Gritty Gumshoes and Vanity Veil (left and right respectively) are the emotionally unavailable parents to Cozy Glow.

Gritty Gumshoes, or Grit, as he goes by, is a Fillydelphia native, while Vanity Veil, or Vannie, is Applewood born and raised. Grit is a world-class detective of magical mysteries, who is married to his career, leaving little time for the world outside of his working life. Vannie is a high end fashion model and beauty guru, who has foregone her morals in pursuit of a lavish and lucrative lifestyle that keeps her too preoccupied to have to deal with her immense mental issues. Grit and Vannie met during one of Grit’s investigations in Applewood, and they quickly built a relationship. Soon, Grit made the move to Applewood, as he found there was many more detective opportunities to be had in the more densely populated city. They mesh well together as neither are concerned with spending much time together as a married couple, instead opting to pour the majority of their energy and emotional effort into their careers.

Cozy came to be, one winter night, after Vannie had dealt with a stint of depression and feelings of an emotional void. Vannie and Grit planned to have a child for many years, of course, but Vannie believed it would help her to feel more fulfilled as a mare if they finally went through with their plans. She would have it all, a successful career, countless friends, wealth, looks, and soon, a child of her very own.

Needless to say, Cozy did not fill that void. Vannie did try to make things work as a mother, for a while, despite feeling more depressed than ever. Vannie and Grit would take turns looking after Cozy within her first four years, hoping to not deprive the filly of bonding time with either parent. But as she grew older, Cozy became too time consuming for Vannie to want to be a part of. Butlers and nannies became Cozy’s parental figures whenever she was with Vannie, as “mother” was too busy with her career in Cozy’s early years to bother. When Cozy was about the age of five, she was also more frequently sent to spend time with her father.

Grit, as opposed to Vannie, tried incredibly hard to be a decent parent. Unfortunately, his work would always come first, at least in his own mind. His detective work was not strictly in Applewood, as magical mysteries span all over Greater Equestria. He would often have to travel to many places to gather information, and that either left young Cozy with another in a long line of nannies, or stuck in very shabby motel rooms for days without much in the way of entertainment.

Grit didn’t really know how to bond with Cozy, as he had drastically changed over years of detective work in less than savory environments. He also had not surrounded himself with the most desirable of ponies during most of his life. Grit was very work-oriented, and would often divulge details about previous cases he had worked on, when it had become legal to do so. He would gush about how he used his skills of deduction, reasoning, and perhaps subtle emotional manipulation to get juuust the right answers out of others. Work related conversations made up about 80 percent of what was considered “bonding time” between he and Cozy. Cozy found these conversations somewhat boring at first, but the more she heard, the more she listened. Soon, the details became very… Interesting to her.

Vannie had a lot of free time, but often spent it in her social gatherings with judgemental fellow beauty gurus. Cozy was not allowed in on these parties as there were adult drinks and often horrible insults thrown. These were only a few in a long line of “reasons” that Vannie was unable to spend time with Cozy when she a young filly. Cozy was able to tag along with mother by the age of eight, though it was often to be a witness to her fashion shows, photo shoots, or news interviews. Nothing that Cozy could find much fun in, as she would have to sit in one place and be quiet for long periods of time. When Cozy started to complain to her mother about being bored of watching mother each time, Vannie offered to let her sit in wardrobe and “play with the hairdresser and make-up artists.”

That often left Cozy stuck in the wardrobe room with makeup artists, hair dressers, and other fashion models or beauty gurus as her only form of entertainment. It was much better than being stuck in one chair for hours, at the very least. Cozy, obviously bored out of her mind and a curious young filly, often tried to strike up conversation with whoever was in wardrobe at the moment. Some people would obliged in conversations, and those who did often told stories or gave advice that boiled down to being petty and shallow, how to judge a creatures weaknesses solely based on its race, and how to manipulate to get to the top. These conversations stuck with Cozy far too much, as unfortunately she was often surrounded by racist and manipulative beauty icons who only wanted to have it all. Some were potentially drunk or high, but as young as Cozy was, she would not have picked up on that aspect of another pony’s behavior. All she knew is that these adults got everything they ever wanted, so their advice must be sound and good to follow.

Cozy also attended a series of snobby private schools as she grew up, and was given a poor excuse for a general education. Bullying was rampant in the school, though she was neither bullied nor a bully. She simply found ways to talk to each side in a saccharine enough way that they either gave her what she needed to pass, or left her in peace. When she was fourteen, she transferred to Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship.

So, yeah, Cozy grows up shallow, racist, and manipulative because of neglectful parenting and racist influences. And most of the rest from there is the story we know, though altered so Cozy doesn’t try to take over the world, instead she tries to manipulate the ponies in the school to turn against the non-pony students. This got Cozy expelled… but only for a semester. Spike and the CMC did not feel right about Twilight’s decision to force Cozy away, as she was one of the best opportunities for redemption they had ever personally seen. Cozy never gets encased in stone, and she doesn’t turn to Tirek for secrets to obtaining ultimate power. She instead turns to Chancellor Neighsay, to help her in her efforts to make the pony students distrust the non-pony students. When the CMC and Spike find out that Neighsay is helping to manipulate a bunch of minors into being racist, he is banished from Equestria proper for his transgressions.

After these events, Spike and the CMC are tasked with trying to teach Cozy Glow the value of friendship, acceptance, and to not manipulate every situation to get what she desires. She does learn, in time, and even becomes very close friends with Spike and the CMC.

Cozy Glow’s true talent lies not in manipulation, but instead in being a thorough, multi-step planner through the use of reason and deduction of the situation. She grows up to be a professional conflict mediator, helping businesses, opposing nations, and even couples work out their conflicts with a startlingly high success rate.

Watermark was made by the lovely Strawberry-Spritz