at least had the audience see or be hinted at her in either the beginning or middle of the Pilot than it would have eased us into the idea of there being an Alicorn Villain when she is fully revealed in the end. It's almost like the new writing team doesn't understand the concept of writing an over-arching narrative or the basics of Hero and Villain stories. The only way that a villain being introduced at the end of a Pilot can be possible is if it's an established character that the audience would have known or heard about.

A good example I'll provide that would have given the audience a villain to latch onto would be instead of having it be an Alicorn hidden away in shadows looking at a monitor and laughing at Magic having returned so she could start her campaign to take over Ponykind again. I would start off somewhere smaller and quieter in order to ease and tease the audience into it. Namely, I would start off in a cave as the cracking of stone is heard and a figure topples to the ground in perpetual darkness followed by intense breathing as a golden light is seen emanating from the walls as we hear someone talking to themselves followed by closeups of a rock formation that the camera pulls back to see that it is the Legion Statue that Celestia, Luna, and Discord created to seal away Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow: and it is the latter which is missing from the statue. The scene then shifts to another part of the cave as a lone figure is seen sitting before an underground spring, a golden orb held aloft in her hooves as she looks upwards at the clouded skies at the bottom of the hole. As the Moon parts the clouds; we finally see who the figure is: Cozy Glow, and she unfurls her wings and brandishes her horn before taking flight into the night sky.

No need for over-the-top lines, no declaration of ruling Equestria, just the sight of Cozy Glow alone would have drawn in the audience to really get interested in what will happen in G5 and ask questions like: "How is Cozy Glow an Alicorn now? What is this Golden Light Power she possesses? Did restoring Magic free her from her Prison, and why is Tirek and Chrysalis still stuck in stone? What is Cozy Glows' motive now? Will G5 establish Cozy Glow's origins?"

These alone would have helped to build up interest in what will happen when Cozy Glow and Sunny Starscout finally meet.

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