@Starswirl  
Yeah, not everything’s her fault, but her reckless endangerment, poorly planned counters to threats and basically using Twilight and the rest as a hammer without giving any significant information or having competent plan B’s is where I get annoyed.
 
Irregardless of what Twilight did 90% of the planet has no reason to trust Celestia after she basically spat on every treaty and/or alliance on multiple occasions.
 
She’s selfish and has the planning skill of a toddler blessed by luck itself.
 
But thats not a Tyrant. Thats someone who doesn’t understand the concepts of accountability or consequences.

@Ohvist  
So everything is Celestia’s fault. Like I said, Tyrant Celestia derailment. No thank you.

@GrimChariot  
it is that particular worldview that would have set my version of Cozy Glow and Celestia apart from one-another, with Celestia placing too much blind faith and value in seeing Destiny, whereas Cozy Glow is more about the freedom of Choice in seeing a bigger picture to things. How their falling out had begun centered around Cozy learning of how Princess Luna fell and became Nightmare Moon and was subsequently banished for 1000 years time. Cozy heard the tale and a large part of her felt that it was fundamentally wrong in every aspect of the word; seeing that her own mother had kept her locked away on the Moon for over 1000 years awaiting the arrival of Twilight Sparkle who she had felt would eventually set everything right again. Cozy Glow would launch her own investigation into things without having to look through the lens of her mother, and find out that the reason behind Nightmare Moon wasn’t motivated by jealousy of Celestia; but out of loneliness and sorrow at being a Princess in-name only while Celestia received all the praise and adoration of the subjects they were to lead together.
 
Cozy learned of this through her own studies of their nations’ history, of how eventually Celestia had retreated inwards and slowly broke away from the other kingdoms she was closest allies with in preparation for a Destiny said to come 1000 years in the future, a Destiny that she felt that only a student born with great power of Magic would bring about no matter what. Cozy learned this, and despised it; of how much pressure her own mother was inevitably placing squarely upon Twilight’s shoulders’ so close after Sunset Shimmer had rightfully broken away from the Sun Princesses own machinations due to feeling as though she was being intentionally held back. Cozy no longer saw Celestia as a caring mother, but as a control freak that is plucking the strings of everyone within Equestria to her whims thinking that what she is doing is the right course of action to take.
 
It would be in that moment, the Cozy Glow we would know would come to exist; spiteful towards any and all notions of Destiny being an end-all be-all aspect of their world. She would instead set out on her own to shape her own fate through her own Choices that she would make through the questions that none would before have ever tried to ask. Her first order of business however would be dedicated towards correcting the great error that Celestia had caused through her desire of Destiny in thinking that Princess Luna was in the wrong because Celestia was the older sibling. Cozy had her own group of friends by her side, each one sharing their own perspectives and worldviews of how family operates, and through their talks came to the conclusion that indeed it was the job of an older sibling to watch over their younger and correct them should they do something wrong. But it was also the responsibilities of the younger sibling to keep their elder in-line and on the path that they had set out for them to make sure that they live up to the ideals that they were said to value.
 
To this end, Cozy had planned behind Celestias’ back during the 1000^th Summer Sun Celebration to completely go off the path that Celestia had created for them: a path that ended with Princess Luna in pain and Celestia demanding of her to fall in line under the veneer of joy at being reunited; a path that led only to Luna being sealed inside of a gilded cage that Celestia had fashioned for her out of an Equestria that feared and despised Luna because of Nightmare Moon. The path that Cozy Glow had fashioned instead was carved by her and her friends among the younger ponies that would serve to show respect and adoration of the Night not as something to entirely fear, but as an aspect of their world that hides within it it’s own innate beauty and wonder that stands as equal measure to the day. A path that was created under the lie of a secret underground highway that leads towards the Castle of Two Sisters from the outskirts of Ponyville, where within its depths the children would spring their trap: the first ever Midsummer Night Festival: where the guest-of-honor was Princess Luna who would be treated to wonderful meals, evening games, music; all meant to welcome back the Princess of the Night after 1000 years and show that now she has subjects of her own that understand and care about her not as the dreaded Nightmare Moon, but as a younger sister that was just very lonely…

@Starswirl  
She’s certainly not a tyrant, but the ends do not justify the means so I’m hard-pressed to call Celestia anything other then selfish and incompetent in her planning.

@Ohvist  
I would rather not the writers rely on some sudden Tyrant Celestia derailment to create conflict.

@GrimChariot  
it would have been interesting if there were some more to Cozy Glow’s backstory in Season 8, or at least a means of addressing the events of the Movie as having happened in the first place. And no, I don’t mean casually mentioning it in the first episode of the season like “Yeah, this was a thing. Move on”, I mean showing the aftermath of that three-days invasion. Entire lives were uprooted, cities were invaded, Ponyville literally BURNED while Twilight and co were off searching for the Hippogriffs. There would be some SERIOUS ramifications for their actions and that not everyone in Equestria would be so understanding that they were trying to bring back help to save their nation with.
 
Many of those on the outskirts would have seen what Princess Twilight Sparkle did as nothing short of abandoning her nation in its time of need and essentially telling all of her Ponies to go to hell. And whose to say that the entirety of The Storm Kings’ army did indeed disband after his defeat? For all we know, there are holdouts floating somewhere above Equestria seeking the weakest and most vulnerable of these now broken cities and towns to take advantage of and continue their fallen King’s conquest. Having Twilight and her friends have to come home not to a heroes welcome but to blank and hollow stares from their friends and neighbors now that they are no longer within Canterlot and having to put on a façade for the sake of keeping grace with Princess Celestia would show just how sick and tired most of Equestria is with Princess Twilight Sparkle now after all this time of doing absolutely nothing with her reputation aside from a public zeppelin outing and a book deal she had.
 
It would be with the Storm King’s Invasion that everything starts to fall apart for Twilight’s reputation as a defender of the land. First it would have been hers and the other Princesses slow response to the threat of Lord Tirek and of how Celestia, Luna, and Cadence basically did nothing while Tirek and Discord rampaged throughout the land stealing Magic. Then it was how there was apparently no Anti-Changeling Protocols ever developed or spearheaded in the months after the Changelings’ first invasion; and of how years later Queen Chrysalis was able to hold most of Equestria hostage by taking the Princesses and other defenders completely off-guard because they had no Protocols in place to detect hidden Changelings at all. And now it was the Three-Day long Invasion; where all three Princesses were captured while Twilight and her friends had just up and abandoned them all. To those outside of Ponyville, they wouldn’t see Twilight as a real Princess but as a spoiled child playing pretend and throwing around her name as though it really means something in the world.
 
It would be the sort of message that Movements would gladly rally behind; Movements of Ponies who were undoubtedly pissed off at Twilight Sparkle and The Royal Sisters for their callous disregard to the safety of their own subjects in times like these. And what would happen if one of these Movements has not only leaders capable of swaying a crowd to their tune, but also has the power and combat abilities to protect their followers from harm and dish out even greater damage to their enemies? That pony would become arguably the most powerful rival that Twilight Sparkle would never be able to match against in terms of public support.
 
It would not be after an exam taken at The School of Friendship that Twilight and Cozy Glow would first meet, it would instead be at a rally on the outskirts of a city recently liberated by the Equestrian Civilian Militia Movement; where a number of The Storm King’s surviving Guards are crucified outside the city limits among the burning wrecks of their airships. This would be a Cozy Glow that was entirely shaped by Twilight Sparkles’ passive nature, and how it filled the young filly with an intense hatred she now directed squarely at the invaders… and the turncoat guard stallions that had allowed these monsters passed their boarders.
 
The first confrontation between these two would be an interesting one as shown by the arguably younger filly running verbal circles around any arguments that Twilight and her friends would try to bring up to convince Cozy to stop this; only for her to shoot back at them that all of this was entirely their own fault in the first place because of their unwillingness to go far enough and to step out from their leaders’ fanatical obsession with appeasing Princess Celestia; comparing Twilight Sparkle to just being Princess Celestias’ newest toy, and hinting that eventually she would grow tired of Twilight and trade her out for someone else; at first they would think Cozy would be talking about Sunset Shimmer, but that wouldn’t be the case at all.
 
Season 8 would instead of being about Twilight Sparkle and her friends starting a School of Friendship and having six students attending classes together, would now be about Twilight trying right now to find a way to help give back to Equestria after her failures in defending it after all this time and to make herself stand alongside Celestia and Luna on her own terms instead of by the word of Celestia alone, resulting in most of Ponyville being rebuilt because of the alliances that Twilight would be able to forge with the few kingdoms she had contacted with and making amends with creatures she and her friends had wronged in the past and forgotten about. The building for the School of Friendship would now serve as an Embassy site in Ponyville that sits at the crossroads to most of Equestria and as the major route leading directly into Canterlot. The six would be here joined by several more not as students but as the children or protégés to ambassadors that Twilight had gained the personal trust of during her career. Each one would have their own quirk or bit of personal history or past that they would have to confront on their own (E.G. Ocellus having to come to terms with being the daughter of Pharynx and Queen Chrysalis and how she actually feels about it).
 
Often, Cozy Glow would show up and interact with the cast at times, being more cordial towards them since Twilight is making more of an effort to do better without having to beg for Princess Celestia’s approval to do so. Along with hinting that there is even more to this filly than she is letting on; especially in how cold Celestia becomes whenever the subject of Cozy Glow is ever brought up around her; with several fliers asking for Cozy Glow’s arrest being sent out showing that there was some sort of past involving the pair…
 
By the Season finale, the truth would be revealed by Cozy Glow herself; having worked with Twilight in stopping a major threat to the Embassy; one that was entirely orchestrated by a group of Unicorn Nobles that were more outspoken of Twilight but were willing to cause direct harm to her. Celestia would show up with several Royal Guards all with the intent on arresting Cozy Glow for treason against Equestria for her actions of defying Princess Celestia’s orders. To which Cozy Glow would make her reveal to not only the group but to the audience: she also is an Alicorn just like the rest of them, and that she has a strong hatred for how much Celestia seems to believe that she knows what is best for Twilight Sparkle and had manipulated so many aspects of the young lavender ponies’ life to shape her into the mare she is now. Claiming that Celestia has become nothing short of obsessed with Twilight becoming a Princess to bother with anyone else, to the point of exiling Cozy Glow from Canterlot and erasing everyponies memories of her only daughter in order to have Twilight Sparkle take her place.
 
It would be with the reveal that Twilight Sparkle was only ascended by Princess Celestia to serve as a replacement for her only daughter, and that at this very moment; both parent and child are now poised to engage in a war against one-another; with Cozy Glow vanishing through a portal of golden Light she had created that Season 8 would end on. And what exactly Twilight Sparkle and her friends would do or even feel about this massive lie told to them for all these years by Princess Celestia; especially with how exactly Luna would react to the knowledge that her own Sister is too obsessed with Twilight to care about holding her own family together; especially with how apparently emotionally-distant Celestia had been ever since she had returned from the Moon and demanded for Luna to accept Celestia’s friendship; instead of apologizing to her younger sister for their falling out 1000 years ago. Hearing that Celestia had callously thrown away her daughter and never bothered to tell Luna about being an aunt all this time would see Season 9 start on a much different note altogether…

@Starswirl  
Lets also point out even terrified Cozy would-like many fans of the show actually-play hard and fast with two points to dig into Rarity and Fluttershy.
 
Firstly, why didn’t they care about helping on the first go round instead of sending her straight to Tartarus when clearly a lot of people failed at their jobs.
 
And second, why she would trust them when they let Discord of all people decide their fate and be forgiven.
 
Cozy’s smarter then most of them think and even panicked would bite back in what would be the best way to prove her point and shock them enough to get control of the situation.
 
A child Cozy is, but she’s a child that managed to outsmart, manipulate or outright outdo a lot of people decades(and centuries) her elder by wit and guile alone.

@Starswirl  
She has been trapped with her own thoughts and stuck inside of her own indelible past, constantly forced to relive the moments of her life over and over again. You seem to forget that unlike with Chrysalis and Tirek, Cozy is still just a kid; and kids are more prone to emotional outbursts because of their boundless energy within them.

Hmm. I’m missing Cozy’s biting, malicious sarcasm hidden under a sweet mask. Like, wouldn’t she berate them for only now wanting to help her, after they saw her home wasn’t ideal? It’s not like what she went through somehow made her actions less evil later. I feel like Cozy’s default reaction would be to flip this on its head and accuse them of wanting to help her to soothe their own egos, not because it’s the right thing to do… whether that’s true or not.

@Harshie83  
They’re probably the only ones who could.

Poor Cozy. She’s so confused.

If they can get through the stubborn front Cozy is putting up and reach the vulnerable child inside, I think Rarity and Fluttershy will succeed.