History Characters / FriendshipIsMagicMajorVillains

* MonsterOfTheAesop: The villains may be evil, but they aren't braindead. Some of them have their own cynical (and [[VillainHasAPoint not totally invalid]]) viewpoints, generally viewing Friendship as flimsy and a waste of time. The Legion Of Doom even boast to Twilight that fear is a just as powerful tool than friendship. Their issue is that the villains are too one-track minded on their views that they completely fail to account for other factors, which is what [[VillainBall consistently leads]] [[StupidEvil to their downfall]].

* PyrrhicVillainy: The show has shown on a few occasions that even if the villains succeeded with their plans, they would be led to ruin anyway. [[spoiler: Starlight Glimmer's "victory" nearly destroys the world several times over, and if the The Legion of Doom "won" over the heroes, their complete inability to get along would lead to the Windigos returning to Equestria, who would freeze the land and render their conquest pointless.]]

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: A Blue mane with a space pattern of stars flowing in it as well.

* DecompositeCharacter: Her goal is somewhat similar to [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials Tirac]]'s.

* DecompositeCharacter: Her goal is somewhat similar to G1 Tirek's.

An evil and wicked creature born from dark magic fueling [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses Princess Luna]]'s jealousy and bitterness. Her desire to create a never-ending night forced Princess Celestia to use the Elements of Harmony to imprison her in the moon, seemingly for eternity. However, after one thousand years, the stars help her to escape, and this time, she attacks first, leaving Equestria stuck on night time. After a short rampage, she is defeated and purified of her darkness by Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

!![[center: [- [[Characters/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Main Index]] -]]][[center: [- '''[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast The Main Cast:]]''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer Starlight Glimmer]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheCutieMarkCrusaders the Cutie Mark Crusaders]]-]]] [[center: [- '''Supporting Cast:''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses The Princesses]] ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessCelestia Princess Celestia]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessLuna Princess Luna]]), [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicManeFamilyMembers Mane Family Members]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSchoolOfFriendship the School of Friendship]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastPonyville Supporting Cast, Ponyville]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastOtherLocations Supporting Cast, Other Locations]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]]-]]] [[center: [-'''Antagonists: Major Villains''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicQueenChrysalis Queen Chrysalis]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicKingSombra King Sombra]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicLordTirek Lord Tirek]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicCozyGlow Cozy Glow]]), [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDangerousCreatures Dangerous Creatures]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]] ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]])-]]] [[center: [- '''World of Equestria:''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRaces Races]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures Historical Figures]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The 2017 Movie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicToylineExclusive Toyline Exclusive]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMiscellaneous Miscellaneous]]-]]] [[center: [-'''Minor Characters:''' [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOneShots One-Shots]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOthers Other Characters]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPonies Background Ponies]] ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesCommonPonies Common Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesSpecialPonies Special Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesOthers Other Background Ponies]])-]]] [[center: [- '''Equestria Girls''' [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHeroines Equestria Girls: Heroines]] ([[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer Sunset Shimmer]]), [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains Villains]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSupportingCast Supporting Cast]] -] ]]

[[center: [- [[Characters/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Main Index]] -]]]
[[center: [- '''[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast The Mane Cast]]''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer Starlight Glimmer]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheCutieMarkCrusaders The Cutie Mark Crusaders]]) | '''Supporting Cast''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses The Princesses]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessCelestia Princess Celestia]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPrincessLuna Princess Luna]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicManeFamilyMembers Mane Family Members]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSchoolOfFriendship School of Friendship]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastPonyville Supporting Cast, Ponyville]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastOtherLocations Supporting Cast, Other Locations]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]]) | '''Antagonists''' (Major Villains, [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicQueenChrysalis Queen Chrysalis]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicKingSombra King Sombra]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicLordTirek Lord Tirek]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicCozyGlow Cozy Glow]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDangerousCreatures Dangerous Creatures]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]]) | '''World of Equestria''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRaces Races]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures Historical Figures]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The 2017 Movie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicToylineExclusive Toyline Exclusive]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMiscellaneous Miscellaneous]]) | '''Minor Characters''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOneShots One-Shots]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOthers Other Characters]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPonies Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesCommonPonies Common Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesSpecialPonies Special Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesOthers Other Background Ponies]]) | '''Equestria Girls''' ([[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHeroines Equestria Girls: Heroines]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer Sunset Shimmer]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains Villains]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSupportingCast Supporting Cast]]) -] ]]

[[center: [- '''[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast The Mane Six]]''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer Starlight Glimmer]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheCutieMarkCrusaders The Cutie Mark Crusaders]]) | '''Supporting Cast''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses The Princesses]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicManeFamilyMembers Mane Family Members]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSchoolOfFriendship School of Friendship]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastPonyville Supporting Cast, Ponyville]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastOtherLocations Supporting Cast, Other Locations]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]]) | '''Antagonists''' (Major Villains, [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicQueenChrysalis Queen Chrysalis]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicKingSombra King Sombra]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicLordTirek Lord Tirek]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicCozyGlow Cozy Glow]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDangerousCreatures Dangerous Creatures]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]]) | '''World of Equestria''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRaces Races]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures Historical Figures]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The 2017 Movie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicToylineExclusive Toyline Exclusive]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMiscellaneous Miscellaneous]]) | '''Minor Characters''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOneShots One-Shots]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOthers Other Characters]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPonies Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesCommonPonies Common Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesSpecialPonies Special Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesOthers Other Background Ponies]]) | '''Equestria Girls''' ([[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHeroines Equestria Girls: Heroines]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer Sunset Shimmer]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains Villains]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSupportingCast Supporting Cast]]) -] ]]

[[center: [- '''[[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheManeCast The Mane Six]]''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTwilightSparkle Twilight Sparkle]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicFluttershy Fluttershy]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRarity Rarity]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicApplejack Applejack]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRainbowDash Rainbow Dash]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicPinkiePie Pinkie Pie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSpike Spike]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer Starlight Glimmer]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicTheCutieMarkCrusaders The Cutie Mark Crusaders]]) | '''Supporting Cast''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicThePrincesses The Princesses]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicManeFamilyMembers Mane Family Members]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSchoolOfFriendship School of Friendship]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastPonyville Supporting Cast, Ponyville]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicSupportingCastOtherLocations Supporting Cast, Other Locations]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicAnimalCompanions Animal Companions]]) | '''Antagonists''' (Major Villains, [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDangerousCreatures Dangerous Creatures]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies Jerks and Bullies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicDiscord Discord]]) | '''World of Equestria''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRaces Races]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicHistoricalFigures Historical Figures]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 The 2017 Movie]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicToylineExclusive Toyline Exclusive]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicMiscellaneous Miscellaneous]]) | '''Minor Characters''' ([[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOneShots One-Shots]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicOthers Other Characters]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPonies Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesCommonPonies Common Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesSpecialPonies Special Background Ponies]], [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicBackgroundPoniesOthers Other Background Ponies]]) | '''Equestria Girls''' ([[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsHeroines Equestria Girls: Heroines]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer Sunset Shimmer]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains Villains]], [[Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSupportingCast Supporting Cast]]) -] ]]

See her page [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicQueenChrysalis here]]

See his page [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicKingSombra here]]

See Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer

See his page [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicLordTirek here]]

See her page [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicCozyGlow here]]

See Characters/FriendshipIsMagicJerksAndBullies

* PsychoElectro: Her lightning powers accompany her hammy moments.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mlp_vector_cozy_glow_evil_side_by_jhayarr23_dcdloh7_3.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250: ''[[VillainTeamUp Combine all our strength,]]\\
[[{{Determinator}} We'll go to any length,]]\\
[[VillainSong Once we have a better way to be bad!]]'']]
->''"With Twilight and her lackeys out of my way, all of Equestria will bow to me! The future Empress of Friendship!"''

->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E12MarksForEffort Marks for Effort]]"

->'''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 atrocities 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.
----
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: 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. [[spoiler:And in the series finale, all of Equestria rises up against her and her partners.]]
* AccidentalMisnaming: In "The Beginning of the End - Part 1". Due to her lack of familiarity with him, she initially calls Grogar "Gro''f''ar".
* TheAce: 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''. [[spoiler:She also becomes an InstantExpert with alicorn magic.]]
* AlphaBitch: 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 [[BitchInSheepsClothing apparent]] kindness and cuteness, and [[ManipulativeBitch manipulating]] the other students into doing what she wants.
* AmbiguousSituation: Disturbing example. It's unknown whether the skull she pulled out from her box in the Season 8 finale is just a prop, or an actual living being (perhaps a parent of hers) that she murdered.
* AmbitionIsEvil: When Tirek questions whether her plan to drain all magic from Equestria was a little excessive, Cozy responds with "Eh, I think big."
* ArcVillain: For Season 8, infiltrating the School of Friendship and slowly gathering information to enact an EvilPlan.
* AttentionWhore: 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''.
* AxCrazy: 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.
* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Of Grogar's LegionOfDoom, in which she's the only foal (albeit an [[EnfantTerrible unrepentantly evil one]]).
* BadassAdorable: This adorable little filly is a power-hungry mastermind who almost succeded in [[TheUsurper taking over Equestria]].
* BadassNormal: The first major villain to be a non-magic-user, instead relying on her wits and some magical artifacts, [[spoiler:until she uses the magic of Grogar's Bewitching Bell to become an [[EmpoweredBadassNormal alicorn]] in the Season 9 finale]].
* BaitTheDog: When the CMC attempt to distract her, she tricks them into going into the School of Friendship's closet, then traps them in it.
* BatmanGambit: 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.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: She's an adorable filly, but also a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]].
* BigBadTriumvirate: [[spoiler:Forms one with Tirek and Chrysalis during the series finale after Grogar is revealed to be Discord]].
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Don't trust that nice and cute exterior one bit.
* BlatantLies: In "Frenemies", she claims that the "real" her is "cute and loveable" and not the [[BrattyHalfPint annoying]] {{Jerkass}} Tirek accuses her of being, [[IResembleThatRemark while behaving as the latter]].
* BoomerangBigot: 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.
* BrattyHalfPint: She has a tendency to act this way when [[ItsAllAboutMe 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.
* BrokenPedestal: Became this to the CMC and the School of Friendship's students after her true colors are exposed to them.
* CardCarryingVillain: 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 VillainSong titled "Better Way to Be Bad". [[spoiler: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 Creator/ShirleyTemple. At one point in "Marks for Effort", [[GotMeDoingIt she gets Apple Bloom to say it too]].
* CharacterDevelopment: Throughout Season 9, she gradually learns to work better with her allies in the LegionOfDoom.
* TheChessmaster: Fittingly, her cutie mark is a chess piece (a rook, to be precise).
** In "Marks for Effort", she sets herself up as a FalseFriend 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 [[GoneHorriblyWrong bans them from the school]], [[XanatosSpeedChess 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 BatmanGambit 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.
* ChildProdigy: 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 [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who [[TheFakeCutie hides behind a cute facade]].
* ChildrenAreInnocent: She is portayed this way in all of her appearances prior to "School Raze", [[SubvertedTrope which reveals that she is]] '''[[SubvertedTrope anything]]''' [[SubvertedTrope but this]].
* AChildShallLeadThem: "All of Equestria will bow to me! The future Empress of Friendship!"
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Cozy Glow '''[[FatalFlaw loves]]''' [[NoHonorAmongThieves betraying others]]. Whether it be her [[FalseFriend "friends"]], her [[VillainTeamUp villain partners]], or ''anyone'' really, you can count her to throw them under the bus if it suits her (or at least attempt to).
-->'''Cozy Glow:''' [[LampshadedTrope I]] ''[[LampshadedTrope love]]'' [[LampshadedTrope a good backstabbing.]]
* ClippedWingAngel: In the series finale, [[spoiler:she tries to absorb Discord's chaos magic, but completely loses control of it and humiliatingly has to return it to Grogar's bell]].
* ColorCodedWizardry: [[spoiler: When she becomes an alicorn, her magical aura is blood red.]]
* CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler: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.]]
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: She's the first ArcVillain to be a non-magic user (the only magic she uses is through artifacts). Also, unlike the other villains, she doesn't underestimate ThePowerOfFriendship, but her philosophy towards it (more [[FalseFriend "friends"]] equals more power) [[EvilCannotComprehendGood still makes her incapable of truly understanding the idea]]. And while most other villains scream a BigNo or undergo a VillainousBreakdown when they get defeated, Cozy Glow ''[[DissonantSerenity smiles]]'' when she gets defeated.
* ControlFreak: One of her most defining traits, aside from her [[ItsAllAboutMe lust for power]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing 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. [[spoiler:It's telling that she ''absolutely cannot'' control Discord's chaos magic.]]
-->'''Cozy Glow:''' ''You'' calm down! [[EntitledBitch Ponies are supposed to do what I ask them to do! It's, like, my thing! Okay?!]]
* CreateYourOwnHero: 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.
* CreepyChild: Her general [[TheSociopath 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.
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: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, [[DidntThinkThisThrough you forget to use your brains!]]
* CurbStompCushion: [[spoiler: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 [[VillainousRescue saved]] by Tirek and Chrysalis.]]
* CuteAndPsycho: She traps Starlight, has disturbing mood swings and laughs maniacally while performing a sinister magical ritual.
* CuteIsEvil: Her childlike appearance and demeanor contrasts heavily with the despicable [[TheSociopath sociopath]] she is inside.
* DeadpanSnarker: 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".
* DeathGlare: She directs one at Neighsay quite a few times, though he's not always aware of it.
* DeceptiveDisciple: 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.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Of ChildProdigy and WiseBeyondTheirYears. A ''kid'', [[TheAce Cozy Glow]] is ''very'' ambitious, creative, intelligent, ''definitely'' dreams big, and knows just how to help others, to the point where she becomes Princess Twilight's assistant at the School of Friendship. Normally you'd expect her to be destined to achieve recognition and have a bright future ahead of her... if it weren't for the fact that she's an [[EnfantTerrible evil and power-hungry]] [[TheSociopath sociopath]] who uses her many talents and capabilities for attempts at taking over Equestria, mostly via [[ManipulativeBitch manipulation]] and [[TheChessmaster careful planning]]. Plus, while it wouldn't be unreasonable for someone her age to be scared of "monsters in the closet", Cozy, on her part, willingly teams up with Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis, even trying to establish ''EvilerThanThou'' on them more than once.
* DeliberatelyCuteChild: She intentionally plays the act of a sweet little filly to get to enact her EvilPlan.
* DemotedToDragon: In Season 9, she goes from the BigBad of Season 8 to one of Grogar's flunkies. [[spoiler:This is until the [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E24TheEndingOfTheEndPart1 finale]], when Grogar is revealed to be Discord and she instead becomes part of a BigBadTriumvirate.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Cozy Glow's biggest quality is that she will stop at ''nothing'' to achieve her goals, carefully planning things through in the process.
* DeusExitMachina: 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 ItOnlyWorksOnce. This is all so she can go about her EvilPlan without them around.
* DevilInPlainSight: She was this from "Marks for Effort" to "School Raze – Part 1", being trusted by everypony around her despite [[AmbiguouslyEvil the clear implication that she's planning something bad]], at least from a meta point of view.
* DidntSeeThatComing: 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 [[TheLastStraw final incentive]] he needed to take it over himself.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu:
** 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 [[spoiler:''drains Celestia and Luna of their magic and mocks them afterwards'' (albeit with help from Grogar's bell)]].
* DissonantSerenity:
** Even when she gets captured by the Royal Guard, she is more annoyed than anything.
** Is ''way'' too cheerful and upbeat for someone who believes she is now stuck in an AndIMustScream situation for all eternity with only someone who finds her annoying for company.
* DraggedOffToHell: Happens to her after her EvilPlan is foiled, ending up right next to her pen pal Tirek inside of a cage. She's freed by Grogar/[[spoiler:Discord]] in the following episode.
* TheDragon: [[InvokedTrope Invoked by her]]. While all three of them have been DemotedToDragon, 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.
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: 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 FalseFriend to them, just so long as they can benefit her. When she is defeated by the Young Six after they use the real PowerOfFriendship against her, she openly mocks the Elements of Harmony and claims she can make new friends without them.
* ElmuhFuddSyndwome: 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 ObfuscatingStupidity.
* EmergingFromTheShadows: Does this at the end of part 1 of "School Raze", when Starlight is captured and her true nature is revealed.
* EnfantTerrible: 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}} [[TheBully 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 BeyondRedemption that she's [[DraggedOffToHell imprisoned in Tartarus]], [[spoiler:and later [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]] with the likes of Chrysalis and Tirek, possibly forever]].
* EntitledBitch: She expects ponies to do whatever she tells them to do, no matter how badly she treats them.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: 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.
* EvilAllAlong: She turns out to be the ArcVillain of Season 8, revealed in the season finale.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood:
** In "Marks for Effort", she is unable to understand why the Crusaders would want to help her, [[PsychologicalProjection thinking that they obviously want something in return]].
** [[ZigZaggingTrope 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.
* EvilCounterpart:
** 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 WiseBeyondTheirYears OnlySaneMan, 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 LegionOfDoom. 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 [[TheSociopath sociopath]] putting on the facade of a NiceGirl 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.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: While doing a friendship test, she answers the question "Who is the Princess of Friendship?" with "YourMom".
* EvilLaugh: 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.
* EvilOrphan: Cozy Glow's parents are [[ParentalAbandonment never seen or brought up]], not even when she gets imprisoned in Tartarus or [[spoiler:turned into stone]]. When asked about the whereabouts of Cozy's parents, WordOfGod responded with "Who says she has parents?", [[ImpliedTrope implying]] Cozy Glow is indeed an orphan.[[invoked]]
* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: This cute, sweet little filly harbors the brain of a devious and manipulative villain that rivals the rest of the franchise's villains.
* TheFakeCutie: She's certainly cute enough, but this is all a front so that no one suspects her of doing anything wrong.
* FalseFriend: 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.
* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler:"This is bad, isn't it?"]]
* FantasticRacism: In "What Lies Beneath", she exhibits some ''serious'' CondescendingCompassion towards the Young Six (including Sandbar, since he was friends with non-ponies).
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: To thank Twilight for showing her kindness and teaching her about friendship, she imprisons her in Tartarus and attempts to take over her school.
* FauxAffablyEvil: She pretends to be nice and sweet, but only to manipulate people: she only cares about herself.
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Successfully backstabs Grogar/Discord to become the final villain of the series, sharing the role with Chrysalis and Tirek.]]
* FluffyTheTerrible: Cozy Glow is a pretty cute name for the kind of pony she is, which is [[LampshadedTrope lampshaded]] by Tirek. [[spoiler:She's one of the {{Final Boss}}es of the series and proves to be one of the most dangerous villains in the series.]]
* {{Foil}}:
** 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 ThePowerOfFriendship, 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 HeelFaceTurn, Cozy Glow remains evil after her defeat.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** "Marks for Effort" and "What Lies Beneath" both featured some subtle clues regarding [[EvilAllAlong her true nature]].
*** Her cutie mark is of a rook, symbolizing her nature as TheChessmaster.
*** 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 [[https://i.imgur.com/AgBaOmW.png 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 LackOfEmpathy (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 CondescendingCompassion 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 TraitorShot on her face.
** In the Season 9 premiere, she builds a rock sculpture of her and Tirek. In the finale, [[spoiler:they are turned into stone along with Chrysalis.]]
* ForTheEvulz: Well, we can only assume this is the case, considering no explanation is given on why she desires evil and power ''so'' much.
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: After being imprisoned in Tartarus, she tells Tirek "Hey neighbor. Wanna be ''friends''?" while sporting a SlasherSmile and looking at the camera, almost as if she's speaking ''to the audience''.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Of Grogar's LegionOfDoom, she's seen as annoying by both Tirek and Chrysalis, though it's subverted as they don't get along with each other either and she proves capable of arguing with them as well.
* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: She has artistic interests and seeks to maintain [[TheFakeCutie a cute exterior]], but is also obsessed with destruction and getting her hooves dirty.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: She crowns herself the "Empress of Friendship" once she gets rid of the Mane Six, Starlight, the Student Six, and Neighsay.
* GoneHorriblyRight: 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.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: 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.
* HiddenDepths: "Frenemies" reveals that she's a very decent artist.
* HerOwnWorstEnemy: What ultimately prevented Cozy from getting to live a long, happy life was her own [[BitchInSheepsClothing faked nice exterior]] and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder 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 [[FalseFriend "friends"]]. Even ''after'' her release, she could've formed a close, trusting relationship with Tirek and Chrysalis, but instead opted for a loose TeethClenchedTeamwork (to be fair, the other two were equally if not more willing to ''not'' become friends with each other). [[spoiler:At the end of the day, while it can be argued Cozy Glow's [[TakenForGranite 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 [[InsufferableGenius "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 [[spoiler:gains Discord's chaos magic? She insults them and tries to betray and blast them]].
* IJustWantToHaveFriends: {{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.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: She can sometimes be this, such as unintentionally getting the CMC expelled from the School of Friendship in "Marks for Effort" and exhibiting CondescendingCompassion towards the Young Six in "What Lies Beneath". [[SubvertedTrope She turns out to be anything but innocent, though]].
* InsufferableGenius: 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 BitchInSheepsClothing act.
* InterspeciesFriendship: With Tirek, whom she is pen pals with. Also counts as a MayflyDecemberFriendship, 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".
* IronicName: She's anything ''but'' cozy.
* ItsAllAboutMe: She wants to take all the magic for herself and only cares about herself, seeing others as a way to get what she wants.
* {{Jerkass}}: Cold-hearted, cruel, deceiving, evil, malicious, and traitorous, Cozy Glow, [[BitchInSheepsClothing despite pretending to be otherwise]], cares about no one other than herself and is willing to throw even those who care about her under the bus if it means getting what she wants.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk:
** 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 PetTheDog 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 [[ManipulativeBitch manipulate]] him in "Frenemies". The ending of the aforementioned episode making her seem like the TokenGoodTeammate of Grogar's group by having her attempt to get Chrysalis and Tirek to become friends? That was only for [[ItsAllAboutMe her own selfish benefit]] and not because she cares about them.
* KickTheDog: 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 BrutalHonesty.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: 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 HeelFaceTurn, especially after the Student Six decided to rescue him.
* KidsAreCruel: If she's not the most heartless child in Equestria, she's definitely in the running. She traps the Mane Six in Tartarus, traps Starlight in a magical orb, manipulates everyone around her, is a lifeline to Tirek, and briefly removes almost all magic from the entire world.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:She and Tirek both immediately back down in the finale when they're de-powered. Not that it saves them.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: Has absolutely no empathy for any living thing other than herself. (Becomes one of her {{fatal flaw}}s.)
* LaserGuidedKarma:
** Cozy Glow sure likes imprisoning her {{False Friend}}s once [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness they're no longer of any use to her]]. After her defeat, they turn against ''her'' and she is later DraggedOffToHell.
** In the series finale, [[spoiler:she is petrified along with Tirek and Chrysalis, and Discord remarks that they'd all hate that more than anything]].
* LeaderWannabe: In "Frenemies", she repeatedly insists that Grogar placed her in charge of the LegionOfDoom. The others dispute that claim, and even if it were true, they're not going to lower themselves to serve a filly.
* LightIsNotGood: Has pastel blues and pink color scheme and a light-based name. [[SarcasmMode Totally trustworthy]]. Even ''more'' blatant following her [[spoiler: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 ''[[AxCrazy completely insane and psychotic]]'' in addition to using her powers for things like attempted murder]].
* LittleMissBadass: PlayedForDrama. Of all the various creatures, monsters and EldritchAbomination oponents the Mane 6 fought, the smartest, most cruel and dangerous, the one with the closest NearVillainVictory is... a pegasi [[EnfanteTerrible filly]]?
* ManipulativeBitch: Easily turns out to be the best ''ever'' seen on the show. She's spent her entire screentime preparing her EvilPlan and played everyone like a fiddle. In-universe, ''no one'' saw her reveal as the BigBad of the season coming.
* MisaimedFandom: InUniverse 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.
* MoralityPet: Downplayed. Tirek and Chrysalis are [[NoRespectGuy dismissive]] of her, but the second half of "Frenemies" shows that they do care about her to an extent, which is already saying a ''lot'' considering how evil they are.
* MurderByInaction: {{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.
* MysteriousPast: No one knows where she came from, if her parents are around, or what led her to become evil.
* {{Narcissist}}: She [[TheSociopath sees others as a way to get what she wants]] and keeps several pictures of herself in the School of Friendship.
* NiceGirl: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], as it's just what she [[BitchInSheepsClothing pretends to be]] in order to make more [[FalseFriend False Friends]].
* NoNonsenseNemesis: In the Season 9 finale, [[spoiler: 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 [[BondVillainStupidity shoots this down]]]].
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: She tends to get physically close to Tirek, much to his annoyance.
* NotSoDifferent: Cozy's penchant for manipulation and hiding behind a cheerful smile strikes a chord with Starlight Glimmer, who even finds herself a little impressed. She probably should have taken it a little more seriously.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: 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.
* ObviouslyEvil: 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 SlasherSmile 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 DeliberatelyCuteChild 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.
* OcularGushers: She announces to the CMC that she failed her test by crying with a huge stream of tears.
* OddNameOut: "Cozy Glow" doesn't fit the pegasi FantasticNamingConvention 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 [[spoiler:and the greater magical threat she'd pose]].
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: She was somehow able to outsmart Starlight and trap her in a magic sphere, but it isn't shown or explained how.
* OhCrap:
** 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 DeathGlare at her for her crimes.
** [[spoiler: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.]]
* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: She's younger than all of her enemies, except the CMC.
* OnlySaneWoman: Is surprisingly this for Grogar's group of villains in Season 9. As the only one with even a ''remote'' understanding of friendship and interest in it, even if it's self-serving, [[TheHeart 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.
* PerkyFemaleMinion: Once she joins the LegionOfDoom 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 BigBad Grogar.
* PetTheDog:
** 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, [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk 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 [[ZigzaggedTrope 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 [[spoiler:learn to work together in order to get Grogar's bell]]. In "The Summer Sun Setback", she casually plays chess with Tirek.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: She may just be a Pegasus filly, but that's no reason to underestimate the threat she poses to Equestria. [[spoiler: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.]]
* ThePowerOfFriendship: [[ZigZaggingTrope 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.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Considering her true nature as a ManipulativeBitch, the eye color fits nicely.
* RedHerring: 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.
* RedemptionRejection: She is completely unrepentant of her actions and [[CardCarryingVillain gloats over them]]. As a result, she is immediately sentenced to Tartarus.
* RedOniBlueOni: 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 AxCrazy BrattyHalfPint 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, comitting crimes, or taunting his foes.
* RewatchBonus: 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 SlasherSmile on her face.
** In "The Summer Sun Setback", she describes ruining the Summer Sun Celebration as being the [[ItsTheBestWhateverEver "best road trip ever".]]
** [[spoiler: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.]]
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: 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.
* ShorterMeansSmarter: She's by far the smallest and youngest member of Grogar's LegionOfDoom, but is also the OnlySaneWoman.
* ShutUpKirk:
** 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.
* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: And [[EnfantTerrible age]], too. She 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 ''[[MadeOfIron falling on her]]'', attacked by a snowball, spun around more than once, and overpowered and ambushed by the Mane Six.
* SlasherSmile: 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.
* SmarterThanYouLook: She first appears to be a naive and simple-minded young filly, but is really an evil [[ManipulativeBitch manipulator]] and [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]].
-->'''Cozy Glow:''' Do you three think you can fool me!? I know a diversion when I see it!
* TheSociopath: Is the biggest one in the series, sharing the title with Chrysalis. 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.
* TheStarscream: At the end of "Frenemies", she and the other members of the LegionOfDoom agree to keep Grogar's bell for themselves and plot against him.
* TheStoolPigeon: During the ColdOpen of "Frenemies", Cozy Glow tells Grogar that Tirek has left food out again.
* SugaryMalice: Occasionally displays shades of her sweet facade even after revealing her true colors.
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:Her ultimate fate, along with Tirek and Chrysalis. She gets {{Depower}}ed, said to be BeyondRedemption by Celestia, then turned to stone, presumably permanently.]]
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Her alliance with the other members of the LegionOfDoom 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.
* TemptingFate: 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 NearVillainVictory. Cue said living magical flora intervening and ruining Cozy's plan at the last second.
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: Cozy is an ordinary filly who [[BitchInSheepsClothing acts all cute and nice]], but is actually [[TheSociopath evil and manipulative inside]].
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: [[spoiler: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 CombinedEnergyAttack. She knows full well that she, Tirek, Chrysalis are boned, even with the Chaos Magic.]]
-->'''Cozy Glow:''' [[CaptainObvious This is bad, isn't it?]]
* TokenHuman: 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 LegionOfDoom.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The girly girl to Chrysalis's tomboy. Cozy gets what she wants via [[TheFakeCutie faked kindness]], whereas Chrysalis prefers confrontation.
* TookALevelInJerkass: She was never [[BitchInSheepsClothing truly]] nice in the first place, but in "Frenemies" she [[SpoiledBrat 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, [[SanitySlippage did a number on her]].
* TraitorShot: 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.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated.]] She's a young filly who has no qualms about attempting to ''take over Equestria'' as the Empress of Friendship.
* UnderestimatingBadassery:
** As mentioned in TemptingFate, 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.
* TheUnreveal: We learn nothing about her. Not her backstory, not her family, not even [[spoiler:whether or not she's still in stone by the epilogue of the series]].
* UnskilledButStrong: In "The Ending of the End", [[spoiler: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]].
* VileVillainSaccharineShow: {{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.
* VillainDecay: 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 [[VillainBall she chose to reveal her true colors herself]]). However, this trope is downplayed given that she [[spoiler: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 LegionOfDoom backstab him and claim the title of {{Final Boss}}es for themselves]].
* VillainHasAPoint:
** Even if it was just another one of her [[ManipulativeBitch 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.
* VillainousFriendship: In "Frenemies", she proves capable of bonding with Tirek and Chrysalis over their shared hatred of the heroes.
* VillainousUnderdog: 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.
* VillainSong: While Tirek and Chrysalis participate as well, she's the one who sings the most of "Better Way to Be Bad".
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: ''No-one'' suspects her of trapping the Mane Six in Tartarus, or anything evil she's done for that matter.
* WalkingSpoiler: She's the BigBad 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.
* TheWatson: 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.
* WingedUnicorn: [[spoiler: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 [[HowDoIShotWeb she can't figure out how it works]].]]
* WiseBeyondHerYears: Despite being an EnfantTerrible, Cozy Glow is ''very'' mature and wise for her age (in her own way).
* WhamLine: "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."
* XanatosSpeedChess: 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.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness:
** Once a FalseFriend 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 [[spoiler: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]].
* YouFool: [[spoiler:After tricking Tirek and Chrysalis into letting her have Discord's chaos magic, Cozy Glow straight-up calls them fools.]]
* YouMonster: Downplayed. In "She's All Yak", Sandbar denounces her and Sombra as two ponies worse than Yona.
* YouthfulFreckles: She has three white "birdcatcher spots" on each cheek, similar to Applejack, which serve to enhance her [[TheFakeCutie cute appearance]].

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/64cddc790a95f0e1453c78e74a536910.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[-''"How does it feel, knowing that soon every pegasus, unicorn and earth pony will bow to my will?"''-] ]]
->''"I am Lord Tirek. And I will take what should have been mine long ago."''

->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E25TwilightsKingdomPart1 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1]]"

->'''Voiced by:''' Mark Acheson

Long ago, Tirek and his brother Scorpan came to Equestria with the intent to steal the magic of every pony and TakeOverTheWorld. Scorpan however learned friendship from Star Swirl the Bearded, and helped the ponies seal Tirek in Tartarus. However, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime when Cerberus left Tartarus undefended]], Tirek broke free, and is now ready to pick up where he left off.

ExpandedUniverse comic ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' #2 explains that of his centaur race, a young Tirek possessed even more magical ability than his father King Vorak. Already thirsty for power, his goals turned towards Equestria after seeing the power that unicorn ponies possessed when hermit Sendak the Elder returned from his travels with an abducted unicorn. The comic shows that Tirek's mother, Queen Haydon is a gargoyle like his brother Scorpan, and that Discord was a member of Vorak's council, explaining their previous familiarity.

For tropes applying to his G1 counterpart, see Characters/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: [[spoiler:Backstabbing the only being on his side will do that.]] Not that he cares; he seems to like earning the hate of every victim he thinks is powerless to stop him. He does gain Chrysalis and Cozy Glow as allies in Season 9, though.
* AdaptationalBadass: The G1 Tirek was no pushover, but his main threat came from his army, which he created with the Rainbow of Darkness. This time around, Tirek is [[OneManArmy an army unto himself]].
* AdaptationalComicRelief: Zig-zagged. The G1 Tirek had no comical moments to his name and, aside from a few [[TheComicallySerious comically serious]] moments, the G4 version was the same. The Season 8 finale and Season 9, however, ''do'' bring out a more comical side to Tirek, especially in regards to Cozy Glow.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Downplayed. The G1 version of Tirek was pure evil with no redeeming qualities. This iteration, while still a villain, has a small scrap of honor in him. He loves his grandmother, honored his agreement to give Chrysalis her magic back, and, in a surprisingly nice moment, caught a bird in his hand after it was blown away by the Canterlot castle defenses and allowed it to fly free instead of hurting it. [[spoiler:He even came close to reforming in "Frenemies" before Chrysalis snapped him and Cozy Glow out of it.]]
* AllYourPowersCombined: He eventually absorbs the powers of hundreds of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, giving him super-strength, the ability to fire beams of magic, and he can fly. [[spoiler:It isn't shown what further power he got from Discord.]]
* AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: He wears a golden pendant around his neck, which he grants to [[spoiler:Discord]]. [[spoiler:Subverted when he tells Discord it was a gift from his brother and is worthless to him, and the amulet holds no power. Double subverted when Discord gives it to Twilight when she frees him, and it becomes the sixth key to the chest from the Tree of Harmony.]]
* AndIMustScream: While not explicitly stated, if what's shown is accurate, he's spent over one thousand years trapped in one place in Tartarus, unable to escape or do anything and fully aware. [[PayEvilUntoEvil Not to say he didn't deserve it.]]
* ArchEnemy: Tirek seems to have a particular hatred for Discord. He took great pleasure in [[spoiler:betraying him]], and calls him a turncoat. It’s also implied that the two of them have personally met before and not on good terms.
* ArcVillain: Of the Season 4 finale. Defeating him requires the Mane Six to open the chest from the Tree of Harmony, and his defeat resolves Twilight's season-long character arc of figuring out her place as a new Princess in Equestria, so Tirek acts as the culminating event in those story arcs as well.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: [[spoiler:At full strength he's almost as big as an Ursa Major.]]
* BadassBaritone: The stronger he becomes, the deeper his voice gets.
* BadassBeard: As he gets stronger, he sports a damn cool one.
* BadVibrations: When he becomes massive enough, his steps shake the earth as he walks.
* BeardOfEvil: A long white one to be exact.
* BicepKiss: [[spoiler:He is prone to doing this in season 9 whenever he regains some of his former strength.]]
* BigBadTriumvirate: [[spoiler:With Chrysalis and Cozy Glow during the series finale after Grogar is revealed to be Discord]].
* BigRedDevil: Is a massive centaur with red skin and large horns who is also a SatanicArchetype.
* BlackEyesOfCrazy: He has a pair of these, and they come with pupil-less [[SupernaturalGoldEyes glowing yellow irises]].
* BerserkButton: He does not like being compared to his father, King Vorak. Discord bringing him up (and claiming that Tirek feels like he can never measure up to him) is enough to make Tirek attack him in a rage.
* TheBrute: Though he's more than capable of using his head, mostly he prefers to strong-arm his victims. [[spoiler:After he drains Discord's chaos magic, he barely uses it, instead almost entirely using sheer physical force against Twilight during their clash. And once he has the Alicorns' magic, he simply rampages around, destroying the landscape, simply because he can. This continues in Season 9, where in contrast to Sombra, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow who demonstrate more finesse with their powers, Tirek's approach to any problem is to try and smash it or blast it (though he is smart enough to use his brain against any problem he can't simply manhandle).]]
* TheBusCameBack: Tirek appears in a major role for the first time since the Season 4 finale in [[https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/10/lord-tirek-returning-for-season-8-of.html Season 8 for the "School Raze" two-parter]].
* CainAndAbel: He's the Cain to Scorpan's Abel.
* CardCarryingVillain: In ''Frenemies'', he joins in the VillainSong titled "Better Way to Be Bad".
* CharacterDevelopment: Throughout Season 9, he gradually learns to work better with his allies in the LegionOfDoom.
* TheChessmaster: An enemy too strong to drain that could lock him back up in a heartbeat? Convinces him to join his side, then disposes of him once he has become powerful enough to drain him. The last alicorn between him and the power he needs to rule the world? He makes sure to have bartering chips in reserve in case of a stalemate.
* CompositeCharacter: While he shares his appearance, deep booming voice, general frightening presence, and many personality traits with G1 Tirek, his plan is similar to G1 Lavan, and his powers to Arabus.
* TheCorrupter: He convinces [[spoiler:Discord to turn on the ponies and help him drain their power, telling him that in becoming their friend he's suppressing his true nature and is just imprisoned in a different manner for it.]]
* DaddyIssues: Discord implies that Tirek uses the power he gains from draining magic to compensate for his inability to earn the approval of his father.
* DecompositeCharacter: His [[TheNightThatNeverEnds original goal]] is given to Nightmare Moon.
* DemotedToDragon: In Season 9, he goes from the BigBad of Season 4 and the GreaterScopeVillain of Season 8 to one of Grogar's flunkies. [[spoiler:This is until the [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E24TheEndingOfTheEndPart1 finale]], when Grogar is revealed to be Discord and he instead becomes part of a BigBadTriumvirate]].
* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: His 'everypony will bow to my will' comment implies Tirek's ultimate goal is a world were he has all the power and everyone else has none.
* DidntSeeThatComing: As a consequence of his long imprisonment, Tirek isn't fully up to date on current events. (For example, he's surprised to learn that there is a fourth alicorn princess.) Because of this, he is repeatedly blindsided by this trope, but usually proves very good at [[XanatosSpeedChess rolling with the punches]]. [[spoiler:However, in the end, it catches up with him when he doesn't realize the Mane Six still have a trump card left in the form of the Harmony Box.]]
* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:He is initially ecstatic to learn that the Mane Six will be trapped with him in Tartarus for all eternity, but soon changes his tune when he realizes that ''he is trapped in Tartarus with the Mane Six for all eternity''.]]
* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: [[spoiler:He successfully got ''Discord'' to his side by promising to let him go back to the way he was. Note that he was barely powerful enough to do anything at this point, and Discord had just defeated him in about ten seconds flat. Once he gets strong enough, he takes Discord's power too.]]
* DraggedOffToHell: He was imprisoned in Tartarus for his crimes until he escaped. [[spoiler:He's ultimately dragged back in the end, but is freed once more by Grogar, who actually is Discord in disguise, in the Season 9 premiere.]]
* TheDreaded: Everyone is terrified of him. Upon having a prophetic dream of his return, the next thing Celestia does is call in the other Princesses, explain to them what's going on, and sic [[PhysicalGod Discord]] on him before he gains any more power.
* EscapedFromHell: Quite literally in a Myth/{{Classical Mytholog|y}}ical sense, as he manages to escape Tartarus.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: He walks up to a unicorn in an alleyway during the dead of night, introduces himself as "no friend" in the creepiest voice imaginable, and drains the hapless unicorn of his magic.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In "Frenemies", Cozy Glow mentions that Tirek talks to his "Gram-Gram" in his sleep, which is the only redeeming quality Tirek has displayed thus far. Tirek immediately screams not to bring his Gram-Gram into their argument.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** JerkWithAHeartOfJerk he may be, but Tirek does have one rule -- trust and loyalty. He despises Scorpan for turning on him, and [[spoiler:is outraged at Discord not telling him there was a fourth princess (Twilight) and turns on him soon after. When Twilight demands the release of her friends, Tirek is surprised and disgruntled she includes Discord under that definition in spite of him betraying them. Also, he ''does'' release them all as he agreed, so at least he kept his word.]]
** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zigzagged]] in "School Raze": Despite believing that Cozy Glow's plan to send all of Equestria's magic to another realm was wasteful, he gladly went along with it, since it meant the ponies would suffer. Played straighter in "Frenemies" when he suggests [[spoiler:draining ''all'' the magic from Equestria was a bit excessive.]]
* EvilIsBurningHot: Tirek's magic is fire-based, or at least gives off the impression of being fiery.
* EvilCounterpart:
** In a sense, he and his brother, Scorpan, are ones to the Royal Pony sisters. They originally came to Equestria to conquer it, but Scorpan befriended the ponies, changed sides and tried to convince Tirek to do the same. When Tirek refused to do so, Scorpan had no choice but to imprison him.
** To Discord; Tirek is a mash-up of at least two mythological creatures (A centaur with minotaur-like features such as bull horns and cloven hooves), and both are very good {{Chess Master}}s to an extent. But Discord eventually reformed because he realized how wonderful it is to have friends while Tirek sees friendship as weak and pathetic and remains as evil as ever.
** To Celestia; Tirek has a demonic appearance which contrasts with her angelic one. He and Scorpan are shown to be princes in ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'', making them even more this.
* EvilerThanThou: He pulls this on [[spoiler:Discord after convincing him to pull a FaceHeelTurn, only using him to regain his lost strength before telling him YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness.]]
* EvilIsHammy: '''''"WHERRRRRRE IS YOUR MAGIIIIIIC?!?"'''''
* EvilIsNotAToy:
** The main reason he gets as powerful as he does as quickly as he does is because [[spoiler:Discord uses his own powers to hand him Equestria on a platter. Celestia even mentions the only reason the Alicorn princesses can't smack Tirek down as a last resort is that they can't beat him while he's under Discord's protection. For all his trouble, Discord gets his powers stolen the moment Tirek is strong enough to just take them]].
** [[spoiler:Hits Discord with this ''again'' during the finale when he teams up with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow when his plan to use the trio to boost Twilight's confidence backfires when they turn out to be ''far'' more dangerous and cunning than he realized.]]
* EvilIsPetty: He teaches Cozy Glow how to drain Equestria of magic just because he knew the Mane Six would trap themselves in Tartarus trying to figure out the cause, even though otherwise it in no way benefits him to do so. He even lampshades how wasteful it is, considering his M.O.
* EvilMentor: Turns out he's been acting as this for Cozy Glow.
* TheEvilPrince: ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' reveals he was an actual prince of the centaurs, adding [[AmbitionIsEvil ambition to his many sins]], and showing part of his motive was resentment over his father's ([[ProperlyParanoid completely justified]]) holding him back from power, fearing what Tirek would do with it. The series finale brings this into main canon, while also revealing Tirek has a bit of an inferiority complex towards his father King Vorak.
* EvilSoundsDeep: [[EvilSoundsRaspy His voice is rather feeble-sounding at first]], but it becomes deep and booming later on.
* FalseFriend: [[spoiler:To Discord.]]
* FamousLastWords: "Don't let them escape!"
* FatalFlaw: Greed. [[spoiler:His stealing Discord's power despite him still being an ally who likely would have willingly aided him leads to their defeat.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Acts friendly and polite with Discord, even congratulating him on escaping imprisonment. It continues into the next episode, but is limited to Discord. He drops the act [[spoiler:once he no longer needs Discord's aid, backstabs him, and mocks Discord for trusting him.]]
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Successfully backstabs Grogar/Discord to become the final villain of the series, sharing the role with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow.]]
* {{Flight}}: After absorbing Discord's magic, he displayed this against Twilight, ramming her through a mountain and remaining airborne while doing so.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime It's About Time]]", Twilight muses over the catastrophe that could result from the ancient abominations locked in Tartarus breaking out. Celestia confirms that he's been loose since "It's About Time" when Cerberus left his post; he's just been too weak to be a threat until now.
** In "School Raze", [[spoiler:he refers to Twilight as the Princess of Friendship when she and her friends confront him. Since he was reimprisoned immediately before Twilight gained that title, this was an early indicator that Tirek had been in contact with somepony on the outside world]].
* FourIsDeath: He goes through four forms, each one getting bigger, and each time making his horns grow.
* FreudianExcuse: Discord implies that the reason Tirek takes magic from ponies is because he uses the power he gains from it to compensate for the fact that he was never able to earn approval from his dad, King Vorak.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: While he was born an EvilPrince, he was a normal, if talented member of his race. He eventually becomes a near all-powerful threat to Equestria. By the end of his time as ArcVillain [[spoiler:he's stronger than ''Discord''.]]
* GeniusBruiser: He's a ManipulativeBastard good enough to [[spoiler:play Discord like a fiddle]], but in his penultimate form has enough strength to ram straight through a mountain and lift a slab of rock bigger than he is with little effort.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: His eyes glow yellow.
* GodhoodSeeker: While the show doesn't directly state it, this is more or less what his plan amounts to. In a world where ponies need magic to control the forces of nature, Tirek draining them would give him control over the rise and fall of the sun and moon, allow him to manipulate weather freely, and he'd be the only creature able to grow the crops the ponies need to feed themselves.
* GodzillaThreshold: How dangerous is Tirek? Enough for Celestia to ask [[MadGod Discord]] to defeat him!
* GreaterScopeVillain: Of the Season 8 finale "School Raze". He's still locked up and virtually powerless in Tartarus, but it was his advice that allowed Cozy Glow to enact her plan, and she uses fear of Tirek to trick the Mane Six into trapping themselves in Tartarus with him.
* {{Greed}}: His hunger for power is one of his defining features.
* HadesShaded: His skin tone starts off a dull brown and then grows to a bright red as he gains power.
* HandBehindHead: He does this in "The Beginning of the End-Part 2," out of nervousness in joining Grogar's plan.
* HavingABlast: Attacks with fiery blasts of magic from between his horns.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Ultimately, Tirek was ''failed'' by his own hunger for power; had he accepted Scorpan's offer, he would ''not'' have been imprisoned in Tartarus. [[spoiler:This also means that Tirek brought his [[TakenForGranite transformation into stone]] upon himself.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He sets the stage for his own defeat when he [[spoiler:gives Discord his medallion, which is passed on to Twilight when she demands Discord's freedom, turning it into the sixth key that unlocks the Tree of Harmony chest and grants the Mane Six their Rainbow Power.]] Downplayed in that no-one could have seen it coming and Tirek had no way to know this would bite him in the flank.
* HorrorHunger: His ManaDrain seems to resemble this, as he literally swallows a unicorn/alicorn's magic, leaving them an empty-eyed, blank-flanked shell of their former self.
* HulkingOut: Initially appearing as scrawny old centaur, but when he starts absorbing magic he gets bigger and more muscular. By the time he fights Twilight, he's turned into a walking tank with his arms growing so big that they break the wrist bands in the picture shown.
* {{Hypocrite}}: He despises his brother for turning against him, yet he uses and betrays [[spoiler:Discord]] without a second thought. The comics also show that he betrayed his old mentor Sendak, who genuinely seemed to care for him and helped him learn to control his magic.
* InASingleBound: While his third form cannot fly like Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, he can jump extremely far.
* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: He has a huge ego and feels entitled to whatever he desires...but Discord suggests part of his driving force is feeling he's inferior to his father, King Vorak. The fact this provokes Tirek enough to try and blast him then and there suggests this is indeed true.
* InNameOnly: While he does look somewhat similar, his voice, motivations, and personality are all much different then his G1 counterpart. Still that provides very little comfort when the ponies are confronted by a hellbeast.
* InsistentTerminology: He's very insistent on being called ''Lord'' Tirek.
* InsufferableGenius: He is very smart with his plans and manipulations, and smugly rubs this in other's faces pretty often. When he and Cozy Glow get into an argument, she describes him as having a "I'm smarter than you" attitude and that she is done putting up with it.
* InTheHood: Starts out wearing a hooded robe, framing the upper half of his face in shadow. Justified, as being a centaur he can't blend in without some method of hiding himself.
* ItAmusedMe: He justifies answering Cozy Glow's inquiries about how to drain magic from Equestria by claiming he was "bored".
* ItsAllAboutMe: He wants power for himself, he hates his brother for having moral qualms and turning on him and getting in his way. He also constantly refers to the magic of Equestria as being "his", considering it to have always belonged to him in the first place. [[spoiler:[[ICanRuleAlone This explains him stabbing Discord in the back.]]]]
* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler:Destroying Twilight's home]] made him this for Twilight, prompting her to [[spoiler:[[UnstoppableRage go berserk on him.]]]] Notably, unlike previous villains that did this, the act that warranted this reaction ''stuck''.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's so power hungry he doesn't seem to care if getting what he wants leaves Equestria lifeless.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: [[spoiler:Seems to start a VillainousFriendship with Discord when he gave the medallion of his brother Scorpan, but he later back-stabs him while saying that the medallion is worthless to him because he hates his brother for "betraying" him. He sees his companionship with Discord just as disposable.]]
* KickTheDog:
** After draining several earth ponies of their magic in "The Summer Sun Setback", he steals a pie from a food cart.
** [[spoiler:After draining Rockhoof of his magic (reducing him to the scrawny stallion he once was), Tirek mockingly says, "Oh, run along. The big stallions are playing".]]
* KillerGorilla: His upper humanoid half looks somewhat simian, especially when he grows a crest-like mane.
* KingKoopaCopy: First averted then played straight. Initially, Tirek is weak and scrawny, but later starts fitting the mold after absorbing magic, growing bigger, stronger, and more monstrous and brutish. Tirek's magic is fire-based and he kidnaps several characters, including all three Alicorn Princesses.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm:
** In "Frenemies", he's the only one of the LegionOfDoom who takes Grogar's warnings about Mount Everhoof being impossible for any single being to transerve alone seriously. When they actually get there and get a good look at it, he just builds a camp and relaxes while the others try and fail to scale the mountain themselves and waits for them to come back.
** In the finale, [[spoiler:he and Cozy Glow immediately back down when they're depowered. Not that it saves them]].
* LargeAndInCharge: The more magic he absorbs, the larger he becomes. [[spoiler:Once he's drained Twilight and thus has absorbed the magic of all four Alicorn Princesses, he's starting to reach Ursa Major size.]]
* LargeHam: His hamminess grows proportionally with his size.
* LaserGuidedKarma: In the series finale, [[spoiler:he is petrified along with Cozy Glow and Chrysalis, and Discord remarks that they'd all hate that more than anything]]. What's more, [[spoiler:he is reverted all the way down to his frail and skinny first form before it happens, not even being left with his somewhat muscular second form that he had spent most of the season in, when he wanted to re-obtain the huge physique of his final form]].
* LeanAndMean: He starts off a scrawny monkey-like figure, then grows stronger and more muscled as he absorbs magic.
* LightningBruiser: Despite his immense power, he's also fast in his penultimate form.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Having been sealed in Tartarus for hundreds of years, and then hiding while recovering his strength after his escape, he's not entirely caught up on everything that's happened since his imprisonment, resulting in him [[DidntSeeThatComing being repeatedly surprised]]. That he [[XanatosSpeedChess quickly adapts]] and becomes the biggest threat Equestria has ever seen is a testament to his intelligence.
* LoveIsAWeakness: Views friendship in this light, believing his brother Scorpan and Discord were weak minded for allowing friendship to change them. Considering what world this is, he's [[EvilCannotComprehendGood proven wrong.]] [[spoiler:He voices this opinion again in "The Ending of the End - Part 2" after he and his allies force the Mane Six to surrender by threatening Spike, calling the magic of friendship their "greatest weakness".]]
* MagikarpPower: Rare villainous example, see OneWingedAngel.
* ManaDrain: Has the power to drain others of their magic. At first he can only drain unicorns, but he grows stronger each time, and starts moving on to pegasi, earth ponies, alicorns, and even [[spoiler:Discord]]. "Frenemies" reveals he can also release the magic he's absorbed willingly, and that he can't absorb magic from nonliving things.
* ManipulativeBastard: He effortlessly manipulates [[spoiler:Discord, himself a master of this trope. He also makes sure to ''keep'' Discord on his side; Whenever Discord showed signs of faltering, Tirek would quickly take steps to appease him, either by offering him the chance to "have a little fun", or giving him his brother's medallion as a false symbol of his gratitude and loyalty.]]
* MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll: He's so cunning and manipulative that he can start a scheme to potentially doom Equestria, even while he's locked in Tartarus and kept in his powerless form. [[spoiler:Thanks to being pen pals with Cozy Glow, he almost succeeds in removing all magic from Equestria, despite not even leaving his cage.]]
* MindOverMatter: After he starts gaining power he displays powerful telekinesis, including grabbing Twilight and throwing her into a mountain with it.
* MiracleGroMonster: A side effect of his ManaDrain.
* MixAndMatchCritter: As a centaur, Tirek has the lower body of a horse and a humanoid torso, but also with traits of a bull (horns, nose ring, hoofs) and of an ape (at first rather baboon-like in his weakest form, and then more gorilla-like as he gains power).
* MoralMyopia: Is willing to suck the life out of an entire country to get what he wants and cause untold suffering, as well as [[spoiler:stab Discord in the back]], but holds a grudge on his brother Scorpan for betraying him, ignoring the fact Scorpan outright ''tried'' to talk him out of it before hand and was ignored, leaving Scorpan with no other choice. He also expresses disgust that Twilight considers [[spoiler:Discord]] her friend despite his backstabbery, though given he had openly expressed friendship as an empty virtue, [[AtLeastIAdmitIt this may have been the point.]]
* {{Narcissist}}: [[spoiler:After being restored to one of his more powerful forms (courtesy of Grogar donating some magic for him to eat), he briefly flexes his muscles and kisses his biceps. In "Frenemies", he has a portrait of his fully-powered form in his quarters.]]
* NeverMyFault: Shows continual hatred and bitterness towards his brother Scorpan, never even considering the fact Scorpan offered him a LastSecondChance and tried to talk him out of their plans and thus it's entirely Tirek's own fault Scorpan was forced to betray his brother. He also believes his defeat at the Mane Six's hooves was a result of them being "annoyingly lucky".
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In "School Raze", [[spoiler:Tirek tells the Mane Six who his pen pal in the School of Friendship is because he doesn't think they'll ever escape Tartarus. As a result, they know who to confront once they get back to the school]].
* NighInvulnerable: By the time he fights Twilight, he can take hits from [[WaveMotionGun massive energy beams]] that rip trenches in the ground, slams through a mountain, get sent into the ground by an energy attack that buries him, and be caught in explosions that leave massive craters... all without a scratch.
* NoNonsenseNemesis: There's still a little bit of ham in him, but by the standards of most MLP villains, he's frighteningly straightforward. He's not even much of a sadist, generally preferring to dispose of his opponents quickly and efficiently and THEN maybe indulging in some light taunting.
* NotSoAboveItAll: In "Frenemies", he momentarily breaks from his normal seriousness and joins in a VillainSong with Cozy Glow and Chrysalis, even dancing a bit towards the end and striking a pose.
* ObviouslyEvil: All of the MLP villains qualify, but most of them had ''some'' degree of subtlety. Tirek stands out in the fact in just how blatantly evil he is. You can tell he's trouble just by looking at him.
* TheOneGuy: In Season 9, he is the only male besides Grogar in the LegionOfDoom among Cozy Glow and Chrysalis.
* OneManArmy:
** He starts off small and weak as a result of his imprisonment, but as he starts growing stronger he drains hundreds of ponies of their magic, dozens at a time. [[spoiler:Even charged up with the power of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, Twilight is barely able to fight him to a standstill.]]
** In the series finale, Tirek seems to be by far the most powerful member of the Legion of Doom [[spoiler:after the three of them absorb the power of Grogar's bell. Even after being powered up by the bell, Cozy Glow is quickly defeated by the Mane Six using only their own innate talents with no special magical assistance, and Starlight Glimmer is able to match Chrysalis blow-for-blow, while Tirek is able to effortlessly defeat Star Swirl and the Pillars of Equestria, and in the final battle he's ultimately the one who disperses the combined armies of Equestria and its neighboring kingdoms with a single [[ShockwaveStomp punch to the ground]].]]
* OneWingedAngel: Starts out as a weak, frail creature but the more magic he consumes, the larger and more powerful he becomes (his hair also grows out, giving him a BadassBeard, and his horns go from little stubs to almost as long as his arms) and his appearance becomes more menacing. [[spoiler:His final form is almost the size of an Ursa Major.]]
* OnlySaneMan: He seems to be by far the wisest and most sensible of the Legion of Doom. When sent to retrieve Grogar's bell, he's the only one to sit back and scope the problem out while the others dive in head first and fail repeatedly. Also, ironically despite his intention to destroy Equestria instead of rule it, in the series finale he's the only villain to be wise enough to realize [[spoiler:that the Windigos would be the ''real'' winners if the villains succeeded in their plans, and thus were a problem that should be dealt with, while Cozy Glow and Chrysalis are too focused on defeating the ponies to realize that if the three of them actually won, the Windigos would turn Equestria into a barren wasteland and render their victory a case of PyrrhicVillainy. He also advocates finding and capturing Twilight, well aware that she is a possible threat to the villains' plans.]]
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: For one thing, this one is the ''My Little Pony'' equivalent of {{Satan}}. His upper body is more simian than human, which goes with the show's policy to never include any humans or part-human creatures.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: He's not from Hell, he's from Tartarus. And he wasn't even born from there in the first place.
* OutOfFocus: Compared to the other {{Arc Villain}}s up to the Pony of Shadows, Tirek doesn't get much attention after his defeat. Nightmare Moon appears in frequent cameos and flashbacks, Chrysalis and Sombra feature prominently in the comics and in the Season 5 finale, and Discord and Starlight reformed and joined the main cast. Tirek, however, only rarely gets namedropped and got a very brief cameo in the Season 5 finale. [[spoiler:He finally returns in the season 8 finale.]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction:
** Case in point: an attack aimed at Twilight manages to [[spoiler:blow Golden Oak Library to kingdom come]] and his battle with her devastates the landscape.
** In the BadFuture where he wins, there doesn't appear to be anything left for him to rule, because he's just going around destroying everything with sadistic glee. In Season 9, Sombra, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow are all motivated by a desire for conquest and a thirst for revenge, while Tirek seems to just want to completely obliterate Equestria ForTheEvulz.
* PetTheDog:
** While he considers Cozy Glow a nuisance, he does let her hide behind him when she's scared without a complaint, expresses concern when Grogar berates her for not knowing his name, and takes the time to explain to her who Grogar is.
** In "Frenemies", he honors his word and [[spoiler:returns Chrysalis' powers to her despite having a golden opportunity to betray her and take said powers for himself]].
** In "The Summer Sun Setback", he catches a bird that was blown away by Canterlot castle's fan defenses. During the same episode, he casually plays chess with Cozy Glow.
* PhysicalGod: By the end of his stint as BigBad, he's become stronger than Discord and NighInvulnerable.
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: Rare case where getting more power causes his facial hair to grow (into a BadassBeard). It's not until he's near the height of his power that the hair on his head grows too.
* PragmaticVillainy: While still a monstrous individual, of the LegionOfDoom he's also the most pragmatic and least likely to partake in pointless sadism that might bite them in the butt and suggest reasonable plans. [[spoiler:This includes calling for the Windigos to be immediately dealt with rather than trying to exploit them and risk losing control of the situation.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Tirek mocks [[spoiler:Discord for trusting him to actually share his power once everything is said and done, basically calling him an idiot for throwing away everything to get nothing in the end]].
** Discord gives one to him in the season nine finale by telling him his robbing of ponies' magic is all a pathetic way of compensating for his fear that he could never measure up to his father King Vorak.
* RealityWarper: After stealing enough magic ([[spoiler:especially Discord's]]), he demonstrates shades of this twice: by summoning a portal to Tartarus (to trap Celestia, Luna, and Cadance), and then by [[spoiler:summoning Twilight's friends trapped in giant orbs (to force her into a SadisticChoice)]]. He even cements the latter with a [[spoiler:BadassFingersnap of his own, possibly to mock Discord after stealing his magic]].
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: His character design invokes much use of red and black, and he's definitely not a hero.
* RedOniBlueOni: Contrary to what their appearances and color schemes would imply, he's actually the Blue Oni to Cozy Glow's Red Oni. He remains calm even when destroying everything around him, comitting crimes, or taunting his foes, whereas Cozy Glow is an AxCrazy BrattyHalfPint who is ''very'' excitable, talkative, and open about her desire to destroy Twilight and her friends.
* RelatedInTheAdaptation: In G1, Scorpan was Tirek's minion. In this version, they are brothers, despite appearing to be different species.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Pulls this on [[spoiler:Discord, and was genuinely confused as to why Twilight would still consider him a friend]].
* SatanicArchetype: He came from another realm to conquer Equestria, but was defeated and sealed in Tartarus. Now that he's back he's considered the most powerful threat the kingdom has ever seen, and he [[spoiler:manipulates Discord into helping him, only to turn on him once he no longer needs him]]. At the height of his power he even looks the part, with a white beard, red skin, horns, and of course, hooves.
* SealedEvilInACan: He was originally trapped in Tartarus; now he's out. [[spoiler:He's re-sealed at the end of the finale.]]
* ShadowArchetype: Like Discord pre-CharacterDevelopment, he's [[ItsAllAboutMe self centered]], [[MoralMyopia holds a grudge when slighted despite his own evil deeds]], considers [[EvilCannotComprehendGood Friendship to be a worthless thing]], and is a ManipulativeBastard of the highest order. [[spoiler:Unlike Discord, instead of allowing a friend (Discord, ironically) to change him, he stabs said "friend" in the back at the first opportunity, something Discord originally couldn't bring himself to do until convinced to by Tirek. Fittingly, it's Discord fully embracing the value of friendship that leads to Tirek being vanquished.]]
* ShapeshifterSwanSong: [[spoiler:After being hit by the Mane Six's WaveMotionGun, he shrinks back down to his weak thin form]].
* SmarterThanYouLook: As he drains more magic and gets bigger and stronger, it becomes apparent that he prefer to strong-arm others to get what he wants and his fighting style is quite brutish and destructive. Beneath that he's still a ManipulativeBastard fully willing and able to use his brain if his brawn can't cut it such as when he finds himself fighting and merely breaking even with Twilight and so unveils his HostageForMacGuffin ploy.
* TheSociopath: Feels no empathy for anyone he hurts as long as he gets his way, and will manipulate anyone he pleases to serve his ends. He's basically Discord if he ''didn't'' reform. If even ''Discord'' finds you repulsive, you definitely fit this trope. This aspect of him even shows in the comics. He constantly disobeys his parents' rules not to go in the "nether lands" and constantly lies about it. He used magic to force his little brother in a physical restrain, causing Scorpan to cry. He snuck into Sendak's cave, using a spell to keep him from interfering, to try and suck magic from a captive unicorn. When this fails, Tirek just runs from responsibility and lies about ever being involved even though his actions could've sent his kingdom and Equestria's into war (according to his father, King Vorak). Vorak even mentions that Tirek was ALWAYS like this since he was BORN. Despite his family being loving, he never appreciates how much they love him and how much they just want to keep him out of trouble.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: [[spoiler:At the end of "School Raze", he is able to interpret Cerberus's whining as a complaint about how "boring" it is in Tartarus with the Mane Six gone.]]
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler:At the end of "Frenemies", he and the other members of the LegionOfDoom agree to keep Grogar's bell for themselves and plot against him.]]
* SuperToughness: In his penultimate form prior to draining Twilight, his power was such that even the combined power of the Alicorn Princesses could only match him equally. By the end of it he is completely unharmed, only annoyed that he was not strong enough to get what he wanted by brute force. [[spoiler:After being powered up by Grogar's bell, he is able to NoSell attacks from Star Swirl the Bearded, the greatest unicorn sorcerer in history (who was being backed up by Mistmane, another powerful unicorn, at the time).]]
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:His ultimate fate, along with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. He gets {{Depower}}ed, is said to be BeyondRedemption by Celestia, then turned to stone, presumably permanently.]]
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: His alliance with the other members of the LegionOfDoom 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.
* ThisCannotBe: [[spoiler:His reaction to the Mane Six obtaining their SuperMode and {{No Sell}}ing his WaveMotionTuningFork after he drained their magic.]]
* TimeAbyss: He has spent over a thousand years imprisoned in Tartarus, and may be even older than that, as it's implied he and Discord may know each other.
* TokenGoodTeammate: ''Very'' downplayed. Out of the members of the LegionOfDoom, he's the only one who takes the others into consideration, whereas Cozy and Chrysalis are mainly concerned about how their alliance will benefit themselves. And while they don't care about ''anyone'' but themselves as well, Tirek at least loves his grandmother.
* TopHeavyGuy: His HulkingOut eventually makes his arms bigger than his legs.
* TreacheryCoverUp: Tirek is forced by Cozy and Chrysalis to give back the earth pony magic he stole as to avoid Grogar learning of their little "road trip" to Canterlot.
* VillainDecay: Tirek started as one of the most powerful and successful villains in the entire franchise. During his debut he showed his strength and his wit, playing Discord like a fiddle before [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disposing of him when he no longer needs him]], and draining all the magic in Equestria for himself. In season 8 though [[spoiler:he is once again reduced to his weak shriveled form and trapped in Tartarus, forced to rely on Cozy Glow for revenge. Even when the plan they make works and the Mane Six and Spike are trapped in Tartarus, he can only celebrate for a few minutes before he [[DidntThinkThisThrough finally realizes]] that he has actually trapped ''himself'' with ''them'' for all eternity, and agrees to help them escape when he can't take Pinkie annoying him any longer]]. The Season 9 premiere reduces him to one of Grogar's toadies, but he spends the season crawling back up to his status as a respectable villain by [[spoiler:backstabbing him, taking his bell for himself, and becoming one of the {{Final Boss}}es along with Cozy Glow and Chrysalis]].
* VillainHasAPoint: Tirek sees through Cozy Glow's attempts to hide her true nature by acting cute and innocent, saying that she has attempted to manipulate both him and Chrysalis the same way she did with Twilight and her friends, and that she shows her true colors whenever she doesn't get her way.
* VillainousBreakdown: Suffers the expected screaming fit as the Mane Six overpower and drain him.
* VillainousFriendship:
** Started one with Discord [[SubvertedTrope but only for the sake of manipulating him]].
** The Season 8 finale reveals that he and Cozy Glow are pen pals. She tries to get him to become friends with Chrysalis as well.
** In "Frenemies", he proves capable of bonding with Cozy Glow and Chrysalis over their shared hatred of the heroes.
* VillainousLegacy: In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E3CastleSweetCastle Castle Sweet Castle]]", the episode is all about Twilight and company dealing with the aftermath of his rampage, but Tirek never appears and is never even mentioned.
* VillainSong: "Better Way to Be Bad", along with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow in "Frenemies".
* VirtueIsWeakness: He sees friendship as another form of imprisonment.
* WaveMotionTuningFork: His magic is generated in the space between his horns, though it still comes from the same point over his head even in his weaker, hornless form.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Implied to be the reason that he takes magic from others; deep down, he's afraid of not living up to his father's expectations.
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: He has a white beard and starting with his penultimate form has a white mane, but is ''worse'' than Discord ever was in terms of sheer evil.
* WouldHitAGirl: Tirek has no problem with physically manhandling Celestia, as well as Twilight, whom he throws into a mountain followed by tackling her through it. Likewise, when offering Twilight's friends in exchange for the alicorns' magic, the clearly implied bargain is the magic for their lives.
* WouldHurtAChild: Tirek has no problem holding Spike hostage, with the implication he'd be completely willing to kill the little dragon along with Twilight's other friends if it gets him what he wants. Of course, given his G1 counterpart threatened to ''decapitate'' Spike, this should come as no surprise. He also has no issues shaking Cozy Glow around roughly when he gets particularly annoyed with her. In the finale, not only does he have no objections when Chrysalis threatens to tear Spike's wings off to get the ponies to surrender, but he still tries to kill Spike along with the ponies right afterward.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Tirek is repeatedly caught off-guard throughout his debut two-parter due to acting on faulty information, but proves very adept at rolling with the punches.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Once Discord has helped Tirek become powerful enough, Tirek drains him as well.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Adagio Dazzle]]
See Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsVillains (Specifically, the folder marked "The Dazzlings (The Sirens)")
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Starlight Glimmer]]
See [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicStarlightGlimmer Starlight Glimmer]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Pony of Shadows]]
See [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Storm King]]
See Characters/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 (Specifically, the folder marked "The Storm King")
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Chancellor Neighsay]]
See [[Characters/FriendshipIsMagicRedeemed Redeemed Antagonists]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cozy Glow]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mlp_vector_cozy_glow_evil_side_by_jhayarr23_dcdloh7_3.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250: ''[[VillainTeamUp Combine all our strength,]]\\
[[{{Determinator}} We'll go to any length,]]\\
[[VillainSong Once we have a better way to be bad!]]'']]
->''"With Twilight and her lackeys out of my way, all of Equestria will bow to me! The future Empress of Friendship!"''

->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E12MarksForEffort Marks for Effort]]"

->'''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 atrocities 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.
----

[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mlp_resource__king_sombra_01_by_zutheskunk-_837.png]]
[[caption-width-right:252:[-King Sombra in his pony form.-] ]]
[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/king_sombra__s_shadow_by_fercho262-d5kfka0_5042.png]]
[[caption-width-right:252:[-King Sombra in his shadow form.-]]]
->''"Long live the king."''

->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 The Crystal Empire – Part 1]]"

->'''Voiced by:''' Jim Miller[[note]]according to [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim tweets]] by Jim Miller[[/note]] ("[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 The Crystal Empire – Part 2]]"), Alvin Sanders ("The Beginning of the End")

A snarling, black-hearted unicorn king who ruled over the Crystal Empire and enslaved its inhabitants long ago. Celestia and Luna banished him and turned him into a living shadow, but not before he hid the Crystal Heart that protected the empire and caused it to vanish with him. After a thousand years, Sombra returns with plans to continue what he started.

In the tie-in comics by IDW, King Sombra is given a radically different backstory, motivation, and personality, that the show ignored when bringing him back in Season 9. For information about Sombra as he's depicted in the comics, see Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the lengths he goes to maintain control of the Crystal Empire condemns its inhabitants to a life of never-ending misery and he [[MindRape makes them unable to remember anything about life before his reign]], yeah that's inevitable.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom: He ''is'' one in "The Crystal Empire", continuously advancing towards the empire he once ruled.
* AlmightyIdiot: His shadow form, while very huge, powerful, fluid, and able to spread with only a single fragment of his horn, is only capable of speaking short sentences and phrases and charging forward, in contrast to the highly-prepared sorcerer he once was. But still downplayed in that he still shows signs of ItCanThink -- e.g.: singling out [[BarrierWarrior Shining Armor]] for some PowerNullifier crystals, waiting for [[BarrierMaiden Cadance]] to run out of stamina, activating his final trap once Twilight's presence signals him, etc.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Out of all of Grogar's LegionOfDoom, Sombra seems to easily be the one with the most powerful (innate, unaugmented) abilities. Yet as powerful as his magic is, he doesn't even register as an annoyance against Discord, who's essentially a PhysicalGod. [[spoiler:Until he manages to catch Discord off-guard by forcing him into TakingTheBullet for Fluttershy. Only it turns out Discord was faking being injured from that as well.]]
* AndIMustScream: Been on both ends of it. Celestia and Luna inflicted this upon him by turning him to living shadow and sealing him in ice for a thousand years. This was because his reign over the Crystal Ponies amounted to this for the poor things.
* AnimalisticAbomination: Sombra's pony form has charcoal grey fur with [[SupernaturalFloatingHair an ethereal black mane and tail]], no Cutie Mark, an upward-curved red horn, red eyes with [[HellishPupils rhombus-shaped pupils]], and fangs. He can also turn into living darkness at will, spawn jagged black and red crystals, and can MindRape others into being his slaves by forcing them to witness their greatest fears.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: While not a literal example like Discord, both his role in the episode and [=McCarthy=]'s description of the character make him out as more of a living embodiment of Fear rather than a pony.
* TheArchMage: He seems to be this considering the traps he set up. "The Beginning of the End" also shows him to have pretty high levels of power in direct combat, too.
* ArcVillain: Of "The Crystal Empire" and "The Beginning of the End".
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: He's so powerful that he ruled the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof because the Crystal Ponies were too terrified of him to challenge his reign.
* BackFromTheDead: He's revived by Grogar's magic. It doesn't stick; Sombra eventually gets ReducedToDust thanks to the Magic of Friendship used by the Mane Six, and this time, [[DeaderThanDead he doesn't come back]].
* BadPowersBadPeople: He uses dark unicorn magic powered by hatred and fear. To no one's surprise, he's an EvilOverlord. A major part of his characterization in the comics, where he invokes this. He's literally MadeOfEvil, so being a bad person is pretty much the only option for him.
* BigBadWannabe: He ultimately serves as this during "The Beginning of the End". Sombra does manage to accomplish quite a bit -- he [[spoiler:destroys the Elements of Harmony and the Tree of Harmony with his dark crystals]], and manages to conquer both the Crystal Empire and Canterlot with little effort. However, it's made clear that Discord could have beaten Sombra any time he wanted, and the only reason Discord held back was to prove a point. By the end of the episode, Sombra ends up DeaderThanDead, ReducedToDust by the Mane Six and their Magic of Friendship. Grogar predicted this would happen, and uses Sombra's failure as a warning to the rest of his LegionOfDoom not to go against his plan, ultimately making Sombra nothing more than an [[MakeAnExampleOfThem example]]. [[spoiler:Even Sombra's destruction of the Tree of Harmony only helped to make it stronger come "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E3Uprooted Uprooted]]", where it grows into the Treehouse of Harmony thanks to the Young Six. This ultimately means Sombra's attempt to TakeOverTheWorld actually made things worse for the bad guys.]]
* BigEntrance: Sombra ''really'' knows how to make a dramatic entrance, as shown in pretty much every one of his appearances.
* BigNo: Twice during "The Beginning of the End".
** In Part 1, he yells this when Cadance recovers the Crystal Heart.
** In Part 2, it's the last thing he says before being vaporized by the magic of friendship.
* BizarreTasteInFood: After brainwashing the Cakes, he has them bake him a black licorice fruitcake to celebrate his conquest of Equestria. Pinkie despairs that it's the worst cake she's ever seen.
* BlackMagic: His magic generates black crystals, and is powered by hatred and fear.
* BondVillainStupidity: Twice in "The Beginning of the End -- Part 2".
** He traps the Mane Six in a ring of crystals, but intentionally passes up the chance to turn them into his brainwashed slaves, preferring instead to leave them with their "greatest fear" of him conquering Ponyville. This gives the Mane Six the chance to escape and ultimately defeat him.
** After seemingly wounding Discord, he simply stands there and mocks the Mane Six as they tend to him, rather than take the opportunity to attack them while they're distracted.
* CanonDiscontinuity: His return in season 9 invoked this on his appearances in the comics, which brought him back much earlier, and took him in a ''very'' different direction.
* CastingAShadow:
** He was turned to shadow by Celestia and Luna when he was defeated the first time. He took the form of a giant, amorphous shadow being upon his return.
** His magic is explicitly stated to be dark and malevolent in nature. He can cast spells that make people see their worst fear, trap people with dark crystals, and brainwash people into slavery with corrupting armor.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In his vastly expanded screentime in "The Beginning of the End", King Sombra is characterized as being more pompous and self-indulgent than he was in "The Crystal Empire", where he was more creepy and far less talkative.
* TheChessmaster:
** The steps he took to keep the Crystal Heart from being found in the first place imply that he considered ponies of ''all'' races to be able to find it. In fact, most of the threat that he poses is a result of his actions ''before'' the episode even started.
** In "The Beginning of the End", he weaves a fairly complex plan for taking out the Bearers. His conquest of the Crystal Empire is a feint -- by taking over the Empire, he draws the Bearers into taking the Elements and coming to obliterate him, obfuscating his true goal and letting himself lose their encounter in order to make them think they have won and let their guard down. When the main characters think they have defeated him, [[spoiler:he follows them to the Tree of Harmony, destroys the Elements at their source, and takes out the chief threat to his conquest of Equestria.]] His plan relies heavily on the main characters behaving as he predicted and tricking them into thinking that they actually defeated him the first time -- and it works.
* ColdHam: Despite his minor screentime and lines and his seriousness, his dragon-like roars and EvilLaugh still give him some flair; and just look at his RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver motif. Very apparent in his comic book appearances, where rage is pretty much the only emotion he can reliably express; normally he's pretty morose, delivering hammy lines with little real enthusiasm.
* CoolCrown: He is a king, after all, so it's only natural he has one.
* TheCorruption: Contact with him sealed off Shining Armor's magic. Later, when a fragment of his own horn is cut off and lands inside the barrier, he uses it to spread a plague of dark crystals over the Crystal Empire despite being unable to enter himself. The sole purpose of his dark magic seems to be corrupting and controlling the [[MineralMacGuffin crystals]] of the Crystal Empire.
* CrazyPrepared: He doesn't actually do much in "The Crystal Empire", because he doesn't need to -- he pre-emptively took great measures to make sure nopony could find the Crystal Heart. The Heart was hidden in a room atop his castle, which the Crystal Ponies were afraid to enter, and the Heart was rigged with an alarm that immediately alerted Sombra if anypony approached it. And then, getting to the room with the Heart requires climbing an impossibly-long staircase that would take hours to summit, the door to the staircase is protected by an illusion spell that shows anypony who tries to step through it a vision of their worst fear instead of letting them pass through, ''and'' the passage to the door is hidden by another illusion spell that can only be dispelled with Sombra's brand of BlackMagic, which is very dangerous and very difficult for anypony else to try conjuring. Finally, he erased all memory of the Crystal Heart's existence from the minds of the Crystal Ponies and destroyed any written records of its existence.
* CreatorCameo: His few lines [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/267356800981008384 and other noises]] were provided by storyboard supervisor "Big" Jim Miller in "The Crystal Empire".
* CursedWithAwesome: Played with. Turning him into living darkness was Celestia and Luna's doing, though whether he's more powerful in this form than in his true form is anyone's guess. On one hand, he's less of a flesh-and-blood pony and more of a malevolent force of nature, which makes him much harder to fight directly. On the other hand, he's little more than a beast in shadow form while his CrazyPrepared status suggests he was far more intelligent before.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a dark shadow cloud and TheDreaded.
* TheDarkTimes: His rule over the Crystal Ponies, as explained by Celestia, is outright slavery (see his above quote). Even after being freed, the Crystal Ponies shudder in fear at the memory of his rule.
* DeaderThanDead: His second death in "The Beginning of the End". While he was broken apart into pieces by the Crystal Heart in his first appearance, the second time sees [[https://derpibooru.org/2004578 the Mane Six using the Magic of Friendship to obliterate Sombra]] so thoroughly that he's ReducedToDust. He never appeared in the series again after this happened, making him gone for good with no chance of resurrection.
* DeathByIrony: He ends his first appearance by being obliterated by his former slave race.
* DeathCryEcho: Instead of the BigNo previous villains were accustomed to using.
* DeathGlare: He has one so terrifying that the Crystal Ponies shudder just thinking about it.
* DemotedToDragon: Defied in Season 9, where he refuses to work for Grogar and runs off to fight Equestria on his own.
* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: Unlike Discord, he sees his victims as slaves instead of playthings and goes to great lengths to maintain control of the Crystal Empire and keep the Crystal Ponies under his hoof through fear and dark magic.
* DidntSeeThatComing: What repeatedly spoils Sombra's plans is that he overlooked a small detail that unravels everything.
** In "Return of the Crystal Empire", his traps only seemed to account for somepony coming to look for the Crystal Heart alone. Because Spike accompanies Twilight, he's first able to snap her out of Sombra's illusion spell, and then when she's trapped by Sombra's Crystals, she's able to pass the Crystal Heart to Spike so he can get it to Cadance.
** In "The Beginning of the End", Sombra seemingly predated the Elements of Harmony, or at least doesn't know the Mane Six are their wielders. He thinks that because the Crystal Heart is under his control, nothing can hope to stop him, and then the Mane Six storm in with the Elements and blast him. [[spoiler:While he makes a comeback by destroying the Elements and the Tree of Harmony, he doesn't realize the six ''embody'' the virtues of the Elements and don't need the gemstones themselves to call on their power, which they do to destroy him a second time.]]
* DiscOneFinalBoss: He sets up as this for the final season, as he's the first villain the Mane Six have to face before [[LegionOfDoom Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow]].
* TheDreaded: The Crystal Ponies don't ''want'' to remember his rule, and shudder in fear at the thought of it. [[spoiler:This is why he hid the Crystal Heart in his palace; he knew they'd be too afraid of him to look for it there.]]
* ErmineCapeEffect: When he was in his physical form, he wore a red ermine-trimmed cape.
* EvilCounterpart:
** To the Crystal Heart (and thus Cadance). He's a being of shadow whose magic is fueled by ThePowerOfHate and fear while the Crystal Heart is powered by the light, love, and hope of the Crystal Empire.
** "The Cutie Re-Mark" plays him up as one to Celestia in his timeline. They're the leaders of their respective nations in the war for Equestria, [[LargeAndInCharge they both tower over their subjects]], he's dark and male where she's light and female, he's a cruel, merciless tyrant where she's a benevolent and compassionate leader, he seeks to enslave Equestria while Celestia fights to keep this from happening and they're the most powerful fighters and magic-users in their respective sides.
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: He has a sharp, curved, red horn that looks like a dagger, red eyes with slitted reptilian pupils, fangs, and an ethereal black mane. When using his magic, the sclera of his eyes turns from the standard white to an eerie glowing green with toxic purple mist wafting from them.
* EvilOverlord: This is what he was before Celestia and Luna overthrew him; a tyrannical slavemaster of the Crystal Empire.
* EvilPlan: He was banished from his domain and he's back to reclaim it and re-enslave the Crystal Ponies.
* EvilSorcerer: Has extremely powerful black magic.
* EvilSoundsDeep: The few times he speaks it is like this. (Unlike Discord, this is played completely straight.)
* EvilTastesGood: Licks his lips in anticipation of whatever he intended to do to Spike when he caught him.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Used his powers to convert the Crystal Castle into this during the peak of his villainy. And it remains his best weapon during his PresentAbsence, courtesy of [[spoiler:some tricky BlackMagic effects and traps that he preemptively rigged it with]].
* EyeMotifs: The imagery of Sombra's glowing green eyes is a recurring symbol of his. In his shadow form at first the only recognizable feature is his eyes (later he's able to form a proper head), when the Crystal Ponies try to remember their past and remember Sombra, they're shown to see a vision of his eyes, and those under the influence of his dark magic, either channelling it or being subject to his spells, have their own eyes glow green like his. In the BadFuture where he almost conquers Equestria, his brainwashed soldiers wear helmets that give them the same glow.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath:
** He is [[LiterallyShatteredLives shattered to pieces]] in "The Crystal Empire". Even more shocking is if one looks closely, some parts of him ''hadn't'' turned to crystal. It's particularly noticeable in that he's the only villain aside from the Windigos to actually be destroyed and unlike with other villains of the show, nothing is said to imply that he's ''not'' dead, so we can assume he's KilledOffForReal. You can even see his severed horn flying toward the screen! WordOfGod confirms that he is dead.
** He's resurrected in "The Beginning of the End" by Grogar, but ends up getting killed again by the Mane Six wiping him out with the Magic of Friendship. This time, he vanishes into dust as he's hit with a WorldHealingWave and Grogar chooses not to resurrect him again.
* FamousLastWords:
-->'''Sombra:''' NO! This can't be possible! Your magic can't defeat mine!! [[spoiler:'''I DESTROYED THE SOURCE OF YOUR POWER!''']]\\
'''Twilight:''' You can't destroy our friendship, Sombra!\\
'''Rainbow:''' And we keep telling bad guys...\\
'''Applejack:''' But y'all just don’t seem to remember.\\
'''Mane Six:''' FRIENDSHIP ''IS'' MAGIC!!!\\
'''Sombra:''' '''''[[BigNO NOOOOOOOOOO!]]'''''
* FangsAreEvil: Even creepier because this guy is supposed to be a ''unicorn''.
* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}}. He's ''very'' confident in his abilities, spurning Grogar's offer of an alliance due to the belief that he can conquer Equestria on his own. While he comes close to succeeding, his refusal to take out the Mane Six when he has the opportunity (believing they're not a threat to him) ends up costing him dearly. When the Mane Six are seconds away from finishing him, he still rants about how their magic can't be a match for his, being completly unable to accept the truth.
* FisherKing: Under the influence of his dark magic, the sky turns dark and all the shiny crystals in the Empire turn jet black. In addition, his reign causes fear and hatred to resonate throughout all of Equestria, amplified by his dark crystals.
* FlatCharacter: In his Season 3 debut, he has only a handful of lines which are only a couple words each, leaving interpretation of his character down to reading through his actions. Averted with Season 9 bringing him back fully for its premiere and letting him show off his personality in full.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain:
** He is built up as being a huge threat to the Crystal Empire, and is also revealed to have [[spoiler:set up an intricate security system to prevent anypony from getting the Crystal Heart in the past]], but other than that, his characterization is nonexistent, especially in comparison to the show's other villains, and there is barely any backstory for him to speak of. This isn't helped by him [[TheSilentBob speaking very little]] and not having any meaningful interaction with the other characters and spends most of the two-parter as more of a wave of blackness rather than an actual character. The show treats him more like a powerful malevolent force than a character in his own right. According to WordOfGod, he was intended to be more of a menacing and terrifying presence lurking over everything. In other words, ''fear itself''.
** "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 1" builds on this a bit by showing a BadFuture where the Mane Six weren't around to stop his return, but this story that explicitly ranks the danger levels of the show's major villains still puts him at the very bottom... though only in the sense that his is the most "normal" world. In Sombra's future, Equestria is slowly being bled dry as Sombra's legions of slave warriors push on to conquer it as he conquered the Crystal Empire -- in contrast, Nightmare Moon has placed Equestria under TheNightThatNeverEnds and is implied to be slowly going ''insane'', Chrysalis has enslaved all ponies to use as food and forced the survivors to flee into the Everfree Forest, Discord has turned the world into {{Cloudcuckooland}} and Tirek is just laying waste to everything. The only other villains with a similarly vanilla BadFuture are the Flim-Flam Brothers, who've turned Equestria into a polluted, over-industrialized wasteland.
** This trope is wholly averted during Sombra's second major appearance in the show in "The Beginning of the End", where a fully restored King Sombra is shown to be a very talkative villain and is given a lot more characterization, building on what was already established about his personality. He's confident in his own skills to the point of pompousness and hubris, he loves to taunt his foes about their inadequacies compared to his own strength and humiliate them to destroy their morale, and he's shown to be very cunning and manipulative, lulling his enemies into a false sense of security before striking their most vulnerable points when they least expect it to get ahead.
* GeniusBruiser: He's a CrazyPrepared NoNonsenseNemesis who's practically a living WorldWreckingWave.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: His eyes glow green and are trailed by a purple aura.
* GoodColorsEvilColors: His crystals are colored black in contrast to the technicolor crystals found in the empire.
* GoodHurtsEvil: Can be repelled by Cadance's shield of light and love, and contact with it cuts him like a blade. By contrast, normal ponies are completely unaffected by contact, so that may have been a side effect of his shadow form.
* GutturalGrowler: In his first appearance, he doesn't speak much aside from growls and snarls.
* HellishPupils: He has rhombus-shaped pupils, and instead of being black, his are ''red''.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** He tries to reach Spike and the Crystal Heart by launching into the air on a crystal pillar, reverting back to his pony form in the process (either from regaining strength or simply being close to the Crystal Heart). This leaves him standing on said pillar, several hundred feet in the air without his far more agile LivingShadow form, giving him no way to escape the Crystal Heart's energy wave.
** Being so horrible to the Crystal Ponies makes it worse. It's why [[TheDogBitesBack they had no qualms about killing him when the opportunity presented itself]].
* HulkSpeak: Seems to have been a side effect of his long imprisonment or his smoke monster transformation, the ninth season reveals he was once capable of complete speech.
* ICanRuleAlone: He refuses to work for Grogar, instead opting to conquer Equestria on his own. This ends predictably and disastrously, and Grogar uses him as an example of what happens to those who defy him.
* IKnowWhatYouFear: Sombra boasts this, using his mind manipulation magic to show Twilight a vision of her friends being brainwashed into his slaves, and of Celestia and Luna being corrupted into Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon.
* ImplacableMan: Celestia, Luna, Shining, and Cadance can only delay him without the Heart. Even that doesn't destroy him for good, though, and his spirit eventually reforms.
* InexplicablyAwesome: The comics aside (which are BroadStrokes canon to the show), there's no explanation given for how Sombra is so strong. His various powers, including fear illusions and anti-magic crystal barriers, are capable of affecting alicorns like Twilight and Cadance, Starlight Glimmer falls under his thrall the same as any other pony, and it's implied in Season 4 that Sombra's BlackMagic is something otherwise exclusive to alicorns. He's even able to [[spoiler:survive being blasted by the Elements of Harmony, then destroy the Tree of Harmony and shatter the Elements]]. This would make Sombra one of the most powerful unicorns in known history, possibly even above Star Swirl the Bearded.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He is the only villain to immediately reject Grogar's idea for a VillainTeamUp, claiming he doesn't do "ours", only "mine", and [[ICanRuleAlone claims he can defeat the Mane Six himself]].
* KarmicDeath:
** Given his viciousness and the sheer scale of his intended atrocities, it's fitting that he's the only antagonist thus far to die.
** Double subverted in that he returns alive in Season 9, but gets wasted once again by the Mane Six.
* KilledOffForReal:
** Meghan [=McCarthy=] confirmed at Unicon 2013, making him the only character to actually ''die'' on the show. However, [[FlipFlopOfGod the comics and some merchandise]] leave it ambiguous, and in the comics his spirit lived on inside his horn.
** In "The Beginning of the End," he's hit with this again as the Mane Six use the Magic of Friendship to wipe him out. It was Sombra's last appearance on the show, meaning he's gone permanently. Grogar uses Sombra's death as an example of why his VillainTeamUp is necessary.
* KneelBeforeZod: After Sombra conquers the Crystal Empire, he puts Shining Armor, Cadance, and Flurry Heart in chains and orders them to kneel before him. Shining and Cadance comply, Flurry doesn’t.
* LargeAndInCharge: His shadow form's full self is ''massive'', surrounding the entire Crystal Empire. And his pony form is about the same size as Celestia.
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU1A3FT7TgA He has a pretty ominous one.]] It definitely serves to give what screen time he has a good deal of impact.
* LiterallyShatteredLives: What happens to him upon his first defeat. The Crystal Heart's power overwhelms him, making him explode into several pieces.
* LivingShadow: His state when he begins his first revival is to return as one of these, before he reforms his own body. He retains elements of it when fully resurrected in Season 9, able to shapeshift into clouds of darkness and back at will.
* MagicalEyeStreamers: One of his most distinctive physical features is the pair of streamers of purple smoke that trail from the corners of his eyes, one of the signs that he is not a regular pony anymore. This trait is extended to any being under the influence of his dark magic.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Grogar doesn't punish Sombra for abandoning the proposed VillainTeamUp, even sending him right to the Crystal Empire to start his attempt to take over the world alone. Grogar allows this knowing Sombra would fail, and uses his DeaderThanDead defeat at the hooves of the Mane Six as a warning to the other villains to not defy him.
* ManOfKryptonite: He can spawn PowerNullifier crystals seemingly at will.
* MeaningfulName:
** "Sombra" means "shadow" in Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician. It becomes even more meaningful when the Princesses turn him into a LivingShadow when overthrowing him.
** It also sounds like "Somber", which makes [[VileVillainSaccharineShow no small amount of sense]]. The comics reinforce this interpretation, where bar a few moments of triumph and satisfaction, he's mostly miserable and depressed about his fate.
* MightyGlacier: He's extremely powerful, and his LivingShadow form can get large enough to surround an entire kingdom. However, he also moves like an AdvancingWallOfDoom, and it seemingly takes him a while to react properly to anything that catches him off-guard; therefore, he excels at things like CrazyPrepared-ness and {{Long Game}}s to compensate.
* MindRape:
** He did this to the Crystal Ponies a thousand years ago. Not only are they incapable of remembering anything before his rule, they're left in a perpetual state of unhappiness and despair. The former is implied to be psychic, but the latter might be mundane, considering his [[SlaveRace treatment of them]].
** He also booby-trapped the door to the Crystal Heart to do this to whoever tried to enter it, trapping them in a vision of their greatest fear to prevent them from going further.
** He attempts this on the Mane Six in "The Beginning of the End – Part 1", but the Elements of Harmony allow them to break free.
* MysteriousPast: Absolutely nothing about his backstory or the reasons behind his great power in pony form is remotely hinted at.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: As listed above, his name is one.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: His [[spoiler:destruction of the Tree of Harmony in "The Beginning of the End" [[NotQuiteDead doesn't completely kill it]] so in "Uprooted" it's able to reach out to the Young Six for help and when they build a memorial tree-house from its remains it [[CameBackStrong regenerates and grows into a larger and stronger form]] with a large tree-house in it. In other words, by breaking the Tree's old form, Sombra ultimately helped the tree gain an even stronger form]].
* NoNonsenseNemesis: What makes Sombra so dangerous aside from his magical prowess is that he likes to be simple and direct when dealing with obstacles.
** In "The Crystal Empire", Sombra constantly probes the shield for weaknesses and tries to get inside the moment he finds one. When he senses Twilight approaching the Crystal Heart, he immediately imprisons her inside a field of anti-magic crystals. Then while slowly filling the Empire with his dark crystals and savoring his impending victory, when he notices Spike carrying the Crystal Heart, he makes a beeline straight for him.
** The Crystal Heart, the one thing that could stop him, was protected ''extremely'' well behind numerous different illusion spells conjured by BlackMagic, something that very few ponies aside from Sombra know how to use. He also ringed the Heart itself with a protection spell that alerts him the second somepony approaches it, and he took steps to erase all knowledge of its existence from memory.
** Revived and returned to Equestria in his full power in "The Beginning of the End", Sombra takes over the Crystal Empire in ''minutes'', brainwashing the ponies he finds and making them march behind him as he walks toward the palace and moves in. When he's defeated, he [[spoiler:destroys the Elements of Harmony]] and then heads to Ponyville, brainwashes its inhabitants into a new army, and marches on Canterlot. Along the way, when confronted by powerful ponies he can't control, like Cadance and her family or the Mane Six, he quickly traps them with fear illusions or anti-magic crystals. When confronted by Discord, Sombra just starts blasting magic at him, which only doesn't work because Discord is a PhysicalGod who can neutralize all of his attacks.
* NotSoAboveItAll: After brainwashing the entirety of Ponyville into becoming his army, Sombra has the Cakes bake him a congratulatory cake.
* OhCrap:
** He has this reaction to realizing the Crystal Heart is being powered up.
--->'''King Sombra:''' What? No... no! Stop!
** He also has this reaction when the Mane Six nullify his dark magic with the magic of friendship [[spoiler:''after'' he destroyed the Elements of Harmony]].
--->'''King Sombra:''' How? This shouldn't be possible! Your magic cannot defeat mine! [[spoiler:I destroyed the source of your power!]]
* OneManArmy: While he does like to use an army when he can get one, Sombra really doesn't need one -- he's got AntiMagic strong enough to nullify an Alicorn's powers, can take over the minds of normal ponies, and can create powerful fear illusions. In Season 9 he takes over the Crystal Empire and Canterlot by himself and just uses his brainwashed army to defend the fortresses after.
* PowerEchoes: When he talks, he has this effect on his voice.
* PowerNullifier: He seals Shining Armor's magic during their encounter, which keeps Shining from using his shield spell to help to keep him out. [[spoiler:And his last trap is an AntiMagic CrystalPrison that prevents Twilight from just teleporting away with the Crystal Heart.]]
* ThePowerOfHate: According to Celestia, his magic is based off of fear and hatred. This is pretty much the only thing sustaining him in the comics. Normally he's fairly depressed and miserable, with his only displays of emotion being rage when his enemies move against him, and occasional grim satisfaction when he gets revenge on those who have hurt him.
* PragmaticVillainy: Despite the Heart being his AchillesHeel, it's heavily implied that he didn't just smash it -- instead hiding it via all those traps -- because he wants to convert it from ThePowerOfLove to ThePowerOfHate. "The Crystalling" reveals yet another reason that keeping it intact was beneficial to him; without it, he would've lost both his base of operations and his SlaveRace to eternal winter.
* PresentAbsence: Despite his minor screentime, his BlackMagic effects and traps still let him pose a major threat.
* RaceAgainstTheClock: The only thing keeping him out of the Crystal Empire is Cadance's love spell, which is slowly failing. The moment the shield goes down, we get to see exactly why it was so important to keep him out. He starts covering the Crystal Empire in his dark crystals in ''seconds''.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Sometimes a horse will have fanglike teeth, called "wolf teeth".
* RealityWarper: He once turned the whole Crystal Empire into a {{Mordor}} (and starts to do so again in the present), he made it completely vanish for over an entire millennium, and the layout of his {{Booby Trap}}ped path to the Crystal Heart shows that he can even create {{Pocket Dimension}}s. [[spoiler:In "The Beginning of the End," it's revealed that he can also create his MindControl helmets (first seen in "The Cutie Re-Mark") from thin air.]]
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: His color scheme in pony form.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: A literal case, as simply remembering his eyes causes one of the Crystal Ponies to shudder. When he's enraged, the red overlaps the green, turning his entire iris and pupil red.
* ReducedToDust: His death in "The Beginning of the End". The Mane Six use the power of friendship to completely wipe him out so that there's nothing left of his body. This time, [[DeaderThanDead Sombra's death sticks, as he never reappeared in the series]].
* RefugeInAudacity: How he takes over the Crystal Empire again in "The Beginning of the End". While most other villains scheme and plan ahead of time, Sombra just walks up to the palace and moves in, brainwashing the Crystal Ponies he meets along the way into a new army. Cadance and Shining Armor barely have time to get word to Twilight that he's back before he captures them, and by the time Twilight and her friends arrive, Sombra is lounging on the throne with the royal family in chains.
* ResurrectedForAJob: By Grogar ([[spoiler:actually Discord]]) in Season 9. Sombra immediately decides to do his own thing, which ends in his second death.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: In the dark future shown in "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 1", King Sombra leads his enslaved, brainwashed troops into battle himself, dueling the princesses and their army.
* SacrificialLamb: King Sombra serves as this in "The Beginning of the End" for Grogar's LegionOfDoom. Grogar resurrected him and brought him to his lair to recruit him along with Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow, but Sombra refused to work with any of them and declared he could win on his own. As a result of his arrogance he is killed once again and his defeat only serves to reinforce Grogar's claim that they can only win by working together.
* SameCharacterButDifferent: King Sombra is written very differently throughout the franchise: he's an ominous GenericDoomsdayVillain in his first appearance, a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds lashing out at the world in his story arc in the comics, and a pompous SmugSnake badass tyrant in his second major appearance in the series.
* SatanicArchetype: His initial takeover of the Crystal Empire (stated to be Equestria's CosmicKeystone kingdom) was similar to Lucifer's first rebellion in {{Heaven}} from ''Literature/ParadiseLost''; his subsequent exile (to be sealed underground in ice) reflected the deepest part of {{Hell}} from ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''; and his TakingYouWithMe curse upon the Empire reflected Lucifer/Satan's RevengeByProxy introduction of sin among humanity, and his fearful and depressing PresentAbsence over the Crystal Ponies was similar to how Satan is described as "prowl{ing} about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour," both examples being in ''Literature/TheBible''.
* ScaryBlackMan: A large, dark stallion whose IKnowWhatYouFear powers make the "Scary" part literal. He's also TheSilentBob, complete with a BadassBaritone whenever he does speak.
* SealedEvilInACan: Was turned into a LivingShadow and imprisoned in the northern ice by Celestia and Luna. They were at least more thorough than with Discord.
* TheSilentBob: A break of tradition from [[EvilIsHammy every other villain from before]], he surprisingly speaks very little, mainly growling like a monster. At one point during the comics he notes that Queen Chrysalis [[YouTalkTooMuch Talks Too Much]]. Averted in the final season opener when he becomes much more vocal.
* SlasherSmile: His default expression.
* SlaveRace: What he turned the Crystal Ponies into. He even calls them his "Crystal slaves" at one point.
* SmallNameBigEgo: He is very arrogant. When he seemingly defeats Discord, he states that he is more powerful than him, completely ignoring the fact that Discord was clearly winning and Sombra just got in a lucky shot because of him TakingTheBullet for Fluttershy. [[spoiler:Even more so when it's revealed Discord was faking defeat]].
* SmugSnake: He arrogantly states to Grogar that he'll take over Equestria alone, with Sombra believing himself to be powerful enough to do so. [[NearVillainVictory He was almost right]]. Throughout the Season 9 premiere, he's very smug and boastful about how easy it was to deceive and overpower the Mane Six, taunting them and their friends at every opportunity, partly to destroy their morale and keep them under his heel, partly to feed his own ego, and partly because he loves making other ponies squirm. When he finds the throne room at Canterlot castle empty, he immediately assumes Celestia and Luna (the ones who defeated him the first time) fled rather than face him, and has no problem believing he is capable of besting Discord.
-->'''Twilight:''' Discord, I'm so glad you're okay, we can't beat him without you!\\
'''Sombra''' (smirking): Heh, you couldn't beat me with him either.
* SorcerousOverlord: The traps that he set imply that he used to be a mighty sorcerer when he was still the Emperor.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: WordOfGod [[http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88003&view=findpost&p=2162181 has]] [[https://twitter.com/MMeghanMcCarthy/status/257249978081214464 confirmed]] [[http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88003&view=findpost&p=2163071 the]] [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/267325607048773632 spelling]] [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/267340093637935105 to]] [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/268603888318431234 be]] "Sombra" (matching the in-show pronunciation), yet a [[https://twitter.com/MyLittlePony/status/265942986926456832 tweet]] by Hasbro's ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' Website/{{Twitter}} spells it as "Somber" (which proves to be a MeaningfulName in its own right, as "somber" means "unhappy" -- much like the Crystal Ponies affected by his spell). Both words ultimately derive from the Latin word "umbra", meaning "shadow".
* SuddenlyVoiced: He's much less of TheSilentBob in "The Beginning of the End," speaking in full, complete sentences and prone to boasting about his strength as a conqueror.
* SupernaturalIsPurple: His eyes are constantly trailed by a purple aura.
* TakingYouWithMe: As he was being sealed, he cursed the Crystal Empire to disappear for 1000 years.
* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Compared to the other villains, poor Sombra’s defeats usually involve him being graphically destroyed into oblivion.
* ThisCannotBe: As he faces his defeat in "The Beginning of The End", he rants that it "can't be possible".
* TinTyrant: He wears metal armor in his unicorn form.
* TookALevelInDumbass: In "The Beginning of the End", he's much more gung-ho and overconfident than the patient pragmatist from "The Crystal Empire" and "The Cutie Re-Mark" (though he does briefly slip back into the latter when [[spoiler:ambushing the Tree of Harmony]]). This makes it a lot easier for him to be humiliated by both Grogar and Discord [[spoiler:(one and the same, no less)]], and ends up getting him [[spoiler:killed yet again (this time for good, on top of it)]].
* TrapMaster: The sheer number of traps he set qualify him for this.
* UngratefulBastard: He shows no gratitude to Grogar for bringing him back to life, dismissing his idea for a VillainTeamUp so he can rule by himself.
* VillainousBreakdown: In "The Beginning of the End," once the Mane Six manage to nullify his magic [[spoiler:without the Elements of Harmony]]. He actually sounds like he's on the verge of tears as he desperately tries to deny his impending defeat.
* VillainousLegacy: "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E3Uprooted Uprooted]]", which takes place after the season 9 premiere, deals with [[spoiler:the loss of the Tree of Harmony from Sombra's actions. Ironically him destroying the Tree's old form [[NiceJobFixingItVillain helped it get stronger]] thanks to the Young Six]].
* WalkingWasteland: Can spread shadows and dark crystals to affect the land around him.
* WouldHitAGirl: He has no problem trying to attack (and possibly kill) Princess Cadance when she and Spike have the Crystal Heart.
* WouldHurtAChild:
** Tries to attack (and possibly kill) Spike with absolutely no hesitation once he sees he has the Crystal Heart. He even licks his lips at the prospect of doing so.
** The opening for season 9 shows him abducting Flurry Heart to get Cadance and Shining Armor to stand down.
* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:His booby-traps to prevent ponies from reaching the Crystal Heart. They keep them out? Good, the one thing that can stop him is out of reach. They reach it? It sets off a trap allowing him to begin growing his dark crystals inside the castle itself, even if he himself can't enter, as well as trapping the pony who found it.]] Cadance invokes DeflectorShield? He waits until she's too tired to continue. She stops to rest? He reaches the Empire sooner. In fact, even his EstablishingCharacterMoment (in the flashback hologram) was one: If he beats Celestia and Luna, good; but if they beat him, his DeadMansSwitch curse takes the Empire with him and nullifies their victory. In "The Beginning of the End", he feigns defeat at the Mane Six's hooves in order to trick them into letting their guard, allowing him to [[spoiler:destroy the Tree and Elements of harmony]].
* YouMonster: Celestia refers to him as having a "heart as black as night." Radiant Hope also says as much when he shatters Princess Amore into pieces, and Sandbar denounces him and Cozy Glow as two ponies worse than Yona.
* YourSizeMayVary: [[http://www.fimfiction.net/group/209434/au-mane-6---starlights-timelines/thread/227008/did-anypony-else-notice-this He is taller]] in "The Cutie Re-Mark" than he is in "The Crystal Empire", although that could just be because of the camera angle.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sunset Shimmer]]
See Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Lord Tirek]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/64cddc790a95f0e1453c78e74a536910.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[-''"How does it feel, knowing that soon every pegasus, unicorn and earth pony will bow to my will?"''-] ]]
->''"I am Lord Tirek. And I will take what should have been mine long ago."''

->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E25TwilightsKingdomPart1 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1]]"

->'''Voiced by:''' Mark Acheson

Long ago, Tirek and his brother Scorpan came to Equestria with the intent to steal the magic of every pony and TakeOverTheWorld. Scorpan however learned friendship from Star Swirl the Bearded, and helped the ponies seal Tirek in Tartarus. However, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime when Cerberus left Tartarus undefended]], Tirek broke free, and is now ready to pick up where he left off.

ExpandedUniverse comic ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' #2 explains that of his centaur race, a young Tirek possessed even more magical ability than his father King Vorak. Already thirsty for power, his goals turned towards Equestria after seeing the power that unicorn ponies possessed when hermit Sendak the Elder returned from his travels with an abducted unicorn. The comic shows that Tirek's mother, Queen Haydon is a gargoyle like his brother Scorpan, and that Discord was a member of Vorak's council, explaining their previous familiarity.

For tropes applying to his G1 counterpart, see Characters/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials.
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[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/queen_chrysalis_by_90sigma-d4xm1q62_3511.png]]
[[caption-width-right:280:[[VillainSong This day is going to be perfect]].]]
->''"You know what's stronger than friendship, Twilight? FEAR!"''

->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 "A Canterlot]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 Wedding"]][[note]]She appears in Part 1 masquerading as Princess Cadance. She makes her full physical debut in Part 2.[[/note]]

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/KathleenBarr

The former Queen of the changelings, creatures that can transform into other ponies and feed on their love for sustenance. She masquerades as Princess Cadance during the Season 2 finale in a bid to conquer Equestria, but is discovered by Twilight and defeated by Cadance and Shining Armor. She returns in the Season 6 finale with a more ambitious plan, but her subjects turn on her and follow Thorax as their new leader, causing Chrysalis to flee swearing revenge.

She appears in [[ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW IDW's comic books]] as the main antagonist through the first four-issue StoryArc, and makes several subsequent appearances.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: In the Season 6 finale, Queen Chrysalis is abandoned by her subjects after learning from Thorax that they don't need to steal love anymore, and are no longer hungry. Once ''adored'' by her subjects, Chrysalis promptly becomes ''their'' enemy when King Thorax takes over.
* HundredPercentAdorationRating: The comic book made obvious that her changelings were once ''very'' content with her as their ruler because Chrysalis is an effective leader and takes on herself the duty to provide food for her subjects. They are close enough as to joke and share a few laughs together with their Queen. However, in "To Where and Back Again", it quickly plummets down to zero once the changelings realize she was [[ItsAllAboutMe more concerned about forcing her authority over them]] than curing their constant HorrorHunger. The changeling species pulls a HeelRaceTurn, except for her.
* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: She can turn her head 360 degrees, both horizontally and vertically. The effect is very unsettling.
* AllThereInTheScript: Her name isn't mentioned in her debut episode and was initially revealed by[[invoked]] WordOfGod. The comics and show have since used it.
* AppleOfDiscord: In "The Summer Sun Setback", Chrysalis transforms into a unicorn and briefly gets the firework troupe to turn on Twilight by insisting that, as unicorns, they are better than other ponies and should be doing more with their magic than just making pretty-colored things.
* ArchEnemy: Has the distinction of being the most frequently recurring major adversary faced by the ponies.
** In the comic, she was focused solely on Twilight since she was the one who stopped her plan the first time, with the crux of her revenge being that she would drain Twilight and make her destroy her friends.
** Following her defeat in "To Where and Back Again", Chrysalis now considers Starlight Glimmer to be this. She is intent on making Starlight suffer for turning her hive against her. And indeed, in the S9 finale, she goes after her personally.
* ArcVillain: Of the second season's finale, the sixth season's finale, and the first arc of the IDW comics.
* AxCrazy: As far as psychopathic villains go, she's the most insane and sinister of them all.
* BadBoss: As shown in ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'', she thinks nothing of punishing a commander for complaining by throwing him to his death in a lava pool and then promoting a random new changeling to take his place.
* BattleTrophy: That distorted black tiara she wears? According to ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' #5, it was originally the golden crown of King Orion of Timbucktu, which she stole and magically warped after conquering his city, which is when she started calling herself ''Queen'' Chrysalis rather than just Chrysalis.
* BeamOWar:
** Chrysalis is able to cast an offensive magical beam, and thanks to draining Shining Armor's [[ThePowerOfLove love]] she can overpower even [[PhysicalGod Princess Celestia]]!
** In "The Mean 6" however, she is way less powerful thanks to being deposited as queen and lacking in minions, and is almost beaten in a Beam-O-War against a [[TheStarscream Twilight Sparkle clone]] [[HoistByHerOwnPetard of her own creation]].
* BenevolentBoss:
** While she is a sadistic bitch to just about everypony else, she seems to care to some extent about her subjects. She is the only major antagonist in the show whose primary motivation (at least according to her) is to do something for ''others'' (that is, to find food for the changelings), while most of the others have motivations centered on themselves. Naturally, [[DracoInLeatherPants the fandom took this and ran with it]].
** This comes up again in ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' -- while being imprisoned, Chrysalis tells the Mane Six that she has no-one left to talk to because she sent all her minions into hibernation, so that they would not waste their energy in vain. Rainbow Dash remarks that it's a surprisingly noble act coming from her. [[spoiler:She may have been lying in order to gain the ponies' sympathy and facilitate her escape, since as soon as the opportunity presents itself the whole army is shown to be very much awake. Either that, or Chrysalis has a way to wake up the changelings instantly. If she had been informed the Six were coming, she may also have woken them up ahead of time in anticipation of an escape attempt.]]
* BigBad: By virtue of being the most active antagonist. She set off the conflict of "A Canterlot Wedding" by kidnapping and impersonating Cadance in order to conquer Equestria; and that of "To Where and Back Again" by kidnapping the princesses and Mane Six to, once again, conquer Equestria. She's also the Big Bad in the first arc of the tie-in comics, and returns in Season 8 as a major villain again, but is DemotedToDragon in Season 9 [[spoiler:until the finale, where she becomes part of a BigBadTriumvirate along with Tirek and Cozy Glow.]]
* BigBadFriend: Towards the Mane Six and Princess Celestia when she's disguised as Cadance in the Canterlot Wedding arc.
* BigBadTriumvirate: [[spoiler:With Tirek and Cozy Glow during the series finale after Grogar is revealed to be Discord]].
* BigNever: In "The Beginning of the End – Part 2", when Cozy Glow suggests she say something nice about ponies as part of a team-building exercise.
* BigNo:
** In classic villain tradition, she gives one just before her defeat by the real Cadance and Shining Armor.
** She gives another one in "Frenemies", [[spoiler:upon realizing she, Tirek and Cozy Glow are on the verge of becoming friends]].
* BitchInSheepsClothing: As Cadance, she acts snotty and unpleasable. This is what tips Twilight off that it's not really [[AllLovingHero Cadance]]. To her credit, she does do a better job pretending to be a sweet-natured unicorn in her appearances as "Crackle Cosette", though.
* BizarreTasteInFood: In "Frenemies" she casually eats a cupcake that Tirek had regurgitated her magic onto.
* BodyHorror: In the S6 finale, she makes her entrance by crawling from between a few cocoons like a...well bug and twisting her neck 360 degrees as she speaks to Starlight.
* BondVillainStupidity: In both halves of "The Ending of the End".
** In Part 1, [[spoiler:she dismisses Cozy Glow's suggestion of going after the depowered Discord. This allows Discord to overhear the villains' plans, and warn the Mane Six]].
** In Part 2, [[spoiler:she insists that the villains don't destroy their captives right away, instead letting them live long enough for Equestria to see how their heroes have been "broken". Moments later, Discord arranges for the Mane Five and Spike to escape and reunite with Twilight]].
* {{Brainwashed}}: She magically brainwashes Shining Armor to feed off his love for Cadance and prevent him from maintaining the [[DeflectorShields force-field]] stopping her minions from invading Canterlot.
* BreakoutVillain: [[VillainTeamUp Season 9]] notwithstanding, most major villains of the show don't make an appearance after the season premiere or finale where they featured, and if they do return it's usually for a minor cameo or to be reformed. Chrysalis however returned as a major villain again after her initial appearance, and then came back again as the antagonist of a standalone episode before joining Season 9's VillainTeamUp. She's also the antagonist of the inaugural story arc of the official comics, and later in their run joins another VillainTeamUp. This overall makes Chrysalis the most persistent and recurring villain the Mane Six have.
* BrokenAce: She's the powerful Queen of the Changelings, and also a master of disguise, commanding, strategic planning, and inducing [[TheDreaded fear]]. However, she still has more than a few DidntThinkThisThrough and VillainBall moments, and when her hive and subjects [[HeelRaceTurn turn on her]], she's reduced to TheRemnant living alone in the wilderness and finding little success in her planning for {{Revenge}}, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation losing herself in the process]].
* BrokenPedestal: "Frenemies" reveals that Chrysalis once admired Discord, before friendship "ruined" him.
* CardCarryingVillain: In ''Frenemies'', she takes part in the VillainSong titled "Better Way to Be Bad".
* CharacterDevelopment: Throughout Season 9, she gradually learns to work better with her allies in the LegionOfDoom.
* TheChessmaster: As she points out, she outsmarted everyone, even Celestia, in "A Canterlot Wedding". The Mane Six are a little more wise about this in the comic, but she still leaves them with no choice but to play into her hooves.
* ChronicVillainy: She just ''[[RedemptionRejection won't]]'' stop her villainous and prideful ways, [[BeingEvilSucks even though doing so would give her a much better life]].
* ClassicVillain: Pride and Ambition. She fails her first attempt to take over Canterlot out of the perception that she understands love better than Shining Armor and Cadance do as a source of power, and gets blasted out of the city for it. Then, her pride leads her to [[RedemptionRejection reject Starlight Glimmer's offer]] to join the rest of the changelings in turning good, wanting to be the one in charge and to have all of Equestria to herself. [[spoiler: And ultimately leads to her downfalls when she doesn't kill Twilight when she has the chance due to wanting to break her spirit first.]]
* ColorMotif: Dark green. Her hive has shades of dark green, and her magic aura is a SicklyGreenGlow. In color psychology, dark green stands for greed and selfishness. She deliberately misled her former subjects and kept them starving to keep herself in power, which come Season 6, cost her everything but her life.
* CompanionCube: As a sign of her SanitySlippage, she's taken to talking to cut-out logs with faces on them. Once she's pressed into Grogar's service, it's shown in "Frenemies" she now spends her time talking to a specific purple log (very likely all that's left of Mean Twilight) and gets defensive when the other members of the LegionOfDoom point it out.
* TheConqueror: Her comics incarnation seems to have this trope as her MO during her first rampage a thousand years ago, having conquered at least two other kingdoms before Princess Celestia finally stepped in and decisively defeated her.
* ControlFreak: Seen mainly when she's disguised as Cadance, but given how her insectoid appearance and control of an insectoid pony army both strike similarity to that of a Bee Queen, this can be seen as thematically justified. Her Control Freak tendencies were what kept her (now former) subjects literally starving for love and unable to achieve their final {{Metamorphosis}}. Once the changelings break free from her, Chrysalis ends up with nothing but her life.
* CoolChair: Her throne. It doubles as a PowerNullifier strong enough to block even Discord's magic.
* TheCorrupter: In "The Summer Sun Setback". With a few choice words, she is able to convince Fire Flare and her fireworks troupe to refuse to perform for the celebration, on the grounds that it is supposedly beneath unicorns like them.
* CrocodileTears: Whenever someone calls Chrysalis as Cadance out on her questionable ways, she bursts into fake tears and accuses that they "just want to ruin her special day". Fools everypony, even Princess Celestia. [[ProperlyParanoid Except Twilight Sparkle]].
* CuteMonsterGirl: Despite being a villain, there's no denying Chrysalis is quite adorable for a bug-like creature.
* DarkActionGirl: Is notably the first villain to win a straight-up fight with ''[[PhysicalGod Celestia]]''.
* DefiantToTheEnd: Chrysalis is not one to go down easy.
** In season 6 finale, she is more then willing to keep fighting after her throne is destroyed, only wisely backing down when it is clear she is outmatched. Though she utterly refuses to be reformed and opts to escape for the time being.
** In the show's GrandFinale, [[spoiler:she's the only villain who continues to scream at the heroes after being de-powered (whereas Cozy and Tirek back down immediately). Chrysalis even makes a final lunge at the Princesses and Discord as she's being turned to stone]].
* DemotedToDragon: In Season 9, she goes from a recurrent BigBad to one of Grogar's flunkies. [[spoiler:This is until the [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E24TheEndingOfTheEndPart1 finale]], when Grogar is revealed to be Discord and she instead becomes part of a BigBadTriumvirate]].
* DevilInPlainSight: Not the most obvious example, but the very first time we see her in disguise, she smiles wickedly, and then proceeds to [[{{Jerkass}} treat everypony around her like crap]]. Thankfully for her, [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter everypony readily writes it off]] due to the circumstances except Twilight Sparkle.
* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: By teleporting Twilight Sparkle away at the end of "A Canterlot Wedding Part 1", she single-handedly derails her own entire plan. At that point, Twilight -- [[CassandraTruth the only one to see through her ruse]] -- has been discredited, rebuked and abandoned by absolutely everyone she cares about: her beloved mentor, her friends, even her own brother. In fact, Twilight has become convinced that she is the one who made a mistake and that "Cadance" is the real deal. The Queen's victory is all but assured -- the sole threat to her has been neutralized and emotionally broken. Instead, she ends up not only confirming to Twilight that she was right all along and giving her a HeroicSecondWind, but on top of that, she leads her straight to the real Cadance.
* DidntThinkThisThrough:
** Her revealing herself during "A Canterlot Wedding" in full view of Celestia. While she ends up winning the ensuing battle thanks to the strength of Shining Armor's love, it's clear that she was worried about the matchup. A much safer way would have been to stall for time waiting for the Changeling army to break the shield before confronting Celestia and [[ZergRush overwhelm her with sheer numbers]] without unnecessary risks.
** In "The Mean 6", [[spoiler:Queen Chrysalis's plan to steal the Elements of Harmony is hampered considerably by the fact she has no idea where they're specifically being kept -- she knows they're somewhere in the Everfree Forest, but that's as close as she's been able to find out. Chrysalis also doesn't know how to use the Elements, she just knows they are attuned to the Mane Six somehow, and also assumes her knockoffs will be able to wield them. She also believes the Mean Six will be as loyal to her as her hive once was, but in practice, she can barely control them, with the group ultimately rebelling against her.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu:
** She won a BeamOWar with Princess Celestia after absorbing enough of Shining Armor's love. Even ''she'' was shocked at her victory (because according to the comics, Celestia was the only one who ever decisively defeated her before). Unfortunately for her, the exact same love is used by Cadance and Shining Armor to return the favor.
** In "To Where and Back Again", she outdoes herself UpToEleven by capturing all of the Royals, all of the Element-bearers, and eventually even [[RealityWarper Discord]] -- courtesy of her PowerNullifier throne.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: She serves as this in the midseason finale for Season 8, though [[TheUnfought unfought]] and [[UnknownRival never even noticed]]. [[spoiler:Her appearance is the setup for the actual villain, Cozy Glow.]]
* DumbassNoMore: In Season 9, she nearly manages to get to the top of Mount Everhoof all on her own, does most of the work even after agreeing to team up with Cozy and Tirek, successfully infiltrates the Canterlot Archives, [[spoiler:easily manages to turn the three pony tribes against each other, and traps ''all'' of Equestria's heroes minus an escaping Twilight in cells using shards from her PowerNullifier throne.]]
* EnfantTerrible: While we don't see her as a child, she admits she's dreamed of watching her minions ransack a city, causing mass panic and suffering, since she was small. According to ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'', she was never technically a child, being the last of the changelings to be spawned from their "mother plant", effectively born into her current state of mind.
* EngineeredHeroics: [[spoiler:In "The Ending of the End -- Part 2". Upon seeing the Windigos return, she suggests that the villain wait until they turn Equestria into a wasteland before vanquishing them, believing the ponies will be so grateful for the act that they'll do whatever she wants.]]
* EtTuBrute: Completely beating the one pulled by Twilight's brother, friends, and mentor when Twilight straight out accuses her of being evil while she masquerades as Princess Cadance, after she pulls a WoundedGazelleGambit to alienate Twilight from them, she returns and imprisons Twilight underground, ultimately confirming her suspicions. Lampshaded later on when she takes pleasure in gloating about how Twilight's peers were too caught up in their wedding planning to give Twilight's suspicions any consideration, thus allowing her plan to carry on smoothly.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** A minor example. [[spoiler:In "Frenemies", she screams "Betrayal!" when she thinks [[EtTuBrute Tirek and Cozy Glow are going to permanently]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness steal her magic]].]]
** PlayedForLaughs in "The Ending of the End – Part 2", in which she [[spoiler:actually appears ''irritated'' with Cozy Glow for [[ShutUpKirk interrupting Twilight's friendship speech]].]]
* EvilCannotComprehendGood:
** Despite gaining strength from feeding on love, Chrysalis has no concept of the true power of the emotion, to the point where she scoffs at Cadance's statement that her love will give Shining Armor strength.
** In "The Mean 6", [[spoiler:Chrysalis consistently refers to the Elements of Harmony as a "weapon" and sees them as nothing more than a tool to take down all who oppose her, rather than mystical artifacts powered by friendship. She also believes that the Mean Six would be capable of wielding them simply because they're copies of the original Element Bearers, not realizing that the Elements run on ThePowerOfFriendship and require their bearers to both have a strong bond (which the Mean Six don't) and embody the virtues that the Elements represent (which the Mean Six ''definitely'' don't).]]
** [[spoiler:In "Frenemies", she believes that Starlight Glimmer "corrupted" her hive.]]
** In the finale, [[spoiler:After she's depowered, she's still carrying on that friendship won't save the heroes... despite the obvious proof that ''it just did even when Tirek, Cozy and she had boosted magic backing them'']].
** In general her main deal is essentially just about raw power and nothing else. Any defeat she takes, she'll always make an excuse that her enemies "cheated" through some other means rather then admit their power for what it truly is and can't fathom it being more beyond a base concept.
* EvilCounterpart: To both Princess Cadance (both empowered by love) and Princess Celestia (tall, powerful queen with TheChessmaster streak). As of Season 6, she becomes this to the newly appointed changeling king Thorax, with him being a benevolent leader with a majestic form, while Chrysalis is selfish and cruel with a holed, withered body.
* EvilGloating: She saves ''most'' of it for when she's alone or when it's smart to do so. Both season finales that she appears in see Chrysalis engage in gloating when [[NearVillainVictory she's almost won]].
* EvilLaugh: Engages in this, especially when the odds favor her.
* EvilPlan: Impersonate royalty, invade the rest of Equestria, and transform the country in a love buffet for herself and her subjects. She likes this plan so much that she uses it twice.
* FakeUltimateHero: [[spoiler:When the Windigos show up as a result of her, Cozy Glow, and Tirek dividing the three pony types again, Chrysalis is the only villain who wants to let them stay so she and the others can "save" the ponies from them in order to get them to easily submit to her rule. Tirek and Cozy Glow do not approve of this plan.]]
* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler:"You think friendship will save you? We will always return! Nothing will ever stop —"]]
* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Issue #3 of the comic shows that Chrysalis and her changelings landed in a village of happy kittens who welcome them with open arms, and they immediately conquer it and drain the love from them, turning them into husks.
* FatalFlaw: Two of them -- her {{Pride}} and her ControlFreak tendencies. Chrysalis has come close to winning multiple times, but her inability to recognize threats and her need to control her minions with an iron hoof always spells her doom.
** Her impersonation of Cadance to take over Canterlot failed when she let the real Cadance embrace Shining Armor, freeing him and letting them combine their powers to cast them out of Canterlot while Chrysalis sneers it won't work.
** Her plan in Season 6 failed when her deception to the changelings was revealed and she didn't get rid of Starlight and Thorax when she had the chance, allowing them to demonstrate what happens when they ''share'' love rather than ''feed'' on it, blowing up her throne, her hive, and turning the changelings against her.
** Her plan in the first arc of the comics fails when she underestimates just how powerful the comet has made Twilight and tries to fight her only to be summarily crushed.
** Her season 8 plan fails because of her inability to command respect from the Mean Six, and when she tries to bully them into submission she just drives them to side with Mean Twilight against her.
** In "Frenemies", she tries to get up the mountain her own way. While capable, the mountain winds ultimately prevent from continuing and she's forced to regroup with Tirek and Cozy. [[spoiler:When the three start to bond, she's the first to reject they become friends, seeing it as a "disease" since it would mean she would have to agree with Twilight's ideals... something her pride won't let her do.]]
* TheFightingNarcissist: Very haughty, but it's not about her appearance. In her VillainSong she declares "I could care less about the dress!" This is also her biggest weakness, as her self-absorbed nature blinds her to flaws in her plans.
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Successfully backstabs Grogar/Discord to become the final villain of the series, sharing the role with Tirek and Cozy Glow.]]
* ForgotAboutHisPowers: Downplayed. Like all changelings, she can take on the forms of big and powerful beasts (such as Cragadiles, Rocs and Ursa Minors) if she so chooses, yet she has never utilized this ability in combat, instead relying on her offensive magic capabilities.
* GigglingVillain: She giggles rather menacingly when she's overlooking her handiwork.
* GlamourFailure: When posing as Cadance, her eyes briefly flash to their [[HellishPupils true form]]. She also lacks the same color magic aura as Cadance, but no-one seems to notice.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The first sign something is off with Cadance is her eyes lighting up green.
* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: She resembles an Alicorn (albeit a twisted, insectoid one), she calls herself "Queen", and she's evil. Also, in a literal example of this trope, Celestia tries to fight her once she reveals herself. However, Chrysalis had absorbed enough of Shining Armor's love to defeat Celestia at that point. She's the first villain ever to physically defeat Celestia (though it's implied Discord could do so if wanted to).
* GoodEyesEvilEyes: She has green eyes with vertically slitted pupils that are more like those of reptile than those of a pony.
* {{Goth}}: Her sinister, eerie and broken appearance makes her stick out in a cheerful cartoon.
* GothGirlsKnowMagic: She has a gothic appearance and is a capable magic caster, able to shapeshift and fire magic beams from her horn.
* HandshakeRefusal: In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E26ToWhereAndBackAgainPart2 To Where and Back Again]]", when Starlight offers her a hoof up and chance at redemption, Chrysalis slaps her away, refusing her chance to be good.
* HarmfulToMinors: Kills a Luvcat in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the comics.
* HellishPupils: They're almost reptilian. One way to tell it's her in disguise is looking at the eyes when they briefly shine and reveal this.
* HerOwnWorstEnemy: Despite having ''many'' enemies, Chrysalis still manages to fit this trope. The things that keep her from achieving peace within herself are: her ''sheer'' [[TheSociopath cruelty]], her ''extremely'' stubborn [[RedemptionRejection refusal to reform]], [[ItsAllAboutMe her greed]], her [[UnderestimatingBadassery tendency to underestimate her opponents]], and her [[NeverMyFault unwillingness to admit her mistakes]]. Assuming it isn't outright ''impossible'' for her to ''ever'' overcome all these, [[spoiler:[[TakenForGranite her transformation into stone]] means she'll likely ''never'' be able to achieve peace within herself.]]
* HiddenDepths: "Frenemies" reveals that she finds the feeling of having others being there for her to be pleasing. She had this feeling back from when she had her hive, and has it again when she [[spoiler:nearly befriends Tirek and Cozy Glow]].
* HoistByHerOwnPetard:
** Became as powerful as she did from Shining Armor's love for Princess Cadance, which she notes is stronger than she imagined. In the end, Cadance and Shining Armor [[HeartBeatdown let her have it with that same love]].
** In the comics, she intended to drain Twilight Sparkle of her magic once the supernatural-enhancing Secretariat Comet caused her powers to reach their peak. The thing is, the comet bolstered Twilight as well, and she knows destructive spells beyond anything that Chrysalis had ever expected.
** In the Season 6 finale, she attempts to drain Thorax of his love to show the others what happens to traitors. She didn't expect Thorax to actually share his love with her, leading to her defeat.
* HoneyTrap: In "Frenemies", Chrysalis disguises herself as a female ophiotaurus to both "save" [[spoiler:Tirek and Cozy Glow]] from the male and to get a free meal by seducing him and draining his love as he falls for her.
* HornsOfVillainy: As a grotesque perversion of an alicorn, Chrysalis's horn is long, twisted, and gnarled. Her ''Fiendship'' issue shows it was originally straight and Celestia's attack that beat her resulted in its current state, with it being implied Celestia ''melted'' it.
* HornyDevils: The changeling race as a whole are based on the succubus and incubus: grotesque demons that shapeshift into a pony's loved ones to get close to them and drain their life force. Chrysalis, as their queen, is no exception.
* HorrifyingTheHorror: In "Frenemies", she is approached from behind by what looks like a cloud of shadow with eyes. She scares it off by hissing at it.
-->'''Chrysalis:''' [[BadassBoast As if anything on this mountain is scarier than I!]]
* HumiliationConga: Her defeat at the end of the comics. While she clearly survived, she received a humiliating defeat at the hooves of Twilight and she and her army were temporary trapped inside of the very castle they were using as their evil lair, and were forced to endure a giant singing and dancing Pinkie Pie doll as a guard. She ultimately arose from this humiliation at the end of ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'', but still, this was definitely not one of her proudest moments.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Several times in "Frenemies".
** She openly complains about how Grogar has done practically nothing since gathering the LegionOfDoom together. This in spite of the fact that, before Grogar summoned her, she had been spending all her time sitting alone in a forest, doing nothing but rant about wanting revenge on her enemies.
** During the VillainSong, she mocks Tirek over how badly he was defeated in the past, in spite of the fact that she has suffered more defeats than he has (which required far less effort for the heroes to do so).
** She also dismisses teamwork as a "fad". The only reason her hive was so effective in the past was due to swarming their enemies through sheer numbers, a tactic that requires heavy teamwork.
** While mocking Twilight, she claims the Princess of Friendship has "made a detailed list of all the ways [she's] a failure". Chrysalis is really in no position to criticize the failings of others.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: As Cadance, she nuzzles, clings to, and otherwise gets ''really'' close to Shining Armor. Just her keeping up the pretense of being a bride-to-be, right? Nope! She also does the same to the mannequin serving as her surrogate groom during her VillainSong (where there is nobody around to fool), despite singing about how she "doesn't love the groom", and indulges in a little privacy invasion towards Shining Armor after she's transformed and revealed herself, though in this last case she probably did it to mock the real Cadance.
* IHaveYourWife: In the comic, she ensures that the Mane Six will obey her orders by holding the Cutie Mark Crusaders hostage.
* ImplacableWoman: She ''won't'' stop seeking out {{Revenge}} against all of Equestria, and tends to come back from her defeats.
* ImposterForgotOneDetail: She doesn't understand Twilight's "Sunshine" rhyme that she used to sing with the real Cadance, which results in the latter being suspicious of her. Her snide behavior during the wedding preparations also rings extremely false to Twilight, who remembers a very sweet, positive and caring Cadance.
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: "The Mean 6" [[spoiler:sees Chrysalis at her most pathetically inept, failing to command respect from the Mean Six, spending the episode trying to keep them on-task as they want nothing to do with her, and then being betrayed and overpowered by the evil Twilight. There are moments where you just feel sorry for her having to deal with them.]]
* InsectQueen:
** Queen Chrysalis is the leader of the insectoid/equinoids called changelings, who imitate other ponies and [[EmotionEater feed on their love]]. Her goal is to take over Equestria and use the land as a virtually infinite food source for her colony. Aside from this image, there's no evidence regarding their reproductive methods that she fills this role in any fashion other than symbolism. This is further compounded by her origin story, which states that she was born amongst the first of the changeling hordes.
** This is no longer the case as of the Season 6 finale, as Chrysalis is defeated and is ousted as the leader of the Changelings, who are now taken lead by the new Changeling King Thorax.
* {{Irony}}:
** She is powered by love, yet her first defeat was caused by a spell powered by love. She also has no concept of love outside of its use as a food source.
** As of season 9, she is the only changeling who ''hasn't'' changed.
** Back in "A Canterlot Wedding" she had commanded her Changelings to stop the Mane 6 which they attempt to do by turning into the six to attack them. In the "Ending of the End" finale, [[spoiler:said Changelings, now pitted against her, use their powers to turn into the Mane 6 to both help attack and confuse her, along with Tirek and Cozy, to prevent them from attacking the group further]].
* ItsAllAboutMe: The Season 6 finale reveals that she was misleading her own kind into stealing love rather than sharing it in order to continue exerting her own influence over them the entire time. Naturally, it bites her in the flank -- when Thorax and Starlight Glimmer teach the Changelings how to share love, which results in their HeelRaceTurn and permanent {{Metamorphosis}}, the Changelings no longer see her as their Queen and turn against her.
* ItsPersonal: It's worth noting the sheer number of ponies who have handed her a defeat, and who she has vowed to destroy. At present that list includes Celestia, Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armor, Starlight Glimmer in the wake of the latter costing her her kingdom in the Season 6 finale and Thorax. She sure is good at making herself a lot of enemies...
-->'''Queen Chrysalis:''' There is no revenge you could ever conceive of that will come close to what I will exact upon you one day, Starlight Glimmer!
* {{Jerkass}}: She's sadistic, controlling, vengeful, and evil, even compared to [[BlueAndOrangeMorality other changelings]]. She couldn't even hide it when impersonating [[AllLovingHeroine Princess Cadance]], which everyone (sans Twilight) passed over as stress for their wedding.
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** The Mane Six and Celestia would've been able to stop her if they had listened to Twilight, as she cruelly points out. This even prompts a JerkassRealization from Applejack at least.
** During the Sombra arc in the comics she's really on point, and gives an entirely accurate ReasonYouSuckSpeech to most of the cast.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk:
** In ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'', she looks utterly broken by her defeats, acts like she's so tired of them that she's seriously considering reforming, and seems to show a surprising level of concern for her subjects. This turns out to be an act, which ends with Chrysalis giving a [[UnreliableNarrator questionably honest backstory]] implying she was [[MadeOfEvil always pure evil]] just to twist the knife.
** In "To Where and Back Again", all of Chrysalis' prior motives had a BlueAndOrangeMorality excuse, she was only looking for a source of love for her Changeling subjects, right? ''Wrong.'' Thorax and Starlight Glimmer reveal this to a total lie. Chrysalis couldn't care less about the well being of the Changelings. She was misleading them to steal love all along, when sharing love is what get them fed. The EmotionEater thing was only to her own benefit and nothing more. This KickTheDog moment was huge and damaging, as it forces the Changelings to [[HeelRealization realize they were just being used]] and [[TheDogBitesBack they quickly turn on their former queen]], rescue their captives and destroy her plans. Cementing this is the fact that Chrysalis is the only Changeling to refuse to turn over a new leaf.
* KarmaHoudini:
** [[spoiler:Escapes unscathed in both ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' and ''Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue34To37'', and doesn't even carry any regret whatsoever to mitigate this with.]]
** Played with in [[spoiler:"The Mean Six", as while she spends most of it as an IneffectualSympatheticVillain dealing with her evil clones of the Mane Six and nearly gets overpowered by the traitorous Mean Twilight, she ultimately ends up no worse off at the end than at the beginning. She even figures out where the Tree of Harmony is (even if she couldn't take the Elements like she planned). However, she didn't get any comeuppance for nearly destroying the Mane Six's friendship as they remain unaware they've been dealing with evil clones.]]
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: In "To Where and Back Again": she not only receives another [[PowerOfLove love-powered defeat]], but Thorax overthrows her and becomes the Changeling King. While Chrysalis escaped, she's lost her PowerNullifier throne, her entire army, and is now completely alone, destroying most of the threat she formerly had. By Season 9 she's a shambling wreck, alone and suffering SanitySlippage.
* KickTheDog: Chrysalis was never confused of being a good guy anytime soon with her callous attitude, but "To Where and Back Again" reveals that Chrysalis couldn't care less about the well-being of her own changeling subjects, as she was only using them for her own selfish goals. The Changelings don't waste time [[TheDogBitesBack making her pay for it]].
* KidsAreCruel: According to a line from her VillainSong, she's been dreaming of pulling off a plot like this since she was small.
* KilledMidSentence: Rather, "Cut Off Mid-Sentence". [[spoiler:After she's de-powered from the CombinedEnergyAttack Tirek, Cozy and she got hit with. Her last lines have her ranting to the heroes that their friendship won't save them... right before a giant cupcake (caused by Pinkie getting Grogar's Bell) falls on top of the three. It doesn't kill them but not long after they're turned to stone by Celestia, Luna and Discord.]]
* LadyOfBlackMagic: She's the former queen of the changelings, and has no problem using magic against Princess Celestia.
* LargeAndInCharge: The normal Changelings are the size of other ponies in the show; she's as tall as Celestia.
* LargeHam: Par for the course of big-name villains in this show. She even gets a VillainSong in her first appearance!
* LaserGuidedKarma:
** In "A Canterlot Wedding", she disguises herself as Princess Cadance while keeping the real one imprisoned underground, so that she can launch a full-scale invasion of Equestria and gain love from her captured victims. She and her changelings end up [[ThePowerOfLove love-blasted]] across the Equestrian border into next week when Twilight Sparkle helps free the real Princess Cadance, allowing the latter to reunite with Shining Armor and perform their aforementioned attack.
** In "To Where and Back Again", while gloating her victory over Starlight Glimmer's party, she reveals that she was keeping her subjects literally starved for love, right in front of said subjects. This leads to her getting love-blasted ''again'' when Starlight encourages Thorax to "give her all of it!", causing Thorax to transform as well as the other Changelings to side with him after he leads by example. Not only does this free everyone from their imprisonment, it also destroys Chrysalis's [[AntiMagic throne]] and leaves her powerless, leaving her vastly outnumbered against the combined forces of Starlight Glimmer, Discord, the Mane Six, the Alicorn Princesses, and their allies that are all glaring down at her. What's more, the transformed Thorax and his Changelings are now willing to fight back should she show up again.
** The setup for Season 9's conflict has her gang-pressed into the service of a vastly more powerful villain. She's ordered around, physically beaten up and cowed into submission the same way she treated her own hive.
** In the series finale, [[spoiler:her former subjects come to the aid of the Mane 6 and use their powers to confuse her (along with Tirek and Cozy) to allow the real group time to regroup and allowing Twilight to realize how to defeat them. Ultimately she is petrified along with Tirek and Cozy Glow, and Discord remarks that they'd all hate that more than anything]].
* LaughingMad: Has a crazy sounding laugh after losing most of her hive.
* LeaderWannabe: In "Frenemies", she attempts to assume command of Grogar's LegionOfDoom.
* LeanAndMean: Is considerably more spindly than an Alicorn.
* LetsYouAndHimFight: This is the main reason she taunts Twilight Sparkle right after she imprisons her in the Canterlot Caves right next to the real Princess Cadance; Chrysalis was hoping for a fight between them. It almost works, but Cadance uses a TrustPassword to convince Twilight that she's the real deal.
* ManipulativeBitch:
** She gleefully points out in her VillainSong that she fooled ''everyone''.
** Her backstory in ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' #5 shows her quite skilled at the art of verbally luring her foes into traps, aided with a bit of HypnoticEyes if just to push them in the right direction.
** Season 6 reveals that she has been deliberately misleading her people to further her own goals, leaving them literally starving for love. This later bites her in the flank when Thorax and Starlight Glimmer make the changelings see through her deceptions.

** A chrysalis is the hard shell that envelops a caterpillar before they become a butterfly and Chrysalis, like all the other changelings, is a bug-like pony creature. On top of that, the fake Cadance is exactly that: the shell that hides her true form. She and her subjects also imprison ponies in giant green cocoons.
** Her name takes on a darker meaning once it's revealed that her methods were keeping the Changelings from reaching their final form. The race as a whole couldn't move forward until they [[{{Pun}} shed Chrysalis]].
* MeaninglessVillainVictory: In "The Mean 6", [[spoiler:she discovers the location of the Tree of Harmony. The Tree's destruction in "The Beginning of the End" and rebirth in "Uprooted" nullifies any advantage this may have gotten her]].
* MorphicResonance:
** Even when in a shapeshifted form, she seems to keep the SicklyGreenGlow of her magic.
** Her photographer disguise in "The Mean 6" also has a strand of hair that falls across her face.
** In "Frenemies", her cragadile, goat and ophiotaurus forms, all retain her distinctive blue-green eye color (and the goat form has the same hair strand). While this is absent in her ursa form, several of its component stars shine the same color as her eyes. Only her roc form doesn't bear any signs of her usual appearance.
* MusicalSpoiler: Very, very subtle one only a trained ear could catch. The song "B.B.B.B.F. Reprise" ends in a UsefulNotes/DeceptiveCadence. The moment the song ends, "Cadance" walks over and appears to comfort Twilight before showing her true colors. The original song ends in an UsefulNotes/AuthenticCadence.
* {{Narcissist}}: Deeply arrogant and full of herself. Even after she is cast out by her former minions, she still stubbornly refers to herself as a "queen", despite having no kingdom to rule anymore.
* NearVillainVictory: On two occasions.
** In "A Canterlot Wedding", she succeeds in mesmerizing Shining Armor, and uses the power of his love to overpower Princess Celestia herself. Her hive then invades Canterlot, successfully preventing the Mane Six from reaching the Elements of Harmony. But her victory is short lived, as Twilight frees Cadance while Chrysalis is busy gloating. Cadance uses her love to free Shining Armor from Chrysalis's influence, and together, they are able to force Chrysalis and her hive out of Canterlot.
** In "To Where And Back Again", Chrysalis and her hive succeed in capturing the Mane Six, the royal family, and even Discord, leaving only Starlight Glimmer and Thorax left. With Chrysalis's AntiMagic throne nullifying her powers, Starlight is helpless, and Chrysalis starts to devour all the love within Thorax, which would make her even stronger. It is at that moment that Starlight gets the idea to tell Thorax to share the love within him. This results in Thorax overpowering Chrysalis and transforming into a new, stronger form. With Starlight's prompting, the other changelings follow suit, rejecting Chrysalis in favor of Thorax, and forcing her to flee.
* NeverMyFault: All of her defeats come about from either underestimating her enemies or mistreating her minions, but she never recognizes these faults as her own, and instead blames the heroes for beating her and her minions for not living up to her expectations.
-->'''Chrysalis:''' Servants ''always'' fail you in the end!
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** A throwaway gag in the ''Friends Forever'' comics shows that Chrysalis has started a petition to have herself added to a Mount Rushmore-esque sculpture featuring the princesses. She's the only one who's signed it.
** In ''Frenemies'', she agrees to attend the villain meeting when she hears there will be cupcakes.
* NotSoDifferent: Starlight Glimmer notes how she and Chrysalis are not all that different in how they tried to rule over their own subjects. Indeed, both of them kept others in line by denying them a part of their true forms and by brutally dealing with any dissenters or traitors. Starlight even offers Chrysalis a redemption at the end, knowing that when she rejected the same offer, terrible things happened. Unfortunately, Chrysalis ended up acting exactly like Starlight in the same situation, rejecting the offer and running off much to Starlight's dismay.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: She seeks conquest of Equestria with the justification of finding a source of power for her subjects to feed on, but it's made painfully obvious, due to her remorseless sadism when attacking Canterlot and her actions in the season 6 finale, that she just wants the power that comes with it.

** Her reaction to realizing that a HeartBeatDown is about to hit her head on.
** Gets this again in the comics once she realizes that Twilight is just as empowered by the comet as she herself is.
** In the comic story ''The Siege of the Crystal Empire'', she reacts with this when finding out [[spoiler:the real plan was to free the Umbrum.]]
** In "To Where and Back Again", she has this again when her hive transforming causes her throne to be destroyed, along with the throne room itself. She has a bigger one when she erupts from its ruins, hissing and ready for a fight... only to be faced with all the ponies she captured who have now been freed, including all five Alicorn Princesses, the Elements of Harmony, the Master of Chaos, her freshly redeemed (former) subjects, and the now Changeling King Thorax.
** [[spoiler:She has this look in "The Mean 6", when Mean Twilight is overpowering her in their clash of magic.]]
** [[spoiler:In the finale, where everypony lends their friendship to power the Mane Six.]]
* PetTheDog:
** In the comics, Queen Chrysalis seems to be on good terms with her changeling subjects, and even shares a laugh with them (albeit at the misfortune of their enemies) now and then. Granted, these ''are'' her minions, who delight in preying on others as much as ''she'' does... though she's completely willing to [[YouHaveFailedMe dunk a changeling that almost got them all killed]] [[KillItWithFire into a lava pit.]] She claims they survived, most likely.
** In "The Beginning of the End - Part 1", she expresses concern when Grogar berates Cozy Glow for not knowing his name. And in "Frenemies", she catches Cozy Glow when the latter is blown away by wind.
** In "The Summer Sun Setback", she smiles warmly at the sight of Cozy Glow happily resting in Tirek's arms.
* PhysicalGoddess: Notably the first BigBad-level villain to not be a god already, but becomes as powerful as one by the end of her first appearance. The comics indicate her usual level of power is close to Twilight's, which is still rather formidable, and ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' shows that Celestia defeated Chrysalis in a straight fight at some point in the past.
* PityTheKidnapper: In the comics, she kidnaps the Cutie Mark Crusaders in order to lure the Mane Cast into her trap. They proceed to annoy her such she uses that as prompt to get the Mane Cast to hurry because she doesn't know how much more she can take. By the time they reach her, she's near her breaking point.
* PowerEchoes: After assuming her true form, there's a slight echo to her voice in "A Canterlot Wedding". Though she loses it subsequent speaking roles afterwards.
* PragmaticVillainy:
** In the comics, even she thinks [[spoiler:releasing the Umbrum is a bad idea]], because they would [[HopeCrusher destroy the emotions]] changelings feed on.
** In "The Mean 6", [[spoiler:when Mean Twilight asks Chrysalis why she didn't just attack her enemies when she was close to them, Chrysalis responds that the Mane Six and their allies have defeated the entire changeling army in the past. Even if Chrysalis had the element of surprise, fighting the Mane Six and Starlight Glimmer alone was likely going to end badly]].
** In "Frenemies", she reveals that she coccoons her victims because she doesn't drain all of their love in one go, instead prefering to leave some left for the following day.
* PunchClockVillain: Played with. Chrysalis mentions that everything she has done is just part of her duty as changeling Queen to feed her people. Still, she enjoys making others suffer and sacking Canterlot ''far'' too much. The comics further subvert this trope, revealing that Queen Chrysalis has a vengeful and sadistic streak that has nothing to do with serving her subjects. And "To Where and Back Again" subverts this -- she's been deliberately starving her subjects all along; the true way for them to be nourished involves sharing love, whereas the EmotionEater method has only been to [[ItsAllAboutMe her]] benefit.
* Really700YearsOld: The ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' comics reveal she's over a thousand years old. Unlike most other antagonists from back then, though, she seems to have actually lived through all that time.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Chrysalis gleefully points out how gullible the ponies were to her manipulation in "A Canterlot Wedding", that they were all to busy preparing for the event they never noticed what she was planning. She also points out Twilight was the only one who realized something was wrong, and that if they had only listened to her, they wouldn't be in their predicament.
* RedemptionRejection:
** At the end of "To Where and Back Again", she's offered the chance to redeem herself by Starlight Glimmer, and share love rather than steal it. Chrysalis briefly considers it, but refuses, slapping away Starlight's hoof and vowing vengeance.
** In "Frenemies," [[spoiler:she briefly remarks how GoodFeelsGood when she has to work with Tirek and Cozy Glow. However, when Chrysalis realizes what's going on, she lets out a BigNo and declares that friendship is "a disease"]].
* TheRemnant: She becomes this after being ousted by Thorax and having the rest of the Changelings revolt against her.
* {{Revenge}}:
** In "To Where and Back Again", she is seeking vengeance on ponykind for her defeat the first time she invaded, with her main targets being the Royal Family and the Mane Six since they were responsible for it. At the end, she vows revenge once more for losing her kingdom, her subjects, and her revenge on the Royal Family and Mane Six after being the only Changeling to refuse redemption, with her new target being Starlight Glimmer, the one responsible for her defeat this time.
** She attempts to carry out her revenge in "The Mean 6", [[spoiler:creating copies of the Mane Six in hopes of having them steal the Elements of Harmony and using them to destroy the Mane Six while Starlight watches -- then destroy her, too]].
** If you count the comics, ''Return of Queen Chrysalis'' was her attempt for said wedding defeat the first time.
** In "The Ending of the End - Part 1", [[spoiler:Chrysalis goes after Starlight, defeating her in battle. She then captures her, intending to prolong her revenge as much as possible]].
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: It's her duty to provide [[EmotionEater food sources]] for her people, and she single-handedly makes it possible for the changelings to invade Equestria. Ironically, her duty comes back to bite her in the flank when she reveals she has been starving them on purpose for her own schemes.
* {{Sadist}}:
** While she has some degree of responsibility for her swarm, she clearly gets a kick out of the suffering she causes, to the point of looking at her army attacking Canterlot and stating it's something she's dreamed of (since she was a child, no less).
** [[spoiler:In the season 9 finale, she is shown to be the most sadistic of the Legion of Doom, preferring to torment their prisoners and make everypony watch their heroes become broken rather than destroying them outright like Cozy and Tirek want. She is also the only one who wants the Windigos to stay so that they can "save the day" after the land becomes a frozen wasteland, basically wanting them to suffer until they beg for her rule.]]
* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:She has slowly lost her mind while she has been alone in exile, and she wasn't exactly all there to begin with. She has a conversation with herself while talking to inanimate pictures she took of the Mane Six, just to rant about her evil plan and declare how she will have her revenge. "The Beginning of the End – Part 1" shows that she's gotten even worse since then, carving images of unreformed changelings onto logs and ranting madly to them about how she will have her revenge on Twilight and her friends.]]
* SanityStrengthening: [[spoiler:Following her recruitment into Grogar's LegionOfDoom. While she can't stand any of them, having others to talk to and interact with has gone a long way toward restoring her to her previous levels of sanity.]]
* SmallNameBigEgo: She continues to boast that she is Queen of the Changelings long after she was overthrown from the position and exiled by her race. She brings up her title several times to the Legion of Doom, either to complain to Grogar about the lack of action or to boast of how superior she is to the other members, even though it has no authority to it by that point and the other villains don't ''care'' about what title she does or doesn't have.
* SmugSnake: Again, her FatalFlaw is her {{Pride}}.
** Her plan in Season 2 is certainly a good one and she competently carries it out. Still, her impatience and vanity are established early on. She is too distracted by the sight of her victorious forces to care about the heroes she feels are already beaten. [[HeroicSecondWind She's]] [[HeartBeatdown wrong]]. She also messes up when she sends Twilight Sparkle to the same caverns where she imprisoned Cadance (allowing the former to rescue the latter). To top that, she retains her arrogant mannerisms even when impersonating Cadance, which is what tips Twilight off in the first place. In the comics, for all of her planning, she didn't bother to consider that Twilight's magic would be powered up by the comet just like her own... or that Twilight's ensuing destructive potential could exceed her own.
** Happens again in "To Where and Back Again" when she pretty much had planned ahead for her revenge against the Mane Six and Royal Family, and felt that with her PowerNullifier throne keeping them powerless, along with anyone who tried to rescue them, she feels her victory is assured this time, and moves to drain Thorax of all his love energy by force. Thanks to Starlight reminding him of giving it of his own free will, this ends up costing Chrysalis everything but her life, including her throne, the Swarm, her hostages in the Mane Six and the Royal Family, and her revenge.
* TheSociopath: Is one of the biggest in the series, sharing the title with Cozy Glow. While she can feed off of love, she herself seems incapable of feeling it and outright admits there's no love in her heart (something she'd also said in her VillainSong). She's also a ManipulativeBitch, impatient, impulsive and narcissistic. The comics further this by showing her destroy entire civilizations and [[WouldHurtAChild threaten children]] with amusement, switch between this and a more comedic mood with little provocation, and [[NeverMyFault constantly fail to acknowledge or learn from her mistakes]]. This ends up costing her everything but her life in the Season 6 finale.
* TheStarscream: [[spoiler:At the end of "Frenemies", she and the other members of the LegionOfDoom agree to keep Grogar's bell for themselves and plot against him.]]
* SuperMode: [[spoiler:Upon absorbing Grogar's bell's magic, she gains a new, powered up transformation to go with Cozy Glow's Alicorn form and Tirek's upgraded form. She gains extra armor on her hooves and torso, her wings and crown get bigger, and her eyes and the tip of her horn turn bright green.]]
* SweetTooth: In Season 9, Cozy Glow manages to bribe Chrysalis into joining a teamwork meeting with the promise of cupcakes. In the very next scene, we see Chrysalis gleefully munching one.
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:Her ultimate fate, along with Tirek and Cozy Glow. Even though Chrysalis [[DefiantToTheEnd tries to lash out one last time at the heroes]], she can't escape the petrification spell, and is turned into a statue.]]
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Her alliance with the other members of the LegionOfDoom 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.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: When she gets into a BeamOWar with Celestia, she cringes in preparation of being fried, and is just as surprised as everpony else when she wins. ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' makes this even more justified; she's ''been'' on the receiving end of Celestia's beams in the past, which is why she and the other changelings have their [[ScarsAreForever holey, melted looking forms]].
* TimedPowerUp: Seems to be how her love drain works as opposed to Tirek's ManaDrain that seems to provide a permanent power boost. While absorbing Shining's love did give her a huge, godly power boost... by the time she met Twilight again in the comics, it was already gone, and her power had been reduced to what seems to be her default state (around Twilight's level of strength). [[spoiler:In Season 8, she slowly finds herself on the losing end of a BeamOWar with Mean Twilight (who at best couldn't be any stronger than Alicorn Twilight) and would have been defeated if the Tree of Harmony hadn't reacted]].
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The tomboy to Cozy Glow's girly girl. Cozy gets what she wants via [[TheFakeCutie faked kindness]], whereas Chrysalis prefers direct confrontation if she can't get it through manipulation.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: In the S9 finale, [[spoiler: when the villains have all Equesteria's heroes except for Twilight at their mercy. Tirek is quick to point out that they should find Twilight, knowing that she is still a threat. Chrysalis is the one to reject it, claiming that Twilight can't do anything on her own. Naturally this backfires when her friends manage to reunite with her and lead into the events of the climax and in turn, their final defeat. ''Partially'' justified since Twilight (mostly) wasn't responsible for her previous defeats.]]
* UnexplainedRecovery: In "To Where and Back Again -- Part 2", Chrysalis loses her crown when her throne is destroyed, and flees her former kingdom soon after. When she returns in "The Mean 6", the crown is back on her head, with no explanation for how she recovered it.
* UnreliableExpositor: Chrysalis's account of her and her races' origins has the PlotHole of how she would know what happened before being "born". It's possible the flashback is only experienced by readers (it's the only one without narration) and/or she was lying about their being MadeOfEvil to mock Twilight Sparkle's attempts to reform her.
* TheVamp: Poor Shining Armor was wrapped around her hoof because of brainwashing. In the comics, devastated the city of Trot at least partially by doing the same to Emperor Incitatus.
* VampireMonarch: Queen of a race of {{Emotion Eater}}s who specialize in VampiricDraining.
* VerbalTic: When disguised as Cadance, she tends to give an "Ah-huh" when annoyed or unimpressed.
* VillainBall:
** Right after she convinced everypony of Twilight Sparkle's suspicions of "Cadance" [[MadeOutToBeAJerkass was merely her being jealous]], her response to Twilight's apologies was to trap her in a cave with the real Cadance and sic them on each other. This proves her evilness and put the two ponies who would wreck her plan back into play, which she could have avoided by making nice to or ignoring Twilight onward.
** In the comics, Chrysalis forced Twilight to agree to teach her powerful magics by holding her friends hostage, and was about to brainwash her into being genuinely loyal. Too bad she gloated she was going to sic Twilight on her friends during said brainwashing, cue Twilight fighting it off and delivering a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown.
** In "To Where and Back Again", Chrysalis has already pretty much won. She has the Mane Six, the Royal Family, and the Master of Chaos as her trophies, cocooned on the ceiling of her throne room, home to her PowerNullifier throne, spies in Canterlot, Ponyville, and the Crystal Empire disguised as said captives, feeding on the love for them from the citizens, captured their ragtag rescue party, and prepares to drain Thorax of his love energy. She doesn't expect Thorax giving her his love energy of his own free will to lead her Swarm into following suit, resulting in the destruction of her throne, freedom of her hostages, and costing her everything but her very life, including her revenge, which was the main reason for her return in the first place. She does not take this very well.
** She also didn't think replacing Starlight with one of her servants was even worth the effort. That oversight led to her plan falling apart, as Starlight was able to convince the changelings to follow Thorax's example, costing Chrysalis control over her hive.
** If Chrysalis had actually taken the time to actually try Thorax's example of sharing love, she most likely would've remained Queen of the Changelings. Alas, as per usual Chrysalis chose evil over doing the smart and reasonable thing and branded Thorax a traitor. Thorax returns, Chrysalis is defeated, her revenge plot against the Royal Family and the Mane Six goes up in smoke, and the Changelings turn wise to her deception and side with Thorax. Chrysalis is ousted as the queen and lost everything except her life.
** In the "Ending of the End" finale, [[spoiler:when the Windigos start to appear due to the distrust she helped sow in the pony species, she ''wanted'' them to stick around so that she could use her power to save the creatures of Equestria and be branded a "hero" for doing so. Both Tirek and Cozy are ''completely'' against the idea and want them gone before they become a threat. Luckily the heroes managing to counter and redirecting the three attention prevents her from following through on this]].
* VillainDecay:
** She starts out as a major threat, with her first two major appearances in the show being her [[NearVillainVictory coming within a hair's breath of winning and conquering Equestria]], and she actually succeeded in one BadFuture during the season 5 finale. But by the end of "To Where And Back Again – Part 2" she has lost her entire army and has become an exile of her own race. [[spoiler:Her appearance in "The Mean 6" shows she has started to [[SanitySlippage lose her mind]], talking to herself and planning her revenge on the Mane Six and Starlight. Her plan to take the Elements of Harmony for herself with clones of the Mane Six completely fails when her imperfect clones betray her and are destroyed by the elements, and by not understanding how the elements work her plan was effectively doomed from the start. Neither she nor the Mane Six even realize that they are in the same area and completely miss running into each other, so her plan really just ended up being a small inconvenience for the Mane Six that brought them even closer together. Her only consolation prize is that she figures out where the Elements are being kept]].
** {{Inverted}} in "Frenemies". After spending her last few appearances on the back hoof with her army gone, reduced to an fugitive with a questionable loss of sanity, [[spoiler:nearly being overpowered by Mean Twilight, and being brought into Grogar's service]], she gets a chance to shine with showing off her shapeshifting abilities.
** Completely thrown off in the series finale where [[spoiler:she and the other members of the LegionOfDoom successfully backstab Grogar/Discord to become the {{Final Boss}}es, and frighteningly competent ones at that]].
* VillainExitStageLeft:
** In "To Where and Back Again", when Chrysalis is defeated and Starlight offers her a second chance, she rejects it, swears revenge, and runs away.
** In "The Mean 6", [[spoiler:when the titular clones she creates are destroyed by the Tree of Harmony and her plans ruined, she once again swears revenge and flees, without the Mane Six even knowing she was still out there.]]
* VillainousAromanticAsexual: Despite being as close to a [[HornyDevils succubus]] as a G-rated cartoon will allow, she views ThePowerOfLove as strictly a source of power to make her stronger and balks at the idea of even so much as giving friendship a try. She actually seems completely incapable of actually befriending or falling in love with anyone or anything, and instead operates by either assuming the form of someone's ideal romantic partner, whether they exist or not, and then [[VampiricDraining sucking them dry]] when they love her without so much as a shred of reciprocating their feelings. Even when it's made explicitly clear to her, on numerous occasions, that genuinely loving someone would make her far more powerful than her one-sided love stealing she [[EvilCannotComprehendGood simply cannot comprehend the idea]].
* VillainousBreakdown:
** In the comics. When being overwhelmed by Twilight Sparkle's comet-enhanced powers, she's reduced to a dazed, stammering wreck who's trying desperately to [[BreakThemByTalking convince her foe that she's unbeatable]]. To add insult to injury, she's practically on the verge of defeat, so said argument has been proven invalid by this point.
** Once she loses her throne, swarm, hostages in the Mane Six and the Royal Family, and pretty much her revenge against them thanks to Starlight Glimmer and the new Changeling King Thorax, she is livid and swears a new vendetta against Starlight for ruining her revenge plot before making good on her escape.
** [[spoiler:In the finale, after everypony lends the Magic of Friendship to the Mane Six to defeat her, Tirek and Cozy Glow (despite trying to turn ponies against each other), she screams that she doesn't care how strong their friendship is, they'll ''never'' stop trying to take over Equestria.]]
* VillainousBSOD: She doesn't seem to have taken the above well, judging by the insane scrawlings in the castle she was temporarily imprisoned in. [[spoiler:Subverted, while Chrysalis is violently focused on Twilight, she hasn't lost her mind at all, and it was an act to manipulate Twilight into letting her and her minions escape.]]
* VillainousFriendship: In "Frenemies", she proves capable of bonding with Cozy Glow and Tirek over their shared hatred of the heroes (although she quickly shakes off the idea of actually becoming friends, instead favoring a temporary alliance until they can overthrow Grogar).
* VillainSong: Her half of "This Day Aria" is her gloating about the imminent success of her EvilPlan and how she cares nothing for "her" groom. There's a DarkReprise later focusing on her true motives.
* VillainTeamUp: She has been involved in several:
** In the comics' "Siege of the Crystal Empire" storyline, she agrees to work with the Flim-Flam Brothers, Iron Will and the resurrected King Sombra. Ultimately, she balks at the alliance when she realises it will lead to [[spoiler:the release of the Umbrum]].
** In season 9, Grogar forces her, Lord Tirek and Cozy Glow to work together to defeat the Mane Six.
** In the ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyTransformersFriendshipInDisguise'' {{Crossover}}, she joins forces with Megatron and the Decepticons after her attempt to summon changelings from other realms accidentally brings the Autobots and Decepticons to Equestria.
* VirtueIsWeakness:
** She laughs at the idea of actually loving someone.
** In "Frenemies", she voices the opinion that the magic of friendship is "like a disease", and refuses to let it "infect" her.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: In her first appearance her voice was underscored by a subtle, insectoid buzzing. However, this was removed in all subsequent appearances.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Like all changelings, but she comes with a dramatic TransformationSequence.
* WeCanRuleTogether: Tries to pull this on Twilight in the comics. It doesn't work. It should be noted that Chrysalis planned to drain Twilight's love to make her a willing servant, which is more thought-out than most instances of the trope.
* WeWillMeetAgain: After her defeat in "To Where and Back Again", Chrysalis flees into the desert, vowing to one day come back to exact her vengeance on Starlight for taking her hive from her. [[spoiler:She tries to make good on this promise in Season 8 but fails, and once again seeks her vengeance before fleeing.]]

** In the comics, she makes it very clear that once she doesn't need the Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore, she does ''not'' plan on letting them go...
** In the show's season 6 finale she has her changelings kidnap Spike and Flurry Heart, both of whom are babies.
** [[spoiler: She threatens to tear Spike's wings off in order to make the Mane Six stand down. She and the rest of the Legion attempt to kill him alongside the Mane Six anyway.]]
* XanatosSpeedChess: While most of her plan was likely formulated from the get go, she's able to work things she didn't expect (such as Twilight catching on and accusing her) into it and twist them to her advantage (use a WoundedGazelleGambit to turn ''everyone'' against Twilight in a single move).

[[folder:King Sombra]]
[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mlp_resource__king_sombra_01_by_zutheskunk-_837.png]]
[[caption-width-right:252:[-King Sombra in his pony form.-] ]]
[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/king_sombra__s_shadow_by_fercho262-d5kfka0_5042.png]]
[[caption-width-right:252:[-King Sombra in his shadow form.-]]]
->''"Long live the king."''

->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 The Crystal Empire – Part 1]]"

->'''Voiced by:''' Jim Miller[[note]]according to [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim tweets]] by Jim Miller[[/note]] ("[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E2TheCrystalEmpirePart2 The Crystal Empire – Part 2]]"), Alvin Sanders ("The Beginning of the End")

A snarling, black-hearted unicorn king who ruled over the Crystal Empire and enslaved its inhabitants long ago. Celestia and Luna banished him and turned him into a living shadow, but not before he hid the Crystal Heart that protected the empire and caused it to vanish with him. After a thousand years, Sombra returns with plans to continue what he started.

In the tie-in comics by IDW, King Sombra is given a radically different backstory, motivation, and personality, that the show ignored when bringing him back in Season 9. For information about Sombra as he's depicted in the comics, see Characters/FriendshipIsMagicExpandedUniverse.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the lengths he goes to maintain control of the Crystal Empire condemns its inhabitants to a life of never-ending misery and he [[MindRape makes them unable to remember anything about life before his reign]], yeah that's inevitable.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom: He ''is'' one in "The Crystal Empire", continuously advancing towards the empire he once ruled.
* AlmightyIdiot: His shadow form, while very huge, powerful, fluid, and able to spread with only a single fragment of his horn, is only capable of speaking short sentences and phrases and charging forward, in contrast to the highly-prepared sorcerer he once was. But still downplayed in that he still shows signs of ItCanThink -- e.g.: singling out [[BarrierWarrior Shining Armor]] for some PowerNullifier crystals, waiting for [[BarrierMaiden Cadance]] to run out of stamina, activating his final trap once Twilight's presence signals him, etc.
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Out of all of Grogar's LegionOfDoom, Sombra seems to easily be the one with the most powerful (innate, unaugmented) abilities. Yet as powerful as his magic is, he doesn't even register as an annoyance against Discord, who's essentially a PhysicalGod. [[spoiler:Until he manages to catch Discord off-guard by forcing him into TakingTheBullet for Fluttershy. Only it turns out Discord was faking being injured from that as well.]]
* AndIMustScream: Been on both ends of it. Celestia and Luna inflicted this upon him by turning him to living shadow and sealing him in ice for a thousand years. This was because his reign over the Crystal Ponies amounted to this for the poor things.
* AnimalisticAbomination: Sombra's pony form has charcoal grey fur with [[SupernaturalFloatingHair an ethereal black mane and tail]], no Cutie Mark, an upward-curved red horn, red eyes with [[HellishPupils rhombus-shaped pupils]], and fangs. He can also turn into living darkness at will, spawn jagged black and red crystals, and can MindRape others into being his slaves by forcing them to witness their greatest fears.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: While not a literal example like Discord, both his role in the episode and [=McCarthy=]'s description of the character make him out as more of a living embodiment of Fear rather than a pony.
* TheArchMage: He seems to be this considering the traps he set up. "The Beginning of the End" also shows him to have pretty high levels of power in direct combat, too.
* ArcVillain: Of "The Crystal Empire" and "The Beginning of the End".
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: He's so powerful that he ruled the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof because the Crystal Ponies were too terrified of him to challenge his reign.
* BackFromTheDead: He's revived by Grogar's magic. It doesn't stick; Sombra eventually gets ReducedToDust thanks to the Magic of Friendship used by the Mane Six, and this time, [[DeaderThanDead he doesn't come back]].
* BadPowersBadPeople: He uses dark unicorn magic powered by hatred and fear. To no one's surprise, he's an EvilOverlord. A major part of his characterization in the comics, where he invokes this. He's literally MadeOfEvil, so being a bad person is pretty much the only option for him.
* BigBadWannabe: He ultimately serves as this during "The Beginning of the End". Sombra does manage to accomplish quite a bit -- he [[spoiler:destroys the Elements of Harmony and the Tree of Harmony with his dark crystals]], and manages to conquer both the Crystal Empire and Canterlot with little effort. However, it's made clear that Discord could have beaten Sombra any time he wanted, and the only reason Discord held back was to prove a point. By the end of the episode, Sombra ends up DeaderThanDead, ReducedToDust by the Mane Six and their Magic of Friendship. Grogar predicted this would happen, and uses Sombra's failure as a warning to the rest of his LegionOfDoom not to go against his plan, ultimately making Sombra nothing more than an [[MakeAnExampleOfThem example]]. [[spoiler:Even Sombra's destruction of the Tree of Harmony only helped to make it stronger come "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E3Uprooted Uprooted]]", where it grows into the Treehouse of Harmony thanks to the Young Six. This ultimately means Sombra's attempt to TakeOverTheWorld actually made things worse for the bad guys.]]
* BigEntrance: Sombra ''really'' knows how to make a dramatic entrance, as shown in pretty much every one of his appearances.
* BigNo: Twice during "The Beginning of the End".
** In Part 1, he yells this when Cadance recovers the Crystal Heart.
** In Part 2, it's the last thing he says before being vaporized by the magic of friendship.
* BizarreTasteInFood: After brainwashing the Cakes, he has them bake him a black licorice fruitcake to celebrate his conquest of Equestria. Pinkie despairs that it's the worst cake she's ever seen.
* BlackMagic: His magic generates black crystals, and is powered by hatred and fear.
* BondVillainStupidity: Twice in "The Beginning of the End -- Part 2".
** He traps the Mane Six in a ring of crystals, but intentionally passes up the chance to turn them into his brainwashed slaves, preferring instead to leave them with their "greatest fear" of him conquering Ponyville. This gives the Mane Six the chance to escape and ultimately defeat him.
** After seemingly wounding Discord, he simply stands there and mocks the Mane Six as they tend to him, rather than take the opportunity to attack them while they're distracted.
* CanonDiscontinuity: His return in season 9 invoked this on his appearances in the comics, which brought him back much earlier, and took him in a ''very'' different direction.
* CastingAShadow:
** He was turned to shadow by Celestia and Luna when he was defeated the first time. He took the form of a giant, amorphous shadow being upon his return.
** His magic is explicitly stated to be dark and malevolent in nature. He can cast spells that make people see their worst fear, trap people with dark crystals, and brainwash people into slavery with corrupting armor.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In his vastly expanded screentime in "The Beginning of the End", King Sombra is characterized as being more pompous and self-indulgent than he was in "The Crystal Empire", where he was more creepy and far less talkative.
* TheChessmaster:
** The steps he took to keep the Crystal Heart from being found in the first place imply that he considered ponies of ''all'' races to be able to find it. In fact, most of the threat that he poses is a result of his actions ''before'' the episode even started.
** In "The Beginning of the End", he weaves a fairly complex plan for taking out the Bearers. His conquest of the Crystal Empire is a feint -- by taking over the Empire, he draws the Bearers into taking the Elements and coming to obliterate him, obfuscating his true goal and letting himself lose their encounter in order to make them think they have won and let their guard down. When the main characters think they have defeated him, [[spoiler:he follows them to the Tree of Harmony, destroys the Elements at their source, and takes out the chief threat to his conquest of Equestria.]] His plan relies heavily on the main characters behaving as he predicted and tricking them into thinking that they actually defeated him the first time -- and it works.
* ColdHam: Despite his minor screentime and lines and his seriousness, his dragon-like roars and EvilLaugh still give him some flair; and just look at his RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver motif. Very apparent in his comic book appearances, where rage is pretty much the only emotion he can reliably express; normally he's pretty morose, delivering hammy lines with little real enthusiasm.
* CoolCrown: He is a king, after all, so it's only natural he has one.
* TheCorruption: Contact with him sealed off Shining Armor's magic. Later, when a fragment of his own horn is cut off and lands inside the barrier, he uses it to spread a plague of dark crystals over the Crystal Empire despite being unable to enter himself. The sole purpose of his dark magic seems to be corrupting and controlling the [[MineralMacGuffin crystals]] of the Crystal Empire.
* CrazyPrepared: He doesn't actually do much in "The Crystal Empire", because he doesn't need to -- he pre-emptively took great measures to make sure nopony could find the Crystal Heart. The Heart was hidden in a room atop his castle, which the Crystal Ponies were afraid to enter, and the Heart was rigged with an alarm that immediately alerted Sombra if anypony approached it. And then, getting to the room with the Heart requires climbing an impossibly-long staircase that would take hours to summit, the door to the staircase is protected by an illusion spell that shows anypony who tries to step through it a vision of their worst fear instead of letting them pass through, ''and'' the passage to the door is hidden by another illusion spell that can only be dispelled with Sombra's brand of BlackMagic, which is very dangerous and very difficult for anypony else to try conjuring. Finally, he erased all memory of the Crystal Heart's existence from the minds of the Crystal Ponies and destroyed any written records of its existence.
* CreatorCameo: His few lines [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/267356800981008384 and other noises]] were provided by storyboard supervisor "Big" Jim Miller in "The Crystal Empire".
* CursedWithAwesome: Played with. Turning him into living darkness was Celestia and Luna's doing, though whether he's more powerful in this form than in his true form is anyone's guess. On one hand, he's less of a flesh-and-blood pony and more of a malevolent force of nature, which makes him much harder to fight directly. On the other hand, he's little more than a beast in shadow form while his CrazyPrepared status suggests he was far more intelligent before.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a dark shadow cloud and TheDreaded.
* TheDarkTimes: His rule over the Crystal Ponies, as explained by Celestia, is outright slavery (see his above quote). Even after being freed, the Crystal Ponies shudder in fear at the memory of his rule.
* DeaderThanDead: His second death in "The Beginning of the End". While he was broken apart into pieces by the Crystal Heart in his first appearance, the second time sees [[https://derpibooru.org/2004578 the Mane Six using the Magic of Friendship to obliterate Sombra]] so thoroughly that he's ReducedToDust. He never appeared in the series again after this happened, making him gone for good with no chance of resurrection.
* DeathByIrony: He ends his first appearance by being obliterated by his former slave race.
* DeathCryEcho: Instead of the BigNo previous villains were accustomed to using.
* DeathGlare: He has one so terrifying that the Crystal Ponies shudder just thinking about it.
* DemotedToDragon: Defied in Season 9, where he refuses to work for Grogar and runs off to fight Equestria on his own.
* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: Unlike Discord, he sees his victims as slaves instead of playthings and goes to great lengths to maintain control of the Crystal Empire and keep the Crystal Ponies under his hoof through fear and dark magic.
* DidntSeeThatComing: What repeatedly spoils Sombra's plans is that he overlooked a small detail that unravels everything.
** In "Return of the Crystal Empire", his traps only seemed to account for somepony coming to look for the Crystal Heart alone. Because Spike accompanies Twilight, he's first able to snap her out of Sombra's illusion spell, and then when she's trapped by Sombra's Crystals, she's able to pass the Crystal Heart to Spike so he can get it to Cadance.
** In "The Beginning of the End", Sombra seemingly predated the Elements of Harmony, or at least doesn't know the Mane Six are their wielders. He thinks that because the Crystal Heart is under his control, nothing can hope to stop him, and then the Mane Six storm in with the Elements and blast him. [[spoiler:While he makes a comeback by destroying the Elements and the Tree of Harmony, he doesn't realize the six ''embody'' the virtues of the Elements and don't need the gemstones themselves to call on their power, which they do to destroy him a second time.]]
* DiscOneFinalBoss: He sets up as this for the final season, as he's the first villain the Mane Six have to face before [[LegionOfDoom Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow]].
* TheDreaded: The Crystal Ponies don't ''want'' to remember his rule, and shudder in fear at the thought of it. [[spoiler:This is why he hid the Crystal Heart in his palace; he knew they'd be too afraid of him to look for it there.]]
* ErmineCapeEffect: When he was in his physical form, he wore a red ermine-trimmed cape.
* EvilCounterpart:
** To the Crystal Heart (and thus Cadance). He's a being of shadow whose magic is fueled by ThePowerOfHate and fear while the Crystal Heart is powered by the light, love, and hope of the Crystal Empire.
** "The Cutie Re-Mark" plays him up as one to Celestia in his timeline. They're the leaders of their respective nations in the war for Equestria, [[LargeAndInCharge they both tower over their subjects]], he's dark and male where she's light and female, he's a cruel, merciless tyrant where she's a benevolent and compassionate leader, he seeks to enslave Equestria while Celestia fights to keep this from happening and they're the most powerful fighters and magic-users in their respective sides.
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: He has a sharp, curved, red horn that looks like a dagger, red eyes with slitted reptilian pupils, fangs, and an ethereal black mane. When using his magic, the sclera of his eyes turns from the standard white to an eerie glowing green with toxic purple mist wafting from them.
* EvilOverlord: This is what he was before Celestia and Luna overthrew him; a tyrannical slavemaster of the Crystal Empire.
* EvilPlan: He was banished from his domain and he's back to reclaim it and re-enslave the Crystal Ponies.
* EvilSorcerer: Has extremely powerful black magic.
* EvilSoundsDeep: The few times he speaks it is like this. (Unlike Discord, this is played completely straight.)
* EvilTastesGood: Licks his lips in anticipation of whatever he intended to do to Spike when he caught him.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Used his powers to convert the Crystal Castle into this during the peak of his villainy. And it remains his best weapon during his PresentAbsence, courtesy of [[spoiler:some tricky BlackMagic effects and traps that he preemptively rigged it with]].
* EyeMotifs: The imagery of Sombra's glowing green eyes is a recurring symbol of his. In his shadow form at first the only recognizable feature is his eyes (later he's able to form a proper head), when the Crystal Ponies try to remember their past and remember Sombra, they're shown to see a vision of his eyes, and those under the influence of his dark magic, either channelling it or being subject to his spells, have their own eyes glow green like his. In the BadFuture where he almost conquers Equestria, his brainwashed soldiers wear helmets that give them the same glow.
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath:
** He is [[LiterallyShatteredLives shattered to pieces]] in "The Crystal Empire". Even more shocking is if one looks closely, some parts of him ''hadn't'' turned to crystal. It's particularly noticeable in that he's the only villain aside from the Windigos to actually be destroyed and unlike with other villains of the show, nothing is said to imply that he's ''not'' dead, so we can assume he's KilledOffForReal. You can even see his severed horn flying toward the screen! WordOfGod confirms that he is dead.
** He's resurrected in "The Beginning of the End" by Grogar, but ends up getting killed again by the Mane Six wiping him out with the Magic of Friendship. This time, he vanishes into dust as he's hit with a WorldHealingWave and Grogar chooses not to resurrect him again.
* FamousLastWords:
-->'''Sombra:''' NO! This can't be possible! Your magic can't defeat mine!! [[spoiler:'''I DESTROYED THE SOURCE OF YOUR POWER!''']]\\
'''Twilight:''' You can't destroy our friendship, Sombra!\\
'''Rainbow:''' And we keep telling bad guys...\\
'''Applejack:''' But y'all just don’t seem to remember.\\
'''Mane Six:''' FRIENDSHIP ''IS'' MAGIC!!!\\
'''Sombra:''' '''''[[BigNO NOOOOOOOOOO!]]'''''
* FangsAreEvil: Even creepier because this guy is supposed to be a ''unicorn''.
* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}}. He's ''very'' confident in his abilities, spurning Grogar's offer of an alliance due to the belief that he can conquer Equestria on his own. While he comes close to succeeding, his refusal to take out the Mane Six when he has the opportunity (believing they're not a threat to him) ends up costing him dearly. When the Mane Six are seconds away from finishing him, he still rants about how their magic can't be a match for his, being completly unable to accept the truth.
* FisherKing: Under the influence of his dark magic, the sky turns dark and all the shiny crystals in the Empire turn jet black. In addition, his reign causes fear and hatred to resonate throughout all of Equestria, amplified by his dark crystals.
* FlatCharacter: In his Season 3 debut, he has only a handful of lines which are only a couple words each, leaving interpretation of his character down to reading through his actions. Averted with Season 9 bringing him back fully for its premiere and letting him show off his personality in full.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain:
** He is built up as being a huge threat to the Crystal Empire, and is also revealed to have [[spoiler:set up an intricate security system to prevent anypony from getting the Crystal Heart in the past]], but other than that, his characterization is nonexistent, especially in comparison to the show's other villains, and there is barely any backstory for him to speak of. This isn't helped by him [[TheSilentBob speaking very little]] and not having any meaningful interaction with the other characters and spends most of the two-parter as more of a wave of blackness rather than an actual character. The show treats him more like a powerful malevolent force than a character in his own right. According to WordOfGod, he was intended to be more of a menacing and terrifying presence lurking over everything. In other words, ''fear itself''.
** "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 1" builds on this a bit by showing a BadFuture where the Mane Six weren't around to stop his return, but this story that explicitly ranks the danger levels of the show's major villains still puts him at the very bottom... though only in the sense that his is the most "normal" world. In Sombra's future, Equestria is slowly being bled dry as Sombra's legions of slave warriors push on to conquer it as he conquered the Crystal Empire -- in contrast, Nightmare Moon has placed Equestria under TheNightThatNeverEnds and is implied to be slowly going ''insane'', Chrysalis has enslaved all ponies to use as food and forced the survivors to flee into the Everfree Forest, Discord has turned the world into {{Cloudcuckooland}} and Tirek is just laying waste to everything. The only other villains with a similarly vanilla BadFuture are the Flim-Flam Brothers, who've turned Equestria into a polluted, over-industrialized wasteland.
** This trope is wholly averted during Sombra's second major appearance in the show in "The Beginning of the End", where a fully restored King Sombra is shown to be a very talkative villain and is given a lot more characterization, building on what was already established about his personality. He's confident in his own skills to the point of pompousness and hubris, he loves to taunt his foes about their inadequacies compared to his own strength and humiliate them to destroy their morale, and he's shown to be very cunning and manipulative, lulling his enemies into a false sense of security before striking their most vulnerable points when they least expect it to get ahead.
* GeniusBruiser: He's a CrazyPrepared NoNonsenseNemesis who's practically a living WorldWreckingWave.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: His eyes glow green and are trailed by a purple aura.
* GoodColorsEvilColors: His crystals are colored black in contrast to the technicolor crystals found in the empire.
* GoodHurtsEvil: Can be repelled by Cadance's shield of light and love, and contact with it cuts him like a blade. By contrast, normal ponies are completely unaffected by contact, so that may have been a side effect of his shadow form.
* GutturalGrowler: In his first appearance, he doesn't speak much aside from growls and snarls.
* HellishPupils: He has rhombus-shaped pupils, and instead of being black, his are ''red''.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** He tries to reach Spike and the Crystal Heart by launching into the air on a crystal pillar, reverting back to his pony form in the process (either from regaining strength or simply being close to the Crystal Heart). This leaves him standing on said pillar, several hundred feet in the air without his far more agile LivingShadow form, giving him no way to escape the Crystal Heart's energy wave.
** Being so horrible to the Crystal Ponies makes it worse. It's why [[TheDogBitesBack they had no qualms about killing him when the opportunity presented itself]].
* HulkSpeak: Seems to have been a side effect of his long imprisonment or his smoke monster transformation, the ninth season reveals he was once capable of complete speech.
* ICanRuleAlone: He refuses to work for Grogar, instead opting to conquer Equestria on his own. This ends predictably and disastrously, and Grogar uses him as an example of what happens to those who defy him.
* IKnowWhatYouFear: Sombra boasts this, using his mind manipulation magic to show Twilight a vision of her friends being brainwashed into his slaves, and of Celestia and Luna being corrupted into Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon.
* ImplacableMan: Celestia, Luna, Shining, and Cadance can only delay him without the Heart. Even that doesn't destroy him for good, though, and his spirit eventually reforms.
* InexplicablyAwesome: The comics aside (which are BroadStrokes canon to the show), there's no explanation given for how Sombra is so strong. His various powers, including fear illusions and anti-magic crystal barriers, are capable of affecting alicorns like Twilight and Cadance, Starlight Glimmer falls under his thrall the same as any other pony, and it's implied in Season 4 that Sombra's BlackMagic is something otherwise exclusive to alicorns. He's even able to [[spoiler:survive being blasted by the Elements of Harmony, then destroy the Tree of Harmony and shatter the Elements]]. This would make Sombra one of the most powerful unicorns in known history, possibly even above Star Swirl the Bearded.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He is the only villain to immediately reject Grogar's idea for a VillainTeamUp, claiming he doesn't do "ours", only "mine", and [[ICanRuleAlone claims he can defeat the Mane Six himself]].
* KarmicDeath:
** Given his viciousness and the sheer scale of his intended atrocities, it's fitting that he's the only antagonist thus far to die.
** Double subverted in that he returns alive in Season 9, but gets wasted once again by the Mane Six.
* KilledOffForReal:
** Meghan [=McCarthy=] confirmed at Unicon 2013, making him the only character to actually ''die'' on the show. However, [[FlipFlopOfGod the comics and some merchandise]] leave it ambiguous, and in the comics his spirit lived on inside his horn.
** In "The Beginning of the End," he's hit with this again as the Mane Six use the Magic of Friendship to wipe him out. It was Sombra's last appearance on the show, meaning he's gone permanently. Grogar uses Sombra's death as an example of why his VillainTeamUp is necessary.
* KneelBeforeZod: After Sombra conquers the Crystal Empire, he puts Shining Armor, Cadance, and Flurry Heart in chains and orders them to kneel before him. Shining and Cadance comply, Flurry doesn’t.
* LargeAndInCharge: His shadow form's full self is ''massive'', surrounding the entire Crystal Empire. And his pony form is about the same size as Celestia.
* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU1A3FT7TgA He has a pretty ominous one.]] It definitely serves to give what screen time he has a good deal of impact.
* LiterallyShatteredLives: What happens to him upon his first defeat. The Crystal Heart's power overwhelms him, making him explode into several pieces.
* LivingShadow: His state when he begins his first revival is to return as one of these, before he reforms his own body. He retains elements of it when fully resurrected in Season 9, able to shapeshift into clouds of darkness and back at will.
* MagicalEyeStreamers: One of his most distinctive physical features is the pair of streamers of purple smoke that trail from the corners of his eyes, one of the signs that he is not a regular pony anymore. This trait is extended to any being under the influence of his dark magic.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Grogar doesn't punish Sombra for abandoning the proposed VillainTeamUp, even sending him right to the Crystal Empire to start his attempt to take over the world alone. Grogar allows this knowing Sombra would fail, and uses his DeaderThanDead defeat at the hooves of the Mane Six as a warning to the other villains to not defy him.
* ManOfKryptonite: He can spawn PowerNullifier crystals seemingly at will.
* MeaningfulName:
** "Sombra" means "shadow" in Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician. It becomes even more meaningful when the Princesses turn him into a LivingShadow when overthrowing him.
** It also sounds like "Somber", which makes [[VileVillainSaccharineShow no small amount of sense]]. The comics reinforce this interpretation, where bar a few moments of triumph and satisfaction, he's mostly miserable and depressed about his fate.
* MightyGlacier: He's extremely powerful, and his LivingShadow form can get large enough to surround an entire kingdom. However, he also moves like an AdvancingWallOfDoom, and it seemingly takes him a while to react properly to anything that catches him off-guard; therefore, he excels at things like CrazyPrepared-ness and {{Long Game}}s to compensate.
* MindRape:
** He did this to the Crystal Ponies a thousand years ago. Not only are they incapable of remembering anything before his rule, they're left in a perpetual state of unhappiness and despair. The former is implied to be psychic, but the latter might be mundane, considering his [[SlaveRace treatment of them]].
** He also booby-trapped the door to the Crystal Heart to do this to whoever tried to enter it, trapping them in a vision of their greatest fear to prevent them from going further.
** He attempts this on the Mane Six in "The Beginning of the End – Part 1", but the Elements of Harmony allow them to break free.
* MysteriousPast: Absolutely nothing about his backstory or the reasons behind his great power in pony form is remotely hinted at.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: As listed above, his name is one.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: His [[spoiler:destruction of the Tree of Harmony in "The Beginning of the End" [[NotQuiteDead doesn't completely kill it]] so in "Uprooted" it's able to reach out to the Young Six for help and when they build a memorial tree-house from its remains it [[CameBackStrong regenerates and grows into a larger and stronger form]] with a large tree-house in it. In other words, by breaking the Tree's old form, Sombra ultimately helped the tree gain an even stronger form]].
* NoNonsenseNemesis: What makes Sombra so dangerous aside from his magical prowess is that he likes to be simple and direct when dealing with obstacles.
** In "The Crystal Empire", Sombra constantly probes the shield for weaknesses and tries to get inside the moment he finds one. When he senses Twilight approaching the Crystal Heart, he immediately imprisons her inside a field of anti-magic crystals. Then while slowly filling the Empire with his dark crystals and savoring his impending victory, when he notices Spike carrying the Crystal Heart, he makes a beeline straight for him.
** The Crystal Heart, the one thing that could stop him, was protected ''extremely'' well behind numerous different illusion spells conjured by BlackMagic, something that very few ponies aside from Sombra know how to use. He also ringed the Heart itself with a protection spell that alerts him the second somepony approaches it, and he took steps to erase all knowledge of its existence from memory.
** Revived and returned to Equestria in his full power in "The Beginning of the End", Sombra takes over the Crystal Empire in ''minutes'', brainwashing the ponies he finds and making them march behind him as he walks toward the palace and moves in. When he's defeated, he [[spoiler:destroys the Elements of Harmony]] and then heads to Ponyville, brainwashes its inhabitants into a new army, and marches on Canterlot. Along the way, when confronted by powerful ponies he can't control, like Cadance and her family or the Mane Six, he quickly traps them with fear illusions or anti-magic crystals. When confronted by Discord, Sombra just starts blasting magic at him, which only doesn't work because Discord is a PhysicalGod who can neutralize all of his attacks.
* NotSoAboveItAll: After brainwashing the entirety of Ponyville into becoming his army, Sombra has the Cakes bake him a congratulatory cake.
* OhCrap:
** He has this reaction to realizing the Crystal Heart is being powered up.
--->'''King Sombra:''' What? No... no! Stop!
** He also has this reaction when the Mane Six nullify his dark magic with the magic of friendship [[spoiler:''after'' he destroyed the Elements of Harmony]].
--->'''King Sombra:''' How? This shouldn't be possible! Your magic cannot defeat mine! [[spoiler:I destroyed the source of your power!]]
* OneManArmy: While he does like to use an army when he can get one, Sombra really doesn't need one -- he's got AntiMagic strong enough to nullify an Alicorn's powers, can take over the minds of normal ponies, and can create powerful fear illusions. In Season 9 he takes over the Crystal Empire and Canterlot by himself and just uses his brainwashed army to defend the fortresses after.
* PowerEchoes: When he talks, he has this effect on his voice.
* PowerNullifier: He seals Shining Armor's magic during their encounter, which keeps Shining from using his shield spell to help to keep him out. [[spoiler:And his last trap is an AntiMagic CrystalPrison that prevents Twilight from just teleporting away with the Crystal Heart.]]
* ThePowerOfHate: According to Celestia, his magic is based off of fear and hatred. This is pretty much the only thing sustaining him in the comics. Normally he's fairly depressed and miserable, with his only displays of emotion being rage when his enemies move against him, and occasional grim satisfaction when he gets revenge on those who have hurt him.
* PragmaticVillainy: Despite the Heart being his AchillesHeel, it's heavily implied that he didn't just smash it -- instead hiding it via all those traps -- because he wants to convert it from ThePowerOfLove to ThePowerOfHate. "The Crystalling" reveals yet another reason that keeping it intact was beneficial to him; without it, he would've lost both his base of operations and his SlaveRace to eternal winter.
* PresentAbsence: Despite his minor screentime, his BlackMagic effects and traps still let him pose a major threat.
* RaceAgainstTheClock: The only thing keeping him out of the Crystal Empire is Cadance's love spell, which is slowly failing. The moment the shield goes down, we get to see exactly why it was so important to keep him out. He starts covering the Crystal Empire in his dark crystals in ''seconds''.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Sometimes a horse will have fanglike teeth, called "wolf teeth".
* RealityWarper: He once turned the whole Crystal Empire into a {{Mordor}} (and starts to do so again in the present), he made it completely vanish for over an entire millennium, and the layout of his {{Booby Trap}}ped path to the Crystal Heart shows that he can even create {{Pocket Dimension}}s. [[spoiler:In "The Beginning of the End," it's revealed that he can also create his MindControl helmets (first seen in "The Cutie Re-Mark") from thin air.]]
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: His color scheme in pony form.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: A literal case, as simply remembering his eyes causes one of the Crystal Ponies to shudder. When he's enraged, the red overlaps the green, turning his entire iris and pupil red.
* ReducedToDust: His death in "The Beginning of the End". The Mane Six use the power of friendship to completely wipe him out so that there's nothing left of his body. This time, [[DeaderThanDead Sombra's death sticks, as he never reappeared in the series]].
* RefugeInAudacity: How he takes over the Crystal Empire again in "The Beginning of the End". While most other villains scheme and plan ahead of time, Sombra just walks up to the palace and moves in, brainwashing the Crystal Ponies he meets along the way into a new army. Cadance and Shining Armor barely have time to get word to Twilight that he's back before he captures them, and by the time Twilight and her friends arrive, Sombra is lounging on the throne with the royal family in chains.
* ResurrectedForAJob: By Grogar ([[spoiler:actually Discord]]) in Season 9. Sombra immediately decides to do his own thing, which ends in his second death.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: In the dark future shown in "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 1", King Sombra leads his enslaved, brainwashed troops into battle himself, dueling the princesses and their army.
* SacrificialLamb: King Sombra serves as this in "The Beginning of the End" for Grogar's LegionOfDoom. Grogar resurrected him and brought him to his lair to recruit him along with Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow, but Sombra refused to work with any of them and declared he could win on his own. As a result of his arrogance he is killed once again and his defeat only serves to reinforce Grogar's claim that they can only win by working together.
* SameCharacterButDifferent: King Sombra is written very differently throughout the franchise: he's an ominous GenericDoomsdayVillain in his first appearance, a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds lashing out at the world in his story arc in the comics, and a pompous SmugSnake badass tyrant in his second major appearance in the series.
* SatanicArchetype: His initial takeover of the Crystal Empire (stated to be Equestria's CosmicKeystone kingdom) was similar to Lucifer's first rebellion in {{Heaven}} from ''Literature/ParadiseLost''; his subsequent exile (to be sealed underground in ice) reflected the deepest part of {{Hell}} from ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''; and his TakingYouWithMe curse upon the Empire reflected Lucifer/Satan's RevengeByProxy introduction of sin among humanity, and his fearful and depressing PresentAbsence over the Crystal Ponies was similar to how Satan is described as "prowl{ing} about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour," both examples being in ''Literature/TheBible''.
* ScaryBlackMan: A large, dark stallion whose IKnowWhatYouFear powers make the "Scary" part literal. He's also TheSilentBob, complete with a BadassBaritone whenever he does speak.
* SealedEvilInACan: Was turned into a LivingShadow and imprisoned in the northern ice by Celestia and Luna. They were at least more thorough than with Discord.
* TheSilentBob: A break of tradition from [[EvilIsHammy every other villain from before]], he surprisingly speaks very little, mainly growling like a monster. At one point during the comics he notes that Queen Chrysalis [[YouTalkTooMuch Talks Too Much]]. Averted in the final season opener when he becomes much more vocal.
* SlasherSmile: His default expression.
* SlaveRace: What he turned the Crystal Ponies into. He even calls them his "Crystal slaves" at one point.
* SmallNameBigEgo: He is very arrogant. When he seemingly defeats Discord, he states that he is more powerful than him, completely ignoring the fact that Discord was clearly winning and Sombra just got in a lucky shot because of him TakingTheBullet for Fluttershy. [[spoiler:Even more so when it's revealed Discord was faking defeat]].
* SmugSnake: He arrogantly states to Grogar that he'll take over Equestria alone, with Sombra believing himself to be powerful enough to do so. [[NearVillainVictory He was almost right]]. Throughout the Season 9 premiere, he's very smug and boastful about how easy it was to deceive and overpower the Mane Six, taunting them and their friends at every opportunity, partly to destroy their morale and keep them under his heel, partly to feed his own ego, and partly because he loves making other ponies squirm. When he finds the throne room at Canterlot castle empty, he immediately assumes Celestia and Luna (the ones who defeated him the first time) fled rather than face him, and has no problem believing he is capable of besting Discord.
-->'''Twilight:''' Discord, I'm so glad you're okay, we can't beat him without you!\\
'''Sombra''' (smirking): Heh, you couldn't beat me with him either.
* SorcerousOverlord: The traps that he set imply that he used to be a mighty sorcerer when he was still the Emperor.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: WordOfGod [[http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88003&view=findpost&p=2162181 has]] [[https://twitter.com/MMeghanMcCarthy/status/257249978081214464 confirmed]] [[http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88003&view=findpost&p=2163071 the]] [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/267325607048773632 spelling]] [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/267340093637935105 to]] [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/268603888318431234 be]] "Sombra" (matching the in-show pronunciation), yet a [[https://twitter.com/MyLittlePony/status/265942986926456832 tweet]] by Hasbro's ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' Website/{{Twitter}} spells it as "Somber" (which proves to be a MeaningfulName in its own right, as "somber" means "unhappy" -- much like the Crystal Ponies affected by his spell). Both words ultimately derive from the Latin word "umbra", meaning "shadow".
* SuddenlyVoiced: He's much less of TheSilentBob in "The Beginning of the End," speaking in full, complete sentences and prone to boasting about his strength as a conqueror.
* SupernaturalIsPurple: His eyes are constantly trailed by a purple aura.
* TakingYouWithMe: As he was being sealed, he cursed the Crystal Empire to disappear for 1000 years.
* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Compared to the other villains, poor Sombra’s defeats usually involve him being graphically destroyed into oblivion.
* ThisCannotBe: As he faces his defeat in "The Beginning of The End", he rants that it "can't be possible".
* TinTyrant: He wears metal armor in his unicorn form.
* TookALevelInDumbass: In "The Beginning of the End", he's much more gung-ho and overconfident than the patient pragmatist from "The Crystal Empire" and "The Cutie Re-Mark" (though he does briefly slip back into the latter when [[spoiler:ambushing the Tree of Harmony]]). This makes it a lot easier for him to be humiliated by both Grogar and Discord [[spoiler:(one and the same, no less)]], and ends up getting him [[spoiler:killed yet again (this time for good, on top of it)]].
* TrapMaster: The sheer number of traps he set qualify him for this.
* UngratefulBastard: He shows no gratitude to Grogar for bringing him back to life, dismissing his idea for a VillainTeamUp so he can rule by himself.
* VillainousBreakdown: In "The Beginning of the End," once the Mane Six manage to nullify his magic [[spoiler:without the Elements of Harmony]]. He actually sounds like he's on the verge of tears as he desperately tries to deny his impending defeat.
* VillainousLegacy: "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E3Uprooted Uprooted]]", which takes place after the season 9 premiere, deals with [[spoiler:the loss of the Tree of Harmony from Sombra's actions. Ironically him destroying the Tree's old form [[NiceJobFixingItVillain helped it get stronger]] thanks to the Young Six]].
* WalkingWasteland: Can spread shadows and dark crystals to affect the land around him.
* WouldHitAGirl: He has no problem trying to attack (and possibly kill) Princess Cadance when she and Spike have the Crystal Heart.
* WouldHurtAChild:
** Tries to attack (and possibly kill) Spike with absolutely no hesitation once he sees he has the Crystal Heart. He even licks his lips at the prospect of doing so.
** The opening for season 9 shows him abducting Flurry Heart to get Cadance and Shining Armor to stand down.
* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:His booby-traps to prevent ponies from reaching the Crystal Heart. They keep them out? Good, the one thing that can stop him is out of reach. They reach it? It sets off a trap allowing him to begin growing his dark crystals inside the castle itself, even if he himself can't enter, as well as trapping the pony who found it.]] Cadance invokes DeflectorShield? He waits until she's too tired to continue. She stops to rest? He reaches the Empire sooner. In fact, even his EstablishingCharacterMoment (in the flashback hologram) was one: If he beats Celestia and Luna, good; but if they beat him, his DeadMansSwitch curse takes the Empire with him and nullifies their victory. In "The Beginning of the End", he feigns defeat at the Mane Six's hooves in order to trick them into letting their guard, allowing him to [[spoiler:destroy the Tree and Elements of harmony]].
* YouMonster: Celestia refers to him as having a "heart as black as night." Radiant Hope also says as much when he shatters Princess Amore into pieces, and Sandbar denounces him and Cozy Glow as two ponies worse than Yona.
* YourSizeMayVary: [[http://www.fimfiction.net/group/209434/au-mane-6---starlights-timelines/thread/227008/did-anypony-else-notice-this He is taller]] in "The Cutie Re-Mark" than he is in "The Crystal Empire", although that could just be because of the camera angle.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sunset Shimmer]]
See Characters/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmer
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Lord Tirek]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/64cddc790a95f0e1453c78e74a536910.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[-''"How does it feel, knowing that soon every pegasus, unicorn and earth pony will bow to my will?"''-] ]]
->''"I am Lord Tirek. And I will take what should have been mine long ago."''

->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E25TwilightsKingdomPart1 Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1]]"

->'''Voiced by:''' Mark Acheson

Long ago, Tirek and his brother Scorpan came to Equestria with the intent to steal the magic of every pony and TakeOverTheWorld. Scorpan however learned friendship from Star Swirl the Bearded, and helped the ponies seal Tirek in Tartarus. However, [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime when Cerberus left Tartarus undefended]], Tirek broke free, and is now ready to pick up where he left off.

ExpandedUniverse comic ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' #2 explains that of his centaur race, a young Tirek possessed even more magical ability than his father King Vorak. Already thirsty for power, his goals turned towards Equestria after seeing the power that unicorn ponies possessed when hermit Sendak the Elder returned from his travels with an abducted unicorn. The comic shows that Tirek's mother, Queen Haydon is a gargoyle like his brother Scorpan, and that Discord was a member of Vorak's council, explaining their previous familiarity.

For tropes applying to his G1 counterpart, see Characters/MyLittlePonyTVSpecials.
----

** Queen Chrysalis: EmotionEater, MindManipulation, [[spoiler:PowerNullifier [[note]]Her throne in "To Where and Back Again."[[/note]]]], {{Shapeshifting}}.

** Starlight Glimmer: DeflectorShields, LongRangeFighter, PowerNullifier, [[spoiler:TimeMaster [[note]]Her WrongContextMagic alteration of Star Swirl the Bearded's TimeTravel spell from "It's About Time."[[/note]]]].

* PhysicalGoddess: Notably the first BigBad level villain to not be a god already, but becomes as powerful as one by the end of her first appearance. The comics indicate her usual level of power is close to Twilight's, which is still rather formidable, and ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' shows that Celestia defeated Chrysalis is a straight fight at some point in the past.

* PowerEchoes: After assuming her true form, there's a slight echo to her voice in "A Canterlot Wedding." Though she loses it subsequent speaking roles afterwards.

* ArcVillain: Of "The Crystal Empire" and "The Beginning of the End."

* CreatorCameo: His few lines [[https://twitter.com/TheBiggestJim/status/267356800981008384 and other noises]] were provided by storyboard supervisor "Big" Jim Miller in "The Crystal Empire."

* PhysicalGod: Notably the first BigBad level villain to not be a god already, but becomes as powerful as one by the end of her first appearance. The comics indicate her usual level of power is close to Twilight's, which is still rather formidable, and ''[=FIENDship=] Is Magic'' shows that Celestia defeated Chrysalis is a straight fight at some point in the past.

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Ultimately, Tirek was ''failed'' by his own power-hungriness; had he accepted Scorpan's offer, he would ''not'' have been imprisoned in Tartarus. [[spoiler:This also means that Tirek brought his [[TakenForGranite transformation into stone]] upon himself.]]

* AffablyEvil: In her BadFuture from "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2". She's surprisingly polite and reasonable for an evil megalomaniac. To not to mention that her BadFuture is by far the least "bad" of all the timelines (Rarity even comments that Nightnare Moon's castle "isn't open for view" at the moment, implying that it is somewhat of a touristic attraction).

* AffablyEvil: In her BadFuture from "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2". She's surprisingly polite and reasonable for an evil megalomaniac.

** 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.

ExtendedUniverse comic ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFiendshipIsMagic'' #2 explains that of his centaur race, a young Tirek possessed even more magical ability than his father King Vorak. Already thirsty for power, his goals turned towards Equestria after seeing the power that unicorn ponies possessed when hermit Sendak the Elder returned from his travels with an abducted unicorn. The comic shows that Tirek's mother, Queen Haydon is a gargoyle like his brother Scorpan, and that Discord was a member of Vorak's council, explaining their previous familiarity.

*** 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.

[[caption-width-right:280:[[VillainSong This day is going to be perfect.]]]]

The former Queen of the changelings, creatures that can transform into other ponies and feed on their love for sustanance. She masquerades as Princess Cadance during the Season 2 finale in a bid to conquer Equestria, but is discovered by Twilight and defeated by Cadance and Shining Armor. She returns in the Season 6 finale with a more ambitious plan, but her subjects turn on her and follow Thorax as their new leader, causing Chrysalis to flee swearing revenge.

* KilledMidSentence: Rather, "Cut Off Mid-Sentence". [[spoiler:After she's de-powered from the CombinedEnergyAttack Tirek, Cozy and she got hit with. Her last lines have her ranting to the heroes that their friendship won't saved them... right before a giant cupcake (caused by Pinkie getting Grogar's Bell) falls on top of the three. It doesn't kill them but not long after they're turned to stone by Celestia, Luna and Discord.]]

* LargeAndInCharge: The normal changelings are the size the rest of the ponies in the show; she's as a tall as Celestia.

[[caption-width-right:252:[-King Sombra in his shadow form.-] ]]

* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: He has a sharp, curved, red horn that looks like a dagger, red eyes with slitted reptilian pupils, fangs, and an etherial black mane. When using his magic, the sclera of his eyes turns from the standard white to an eerie glowing green with toxic purple mist wafting from them.

* ICanRuleAlone: He refuses to work for Grogar [[spoiler:(aka Discord in disguise)]], instead opting to conquer Equestria on his own. This ends predictably and disastrously, and Grogar uses him as an example of what happens to those who defy him.

** In "The Beginning of the End," he's hit with this again as the Mane Six use the Magic of Friendship to wipe him out. It was Sombra's last appearance on the show, meaning he's gone permanently. Grogar[[spoiler:/Discord]] uses Sombra's death as an example of why his VillainTeamUp is necessary.

* OneManArmy: While he does like to use an army when he can get one, Sombra really doesn't need one -- he's got AntiMagic strong enough to nullify an alicorn's powers, can take over the minds of normal ponies, and can create powerful fear illusions. In Season 9 he takes over the Crystal Empire and Canterlot by himself and just uses his brainwashed army to defend the fortresses after.

* ICanRuleAlone: He refuses to work for Grogar, instead opting to conquer Equestria on his own. This ends predictably and disastrously, and Grogar uses him as an example of what happens to those who defy him.

** In "The Beginning of the End," he's hit with this again as the Mane Six use Magic of Friendship to wipe him out. It was Sombra's last appearance on the show, meaning he's gone permanently. Grogar uses Sombra's death as an example of why his VillainTeamUp is necessary.