Main Index The Main Cast: Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, the Cutie Mark Crusaders Supporting Cast: The Princesses (Princess Celestia, Princess Luna), Mane Family Members, the School of Friendship, Ponyville, Other Locations, Animal Companions Antagonists: Major Villains (Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow), Dangerous Creatures, Jerks and Bullies, Redeemed Antagonists (Discord) World of Equestria: Races, Historical Figures, the 2017 Movie, Expanded Universe, Toyline Exclusive, Miscellaneous Minor Characters: One-Shots, Other Characters, Background Ponies (Common Background Ponies, Special Background Ponies, Other Background Ponies) Equestria Girls: Heroines (Sunset Shimmer), Villains, Supporting Cast
Friendship Is Magic has a huge Expanded Universe. The IDW comics are the main source of EU Canon, but Hasbro has released some chapter books as well. This page is for all the little Canon Foreigners that show up here and there.
Characters from the spin-off Equestria Girls have their own subpages.
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IDW Comics
Again, the main source of Expanded Universe canon is IDW's comic books, so it's introduced a few new characters. It's even introduced a couple of new races!
Characters currently listed in the series they debuted in first.
Main Series
Changeling Commanders
"Why drain her? We have plenty of these guys left."
Debut: "The Return of Queen Chrysalis", #2 (Green armored), #3 (Purple armored)
A pair of Changelings with unique armor. They appear to be the heads of Chrysalis's guards and in Issue #3 keep tabs on the Mane Six pairs that don't have the magic map that Twilight has (which allows Chrysalis to spy on her).
- Custom Uniform: What sets them apart from the other Changelings; one of them has green armor with black swirls on it, the other has a more detailed version of the armor the Mook Lieutenants from the show, with a few added Spikes of Villainy.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The green armored one actually appeared in Issue #2, but he didn't do anything other than take an order.
- Mook Lieutenant: They're not quite Co-Dragons, their main role is simply to talk to and laugh with Chrysalis.
- Pragmatic Villainy: As quoted above, one of them second-guesses Chrysalis's plan for revenge because they already found a convenient source to feed on.
Jim the Cave Troll
"PWETAH HAR ON DAH PWETAH PONAY!"
Debut: "The Return of Queen Chrysalis", #2
A cave troll that appears in Friendship Is Magic Issue #2. He scares the girls at first, but he's really just a big lovable brony who wants to play with PO-NAYS.
- And Call Him "George": Treats the ponies like they were brushable dolls, and quotes the Trope Namer in regards to one of the fake ponies Rarity makes.
- Expy: He looks a lot like the Abominable Snowman from the classic Looney Tunes cartoons.
- Gentle Giant: He's enormous and strong, but only wants to brush and collect pony dolls and is happy to leave the main characters alone when they make him some new ones.
- Shout-Out: A cave troll... in an abandoned mine? Where have we heard that before?
- Tuckerization: Named
after show storyboard supervisor "Big" Jim Miller.
The Gangster Spiders
Debut: "The Return of Queen Chrysalis", #2
Multiple different huge spiders who appear in Issue #2 as an obstacle for the Mane Six when traveling though the mines, most of them sporting hats and even have their own "cutie marks".
- Expy:
- One of them is blonde, gray, and has one eye off to a side, like Derpy the pony. Apparently, every species has one...
- Also, the giant spider bears more than a little resemblance to Jamie Hyneman, complete with trademark beret.
- Giant Spider: Of course.
- Large and in Charge: Most of them are about pony-sized, their leader however is as big as the cave troll encountered earlier in the issue.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: Their fangs look like old-timey mustaches.
The Cute Citizens of Wuvy-Dovey Land
Debut: "The Return of Queen Chrysalis", #3
A race of adorable, loving cat-like creatures who are more than happy to make friends with all who enter their lands. Their homeland was conquered and converted into the Changeling Kingdom soon after the events of "A Canterlot Wedding".
- The Chew Toy: It's obvious Cook and Price wanted to create a species so sugar-sweet that readers could enjoy watching the Changelings take them apart without the writers having to invoke any sympathy.
- Crapsaccharine World: It's ironic how such cute beings could cherish such a precarious existence in the My Little Ponyverse, of all places.
- Doomed Hometown: The land was pretty ideal for Chrysalis and her changelings as not only did it provide love for them to feed on, it gave them a new base of operations which they took over within days. By the time the Mane 6 arrive, the place is a shadow of its former self with green gloop covering the houses and ground. Not to mention the castle looming ominously over the once-happy village.
- The Farmer and the Viper: The Changelings aren't in their lands for five minutes and they welcome them with open arms and offer their Queen cake. It ends very badly for them.
- The Pollyanna: The changelings massacre the cute kittens till there's only a few of them left, convert their homes to their needs (basically everything being covered in their green gloop) and then round up the remaining population so they can later be eaten. They still keep on being affectionate and kindhearted, even after all that's happened to them.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: They're adorable, and very friendly.
- Self-Parody: A clear parody of the MLP franchise as a whole.
- Too Dumb to Live: They tend to be a bit too friendly to newcomers. Even when they're being threatened.
The Nightmare Forces/The Nyx
Shadowfright And you will help... more than you ever dreamed.
Debut: "Nightmare Rarity", #5
Malevolent spirits of darkness that inhabit the Nightmare Dreamscape, they're the main antagonist of the second Story Arc of the main series. They return using the power of the new moon to cause trouble for the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic reveals they were originally the Nyx, creatures tasked with creating dreams, whom Nightmare Moon corrupted.
- Accidental Misnaming: One of the spirits keeps calling Shadowfright "Larry", much to his annoyance. It turns out to be the name of that Nightmare's host.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: The Nyx look a whole lot nicer before and once freed of the Nightmare Forces influence.
- Break Them by Talking: Shadowfright pulls this on Rarity, weakening their resolve enough to become a new Nightmare Moon. He then does on Princess Luna by claiming this was her fault and by refusing to become Nightmare Moon again, they were "forced" to corrupt another in her place. While the Mane Six shut this down, it left her demoralized enough to keep her from being a threat until the ending.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: It's the only part of their bodies that aren't completely black.
- The Corruptible: They proved to be this for Nightmare Moon, but to what extent is unclear. Doran had enough control to secretly act against Nightmare Moon but nothing else, Jerome had to be reminded to act evil and was apparently able to break his corruption in part through his own resolve.
- Dark Is Evil: They're associated with the night just like they were when merged with Luna. And they come in a variety of dark colors as well.
- Demonic Possession: This seems to be the only way they can get things done: preying on the negativity of others to take control of their bodies. They also take possession of the moon's wildlife, which is evidently simpler.
- The Dragon: Their leader Shadowfright, though he seems to be in charge whenever they don't have a queen.
- Dream Weaver: Their job was to create dreams for everypony.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Nightmare Moon initially corrupted them by lying that ponies don't appreciate their work.
- Expy: Beings that feed on fear and also were revealed to have possessed a hero in the past by preying on their fears, turning that hero into a villain. Nope, definitely not Parallax.
- Feathered Fiend: Shadowfright has an uniquely avian design, and stands above the rest in evil deeds and hierarchy.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: They have the power to revive Nightmare Moon and are the main reason she's a threat, but lack (save two) character, backstory, or motive (later given in Fiendship is Magic).
- Genre Blind: Since they've never seen a pony in person, they were unaware Nightmare Moon wasn't one to trust.
- Living Shadow: They're a collection of beings that look like flaming shadows.
- Lunacy: They can draw power from the moon.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Shadowfright in particular, also their speech bubbles are in red & black.
- To Create a Playground for Evil: They wish to create a Nightmare Kingdom.
- Tom the Dark Lord: One of the Nightmare Forces self-identifies as Shadowfright even though his name is Larry. Nightmare Moon only calls him Larry; he doesn't object, he just looks embarrassed. It really is Larry, as it turns out.
Nightmare Rarity
"It's true, your powers defeated me before, little ponies, but what will you do now that I’ve taken one of you?"
Debut: "Nightmare Rarity", #5
Using Rarity as a vessel, this new Nightmare Moon intends to finish what the original promised the Nightmare Force, starting by eliminating those who thwarted her the last time.
- Arc Villain: Of the comics second Story Arc (Issue #5 to #8), being its driving force behind it despite only showing up halfway through.
- Bling of War: Dons Gem-Encrusted golden armor for the battle against Ponyville.
- Breakout Character: Slightly, least in terms for the comics. While she never makes another physical appearance, usually whenever a conversation comes up about past villain threats, she surprisingly is always listed among the rogues despite being a comic only character.
- Break Them by Talking: She's fond of this.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Incapacitates Luna with one shot.
- Dark Is Evil: She's the main villain and the one who's actually black (seeming grey in some scenes due to lighting) compared to the merely dark colors of the Nightmare Forces.
- Decomposite Character: Her existence portrays Nightmare Moon/the entity that created her as a separate being from Princess Luna, which the show treats as a mere alter ego of Luna. Note that Lauren Faust planned this for the show,
but left before it was implemented. - Demonic Possession: She makes it clear she is in control with Rarity suppressed.
- Doomed by Canon: Twilight Sparkle is still a unicorn in this arc, Rarity is A-OK when Twilight becomes an Alicorn, it’s no spoiler that Nightmare is defeated and Rarity saved.
- Evil Is Bigger: Towers over Luna and the other ponies.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Has diamond-shapes in them on top of her glowing, Hellish Pupils.
- Faux Affably Evil: Carries an air of class and confidence that increasingly gives way to petty anger as she's increasingly thwarted.
- Flaw Exploitation: The reason she chose to possess Rarity (despite Fluttershy seeming easier) was she had hidden insecurities that made her the most "willing" to give herself over.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: She briefly reverts to normal when Spike seems to get though to Rarity.
- Hyde Plays Jekyll: Impersonates Rarity in a Lotus-Eater Machine to sway Spike to her side. This behavior, plus her not recognizing the Fire Ruby, is enough to expose the ruse.
- Kick the Dog: Belittling the Mane Six, Spike and Luna? Understandable given the threat they pose. Belittling her perfectly loyal and effective subordinate Shadowfright? Not so much.
- Laser-Guided Karma: She goes out of her way to mock Spike's attempts to save Rarity and his feeling for her. Guess who and what proves decisive in stopping her.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: She can create positive dreams as well as nightmares.
- More than Mind Control: She originally possessed Princess Luna by convincing her she could use their power to force ponies to respect her night. She then possessed Rarity by making her fear her friends would disregard her generosity but as the Nightmare Force's queen, she'd always be appreciated. It's soon clear this control is not as good as expected, with bits of Rarity emerging when confronted by Spike and Sweetie Belle. It's the Mane Six and Spike getting thought to Rarity that they would never abandon her that outright breaks Nightmare's possession.
- Taught by Experience: After underestimating the Mane Six the first time, she sought to abduct and possess one of them (after determining who would be most susceptible) so they couldn't use the Elements of Harmony on her. Then when the remaining Mane Six block her attempts to psych them out, she has the Nightmare Forces overwhelm them and locks them in magic-proofed cages to keep them from interfering.
- That Man Is Dead: No sooner does she say this of Rarity than Spike proves otherwise.
- Tragic Monster: Much drama comes from the prospect of fighting Rarity and what's become of her. Once they get through to Rarity, it's clear she is not enjoying it either.Rarity: Please, no! I don't want to go back! It was so cold and lonely - and I wasn't helping anypony! I was hurting them. Help!
- Walking Spoiler: Her name, appearance, and anything beyond her being the return of Nightmare Moon gives away the big twist of the arc.
Gaffer and 8-Bit
"Collective Sigh!"
Debut: "Neigh Anything", #11
Shining Armor and Poindexter/Gizmo's geeky friends at Canterlot Academy. Gaffer is a cream/white unicorn with a 8-sided die as a cutie mark, and 8-Bit is a grey pegasus with a Space Invader-like cutie mark. The two work together with Shining and Poindexter to help Shining try to win over Cadance's heart on the night of the big polo championship game.
For Gizmo/Poindexter, see the Background Ponies pages.
- Hero of Another Story: It's heavily implied Gaffer was possessed by Dr. Sam Beckett (or his Equestrian counterpart) to make sure Cadence and Shining Armor got together.
- Schizo Tech: 8-Bit's name and cutie mark begs the question if computers and video games exist.
Buck Withers
"So pathetic!!"
Debut: "Neigh Anything", #11
Canterlot Academy's top polo player and school bully. He is what stands in the way of Shining from getting Cadance to come to the dance with him.
- Jerk Jock: To the extent of being an Affectionate Parody. Think of every 80s jerk jock from the 90s, yep, that's him.
- Romantic False Lead: Obviously he and Cadance don't end up together.
- Sore Loser: His biggest weakness.Shining Armor: He’s one of those stallions that has to win... and he has to be the star of the game or he loses his mind.''
- Took a Level in Kindness: The present-day Buck is a lot nicer then he was in the flashback, and even seems to be friends with Shining.
Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose
Cadance's high school BFFs. See the Background Ponies - Others page for Lemony Gem(s) and the Toyline Exclusive page for Diamond Rose.
Sunflower
Debut: My Little Pony Annual 2013
Applejack's cousin and the main antagonist of the main prequel story featured in the 2013 Annual comic from IDW. She appears to be the older sister of Babs Seed (who herself has been Age Lifted to AJ's age). What happened to her after the comic is never explained.
- Alpha Bitch: Was the resident school bitch before Sunset entered the picture. She wasn't quite as bad though, just worrying more about status and what not and thinking everyone should just stick to their own cliques.
- Breaking Speech: Delivers a rather nasty one to Fluttershy and AJ how they're pathetic on trying to be their friends. It works for a time till the first Canterlot High soccer game when Pinkie has Fluttershy volunteer to pass out streamers and she nearly starts insulting her again. Rarity and AJ shut Babs and her down that time, chastising the both of them for their rude behavior when Fluttershy clearly didn't deserve it.
- The Cameo:
- In the Holiday Special, Sunflower is apparently still going to school after the events of Rainbow Rocks as she appears in one panel among a bunch of students getting angry at Sunset.
- We get a glimpse of the Pony Sunflower in the Friends Forever issue focusing on Granny Smith & the Flim Flam Brothers.
- Canon Foreigner: An odd case since she's the major "not-in-the-movies" character other than human Babs. Word of God says she's Babs' sister, which would mean her pony counterpart is the one pony Babs mentioned in "One Bad Apple". Pony Sunflower makes a cameo (along with many other IDW Canon Foreigners) in the Granny Smith and Flim Flam Brothers issue of Friends Forever alongside pony Babs.
- Humble Pie: Fluttershy notices she has a pet dog in her purse that looks sickly and, being an animal expert, tries to offer some advice on how to care for it but Sunflower just insults her instead. However, near the end of the story, her neglect of the poor pooch catches up to her and she has to own up and take it to the animal clinic where Fluttershy works when its condition worsens. Having an almost pleading expressions when she comes in, though Fluttershy is more then happy to help her.
- Jaw Drop: After Rarity and AJ chastise her for her behavior and leave her and Babs to be with Fluttershy.
Captain Hoofbeard
Debut: "Friendship Ahoy", #13
A Type 1 — Brutish — Pirate that serves at the antagonist for the Issue #13-14 arc.
- Artificial Limbs: He has a peg leg.
- Badass Normal: Give the guy credit, he faced down the Mane 6 in a sword fight and kept em at bay. He only lost because Spike managed to drop a coconut on him.
- Expy: Of Jack Sparrow unsurprisingly, both in looks, similar backstory (his crew turning on him twice), and having a magical object for treasure hunting (the Map of the Wandering X)
- Half-Human Hybrid: Twilight uses her magic to give him gills so he'll be able to be with Jewel and be able to come back on land when he wishes.
- Interspecies Romance: With Jewel, a mermare.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Jewel since the mermares don't approve of him at first.
Jewel and the Mermares
Debut: "Friendship Ahoy", #14
Whether or not they are meant to be the Sea Ponies of earlier generations is unknown, but there does exist a race of ponies in the sea. Jewel is one of them, the "treasure" that Hoofbeard seeks.
- Continuity Nod: The mermares and the "mantahawk" they summon to help the ponies back home are elements featured earlier in the Gen 4 picture book, "Under the Sparkling Sea".
- Interspecies Romance: Jewel with Hoofbeard, a Earth pony.
- Our Hippocamps Are Different: They're equines with fish scales and fins for tails and forelimbs.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Again, Jewel with Hoofbeard. The rest of the mermares had disapproved of them being together and forced Jewel to come with them. It was only due to the magic map he was able to keep track of them. The Mane Six eventually manage to convince the meremares to let the two stay together with Twilight adding extra help by giving Hoofbeard gills.
Bookworm
Debut: "Ponies in Book Land", #15
A magical bookworm that begins eating through Twilight's books, causing mayhem in both the book and outside worlds.
- Anti-Villain: He's not really evil, just ignorant of his actions and a little too driven to find his goal. He even states he likes books. After Twilight tells him this, he admits he didn't want to hurt anyone and, once granted the ability to make it right, starts fixing his messes.
- Freudian Excuse: He's eating stories because there are none with worms as the heroes and he wants to find one that does.
- Literal Bookworm
- One-Winged Angel: The more stories he eats the more huge and grotesque he becomes. When he starts helping the Mane 6, he reverts to his original form.
- Reality Warper: In both worlds. In the book world he changes how the story goes, even taking out lead characters that were meant to be in it. This causes the characters to show up in the pony world via cocoons and start running amuck.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Given the fate of the library after Tirek destroyed it, it's a big question whether he survived or not.
Evil Queen of Trottingham
Debut: "Ponies in Book Land", #15
The leader of the book villains when they arrive in the pony world.
- Expy: Of the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.
- Fangs Are Evil: Sports some fangs in her mouth to pretty get across the point that, yes, she's evil.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Her name makes this pretty obvious.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Effectively.Queen: You think you can just bloop me away?! I'm the Queen of-(bloop)
- Kneel Before Zod: Is seen making Macintosh do this at one point.
- No Name Given: No proper name anyways. She's only referred to by her title from the books she comes from.
- Only Known By His Nickname: As stated, she's just known as the "Evil Queen of Trottingham"
- Take Over the World: It may not be her world, but it's a new one ripe for the picking. Plus she's a villain, it's what they do.
Inhabitants of the Mirror Universe
- Debut:: "Reflections"
The "Reflections" arc features an Alternate Universe where good and evil have been reversed. Equestria is ruled by the just and merciful King Sombra who defends his kingdom from the diabolical Celestia and Luna.
- Arc Villain: Mirror Celestia and Luna serve as this for the "Reflections" arc.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: A wanted poster of Big Macintosh shows that he's a Baron, complete with Beard of Evil. Later, we see a more aristocratic Granny Smith by his side and she definitely seems to be far from the kindly old lady of the main universe. Another poster hints that the Apple Family has ties to Cosa Nostra.
- Barrier Warrior: Mirror Sombra's powers are mostly defensive in nature.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Chrysalis is a good guy in this universe, and looks significantly more cuddly. She's even immortalized in a stained glass window as a paragon of love.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: The sisters share equal power in their schemes.
- Big Good: Mirror Sombra plays this role.
- Bizarro Universe: Every role in this universe is filled by its polar opposite in the prime universe. Interestingly, it's not entirely moralities that are reversed, but primary character traits. For example, Derpy isn't evil in the alternate world, she's simply stoic and intelligent instead of a happy-go-lucky Ditz and is apparently wise enough to earn a stained glass window.
- The Cameo: Several of them don't have any role in the story or even any lines, showing up just long enough for us to get an idea of what they're like. Per Word of God, even four issues isn't enough space to give enough world building for the main story and devote any real time to everyone's favorite minor characters appearance in the mirror universe.
- Deal with the Devil: Mirror Celestia offers to Mirror Sombra the safety of main universe's Celestia and allowing her to stay with Sombra in exchange for the spell that would allow her access to main universe Equestria. He refuses not only because he does not wish for the main universe Equestria to suffer the same fate as his kingdom, but because he's smart enough to know that Mirror Celestia would do anything to have complete control over both worlds.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- In the past, Mirror Luna was actually very sociable and very much acquainted with Mirror King Sombra during a time when Luna was not. However, when Nightmare Moon was defeated and Luna returned to rule by Celestia's side in the main universe, Mirror Luna defected to Mirror Celestia's side.
- Mirror Sombra forces himself into one at the end when he uses the Elements of Harmony to draw out the evil in Mirror Celestia and Mirror Luna absorb into himself, forcing him to become similar to the feral King Sombra of the main universe. In turn, the now evil free Mirror Celestia and Mirror Luna go through a Heel–Face Turn.
- Granny Classic: Mirror Chrysalis has the appearance of one of these.
- Greed: Mirror Celestia's main trait. Not enough that she has near control of her world, she tries to take over the Prime one as well.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When it's shown that the crystal-encasing plan will affect the main Celestia as well, Mirror Sombra uses the Elements of Harmony to instead take in the evil of Mirror Celestia and Luna within himself, essentially turning him into the Sombra from the main verse.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Mirror Luna's choice of wardrobe. Rarity is unimpressed.
- Slouch of Villainy: Mirror Celestia does not sit on her throne. She drapes her whole body over it as though it were a bed.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Mirror Sombra with the main universe Celestia.
- The Stoic: Mirror Derpy appears to be a stoic scholar, instead of the lovable ditz we know her as.
- Superhero: Mirror Discord, or "Sir Discord" as he is called by Mirror Sombra, who goes by the name "Captain Goodguy" when he dons a typical superhero outfit, complete with cape, mask, and spandex.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Mirror Sombra. Rarity, to no-one's surprise, notices this. Fluttershy, to everyone's surprise, notices this too. And of course, Celestia falls for him at first sight.
- Team Killer: Mirror Celestia does this when she notes whatever pain her counterpart feels so will she and vice versa. So she willingly injures Mirror Luna and in turn, harms the Prime Verse Luna to get Prime 'Verse Celestia to back down.
Chief Stablemaker
- Debut: "Manehattan Mysteries", #21
The head of police in Manehattan.
- Da Chief: A little gruff and one to jump to conculsion given the circumstance but respectful nonetheless.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When it seems that Trixie can't prove her innocence, some last minute quick thinking from Babs catches the real thief Officer Flufflles. Stablemaker hears Babs out how the thief managed to make off with the real diamond and frame Trixie. He realizes it's all legit and let's Trixie off while apologizing for not believing her.
Rough Diamond
Debut: "Manehattan Mysteries", #21
Click here to see her unmasked SPOILER
A notorious thief in Manehattan.
- Ambiguous Situation: Did Rough Diamond take someone else's identity as an officer, or was she always pretending to be a cop? This isn't made clear. Also, is Rough Diamond her real name?
- The Chessmaster: Manipulates the very investigation meant to catch her.
- Just One Little Mistake: Babs notices that Officer Fluffles' cutie mark is smudged. That alone allows Babs to figure out that the police officer is the thief they're looking for.
- Master of Disguise: She robbed a bank while disguised as Princess Luna. And it turns out she was one of the police officers all along.
- Phantom Thief: Nopony even knows what she looks like.
- Spy Catsuit: She wears what looks like a catsuit, along with hoof gloves, mask and goggles.
- We Will Meet Again: Says this much to the heroes once she's caught.Rough Diamond: You darned do-gooders! I'll get you for this! I swear! Rough Diamond will return!
Cassie
Debut: "Just For Sidekicks 2", #23
The antagonist of Issue #23 and a Kelpie, a serpentine creature whose song is capable of hypnotizing all who listen to it. She uses this song to place all of Ponyville under her control to destroy the dam, leaving only the pets of the mane six to stop her.
- Anti-Villain: Was motivated by saving stranded water sprites.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite placing all of Ponyville under control to destroy a dam that would have flooded the town, she is very quickly forgiven because she was helping her water sprite friends. Rainbow Dash points out how ridiculous this is.
- Mind-Control Music: Her song is capable of putting all ponies under her control. However, the pets seem to be unaffected by it.
- Our Kelpies Are Different: Similar to the sirens, she's looks like hippocampus and mind-controls ponies using music.
- Sea Monster: Cassie has a very serpentine-esque look to her.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Twilight points out she was trying to do good, but with poorly though-out methods.
The League of Villainy
Debut: 2014 Annual
A group of villains who banded together after one too many defeats at the hooves of the Power Ponies. This team of villains include the Mane-iac, Pharaoh Phetlock (an Egyptian pharaoh-themed villain with his own personal set of Mummy Mooks), Long-Face (an evil mime who enjoys spreading sadness through chemicals), High Heel (a shoe thief with her own set of shoe-themed gadgets), Smudge (a strange pony-like creature with some shapeshifting capabilities), and Shadowmane (an infamous thief). Tropes pertaining specifically to Mane-iac should go here.
- Badass Normal: High Heel and Shadowmane. They don't have any powers like Mane-iac and Smudge nor do they utilize chemicals or mooks like Long-Face and Pharoah Phetlock, but they make up for it with their gadgets and athleticism.
- Black Cloak: Shadowmane sports one as part of her attire. With a small dagger holding it together.
- Breaking the Fellowship: The Power Ponies realize that they're no match for them when they're together, so they decide to break them apart.
- Combat Stilettos: High Heel. Not only does she wear them, but she can throw them at her enemies like batarangs.
- Devious Daggers: Shadowmane is a Catwoman-esque thiaf, and her weapons are her throwing knives. One is always found around her neck and she tosses several of them at the guards when the League of Villainy escapes.
- Emo: Long-Face. Being sad is kinda his thing.
- Enemy Mime: Long-Face's appearance evokes a mime.
- Expy:
- Long-Face is one of Scarecrow considering he is a creepy looking supervillian obsessed with a single emotion who uses chemicals to induce that emotion in others.
- Pharaoh Fetlock is a dead ringer for King Tut, one of the hammiest villains on the 1960s Batman (1966) show.
- Smudge is easily one for Clayface, particularly the Animated Series version.
- Femme Fatale: High Heel is called one by the narrator and her appearance certainly evokes the image of one.
- Flechette Storm: Shadowmane tosses several knat the guards when the League of Villainy escapes.
- Incoming Ham: In true Super Villain fashion, Pharaoh Phetlock's introduction involves him and Mummy Minions driving a car through a building while laughing evilly.
- Mooks: Pharaoh Phetlock has his Mummy Minions to aid him.
- Shout-Out: Shadowmane is somewhere between this and an expy, being a mixture of Catwoman as a villain and the Arrowverse character of Malcolm Merlyn.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Smudge. He doesn't show off these powers very often especially once he gains Masked Matter-horn's beam abilities, but he is shown to be able to change his size and coil his entire body around Radiance.
Longhorn
Debut: My Little Pony Friends Forever #8 (Cameo); "The Good, the Bad and the Ponies", #25
A bull cattle rustler who's trying to take over Canter Creek and its pepper ranch after the original owner, Chili Pepper, suddenly went missing.
- Brutish Bulls: He's a literal cattle rustlers, a foul-tempered outlaw bull trying to take control of Canter Creek through ruthless attacks, arson and fear tactics.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He and his crew show up in the Friends Forever series trying to rob Applejack and Rarity's carriage before showing up in the main comic series proper. They even lampshade it when they see the two again.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He can be set off rather easily.
- Made of Iron: When he comes into Canter Creek after Twilight has set a trap for him. He sets them all off but is entirely unfazed and just plows through them.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Rather then take the ranch by force, he actually tries to do it the legal way and just wait out the deadline while making a camp near the property. Granted he still terrorizes the Canter Creek residents, but only as a way so they won't fight back against him before the deadline hits.
- Surrounded by Idiots: His posse aren't quite as mean as he is and he usually has to get them back on task when they're distracted.
- Top-Heavy Guy: From a design standpoint when he stands on two legs.
- Villainous Breakdown: Has one when he realizes he can't legally own the Chili Pepper's ranch anymore after the Mane 6 stall him long enough to get the ranch registered as a national landmark.
Sheriff Tumbleweed
Debut: "The Good, the Bad and the Ponies", #25
The current Sheriff of Canter Creek.
- Determinator For the most part, he has been holding off Longhorn before the Mane 6 show up but not without damage to the town.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice
- 10-Minute Retirement: Combined with Heroic BSoD, after Twilight's plan fails, he all but gives up. But upon hearing AJ's plan in the next issue, he eventually returns to help and takes back his post once everything said and done.
Anon-A-Miss
An internet persona that spread the secrets of everybody in Canterlot High School, turning the school against itself. On top of that, they framed Sunset Shimmer for their own actions, continuing to spread the secrets of CHS even after their goal had been achieved.
- Apple of Discord: The secrets spread over Anon-A-Miss posts start causing lots of arguments and infighting in Canterlot High School.
- The Bully: They made Sunset Shimmer a scapegoat by making everybody believe that she was the one spreading the secrets, and they continued to do this even after the main goal was done.
- Evil Is Petty: Apple Bloom began Anon-A-Miss because she wasn't invited to a sleepover.
- Gone Horribly Right: They intended to spread secrets to get back at Sunset Shimmer over petty jealousy. Even after that was done, the secret spreading didn't stop. During their confession, Anon-A-Miss admits that things got out of control.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Their motive is jealousy over Sunset Shimmer getting more attention from the Rainbooms than them. They confess as much during a Motive Rant.
- Heel Realization: They eventually get what they want with all of the secret spreading. However, the secrets continue to spread even after they've achieved their goal, seeing the situation spiral out of their control and continuing to make Sunset's life worse. This ends up prompting their confession.
- Kids Are Cruel: The revelation that the users of Anon-A-Miss are high school students makes them very fitting for this trope, considering what they did. Even more so when it turns out they're the human Cutie Mark Crusaders.
- Motive Decay: Even after getting what they wanted, they didn't stop allowing the secrets to be posted online.
- Punny Name: Anon-A-Miss — "anonymous."
- The Unfought: Anon-A-Miss is never directly confronted by the characters, mostly because they're a username handle among thousands of similarly anonymous users. So even if they did fight Anon-A-Miss, they wouldn't be fighting the actual users of it.
- Walking Spoiler: Knowing they're even a thing in the comic they appear in makes it clear that it's not just a holiday special...
The Deer
From Left: King Aspen, Bramble and Blackthorn.
Debut: "Root of the Problem", #27
A tribe of deer that live in the Thicket, a kingdom hidden at the heart of the Everfree Forest. They are led by King Aspen. Other deer include the king's son Bramble, and an older deer named Blackthorn.
- Berserk Button: Destroying the forest or trees in general. Bramble raises a major fuss when the Mane Six knock down a tree to cross a gorge. And King Aspen nearly doesn't bother to talk to the Mane 6 when they get to his kingdom just on account of being ponies.
- Demoted to Extra: They've only have background, story-irrelevant appearances after their debut, with their one line of dialog since Lampshading this.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite downright invading Equestria, Celestia forgave Aspen on the reasoning that it gave her some action.
- Fantastic Racism: They're not very fond of ponies and far from shy about making this known.
- Hypocrite:
- They argue of Well-To-Do lumbering operation destroying the forest yet see no problem in using their magic to send out vines to pony settlements that have nothing to do with the conflict.
- They treat Tempest Shadow with scorn and distrust despite also being guilty of attacking Ponyville and Canterlot.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- King Aspen communicates with Celestia through messenger birds. When Well-To-Do starts his construction, Celestia suddenly stops replying. This leads King Aspen to believe Celestia either sided with Well-To-Do, or simply doesn't care. Ironically the reason she can't respond is because his vines have ensnared both Luna and her, preventing her from doing so. Even though the two princesses do get free, the birds he does send later are intercepted by Well-To-Do's henchmen.
- This is generally their main problem in a nutshell. Their temper usually gets the better of most of them and, as soon as someone does something they don't like, they figure they're not worth their time to talk to. For example: The Mane 6 weren't deliberately trying to destroy a tree when crossing a ravine but rather just work with what they had. Bramble, while making a good point about animals that live in the tree, only told them after they had done it and only after going on a tirade rather then just calmly explaining the situation. Likewise, Aspen was more than willing to jump into war with the whole of Equestria over an assumption that all ponies were at fault for most of the forest's destruction and Twilight could just barely convince him to try alternatives before then.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Blackthorn is a least a lot more tolerable to deal with then his fellow deer.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The mobile app quest involving them shows they've mellowed out since the events of the comic, and have constructed an embassy in Ponyville. King Aspen and Blackthorn also appear in issues 61 and 62, both acting much happier and respectful.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Their efforts stem from trying to protect the forest and its inheritance, but have little regard for anyone else.
King Aspen
The ruler of the deer and Bramble's father.- Break the Haughty: Near the climax, he's is blackmailed into humiliating servitude under Well-To-Do in exchange for Bramble's life.
- Complexity Addiction: He seems to rule by making things much more complicated than they have to be, which only becomes even more apparent after Blackthorn (temporarily) takes over.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "Convocation of the Creatures", he and the Queen of Abyssinia remark on how they can't shake the feeling that they're playing bit parts in someone else's narrative.King Aspen: ...Do you ever feel as though you're simply not part of the story?
Queen of Abyssinia: Constantly.
Well-To-Do
Debut: "Root of the Problem", #27
A minotaur who's cutting down a chunk of the Everfree Forest for an amusement part.
- Affably Evil: He actually comes off as a nice guy despite being the villain.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Only cares about making money (or "progress" as he calls it) and not at all concerned with the damage he's doing.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Subverted. He gets eaten by a hydra, but survives due to only being swallowed whole. He's last seen trying to sell some of said hydra's innards as property to another eaten creature.
- Greed: His usual defining trait — he wants profit, riches and land for himself, and his attempts to gather them are what drive the story's plot.
- Lack of Empathy: He shrugs off the damage to life he's causing in the forest.
- Large and in Charge: Well considering how big Iron Will was when we met him, it's not a surprise.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: He's a minotaur, a humanoid with the head and hooves of a bull. Notably, he's one of the only two minotaurs anywhere in canon.
Bad Apple
Debut: "Night of the Living Apples", #32
The leader of the living apples who conquer Ponyville.
- Big Bad: He's the main villain of the "Night of the Living Apples" arc. His conquest of Ponyville sets off the plot, and the heroes' attempts to thwart him make up the rest of the story.
- The Cameo: He appears in the crowd of past villains seen in the bad-guy casino in Nightmare Knights.
- Evil Gloating: Invoked when Twilight, after the main six are captured, asks him what he intends to do. He answers that he plans to gloat.Twilight Sparkle: What are you going to do?
Bad Apple: Gloat! There will be much gloating! - Non-Mammalian Hair: A particularly extreme example, given that he's a fruit and still sports a magnificent handlebar mustache.
- Take Over the World: He seeks world conquest and certainly doesn't waste any time in going through with it, as he and the other apples take over Ponyville in matter of days and set their sights on the rest of Equestria soon afterwards.
Good Apple
Debut: "Night of the Living Apples", #32
The only living apple to have developed a good heart, Good Apple was promptly sealed away by Bad Apple to keep him from being a good influence on the others.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: Most apples are the usual bright red, but Good Apple is the only one to be green. Both are normal colors for apples, but play into red's traditional association with hostility, anger and war and green's association with growth and peace.
- Token Good Teammate: He's the only apple to actually be good, and his influence is needed to turn the others away from their warlike path.
Rabia
Left: "Fairy" Form. Right: True Form
Debut: Fiendship is Magic #1: King Sombra
- Ancient Evil: She is so ancient the Princesses never even learned of her.
- Big Bad: Of "Siege of the Crystal Empire", as she's responsible for everything that happens there.
- Domain Holder: Just like how Sombra was seemingly able to Reality Warp the Empire at his peak, she and the other Umbrum — while magically prevented from actually leaving their Pocket Dimension without outside intervention — still seem able to alter their appearances inside, enable non-Umbrum characters to enter and leave at will, and possibly even affect time itself within (given Hope's The Ageless-ness while living there).
- Expy: Just as Sombra has often been compared to Sauron, Rabia is essentially the Equestrian version of Morgoth.
- Greater-Scope Villain: For "The Crystal Empire" and "Fiendship is Magic #1". She is King Sombra's mother who sent him to be the Umbrum's mole in her plan to release them while being unable to directly act. She becomes the actual Big Bad of "Siege of the Crystal Empire".
- Eldritch Abomination: The leader of the Umbrum, and the biggest and most threatening.
- Large and in Charge: Is Sombra's mother and leader of the Umbrum, and dwarfs the rest of her kind.
- Leaking Can of Evil: She was able leak Sombra out of their imprisonment and leak others in to manipulate them.
- Long Game: Her plan to free the Umbrum has been at least a millennium in the making.
- The Man Behind the Man: She's the one secretly behind the rise of King Sombra, having engineered his entrance into pony society, his resentment for it, and his eventually fall to evil and rise to magical power.
- Meaningful Name:
- Her name is the Spanish word for "anger". Fittingly, her daughter's name is the same tongue's word for "wrath".
- In Arabic, "Rabia" means Spring, which may not fit for her true nature but does fit for her small, cutesy disguise, which resembles a fairy.
- Mysterious Past: She created King Sombra. Her origins, as well as the rest of the Umbrum Forces, on the other hand, are a mystery.
- One-Winged Angel: Is first seen in the form of a small fairy-like creature, but eventually reveals her true monstrous form.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Is sealed in the Shadow Prison with the rest of the Umbrum until Sombra frees them.
- Stupid Evil: When Twilight and Cadance "helpfully" suggest that she finish them off via sadistic, Complexity Addiction method (that would obviously lead the Umbrum right into a trap), she... gleefully agrees. Despite Sombra's Only Sane Man warning, no less.
- Unseen Evil: At first, the only interaction anyone has with her is hearing her voice and then seeing her disguised form. It isn't until Issue Three of "Siege of the Crystal Empire" that we actually see what she looks like, and she's every bit as monstrous as implied.
Accord
Debut: "Chaos Theory", #48
After an argument with the ponies, Discord encases himself in a strange cocoon and emerges as Accord, an orderly and affable being who seems his opposite in every way. While this seems an excellent development at first, it eventually becomes apparent the Accord's love of order may not be any less dangerous than Discord's love of chaos.
- Affably Evil: He's a genuinely polite, well-intentioned, friendly and likable person. Even his Evil Scheme is born out of a genuine belief that what he's doing is actually helping ponies.
- Assimilation Plot: Eventually, he decides that the most effective way to give ponies the Order they seemingly desire is to absorb them all into one homogeneous Mind Hive, where everypony will think, act and feel exactly the same.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Justified, actually. By the end of the comic, he has assimilated all of Equestria, the Elements of Harmony are harmless and he knows Starlight doesn't possess anywhere near the power needed to compete with him alone, much less the thousands of ponies (including at least three alicorns) he controls. He is not delusional, there simply is no way for Starlight to defeat him, so he might as well accept her challenge.
- Graceful Loser: As befitting of his nature, he takes his defeat in stride and bids the heroes a gracious farewell.
- Irony: Discord created Accord because he became convinced that ponies would always believe Chaos Is Evil and so distrust him. Accord then shows that Order Is Not Good.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Starlight shows him that his order isn't any better then Discord's chaos, he realizes that she's right and willingly agrees to allow Discord to return.
- Order Is Not Good: He shows that Order can be as evil as Discord's "Chaos" was. After all, individuality is a kind of Chaos...
- Order Versus Chaos: He's the Order to Discord's Chaos — and the Utopia Justifies the Means to his once-World Gone Mad.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: His design and personality are largely rooted in this archetype, of which he has the fitted coat, curling mustache, silver-headed cane, even temper and gentlemanly politeness.
- Reality Warper: Alignment switch aside, he retains Discord's ability to reshape reality to his whim.
- Split-Personality Takeover: He does this to Discord, sealing him away in the deepest part of their shared subconscious.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His motivation for exterminating individual personalities and differences of opinion is that this imposition of Order will bring an end to the emotional pain that comes from disagreements.
Shadow Lock
Debut: "From the Shadows", #51
A unicorn stallion with the ability to make ponies forget things by erasing the contents of books they’ve read.
- Arc Villain: He's the antagonist of the "From the Shadows" story arc.
- In the Hood: Wears a brown cloak with a hood that covers both his face and his Cutie Mark.
- Properly Paranoid: The Stinger heavily implies Shadow Lock's ancestor is about to return, just as the former feared. However, thanks to Twilight's advice, Shadow Lock now decides to actively research said ancestor to become Crazy-Prepared for such an event.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Shadow Lock's motive for erasing all of those books? He's actively trying to prevent a possible return from his ancient ancestor Stygian, also known as the Pony of Shadows.
The Bureaucrats
Debut:"Convocation of the Creatures", #61
A group of archivists and pencil-pushers sent to Mount Metazoa to sort through its extensive library of files and political documents and to add records of their nations' more recent dealings to the archives.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After learning that the current yak prince had signed the treaty between the ponies and griffons, the archivists search for a follow-up document. They have no luck at first... until Urtica points out that the yaks operate on a different calendar, allowing Horwitz to locate the right document.
- Genki Girl: Urtica, the changeling librarian, is extremely energetic and excitable.
- Hulk Speak: Averted with Horwitz, in marked contrast to other yaks, as he lost his accent during his second year at Oxenford.
- Meaningful Name: Urtica's name is a reference to the urticating hairs found on several insect species.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Blacktip, the dragon archivist. He claims to know dragon history better than anyone, and urges Twilight to go to him for such knowledge... but Twilight points out that she can just ask her dragon assistant or the Dragon Lord herself.
- Shrinking Violet: Glenda, the griffon archivist, is very meek and quiet.
- Verbal Tic: Urtica has a tendency to stutter when she speaks.
- We Need a Distraction: While trying to escape Lord Goldstone's guards, the archivists use the cultural demonstrations to evade them, such as by getting a dragon to demonstrate flame-writing to force the guards to stop before they run into the flames.
- What's In It For Me?: When Blacktip initially refuses to help, asking what Equestria has ever done for dragons, Raven points out that Equestria exports ninety percent of all the gems going into the Dragon Lands.
Lord Goldstone
Debut:"Convocation of the Creatures", #62
A power-hungry griffin lord seeking to seize control of Equestria's land so as to add to his own domains.
- Destroy the Evidence: When he learns that the archivists discovered a document that proves the debt was settled, he orders his guards to recover and destroy it.
- Greed: He's eager for Equestria to return the land to the griffons because it would increase his own personal holdings.
Temperance Flowerdew
Debut:"All in Marederation", #63
A fervent anti-sugar crusader who has come to Ponyville to rid it of its tooth-rotting evils.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Puritan style of dress, Puritan name, zealous crusade against the consumption of a specific substance... is Temperance railing against sugar or is this the Prohibition?
- Freudian Excuse: Temperance's views on sugar manifested when she was a young pony, having grown up in an environment that taught her snacks were bad. One day she finally had the chance to try these forbidden treats, but she went overboard and made herself sick. From that day forward she became obsessed with making sure no one had to feel like she did.
- Ironic Name: The word "temperance" means moderation. Temperance promotes an extremist stance against sugar, and has to be taught the value of moderation.
- Jerkass Has a Point: She's quite right in saying that eating a lot of sugary goods is bad for a person, causing such things as tooth decay and weight gain. The problem is that her extreme methods cause most people to believe sugar is pure evil and must be banned in all forms, rather than promoting ideas about a balanced diet and moderation.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Her reaction on seeing what her extremist views are doing to Ponyville, with half the populace unhappy and miserable from holding up her stance to an unhealthy degree, and the other going on huge sugar binges out of fear they'll never eat sugar again. She eventually sees the light when Twilight teaches her to preach moderation instead of an "all or nothing" mindset.
- Villain Song: Despite being in a non-auditory medium, Temperance manages to put in a song about the evils of sugar when she first comes to Ponyville.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her guilt-tripping ponies and leading protests to get baked goods and candy banned is based in a genuine concern about the health of other ponies, but her "all or nothing" mindset proves to be just as unhealthy as she views sugar to be.
Auntie Shadowfall
Debut: "Queen for One Less Day", #65
An old mare who looks after a pair of orphaned foals, with the stipulation that they steal goods for her if they want to keep a roof over their head.
- Evil Aunt: She's an abusive old mare who forces her erstwhile niece and nephew to steal for her. According to Scarlet Petal, Shadowfall isn't really their blood relative at all, just somepony who thought she could make use of them.
- The Fagin: She's a textbook take on the trope — she takes in orphaned children and forces them to steal for her in exchange for room and board, and keeps most of the proceeds for herself.
- Hostage for MacGuffin: She briefly holds Winter Comet hostage, demanding the amulet in return for him.
- Tempting Fate: When Scarlet Petal returns the magic amulet back to (disguised) Celestia, Shadowfall rages that she made a huge mistake that will cost her dearly. She rants about how Scarlet Petal is in so much trouble that nopony is going to help her now, not even Princess Celestia. Enter Celestia, who uses the amulet to revert back to her Alicorn form and is more than irritated. Cue Shadowfall realizing how bad she screwed herself over.
Cosmos
"Discord. Darling. It's so lovely to see you again."
"Are you ready, Discord, my dear? Bit by bit, I'm coming home."
Debut: "Cosmos", #75
An old acquaintance of Discord's who was so chaotic that even he couldn't handle her. Having been sealed away in the stars for over a thousand years, her return begins when one of the six gems is found, and through it, she possesses Twilight Sparkle. She plans to restore herself to her former glory and is dedicated to ruling Equestria with Discord by her side.
- Abhorrent Admirer: A very villainous example; she wants to rule Equestria alongside Discord and believes he'll come back to her, even when he makes it clear he's reformed.
- Achilles' Heel: Normally invulnerable to all but the highest level magic, but the way she was sealed contained most of her magic in the stars she was imprisoned inside of. As a result, even upon becoming whole again, removing and destroying them renders her completely powerless.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Like Discord, she at first appears to be one of Chaos, albeit more aggressive than him. Discord reveals that she actually represents Malice, the intent to do harm.
- Artifact Domination: Sealed away, she takes the form of six purple gemstone stars that possess anyone powerful enough to host her. The Princesses are vulnerable, and Big Mac and Zecora become possessed as well.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In the past, after Discord abandoned her, she turned herself gigantic and went on a rampage trying to retrieve him. In the present, she does this again once she fuses with the Princesses, Zecora, and Big Mac.
- Ax-Crazy: She doesn't mind hurting or even killing ponies to get her kicks.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: Much like Discord, her magic allows her to distort everything around her to her will. Unlike Discord, she completely revels in how destructive she can be, and gets irritated when Discord isn't willing to go as far as she does.
- Big Bad: She is the antagonist of her own story arc.
- Big "NO!": Gets one when Discord feeds Spike the last star gem.
- The Bus Came Back: In the mobile game, she gathers enough magic to return to Equestria and attempts revenge on the ponies, this time forcing Rainbow Dash to relive the day her wings were stolen.
- The Cameo: Discord is seen tearing up photos of her in issue 89, and later issues show engravings of her on the walls of the other Tree of Harmony temples.
- Celestial Body: Her shadow when possessing Twilight is essentially a window into space cut into her shape.
- Chaos Is Evil: Unlike Discord, she plays this completely straight, reveling in causing destruction and death in the name of her idea of chaos. Subverted by the end of the arc, where she reveals to Discord that she's not a spirit of chaos like him, but of malice.Cosmos: "What goes better with malice than chaos! And if chaos won't join me as my companion, you can sit at my feet as my dog."
- Child Hater: She set an orphanage ablaze (with the foals still in it) in the past, and calls the Cutie Mark Crusaders "filthy creatures" in the present.
- De-power: The star gems she was sealed inside of now permanently contain her power, so when the heroes remove them and Spike destroys them by eating them, she's left completely powerless, allowing Discord to easily banish her to the moon.
- Deface of the Moon: After Discord banishes her to the moon, she immediately sets to vandalizing Luna's moon-rock gardens.
- Demonic Possession: The six stars allow her to possess whoever wears them, but only certain kinds of ponies are susceptible to their effects.
- Eldritch Abomination: She came from the same dimension Discord lives in, chaos naturally overtakes the world in her wake, and she's powerful enough that Discord alone can't reverse the effects of her powers. And that's all before the horrifying fusion she makes of herself and the possessed ponies.
- Entitled Bitch: As she reveals later she doesn't so much as wants Discord's love as just wants him by her side just because as beings of Chaos (Discord) and Malice (herself), they should go well together just for the sake of it. When Discord finally gets through to her that he's long since change his ways, she tries to cowtow him by force.
- The Exile: Once the ponies are freed from her power and she's stripped of her power by having the stars now containing her power destroyed, Discord wastes no time in banishing her to the moon.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She can't understand why Discord would let himself be reformed, or why he could never be as destructive as her.
- Evil Counterpart: Cosmos is essentially an eviler counterpart to pre-Heel–Face Turn Discord. While Discord wreaked chaos on Equestria with his Reality Warper magic for the sheer joy of it, Cosmos has far more sadistic intentions with hers.
- Evil Tainted the Place: Very literally; chaos naturally follows in her wake, transforming architecture and nature around her into twisted forms more suitable to her.
- Eviler than Thou: To Discord during their brief alliance, being much more powerful, dangerous and evil than he was, and definitely the one calling the shots. Being the Spirit of Malice, she outright believes he's meant to serve her, willingly or not.
- Fangs Are Evil: While her fangs aren't as long as Discord's one fang, her expressions with them are far more sinister.
- Filler Villain: As she's exclusive to the comics, her actions ultimately leave little impact by the end.
- Fusion Dance: Once she's resurrected, she decides she's not done with the ponies she's possessed, and fuses them into herself.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She attacks Fluttershy upon finding out she was the reason Discord reformed.
- Hellish Pupils: She has slit pupils and yellow sclera. They manifest in whoever she's possessing when she's angered.
- Horns of Villainy: Two long, pointed horns.
- Horrifying the Horror: You know this girl is bad news when even pre-Heel–Face Turn Discord is terrified of her. How bad? He willingly partnered with Celestia, Luna and the royalty of other lands that were chasing him (believing he was the cause of the chaos at the time) and pleaded them to help him take her down the first time.
- Ironic Name: Cosmos literally means "order", and specifically the idea of a structured universe as antithetical to chaos.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Those under her possession get pink eyes with heart-shaped pupils. When Cosmos is angered, they turn into her eyes.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: She has a dragon-like head and wings, a cobra's hood, bird talons for arms, a feline body, and a scorpion tail. Once she fuses with the Princesses, Big Mac, and Zecora, a number of their traits — such Zecora's stripes, Big Mac's legs, Luna's wings, Celestia's tail and Cadance and Twilight's manes — are slapped onto her as well.
- Nightmare Face: When angered while possessing another pony, more of Cosmos' facial features begin to emerge. It's not pleasant.
- Production Throwback: She inherits her name from the development of My Little Pony: The Movie, where "Cosmos" was the character that later developed into Tempest Shadow.
- Reality Warper: She's implied to be even more powerful than Discord; rather than transform everything chaotic manually, chaos magic seems to follow in her wake, even when she doesn't have her physical form. It was even feared that her initial rampage would have destroyed the fabric of existence itself.
- Rejection Affection: Even after Discord teamed up with his major enemies just to get rid of her, she still pursues him romantically.
- Sadist: Horrifying and sadistic magic is her specialty. Comes with being the Spirit of Malice.
- Satanic Archetype: As the Spirit of Malice, she's the closest thing to a Devil figure in this cutesy world. The chaos she wreaks is more visually horrific and visceral than Discord's colorful randomness, and when she reveals her true nature, she looks downright demonic, with visuals of previous villains like Tirek, Chrysalis, and the Storm King accompanying her.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Her essence was divided and placed into jewels that formed the Andalusian constellation. A comet knocked those jewels back down to Equestria, with those who wore them being possessed by Cosmos.
- Slasher Smile: Every smile of hers is this.
- Talking to Themself: Because she's possessing several bodies at once, she has a tendency to talk to herself while retaining the possessed pony's quirks, such as Zecora's rhyming or Big Mac's "Eyup". In a humorous twist, this tends to annoy the other versions of herself who don't prove fans of the other hosts' speech patterns.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Granted, the main IDW series is far more Darker and Edgier than the show itself, but she's one of the most vilest villains in all of the My Little Pony series apart from Tirac from Rescue at Midnight Castle and Lavan from My Little Pony 'n Friends.
- Villain Ball: Once she's restored, she doesn't extract her magic out of the six gems to make herself truly whole again; instead, she uses the possessed ponies to to turn herself into a gigantic monster and go on a rampage. Inevitably, Discord and the ponies break off the gems and destroy them, rendering her powerless.
- Villainous Breakdown: After her power is destroyed, she's left pathetically trying to declare it isn't over on her hands and knees before Discord banishes her to the moon.
- Villainous Crush: She wants Discord to be hers, and she won't take "no" for an answer. She means it literally when she means hers, as she'd prefer him as a companion but is fine to have him as a possession.
- Would Hurt a Child: The moment Discord turned on her was when she transformed an orphanage filled with children into a towering inferno with thrones on the roof, prompting Discord to jump in and save them.
- Yandere: She tends to give off this vibe whenever she's speaking to Discord, usually in a very possessive manner. She's also very displeased when she finds out that Fluttershy is the reason he's reformed.
The Wolf Fly-Der
Debut: "No Fear!... Except One", #85
A giant wolf-spider hybrid, probably from Tartarus or something, that starts leaving its webs all over the Apples' apple orchards.
- Extra Eyes: It has four compound eyes, two on each side of its face.
- Giant Spider: While common fly-ders are no larger than real spiders, the wolf fly-der is bigger than Applejack.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It's a form of fly-der — itself already a hybrid of spider and housefly — the size of a wolf and with a wolf's head.
- Pun-Based Creature: It's a further iteration of the fly-ders' visual pun that plays off of the real life wolf spider by being a fly-winged spider with a wolf's head.
- Spiders Are Scary: Zig-zagged. Despite its size and vicious temperament (and its natural habitat happening to be Tartarus), it is first easily scared off by Applejack, then later talked into returning to Tartarus by Apple Bloom.
Dr. Sacks Roamer
Debut: "The Fast and the Furriest", #87
An earth pony thief who steals valuable artifacts and sells them on the black market. After stealing the Mangalese Drake, a dragon artifact, he takes part in the Draytona Breach cart race (carrying the artifact in his cart), using the fact that it ends in Yakyakistan to try and escape from the dragons.
- The Determinator: His goal isn't to win the Draytona Breach, but simply to cross the finish line with the Mangalese Drake. When he discovers that his cloud gremlin minion, Lumpy, accidentally hid it in Rainbow Dash's cart instead of his own, he puts everything he has into catching up with Rainbow.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: The doctor is a thief who steals valuable artifacts and sells them on the black market, although Lumpy implies that he hasn't actually earned his doctorate yet.
- Punny Name: Doubling as a Shout-Out to Sax Rohmer (his title probably being an additional shout-out to Rohmer's most famous creation).
- Near-Villain Victory: He almost manages to cross into Yakyakistan with the Mangalese Drake, knowing that the cold temperatures will prevent the dragons from following. Before he can, however, Yona parachutes down on top of him, stopping him in his tracks.
Lumpy
Debut: "The Fast and the Furriest", #87
Dr. Sacks Roamer's underling. He accidentally hides Roamer's stolen artifact in Rainbow Dash's cart, throwing a major wrench into the doctor's plans.
- Hidden Depths: He earned a law degree at some point, and responds to Roamer's plan to smuggle the Mangalese Drake across the Yakyakistan border by mentioning extradition treaties between Yakyakistan and Equestria.
- Karma Houdini: He was complicit in Roamer's crimes, and states that he's "wanted everywhere" by authorities, but manages to escape any punishment for this.
- Saying Too Much: When Spike interrogates him, he hastily defends himself from accusations of being the thief the others are looking for by stating that he only works for the thief, before belatedly realizing he shouldn't have said that.Spike: You're the funny guy! I mean, the thief!
Lumpy: Who, me? I'm nobody! I'm no thief! I just work for the thief! Wait, that's the wrong thing to say. - Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After getting away from Spike, Lumpy decides to quit thieving and join the circus.
Silver Streak
Debut: "The Fast and the Furriest", #87
A former friend of Big McIntosh from farm school, and the current reigning champion of the Draytona Breach 500.
- The Bet: After being riled up by Rainbow, Silver Streak demands that Big Mac take part in the race, with Rainbow telling Silver that he will have to face up to what he did to his best friend is Big Mac wins.
- Jerkass Realization: Silver Streak ultimately wins the race, beating Big Mac. But in the midst of his bragging, he sees Big Mac helping Rainbow (whose cart had been demolished by Roamer), and realises that he has no-one who would do the same for him, due to his obsession with racing keeping him from making any friends. This spurs him to make amends with Big Mac.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Inverted. He has a square jaw, but is bitter and resentful of Big Mac.
- Never My Fault: Silver Streak claims that Big Mac is the one who stopped being his friend after proving better than him him at racing. As Rainbow points out, this disregards the fact that he was the one who encouraged Big Mac to race in the first place.
- The Resenter: Silver Streak hated how Big Mac was better than him at racing, ending their friendship after Big Mac won the Draytona Breach instead of him.
- We Used to Be Friends: Big Mac and Silver Streak were friends in farm school, before racing tore them apart.
Zecora's old friends
Debut: "The Farasian Shores", #89
Marini, Dust Devil, Cactus Rose, Medley Brook and Crystal, Zecora's former friends from her homeland of Farasi. They reunite with her when Twilight sends a team of delegates to forge new bonds between Equestria and other lands.
As a whole:
- Elemental Embodiment: The kelpies Medley Brook and Crystal. Medley Brook looks like water in an equine form, while Crystal looks more like a walking ice sculpture.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: As kelpies, Medley Brook and Crystal are this, able to shift their bodies from water to ice to steam at will.
- Innocently Insensitive: When they were young, they laughed at Zecora when she said she wanted to learn magic (and started speaking in rhyme), with Marini telling her not to get too upset when she didn't succeed. As far as they knew, it was impossible for a zebra to learn magic, so they thought they were encouraging their friend not to pursue a hopeless dream.
- Our Kelpies Are Different: Crystal and Medley Brook are Elemental Shapeshifters who can control water, have stripes like zebras, and live in a place based on sub-Saharan Africa.
- There Is Another: Issue #92 reveals that they, along with Zecora, are the wielders of the Farasian versions of the Elements of Harmony, with their own Tree of Harmony (later revealed to be the Tree of History); Marini embodies Honesty, Dust Devil Kindness, Cactus Rose Generosity, Medley Brook Laughter, Crystal Loyalty, and Zecora is their Element of Magic.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The kelpies have two: they cannot be away from sources of water for too long or they'll die, and they explode when they come into contact with electricity.
- We Used to Be Friends: Zecora cut ties with them and left Farasi years ago. The group initially don't seem to hold it against her, gleefully welcoming her back when they see her again. However, they later admit to being resentful that Zecora left without telling anyone.
Marini
The leader of Zecora's band of friends. She is the mayor of Casabronco.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Marini is a zebra, and has pink mixed in with her black stripes.
- Honesty Is the Best Policy: Marini believes that it is best to be honest with others, and openly admits that she never really got the hang of lying being of this. She is ultimately revealed to be the wielder of the Farasian Element of Honesty.
- Pink Is Feminine: Marini, a zebra, has multiple pink patterns added to the usual black and white stripes.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Marini is the mayor of their home town of Casabronco, and often leads her friends in defending the town from the Grootslang's attacks.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Marini invokes this to Zecora during an argument, calling her out for just up and leaving her friends without warning.
Dust Devil
A very speedy Abada.
- Ambiguous Gender: Dust Devil is described with they/them pronouns throughout the issues despite having a largely masculine (aside from their long eyelashes) appearance. Jeremy Whitley tweeted that Dust Devil is non-binary.
- Didn't Think This Through: In #91, Dust Devil creates a wind funnel to lift up a Roc who can't fly due to the lack of wind in the desert. In order to give the Roc one last push, Dust Devil stops abrubtly, causing them to skid over a cliff. Crystal saves them by forming an ice slide, and chides her friend for not thinking things out immediately after, implying that they often do this often in their efforts to help others.
- Super-Speed: Is the fastest of the group.
Medley Brook
A water Kelpie.
- Comically Missing the Point: During a Flashback to their younger days, Medley Brook took on the name of "Brook the Barbarian" for a LARP, despite Marini pointing out that she shouldn't use her real name.
- Genki Girl: Medley Brook is a very excitable and energetic mare, even bursting into a song number reminiscent of Pinkie Pie. She is ultimately revealed to be the wielder of the Farasian Element of Laughter.
- Making a Splash: Being a Kelpie, Medley Brook can control water.
- Noodle Incident: Medley Brook once exploded after touching a zap apple.Marini: We spent an hour mopping up Medley Brook and putting all of her pieces in a bucket. I swear she's shorter than she used to be.
Crystal
An ice Kelpie.
- An Ice Person: Crystal can manipulate ice, having even saved Dust Devil from falling by making a slide out of ice, but dries herself out in the process.
- Commonality Connection: As their two groups hunt for the Grootslang, Crystal starts to bond with Tempest Shadow, due to them both being aloof, combatative and cynical, but with good hearts underneath.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Zecora chose pursuing her study of magic over her friends, Crystal was so angered that she took to freezing every puddle of water that Zecora was about to step on, making her slip.
- Equivalent Exchange: Crystal makes an ice slide using water from her own body to catch a falling Dust Devil. Later on, she is revealed to be drying out faster from the desert heat compared to Medley Brook.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: By her own admission, most of their hometown thinks she's "mean", and she reacted poorly to Zecora neglecting her and the others. That said, she stands by her friends, helping them fight against the Grootslang attacking their town.
- Undying Loyalty: Despite her aloof attitude, Crystal is very dedicated to her friends. She is ultimately revealed to be the wielder of the Farasian Element of Loyalty.
Cactus Rose
A gentle, caring Abada.
- Green Thumb: Her unique Abada magic allows her to communicate with plants.
The Royal Sisters of Caninia
Debut: "The Two Kingdoms of Caninia", 2021 Annual
Katherina Proudpaws, Jennino "Jenn" Lanternlight, Moonbeam "Moon" Twinkletail, Ambrosia "Amber" Muffinbuns, Fiona Floppyears and Indiana "Indy" Embereyes, are the royal family of the Diamond Dogs' homeland of Caninia. Originally under the rule of Katherina, the eldest, a disagreement between Katherina and Jenn over the discovery of a new cavern in the kingdom's mines lead to a schism, with Jenn taking Moon and Amber to rule over their own castle.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: While most of the sisters have colorings you'd see in real life dogs, Katherina and Moon have bright blue and purple fur respectively.
- Appeal to Tradition: Katherina refused to allow Moon to study magic, or Amber to redecorate the castle, by invoking this.
- Berserk Button: When Rarity suggests that Katherina's nickname is "Kat", the queen reacts angrily, saying "That word is forbidden in this kingdom".
- Both Sides Have a Point: Ultimately, Jenna and Katherina admit to this; while Jenn was right about giving their sisters freedom to be themselves and needing to explore the new cavern, Katherina was just trying to protect her sisters.
- Disappeared Dad/Missing Mom: What became of their parents is unknown. They are only briefly mentioned when Katherina talks about ruling in their stead.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Parent: Sibling variant. Katherina insisted that Moon not continue her studies of magic, claiming it to be too dangerous. She also tried to forbide Amber's tastes in decoration and fashion, and Jenn's love of exploration, out of her being a stickler for tradition.
- Heel Realization: The Element of Loyalty not activating for Katherina causes her to realize that she has been more loyal to tradition and safety than to her sisters, who are very capable, and that she needs to change.
- A House Divided: Unable to take Katherina denying them the chance to pursue their own interests any longer, Jenn led Moon and Amber to create their own castle, and live apart from the others. Fiona and Indy, while choosing to stay with Katherina, are shown to deeply miss their sisters (especially Fiona).
- Magic Staff: Moon carries one, which she puts to good use in the caverns.
- Overly Long Name: Downplayed. While the sisters don't have really long names per se, they can be quite a mouthful to say (as Jenn herself even points out).
- Sibling Rivalry: Between Katherina and Jenn, with two of their sisters following one of them and two staying with the other.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Defied; with the exception of Amber and Fiona (who are twins), the royal sisters don't look anything like each other.
- Super-Empowering: When the royal sisters connect to their Tree of Harmony, they gain new abilities. Katherina gains the power to make forcefields, Moon gains enhanced digging abilities, Jenn can produce light, Fiona's ears expand enough to pick up boulders, Amber can spin her tail to achieve Flight, and Indy gains Eye Beams.
- There Is Another: A Tree of Harmony (later revealed to be the Tree of Family) is discovered deep beneath Caninia, with the royal sisters being its Elements of Harmony; Moon is the Element of Magic, Indy is Honesty, Amber is Kindness, Fiona is Laughter, Jenn is Generosity, and Katherina is Loyalty.
- This Is My Side: The conflict between Jenn and Katherina lead Jenn to take Moon and Amber and build their own castle on the other side of Caninia (conveniently seperated by a gorge). After the two sides reconcile (and the old castle is destroyed), the sisters all decide to live together in the new castle.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Amber and Fiona. While Amber wears a fancy dress, Fiona wears a simple vest.
Capper's Old Gang
Debut: "Abyssinians", #96
A gang of street cats with whom Capper associated with (until the Storm King's invasion seperated them), consisting of himself, Chummer, Shadow, Max, Molly, and Admiral Fluffington. When Fluttershy's friendship ambassador team arrive in the Abyssinian capital of Panthera, Capper finds his old friends leading a resistance against the new, tyrannical king.
(For information on Chummer, see his entry in the Movie Prequel section).
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Most of the Abyssinians have colors seen in real life cats with the notable exception of Max who has blue fur with purple stripes.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Molly is the sole kitten in the group of cats.
- The Big Guy: Max is the biggest member of the gang, and also the strongest, able to knock out a guard with a single punch.
- Childhood Friends: Capper has known most of them since they were kittens.
- Classy Cat-Burglar: Shadow has this air, being sneaky and clever, while at the same time glamorous.
- Commonality Connection:
- Pinkie Pie takes an immediate liking to the high-spirited Molly, a feeling which is vindicated when Molly is revealed to be the bearer of the Abyssinian Element of Laughter.
Pinkie: I knew I liked you!- Trixie admits to liking the "cunning and brilliant" Admiral Fluffington's style.
- Shadow appreciates how quiet Fluttershy can be.
- High-Class Glass: Admiral Fluffington wears a monocle over his left eye.
- La Résistance: They have formed one against the tyrannical King Meowmeow.
- The Quiet One: Max says little, with his rare moments of speech being candid, and to the point.
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Admiral Fluffington has this air, being polite and dignified whatever the situation.
- Stealth Expert: Shadow is extremely quiet and sneaky, making her an excellent spy. When she brings Fluttershy along with her, she expresses amazement at how quiet she is.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Molly's specialty is explosives.
- Team Mom: Shadow is the one who guides the group, and keeps them on track.
- There Is Another: A Tree of Harmony (later known as the Tree of Purpose) is discovered in a temple beneath Abyssinia, with Capper and his old friends being its Elements of Harmony; Shadow is the Element of Magic, Max is Honesty, Admiral Fluffington is Kindness, Molly is Laughter, Capper is Generosity, and Chummer is Loyalty.
- Transformation Sequence: Downplayed, but accessing the Element of Magic changes Shadow's ears and tail.
King Meowmeow
Debut: "Abyssinians", #96
The tyrannical, magic-hating new king of Abyssinia.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: While he was king of Abyssinia, he banned all outsiders and was very oppressive to his citizens, outlawing all magic and ordering cats imprisoned for things like being homeless. Also, he does not reform and is last seen being dragged away by his former guards.
- Batman Gambit: King Meowmeow has been trying to get past a mysterious door in the tunnels beneath Panthera for quite some time, but none of his guards could pick the lock. So when he found out who Capper was he made sure word of Capper's return and imprisonment reached Capper's old friends and then ordered his men to let Capper and his new friends be "rescued" so that Capper could pick the lock for him so he can destroy the source of magic in the temple while having his guards capture Capper and all his friends. What the king didn't anticipate was Discord being freed from his collar.
- Does Not Like Magic: After the Storm King's invasion, King Meowmeow has banned all magic from Abyssinia. When he discovers the Abyssinian Tree of Harmony, he immediately seeks to destroy it despite Fluttershy telling him it is a source of friendship. It's also implied to have more selfish reasons for being against magic.
- Hates Being Touched: He shows horror/disgust when Capper grabs his cape at the end of his Rousing Speech.
- It's All About Me: He bears similarities to Scar from The Lion King when says he can do whatever he wants simply because he's king, implying he's done all this for his own gain, not to protect his people.
- Kick the Dog: Locking up homeless cats has nothing to do with his goal to end all magic. It seems he put that law into because he wants to.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After the Abyssinian Tree of Harmony brings magic back to the land, Meowmeow is removed from power. Even before that it's Discord's magic that prevents him from destroying said Tree of Harmony and subdues him and his guards.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: His Police State anti-magic rule is supposed to be seen as necessary in order to protect Abyssinia from threats like the Storm King, but it is obvious that his rule boarders on tyranny to the point that simply being homeless is considered a crime punishable by prison which had nothing to do with it and he refuses to listen to Capper's speech about magic being a good thing. Then he wants to destroy Pantherea's Tree of Harmony and doesn't care about the consequences of destroying a source of magic and friendship, just because he feels he has the right as king to do whatever he wants.
- Police State: King Meowmeow makes Panthera into this, with his police constantly patrolling the street. Issue #97 reveals that they have also been locking up anyone without a home.
- Remember the New Guy?: King Meowmeow is the son of the Abyssinian king and queen featured in previous issues of the comic, yet he was never even mentioned until his debut.
The Royal Family of Orinithia
Debut: "Knights of Harmony", #100
The rulers of the avian land of Orinithia. They consist of King Thaumus, Queen Ozomene, Prince Aello, Princess Ocypete, and Aello's wife, Zephyra.
- Ambiguously Bi: Ocypete gets a Childhood Friend Romance with Celaeno but was reluctantly willing to marry Huginn with nothing suggesting her dislike was over orientation.
- Abusive Parents: Ocypete mentions that her parents were "mean" during her childhood.
- Affectionate Nickname: Princess Ocypete calls her old friend Captain Celaeno "Cellie", while Celaeno calls her "Ossie".
- Arranged Marriage: King Thaumus arranged for Ocypete's marriage to Prince Huginn, intending for him to fill the final spot on the Tree of Love.
- Blackmail: When King Thaumus learned that Celaeno intended to invite Ocypete to travel the world with her, he offered to provide her with her own ship if she left on her own - and to make her sorry if she didn't.
- Childhood Friends: Aello and Ocypete have been friends with Celaeno (who was the daughter of two of the castle's staff) since they were young.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Celaeno has been in love with Ocypete since they were kids, and Ocypete returns those feelings after seeing them for herself.
- Happily Married: King Thaumus and Queen Ozomene, and Prince Aello and his wife Zephyra.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: King Thamus. While he forced Celaeno to leave Orinithia alone, and tries to get his daughter to go through with an arranged marriage, he is fiercely devoted to protecting his kingdom, and even greets Celaeno warmly when they see each other again. Notably, he's still deemed worthy to be an Element Bearer.
- The Power of Love: Ocypete explains that each set of the Elements of Harmony corresponds to a specific kind of relationship, and Ornithinia's is love. They need three pairs of birds in love to activate.
- Shout-Out: They are named for figures in Greek mythology. Aello and Ocypete are named for two harpies; Thaumus and Ozomene are named for the father and mother of the harpies; and Zephyra is named after Zephyrus/Zephyr, the Greek god of the west wind.
- There Is Another: They are connected to Orinithia's Tree of Harmony (or rather, Love), with the Elements of Protection (King Thaumus), Generosity (Queen Ozomene), Kindness (Prince Aello), Trust (Zephyra), and Hope (Ocypete), with the final Element of Perserverance being revealed to be Captain Celaeno.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: While King Thaumus did some questionable things, it was all to ensure that the Tree of Love would have all six Elements activated.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ocypete is angry with Celaeno over her leaving without warning years ago. It takes Celaeno revealing that she was forced to do so by King Thaumus to appease Ocypete.
Prince Huginn
Debut: "Knights of Harmony", #100
A raven prince who has been arranged to wed Princess Ocypete.
- Arranged Marriage: King Thaumus arranged for Ocypete's marriage to Prince Huginn, intending for him to fill the final spot on the Tree of Love.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: After Ozypete rejects him in favor of Celaeno, Princess Ceridwen uses her magical ability to change the forms of others to make Prince Huginn grow continuously, threatening to collapse the entire mountain if the effect isn't reversed.
- Deal with the Devil: Huginn agreed to work for Ceridwyn so that she'd give him an attractive appearance. She mentions that her magic specifically allows her to alter someone's form anyway she wants once she's given consent, which she demonstrates by forcing Huginn to grow until he crushes the whole kingdom.
- Dirty Coward: He balks when Captain Celaeno challenges him to a duel, and orders the guards to attack her. He also attempt to launch a surprise attack with a dagger. And while he does try for a direct attack soon after, he folds the second Celaeno disarms him.
- Fake Aristocrat: Prince Huginn isn't a real prince, but a moulting raven taken off the streets and transformed by Princess Ceridwen, as part of a scheme to keep all the Orinithian Elements from activating.
- Fantastic Racism: Huginn thinks that Celaeno is beneath him because she's a parrot. He also shows disgust toward ponies.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Huginn throws a dagger at Celaeno, who, while dodging it, leans again the Tree of Love's empty throne. The throne lights up, making it clear that Celaeno, not Huginn, is the missing Element.
- Prince Charmless: He looks down on Captain Celaeno simply for being a parrot, and has disdain toward the ponies. It is ultimately revealed that he isn't actually a prince at all.
- Shout-Out: He is named after one of two ravens in Norse mythology that travel around the world and deliver information to the god Odin.
The Knights of Harmony/Order (unmarked spoilers)
Debut: "Knights of Harmony", #100 (Princess Ceridwen), #101 (others).
A mysterious order which has existed for thousands of years, creating the temples of the Trees of Harmony in Farasi, Diamondia, Abyssinia, and Orinithia.As a whole:
- Became Their Own Antithesis: The Knights of Harmony once spread their ideals to other lands, and planted Trees of Harmony to aid other races, but became intent on destroying all Elements of Harmony except their own thanks to Discord's machinations from back when he was a villain.
- Black-and-White Insanity: They are convinced that allowing others to wield Elements of Harmony will always end badly, and that they are the only ones worthy of wielding them.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The original Knights teaching other nations how to use their Elements of Harmony cause them to come to conflict with the then-villainous Discord who manipulated the other nations into turning their Elements against them, leading the Knights and their successors do decide no other nations than themselves could be trusted with the Elements.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: They utterly demolish Canterlot's defenders.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Despite being well aware that Discord had turned the other nations against them, the original Knights of Harmony took the event as "proof" the other nations were unworthy of wielding those Elements, and did everything they could to prevent the other Element sets from ever being used again.
- Divided We Fall: The Knights inability to work together was as much responsible for their defeat as anything else.
- Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: The Knights of Order do this while delivering their Curbstomp Battle, each explaining what their power does proudly. This hubris costs them dearly, as now that the heroes know exactly what their powers are, they're able to plan around them and find counters.
- Fatal Flaw: While Taranis's Element, they collectively have Pride as one. They were raised from birth knowing they're the greatest magic users of their generation and to use their Elements, resulting in them being arrogant to the point of boasting of their Element powers and flat out spelling out what they are. This blows up in their faces, as the heroes exploit this to counter them. This also results in them not taking set backs well, such as Ceridwen losing her temper and acting in spite when her plans are foiled or Danu devolving into rage when the heroes are actually able to fight back.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The original Knights consisted of three males and three females.
- Generation Xerox: The current Knights look exactly like the originals.
- Glass Cannon: The Knights are very powerful and capable of doing a lot of damage...but they can't really take a meaningful hit. Once the heroes work around their powers enough to land those hits, two (implied three, given the condition Taranis is in) go down in one hit, another is beaten down, and it's implied Balor could've been taken down by Spike with a clean hit from his dragon fire. The problem is getting that hit.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The Knights of Harmony/Order became what they are because Discord manipulated the ones they taught harmony to to attack them unprovoked. Now they've gone Knight Templar and have effectively declared an unprovoked war on Equestria.
- Hypocrite: The original Knights entire motive for going Knight Templar is because Discord tricked those they'd taught Harmony to into declaring war on them. Now the latest generation is doing the same to Equestria completely unprovoked, becoming no better.
- Insane Troll Logic: You would think that after the Discord-manipulated attack which they know about, they would blame only him and not the usage of Elements as Discord would have turned those countries against them anyway, with or without Elements. Instead, they also blame the presence of Elements and bury their own legacy, needlessly plunging those kingdoms into a dark age.
- Irony: They're easily the most diverse group of Element wielders. Yet they are fiercely against the idea of the other groups banding together.
- Knight Templar: After teaching other lands about Harmony long ago, The original Knights Of Harmony were attacked by those they'd taught Harmony to (thanks to Discord pulling some strings). Thus they became intent on sealing away or should the need arise, destroying all forms of it other than their own, thus becoming the Knights Of Order. When King Danu (leader of the current generation) learns that the Mane Six have internalized their Elements, he immediately states that they must be destroyed.
- Legacy Character: The six Knights Of Order antagonizing the Mane Six are not the original Knights, but rather descendents of them. Each generation's strongest magic users are chosen and raised from birth to replace the previous generation.
- Logical Weakness:
- The Knights as a whole have one big one: they've been isolated on their island for over a thousand years with no contact with the outside world. Thus, they have no idea what most of the heroes are capable of and once the heroes start fighting strategically, they're ultimately taken off guard and gradually taken down.
- The Knights' set requires bond of country, not a personal bond like the other sets do. While this let the 'pick each generations' strongest magic users' idea viable...it also means the Knights weren't raised to have a personal bond, let alone like each other. The nanosecond that Danu makes a questionable choice, they start bickering and don't bother backing each other up.
- Meaningful Rename: The Knights of Harmony changed their name to the Knights of Order after deciding to seal away the other Elements of Harmony, showing that they believe more in their own idea of order than in Harmony.
- Moral Myopia: They genuinely believe they're doing good by keeping the other Elements from being used, regardless of how they're willing to hurt innocents in order to accomplish their goals.
- Mix-and-Match Critters:
- King Danu is a leucrocuta, a creature that is half-pony, half-lion.
- Princess Ceridwen is a Feathered Serpent with a bird's head.
- Taranis is a sapient Ophiotaurus, with a bull's upper body and a rattlesnake's tail.
- Mannah is part-fish, part-squid.
- No-Sell: The original Knights of Harmony were unaffected by Discord's attempt to turn them against each other, as their Elements revolved around loyalty to Cunabala more than each other.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: For all their talk about wanting to prevent the other nations from destroying themselves, they're ultimately only concerned with keeping Harmony to themselves and eliminate a 'threat' to themselves and Cunabala with no real evidence to back it up. Best shown when Ceridwen and Danu would rather destroy entire cities and everyone in them than accept a defeat or compromise. Individual members such as Balor and Ceridwen are also shown to be flat out sadistic.
- The Psycho Rangers: They're a group of evil Element of Harmony bearers who take their belief to its extreme.
- Random Species Offspring: Ceridwen refers to the others as her "siblings." All of them are of different species—namely, a leucrocuta, a Feathered Serpent, an ophiotaurus, a wyvern, a sharktopus, and a birdlike wraith-thing. (Adoptive, maybe?)
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The original group were all Princes and Princesses from two royal famlies. Danu and Ceridwen are at least mentioned to be in the same category.
- Smug Super: They all take deep pride in being the most powerful magic users of their generation.
- There Is Another: Their native land of Cunabala has a Tree of Harmony (dubbed the Tree of "Patriotism"), with the Knights representing the Elements of Loyalty (Danu), Pride (Taranus), Acceptance (Mannah), Equity (Ceridwen), Magic (Balor) and Faith (Morrigan).
- Tyke Bomb: All six of the current Knights Of Order were raised from birth to be how they are and ensure the vision the Knights have, thus why they're so fanatical to their cause. This backfires, as they prove arrogant and unable to take set backs very well because of it. It also made Danu more or less completely mentally unstable.
- Unskilled, but Strong: The Knights were trained from birth to use the Elements...but it becomes apparent during the final fight they were only trained to use the powers, not how to actually fight with them, as their fighting style largely consists of 'spam our Element powers in big displays of power,' and they run into problems when they're opponents fight tactically.
- Walking Spoiler: Their very existence ties into the climax and overarching story arc of Season 10.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What became of them after their defeat is unknown.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: They collectively have a habit of blaming others for 'making' them harm them and telling them its their fault.
- Would Hurt a Child: They have no problem holding the Young Six hostage, or attacking them.
King Danu
The leader of the current generation of the Knights of Order, and wielder of the Cunabalan Element of Loyalty.- Arc Villain: As the leader of the Knights of Order, he's the main antagonist of their arc, and thus Season 10 as a whole.
- Ax-Crazy: The more things fall apart for the Knights, the more it becomes apparent Danu is not mentally stable. This all ends in him being willing to level Canterlot and kill everyone in it, including the other four Knights who have been defeated and captured.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: During the final battle, Balor takes Twilight and Star Swirl's magic and transfers it to King Danu, which causes the king to transform into a giant. His strength and power greatly increased, Danu attempts to use it to demolish Canterlot.
- Bad Boss: He verbally berates Mannah and is furious when his orders aren't followed. This all leads to him being willing to level Canterlot...with the other Knights in it.
- Berserk Button: King Danu absolutely loses it at the sight of Discord (having grown up hearing the story of how "the Serpent" caused a war against Cunabala), ordering the other Knights to destroy him before he can even speak. This works against the Knights, as Discord and Trixie use illusions of himself to split the Knights up so they can be defeated individually.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Danu can create earthquakes and manipulate rocks and stone.
- Evil Counterpart: To Rainbow Dash. They both represent the Element of Loyalty, but King Danu's loyalty to his homeland leads him to consider other lands as threats to be destroyed.
- Final Boss: He's the final enemy of Season 10, and thus by extension the final enemy of both the IDW main comic run and the Gen 4 series as a whole.
- I Reject Your Reality: Even after being defeated by all the other Element wielders working together, King Danu insists that allowing others to use the Elements will only lead to full-scale war between them.
- Logical Weakness: Danu is hit with this when Maud Pie enters the fight: she can deduce what the boulders he's controlling with his powers are made of and find shatter points in them, letting Cadence shut him down. Danu might be able to control rock, but he doesn't know what kind of rock he's manipulating.
- Not So Above It All: While mostly all business during the attack on Canterlot, he face-hooves when Taranis cracks a Pun about his wind powers leaving their enemies "blown away". He also finds it "rude" that Twilight didn't let him finish his Evil Gloating.
- Revenge Before Reason: The second he lays eyes on Discord, he orders the Knights to destroy him, even having them chase after the fake Discords created by the heroes. This leads to the Knights being isolated from each other and defeated one by one.
- Shout-Out: Danu is named after a Celtic Earth goddess.
- This Cannot Be!: Danu has this reaction when the other four sets of Element Bearers show up to help the Mane Six bring him down.
- Villainous Breakdown: Danu acts composed and regal...until the heroes begin to fight back and he grows gradually more frustrated and angry. After becoming a giant, he attempts to trigger an earthquake that will dislodge Canterlot from its mountain, at the same time ranting to Twilight that it is all her fault for resisting the Knights.
Princess Ceridwen
A Feathered Serpent and the wielder of the Cunabalan Element of Equity.- Co-Dragons: She's one of King Danu's right hands, but shares the role with Balor, who does most of the heavy lifting during the final battle.
- Feathered Serpent: She is one, albeit with the addition of arms, and a more birdlike head.
- Flashy Teleportation: She can vanish in a cloud of smoke.
- Forced Transformation: She can use her magic to transform others anyway she wants. She first uses this to beautify Huginn, who originally had a ragged appearance, but then turns it against him to make him grow big enough to crush the entire kingdom. During the attack on Canterlot, she shrinks Big McIntosh until he can fit in her palm. She also uses her power to transform Balor into Spike, so he can take Twilight and Star Swirl by surprise and transfer their magic to King Danu.
- Logical Weakness: Her Forced Transformation power requires either a direct hit from a beam or touch. As such, Rainbow Dash, who's considerably faster than she is, can evade and her power in general is far less effective when facing an entire group who can dogpile her.
- The Man Behind the Man: She made Hugin into a prince so he could marry Ocypete, well aware that he was not a match for her, and thus that the final Element of Love would not be activated.
- Nothing Personal: After shrinking Big Mac, she claims that the Knights' attack on Canterlot isn't based on any personal slight against the ponies.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Invoked when she threatens Rainbow Dash.Ceridwen: The next time you see Equestria, it will be a burning pile of rubble. And you will know that it was all. Your. Fault.
- Shout-Out:
- Token Evil Teammate: While all the Knights are evil, Ceridwen stands out as less well-intentioned than some of their number, trying to destroy a kingdom and threatening that Equestria will be burned to the ground largely out of spite.
- Transformation Ray: Her primary form of magic, which she uses to change the form of other creatures.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Prince Huginn reveals his deception, she punishes him by using her magic to make him grow bigger and bigger, threatening to destroy the entire kingdom of Orinithia.
Taranis
An Ophiotaurus, and wielder of the Cunabalan Element of Pride.- Blow You Away: He can spin his staff in circles to create a whirlwind.
- Personality Powers: That the boastful Element of Pride has wind powers means he's blustery and full of bluster.
- Pride: In addition to being the Element of Pride, he shows definite smugness in his abilities.
- Pun: While showing off his powers, he quips that they'll leave the Royal Guard "blown away".
- Shout-Out: Taranis is named after the Celtic god of thunder.
Mannah
A squid/fish hybrid, and wielder of the Cunabalan Element of Acceptance.- Hoist by His Own Petard: Silverstream transforms into a sea pony and swims up Mannah's own water to attack him.
- Logical Weakness: His water is of little use against someone capable of swimming and breathing underwater, which Silverstream exploits by just swimming up it to tail whip him in the head.
- Making a Splash: He can summon and control water.
- Personality Powers: He controls water and is thus agreeable and goes with the flow.
- Servile Snarker: While loyal to Danu, he can't resist getting a jab in at his leader over allowing his hatred for Discord to cloud his judgment.
- Shout-Out: His name seems to be an abbreviated elision of "Manannan Mac Lír," a Celtic sea god.
Balor
A humanoid dragon-like creature, and wielder of the Cunabalan Element of Magic.- Co-Dragons: Alongside Ceridwen, he gets the most focus of the Knights outside of Danu and does the most heavy lifting.
- Logical Weakness:
- His ability to see magic doesn't mean he can see through it. When several of Equestria's defenders use a Glamour to disguise themselves as Discord, he is unable to tell the real one from the fakes.
- While not actually exploited, while disguised as Spike he implied his power to negate magic doesn't work on things like Dragon's fire breath, which is biological in nature rather than magical.
- Man in a Kilt: He wears a kilt under his cloak.
- Power Nullifier: He is a living one, able to neutralise Shining Armor's magic with a touch. He can also transfer magic from one being to another, taking Twilight and Star Swirl's magic and giving it to King Danu.
- Shout-Out: Balor is named after a Celtic demon who's cyclopic gaze can kill.
- Super-Senses: He can "see" the Elements of Harmony's power within Twilight.
- Token Evil Teammate: He's shown to be the only one of the Knights to actively enjoy harming others, including giving a malicious Slasher Smile while forcing Shining Armor to be brainwashed by Morrigan.
Morrigan
A ghostly birdlike creature, and wielder of the Cunabalan Element of Faith.- Brainwashed and Crazy: She can hypnotize others into doing her bidding.
- Logical Weakness: Her power is very strong, but it requires eye contact to work and is the only one of the Knights' powers with no direct combat applications. Thus when Mage Meadowbrook uses potions to ward everyone against it and free her slaves, her power is rendered effectively useless.
- Oh, Crap!: The wind really goes out of her sails when she learns Meadowbrook's potion can negate her mind control.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: She appears to be a spirit, but is a descendant of the original Element of Faith wielder, making it clear that whatever species she belongs to can procreate. She is also corporeal enough to be hit with a Shovel Strike by Rockhoof.
- Shout-Out: She is named after an Irish goddess.
Micro Series
Jade Singer
"Those are books. Don't know if you've seen them before, Twylek. Young ponies these days don't read."
Debut: Micro Series #1: Twilight Sparkle
Twilight Sparkle's favorite author, she wrote the One-Hit Wonder Canter in the Sky before going into obscurity. She currently works at the Royal Archives, where Twilight helps her for a few days after injuring her leg.
- Canon Discontinuity: "Daring Don't" etablishes A.K. Yearling as Twilight's favorite author. Then again this could be before she knew about A.K and even then she could still be one of her favorite authors.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Starts out quite rude and callous to Twilight but she warms up to her over time seeing that she has a love of books.
- Grumpy Old Man: A rare female example of this trope.
- Punny Name: She's jaded alright with her outlook on life. But the name also is a pun on J. D. Salinger, a famous recluse author that the story is inspired by.
- We Used to Be Friends: Princess Celestia reveals that she used to be friends with her before Jade's success, though thanks to Twilight that friendship seems to be renewed.
Cloud Gremlins
"Ah, another fine morn to bask in the haunting glow of the ruination and melancholy of these poor equine fools."
Debut: Micro Series #2: Rainbow Dash
Mischievous little creatures that feed on negative emotions, one pair set up a dark cloud over Ponyville and cause problems for Rainbow Dash in her spotlight comic. Though their names aren't given in the comic proper, the writer Ryan Lindsay stated he had named them Big Boy and Runt.
- Emotion Eater: They feed on sadness, hatred, and other sorts of negativity. Positive emotions, on the other hoof, defeat them.
- Goggles Do Nothing: One of them wears a pair of goggles and quotes the trope when they're defeated by the happiness Rainbow Dash caused with her Sonic Double Rainboom.
- Good Hurts Evil: They can only be defeated by positive emotions.
- In the Hood: The slightly larger one wears a hoodie.
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Begins to feel this way after Rainbow repeated attempts to stop them fail. They even come to enjoy her attempts because her desperation feeds them. This bites them in the butt when Rainbow goes for the Sonic Double Rainboom and they do nothing to attempt to stop her.
The Hippie Ponies
"Did you know the flax seed... the grain, not me, is like, beneficial to your aura?"
Debut: Micro Series #3: Rarity
A group of ponies lead by Wheat Grass and Flax Seed who own a farm outside of Ponyville and make all-natural health & beauty products. In Rarity's spotlight comic, she spends a few days there to relax after answering an ad for a new "wellness center". Hilarity Ensues.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Wheat Grass' "crazy healthy food" is just plain, normal regular food. It looks and tastes weird because she's just a terrible cook.
- Hunk: Tempeh is quite the manly pony and popular with the mares, even Rarity is quite smitten with him when they first meet. Too bad he's a tad single minded...
- Land Poor: Flax Seed and Wheat Grass own the land where their communal farm is built, but they don't have much money and when Rarity meets them, they are about to lose their home because of a debt they have no way possible to pay.
- Meaningful Name: All four named ones — Flax Seed, Wheat Grass, Tofu, and Tempeh — are names of foodstuffs that would be considered part of a natural lifestyle. Even more so with Tempeh's fascination with soy, as the food tempeh is a soy-based product. This latter aspect also alludes to the fact that Tempeh and Tofu — both soy-based products — are brothers.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: All of them.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: They don't like money and try to charge as low as they can for their fantastic beauty products, which is the root of their financial difficulties.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: This is Flax Seed's default expression, since he's always stoned out of his mind.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Tempeh. Soy. The guy will give you 8 hours of the entire history of soy without you even asking.
- Verbal Tic: Flax Seed constantly says "like" every other word... even when being chased by bees!
Praiser Pan
Debut: Micro Series #4: Fluttershy
A Caustic Critic stallion in Canterlot that appears to be one of the judges at Princess Celestia's Extreme Art Contest. He is overly harsh, as indicated by his cutie mark, a hatchet taken to a painting canvas.
- Beatnik: He dresses in a beret, a black scarf, and rectangular glasses, along with a trim goatee and moustache. He may not speak beat, but certainly derives from the beat culture.
- Caustic Critic: He only has negative things to say about all the entries he sees — at least until Celestia comments positively on Fluttershy's, and then he's quick to change his tune.
- Ironic Name: He pans art much more than he praises it.
- Meaningful Name: As an art critic, he is appraising of art, but giving it a pass most of the time (panning it).
- Punny Name: His name could also be read as "Praise or Pan" which is ultimately what any critic will do.
- Opinion Flip-Flop: He promptly changes his mind on Fluttershy's work as soon as Celestia express admiration for it.
Ponyacci
"Ms. Pie, I've been a clown for a very long time. Why, I was treading the boards before you were even born!"
Debut: Micro Series #5: Pinkie Pie
Equestria's silliest star and Pinkie Pie's idol, Ponyacci is an old, famous clown who's forgotten more things about comedy than most ponies ever learn. After a long, tiring but happy career of clowning and spreading happiness, he must accept he has become too old to perform and it's time to retire.
- Cartoon Juggling: One of his many skills.
- Cool Old Guy: This old stallion can give Pinkie Pie a run for her money and she absolutely idolizes him for that.
- For Happiness: All he wants to do in life is make ponies laugh.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Pinkie Pie at the end of the story.
- The Last Dance: His show in Ponyville was meant to be his last one and he certainly goes out with a bang. Though Pinkie convinces him that while he can leave the spotlight, there's not reason he can't pass on his skills to others. Allowing him to keep making other happy as he always has.
- The Mentor: After he gives Pinkie Pie some constructive criticism on her own clowning, she suggests he become a teacher. He opens a clowning school in Ponyville, extremely happy that he can pass his special talent onto a new generation of clowns. Twilight asks Pinkie why she doesn't sign up for the school herself, to which she replies she's already learned a lot from Ponyacci.
- One-Man Band: His skills can top even Pinkie Pie's.
- Sad Clown: Much to the surprise of Pinkie Pie. However, he's not sad because he's a clown, he's sad because his old age is forcing him to give up clowning and as a result on making others laugh.
- Shout-Out: To Pagliacci. His first (out of costume) appearance even references the famous joke: Pinkie Pie sees him looking sad, and tells him that Ponyacci could probably cheer him up.
- Stepford Smiler: When he's performing. He eventually gets better.
Imp
Debut: Micro Series #7: The Cutie Mark Crusaders
A mimicker that can take the shape of anything except ponies, who befriends the CMC. Her default form appears to be a large, filly-sized blue gem with eyes; the blue eyes appear on any other object that she copies.
- Ambiguous Gender: It's brought up that the girls don't know if Imp really is a "she", or even has a gender being a shapeshifting rock, but they settle on referring to Imp as a girl.
- In-Series Nickname: The Mimicker is given the name "Imp" based on the species' scientific name, Globulus Improbulus.
- Starfish Language: Her only dialogue appears as musical notes.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Her race can take the shape of anything except ponies.
Inkwell
Debut: Micro Series #8: Princess Celestia
An old friend of Princess Celestia and a professor at the princess' School for Gifted Unicorns. Though an important part of Celestia's past, she has grown senile and has become the target of much gossip.
- Be Yourself: Whether she's aware or not of what most think of her currently, it's likely she doesn't care. She is who she is and is comfortable with that. Celestia uses this as part of a Batman Gambit to show the others why she's still fit to be a teacher.
- Eccentric Mentor: Shows all the signs of being this when she was younger. Celestia attempts to prove that she's still this, even as her senility becomes less and less of an act.
- Eye Scream: Took a rather nasty hit to the left eye during the war against the shadows. She didn't lose it and could still see out of it, but wouldn't be able to fully open it for the rest of her life.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Her damaged left eye is really the only flaw on an otherwise beautiful young mare.
- Never Mess with Granny: Her mind might be mostly gone, but she's still willing to go into battle alongside Celestia and kick massive amounts of pastry butt (with an Offhand Backhand no less).
- Scars Are Forever: She received a scar on her left eye during the siege of Canterlot which never fully healed.
- Retired Badass: She aided Princess Celestia to fight off a siege of Canterlot and can still pull off some impressive magic.
The Sea Beasts
Debut: Micro Series #9: Spike
A group of creatures Spike purchases from a comic book so he can have a pet. Initially very tiny, Spike finds a way to make them grow, but soon get out of hand.
- But Now I Must Go: They choose to leave to seek further enlightenment in the world after Spike and the library taught them everything they know.
- Expy: Of Sea Monkeys, small crustaceans that were advertised in ads of comic books.
- Uplifted Animal: Over the course of the story, they go from tiny specks in an aquarium to a sapient race thanks to the various magic formulas Spike taught them and later Spike's own teachings.
Kibitz
"Let's not call them 'the peasantry', Princess. It's not endearing."
Debut: Micro Series #10: Luna
Princess Celestia's Royal Scheduling Advisor that helps Princess Luna keep on track when she takes over for the day. Has since appeared in other comics as a general royal aide to the princesses.
- Beleaguered Assistant:
- Takes on this role to Luna, trying to keep her on-task and on-time as Luna grows increasingly bored and distracted by the duties she's attending. Presumably he averts it with the more serious and responsible Celestia.
- In the final issue of the Friends Forever series, he ends up having to put up with both Celestia and Luna's bickering. Not helped when Crystal Ball ends up tampering with the spell that was meant to temporarily take away their powers and causes their squabbling to intensify.
- The Cameo: Shows up during the start of the Reflections arc helping Luna keep up the ruse that Celestia was still around.
- Meaningful Name: "kibitz" is a verb that has two meanings: to give unhelpful and/or unwanted advice, and to informally chat and gossip. The former certainly fits his role while he's helping Luna, the latter ends up being more ironic since he's incredibly formal and stuffy.
- Obsessively Organized: Maybe not as bad as Twilight, but clearly becomes uncomfortable with going off the schedule. At one point, he is forced to leave Luna alone when he realizes he has the wrong color of highlighter for an upcoming meeting.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Per Word of God, part of Kibitz's personality is based on Tim Gunn.
- Straight Man: Remains steadfast in his duties no matter how reckless Luna gets.
- Trickster Mentor: Comes off this way at the end of the Luna Micro story when Celestia teases that he could've went easier on Luna. He counters that a princess has to be ready for any type of responsibility thrown at them. Sure enough, this did indeed come into play during the "Reflections" arc when Luna had to take over for Celestia when she went missing.
Tiberius/Tibbles
Debut: Micro Series #10: Luna
An opossum that Luna adopts as her pet.
Friends Forever
Toffee Truffle
One of the competitors in the dessert-making contest Pinkie enters into in order to re-open her restaurant.
- Alliterative Name: Toffee Truffle.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: In a more friendly version of this, she catches on that Pinkie and AJ are trying to deliberately lose so that she can win. She requests however they do it fair and square in the spirit of competition.
Marine Sandwich
A very competitive pony who is denied entry into the desert-making contest when Applejack accidentally takes her spot.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After being denied entry into the contest, she comes back with a frosting projecting gun intend on freezing everyone in frosting.
- Getting the Boot: Marine gets this twice on her attempts to discredit Applejack from security. She is bucked by two guards at the same time (meaning that she is getting kicked by four hooves) and that both guards were unicorns that could have used their magic to remove her from the place in a more dignified manner. It's no wonder why she got insane by the climax of the story.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Marine Sandwich gets "frozen" in her own icing when her gun explodes.
- In the Hood: Introduced wearing a red hood. Though it could be the curtain that AJ ran into while trying to deliver Granny Smith's pie.
- Jerkass Has a Point: As unhinged as she is, she does have every right to be upset with Applejack taking her place (albeit accidentally), as she did earn the spot that Applejack took. The fact that Applejack tried to sabotage herself, which was also going to affect Marine's credibility as a chef, and that she keeps getting humiliated with every attempt to prove her claims, only makes it worse for her mental health.
- Mad Artist: She's a "food performance artist" who seems to be a bit unhinged. She goes berserk when she thinks Applejack deliberately impersonated her, and at the climax attacks the contest with a frosting gun.
- Mistaken For An Impostor: She keep trying to claim she's the real Marine Sandwich but is constantly thrown out of the building each time.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Pinkie and Truffle beat her by jamming her frosting gun, causing it to overload and explode frosting onto her.
- Palette Swap: Take Fluttershy and swap out all the yellows and pinks for lots and lots of gray and you've got Marine Sandwich.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Her reaction when she realizes her frosting gun is about to explode. It's literally frozen on her face afterwards.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Is repeatedly humiliated and denied her rightful spot due to circumstances beyond her control, finally snapping and seeking revenge on everypony involved.
Equestria Super Chef Contestants and Judges
The other contestants of the competitions — Summer Van Der Hoof and Blade Sparxx — and the judges, which include a griffon named Vermouth Roux, a buffalo name Big Angie and an unnamed pony.
- The Big Guy: Angie who even shields her fellow judges when Marine attacks the competition.
- The Comically Serious: Vermouth Roux is extraordinarily stiff and straight-laced, alternatively haughtily disapproving of the silliness around her and taking very strange things at face value.
- Expy: Blade Sparxx is pretty much Guy Fieri. While the judges are obviously a female version of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and a female version of Randy Jackson.
- The Fashionista: Summer who basically cooks what "exclusive" to her which is basically what's popular. It winds up backfiring when the final round they're told to present their favorite dessert and she has a breakdown because she doesn't really have one.
- No Name Given: The pony judge.
- Playing with Fire: Blade Sparxx's solution to cooking: Add more fire! It comes in handy when Pinkie and Tuffle need a light for Pinkie's party cannon against Marine.
Marian
A mare that Flim and Flam both took a liking to, causing the two of them to fight.
- The Cameo: Shows up in Issue 33.
- Did Not Get the Girl: The brothers fought over her so much that she dumped the both of them.
- Expy: Of Marian from The Music Man. Her design resembles Marian's actress, Shirley Jones, from the film of the musical, and when the Flim Flam brothers explain their time with her it's pretty much a ponified version of the Music Man with two Harold Hills instead of one.
- Love Triangle: Flim and Flam fight over her.
Loop De Loop
A filly at Junior Flyers Camp whom Rainbow Dash takes a particular liking to.
- Motor Mouth: She talks so much that her speech balloons have a noticeably smaller font than anyone else's.
- Shrinking Violet: She's very shy, and she was the first foal to burst into tears because of Spitfire's Drill Sergeant Nasty routine.
By The Book and Hard Case
Two unicorn detectives investigating the mysterious fires in Fillydelphia.
- Deadpan Snarker: Hard Case, even at the princess of night, he doesn't let up on the snark. By The Book likewise gets in a little quip as well
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Pretty much their dynamic. By the Book is usually the more reasonable and rational of the pair while Hard Case is blunt and cynical.
- Pet the Dog: Hard Case initially admits he doesn't apologize after Spike cracks the case and proves no dragons were in involved in the random fires through Phillydelpha. But then he goes on and hugs Spike, admitting he was wrong.
- Seen It All: When Luna defends Spike's investigating Dragon Town instead of the police. Hard Case predicts that Spike just ran into a girl who convinces him that the culprit behind the fires isn't a dragon but with no solid proof to back it up. Sure enough, Spike arrives, tell them his theory and that he got it from Mina but has no proof to his claim.
Mina
A young female adult dragon that runs a comic book store in the Dragontown part of Fillydelphia, who helps Spike recognize the tensions between the dragons and ponies in the town.
- Ascended Fanboy: Clearly has a thing for Princess Luna as well as other villains and characters, and shipping them. (If anything, an Expy of the brony fandom). And then she gets to actually meet Luna as a sign of appreciation for helping to mend relations between ponies and dragons.
- The Bus Came Back: She makes a return appearance (as an adult) in a short story found in the main comic's 10th Anniversary special edition of Issue #1.
- The Cavalry: When Spike needs help putting out a fire to a street caused by a Fire Snail and rescuing the ponies still sleeping. She rallies her fellow dragons to come to the rescue.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Calls out Spike for thinking all dragons are evil based off the few he met, pointing out that there are pony bad guys to.
Prancy Drew
A young filly that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon employ to help in a scavenger hunt against the CMC
- Expy: Of Velma from Scooby-Doo. If it wasn't for the name, she'd pretty much be a pony version of her.
- Kid Detective: The main reason she was picked was due to her detective skills which helped during the hunt.
- Punny Name: Named after Nancy Drew of course.
- Token Good Teammate: Naturally to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, in fact she isn't at all mean, got along well with the CMC and Twilight. Even Silver Spoon enjoys her company.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the final leg of the hunt, she trips and falls. Tiara, more focused on beating the CMC, leaves her behind and forces Silver Spoon to do the same.
Cirrus Cloud
A pegasus pony that attended flight camp with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Currently lives in Phillydelphia, where she is part of their weather patrol team.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: in the mobile game, her eyes are a light red-pink color, as opposed to completely black.
- The Bully: When she was young.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Took till the end of the story to prove it.
- Delinquent Hair: Her mane is dyed green and blue with black highlights.
- Gang of Bullies: She is seen with several other ponies in Fluttershy's flashback.
- Non-Standard Character Design: She has piercings, wild black make-up, and her mane and wings are dyed. Also, while the other ponies have visible eye colors, Cirrus's eyes are completely black.
- School Yard Bully All Grown Up: Fluttershy suspects her to be this. Ultimately subverted. Cirrus apologizes for bullying her all those years ago and presents Fluttershy with an award for her various accomplishments since moving to Ponyville.
- Spikes of Villainy: She wears a collar and bands around her legs covered in spikes.
Touring Wind
One of Equestria's top fashion magazine editors. She's heard enough about Rarity's success to come to Ponyville and see her joint wedding gown-and-catering services that she's set up with the cakes. Her assistant, Bright Bridle, is never too far behind.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Her assistant, Bright Bridle. pretty much has to put up with her every whim. Practically a Yes-Man.
- Expy: She's an even more explicit caricature of Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour than Photo Finish was. People only thought she's based on Lady Gaga because of Small Reference Pools.
- The Fashionista: Another in a long line of ponies that covers fashion in Equestria.
Nosy News
A journalist who Applejack and Fluttershy run into while trying to enjoy a camping trip, who claims their spot is the living grounds of a mythical beast called the Pigasus.
- Accidental Public Confession: She thinks Applejack and Fluttershy are trying to horn in on her story and rants to them that she was the one who came up with the Pigasus myth. However she does it right in view of the rest of the public.
- Alliterative Name: Nosy News.
- Cassandra Truth: She reveals she made up the story about the Pigasus in the hopes of drawing in crowds and getting a story. Ironically there really is such a creature.
- Chased by Angry Natives: After her lie is exposed to a crowd of creature seekers, she's forced to run when they come after her. They still managed to catch her regardless.
- Intrepid Reporter: Very determined to get her stories even if she has to make them up.
- Jerkass: Very aloof and especially loves to try to humiliate Applejack, who's trying to get the crowd off Fluttershy and her's camping ground.
Goldcap, Decepticolt and Zappityhoof
From left to right: Zappityhoof, Decepticolt and Goldcap.
Three unicorns who managed to steal Rainbow Dash's wings in the hopes of using them in a potion to make themselves Alicorns.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: They think Twilight got her wings by stealing it from a Pegasus, not realizing she earned the right to be an alicorn. What's more, even if they do make the potion and drink it, it'll just grant them wings, and not turn them into true alicorns like they want.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: After they're defeated, they think Twilight is being "haughty" for preventing them from getting wings. Twilight shoots back that 1) their attempt to become alicorns by stealing a pegasus' wings wasn't right to begin with and it was her duty to stop them as a princess regardless; 2) she earned the right to be a princess and their methods wouldn't have made them true alicorns at all; and 3) they were robbing from her friend, Rainbow Dash.
- Laser-Guided Karma: They stole Dash's wings, so Twilight punishes them in kind by taking away their magic... if only temporarily.
- Terrible Trio: Indeed, they're a trio of villainous ponies.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The first straight-up villainous character from the Lighter and Softer spin-off. They're willing to steal a pegasus's limbs and livelihood just so they can fly (essentially Organ Theft) and have no qualms about attacking a princess in the process, either.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Goldcap and Zappityhoof are one thing. But Decepticolt? Really?
Thestra
A young filly that attends the Gala sleepover. She recently received her Cutie Mark, but its shape, a skull head, has gotten her ridiculed.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Her cutie mark has gotten her ridiculed and as such she has low self esteem.
- Body Horror: While her power is a useful talent, it is rather disturbing being able to showcase someone's bones out in the open. Even Luna feels uncomfortable when Thestra does it to stop the Mirrorca, although she encourages her to put it to good use to help others.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: She doesn't really see much use for her magic. But when encountering the Mirrorca, her power stripped it of its mirror coating and allowed Luna to take it out.
- Ocular Gushers: Cries waterfalls when Luna and the CMC find her due to being scared after getting lost in the castle.
- X-Ray Vision: What her talent is. It allows her magic to view a pony's bones and comes in handy against the Mirrorca.
Buttercup and Rhoda Ruby
Two fillies that attend the Gala sleepover. Give Thestra no end of grief for her cutie mark.
- The Bully: Pretty much what they are to Thestra: messing up her crafts, making her fall down during a tightrope exercise and mocking her Cutie Mark.
- Jerkass: The two give Thestra no end of grief through the start of the sleepover and make her fall down on purpose during a team activity just to make her look bad.
- Karma Houdini: We don't see them get punished on screen, though the CMC gave Thestra a list of pranks to pull on them if they continue giving her trouble.
- Kids Are Cruel: Big time.
Buried Treasure
Maud Pie's rival in rock science and studies.
- Arch-Enemy: Maud proclaims her as such, usually always taking credit for Maud's finds.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Buys up tickets to a blimp to keep Maud from using it and cuts the rope to a bridge over a cavern to prevent Maud from following. Neither help her win in the end.
- Expy: Of Belloq. She even quotes the "There is nothing you possess that I cannot take away" line.
- Girl Posse: Had two nameless and voiceless mares that follow her around.
- Ironic Echo: Claims she has some something Maud doesn't: Passion. These words are thrown right back in her face when Rarity and Maud beat her to the crystal cave.
- Near-Villain Victory: She almost reached the caves before Maud did, but Maud manages to find a shortcut through a tunnel and Rarity and her get to the cave just seconds before Treasure does.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After seeing that Maud beat her to the crystal cave. She proclaims she's giving up archeology and going back to law school.
Rainbow Crow
A crow that helped the buffalo by going to the sun and bring them fire to produce spring. However in doing so, her feathers turned black and she lost her voice. Regardless, her feathers are needed to help bring about spring which is why the buffalo summoned Dash to help them.
- Dark Is Not Evil: In the current day she looks like a big crow, but she's just as friendly as she was in the past.
- Giant Flyer: She's a crow-like bird with the wingspan of a small sailplane.
- Mythical Motifs: It's based on a fake myth that was mistakenly attributed to the Lenape by non-native authors.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She helped out the buffalo but at the cost of her losing her voice and her feathers turning black due to having to balance her speed when bringing back the sun fire to the buffalo through the freezing cold.
- Really 700 Years Old: Just as old as Celestia and Luna if not more so and still kicking in the present day.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Dash was supposed to give her a tribute from the buffalo in exchange for some of her feathers, but she lost it during the journey with Little Brave Heart. When Dash meets her and explains what happened, she only asks for a bit of Dash's hair.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Its story is taken almost verbatim from an alleged legend of the Lenape people, which actually originates in a 1989 book by a white author, possible losely based on "The First Fire", a story of the Cherokee people.
Calamity Mane
An earth pony who works with a traveling stage show.
- Cowgirl: Looks the part considering she's part of a wild west show.
- Legacy Character: She's not the first pony to bear the name "Calamity Mane" as Cherry likewise bore the title years ago. Though if that's her real name or not is never revealed.
- Nice Girl: Very kind and didn't even get mad when she overhears that Bull shouldn't have replace Cherry since she know Bull isn't saying it out of animosity toward her.
Buffalo Bull
The leader of a traveling stage show that bears his name, and a former associate of Cherry Jubilee.
- A Father to His Men: Calamity mentions that he's like a father to her.
- Poor Communication Kills: He was in love with Cherry and asked to marry her, but a miscommunication between the two drove them apart and they still assume the other abandoned them in the present time. They eventually square things out when fate forces his troupe to stop at her cherry ranch.
Housey
A sentient house that's been kidnapping random ponies.
- Genius Loci: Some residual magic allowed it to sprout legs and move on its own.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Turns out, the reason it's taking ponies is because it misses its previous owners who raised a family within it and eventually passed away. As such it's attracted to people that love parties, since those were the most precious times it shared with its family. Pinkie and Cheese manage to convince it that it can continue to pick up ponies that love parties, but of their own volition, and that it has to let them leave of their own free will.
Jett Gilder
A pegasus bar owner of an outpost on the Yaket Mountain Range near Mt. Everhoof.
- Bad Guy Bar: Seems to run one but it's mostly due to several species either in need of shelter from the snow, running away from something or gruff folks doing deliveries for him. Otherwise he's pretty friendly and apparently doesn't discriminate since one of his patrons is a changeling.
- The Bartender: Serves as this for the outpost, even serving cider from the Sweet Apple Acres.
- Flying Postman: Not him, but his outpost serves as this for them as it does delivery services for rare plants used in medicine.
- Nice Guy: Pretty friendly colt all around and seems to respect all species, even worrying about the welfare of his flyer - i.e: Soarin - when he came flying in too fast in a blizzard.
Fiendship is Magic
Radiant Hope
Debut: Fiendship is Magic #1: King Sombra
A filly crystal unicorn that befriends a young Sombra while he stayed at an orphanage. The two considered themselves quirky outcasts from the other colts and fillies, and developed a special friendship through the years. When Sombra becomes afflicted with a strange condition that painfully paralyzes his body on the annual day of the Crystal Faire, Radiant Hope stays with him, and in one case, uses her magic to prevent Sombra from turning into his shadow form. This gives her her cutie mark resembling a caduceus, reflecting that her powerful magic is able to restore nearly any aliment a pony can suffer, and leads her on a path towards becoming a Princess of Equestria. When Sombra finally turns evil, she attempts to warn Princesses Celestia and Luna, and she is outside of the Crystal Empire when Sombra causes the Empire to disappear. In the main series Siege of the Crystal Empire, Radiant Hope enlists the questionable help of other villains to help her restore Sombra to his corporeal self with her magic.
- All-Loving Heroine: She still wanted to help Sombra, despite he banished her home for one thousand years and tried to release the Umbrum.
- Anti-Villain: Not evil, but she is pretty naive and The Unfettered when it comes to her goal.
- The Apprentice: She studied under Princess Celestia over a thousand years before Sunset Shimmer or Twilight Sparkle.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Her role in stopping Sombra (revealed to be an equinoid abomination) and the Umbrum caused her to lose everything she loved. It's so bad that her reappearance has her revive Sombra to take her actions back, putting everything in jeopardy.
- Childhood Friend Romance: She was friends with Sombra back when they were foals, and that friendship changed into something more when both reached adulthood.
- Cruel Mercy: Receives this from Sombra, who cared for her too much to harm her, instead arranged for the Crystal Empire to disappear in part to make her spend the rest of her days without her home and people as revenge for her role in his defeat.
- Defector from Decadence: An oddly villainous example. She reveals that the Crystal Heart stated she was meant to be a Princess. But she gave it up to be with Sombra.
- Didn't Think This Through: Her entire plan in the Siege of the Crystal Empire arc via recruiting villainous characters, one of which is Queen Chrysalis, and promising them Equestria all for the sake of restoring Sombra and freeing the Umbrum and backstab at least Chrysalis. Not only was this a completely risky move as Chrysalis likely wouldn't have honored their agreement and there was no guarantee Radiant - without the Umbrum - could stop her (keep in mind that in the past, Chrysalis - despite her complacent, Villain Ball moments - had fooled the entirety of Canterlot (save Twilight), beat Celestia in a fight, and - in the final "FIENDship" comic - outwitted Twilight to escape her prison). But the whole plot was completely unnecessary since, as Cadance points out, Cadance was willing to listen to her if Radiant had simply talked to her which could've ended the conflict more peacefully.
- The Extremist Was Right: While her methods left much to be desired, her goal to redeem Sombra, which everyone in and out of universe deemed insane, actually succeeds.
- Fallen Hero: Becomes one in Siege of the Crystal Empire, manipulating several known antagonists (including none other than Queen Chrysalis) into helping her steal the Crystal Heart - making her a traitor to her people - so Sombra can return.
- Fatal Flaw: Her naive nature was what kickstarted everything. Also presumably not trusting the others (though she may have a reason for that.)
- Healing Hands: Well, healing horn. Her special talent appears to be able to cure nearly any aliment that a pony might come down with, including being able to prevent the impact the Crystal Heart had on trying to destroy Sombra. It's the first time we've seen anyone being able to do such a thing.
- Healing Magic Is the Hardest: She is the first character we've seen in MLP with explicit healing magic and capabilities beyond just making brews or medicine. It's implied that real healing magic such as hers is pretty rare. However, she is very good at it, enough to where she was Princess material.
- The Heavy: Of Siege of the Crystal Empire. Rabia and the Umbrum are the ultimate villains of the Arc, but she sets the plot into motion by assembling the Legion of Doom and orchestrating the titular siege of the Crystal Empire.
- History Repeats: The first known student of Princess Celestia who would leave her mentor's side to follow her own path, over a thousand years before Sunset Shimmer did the same.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Subverted. On the one hoof, she does ally with several characters that ranges from shady to malicious (except for Iron Will), especially Chrysalis, to get Sombra back. On the other hoof, said army was just one massive distraction for her real plan and given that virtually all of them are bad to various degrees, it does mean there is little issue in using them as pawns. If nothing else, she definitely planned to backstab Chrysalis. And while the Umbrum seem like a race of Obviously Evil beings, Rabia (their queen) did spend a thousand years convincing Raidant Hope otherwise (including altering their forms, and given that she's Sombra's mother, she's definitely skilled at manipulating.
- Last of Her Kind: Becomes the last Crystal Pony by end of Somba's story in Fiendship Is Magic. Subverted when the Crystal Empire returned.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Her actions in The Siege of the Crystal Empire are guided by her affection for Sombra, which lead to some severe results.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She was a rather eccentric girl with a very strong imagination, but full of laughter, life and a desire to have fun. Lampshaded in that she does mention of dreaming of manic pixies.
- Morality Pet: She is this to King Sombra. He gets annoyed with her, but cannot bring himself to hurt her and very much threatened to crush Chrysalis so she try anything against Raidant Hope. When Twilight Sparkle tries to hit him, but she takes it instead, he was clearly enraged and released the umbrum, while he was hesitant before.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Realizes this when the Umbrum reveal their true nature and that she's been unwittingly helping them. After Sombra unleashes them and they take over the empire, she's less then pleased that she'll be the princess to a bunch of monsters. Luckily her words get through to Sombra who proceeds to re-seal them.
- Shadow Archetype: Designed to be to Twilight. Both are powerful purple unicorns whom are so prodigious in their field that they were considered worthy enough to be princesses and deeply care about their friends. However, the writers talked about how Twilight has never truly been in a position where she had to choose between morals and her friends (bar some very questionable decision-making moments in the comics). Radiant meanwhile watched the gradual breakdown and Face–Heel Turn of her best friend, all for some admittingly understandable reasons. Radiant chooses him over conventional morality and being The Unfettered, does whatever it takes for him.
- Skilled, but Naive: An interesting example and potentially subverted. She is quite powerful and skillful in healing magic (being the only explicit healer we've seen and strong enough to be considered Princess-material.) However, she is quite naive and unfettered with her approach. A lot of problems arise from her naivety and may have been easier resolved if she listened more. At the same time, she has little reason to trust the Princesses and may believe they wouldn't understand (given her background, she has a point in not trusting them.) And while she did recruit an army of various villainous and shady individuals (and Iron Will), it's clear she is only using them as a distraction (and given that it's an army of miscreants, she has no real reason to care for their well-being, allowing her to focus on her goal) and even planned to backstab Chrysalis. So perhaps she is not as naive as she seems.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Her being this to Sombra doesn't end well. Subverted at the end of the Siege of the Crystal Empire arc where she finally gets to be with Sombra after he's revived as a normal pony.
- Stupid Sacrifice: Takes the bullet for Sombra from an enraged Twilight...when Sombra just shrugged off another beam of comparable strength and is far stronger and more durable than she is, meaning all her actions did was make Sombra mad enough to release the Umbrum.
- The Unfettered: Came off as this when it comes to freeing the Umbrum and reviving Sombra. She's willing to promise three ponies a chance to dispose of ponies she's never even met, betray her homeland, stab the Princesses in the back, and sell out Equestria to Queen Chrysalis (though she was gonna backstab her so clearly not that unfettered.) if it accomplishes her goals and shows next to no regret for any of it until seeing the Umbrum's true nature.
- Unwitting Pawn: To the Umbrum. Rabia spent the last thousand years convincing they were Not Evil, Just Misunderstood. Given that Sombra went through the same thing, it explains why Radiant Hope would fall for it.
- White Mage: Her special talent is incredibly powerful healing magic.
Princess Amore
First Mentioned: The Journal of the Two Sisters
A Crystal unicorn that rules the Crystal Empire at the time of King Sombra's rise to power. According to the Journal, her special talent was triggered on discovering the Crystal Heart, leading Princesses Celestia and Luna to have her in charge of the Crystal Empire to protect it. She plays a major role King Sombra's story in the Expanded Universe My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic comic.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In contrast to her Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moments in The Journal of the Two Sisters and FIENDship is Magic #1, the Guardians of Harmony arc reveals she once pulled a Good Counterpart version of King Sombra's Crazy-Prepared-ness and hid away a MacGuffin stockpile that can only be reached by passing an illusionary Secret Test of Character. Because of this, Shining Armor manages to acquire a potion that proves crucial in repelling yet another Changeling invasion.
- All-Loving Hero: She has a heart filled with love and compassion, so much so that she has the special talent that allowed her to activate the Crystal Heart. To say nothing of her knowing Sombra was an Umbrum agent all along but still allowing him to live in her kingdom, as she trusted he could be made to accept good. Unfortunately, being all-loving doesn't make her especially wise.
- Ambiguously Related: Word of God is that she's related to Cadance, though how is unclear since there's no mention of Amore having children. Her name is also Cadance's middle name (Mi Amore Cadenza), and Radiant Hope remarks on the similarity, but it's ultimately never stated directly in any story. Worth noting is that Amore is a unicorn, while Cadance is a pegasus by birth.
- Broken Pedestal: Became this to Sombra, who cements his Face–Heel Turn by leaving her literally broken. Radiant Hope seems to follow once she learns of her mistake and it's implied that it was this that led to Radiant Hope not trusting the other Princesses.
- Hero of Another Story: Like Celestia and Luna, she had her own adventures before becoming ruler.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Sombra shatters her into pieces to cement his place as usurper-king, though he implies she could potentially pull herself back together and come back to life in the future.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A habit of hers, having spectacularly screwed up in each of her appearances. In The Journal of the Two Sisters it's revealed the crystal heart was from the hoard of a sleeping dragon, who was subsequently rather unhappy when he woke up and required Celestia to smooth things over. In Fiendship is Magic #1 she knew all along what Sombra really was, but trusted that he could be swayed to embrace his inner potential for good. A brilliant idea and all, but she did absolutely nothing to convince him of that, instead leaving him to go through massive suffering as a colt. The result is Sombra embracing evil and Radiant Hope reviving him 1000 years later once she "learns" about her actions. That mistake threatened the Crystal Empire three times over.
- Screw Destiny: Advocates to Sombra that he can do this to his fate to turn evil. Unfortunately, his anger that she did nothing to help him in his ongoing torment is the last straw before he embraces it.
- Taken for Granite: Well, crystal, specifically. Sombra petrifies her in order to seize her throne.
- Unicorn: An extremely tall and slender one, somewhat like Princess Celestia but without wings or an ethereal mane.
- Walking Spoiler: Because of the precise role she plays in the Sombra's Origins Episode, it's nearly impossible to detail her tropes without giving out key information away.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Sombra calls her out for knowing the reasons for his suffering yet leaving doing nothing to help him.
- Winged Unicorn: Averted. Despite the expectations one may have due to Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight Sparkle, Princess Amore was only a unicorn. She still has an alicorn-like build, though.
Chestnut Falls
Debut: Fiendship is Magic #1: Sombra
A crystal pony who ran the Crystal Heart Foal Center where Sombra grew up a thousand years ago.
- Good Counterpart: To Rabia, Sombra's actual mother. While Rabia is a monster who treats Sombra like nothing but a tool to free the umbrum, Chestnut is a loving and charitable mare who ran an orphanage and showed the children under her care nothing but love.
- Good Parents: Strictly speaking she was Sombra's caretaker, not mother, but she was the mare who raised him with love and patience. When he fell sick for reasons no doctor could ascertain, she stayed with him for as long as she could, and was besides herself with relief when he recovered.
- Odd Name Out: She's a crystal pony, but her name doesn't draw from any precious minerals like the rest of her race.
- Orphanage of Love: Outside of some bullying from the other foals, the Crystal Heart Foal Center she ran was one, as Sombra got all the love and care he would have needed as a young colt, and Chestnut herself is shown to be nothing but loving.
- Uncertain Doom: She could still be alive in the present due to the Crystal Empire being shifted out of existence for a thousand years, but she doesn't appear after Sombra's fall so it's an open question.
Sendak the Elder
Debut: Fiendship is Magic #2: Lord Tirek
An implicitly outcast elderly centaur mage and hermit, who tutored Tirek in the dark arts.
- Affably Evil: He genuinely seemed to care for Tirek as his protege, and was shocked by his betrayal.
- Asshole Victim: Tirek pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on him and leaves him for dead. Considering that he abducted an innocent Unicorn for cruel magical experimentation, this may very well be the only good thing that Tirek has ever done.
- Black Magic: He is an Evil Sorcerer, so naturally he practices this, and it's implied it's what got him outcast. He tutored Tirek in the same magic.
- Evil Mentor: Tirek at least learned the Mana Drain spell from him, and presumably learned a lot more as well.
- Evil Old Folks: He appeared to be much older than King Vorak.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Both he and Tirek were evil sorcerers who wanted to drain magic from others to make themselves more powerful. Unlike Tirek however, Sendak seemed to actually care for his allies and appeared to appreciate Tirek as an apprentice. As a result, he was shocked at his betrayal.
- Mana Drain: Pioneered this ability and taught it to Tirek.
- Posthumous Character: Quite possibly. While it appears that centaurs do have very long lifespans (assuming Tartarus did not give Tirek enhanced longevity), Sendak already appeared to be very old when Tirek was just a boy.
- Predecessor Villain: To Tirek.
- Shout-Out: Named after Maurice Sendak, the author of Where the Wild Things Are.
- Villainous Legacy: Tirek's motive and actions in Twilight's Kingdom all trace back to him, by which time he may no longer exist.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Like Tirek, he has white hair, but he's also emphatically evil.
King Vorak and Queen Haydon
Debut: Fiendship is Magic #2: Lord Tirek
Tirek and Scorpon's parents and the former rulers of his kingdom. King Vorak is a centaur, while Queen Haydon is a gargoyle.
- Canon Immigrant: King Vorak is name-dropped in the series finale when Discord mocks Tirek as having daddy issues.
- Cute Monster Girl: Queen Haydon is more of a cute monster woman given her age and attractive appearance.
- Dark Is Not Evil: They were both fearsome looking, like Tirek himself, but were actually benevolent souls and wise leaders.
- Gender Equals Breed: Averted. They have two children, one centaur and one gargoyle, but those children are both male.
- The Good King: They ruled their land kindly and well, and sought only peace with Equestria.
- Good Parents: Fairly reasonable and tried to raise their sons well. Scorpon took after them and made friends with the ponies. But Tirek was just a bad seed, swayed by the dark magic Sendak taught him.
- Interspecies Romance: Vorak, a centaur, is happily married to Haydon, a gargoyle.
- Oh, Crap!: King Vorak isn't happy when he sees Sendak has kidnapped a unicorn from Equestria.
- Properly Paranoid: King Vorak had Tirek spied on and tried to limit him from learning magic for fear he would abuse his power. In light of what Tirek became...
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Vorak averts the Genre Blindness that many other depicted leaders in the series show, being willing to use spies (pretty decent ones at that) in order to make sure that his son who demonstrates Sociopathic tendencies can't learn enough magic to fully act on them. Furthermore, once Sendak risked an international incident with Equestria, he immediately orders him punished and personally sees that relations get fixed.
- Small Role, Big Impact: King Vorak gets a single mention by Discord in the Series Finale revealing their role in Tirek's Freudian Excuse. This caused Tirek's actions in "Twilight's Kingdom" which resulted in many changes to the series (Discord's genuine Heel–Face Turn, Twilight Sparkle become The Princess of Friendship, the creation of the Cutie Map leading to Starlight Glimmer's Heel–Face Turn leading to the changelings Heel–Race Turn). In "The Ending of the End — Part 2", Tirek's reaction to Discord bringing up his issues with his father enabled Discord to risk his life to free everyone, turning things around after the Darkest Hour and redeeming Discord after unwittingly endangering Equestria, proving he has changed despite his mistake.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Played with. Vorak is far from ugly (and, in fact, looks pretty good for an older fellow), but still looks quite gruff in comparison to the absolutely lovely Haydon.
- The Unreveal: At the end of the issue, Tirek vows that he will one day overthrow his father before setting off to steal magic from Equestria. It is never revealed if Tirek was successful or not or what happened to them. In the series finale, when Discord mentions Vorak, he does so in the present tense, implying that Vorak may still be alive.
Movie Prequel
Strife
Debut: Issue #1: The Storm King
A living stormcloud who serves as the Storm King's second-in-command, although he has interests of his own.
- Cumulonemesis: A living, cloud-like creature who serves as the Big Bad's treacherous second-in-command.
- The Dragon: He's the Storm King's second-in-command and the main organizer of his military enterprises.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Unbeknownst to the Storm King, Strife plans to betray and abandon him as soon as his master's plans no longer align with his own. Whatever those plans may be, however, the Storm King punishes him before he can make good on them.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Despite going on about avoiding friendships to avoid being betrayed, the Storm King is still shocked and angered when Strife gives him away to the pirates — friendship or not, he still gave Strife his trust.
- Number Two: To the Storm King, until his betrayal of the latter.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He's last seen being hurled off the Storm King's ship, which given that he's essentially a floating cloud he likely survived. As he does not appear and is not mentioned in the movie, his eventual fate is left unclear.
Chummer
Debut: Issue #1: The Storm King
Capper's childhood friend and fellow street urchin in their native Abyssinia. Chummer and Capper stow away on an airship during the Storm King's invasion of their home, which is later captured by pirates and re-seized by the Storm King. In the confusion, the two friends remain stranded in the deserts near Klugetown, far from home.
- The Artful Dodger: He and Capper were street orphans in Abyssinia and managed to thrive on stealing from street vendors. Chummer is perfectly happy with the idea of doing this for the rest of his life, to the point where he abandons his best friend just for suggesting they settle down somewhere for once.
- The Atoner: When he reunites with Capper during the "Abyssinians" story arc, Chummer reveals that he returned home in hopes of making amends with his old friend. But when he saw what King Meowmeow was doing to their people, he set out to help form La Résistance against him, believing it was what Capper would do.
- Cat Folk: He's a humanoid, digitigrade tabby cat.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Capper is rightfully devastated when Chummer, his closest friend and companion, betrays and abandons him.
- Eyepatch of Power: Chummer is shown with one when he returns for the "Abyssinians" arc. A flashback shows that Chummer still had both his eyes after the crash meaning he more than likely got the eyepatch during his time in La Résistance.
- Heel Realization: Following the airship crash, the injured Chummer was rescued and nursed back to health by Pepper and Salty, two Diamond Dogs. This experience helped Chummer to realize that not everyone does something in hopes of getting something in return, and led him to regret betraying his old friend.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Soon after betraying Capper, Chummer loses "their" airship and is forced to leave with nothing — just like how he left Capper.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After the airship crash, a trail of pawprints can be seen leading away from the wreckage of his crashed airship after he ditched Capper. As this is the last seen of him, it's unknown whether or not he survived in the desert long enough to find civilization. The "Abyssinians" arc reveals what became of him afterwards.
- What Would X Do?: Chummer states that after returning to Abyssinia, he decided to help their old friends in their crusade against King Meowmeow, believing it was what Capper would do.
Rambler
Debut: Issue #4: Tempest Shadow
An earth pony traveler that meets and befriends Tempest in the lands south of Equestria.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Played with — after years spent away from Equestria, he's gotten so used to using regular terms like "anybody" that he has to consciously correct himself and switch to using "anypony" when chatting with Tempest.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: sports a very large cleft that wouldn't be fittingly out-of-place in a Western.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He's last seen as he helps distract the Storm King's forces long enough for Tempest to escape. While Tempest herself doesn't get very far before running into the Storm King, it's never shown or discussed if Rambler was captured or managed to escape himself.
Legends of Magic
Captain Steela Oresdotter
The no-nonsense leader of the Mighty Helm and Rockhoof's commanding officer.
- Bifauxnen: To the point where she could even be mistaken for a Big Beautiful Man.
- The Captain: She commands the Mighty Helm, and does a pretty good job of it. It’s her admonishment that convinces Rockhoof to get it together, and she easily keeps up with him on the trip up the mountain.
The Old Wizard
An old, glum wizard that Somnambula finds sitting by himself at the end of the giant snake's gut, wallowing in depression due to having accidentally created said giant snake in the first place.
- Deadpan Snarker: As part of his role as a cynical foil to Somnambula, he gets a few dry zingers to complement her cheerful forthrightness.Somnambula: Oh, there you are. Hey, you look like a wizard!
Old Wizard: Wow, it's not just you necklace, you are bright. - Foil: To Somnambula. He's cynical and ill tempered where she's bubbly and upbeat. Further, his defeatist attitude and desire to simply wallow in his guilt rather than try to fix his predicament contrast Somnambula's much more proactive attitude, as well as reinforcing her stories' message about not giving up on hope.
- My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction to having accidentally created a giant snake while trying to rid himself of a pest. He considers himself an old fool and failure, and wants to be left in the snake's gut to feel sorry for himself. He seems to get over his depression by the end, when Somnambula figures out how to shrink the snake back down and rescues the ponies trapped in its gut.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: The hat is brimless, and both it and the robe are decorated with an unusual eye motif in addition to the more traditional stars, but otherwise a typical example.
- Wizard Beard: He has a long, wispy white beard sprouting from his chin.
- Wizard Classic: He wears a robe and a conical (but brimless) hat, both decorated with eye and star motifs, and a long beard. His flashback when he tells Somnambula where the snake came from also shows a preference for studying magic and potions in seclusion.
The Pony of Shadows
Debut: Legends of Magic Annual
An alternate version of the Pony of Shadows, from a world whose events are slightly ahead of the prime universe.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: He succeeded where his prime counterpart failed in destroying the Pillars before they imprisoned him. Though it is later revealed that Princess Eris hid Star Swirl's spellbook, putting a serious dent in that plan.
- The Bad Guy Wins: A version of the Pony of Shadows who succeeded in taking over Equestria.
- The Beastmaster: He has complete control over the fauna of his dimension.
- The Corrupter: He attempted to kidnap a young Celestia and Luna, and twist them into becoming Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon. While the Pillars foil this attempt, he later succeeds with other versions of the Princesses.
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: This version has been the Pony of Shadows for so long that he's forgotten who he once was. It takes meeting his Alternate Self and hearing his name to jog his memory.
- Eviler than Thou:
- He imprisoned Princess Eris in Star Swirl's spellbook, using her as a Living Battery to enhance his own powers.
- He was ultimately betrayed by Daybreaker, and destroyed.
- Evil Plan: He intends to use Celestia and Luna's power to help him conquer all realities.
- Hero Killer: He wiped out his world's versions of the Pillars.
- Green and Mean: This alternate Pony of Shadows has green highlights in lieu of the grey ones of the main universe's version.
- The Man Behind the Man: It was he who sent the shadow creatures to kidnap Princess Luna in the first Legends of Magic issue.
Nightmare Knights
Princess Eris
Debut: Nightmare Knights #1
Discord's "cousin" and the lord of chaos of an alternate reality, who has far more destructive tastes than Discord ever did. She runs the "Chaos Casino" where various villains gather from alternate realities. Eris steals Princess Luna's magic and enslaves an alternate version of Daybreaker, intent on selling both to the highest bidder.
- Asshole Victim: Daybreaker seemingly kills her at the end of the arc, but considering her actions, it's hard to feel sorry for her.
- Bad Guy Bar: She runs a casino that only allows villains to enter.
- Big Bad: Of the Nightmare Knights mini-series.
- Break the Haughty: Over the course of the final battle, Eris goes from the haughty Lord of Chaos to terrified, powerless, and begging on her knees for Luna's mercy. Thankfully, Luna doesn't want to hurt her. But Daybreaker does.
- Chicken Joke: Tempest Shadow attempts to taunt Eris with one of these, but Eris hits back with a threat.Tempest Shadow: Why did the chicken cross—
Princess Eris: You know, I've heard this one before, but the real question I want the answer to is—why did the pony cross the chicken? - Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Inverted, Eris has Chronic Getting Backstabbed Disorder. Every ally she's made has eventually betrayed her, stretching all the way into her backstory. To be far she's smug, unpleasant and naïve, which makes it pretty irresistible.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Suffers a pretty one sided and undignified defeat, but to her credit she holds off Daybreaker easily, and even holds her own when Tempest, Stygian and Trixie join in. If Capper hadn't chosen that moment to backstab her, she might have won.
- Dream Weaver: Stealing Luna's magic grants her this ability, which she uses to imprison Capper and Stygian in their own worst nightmares.
- Dirty Coward: She begs for mercy and lies that the Pony of Shadows hurt her in an attempt to elicit sympathy when she's defeated.
- Evil Gloating: Eris is a little too fond to this, to Tempest's annoyance.
- Eviler than Thou: Eris looks down on her "cousin" Discord's antics, believing chaos is better used to spread destruction rather than playing pranks and making it rain chocolate milk. Ironically, she's ultimately dealt with much easier than him once her Staff and Luna's magic are no longer hers.
- For the Evulz: Eris stole the journal of her world's Star Swirl the Bearded, preventing the Pillars from imprisoning the Pony of Shadows, in order to ensure the chaos he inflicted would continue.
- Implausible Deniability: After being overpowered, Eris claims that she's only the way she is because she went mad during the years she'd spent imprisoned by the Pony of Shadows. This excuse ignores the fact that she intentionally arranged for the Pony of Shadows to continue his initial reign of terror, all for her own amusement.
- Killed Off for Real: Implied. Daybreaker blasts her out of the castle and into the distance with a blast of fiery energy, and there is no indication that she survived.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After allowing for the alternate Pony of Shadows to continue his reign of terror for her own amusement, Eris was imprisoned by him, who used her power to enhance his own.
- Living Battery: The alternate Pony of Shadows used Star Swirl's spell book to turn Eris into one of these when she refused to help him conquer their Equestria.
- Miles Gloriosus: For all her bluster and view of being superior to Discord, she's ultimately this. Once she loses Luna's stolen power and the Staff, she's revealed to be nowhere near as powerful as her cousin is, and while decently good at deception, is nowhere near as good at manipulation or breaking the heroes. She promptly breaks down like a coward and begs for mercy.
- Mind Rape: When the captive Tempest Shadow refuses to answer Eris's questions, Eris forces her to relive the day she lost her horn, with Tempest's childhood friends replaced by her current teammates, and Eris in place of the Ursa Minor.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Not to the same extent as Discord; she has a humanoid avian body (similar to Captain Celaeno) with bat-like wings and ram horns.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Eris locking up Trixie in the same room as Tempest and Daybreaker proves instrumental for her defeat: Trixie creates an illusion of Daybreaker's Shock Collar to replace the one Tempest broke, allowing Daybreaker and the rest to get close enough to Eris without attracting her suspicion.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: She may have the same kind of Reality Warping capabilities of her "Cousin"; however most of it stems from her using the Staff and having it taken away from her shows just how out of depth she really is.
- Reality Warper: Much like Discord, she can manifest objects out of thin air, alter the form of matter, and create illusions. However, she appears to be much weaker than him in terms of her actual power, as without her staff or Luna's stolen power she's no match at all for Daybreaker or Luna, while Discord exceeds both by a huge margin.
- Smug Snake: She almost makes the cut, but despite being pretty powerful and cunning she's eventually done in by her unpleasant personality, arrogance and tendency to underestimate her foes. She even tops it off by proving a Dirty Coward in defeat.
- Squishy Wizard: Eris' abilities are not to laugh at; but take away her Staff, and release Daybreaker from her service...
- The Starscream: The Pony of Shadows had the captive Eris create a special collar that would allow him total control over Daybreaker. Eris instead used the collar to make Daybreaker her servant, and together, they destroyed the Pony of Shadows.
- Super Gullible: As Daybreaker points out, for someone so practiced in deception, she is very bad at recognizing it, never suspecting that Capper had only pretended to side with her in order to a switch the orb containing Luna's magic with a fake.
Daybreaker
Debut: Nightmare Knights #1
An alternate version of Celestia who was fully corrupted by the Pony of Shadows alongside her sister Luna, who became in turn permanently became Nightmare Moon. Eventually she was captured and forced under the control of Eris, becoming a security guard at her casino.
For information on the dream version of Daybreaker, see Friendship Is Magic: Others.
- Alternate Self: Essentially she's a version of Celestia from a world where the Pillars couldn't defeat the Pony of Shadows and she, along with Luna, were the ones that got corrupted.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Daybreaker gets the honor of taking out Eris.
- Black Eyes of Crazy: She has dark red sclera close to this effect.
- Cain and Abel: She's the Cain to her version of Luna. Even as Nightmare Moon, Luna managed to shake off the Pony of Shadows' control of her and turned against him. However, rather than join her sister in defeating him, Daybreaker turned on and killed Nightmare Moon to be the Pony of Shadows' only successor.
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: She has no memories of her time as Celestia or the fact that her sister used to be Luna.
- Dragon Ascendant: Daybreaker takes over the Casino after killing Eris.
- Demoted to Dragon: Under Eris' control, Daybreaker is forced to become a security guard at her casino.
- Evil Counterpart: To Celestia, being a version of her from a universe where she's a villain.
- Evil Is Burning Hot: She has power over fire.
- Evil Versus Evil: In the past, the alternate Nightmare Moon attempted to betray the Pony of Shadows, only for Daybreaker to fight and kill her. She eventually shares this distinction with Eris as well.
- Enemy Mine: After her collar is broken, she willingly teams up with the Nightmare Knights to usurp Eris. She lets the heroes leave when they're done, but makes it clear that she's not intending on reforming.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Since she's in the Daybreaker persona permanently, she constantly has red eyes.
- Flaming Hair: Her hair is a massive flame of fire.
- Fangs Are Evil: She's always seen sporting fangs in her mouth.
- Identity Amnesia: It seems that whatever the Pony of Shadows did to her, it resulted in Daybreaker having no memory of her past as Celestia.
- Might Makes Right: Essentially the reason she takes out Nightmare Moon since, due to serving under the Pony of Shadows, this implanted this belief in her, thus believing her weak. It's also the reason she doesn't accept Luna's offer as well.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Daybreaker kills Eris the moment she gets the chance after being her unwilling servant for most of the arc.
- Playing with Fire: Daybreaker's main power.
- The Power of the Sun: Daybreaker's powers are fully restored upon defeating Eris, signified by the sun rising over the landscape.Daybreaker: "Do you now that collar kept me from accessing the power to control the sun? It takes a little while to raise it when you haven't done it in centuries, but it's dawn now."
- Redemption Rejection: Daybreaker refuses Luna's offer to reform and rule honestly, instead electing to take over the castle Eris left behind.
- Replacement Goldfish: Daybreaker reveals she was just trying to fill the void left by her dead sister Nightmare Moon with Luna. She eventually realizes that Luna is not the mare she knew, and rejects her attempt to play on their familial relationship.
- Shock Collar: Eris forces her to wear one of these; one which inflicts painful electric shocks upon her when she acts against Eris's orders. The moment it's destroyed, she immediately unleashes her wrath upon Eris.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Is this for Celestia.
The Great and Powerful Twily
Debut: Nightmare Knights #3
A version of Twilight Sparkle who is seen performing at Eris's casino. She quickly develops a rivalry with Trixie.
- Alternate Self: Of the mainstream Twilight Sparkle.
- Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: She and Trixie quickly decide to compete to see who is the most "great and powerful".
- Evil Is Hammy: Like the pre-reformation Trixie, she has a very high strung and volatile personality.
- Large Ham: One more thing she has in common with Trixie; She likes to announce how great she is for all to hear.
- No, You: Invoked during the argument between her and Trixie.Trixie: Nobody is as skilled as the Great and Powerful Trixie!
Twily: Hey! Stop stealing my thing! I'm the Great and Powerful Twily!
Trixie: That sounds ridiculous!
Twily: You're ridiculous! - Shout-Out: It is indicated that she might be the same Anti-Twilight from the Mirrorverse Arc, as upon meeting Trixie, she briefly mistakes her for the one from her world, referring to her as Princess Trixie. The Mirrorverse version of Trixie is in turn shown to be the Princess of Humility.
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: Rather than being an alicorn princess, she is a unicorn stage magician (like Trixie). Considering it's implied she came from the Mirrorverse, that's not surprising really.
Feats of Friendship
Swift Foot
Debut: Feats of Friendship #1
An earth pony transfer student at the School of Friendship who joins the Young Six in their very first sporting event.
- Accidental Hero: In the second issue of Feats of Friendship, Swift Foot ends up unintentionally winning the first event for her team while running from a wild Orthrus.
- Arc Villain: Of the Feats of Friendship arc.
- Becoming the Mask: Ultimately comes to understand friendship and help the Young Six in the events. After which she heads home to the spread the message of friendship and prepare to fight those those that go against her newfound friends.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She comes off as nice and friendly, but is actually rotten underneath.
- Blank White Eyes: Swift Foot displays these at the end of the issue, while contacting her father.
- But Now I Must Go: She silently leaves after seeing the Young Six win their sporting events, feeling she isn't worthy to be there after what she's done and heading off back to her home to spread what she's learned, knowing very well her father likely won't be happy with her abandoning her race's teachings.
- Condescending Compassion: Swift Foot uses this to drive a wedge between the Young Six, claiming that the cultures of the non-pony members aren't given the proper respect, and that Sandbar is being forced to put his friends ahead of himself.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Cozy Glow. Both are ponies who are students at the School of Friendship, display Fantastic Racism towards non-ponies and are secretly evil. However, while Cozy was a filly, Swift Foot is a teenager. Also unlike Cozy Glow, Swift Foot actually begins to see the error of her ways. Likewise, where Cozy Glow's past is never revealed, we learn Swift Foot's origins.
- False Friend: She pretends to befriend the Young Six, then manipulates them by playing on their differences.
- Fangs Are Evil: At the end of the first issue, she displays a pair of fangs while contacting her father.
- Fantastic Racism: Swift Foot doesn't think much of non-pony species, dismissing the rest of the Young Six in their first meeting to talk to Sandbar.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Sandbar develops a crush on her at first sight.
- Heel–Face Turn: After seeing the Young Six reconcile from the argument that she caused, she realizes that friendship can be a genuine thing and abandons her mission.
- Manipulative Bitch: She subtly causes discord between the Young Six by pointing out flaws in their races which in turn causes misunderstandings and arguments.
- The Mole: Infiltrated the School of Friendship on orders from her father to sow distrust between the students before a sporting event event, to show all of Equestria how frail friendship is.
- Tears of Remorse: She weeps when the Young Six once again offer her their friendship, regretting everything she did to them.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Swift Foot was raised in environment that saw friendship as a weakness and the whole purpose of her mission was to try to showcase this notion at a sporting event featuring various creatures. However when she actually experiences it for herself, she has a hard time understanding it and how it can be overcome given enough effort on both sides since it goes against what she was always told. By the third issue, despite successfully turning the Young Six against each other, she begins to question if what she did and what she was taught was/are really in the right and, after seeing the Young Six overcome their squabbles, decides that her former teachings are bunk.
King Thrace
Debut: Feats of Friendship #2
The leader of an ancient race of earth ponies known as Thracians, who consider friendship to be a weakness.
- Ambiguously Related: Thrace was an earth pony, but the general aesthetics of both him and the culture he founded bears a much stronger resemblance to the pre-Equestrian pegasi than the earth ponies, as both Thrace and the Pegasi draw on ancient Greece as inspiration. What connection existed between them, if any, was is never explained, though the fact that he apparently knew commander Hurricane (along with other founders of Equestria) would imply there was at least some cultural exchange.
- Egopolis: A variant; rather than naming a city after himself, he used his name for his entire race.
- It's All About Me: If the name didn't give it away, the guy was pretty self-centered. Not only did he name his race after himself (which even Swift Foot states was self-indulgent of him), but he based his teachings on how friendship is a weakness because he himself didn't like it.
- Remember the New Guy?: He was a contemporary of Equestria's founders and apparently met them at the first Hearths Warming Eve shortly after they drove off the windigos, but Equestrian chronicles don't mention him at all and he doesn't appear outside of Feats of Friendship.
- Unreliable Narrator: According to him, he was left out of the three tribes' moment of friendship. Since we have only his side of the story to go on, this may not be exactly what happened.
- Villainous Legacy: His dislike of friendship is passed down to and motivates his descendent Diomedes.
- Virtue Is Weakness: He considered friendship to be a "vile lie", and a "weakness", beliefs he passed down to his descendents.
King Diomedes
Debut: Feats of Friendship #3
The new king of Thrace, who also considers friendship a weakness.
- Abusive Parents: Appears to be this; when Swift Foot realizes she's late, she fears his wrath. And when he responds to Swift Foot's surprise at being chosen for the mission (which he takes as a refusal) with anger, she bows down in terror.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is convinced that sabotaging the Feats of Friendship will destroy Equestria's belief in friendship itself, leaving them ripe for conquest.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of the Feats of Friendship arc; he's the one who ultimately decided to infiltrate Equestria, but remains away from the country himself and his daughter Swift Foot serves as the story's Big Bad.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The original King Diomedes was a mythical Thracian ruler famed for keeping four ferocious, man-eating horses which Herakles had to tame as one of his labors. Incidentally, the names of these horses match fairly well with those of this Diomedes' four daughters — Deinos ("the Terrible", Terri Belle), Xanthos ("the Yellow", Blonn Di), Lampon ("the Shining", Shining Light) and Podargos ("the Swift", Swift Foot).
Generations
Grackle and Dyre
Grackle on the left, Dyre on the right.
Debut: My Little Pony Generations #1
The daughters of Reeka and Draggle and granddaughters of Hydia, the witches from Generation 1. When their mothers go away for a monthly excursion, they leave the two alone to watch over Gloom Volcano while also giving them a list of chores, one of which is to take revenge on the ponies for their losses against them.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: They have skin colors that look more in line with humans in Equestria Girls.
- Bad Boss: As usual for girls brought up only on evil, they're not very kind to their creations, often belittling them for not trying hard enough and threatening to turn them back to Smooze if they don't do their tasks. After reforming, they apologize to the S'monies and give them their blessing to stay at the School of Friendship.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Like their mothers, they were raised to despise all things good and nice, practically mocking Starlight's letter that Trench gives them.
- Catchphrase: "Flippin' fireballs," shared between them.
- Cute Witch: At least in relations to their mothers who were very Gonk when they were younger. Grackle and Dyre are far from their looks.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- It's clear from the beginning that they don't have a concrete plan to enact discord on the ponies, and are just making things up on the fly by simply making the S'monies and having them infiltrate the school.
- This lack of foresight bites them again when they travel to Ponyville to attack the ponies directly. Not only have the ponies never seen humans before (as they don't exist in the main G4 universe), but they're also corrupted by the Smooze, leading to them relentlessly beating the witches up and forcing them to flee.
- Easily Forgiven: Both undergo a Heel–Face Turn and help destroy the Smooze, but neither of them are punished for creating the Smooze in the first place. Granted, the feel genuinely remorseful for what they've done, and Grackle admits she's rotten and selfish like her mother, but North Star reassures her of otherwise.
- Fat and Skinny: Like their mothers, they share these body types, albeit not as extreme. Grackle is the more chubby of the pair while Dyre is more slim.
- Flaming Hair: Grackle's hair flows like flames when using intense magic or when enraged. It becomes flames outright during her Motive Rant in Issue 5.
- Heel–Face Turn: Their visit to Equestria leads to this, when they witness firsthand what it was they were really destroying. While Dyre helps free ponies from the cursed decorations, Grackle teams up with Twilight to eliminate the Smooze for good, resolving to be free from her family's past and never using her magic to cause harm again.
- Heel Realization: They both have this when walking through Ponyville, seeing various activities of its citizens that their actions ruined and realizing that it is actually a nice place, inhabited by creatures they can relate with — making them suddenly feel bad for everything they've done.
- I Choose to Stay: They decide to stay in Equestria and explore to find a new home, choosing not to return to the volcano.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Despite their talk of enjoying being witches and causing havoc, in truth the two just want to get out of exile and hang out with others like normal teenagers.
- Incendiary Exponent: Grackle quite literally explodes with anger any time she gets pissed.
- Misplaced Retribution: They want to get even with the ponies but end up targeting the G4 ponies, who've never even met them or their mothers let alone have any humanoids in their dimension, rather then the ones in their world. This does get brought up in the second issue when Grackle questions if they should target ponies in another dimension. But Dyre shrugs it off that their mothers just said to take revenge on ponies but didn't necessarily say which ones. Both figuring as long as they get revenge on ponies in general like their moms wanted, it's fine either way. Issue 5 implies it wasn't even the ponies keeping them in the volcano but their parents.
- Mommy's Little Villain: They relish in the chance to get even with the ponies for their mothers' humiliation, hoping to make their mothers proud. They're nowhere near as fond with their parents as they'd openly admit.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When they see the Smooze magic in action during the Bestie Festie, they're horrified at how utterly ruthless and frightening it is as it either wraps up or possesses the ponies around it, especially when it calls them out on stating that this is what they wanted and intends to feed on the rest of Equestria. The pair quickly renounce it with Grackle combining her magic with the ponies Rainbow magic to help dispell it.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Their disguise to get into the Bestie Festie is a giant, gaudy unicorn costume that's twice as tall as any of the ponies. The Smooze attacks the party before anyone notices.
- Power Floats: The two are seen using their powers to float a bit while milling around their home.
- Power Incontinence: Grackle is shown in issue 3 not to have a full grasp of her powers if she's angry, causing it to surge when she finds out the G4 ponies are (inadvertently) trying to spoil their plans. Ironically, she seems to have a better grasp on her magic when using it for good instead of evil.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Grackle is the red, eager to jump at a chance to prove herself, very emotional, and can't stand it when things don't go to plan, often losing control of her power when she gets mad. Dyre is the blue, rational minded, keeps her cool despite setbacks and does her best to calm her cousin down when her anger gets the better of her.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Inherited from their mothers and grandmother is the curse that prevents them from using magic outside of the volcano. Notably, while their mothers frequently leave the volcano to find ways to break the curse, Grackle and Dyre are forced to stay behind, with dialog implying they've never left the volcano before. The final issue implies this was entirely their mothers' doing, and had they actually let them leave, the ponies would've accepted them.
- Spikes of Villainy: Dyre has some spikes embedded on her jacket shoulders.
- Villain No Longer Idle: For the first four issues, they command the S'monies from their lair while the two of them either do their chores or just lounge around the house while waiting on reports from them. It isn't until Issue 4 they realize if the S'monies magic works in Equestria, which is made from their magic, then that means their powers will work in that realm too. Thus they decide to go personally handle the G4 ponies themselves.
- Villainous Legacy: Their evil grandmother Hydia is long gone, leaving it up to them to carry on her legacy of antagonizing the ponies.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: They frequently bicker with and insult each other, yet they are undoubtedly good friends, very loyal to each other and never bearing any ill will for any jibes. This doubles as an early hint of their eventual Heel–Face Turn.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Despite being treated cruelly by their mothers and repeatedly mocked for their supposed ineptitude, they still try to appease them and earn their respect. In the climax, however, Grackle finally realizes that not only their mothers simply do not care about them, but their approval isn't really of any worth to begin with. She vows to never use her magic to hurt others again and ends up befriending ponies, who have shown her much more kindness and understanding that her and Dyre's mothers ever did.
Trench
Debut: My Little Pony Generations #1
Grackle and Dyre's rat familiar.
- Dimensional Traveler: He can "tunnel" between dimensions, allowing him to travel between the G1 and G4 universes at will.
- Familiar: Part pet, part familiar to the girls whose up for doing their bidding.
- Iron Butt Monkey:
- Nearly gets trampled on while exploring the School of Friendship, slips on a banana peel and has a statue of Starswirl fall on him.
- In Issue 4, he gets mauled by Opal and barely limps away all bruised and bandaged up.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: For some reason he keeps Goblin Fur on him. So when Opal attacks him, she plucks it off of him and returns back to Rarity where the Mane 6, Starlight and G1 ponies are trying to brainstorm a way to counter the Smooze magic. Fluttershy takes the fur out of Opal's mouth, North Star points out what it is and how it smells like sulfur, and this gives Twilight the idea to use crystals to amplify their Elements of Harmoy power since the sulfur smell reminds her of volcanos and that sulfur gas can be condensed into crystal. And indeed the amplified power counters the Smooze magic.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Aside from a cutaway graphic, he's completely absent from Issue 5, where the story's tone becomes more serious.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza. He eats all the pizza the girls had made for themselves and Gackle promises him more if he complete his tasks.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Due to his complete absense in Issue 5, it's unknown if he stayed with Grackle and Dyre when they left to travel Equestria, or if he stayed behind at the volcano.
- You Dirty Rat!: He's a rat, largely to keep in line with the Wicked Witch motif of the girls.
S'monies
From left: Shadow Storm, Black Belle, and Violet Shiver
Debut: My Little Pony Generations #1
A trio of pony creations of Grackle and Dyre, made from their magic and Smooze sent into the G4 world to enact the witches' plans. They are Violet Shiver, Black Belle and Shadow Storm.
- Anti-Magic: Like both versions of the Smooze, the S'monies are completely impervious to magic. Nothing in the G4 universe can affect them or their magic, forcing the Mane Six to go to the G1 universe to hopefully find a way to fight them.
- Artificial Human: They were created by molding the ingredients to make the Smooze, Grackle's magic, and pizza dough (yes, really) into a trio of artificial ponies.
- An Ice Person: Violet Shiver is shown to have power over ice which she uses to create premature frost to cover Sweet Apple Acres, causing the family to argue with each other on getting the weather wrong.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: They despise anything to do with friendship and look absolutely repulsed when having to do interactions that involve as such. Putting on a Stepford Smiler when doing so to keep up their act. Not surprising as they were made by witches who likewise have this mindset.
- Becoming the Mask: By Issue #4, they start to become a little too invested in their roles as they try to enact the witches' plans. Granted they still wish to cause chaos but let down their defenses and accept some of the goodwill from their students.
- Berserk Button: Black Belle develops one, completely freaking out if any of her students are in danger.
- The Corruptor: After becoming teachers at the School of Friendship, they intentionally teach meanspirited "lessons" to the students intended to spread discord and disharmony. By Issue 3, Ocellus and Silverstream (usually the sweetest of the students) are openly mocking Fluttershy's class and insulting their teacher.
- Demonic Possession: In the final issue, Violet Shiver is possessed by the Smooze through the streamers she created.
- Ear Notch: Black Belle on her left ear. Her introduction artwork has the notch on her right ear instead, but switches to the correct side in Issue 2.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For as much malice and chaos as they bring, they draw the line at hurting children. Black Belle especially, who intervenes when the Smooze attempts to kill Ocellus and Yona.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Shadow Storm's eyes have grey sclerae and white irises.
- Frame-Up: In Issue 2, Black Belle destroys the Hay Burger restaurant, and implicates the staff of the neighboring bowling alley in the destruction.
- Got Volunteered: In Issue 3, the S'monies need to find out more about the party the ponies are planning. Black Belle forces Violet Shiver to infiltrate it, to her chagrin.Black Belle: (Pushing Violet Shiver forward) Thank you for your noble sacrifice.
- Heel–Face Turn: Cracks in their resolve to be evil gradually form as they befriend the ponies and students, and it's solidified in Issue 5, when Grackle and Twilight Sparkle eliminate the Smooze from them.
- Heel Realization: In Issue 5, After Violet Shiver finds a "best friends" shirt Pinkie made for her, she sadly acknowledges that she doesn't deserve it.
- I Choose to Stay: After being purified, they decide to stay as teachers at the School of Friendship, with Grackle and Dyre's blessing.
- Last-Second Word Swap: While touring the school, Shadow Storm starts to ask where the lava is and corrects himself just after saying this to ask about the library instead.Shadow Storm: Where's the lava? Brary. The library. Which is what we have at Hayward. To study volcanoes. Because of all the... lava.
- Mark of the Beast: Each of the three Smooze-made ponies has an unusual trait that sets them apart from natural ones — Shadow Storm's eyes have grey sclerae and white irises, Violet Shiver has jagged, lighter markings on her hooves, and Black Belle has a lightning bolt-shaped horn and black splotches around her eyes and hooves.
- Mind Control: Shadow Storm has mind control powers, first shown when he uses it on the Wonderbolts to undermine Spitfire's authority and embarrass her at a stunt show.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Violet Shiver using magic to make the streamers for the Bestie Festie alerts Twilight of the dark magic she possesses, leading her, Pinkie and Zecora to discovering the Smooze within and its origins. This in turn leads to the main six visiting the G1 dimension and teaming up with the Dream Valley ponies to develop a plan to stop the Smooze for good.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Each of them has a different physical feature not seen on other ponies in the series before.
- Obviously Evil: Their bizarre appearances, off-putting mannerisms, and a habit of cackling are fairly straightforward indicators of their villainous natures. However, despite being a bit put off by them, the G4 heroines don't give it much thought when first meeting them.
- Person of Mass Destruction: They're powerful enough to casually level buildings and cover all of Sweet Apple Acres in a snowstorm.
- Phony Degree: They claim they're professors from Hayvard majoring in Pony Relations. Starlight takes them at their word.
- Poke the Poodle: Their initial plan is to teach classes that have the students unknowingly cause mean pranks, largely because Grackle and Dyre don't really have much of a plan to enact at the time. Once they actually do, their actions become a lot more malicious and destructive.
- Punny Name: A combination of the words "Smooze" and "Pony". It also sounds like "phony" as well.
- Redemption Earns Life: Despite the Smooze being used to make them, the rainbow blast used to destroy the Smooze doesn't kill them. Twilight notes that this likely meant there was good in them all along.
- Tears of Remorse: Violet Shiver sheds these in Issue 5 after receiving Pinkie's gift for the festival, believing she doesn't deserve kindness.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Their "lessons" at the School of Friendship turn many of their students into brutal bullies, to Starlight's horror.
- What Is This Feeling?: In Issue 2, when Pinkie compliments Violet Shiver's streamers, the latter is both surprised and flattered, and starts to have fun in spite of herself.
The Smooze
First Mentioned: My Little Pony Generations #1
Major Role: My Little Pony Generations #3
Not to be confused for Discord's friend, this Smooze is a new incarnation of the G1 Smooze, with its ingredients used as part of the creation of the S'monies.
- Adaptational Badass: While it loses the giant purple mass it had previously, it makes up for it by not only making ponies more corrupt and evil by its power, but it is far more powerful than before (it's completely unfazed by the combined rainbow power — admittedly though, this was after said power was nerfed by Twilight so it wouldn't hurt possessed ponies) and able to possess ponies directly.
- Adaptational Villainy: It is far more malicious than its G1 counterpart, actively plotting Equestria's downfall.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Violet Shiver has these when the Smooze fully possesses her body.
- Combat Tentacles: The streamers it possesses become this in the final fight.
- Conflict Killer: The Smooze gaining sentience and proving far more malicious than the witches had intended completely kills the conflict between them and the ponies.
- Dragon Ascendant: Once it's given a vessel and can express its sentience on its own, it quickly takes the role of the comic's Big Bad, usurping both the witches and the S'monies.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: As noted by Twilight after being possessed by it, it wants to destroy magic, friendships, and community, and won't stop until it's all wiped out.
- Evil Sounds Deep: It has a deeper, more menacing voice than the ponies it possesses, portrayed in the comic as a dark green speech bubble with white text when Twilight channels it. As it becomes more malicious and powerful, it changes to a black bubble with red text.
- For the Evulz: It wants to spread hate, chaos and disharmony all over Equestria just because it can't be stopped.
- Grand Theft Me: Its new ability is being able to take over a pony's body and mind. Twilight is briefly possessed in Issue 3, and Violet Shiver in Issue 5.The Smooze: TWILIGHT SPARKLE ISN'T HERE ANYMORE.
- Hate Plague: Like its original counterpart, those who come into contact it turn mean and ill-tempered. Unlike the original, it doesn't have its ooze body, instead possessing the streamers made by Violet Shiver and spreading like vines throughout Ponyville. And the hate is even more potent, with ponies getting extremely violent towards each other and their surroundings.
- It Can Think: While the G1 Smooze was self-aware, it hardly thought or acted on its own accord, mindlessly flooding the world in its goo. This Smooze is plotting Ponyville and all of Equestria's destruction entirely on its own, and is able to speak freely when fully possessing a pony.
- Killed Off for Real: It's finally killed for good when Grackle and Twilight use their combined magic against it.
- Mark of the Beast: Those who are corrupted by it have dark green or black vine-like marking on their body.
- Meaningful Echo: During the final fight, it refers to Grackle and Dyre as "uniquely ungifted", the same petty insult used by their mothers in Issue 2. Seeing their mothers' abuse reflect in their own creation leads to the witches finally uniting with the ponies and taking it down.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: It's quickly proven to be incredibly powerful; while the rainbow blast combining the G1 Rainbow of Light and G4 Elements of Harmony can clear its corruption from ponies, it can't permanently destroy it. While possessing Violet Shiver, it's become so powerful that a direct blast from the rainbows does nothing to it.
- No-Sell: In the final chapter, it yawns after being hit by the combined rainbow powers (though it's probably because said powers were previously watered down so they would cure possessed ponies of Smooze, rather than annihilate them along with it).
- Would Hurt a Child: It attempts to kill Ocellus and Yona, but is interfered by Black Belle.
Shriek-Yowls
Debut: My Little Pony Generations #3
Owl-like creatures brought to the school by Fluttershy for a class. They're very docile, as long as they're not scared.
- Killer Rabbit: The look like cute owl-like critters, but when disturbed by loud noises they reveal they have mouths full of fangs and xenomorph-like tongues and spew out what Fluttershy refers to as "projectile defense".
- Mix-and-Match Critters: They resemble owls with fox ears and tails.
- Nested Mouths: A shriek-yowl's beak contains a tentacle-like tongue with its own set of toothy jaws.
- Noodle Incident: It's neither shown nor explained precisely what their "projectile defense" is or does, beyond it being very sticky and ruining Applejack's hat.
- Phlegmings: When they're shown shrieking in anger, the tops and bottom of their beaks are connected by long strings of saliva.
- Toothy Bird: They mostly resemble owls, but their beaks are lined with sharp teeth.
Ponies of Dream Valley
Debut: My Little Pony Generations #3
A group of ponies who defeated the Smooze a long time ago.
- Advertised Extra: The G1 cast is heavily advertised for the event but none of them appear at all until the final page of the third issue. They don't even get speaking roles until the fourth book of a five book event.
- Continuity Nod: They mention the events of the movie to the Mane Six.
- Expy: North Star believes the Elements of Harmony are this to the Rainbow of Light, specifically calling the Rainbow of Light their ancestor.
- Got Volunteered: In Issue 5, Twilight has Minty and Lickety-Split be the test subjects for her demonstration on how the Smooze works and how their spell will defeat it. The two look... less then thrilled to do it, indicating they drew the short straw in volunteering.Minty: Come to an alternate universe, they said. It'll be fun, they said.
- I Choose to Stay: They decide to stay in Equestria and explore for a while, wanting to see the world.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The G1 ponies are modeled after their home series rather than being adapted into the G4 art style. Most notable is Minty who despite having a G1 toy is based on her G3 counterpart.
Misc.
IDW Background Ponies
Like the show, the comics have their own stable of incidental characters (fan-favorites from the show still show up, of course). Since the artists draw them individually on the spot instead of pulling them out of a Flash Library, there's actually quite a bit of variety, though most of them are just Shout-Outs.
For Sweet Cream Scoops, Sugar Grape, Cherry Spices, Barber Groomsby, Tealove, and Bumblesweet, see the Toyline Exclusive page.
- Captain Ersatz: Quite a few of them are Pony versions of characters from... anything and everything.
- The first issue gives us The Blues Brothers from Saturday Night Live, Thomas Magnum from Magnum, P.I., Matthew Bennell from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Earl Hickey from My Name Is Earl appear.
- Issue #5 gives us pony versions of Sailor Moon & Sailor Jupiter and Mabel Pines, the later even gets a name: Maybelle.
- Sailors Moon and Jupiter aren't the only ones with pony versions, Issue #8 gives us ponified versions of Mars, Mercury and Venus and the Micro series gets ponified versions Chibi Moon, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (also in its 8th issue)
- There's also the notably recurring Observer who appears in the very first issue and then make recurring appearances in other issues.
- More examples can be found here
- Creator Cameo:
- An Earth pony version of artist Andy Price appears, accompanied by a unicorn version of his wife Alice, and by their cats Sam, Spooky, Tabitha, Boris, Bela, and Mina.
- A unicorn version of writer Katie Cook appears, later accompanied by a mule version of her husband Ryan.
- Sibsy's variant cover for the Rainbow Dash issue of the Micro-Series has the Original Character of her then-coworker on the show Raven Molisee (Snowdrop), as well as her then-current boyfriend (and popular fan-musician) Andy "MandoPony" Stein.
- Sibsy's OC Wild Fire pops up in the background now and then.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: A Pegasus mare described by artist Andy Price as "a shout-out to original MLP Firefly from the ponies 'established 1982'" appears. The page doesn't show her eye color, but her coat color, mane and tail color, cutie mark, and tail bow all match G1 Firefly's. If it really is G4 Firefly, this marks her first appearance in a My Little Pony work since The '80s!note
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Since the bases of the Captain Ersatz ponies mentioned above were played by live-action actors, they're also partly modeled after Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Tom Selleck, Donald Sutherland, and Jason Lee, respectively.
- Andy Price's Applejack variant cover for Issue #1, has Vinyl Scratch in the background. In her record collection? "The Hoof Beats".
- Recurring Extra: Andy Price, the massive Fringe fan that he is, has made sure to slip in an "Observer" pony in every issue he's worked on thus far.
- Unknown Character: Everything we know about Applejack's great uncle Honeycrisp is that he was a lumberjack. He was only mentioned once in Issue #3, and never seen.
The Manga
Characters from the manga adaption.
Star Dancer
"You ever get that feeling like someone's been staring at you all day?"
Don't worry, though...she's a good space pony.
Debut: Vol. 1
An earth pony and resident of Ponyville. She's definitely not a space pony.
- Alien Among Us: What Pinkie Pie believes she is, and eventually the Cutie Mark Crusaders think the same.
- Conqueror from the Future: She's working with one. However, she genuinely doesn't believe he's evil, he's just using unorthodox methods to make a better future.
- Expy: Possibly of Stardancer, a G1 pony, down to having very similar cutie marks.
- Evil Counterpart: Of Derpy Hooves. Both girls are the competent sidekicks of a Time Pony, but while Derpy helps Doctor Hooves to protect the Multiverse, Star Dancer helps her Master to take over it, no matter how many rules of nature he has to break in order to achieve his goal. Pinkie Pie called her out on this, and Star Dancer still couldn't see anything wrong about her master's actions, or about her own involvement with them.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Cutie Mark Crusaders suspect her of this when they see just how nice she is around town. Turns out she isn't, she's just a regular Nice Girl. However, Scootaloo insisting on her behaving so nice and normal to cover a secret isn't entirely wrong.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: She's from the future, and is studying the ponies and Ponyville of the past on behalf of a mysterious "Master".
- Horrible Judge of Character: She seems completely unaware that the "Master" pony she works for is evil, seeing his Evil Laugh as him just being really happy. Lampshaded by Doctor Hooves in volume 2.
- Longer-Than-Life Sentence: She suggests her prison sentence for helping Professor What is likely between 2-3 million years, which she calls a "light sentence". Thanks to being broken out, she never serves the full term.
- Red Herring: She makes a lot of them, deliberately to lead others to suspect she's a space pony, and not from the future.
- Red Herring Mole: The Cutie Mark Crusaders suspect her of being The Mole for space ponies, planning on attacking Ponyville. But as it turns out, space ponies aren't real. Future ponies are.
- Weirdness Magnet: A seemingly ordinary earth pony that Pinkie Pie passionately believes is from outer space.
"The Master"
- Debut: Vol. 1 (in silhouette), Vol. 2
- Absent-Minded Professor: For all of his brilliance in manipulating time and space, his ego keeps him from noticing his own mistakes. This includes failing to carry a two in his calculations for the day loop, leading to the loop happening a day earlier than expected and Pinkie Pie's memory is unaffected.
- Arc Villain: Of the manga series.
- Arch-Enemy: To a Doctor Hooves from another dimension. Though with how they squabble, he comes off more as a Sitcom Arch-Nemesis.
- Badass Longcoat: Sports one, with a high collar.
- Beard of Evil: Sports a long goatee, similar to Sunburst.
- Benevolent Boss: Possibly; he went out of his way to rescue Star Dancer from time jail at the end of volume 2 rather than acquire a new underling.
- Big "NO!": When Pinkie rejects his offer and pulls the switch, undoing his loop and returning Equestria to normal.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Rather than immediately imprison Pinkie Pie, he lets her listen to his Motive Rant and argument with Doctor Hooves. However, he does realize his mistake and attempts to capture her moments later.
- Chained Heat: Doctor Hooves cuffs them together deliberately when they get stranded in time, to force him to help get back to the lab.
- Conqueror from the Future: He's a time traveler who can traverse alternate realities and is trying to take over Equestria.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Losing a science fair project against a young Doctor Hooves is what started his path of darkness.
- Evil Plan: Harness the energy of ponies for his war machine to take over Equestria.
- Expy: Of The Master from Doctor Who. By contrast, his real name is Professor What.
- It's Personal: His feud with Doctor Hooves is what drives him to commit evil.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all of his haughtiness, he does go out of his way to free Star Dancer from time jail.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: His war machine is powered by the fervent energy of ponies, so he creates a calculation to force Equestria to loop a cake festival day over and over, so it can harness their energy. This backfires when he gets the calculation wrong, making the loop happen on the less energetic day before, meaning the process would take a really long time.
- Villainous Widow's Peak: Sports one, much like his inspiration.
Apple Family Ninja Clan
- Debut: Vol. 1
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: The Apple Family are a group of regular if not strong (in the case of Big Mac and Applejack) farm ponies. In the manga they are all a badass family of ninja warriors.
- Badass Adorable: Apple Bloom.
Sudden Twist
- Debut: Vol. 3
- Palette Swap: As Rarity points out, her design in the fashion contest is the same as Rarity's but with the colors inverted.
- Those Two Guys: She's always accompanied by a pair of mares.
Somber Twilight and Spyke
- Debut: Vol. 3
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Similar to Mare Do Well, Spyke's cape is held together by a brooch with the letter "S" on it.
- Expy: Of Batman and Robin.
- Spell My Name With An S: The name of Spike's super hero alter ego is his regular name with a Y in place of I.Pinkie Pie: That's not how you spell "Spike" silly!Spyke: Th-the "Y" makes look cool. Okay?!
- We Used to Be Friends: The two used to be partners who worked together but they had a falling out over their methods of crime fighting. Somber Twilight wanted Spyke to follow her every command while the latter wanted to do things his own way. The two ultimately make up after they help Pinkie Pie get the Element of Laughter back.
Pink Piester
- Debut: Vol. 3
- Expy: Of The Joker.
- Karma Houdini: She doesn't suffer any sort of comeuppance for her crimes and is last seen squirting a seltzer bottle in somepony's face.
- Laughing Mad: Anypony who gets hit by one of her pies starts to laugh uncontrollably.
Apple Lord
- Debut: Vol. 3
- One-Winged Angel: Eating one of the dark matter apples grants the Apple Lord a gigantic power boost.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Main timeline Applejack bucks the dark matter tree causing the Apple Lord to be buried underneath his own apples.
- Shout-Out: He's a ponifed Dio Brando.
Novels/Storybooks
Characters from storybooks.
Prismia
Mentioned In: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell
A Wicked Witch that used an an amulet to drain the love from the Earth Pony village that adopted Cadance. Cadance confronted and defeated her with The Power of Love.
- Artifact of Doom: The source of her power was an amulet similar to the Alicorn Amulet.
- The Ghost: Is only mentioned in a flashback and does not make any sort of present day appearance in the book.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She lived alone and was jealous of the nearby earth pony village for the love they had for each other.
- Hate Plague: Caused one for the earth pony village nearby.
King Leo
Debut: My Little Pony: Under The Sparkling Sea
Princess Celestia's cousin, ruler of the underwater city of Aquastria from picture book Under the Sparkling Sea.
- All There in the Manual: The dust jacket of the Under The Sparkling Sea book mentions that both Princess Celestia and King Leo sit on the "Cosmic Council", but this isn't elaborated on anywhere.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: King Leo is a mer-lion, a lion-like head and a fish-like body. How he's related to Celestia isn't known.
- Stellar Name: Given his cousins' connection with certain Luminaries, someone had the Western Zodiac in mind when writing the story.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Allows Rainbow Dash to take Arrow's place after he tears his fin.
Coral and Arrow
Debut: My Little Pony: Under The Sparkling Sea
A sister and brother pair of seaponies.
Electra
Debut: My Little Pony: Under The Sparkling Sea
The fastest Mer-Mare in the Sparkling Sea. At first she was cold towards the Equestrian Ponies and Spike, but later on she warmed up to them, especially Rainbow Dash
- Defrosting Ice Queen: After being saved by Rainbow Dash from a rockslide, she warms up to her.
Nar Wally
Debut: My Little Pony: Under The Sparkling Sea
A bashful Narwhal who lives in the seagrass beds of Aquastria. He is friends with the sea creatures there and was befriended by Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy.
- Big Damn Heroes: He manages to save Arrow with his horn as the hapless sea pony was about to get sucked into a whirlpool after tearing his fin.
- Friend to All Living Things: He's almost the Aquastrian equivalent of Fluttershy.
- Shrinking Violet: Although he is a bit quicker to come out of his shell.
Creatures of the Sparkling Sea
Debut: My Little Pony: Under The Sparkling Sea
The Sparkling Sea is home to some unusual lifeforms, many of which resemble a cross between a land animal and a sea animal.
- Giant Flyer: The Manta-hawks. They serve as transport to the Sparkling Sea. Though they're more like giant swimmers.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Nearly all of the named creatures. Manta-hawks (manta ray and hawk), Crabbits (crab and rabbit), Jellyflies (jellyfish and butterfly) and Star-mice (sea stars and mice).
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The Water-Weasel looks like a weasel with a fish-like body. The Fox-Fin is a fish with a fox-like head.
Braze
Braze is a villainous zebra who tries to steal the Half-Gilded Horseshoe from Rainbow Dash.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Evidently, not even zebras are exempt from this. Braze is described as having flame-like red, orange, and yellow stripes as opposed to white and black.
- Meaningful Name: His name is the word "zebra" with its letters rearranged. "Braze" also means "to burn or temper in fire", befitting of his powers.
- Odd Name Out: On a meta level; He's the only zebra in the My Little Pony franchise whose name does not start with a "Z".
- Playing with Fire: He has pyromantic abilities, and is able to create ropes made of fire. He can also apparently control how hot they are, since he can tie up ponies with said ropes without burning them to death.
Charity Sweetmint
A unicorn new to the fashion world who is apprenticing under Rarity's tutelage. Idolized Rarity to the point where she starts to imitate her.
- Does Not Like Spam: She detests Bedazzle berry tarts, but she hides that fact from Rarity, since Rarity loves them. Rarity is quick to figure this out.
- Fangirl: A huge one of Rarity who takes it too far.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: While she loves fashion and, in general, likes many of the same things Rarity does, she also has a tomboyish side, wanting to join Rainbow Dash in a cannon ball contest and wanting to learn how to apple buck from Applejack (and got the hang of it pretty quickly, according to Applejack). However, she tries to hide this side so she can impress Rarity.
- Identical Stranger: Charity happens to look a lot like Rarity, save for having a mint green mane. Even her cutie mark appears to be very similar to Rarity's (three blue gems shaped like hearts instead of diamonds). It reaches the point where, after dying her mane, she gets mistaken for Rarity when she delivers Rarity's chorus outfits.
- Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: She already looks similar to Rarity and is a huge fan, but she takes it further throughout the course of the book, dying her hair and trying to mimic Rarity's speech patterns.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Rarity has to give her errands just so she can actually get some breathing room for a change.
Magazine Stories
There have been several short stories & comics found in various little girls' magazines. They all use copy-and-paste stock art and the writing, to put it lightly, is not up to the same standards as the show & IDW comics. Their canonical relevance is debatable and next to nothing, but for the sake of completion here are the characters that appear exclusively in them.
From No Way Too Far
A stallion appears in one (Scanlated as No Way Too Far) from Panini's German My Little Pony magazine.
- Palette Swap: He's a recolor of Big Macintosh, to the point of wearing a recolor of Big Mac's horse collar.
From Apple Blooms großes Abenteuer
Four pegasi appear in Apple Blooms großes Abenteuer (Scanlated as Apple Bloom's Big Adventure) from Panini's German My Little Pony magazine.
From A Bright Idea
Eight mares appear in one (Scanlated as A Bright Idea) from Panini's German My Little Pony magazine.
- Curtains Match the Window: The Applejack Palette Swap.
- Palette Swap: Two of them are recolors of Pinkie Pie and Applejack, respectively.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The unicorn, for the cerise-eyed version of Lyra Heartstrings.
From Les surprises de l'amitié
Two unicorn mares appear in Les surprises de l'amitié/Das Überraschungsfest from Panini's French and German My Little Pony magazines.
Léon
A four-year-old cousin of Princess Celestia's (and presumably Princess Luna's) who appears in one from Panini's French My Little Pony magazine.
- Ambiguous Gender: Appears to be female but has a male name. Is the only Alicorn we've seen with visible hooves and is either one of the few female ponies with visible hooves or the only male alicorn.
- Artistic Age: Is a Rainbow Dash Palette Swap despite being so young.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Until Flurry Heart was introduced, Léon was the youngest Alicorn in canon, and he's rather adorable.
- The Cutie: Of the Alicorns shown in canon, he's the youngest. He's also very adorable-looking due to his age.
- The One Guy: Across all forms of media, comics, and books licensed by DHX or Hasbro; Léon is the only confirmed and named alicorn colt.
- Palette Swap: Of Rainbow Dash with a horn.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Basically looks like Prince Blueblood as a Pegasus unicorn Palette Swap of Rainbow Dash. Léon and Blueblood even have the same cutie mark!
- Winged Unicorn: He's an alicorn.
