Characters / Friendship Is Magic: Jerks and Bullies

---

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

---

These characters are the least powerful villains in the series — unless you count the power of verbal and physical abuse. Their crimes consist of looking down on and sometimes abusing the good ponies, and they don't have major schemes beyond this. They are mostly Smug Snake jerks who talk a good game, but can't back it up once in a corner.

---

Season 1

The Sports Pegasi

From left to right: Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score

Debut: "Sonic Rainboom"

Voiced by: Kathleen Barr (present-day Hoops), Terry Klassen (past Hoops), Richard Ian Cox (present-day "Dumbbell"), and Brian Drummond (past "Dumbbell")^note the last one according to this tweet by Brian Drummond

A group of three muscle-headed Pegasi living in Cloudsdale who used to tease Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. They later apologized for their teasing after seeing Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom.

---

• All There in the Script: Whether it's Ascended Fanon or just a case of I Knew It!, the Tie-In Novel Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell makes Hoops's Fan Nickname official.
• The Bully: They regularly bullied Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy during their foalhood years (and even a young, shy Gilda when she first joined the Junior Speedsters). When they meet again in "Sonic Rainboom", they spend much of the episode taunting Rainbow Dash until the very end.
• Failed a Spot Check: In "Sonic Rainboom", Dumbbell and Hoops say there's no such thing as the title phenomenon. It is revealed in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" that they were in an impromptu race that produced one. Possibly justified, considering that one of them was unconscious and the other dizzy and in any case they are jerks who wouldn't admit being wrong if they didn't have to. Once Princess Celestia herself saw Rainbow Dash do the Sonic Rainboom, there was no way that they or anypony there could deny it anymore.
• Jerkass: They are a little less so now as adults, as colts they were straight-up bullies.
• Jerk Jock: Their cutie marks suggest that they're good at sports, and they certainly are good at being jerks.
• Kick the Dog: In a flashback in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", where two of them are shown making fun of filly Fluttershy for being a weak flyer.
• Kids Are Cruel: As colts they harassed "Klutzershy" and derided "Rainbow Crash".
• No Name Given: With the exception of Hoops.
• Pet the Dog: After seeing Rainbow Dash perform the Sonic Rainboom, they apologize for their bullying and congratulate her.
• The Quiet One: "Score"/"Quarterback" sometimes laughs along with the other two, but never says anything.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: They could remember who Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were when they meet them again.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Despite being one-shot characters, in a way, they had the biggest impact in the series. If they had not bullied Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash wouldn't have tried to race them, causing her to do a Sonic Rainboom, leading the Mane Six to get their cutie marks. The bullies accidentally caused life-changing transformations for Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and (to a lesser extend) caused Applejack to quit trying to adapt to the big city and to return to the family farm.

The Diamond Dogs

The Diamond Dogs show you where to dig.^note From left to right: Spot, Rover, and Fido.

^{One of the dig dogs:}

"We hunt for gems. But you are a better hunter. So now we hunt... for you!"

Debut: "A Dog and Pony Show"

Voiced by: Scott McNeil (Rover), Gary Chalk (Fido), and Lee Tockar (Spot)^note Tockar was confirmed by Tabitha St. Germain at the 20:57 mark of this Comic Con 2012 video; Fido was originally believed to be voiced by Richard Ian Cox, but this has since been revealed to be an error on St. Germain's part.

The Diamond Dogs, led by Rover, Fido, and Spot, are a group of ugly, dirty, greedy and stupid canine-like creatures who live underground and are obsessed with gems. They ponynap Rarity and force her to work for them in an attempt to use her gem-finding skills to obtain more gems.

For the greater species as a whole, see Friendship Is Magic: Races

---

• Alliterative Name: The name of their race, not the individual dogs in the episode.
• All There in the Script: Word of God says that the trio's names are Rover, Fido, and Spot, but in the show they're just called "the Diamond Dogs".
• Beauty Equals Goodness: They look disgusting compared to the ponies, and their behavior is just as appalling.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: They're all equally dirty and stupid so this is how one tells them apart.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: While they made some appearances in Expanded Universe materials, they have never appeared in the show again after their debut appearance. Their race gets a mention in "The Last Problem", though.
• Dogs Are Dumb: They're far from bright, and are manipulated with ridiculous ease by the pony who is technically supposed to be their slave.
• Dual Boss: Rover, Fido, and Spot as the bosses of Level 5 of The Hub's Web Game Adventure Ponies!.
• Dub Name Change: The Italian dub refers to them as cani stanadiamanti, meaning "diamond-finding dogs". "Stana" refers to finding hidden things in general but literally means "remove from a burrow", referencing their digging habits.
• Dumb Muscle: They're all brute force and zero brains. Their underlings, the Dig Dogs, are even dumber than them.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Spot seems to disapprove of Rover calling Rarity "ugly".
• Evil Counterpart: To Rarity, considering that they all love gems, but the Diamond Dogs have no problems kidnapping someone to find gems for them.
• Evil Smells Bad: The Diamond Dogs smell bad, but the Dig Dogs smell terrible. This seems unique to the evil ones, as no mention is made of the rest of their kind being such.
• The Exile: According to the "Rainbow Dash/Trixie Friends Forever" comic, these particular guys were kicked out of regular Diamond Dog society for being violent criminals.
• Expy: The main trio of Rover, Fido, and Spot are inspired by the Raptorians, another trio of canine beings who enslave Ponies.
• Faceless Goons: Their dig dog minions — numerous, interchangeable, and provided with identical eye-concealing helmets.
• Greed: They don't just want gems, they want all the gems.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Their hands are full of cuts, scabs, and filth, and their nails are broken and dirty.
• Harmless Villain: Not only do they pose little threat in a fight, they surrender to Rarity because she complains to them so much about her conditions that they can't stand her.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: They try this when they kidnap Rarity. It really doesn't work out well for them.
• Jerkass: Even before Rarity's done anything annoying, they're giggling at the thought of making her dig up the gems for them.
• Low-Tech Spears: The Diamond Dogs, goblin-like brutes who live in rough underground tunnels, speak like Gollum, and have little visible culture outside of obsessively hoarding gems, are armed with rough spears consisting of pointy rocks tied to sticks.
• Mugging the Monster: Trying to kidnap and use Rarity as their own personal gem-finding slave does not end well.
• No Name Given: The Dig Dogs, if they even have individual names.
• Our Kobolds Are Different: They're basically a fusion of the two types of Kobolds: mining troll and bipedal dog.
• Parental Bonus:
  • Their name, Diamond Dogs, references a David Bowie album from 1974, something a bit out of the intended viewer's interest range. Unintended viewers may be reminded of the character from Con Air or an SF novella by Alastair Reynolds; more recent viewers might think of Ted's inner circle in Ted Lasso.
  • Their underlings are called the Dig Dogs in a Shout-Out to the classic arcade game Dig Dug.
  • They sound a lot like Gollum.
• Pity the Kidnapper: They learn the hard way that Rarity isn't a pony to trifle with and give her back by the time her friends arrive to rescue her.
• Primal Stance: They walk heavily hunched over, with their hands resting all the way on the ground, serving to highlight their primitive and brutish natures.
• Shout-Out:
  • A reference to the David Bowie album and song Diamond Dogs. The comic book crew decide to run with this, and fill a trek through an abandoned Diamond Dog mine with references to Bowie.
  • The way they talk about their Precioussssssss at the beginning of the episode, combined with their subterranean habits, is pretty clearly inspired by Gollum.
• Smug Snake: They're extremely confident that the ponies and a baby dragon won't give them any trouble, despite all evidence to the contrary.
• Stock Animal Name: Rover, Fido, and Spot are the least imaginative names for dogs.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Their arms appear to be much larger than their legs. Justified as they are burrowers.
• Tunnel King: They live underground and created the tunnels they make Rarity dig in.
• Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: Justified because they work with dirt all the time.
• Would Hurt a Child: They have no problem with tossing Spike around in order to capture Rarity.

Prince Blueblood

Don't be fooled by that look. He's not as charming as you hope (and even he knows it).

Debut: "The Best Night Ever"

Voiced by: Vincent Tong^note according to this tweet by Trevor Devall^{Foreign VAs}Takehito Koyasu (Japanese)

Princesses Celestia and Luna's far-removed nephew. A white unicorn with a gold mane, he is Rarity's dream stallion. Rarity falls in love with him at first sight only to find out he's a self-obsessed jerk. He also makes a major appearance in the IDW comic My Little Pony Friends Forever Issue 26.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: One of the French magazine stories refers to him as Vladímir.
• All There in the Manual: The show only calls him Celestia's nephew (which would make one think that he's Luna's son somehow), but his trading card clarifies that his relation to Celestia and Luna is far removed. Lauren Faust had previously stated that he's "the great great great great great great great great great great great (and probably more greats) nephew on Celestia's and Luna's mother's side, about 52 times removed, roughly speaking."
• "Ass" in Ambassador: Subverted in Friends Forever 26. After spending most of the first half of the comic acting like an Upper-Class Twit, Shining Armor decides that the best course of action is to deal with the yak negotiations himself while keeping Blueblood as far away from them as possible to avoid an international incident. Not only does Shining fail in his negotiations to the point of nearly getting them to declare war (again), but Blueblood shows that he's actually quite personable with people that aren't from his own country and salvages the situation to the point where he has to walk back because his palanquin is stuffed too full of gifts from the yaks.
• Blue Blood: His only "good" point is his royal connection.
• Broken Pedestal: Becomes this for Rarity once she meets him in "The Best Night Ever". While her expectations were a bit high to start with, such as expecting him to propose to her the night they meet, Blueblood acts absolutely nothing like the Prince Charming she expected while on their "date" (if it can even be called that). She eventually becomes so fed up with his selfishness, especially when he uses her as a Human Shield, that she hits her Rage Breaking Point and chews him out in front of the whole ballroom.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: His attitude in Friends Forever 26 showcases that while he is a snooty, self-entitled egotist, he's also a talented negotiator and diplomat when dealing with foreigners.
• The Cameo:
  • Shows up at a ship christening with Rarity in Season 2 during Rarity's song in "Sweet and Elite". Amazingly, he manages to avoid acting like a jackass in that episode.
  • He also makes a very small appearance in "Equestria Games" attending the titular event.
• Entitled Bastard: Always expects Rarity to kiss his hooves and gets offended when she expects to be treated like a lady.
• Hate Sink:
  • In "The Best Night Ever", he teaches young girls what not to look for in a man. His entitled arrogance is boundless; he uses Rarity's shawl to cover up a spill so he can walk over it without getting his hooves wet (even though he could just walk around it), tries to make her open doors for him, and in the act that causes her to finally snap at him, uses her as a Human Shield to defend himself from cake splatter.
  • Exaggerated in the one-shot comic "Deviations'", a What If? where he becomes Celestia's student instead of Twilight. When the events of the series premiere happen and Nightmare Moon arrives, he proves himself so insufferable that the Mane Five declared him worse than her, prompting her to have a Heel Realization and the group comforts her, while Blueblood is banished to the moon.
• Hidden Depths: If Friends Forever 26 is any indication, despite his narcissistic and snobby personality, Blueblood can be charming and charismatic when he wants to be.
• Icy Blue Eyes: His eyes represent his narcissistic and snobbish personality.
• Innocently Insensitive: In Friends Forever 26. He doesn't look down on Shining Armor or Cadance despite them not being born royalty, but he does say a few things that while not intended to be malicious, are rather insensitive.
• It's All About Me: Expects people to do things for him, even shown as he wasn't willing to do any chivalrous acts to Rarity.
• Jerkass: Repeatedly proves himself to be one in his behavior toward Rarity. Using her as a shield to keep himself from being splattered with cake is the very last straw.
• No Name Given: The first time he "appeared" which resulted in the Fan Nickname of "Prince Astron". His real name was revealed in the Season 1 finale.
• Manipulative Bastard: His 'Guide to Diplomacy' in Friends Forever 26 is cynical, manipulative and really quite brilliant, and he's demonstrated to be rather skilled at his job.
• Meaningful Name: He's called "Blueblood" because of his Blue Blood.
• Narcissist: Thinks very highly of himself.
• Prince Charmless: He lacks any and all forms of gentlemanly behavior expected of a prince and especially the chivalric reverence accorded to a lady. He currently provides the page image.
• Princely Young Man: The Spoiled Brat type though at first he seems like a Prince Charming type.
• Picky Eater: Considers Applejack's tasty apple treats unworthy of him, denigrating them as "common carnival fare".
• Rich Bastard: Implied because he's a prince and an asshole.
• Royal Brat: Rarity calls him a "royal pain" because he is so stuck up and selfish.
• The Scrooge: Took Rarity to Applejack's apple treats cart but expected Rarity to pay for it.
• Shadow Archetype: He is the male version of Rarity without any of her good qualities. He essentially expects Rarity to treat him the same way she expects him to treat her. The difference, of course, is that at first Rarity is willing, if grudgingly so, to accede to Blueblood's requests, while Blueblood never does a thing for Rarity.
• Something about a Rose: Rather than give it to Rarity, he puts it in his own buttonhole.
• Too Important to Walk: Friends Forever 26 has him travel from the Crystal Empire to Yakyakistan in a palanquin. He does travel on foot the way back because it's too stuffed with gifts for him to fit, but he doesn't mind since the return trip is downhill. It should be noted that he might have a point. Shining Armor arrives scruffy and exhausted, whereas Prince Blueblood is rested and ready to greet the Yaks with appropriate courtesies.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: In the Expanded Universe, at least — Léon, Princess Celestia's 4-year-old cousin from one of the French magazine stories, looks like Prince Blueblood as an alicorn Palette Swap of Rainbow Dash. Blueblood and Léon even have the same Cutie Mark!
• Upper-Class Twit: An aristocrat with little to no signs of common sense, basic manners, or consideration for those around him. He seems to have a talent in alienating people.

Season 2

Jet Set and Upper Crust

Your chapeau is too country for them.

Debut: "Sweet and Elite"

Jet Set voiced by: Peter New^{Foreign VAs}Eduardo Garza (Latin American Spanish); Yoshiyuki Shimozuma (Japanese)
Upper Crust voiced by: Ashleigh Ball^{Foreign VAs}Ikumi Nakagami (Japanese)

A snobby married couple who live in Canterlot. They kick off the plot of "Sweet and Elite" when they insult Rarity's breeding and only shut up when they realize that she has become popular among their "friends", in particular Fancypants.

---

• Alpha Bitch: They are not exactly Alpha, but they display all the other typical traits. While they are wealthy and try to act like big shots, they typically follow someone else's lead.
• City Mouse: They do not like small towns like Ponyville.
• Expy: Very similar to Roderick and Rhubella Rat from Tiny Toon Adventures. Though the Rats were teenagers, and these two unicorns are adults.
• Favoritism Flip Flop: At first they like Rarity's style, then they hate it because they think she is a small town hick, then they change their minds again when Fancypants makes it clear that he admires her.
• Gratuitous French: Why say "hat" when you can say "chapeau"?
• Happily Married: These jerks were made for each other.
• Humble Pie: Twice; both times thanks to Fancypants. First when he personally invites Rarity to his balcony seat for the Wonderbolts race right in front of them. The second is at the Garden Party when Fancypants states he likes Rarity and her friends and endorses Rarity's designs, forcing them to suck up to her to save face.
• Idle Rich: Proud of it. They think the fact Rarity makes her own hats is embarrassing once they find out that she is not upper class.
• Jerkass: See Favoritism Flip Flop, Know-Nothing Know-It-All, and other tropes for examples of their jerkassery.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: They are keen to look cultured and tasteful, but it seems they know next to nothing and take all their cues from the genuinely refined Fancypants.
• Pet the Dog: In "Between Dusk and Dawn", they genuinely offer their services to Twilight and her friends and are smiling for most of the episode. They don't get to express this in words though, as Fancypants does all the talking.
• Popular Is Dumb: Averted for the popular part as the episode implies that they are either midway or low on Canterlot's social scale but believe themselves higher than Rarity. The top of the hierarchy seems to be occupied by Princess Celestia herself, and she socializes with Rarity while ignoring these two.
• Preppy Name: Pony naming conventions allow them to have some particularly unsubtle snobby upper-class names. There's not a lot of ambiguity about what part of society someone named "Upper Crust" lives in.
• Rich Bastard: Their wealth gives them a sense of superiority to business owners like Rarity.
• Shadow Archetype: For Rarity. They have the same fussy and selective tastes she does, and her slight shame about coming from Ponyville is amplified when they let her know they think it's a hick town. The important difference between them is that Jet Set and Upper Crust use high society as a way to look down on other ponies, and don't have the strength of character to state their own opinion. Rarity on the other hand, is gracious and polite and not afraid to stick up for her friends.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: One very unsympathetic Snob half at the garden party with the Mane Six being on the sympathetic Slob side.
• Wealth's in a Name: "Upper Crust" refers to higher echelons of society, while "Jet Set" refers to a "jetsetter," a term for someone living a glamorous life who travels often.
• Yes-Man: Their approval of Rarity is tied to that of their circle of friends, who in turn take the lead from Fancypants. Conversely, Fancypants starts getting interested in Rarity when he learns that she personally knows Celestia. "You know the Princess?... Heheh, you are obviously somepony worth bumping into!"

The Flim-Flam Brothers

They're bringing opportunity to your very community. ^note Right's Flim, left's Flam, they're the world-famous Flim-Flam Brothers!

Debut: "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000"

Flim voiced by: Samuel Vincent^note both according to this tweet by Jayson Thiessen^{Foreign VAs}Wataru Takagi (Japanese)
Flam voiced by: Scott McNeil^note both according to this tweet by Jayson Thiessen^{Foreign VAs}Yōhei Tadano [Season 2], Hiroki Katō [Season 4-onwards] (Japanese)

Flim and Flam are Unicorn brothers and self-proclaimed "traveling sales-ponies nonpareil^note Without equal" who roll into Ponyville one day in season 2 with their fancy new cider press, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. They end up challenging the Apple clan to a cider-making contest, goading them into wagering the rights to sell cider in Ponyville. They later return in season 4, running a Medicine Show and peddling "miracle cure-all tonic". They return again in season 6, as ticket salesmen in Las Pegasus.

---

• All There in the Script: Flim's full name is Flim Skim, which has only been used in the toyline; specifically, in the eighth wave of Blind Bags.
• Appeal to Authority: In "Friendship University", they exploit Star Swirl's naïveté and influence to get ponies to enroll in their school.
• Arch-Enemies: To Applejack, considering all the trouble they've caused the Apple family, it's understandable and Applejack's mood quickly turns sour whenever they're around.
• Back for the Finale: In "The Ending of the End," they come back for the final battle as part of The Cavalry for the good guys.
• Bad Future: They're the only non-arc villains to be given one during in "The Cutie Re-Mark -- Part 2". They are apparently shown taking over an Equestria cleared of its natural resources and replacing it with an industrial nightmare complete with a smog-filled sky.
• The Barnum: In every sense of the trope; showman, con artists, charming, etc.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The above-mentioned Bad Future scenario in "The Cutie Re-Mark". They're small-time comic relief villains in the main timeline, but without Twilight and her friends to stop them from going too far, they have the potential for evil on par with Chrysalis, Sombra, Nightmare Moon, Discord and even Tirek. (Or worse, since Twilight claims each timeline is more terrible than the last, and their timeline is shown after the others.)
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: They start out as friendly but their true colors show in the latter half of the episode they're in; they boast about cheating the Apples out of their home.
• Blackmail: In "Friendship University", they catch Twilight sneaking into their office and take a picture of her rummaging through the office, threatening to release it to the public (and ruin her reputation) if she doesn't stop investigating them and their school.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Part of their sales pitch in the 2017 holiday special: "They said a survey found that eleven out of ten ponies want to hear an endless loop of the same holiday music when they go anywhere this time of year!"
  • During their song in "Friendship University", they claim to share a "mutual respect" with Twilight. This couldn't be farther from the truth; they had insulted her school just moments ago, while Twilight had immediately suspected them of being up to their own tricks.
  • In the special My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever, Flam, disguised as a random shopper, told everyone at the Rainbow Falls trader's exchange that there were "only a few left" of their "Holly the Hearth's Warmer" dolls. After the two are run out of town, they are shown having enough dolls to fill several seats on the Friendship Express.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: This is a recurring flaw of the two: they're genuinely competent and intelligent and have the capacity to be honest businessponies, but when faced with the option of easy schemes to con ponies out of their bits, or hard work to make money honestly, they choose the first.
  • The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 is amazing, so they're obviously talented, but they spend most of the competition relaxing and drinking cider, and panic when their machine's default settings aren't good enough. They also show a preferance to monopolizing cider production to maximize their earnings and rake in bits in a short amount of time, instead of offering fair business deals that would make their business less profitable but more sustainable in the long-term.
  • They opened the Friendship University to compete with Twilight's School of Friendship and raise money to expand their resort by advertising free admission and then charging for the worksheets needed to advance. When Twilight realizes the lessons they're teaching are literally copied from her workbooks, she offers to agree to let them keep the school open if they only come clean about how they make money from it; the brothers refuse and admit they were planning to shut down the school anyway, because they've made enough money from it and running it is more work than they thought it would be.
  • They could easily raise the funds for an expansion of their resort by regularly putting aside a portion of the resort's daily profits — a slow, but sure method of getting what they want. Instead, they resort to more scams in an attempt to raise the money more quickly. Those scams are, as usual, quickly exposed and shut down, leaving them with next to nothing to show for it.
  • One bad future in the "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2" puts forward the idea that they would be capable of taking over Equestria if they upped their game a little.
• The Bully: They are bullies who grew up and graduated from demanding lunch money to threatening someone's business.
• The Cameo:
  • They show up or are mentioned a bit more in the comic series, even being villains of one micro-issue. Seems the writers have taken a liking to them.
  • They also have human counterparts in one of the Rainbow Rocks short "A Case for the Bass", who later appear in Rollercoaster of Friendship and Holidays Unwrapped.
  • They are briefly seen in "A Royal Problem", in a dream of one or both of them, playing in a pile of gold Bits.
  • In "Between Dark and Dawn", they are shown attempting to hitchhike (and looking the worst for wear) during the song "Lotta Little Things".
  • In "The Last Problem", they are seen among a group shot of characters during "The Magic of Friendship Grows".
• Card-Carrying Jerkass: Both of them. They shamelessly swindle other ponies for a living, and mock those who try to dismantle their cons, reveling in their success. When they get a chance to turn over a new leaf in "Viva Las Pegasus", they swiftly reject it, and gleefully go right back to conning others.
• The Charmer: During their song sequence, they make a lot of mares, including Rarity, swoon.
• Chronic Villainy: In season six they take over a Las Pegasus resort, and through that are pretty much set for life financially. They still pop up trying to con ponies out of money in some way, now just with the excuse they want the funds to expand the hotel. Even when Flim and Flam have a chance to just go straight, they won't give up their scheming ways.
• Church of Happyology: Friendship University relies on drawing in celebrities to boost its reputation and charges ridiculously high fees for the materials students need to complete their courses and keep moving up through the curriculum.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Their magic glow is a unique shade of green.
• Complexity Addiction: They're seemingly addicted to scamming people and setting up elaborate, complex get-rich-quick schemes that will get them in a lot of trouble when they fail, even though they constantly demonstrate the business acumen to be able to thrive while doing legitimate business. This is especially notable in their appearances after they take over Gladmane's casino — they own a popular, thriving resort whose legitimate, aboveboard dealings almost certainly net them more money than their minor scams possibly could and for much less risk, yet they still insist on trying to cheat people out of petty amounts of money.
• Con Artist: The first time they show up, they sell a legitimate product through legitimate means^note or at least, that's The Plan if they can get some apples, but they goad the Apple family into a contest that has no benefit for them in order to steal the rights to sell cider in town. The next time they show up, they're flat-out con artists, lying about what their product can do.
• Cool Car: The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 not only presses cider, but also serves as a steam-powered carriage.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: As mentioned in Complexity Addiction, they're pretty much set for life running a popular casino resort, but they insist on going back to get-rich-quick cons to get money.
• Didn't See That Coming: When they agreed to let the mane cast help the Apples, they didn't expect Twilight to be able to organize the group to the point it'd make a difference, leading to their downfall.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: In "Friendship University", they manage to fleece Star Swirl the Bearded, generally held to be one of the greatest sorcerers to have ever lived.
• Dirty Coward: According to Word of God, they're this at least for Siege of the Crystal Empire. Jeremy Whitley said he interprets them as ones who'd sell out their own mother to save their own hide.
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: In the IDW Comics "Siege of the Crystal Empire" Arc, they go from simple conmen and snake-oil salesmen to willingly working alongside villains like Queen Chrysalis and and King Sombra.
• Enemy Mine: Once Applejack and Fluttershy reveal Gladmane's true scheme to them and manage to convince Flim and Flam (since it is told to them by Applejack and they know she would never lie), they agree to work together with them to expose him.
• Engineered Public Confession: In "Friendship University", though in this case, the "public" consists of one pony, Star Swirl. Since Flim and Flam are using him to attract students to their school, they decide to end their scam rather than have him expose the truth. It doesn't hurt that Star Swirl specifically tells them to shut the school and return the students' money.
• Establishing Character Moment: Before we even see their faces or learn their names, they carelessly wreck the Apple family's fence — symbolizing their lack of regard for other ponies, and the near-disastrous effect their presence will personally impose on Applejack and her family.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Unrepentant scammers as they may be, they are part of The Cavalry that goes to help the Mane Six in "The Ending of the End".
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In "Friendship University". When Twilight discovers Flim and Flam's true motives, they try to convince her to keep quiet, since they now both have dirt on each other. Twilight refuses this, stating that her reputation means nothing if she doesn't stand up for what she believes in.
• Evil Counterpart: To Applejack, considering that she and the Flim-Flam Brothers are all Spirited Competitors, but unlike the brothers, Applejack would never be happy with winning a contest if it meant that others would lose their home and livelihood in the process. "Leap of Faith" makes it even more obvious, as the two of them act as foils to Applejack in the sense that they have no problem lying to people in order to sell, as opposed to Applejack who is honest to a fault. Also, the Flim-Flam Brothers seem to have a connection to apples as well, since their first on-screen scheme revolves around apple cider and the second involves a "cure-all" tonic made from apple juice and beet leaves.
• Evil Genius: They're highly intelligent, but they completely lack morals when it comes to business practices. It's later revealed that this is Flam's specialty, and that he comes up with the plans and Flim pulls them off. This is the issue Gladstone uses to force the two apart.
• Evil Laugh: Gives one after they defeat the Apple Family.
• Evil Plan:
  • Exploit the Apple Family's business (75-25 percent profits) and if that fails, to drive them out of business.
  • In "Leap of Faith" it's "trick everypony into thinking our product really works by having Sliver Shill fake being cured and then exploit Applejack's love for her family to get her to go along with it".
• Expy: Their style of dress and fast-talking salesman demeanor is reminiscent of Harold Hill from The Music Man, and their song is even reminiscent of the number "Trouble". Even their storyline in Issue 9 of Friends Forever is a Whole-Plot Reference of The Music Man, until the Sibling Triangle over the love interest comes into play.
• Fatal Flaw: Their arrogance and greed — when things go well for them, they don't know to quit while they're ahead and push their luck until their schemes collapse.
  • In "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", the titular machine easily out-produces the Apple family, and the brothers sit back and relax while occasionally recharging the machine. Then they foolishly agree to let Twilight and her friends help the Apples, the family begins to catch up, and Flim and Flam resort to turning off the quality control to make the machine faster to maintain their lead. The conflict of the episode also happens in the first place because they want a 75-25 percent split of the profits if they go into business with the Apples, an extremely unfair offer.
  • In "Leap of Faith", they've gone the classic Snake Oil Salesman route and convince Applejack to let them do it since it isn't hurting anypony and does seem to help. Then when Applejack is pressured into publicly admitting their "miracle tonic" may have actual benefits, they start pushing it as "Applejack-approved" and use her name to market it, finally getting her to put a stop to things.
  • After taking over Gladmane's casino and resort, the brothers are set for life, but their need to make more money and expand the resort keeps them going back to get-rich-quick schemes.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • At first glance, they seem very affable and likable, especially during their initial debut. They promise the whole town a large quantity of Apple Cider that the local suppliers (The Apple family) is unable to provide, an action that is more likely to be thanked than opposed, and have every intention of delivering. Everypony seems to like them well enough, and when Flim requests the usage of the Apple family's orchard to show off their cider, he's very polite about it. However, at the core, they're short-sighted, manipulative and greedy; rather than take the obvious route and offer a fair bargain to the Apples, they first insist upon a blatantly one-sided bargain, and then, when the Apples refuse to play, manipulate them into a contest to steal their orchard from them.
  • By their second appearance, they have given up even having straight intentions; they were legit cider makers in their first appearance, for all that their methodology was greedy and short-sighted, but in their second, they've become straight-up hucksters, knowingly peddling a worthless placebo as a miracle cure-all.
  • Though in Issue 9 of Friends Forever they seem to once again be selling a genuine product with their apple corer.
• Flanderization: In their initial appearance they were jerks towards the Apples and had their mannerisms and appearance based on Harold Hill, but they were actually legitimate businessmen offering Ponyville a real service the town needed. All subsequent appearances reduce them to sleazy con artists.
• Frame-Up: In Ponyville Mysteries #4, they steal the Spa Ponies' water supply, and deliberately lead part of the pipeline through Sweet Apple Acres (hiding the rest of it), to make it look like the Apples had stolen the water.
• Gadgeteer Genius: They apparently built the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 themselves.
• Greed Makes You Dumb: One of the Fatal Flaws — their obsession with securing as much wealth for themselves as possible at every turn has hampered them more than anything else.
  • In their debut, they could have still made plenty of money if they had chosen to split the profits of their proposed venture with the Apples down the middle. Instead, they insisted on taking the lion's share of those profits for themselves, resulting in the Apples refusing, setting in motion a series of events that led to them having to leave Ponyville without any profits at all.
  • Even after taking control of Gladmane's resort (and its steady stream of legitimate income), they decide it's not enough, and in "Friendship University" put together a new scam to provide enough funds for them to have the resort expanded, all so they can make even more money.
  • In Best Gift Ever, they make a point of telling customers they don't give refunds for their shoddily-made dolls. This causes the disguised Flam to break his cover when he angrily yells out "no refunds" alongside Flim.
• Guile Hero: During their brief Enemy Mine with the heroes against Gladmane in "Viva Las Pegasus", they successfully con him into confessing his wicked ways.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: In "The Ending of the End – Part 2", they're part of The Cavalry for the heroes, joining the fight against the Terrible Trio of Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow. It's unknown if this is due to a Heel–Face Turn, standards, or pragmatism as the villains would be a threat to them. They cameo in "The Magic of Friendship Grows" where the only other villains to do so were those redeemed.
• Heel–Face Turn: They subvert this in "Viva Las Pegasus". Although they helped Fluttershy and Applejack get rid of their manipulative boss, they insist that using their talent at conning ponies for the powers of good was a one-time thing and go right back to swindling ponies for money at the end of the episode.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard:
  • First, letting the rest of the Mane Cast help the Apples, seeing them as no threat. Then by turning off their quality control, which is ultimately their downfall.
  • In the holiday special comic, they claim to have Twilight's "princess endorsement" for their products. Twilight later uses this against them by telling their customers all the merchandise will be given away for free. Flim and Flam have no choice but to pretend they've run out of stock and leave town before they lose all their profits, rather than admit that they lied about having Twilight's endorsement.
  • In "Friendship University", they used Star Swirl's reputation to draw in more students. In the end, it is Star Swirl who forces them to close the university, and return their ill-gotten gains.
• Hypocrite: "Friendship University". It doesn't get much more hypocritical than for two money-hungry Con Artist brothers (for whom the terms "friend" and "mark" are one and the same) to teach others about the values of friendship (which includes generosity). They even go so far as to claim Twilight isn't being very friendly, in spite of the fact that they'd opened their school to directly compete with hers, and repeatedly insult both it and her.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Aside from both brothers having slightly different hairstyles, and different patterns of white mixed in with the red of their manes, Flam sports a spiffy mustache. Also, their Cutie Marks are opposites; Flam's Cutie Mark is an apple missing one segment, and Flim's Cutie Mark is a single segment of an apple.
• Insufferable Genius: Their device is remarkably effective, and in other circumstances, would be exactly what the hundreds of thirsty ponies left over from the Apple Family's daily supplies running out would want, but despite their invention appearing to be legit, the brothers' abrasive treatment of the Apple Family ultimately dooms any chances of them both doing business in Ponyville.
• Irony:
  • They use Granny Smith's pride to goad the Apples into a competition that, without help, they had no chance of winning. It's ultimately their own egos that causes them to let the Mane Cast help the Apples, which leads to their defeat.
  • In their second appearance, they actually manage to finagle Applejack, their primary nemesis in town, into reluctantly sponsoring their Medicine Show.
  • In spite of their being long-time Arch-Enemies with Applejack, their most devastating defeat so far came in "Friendship University" at the hooves of Twilight Sparkle, a pony they'd barely even acknowledged until that episode. Thanks to Twilight's plan, they were forced to refund every last Bit they'd conned out of their students; while Applejack had shut down their cons in the past, they usually got away with at least some form of profit.
• It's All About Me: They care only about themselves, being willing to cheat, manipulate, and sully the reputation of anypony to get what they want.
• Jerkass: Their Kick the Dog moment, if not their previous actions, show them to be this.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever. While they were selling shoddy products for unsure Hearth's Warming shoppers, Flim and Flam point out to Applejack that they weren't actually doing anything illegal; they were just using salesman tactics to sell a bad product. This forces Applejack and Fluttershy to convince people not to buy their "Holly the Hearth's Warmer" dolls another way.
• Kansas City Shuffle: In "Viva Las Pegasus", Flim and Flam's plan to trick Gladmane relies on him thinking he can dodge an Engineered Public Confession, only to walk into the real one.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Openly rubbing the fact they won and cost the Apples their farm in their faces, and laughing about it. Comes back to bite them fast.
  • Repeatedly breaking Granny Smith's fence for no reason works quite well to deter sympathy from the viewers, as well. Though they could be unaware that they are doing it.
  • In "Friendship University", they mock Twilight's school, claiming that it is "just a school" located in a "backwater" like Ponyville.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • They show absolutely no remorse over the fact they've cheated the Apple Family out of their livelihood.
  • And they apparently see nothing wrong with telling Granny Smith she could have made that jump just fine when she obviously couldn't have. However, that might be because they trusted her to be able to deliver on her claims with a little confidence.
  • In "Friendship University", they show no sympathy to a student who can't afford his next worksheet. When the student offers his last Bit, Flam callously tears the worksheet in half, and Flim tells him to come back for the rest when he can afford it.
• Lean and Mean: The pair of them together have as much body mass as one member of the Apple Family, but also four times as much mean.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In "Friendship University". After using Blackmail to threaten Twilight with a photo of her in their office in order to stop investigating their school, Flim and Flam are themselves blackmailed into revealing the truth about their scam.
  • In the Best Gift Ever special. After attempting to exploit the Hearth's Warming rush to line their pockets, Flim and Flam are forced to go home with most of their merchandise and little profit, ensuring the two will have a miserable Hearth's Warming. And considering how they intentionally made the dolls as shoddy as possible (to the point where they would fall apart after only a day or two), it's very unlikely that any will last until next year, denying them any chance to recoup their losses.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: In "Viva Las Pegasus", Flim and Flam manage to be this compared to the Villain of the Week Gladmane. While they are unrepentant con artists, they've never sunk so low as to turn ponies against each other for their own benefit.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Flim-flam" is another word for a confidence scheme, and these guys aren't exactly trustworthy.
  • Flim's last name in the toyline, Skim, has the meaning "to take the choicest parts" when applied to business or finance. It refers to crooked practices where a person takes more money or goods than they deserve by stealth or trickery — a perfect mesh for Flim's roles in the series.
  • Assuming Flam's full name has the same format as Flim's, his last name would be Skam. Less applicable towards their first appearance, but perfect for their second, where they run a medicine scam.
  • Their cutie marks are apples that are quartered 75% (Flam) and 25% (Flim), respectively.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: They win the contest and Sweet Apple Acres fair and square, but in doing so produce a lot of crappy cider and alienate their customers. This forces them to flee Ponyville and abandon their prize. Their second on-screen scheme is no better, though they at least manage to flee before they have to refund their angry customers. Averted, arguably, in their primary comic appearance, where they still come away scot-free with a heap of cash even if they don't manage to take the commune's land and then sell it, as was their original plan.
• Medicine Show: Their new scam in their second appearance consists of peddling a supposed cure-all (that is in reality nothing but apple juice and beet leaves).
• Moral Myopia:
  • At the beginning of the "Siege of the Crystal Empire" storyline. Following another scam being exposed off-panel by an (unnamed) Apple family member, they talk amongst themselves about how they believe the Apples are acting as unwanted "hall monitors" for Equestria, preventing two "honest conmen" from making a living. They even go so far as saying that they're suffering a "bum rap" over their schemes constantly getting dismantled.
  • In the Best Gift Ever special. They say that they're simply providing a service to unsure Hearth's Warming shoppers with their shoddily made products, and doing nothing wrong.
  • They're pretty much this in general. They have no problem fleecing their customers out of every last Bit, and sullying the reputation of their competition, or any who challenge them. But when the tables are turned, they treat it like a great injustice.
• Motor Mouth: Their songs are very fast-paced.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Why on Earth would you trust someone whose name is Flim-Flam!?
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Their actions ultimately leaves the Apple family with enough cider to fix the problem that made these two a threat in the first place, which was not enough cider for everypony.
  • Trying to encourage Granny Smith to do something that she really wasn't capable of and would have hurt herself doing right in front of Applejack, who was already feeling bad about lying, was what pushed her into blowing their scam.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The fifth season finale showcases an alternate universe in which they take over Equestria, reducing it to a heavily polluted, mechanized hellhole. Especially impressive as they must have come out on top of the major villains and even Celestia to make this come about! To put this into perspective, according to the "Cutie Remark" two-parter, the hierarchy of the show's villains From Bad to Worse goes: Sombra, Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Discord... and finally these guys. The only alternate timeline worse than theirs is the one where all life in Equestria has ceased to exist.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When they realize that the Apple family has caught up with them in the cider making competition thanks to Twilight's leadership capabilities.
  • When they realize just how furious the entire town is with them.
  • In "Friendship University", when they realize Star Swirl has become aware of their scam.
• Pride: When they agreed to let the mane cast help the Apples, they didn't expect Twilight to be able to organize the group to the point it'd make a difference, leading to their downfall. Tellingly, when the two actually break up, it's not due to their mutual Greed, but due to being tricked into thinking that each had been insulting the other behind his back.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Flim is much more energetic than his calmer brother Flam.
• Redemption Promotion: The only time they unquestionably come out ahead in an episode is the one where they team up with the heroines.
• Redemption Rejection: After the Enemy Mine with Applejack and Fluttershy in "Viva Las Pegasus" ends, they insist that using their skills for good was a one time thing and return to their con-men ways at the end of the episode.
• The Rich Want to Be Richer: After they gain ownership of Gladmane's popular resort. The day-to-day profits of the resort will in all likelihood be enough for them to be set for life, yet they still pull scams in all their future appearances, planning to use the profits to have the resort expanded so they can make even more money.
• Second Place Is for Losers: The main reason that they turn off the quality control mechanism in the apple cider making contest, which ultimately leads to their downfall when their cider is too filthy for the townsponies to drink.
• Selective Enforcement: In "Friendship University", they barely charge Star Swirl anything for his work sheets, but demand a lot more from their other students.
• Sibling Triangle: They get into a nasty one prior to Issue 9 of Friends Forever that results in them not speaking for three weeks until Granny Smith talks some sense into them.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Traveling salesponies nonpareil? Showmanship aside, their claim may not be far off. They really know how to work a crowd, they've got a heck of a sales pitch, AND their product works as well as they advertised it!
• Smug Snake:
  • "We don't care if the whole kingdom of Canterlot helps; it's a lost cause!"
  • In "Friendship University", they mock Twilight and her school, and gleefully blackmail her as an incentive to get he to stop her investigation of their school. But when the tables are turned, they quickly descend to pleading with Twilight not to expose them, and meekly agreeing with Star Swirl's order to close the University and refund their students.
  • In the Best Gift Ever special, they initially gloat to Applejack about how she can't shut down their con this time because what they're doing isn't illegal. But when Applejack and Fluttershy do just that, they end up racing after their former customers, desperately offering them a "buy one, get one free" deal.
• Snake Oil Salesman: Zigzagged. Judging from Granny Smith's expression when she's given a sample, their cider is pretty good, but their personalities fit the trope to a T, they are crooks out to make a quick buck at the expense of others, and they failed in their attempt at selling the final batch of cider. Played straight in their second appearance, where they have reverted to the classic con of the Snake Oil Salesman — hucking phony medicine.
• Stealing from the Till: The Flim Flam's con in "Friendship University" is embezzling money using funds that are intended to be used for funding their university to expand their resort.
• Stupid Evil: Their insistence on pulling scams for quick profit rather than use legitimate business ventures that provide sustainable profits always ends badly for them, yet they seem determined to keep doing so, despite their less-than-stellar track record. The one time they used their Con Artist skills for good, they were essentially rewarded by gaining control of Gladmane's resort, granting them a perfectly legal source of profit. But they openly refused to learn from this and turn over a new leaf. In their next appearance, they once again try to pull a scam, which, as usual, is eventually exposed, forcing them to close it down and refund every last Bit.
• Theme Twin Naming: "Flim/Flam" is a phrase in and of itself.
• Tongue Twister: Each of their songs have a few.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the Best Gift Ever special. They both wear wicked grins while taking advantage of their customers, and enjoy gloating to Applejack about how she can't stop their technically-legal venture.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In "Viva Las Pegasus", Applejack and Fluttershy helped the two to reconcile after Gladmane drove them apart with his lies. This doesn't stop them from cheating Fluttershy out of her money during Best Gift Ever (or taunting Applejack soon after).
• Villainous Breakdown: When the Apple team starts to win, Flim panics instantly, though Flam stays composed.
• Villainous Friendship: They are brothers after all. For as greedy and materialistic as they are, the pair never seem to quarrel over their profits and happily share and share alike. The one time they're on the outs with each other, they're all too happy to get back together once the matter's settled.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: In their first two appearances, they flee Ponyville once the jig is up.
• Villain Song: Notably the first villains to have one in the series. And the first was so popular that they got to do another song in their next appearance.
• Villain with Good Publicity:
  • They are charismatic, their cider-making machine is a true wonder, and their abundant machine-made cider is as good (or maybe even better) than the cider squeezed by the Apple family, so they win everypony's support as soon they arrive to Ponyville. It isn't until after they cheat the Apple family out of their farm and deactivate their machine's quality control system to produce faster (and vastly inferior) cider that makes the townfolk angry.
  • Even more obvious in "Leap of Faith" where everypony seems to have forgotten how angry they were with the brothers last time they were in town.
  • In Best Gift Ever, it's implied this is starting to wear off. They were both wearing a disguise while doing their latest scheme, even before they knew Fluttershy and Applejack were there.
• Waistcoat of Style: Part of the showmanship is looking good.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: It's notable that the tonic, like the cider, is mostly apples. This re-enforces the parallel between them and Applejack (and supports the WMG that they're distant relations of the Apple family).
• Wrong Line of Work: Flim and Flam are business-savvy, charismatic, and really know how to play to a crowd. If they just stuck to legitimate business ventures, they would easily be comfortably well-off for the rest of their lives. Instead, they use their talents for scams and con jobs, due to wanting to make as much as possible right away.

Iron Will

"Iron Will's my name, training ponies is my game!"

Debut: "Putting Your Hoof Down"

Voiced by: Trevor Devall^note according to this interview with Trevor Devall^{Foreign VAs}Akio Ōtsuka (Japanese)

A boisterous minotaur who runs a motivational seminar that helps meek ponies like Fluttershy become more assertive. Of course, his lessons aren't free...

He reappears in Season 7 in "Once Upon a Zeppelin", having quit his job as a motivational speaker in favor of organizing airship cruises.

---

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He wears a necktie, nose-ring, headset and nothing else.
• Adaptational Villainy: As the boss of Level 3 of The Hub's Web Game Adventure Ponies!.
• Anti-Villain: Of the Well-Intentioned variety.
  • His debut episode presents him as the antagonist, and it appears that Hasbro considers him one of the series' villains if the villains poster and Adventure Ponies is anything to go by. However, he isn't actually evil at all. His intentions are not in the least malicious — all he does is teach a self-help seminar; the episode's conflict comes largely from Fluttershy taking things too far — and he learns from his encounter with Fluttershy.
  • He's a more straight-forward villain in "Once Upon a Zeppelin", where it turns out that the lesson he learned was "don't guarantee satisfaction so you can withhold refunds," and basically guilt-trips Twilight into working with him. Even then, he still qualifies since he sticks to the Exact Words in his contract, and upholds his end of the bargain when Twilight asks that the rest of her family would be free to enjoy the cruise if she participated in the cruise's "Princess Activities" in their stead.
• Badass Boast: All his mantras qualify as this. "If somepony tries to block, show them that you rock!.
• Benevolent Boss: For all his flaws he at the very least treats his goat servants well. He is even seen relaxing with one of them on his cruise.
• Blatant Lies: In "Once Upon a Zeppelin", most of his announcements about Twilight's family early on — like his claim that Spike is Cadance's alicorn child and that she rescued him from a monster made of fire — are completely wrong, but the cruisers still run to see the sights he talks about, even Twilight's parents who know these announcements are false. It is unknown if Iron Will is making this up or if he just did poor research.
• The Bus Came Back: He returns in "Once Upon a Zeppelin" with a major one-episode role after having been absent for over four seasons.
• The Cameo: In "The Last Problem", he is seen among a group shot of characters during "The Magic of Friendship Grows".
• Crazy-Prepared: When it comes out that he basically conned Twilight and her family into participating in his airship cruise, he flees by parachute. Shining Armor even admits he's pretty well-prepared.
• Deuteragonist: Of "Putting Your Hoof Down", for all intents and purposes (he learned his own lesson after all).
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: He's not especially villainous, but in the comics he still joins Radiant Hope's legion of doom and in fact has one of the most important roles (stealing the Crystal Heart, a national treasure), as well as teaming up with Queen Chrysalis.
• Exact Words: "If you are not 100% satisfied You. Pay. Nothing!" He's reasonable enough to stick by them. Then comes at this trope from the other side by hiding the words inside the fine print instead of shouting them.
• Expy: His voice sounds almost like Mr. Satan from Dragon Ball Z. He also appears to be based on Hulk Hogan and a number of other professional wrestlers (see No Celebrities Were Harmed).
• Foil: A positive example for Fluttershy. He's much more assertive and gregarious than the meek, introverted pegasus.
• Gentle Giant: To a degree: he threatens that he wants to hurt Fluttershy for not paying for the seminar, and rips the planks she used to board up her cottage, but then proceeds to give a gingerly knock. Also, he's not below using a very girly basket to go grocery shopping with.
• Graceful Loser: When Fluttershy claims she doesn't owe him any money because she's not satisfied with the results from his seminar, he proves to be a minotaur of his word. He even considers it a learning experience he might integrate into his lessons. He's less gracious when his Princess-themed vacation con goes sideways.
• Hammerspace: Where did he get that basket from?
• Hidden Depths:
  • At first glance, he looks like an abusive jerk trying to scam people with a fake self-help seminar. Turns out he's surprisingly well-behaved, emphatic and a bull of honor, plus his seminar truly worked. The only problem is that it worked too well. Even when he's struggling with Rarity and Pinkie Pie, he only used a fraction of his strength and he politely knocks at Fluttershy's door instead of smashing it as the audience is led to believe he's going to do.
  • In IDW's Friends Forever #10, we discover Iron Will is married with a son that looks up to him (perhaps too much), and that he's also a gourmet chef.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • He would have been well within his rights to demand payment from Fluttershy, had he not included the "100% satisfied or you pay nothing" guarantee in his seminar.
  • Attempting to squeeze just one more "princess activity" out of Twilight backfired on him. Twilight, having been taught by Cadance that it's okay to want time with her family, tells the passengers just that. This leads the passengers to question why the cruise was advertised as one where the princesses willingly interact with the customers, causing Iron Will's entire scheme to unravel.
• Hot-Blooded: Played with. On one hand, he's a large personality that frequently shouts, but he has the presence of mind not to hurt the mares or break down Fluttershy's door.
• I Lied: In "Once Upon a Zeppelin", he told Twilght that she only needed to do one more activity (signing autographs) before she was free to spend time with her family. But when she and her family got ice cream, he invited the other passengers to intrude on the moment.
• Incoming Ham: Iron Will's entrance involves artificial smoke, dramatic spotlight, fireworks, a well-timed cape reveal, theme music which sounds suspiciously like "Eye of the Tiger", and him flexing his muscles before he even starts talking. The whole work.
• Insistent Terminology: He's not a monster; he's a Minotaur. Notably, he isn't the one to insist on the terminology — of the three times it comes up, Fluttershy corrects the others when he isn't around, and when Rarity says it to his face, she corrects herself.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He's not wrong when he points out that Twilight's parents "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot if they had bothered to Read the Fine Print for his airship cruise offer.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He qualifies for this in "Putting Your Hoof Down" because while he was a bit forceful on getting Fluttershy to pay up (then again, it was around a few days since the seminar), he's reasonable enough to stick by his Exact Words. He even plans on using his encounter with Fluttershy as an inspiration for his next seminar.
• Large and in Charge: His goat minions don't come up to his knees.
• Large Ham: He flexes in some way every time he talks. Even Pinkie Pie is confused by it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: His scheme to use Twilight's fame for his own benefit ended up backfiring when Twilight told the passengers she needed some time with her family. Realizing that Twilight wasn't a willing part of the cruise, the passengers realized they'd been deceived, and turn on Iron Will, forcing him to flee.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Traditionally, the Minotaur (literally, "the bull of [King] Minos") is a creature (unique, not a species, much like the original Pegasus) with the head of a bull and the body of a man, or at least somehow part man and part bull. Iron Will fits the first description down to the waist, below which he has hooves and a bull's tail, not uncommon in modern renditions of minotaurs. With a bipedal posture and one-third human body, or at the very least human hands and arms if that's interpreted as an upright bull's torso, he's the closest thing to a human the series has seen so far.
• Mooks: Not the evil types. He has goats that serve as his equipment crew and security.
• Mr. Fanservice: A flexing guy that never wears a shirt. For more emphasis on the fanservice?
• Mythology Gag: Fittingly for a Minotaur, he's first encountered inside a hedge maze.
• New Job as the Plot Demands:
  • He shows up in "Once Upon a Zeppelin" having quit his job as a motivational speaker in favor of leading cruises, since according to him, the need for an assertiveness trainer has dried up.
  • In "A Matter of Principals", Discord is able to quickly hire him as a substitute teacher for the School of Friendship (implying that his cruise business has also collapsed).
• Noble Demon: Despite being pushy, manipulative, and entirely self-serving with his business practices, he never breaks his promises. He sticks to his "one hundred percent satisfied" guarantee with Fluttershy, and keeps his word that Twilight's family will get to do whatever they want if she cooperates with him for his cruise.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Iron Will appears to be an Expy of motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Also Mr. T, Hulk Hogan, Randy "Macho Man" Savage and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and the inspirational style of Courage Wolf.
• No Indoor Voice: He speaks in a loud, gruff voice.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: A minotaur. Unusually, and presumably as an extension of the "no humans in MLP" rule, he has the legs of a cow rather than having a bull's head on a fully-human lower body.
• Real Men Wear Pink: That's a cute little shopping basket he's got there.
• Rhymes on a Dime: His inspirational Catch Phrases. To name a few:
  Iron Will: When somepony tries to block, show them that YOU ROCK!
  
  Iron Will: Never apologize when you can criticize!
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When called out for his jerkassery in "Once Upon a Zeppelin", he escapes via parachute.
• Shout-Out:
  • Iron Will shares his name with a different Iron Will.
  • He also pities the fool who doubts his methods.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Invoked with the tufts of fur on his shoulders, which resemble the remains of ripped off sleeves.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Speaks fluent goat.
• Stealth Pun: He's a minotaur who endorses becoming a bully to earn respect.
• Third-Person Person: The way he says his name.
  Iron Will: You can call Iron Will "Iron Will!"
• Too Important to Walk: His goat minions carry him around.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While his assertiveness seminar was basically well-intentioned, his airship cruise and exploitation of Twilight and her family are more overtly scummy.
• Top-Heavy Guy: He has a large chest and brawny arms but small, thin legs.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: In "Once Upon a Zeppelin", after the less-than-moral way he scammed Princess Twilight into acting as an attraction for his cruise is exposed, he quickly jumps overboard and parachutes away to avoid facing the angry attendees and giving a refund.
• Villainy-Free Villain: Both appearances, he technically doesn't do anything immoral, he sticks to his contract and provides the services agreed to upon it. Where his villainy comes in is how he acts like a total jerk while doing it.
  • In "Putting Your Hoof Down", he angrily demands payment from Fluttershy for his seminar and refuses to back off and come back later, insisting on being paid now. When Fluttershy refuses on the grounds he promised satisfaction and she's not satisfied with how she's acting, he awkwardy tries to find a loophole to see if she's just a little satisfied.
  • In "Once Upon a Zeppelin", he gets the Sparkle parents to sign a contract that the tour will focus on the family and they will entertain the guests, but they sign it without reading it. When Twilight agrees to be the sole member of the family that will work for him, Iron Will exploits her like mad and deprives her of any free time to spend with her family. When the cruise guests find out what he's been doing, he reveals he's learned his lesson from last time: he did ''not'' promise satisfaction and there will be ''no'' refunds, and he jumps out of the airship to parachute to safety.
• The Voiceless: His goat minions seem incapable of speech. They only do bleating sounds. Iron Will seems to understand them perfectly.

Season 3

Lightning Dust

Debut: "Wonderbolts Academy"

Voiced by: Brittney Irvin

A cadet at the Wonderbolt Academy, where pegasi train to join the Wonderbolts. She pushes herself to become the best of the best fliers in Equestria, but her reckless way of going about it gets her fellow cadets hurt, and she has no sympathy for those endangered or harmed by her actions.

---

• The Ace: When it comes to flying, she's nearly as good as Rainbow Dash.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Very cocky and looks down on the other, less skilled, cadets.
• Badass Boast:
  Spitfire: What about you? You look like you couldn't fly past the first flag pole without getting winded.
  Lightning: Try me, ma'am.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Seems like a relatively nice pegasus (especially to Rainbow), but that mask slowly crumbles as she suggests creating a tornado to wipe out the competition. If this wasn't a red flag, then it's when she acts like the rest of the Mane Cast falling to their death is nothing.
  • When Scootaloo starts a fan club for her and the Washouts, she seems friendly to Scootaloo at first and even invites her to join the team. But once Lightning tries to make Scootaloo do an incredibly dangerous stunt that Scootaloo is clearly not comfortable with, Lightning threatens Scootaloo to go through with it on the grounds she would disappoint Lightning and get "impeached" as the president of Lightning's fan club.
• Blatant Lies: Despite dismissing Scootaloo's concerns about the stunt, and forcing her to go through with it, she later claims that she would have done it herself if she'd known Scootaloo was going to "bail".
• Break the Haughty: She's heartbroken when Spitfire rips off her team leader insignia as punishment for her recklessness.
• Broken Pedestal: Becomes one to Scootaloo after she attempts to force her into a dangerous stunt without showing any concern for her getting hurt.
• The Bus Came Back: She returns in "The Washouts" after a five-season absence; it is shown that she was indeed kicked out of the academy and is now the captain of a stunt team of Wonderbolt dropouts like her.
• Callousness Towards Emergency: She shows zero concern when the tornado she created throws around and endangers the other cadets. And when Rainbow Dash tells her that it nearly sent her friends plummeting to their doom, her response is an uninterested "Yeah, and?"
• The Cameo: Scootaloo talks about her, showing pictures of her to Rainbow's parents in "Parental Glideance". She later appears as a filly in a flashback in the same episode, earning gold twice in a row before looking mad when Rainbow takes gold and she takes silver.
• Colorful Contrails: When flying, she leaves a green trail superimposed with an orange-and-yellow lightning bolt.
• Curtains Match the Window: Gold eyes and a blonde mane.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of The Unfettered. As Spitfire notes, Lightning regularly pushes herself to the limit in order to improve her flying skills. But this attitude also makes her reckless in her determination to reach new heights, even willing to do dangerous things that might endanger others.
• Depending on the Writer: Her attitude and relationship with Rainbow Dash after Wonderbolts Academy varies in the Expanded Universe. She is briefly seen fighting on Ponyville's side in the comic's Nightmare arc and joins Rainbow Dash on a couple of rides in Fluttershy and the Fine Furry Friends Fair, implying she may have made a Heel–Face Turn. On the other hand, in the Siege of the Crystal Empire arc, she is shown to still be very bitter about being kicked out of the academy and is eager to join a group of villains if it means getting revenge on Rainbow Dash. When she returns in "The Washouts", she is initially friendly with Rainbow Dash, claiming that Rainbow did her a favor — but all too soon, she makes it clear just how much she resents her old teammate, gleefully rubbing Scootaloo's admiration of her in Rainbow's face.
• Drowning Their Sorrows: A G-rated example, but when we first see her in the "Siege of the Crystal Empire" storyline, she's in an unnamed bar, complaining about her lot in life and drinking root beer after root beer.
• Evil Counterpart: She's basically Rainbow Dash without any of Rainbow's loyalty or conscience.
• Fiery Redhead: Her orange hair and her feisty attitude qualify her for this.
• Foil: To Rainbow Dash — without the heart of gold. There's a point beyond which Rainbow stops thinking only about herself, but Lightning will go cheerfully on.
• Forgotten First Meeting: As shown by "Parental Glideance", she and Rainbow Dash went to the same summer camp as fillies, but neither of them remembers it.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Among the other cadets at the academy. Everyone just glares at her when she brags about how she and Rainbow cleared all the clouds with their tornado instead of worrying that she put Rainbow's friends in danger of dying. Everyone is much happier when Rainbow is made lead pony and don't shed any tears over Lightning Dust.
• Hated by All:
  • All the other cadets in the Wonderbolts Academy basically hate her because all she ever does is brag about herself, make things harder for the rest of them, and put others in danger with her recklessness. When she almost gets Rainbow's friends killed with her tornado stunt and just brushes it off, everyone just glares at her silently, and no tears are shed when Spitfire strips her of her rank and kicks her out.
  • Subverted in "The Washouts" where it is shown she has plenty of fans cheering for her and even has her own merchandise.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: She shows zero concern for Scootaloo or her safety after she lets her join the Washouts and puts her into an extremely dangerous and untested stunt involving a rocket that could have killed her. After Rainbow saves Scootaloo, Scootaloo ultimately chooses her over Lightning and Rainbow lets a rope coil around Lightning's hoof and have her dragged away by the rocket.
• Hot-Blooded: Constantly pushing herself to greater heights without thinking of the consequences.
• Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Spitfire removes her team leader badge as punishment for endangering Rainbow's friends.
• It's All About Me: If you were to tell her that there's no "I" in team, she'd tell you that there's an "M" and an "E".
• Jerkass: Though more from her Lack of Empathy than any deliberate malevolence.
• Jerk Jock: She shows obvious traits of this: only caring about herself and ignoring the wellbeing of others.
• Lack of Empathy: While she does not go out of her way to harm others, she expresses zero concern about how her actions consistently put others in harm's way; if they get hurt, it's their own failing and/or they're overreacting. Best exemplified when Rainbow Dash calls her out on endangering her friends, endangering their teammates and pressuring Rainbow into a stunt that injured her wing, and Lightning's response is basically "Yeah, so what?"
  Rainbow: A hoof bump? Seriously? You made me clip my wing. You sent half of our class into serious tailspins on the obstacle course. You unleashed a tornado that nearly demolished my friends!
  Lightning: Yeah, and?
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Her attempts at pushing herself may have earned her a spot as team leader, but they're also what cost her that same spot.
  • She pressured Scootaloo into doing a dangerous stunt that almost got her killed, and after Rainbow saves Scootaloo from said stunt she lets a rope coil around her hoof and carry her off on the rocket she previously strapped Scootaloo to.
• Leeroy Jenkins: "Rainbow, into the crevice!" "Create a tornado!" Does she have a plan? No.
• Lethally Stupid: In this case, Lethally Reckless. She is very reckless with her flying, injuring other flyers in the way, but she didn't notice the harm she caused until Rainbow Dash tells her, but she didn't care.
• Meaningful Name: She's as fast as lightning, and leaves everypony else in the dust.
• No Kill like Overkill: Despite already having a seven-to-one lead at the cloud-clearing exercise, she attempts to best the other cadets even more by causing a twister to eliminate the remaining clouds.
• Never My Fault:
  • Sending other cadets into a tail spin? They need the practice. Losing control of a tornado and destroying a balloon with five ponies in it, four of whom will fall to their deaths without said balloon? They survived, didn't they?
  • In "The Washouts", she still blames Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts for getting her kicked out of the academy, when it was her own fault for putting several ponies' lives in danger. Lightning does admit she did risk lives during her time at the academy, but she can't seem to believe that should have been enough to expel her.
• Pride: Her worst flaw by far is her unwavering belief in herself and drive to be the best of the best. Rainbow Dash has this too, but whereas Rainbow knows when to rein in her pride if it means someone else getting hurt, Lightning doesn't hold back, ignoring the consequences to anyone else if it means showing off.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The victim of one from Rainbow Dash. Wanting to be the best flier there is? Sure. Going the extra distance to make it happen? Great. Endangering your teammates and failing at the concept of teamwork and not giving a buck that you endangered ponies in the process? Get out of here.
• Reckless Sidekick: Inverted; she's The Leader of her team with Rainbow Dash acting as her more sensible wingpony (whom she pays little attention to).
• Replacement Pedestal: She becomes Scootalo's new role model in place of Rainbow Dash. Until Lightning endangers her life for the sake of entertainment, then she loses all respect for her.
• The Resenter: To Rainbow Dash at the beginning of the "Siege of the Crystal Empire" storyline. She bitterly claims that she should have become a Wonderbolt, and Rainbow should be where she is at the moment, since she "outflew Rainbow Dash at every turn" and had "the guts to do what needed to be done to win", while Rainbow cared more about making friends (even believing that a Wonderbolt doesn't need friends). The sole reason she agrees to join Radiant Hope was so she could prove once and for all she was better than Rainbow.
• The Rival: To Rainbow Dash. It was relatively one-sided when they were Wonderbolt cadets, with Rainbow being stuck in Lightning's shadow. But once Lightning was kicked out of the Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash ruined her chance at Revenge by Proxy by saving Scootaloo from a dangerous rocket stunt, Lightning declared they were "rivals for life."
• Second Place Is for Losers: She takes this to dangerous levels when she creates a tornado to outshine her classmates, and almost get Rainbow Dash's friends killed in the process.
• Shadow Archetype: To Rainbow Dash. She's what Dash could be if she let her ego overshadow her conscience.
• Signature Move: She seems to be fond of freeflying, where she tucks in her body and wings and falls in an upright position. She does this during the Dizzitron and flag-catching drills.
• Smug Super: She's a terrific flyer but has to showoff and otherwise act obnoxious.
• The Social Darwinist: Do your best and disregard the rest.
• Spirited Competitor: Loves competing and strikes up a brief friendship with Rainbow Dash because Rainbow is on her level.
• Start My Own: She got expelled from the Wonderbolts Academy because her recklessness put other ponies in danger, so she starts a rival stunt team.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Not only does she behave recklessly and with disregard for the other cadets' feelings or safety, she encourages Rainbow Dash to do the same, and Dash finds it difficult to say no.
• The Unfettered: She has no problem if others get hurt, if it helps her achieve her goals.
• We Will Meet Again: In "The Washouts", as she is carried away on a giant rocket that her hoof is caught to, she screams out to Rainbow Dash "RIVALS FOR LIFE!" as she is dragged into the horizon.
• Would Hurt a Child: She has no issue putting Scootaloo into a dangerous and untested stunt that could have gotten her killed if anything went wrong. When Scootaloo shows concern over her safety Lightning just pressures her into doing it anyway.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Her color scheme is light greenish-blue fur with a yellow-orange mane. The motion trail she leaves behind reflects this, even having an electric-style distortion.
• You Don't Look Like You: Her possible molded toy depicts her as a Palette Swap of Rainbow Dash.

Season 4

Suri Polomare

Debut: "Rarity Takes Manehattan"

Voiced by: Tabitha St. Germain

An acquaintance of Rarity's who takes part in the Fashion Week contest in Manehattan. She steals a bolt of Rarity's new personal fabric to make her own designs with — or rather, to make her assistant Coco Pommel make them.

---

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pretends to be nice to Rarity up until she's gotten what she wanted, then goes full-on bitch for the rest of the episode.
• The Cameo: She makes a brief background appearance in "The Gift of the Maud Pie", taking to a random pony on the streets of Manehattan.
• Con Artist: She swindles Rarity by asking to borrow a bolt of Rarity's new fabric just to add a few flourishes to her own dresses, but the next day it's revealed that she used the fabric for all of her designs while claiming she made the fabric herself.
• Evil Counterpart: To Rarity, taking advantage of the generosity of other ponies to further her own selfish goals.
• Evil Former Friend: Downplayed; Rarity and Suri were acquaintances rather than close friends. It takes Rarity a moment to remember who Suri is.
• Evil Mentor: To Coco Pommel.
• False Friend: Plays on her past with Rarity to get her to "lend" her some fabric so she can steal it and claim it as her own.
• Faux Affably Evil: She keeps up her pleasant, laid-back attitude and chuckling even as she gives Rarity her "pony-eat-pony" philosophy speech.
• Hate Sink: One of the few ordinary ponies in the series who has no redeeming qualities to speak of and is just generally an awful, passive-aggressive bully.
• Jerkass: She's a remorseless, cutthroat fashion designer who leeches off of the talents and successes of others while presenting them as her own. In short, she's not a very nice pony.
• Karma Houdini: She never suffers any on-screen karma for stealing Rarity's designs, nor does she seem worse off for it by her next appearance. However, she does lose the award off-screen to Rarity thanks to Coco coming forward to the judges and telling them what happened, plus Suri does lose her as a assistant. Plus, at most, Rarity still ends up beating her in the contest with designs made entirely from hotel materials, proving she's the better designer despite Suri's theft.
• Lack of Empathy: She shows no remorse in her actions, hiding it under the excuse that you need to do as such to make it in Manehattan. While it may be a tough city, that doesn't mean most of the ponies in said fashion show didn't work for it (such as her assistant Coco). This is indeed proven when Rarity still beats her despite using her designs (with dresses made on the fly no less), showcasing that Suri never truly earned her position.
• Mean Boss: Is abusive towards her assistant Coco and makes her do most of the work while she takes the credit.
• Meaningful Name: "Suri" in Japanese means "pickpocket".
• Opportunistic Bastard: She takes advantage of Rarity's generosity, and apparently did a lot of similar things to get ahead in Manehattan.
• Psychotic Smirk: She pulls one of these off on occasion.
• Pyrrhic Victory: She gets away with stealing Rarity's designs, but loses both the contest and her very competent assistant.
• The Rival: To Rarity.
• Taking Advantage of Generosity: Well, being the Evil Counterpart for Rarity, what did you expect? When Rarity is nice enough to offer Suri a bolt of her new fabric for accents, Suri proceeds to use the fabric for her whole fashion line and claim that she made the fabric herself.
• Sore Loser: Tries to trick Rarity into forfeiting the fashion show so that she will be declared the winner by runner-up. But is denied when Coco personally delivers Rarity's trophy to her.
• Verbal Tic: "...heh heh heh, mmkay?"

Season 5

Wind Rider

And the horseshoe winds up on the other hoof.

Debut: "Rarity Investigates!"

Voiced by: Jan Rabson

A retired former member of the Wonderbolts, he is the current holder of a long-distance speed record with the Wonderbolts that still stands. Afraid of Rainbow Dash beating his record, he devises a plot to send Spitfire on a Wild Goose Chase making it look like she disappeared and pin the blame on Rainbow so she gets kicked out of the Wonderbolts.

---

• The Ace: He was one of the Wonderbolts' greatest and most famous fliers in his heyday, and he still holds the Wonderbolts' long-distance speed record.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first, he comes across as a nice and grandfatherly figure, but is later revealed to be the one behind the Frame-Up.
• Broken Pedestal: Becomes one to Rainbow Dash^note who had spent all episode gushing over him and the Wonderbolts after he confesses he is behind her Frame-Up. It's also heavily implied that he'll become this for a lot more once word gets out on what he did.
• The Charmer: He does impress Rarity with his good taste in cologne and clothes. He also kisses Celestia's hoof at a party, much to her approval.
• Disguised in Drag: Dresses up as a mare while getting a cake as part of the Frame-Up.
• Dramatic Irony: If he hadn't cared about his record so much, he might have kept it a while longer, or at least lost it without disgracing himself and getting kicked out of the Wonderbolts.
• Evil Counterpart: To Rainbow Dash: both are very competitive ace flyers associated with the Wonderbolts, but unlike Rainbow, who's fiercely loyal to her teammates and is as excited about their accomplishments as her own, Wind Rider is obsessed with his own greatness and is willing to betray his teammates to maintain his reputation.
• Evil Is Petty: The reason he framed Dash? He is afraid she would break his long-distance speed record. Everypony doesn't waste any time to call him out on it.
• Evil Plan: Get Rainbow Dash kicked out of the Wonderbolts forever so he can preserve his record.
• Frame-Up: He sent a note pretending to be Spitfire's mother to send her on a wild-goose chase and make it look like she disappeared, and planted fake evidence in order to set-up Rainbow Dash as the culprit.
• Glory Days: Everything he does is to preserve his precious record.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Says this nearly word for word as his defense for why he framed Rainbow Dash to protect his record. The rest of the team doesn't buy it.
• I Kiss Your Hand: He kisses Princess Celestia's hoof at a party.
• Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Just as it happened to Lightning Dust. But his retirement benefits go with it.
• It's All About Me: The reason he framed Rainbow Dash.
• Jerk Jock: A retired sports superstar, and a selfish jerk.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • He wanted Rainbow Dash kicked out of the Wonderbolts. After she is found innocent, he is the one to get kicked out instead.
  • A more subtle example: Rainbow Dash flew off to find Spitfire after it was declared impossible due to the long-distance. She managed to get back with Spitfire just in time for the air show. It's very likely she did break his long-distance speed record, the one thing he was preventing her from doing.
• Motive Rant: Insists that what he did had to be done, not acknowledging how selfish, pathetic, and petty it was.
• Pride: His Fatal Flaw. He was willing to hurt Rainbow Dash just to preserve his record.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: He tried to frame Rainbow in order to preserve his reputation, record, and legacy. He ended up losing them all thanks to his pettiness. If he had left it well-enough alone, he may have still lost his speed record, but he at least would have still had his legacy and reputation intact.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Has impeccable taste in dress, impressing Rarity with his scarf and cologne.
• The Sociopath: Cares very little about anything else besides his record, uses his fellow ponies as disposable stepping stones, is incredibly arrogant, and is implied to have framed more recruits than just Rainbow Dash, to keep his speed record.
• Villainous Breakdown: A fairly subdued example, but he's furious when it becomes clear that he's the real culprit.

Spoiled Rich (née Spoiled Milk)

Where Diamond Tiara gets "it" from.

Debut: "Crusaders of the Lost Mark"

Voiced by: Chantal Strand

Diamond Tiara's mother and Filthy Rich's wife. She is a haughty, self-centered mare who thinks herself above everypony else. She expects her daughter to follow in her hoofsteps by placing high expectations and berating her for any failure. Her maiden name is Spoiled Milk.

---

• Abusive Parents: Specifically the emotional type of abuser, as she browbeats Diamond when she loses the class presidency and at no point has so much as a single kind word for her..
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Diamond Tiara confronts her over her overbearing attitude, stands up for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and browbeats her into having her father help build the new playground and earns a Heel–Face Turn.
• Corrupt Politician: She is the head of the Ponyville school board and it's likely she prevented any of the school budget to go into fixing the school playground to make Pipsqueak look bad and to get even with him for winning the class presidency over Diamond Tiara.
• Even Evil Has Standards: If Diamond Tiara getting worried in "One Bad Apple" when Babs threatened to tell Diamond Tiara's mother about the way she and Silver Spoon bully the CMC is any indication, while she's still a Rich Bitch and believes her daughter to be better than other ponies and is willing to insult them herself, at the very least, she does draw the line at, and does not approve of, her daughter bullying her classmates. Of course, seeing how she is willing to emotionally abuse her daughter and refer to the CMC (who are standing right there) as "Blank Flanks", one has to wonder what her definition of "bullying" is.^note Though "whatever I say it is" seems a reasonable guess.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In "A Horse Shoe In". When she substitutes for the School of Friendship's loyalty class, she tells the students that loyalty is best gained by buying it. For that reason, she ends up being the first candidate for the Vice-Headmare position to be eliminated.
• Fantastic Slurs: Aside from calling the Crusaders "blank flanks" like her daughter, she labels Pipsqueak as a "transplant from Trottingham".
• Gag Nose: Her snout is perpetually curved upwards, most likely to emphasize her snobby nature.
• Gold Digger: Implied. Her cutie mark is a diamond wedding ring, suggesting that her "special talent" is mooching off of her husband's wealth.
• Hate Sink: There's nothing likable about her. Tellingly, her introduction was what instigated her daughter's redemption story.
• Irony: In her first appearance, she deeply impressed upon her daughter how important their family's social standing is. But in "Applejack's 'Day' Off", the other spa patrons roll their eyes in annoyance at her boast about living in a mansion, showing that many Ponyville residents don't think highly of her at all.
• It's All About Me:
  • It's implied that her treatment of Diamond Tiara was a thinly veiled effort to improve her own image through her daughter.
  • In "Where the Apple Lies", the only thing she has to say in response to hearing that Granny Smith is sick is "It's not contagious, is it?", contrasting sharply with her then-fiancé's genuine worry for his friend and business associate's health.
  • In "A Horse Shoe In", she offers to fundraise for the School of Friendship, but only in the hopes of getting some buildings named after her.
• Jerkass: In contrast to Filthy Rich, Spoiled Rich is very overbearing, haughty, and thinks she's above everypony. Little wonder where Diamond Tiara got it from. If "Where The Apple Lies" is to be believed, she was even worse before getting married, which is best seen in the contrast between her and her husband's initial reactions to the lie that Granny Smith is ill — Filthy Rich is genuinely concerned for Granny's well-being, Spoiled Milk is more concerned about it being contagious.
• Karma Houdini: Downplayed. While visibly not showing any consequences over her upbringing of Diamond Tiara, she is taken down a notch after being intimidated by her daughter calling her out and agrees to take her note asking for donations to the school playground to Filthy Rich.
• Meaningful Name: Spoiled Rich is, not surprisingly, spoiled and rich. Her personality is also as rotten as her maiden name, Spoiled Milk.
• The Perfectionist: Won't take Diamond Tiara failing or falling short of her expectations, or making friends she doesn't approve of, at all until Diamond Tiara calls her out.
• Pet the Dog: In "Where the Apple Lies", she looks genuinely concerned when they are about to amputate "Granny"'s hoof. She's also one of the first to raise her hoof when Granny asks who wants to hear the rest of her story about apple blight.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: She makes a xenophobic remark against Pipsqueak when she finds out that he won the class election in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark".
• Remember the New Guy?: She takes five whole seasons to appear. Though considering what she's like, it's no wonder Diamond Tiara never talked about her.
• Rich Bitch: Full stop. She is the reason Diamond Tiara is likewise.
• Second Place Is for Losers: She has this mentality and chastises her daughter for losing the campaign.
• Sinister Schnoz: She is drawn with a prominently curved-up snout that looks like a upward-hooked nose depending on certain angles. This reflects her affinity to turn her nose up at everypony else around her. Interestingly, her appearance in the flashback in "Where the Apple Lies" depicts her with a different, more full-looking snout.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In the span of an appearance or two, she's dramatically altered how Diamond Tiara is viewed.
• Stupid Evil: For all her talk of prioritizing going upwards in society and rearing Diamond Tiara to have the same attitude, her incompetence in said topic would make every real Social Climber roll their eyes at her stupidity. She looks down on the CMC and balks at her daughter making friends with them. The trio in question have direct connections to four of Equestria's greatest heroes and have a Princess as a teacher on a weekly basis. It's the Equestrian equivalent of not sucking up to a person who has The Avengers on speed dial while having access to the White House. If anything, Spoiled Rich should have been scolding her daughter for not leeching off the CMC.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Filthy Rich buys lots of flowers for Spoiled Rich during "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You", but he ends up returning them, because apparently Spoiled likes only purple flowers.
• Walking Spoiler: She's tied in with everything that makes "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" a Wham Episode. Specifically, it's extremely difficult to talk about her without bringing in her role in Diamond Tiara becoming who she is, which is in turn a pretty major part of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark"'s plot.
• Wealth's in a Name: Her married name, Spoiled Rich, references both her family's great wealth and her extremely snobbish and entitled attitude towards it.

Svengallop

Debut: "The Mane Attraction"

Voiced by: Colin Murdock

The manager for the biggest popstar of all Equestria, Countess Coloratura. In actuality, a demanding, controlling narcissist who exploits Coloratura's fame for his own gain and live his life in comfort.

---

• The Cameo: He makes an appearance in the background of "Viva Las Pegasus" at the food court looking miserable. In "Grannies Gone Wild", he's also visible in the background of the dance club scene, sulking in a booth.
• Camp: He has the most effete-sounding voice this side of Steven Magnet.
• Caught on Tape: How he is found out. Coloratura, under Applejack's suggestion, sets him up with a Secret Test of Character where she cancels her contest with the school ponies. Twilight Sparkle manages to magically record his comments and demands to an overworked Pinkie Pie to which is later broadcast in front of everypony else.
• Child Hater: In sharp contrast to Coloratura, he is actually relieved when she pretends to cancel the school ponies' contest and confesses he doesn't like to have rehearsals with "brats".
• Entitled Bastard: Svengallop is under the impression that he deserves all his extravagant requests because he takes care of the special effects, wardrobe, choreography, et cetera in Coloratura's concerts.
• Establishing Character Moment: He literally walks over Pinkie Pie upon Coloratura's arrival, then lists off a massive amount of complicated and specific items that Coloratura supposedly requires.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Combine the jerkass, the Mean Boss, the Upper-Class Twit, and the glasses, and there you go.
• Hate Sink: There is literally nothing to like about this narcissistic and egotistical douchebag as he is 100% unsympathetic.
• It's All About Me: While he tries to play up that Coloratura needs many extravagant things in order to preform, it's obvious he's just riding off the perks of her fame. He even blatantly states that "[He] deserves everything [he] gets" in his last argument with her.
• Jerkass: To children, to fans, to Childhood Friends, and especially to Pinkie Pie and Coloratura. He is Hate Sink incarnate.
• Karma Houdini: Downplayed. He may have been fired being Coloratura's manager, but he is likely to find another popstar whose fame he can exploit for his own gain. Though, according to Amy Keating Rogers, he returns to Manehattan but "nopony falls for his BS again", making it an offscreen averted trope: he doesn't have a gravy train to ride off of anymore and is likely blackballed in the entertainment industry. A brief cameo in "Viva Las Pegasus" shows him not very pleased with his current situation, making it seem like karma did eventually catch up to him.
• Kick the Dog: His horrid treatment of Pinkie Pie.
• Mean Boss: Downplayed in front of Coloratura, he obviously doesn't like any suggestions that go against his wishes but will go along with them begrudgingly. But played straight as he abuses her fame with her unaware and makes outrageous demands to everypony he meets under the threat of cancelling concerts if they aren't met.
• Meaningful Name: A play on the word svengali as in one who controls or exerts influence on another, with selfish or sinister motives.
• The Sociopath: Arrogant, selfish, manipulative, and clearly not looking out for anyone but himself.
• The Svengali: True to his namesake, he's a manipulative Jerkass who micromanages every aspect of Rara's life for his own gain.
• Upper-Class Twit: Treats everypony as inferior (especially Pinkie Pie) and demands outrageous items for his own use.

Season 6

Zesty Gourmand

Debut: "Spice Up Your Life"

Voiced by: Fiona Hogan

A famous restaurant critic in Canterlot with very specific tastes. Any restaurant that she praises is marked with her three hoofprints.

---

• Alpha Bitch: She uses her position as a high-ranking food critic to impose her will on the restaurants of Canterlot, and threatens to use her status to discredit any restaurant that doesn't meet her exact standards.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: A unicorn with a bland and dingy colour palette and wardrobe who thinks food with minuscule flavours are best.
• Bad Review Threat: She uses her influence to force the restaurants in Canterlot to cater exclusively to her tastes, and badmouths any who don't comply.
• Broken Pedestal: Rarity greatly admires her and does her hardest to emulate her requirements to ensure the Tasty Treat's success, but when Zesty shows her blatant disregard for others' opinions, Rarity decides Zesty's standards aren't worth living up to.
• Caustic Critic: She wastes no time deriding a restaurant if it doesn't meet her standards and only her standards.
• Color Motif: Her dull grey coat and mane reflect her poor tastes in food, and the only food she does eat is bland and flavorless.
• Hate Sink: A condescending food critic who behaves like an overly petty and rude bully to those who don't agree to her strict standards of which restaurants should exist. Clearly most fans hated her for how much of a hostile jerk she acted around the ponies around her for no legitimate reason.
• Ironic Name: For a pony named Zesty Gourmand, the dishes she recommends sure are bland and sparse.
• Irony: In her first scene, she coldly informs Rarity that supporting the Tasty Treat could do serious damage to her social standing. When the Tasty Treat becomes popular, Rarity tells Zesty that refusing to give the restaurant a chance could now damage her social standing.
• It's All About Me: The only tastes that seem to matter are hers. She becomes rather appalled later on when the Tasty Treat starts getting customers despite lacking her signature three hoofprints and leaves in a huff when her opinions are challenged.
• Jerkass: Her criticism extends beyond the kitchen, criticizing a pair of tourists right in front of them and telling Rarity that a fashionista should not have any say on what a good restaurant is. When confronted by an entire restaurant full of ponies who feel that Zesty just needs to mellow out, does she finally give the Tasty Treat a chance? No, she just leaves in a huff instead, refusing to even give their opinions the time of day.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Her unique muzzle and eyes combined with her tall lanky frame make her stand out amongst the rest.
• Plain Palate: Despite what her name implies, she prefers food to be bland and served in small portions. She refuses to give any other kind of food a chance, so the restaurants on Restaurant Row serve food this way to get a three-hoof rating from her.
• Riddle for the Ages: She is never seen without her long coat on, so her cutie mark is a mystery.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When public opinion on her standards turn on her, she simply walks out angrily.
• Straw Critic: On the whole, Zesty has very little interest in actually doing her job as a critic — that is, objectively evaluating the quality of the food, the presentation, and the establishment regardless of what kind of food is prepared. Rather, she has a very specific preconceived notion of what she likes in food and judges all food based on that. In other words, she's not judging whether or not a restaurant serves good food, she's judging whether or not a restaurant serves food she likes.
• Villainous Cheekbones: She has high cheekbones accentuating her gaunt appearance, as well as her likeness to Anton Ego of Ratatouille.

Gladmane

"Oh, you can't trick a confession out of a pony like me! I'm always one step ahead."

Debut: "Viva Las Pegasus"

Voiced by: Jim Byrnes

The owner of a resort in Las Pegasus that Fluttershy and Applejack are sent to by the Cutie Map. He professes to be everypony's friend and to keep his employees loyal through The Power of Friendship, although his talent for keeping them divided and bickering may also be a part of it...

---

• Benevolent Boss: Subverted. At first, he comes across as a friendly, approachable boss who prefers to think of his employees as friends, and his employees have nothing but nice things to say about him. It's eventually revealed that he really sees his employees as just a means to an end, manipulating them into fighting with each other so they won't take their acts on the road and keep making money for his resort.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first, he seems like a friendly enough pony on good terms with his employees. However, it eventually becomes clear that he deliberately creates discord between them to keep them in his employ and make more money for his resort.
• Catchphrase: His often-repeated laugh "uh-huh-huh", much like his inspiration. Likewise with "Thank you very much", though a little less frequently.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The owner of a large hotel/arcade/amusement park in Las Pegasus, and resorts to manipulation to keep the acts that are a draw to his hotel from going on the road.
• Divide and Conquer: His technique to gain control of his entertainers was to cause bickering between their partners that would result in turning to him for advice.
• Engineered Public Confession: A Double Subverted version is how he's exposed in the end. He knows that the Flim-Flam brothers' first attempt was a set-up, so he "confesses" that they key to his success is friendship. Later on, though, Fluttershy and Applejack get him to actually confess using the intercom in his office.
• Evil Gloating: Gladmane indulges in this after seeing through the first attempt to trick a confession from him. Him doing just this is what the actual plan to get him to confess relies on.
• False Friend: Gladmane paints himself as a friend to everypony, but he's secretly manipulating his employees into fighting with each other so they won't leave his resort, which keeps himself at the top.
• Faux Affably Evil: Gladmane pretends to be a friendly, approachable and reasonable boss, but is really a ruthless swindler who sees his employees as nothing more than a means to an end.
• Foil: Could be seen as one to/for Filthy Rich. While greedy, Filthy Rich actually keeps a genuine good standing with his clients (the Apple family in particular) and is shown to be a nice guy. Gladmane is also greedy but puts up a friendly facade to have good standing and manipulates his clients into staying.
• Manipulative Bastard: Gladmane manipulates his employees to keep fighting against each other in order to prevent them from leaving.
• Money Fetish: invokedGladmane loves money. His cutie mark is sparkling gold coins, and his bowtie is decorated with bits.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: In appearance and mannerisms, Gladmane seems to be a ponified Elvis Presley, down to the catchphrases. However, his manipulative behavior towards his own employees comes from Elvis' manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, who ruthlessly exploited his client's music and acting careers for his own gain.
• Smug Snake: Once Gladmane's true colors are revealed, he cheerfully indulges in Evil Gloating and boasts about how he "invented" the Engineered Public Confession technique AJ, Fluttershy, and the Flim-Flam Brothers used. This ends up costing him.
• Verbal Tic: He tends to say "uh-huh" or "uh-huh-huh" at the end of his sentences, though he drops it when he's behind closed doors and showing his true colors.
• Villainous Breakdown: When his scheme and duplicity are exposed, Gladmane drops all air of smug superiority and is reduced to begging his employees not to leave him.

Season 7

The Expert Ponies

Left to right: Wrangler, Hard Hat and Dandy Grandeur.

Debut: "Fluttershy Leans In"

Voiced by: Mackenzie Gray (Dandy Grandeur), Mark Gibbon (Hard Hat), Kazumi Evans (Wrangler)

A group of ponies Fluttershy's friends enlist to help her realize her dream of building an animal sanctuary in Ponyville. All are experts in their respective crafts, but don't regard others very highly at all.

---

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: They all seem like perfectly pleasant, helpful, friendly ponies at first, but they quickly prove to be an arrogant, egocentric, and close-minded lot. Fluttershy's friends certainly didn't expect them to be this way, and regret calling for their favor when they find this out.
• Broken Pedestal: Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all greatly admire the work of Wrangler, Hard Hat, and Dandy Grandeur, respectively, but aren't so pleased when they learn they've been putting Fluttershy down and trying to take control of her project behind everyone's backs.
• The Cameo: Hard Hat makes a brief appearance in "Honest Apple" building a stage for Rarity's fashion show.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Fluttershy tries steering them in her direction, they just go about their own way from a different angle, completely missing the point of Fluttershy's criticisms. Fluttershy wants to use trees as shelter? Hard Hat chops them up to use as building material. She prefers to keep the place looking natural? Dandy decorates the place with curtains made from "natural fibers". She wants the animals to stay comfortable? Wrangler prepares cages with pillows.
• Hate Sink: Their underhanded methods of completing Fluttershy's sanctuary makes them easy targets for Fluttershy to show just how assertive and confident she's become over the series.
• It's All About Me: They prefer to do things their own way whenever they feel fit.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Zig-zagged. They're all experts in their respective fields, but when they're called to offer their services, they assume it's because the one they're helping is too incompetent to do it on her own. They also don't take kindly to Fluttershy criticizing their work, pinning the blame on Fluttershy's vision instead when it's their own inability to grasp her vision that holds it back.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Wrangler is a pony who handles farm animals (sheep in her case).
  • Hard Hat is a construction worker.
  • Dandy Grandeur specializes in grand, lavish interior decoration.
• Never My Fault: They are wholly convinced that their changes to Fluttershy's sanctuary project are in her best interests when they don't even give her ideas a chance, and they pin the chances of the project failing squarely on her, not even bothering to stick around to see their work fall apart and prove them wrong.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: When Fluttershy lays into them for deliberately ignoring her vision, they sneer and say her vision isn't all it's cracked up to be before stomping off.
• The Smurfette Principle: Wrangler is the only expert in this group who is a mare.
• Verbal Tic: Dandy Grandeur has one almost every time he speaks, you know?

Season 8

The Mean Six

Debut: "The Mean 6"

Voiced by: Tara Strong (Mean Twilight), Ashleigh Ball (Mean Applejack/Rainbow Dash), Andrea Libman (Mean Pinkie Pie/Fluttershy) and Tabitha St. Germain (Mean Rarity)

Evil copies of the Mane Six created by Queen Chrysalis in a plot to acquire the power of the Elements of Harmony. Instead of helping her, they attempt to take the power for themselves. They also somehow initiate a case of Mistaken Identity among the real Mane Six, causing a rift amongst them which is soon resolved. They eventually are "killed" by the Tree of Harmony.

---

• Ax-Crazy: They are all pretty crazy but Mean Rarity and Mean Fluttershy are probably the most insane. The former is very nearly non-verbal as she mindlessly hordes whatever she can find and the latter dedicates every moment of her existence to causing suffering and then laughing about it.
• Bad Liar: Mean Applejack constantly lies, but her tells — such as looking around suspiciously and pausing quite often — are blatantly obvious, and her lies tend to be ludicrous, implausible and highly over-the-top.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Mean Twilight is highly intelligent, questions Chrysalis's leadership from the very beginning, and is soon plotting to overthrow her and keep the Elements of Harmony for her own nefarious plans. Given that during their confrontation, she's seen overpowering the former changeling queen, she could very well have pulled it off and become a serious threat if not for the Tree of Harmony destroying her along the rest of the Mean Six.
• Body Horror: The Tree of Harmony magically ensnares the Mean Six and drains the spell that brought them to life, causing their bodies to wither (although the visuals makes it look more as if they are melting).
• The Bore: Mean Pinkie is continouously bored about everything, and seems not to enjoy anything at all. This eventually leads to the real Twilight to think her friends don't like the retreat she planned, resulting in a breakdown.
• Companion Cube: The log that was once Mean Twilight becomes this for Chrysalis, as she frequently talks to it and gets defensive when Tirek and Cozy Glow point it out.
• Compulsive Liar: Mean Applejack lies practically non-stop, even when there's no benefit or reason for her to do so.
• Embodiment of Vice: Basically each of them act the complete opposite of the Element their real counterparts possess, like how Discord corrupted the real ponies:
  • Mean Applejack represents dishonesty and lying.
  • Mean Fluttershy represents spite and cruelty.
  • Mean Rarity represents greed and neediness.
  • Mean Rainbow represents disloyalty and laziness.
  • Mean Pinkie represents cynicism and boredom.
  • Mean Twilight represents manipulation and antagonism.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Mean Pinkie Pie. One of her attempts to entertain herself involves watching bubbling water. She is shown smiling when Mean Fluttershy trips up Mean Rarity, and laughs maniacally while attacking the Tree of Harmony.
• Evil Is Hammy: Mean Rarity is, if possible, even more hammy than her good counterpart. She has No Indoor Voice, snarls at anyone who gets close to her, and makes extremely exaggerated movements.
• Evil Is Petty: Mean Fluttershy goes well out of her way to be cruel for no other reason than because she enjoys it. The others join in sometimes, such as trashing the campsite, but she's as sadistic as Fluttershy is kind.
• Evil Knockoff: They're created from a spell cast by Chrysalis involving a tree with a visual image of the target, a strand of hair from each copied character and an engraving of their cutie mark. The result is six one-dimensional parodies of the originals, each embodying the opposite of the chief virtue of their counterparts and little else.
• Evil Plan: Mean Twilight's plot to herself is this: Overpower Chrysalis once they reach the Tree of Harmony and become the group's new leader, then use said power to seize control of the Elements and keep their power all to themselves. Unfortunately for her, though, she lacks Twilight's planning prowess and has no actual strategy for obtaining the Elements, which gets them all destroyed.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Mean Twilight's voice is significantly more raspy than her good counterpart, Tara Strong shifting into the pitch she usually uses when voicing male characters on some occasions.
• Evil Versus Evil: In the end, Mean Twilight turns against Chrysalis and the two engage in a magic duel for dominance.
• Failed a Spot Check: Even with all the visual differences each of the Mean Six have, the real Mane Six act like they can't tell the difference between clone and real pony, and just assume they've gone bad out of nowhere. Not that the Mean Six are any better at distinguishing the originals from their own group. The only one who is able to tell the difference is the Tree of Harmony, who quickly recognizes them as fake and destroys them.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: The Mean Six die when the Tree of Harmony retaliates against their attacks by grabbing them with tendrils of light, causing them to wither away and visibly decay (making it appear like they're melting), before the tree flashes white and they turn back into pieces of wood.
• Final Speech: Delivered by Mean Twilight as they are being destroyed by the Tree of Harmony:
  Mean Twilight: Imbeciles! You ruined everythiiiiiiing!!!
• For the Evulz: Mean Fluttershy is a jerk just for the sake of it, like relentlessly taunting a bird that fell out of its nest even though it wouldn't have benefited her in the slightest.
• Genetic Memory: Averted. Despite a piece of their counterparts' hair being used in their creation, the Mean Six are lacking the Mane Six's memories. They don't know where the Elements of Harmony are, nor are they able to recognize Starlight Glimmer by sight alone.
• Giggling Villain: Mean Rarity has a tendency toward cackling to herself with little provocation.
• Hate Sink: Mean Fluttershy and Mean Applejack are easily the most unpleasant of the bunch, and even Queen Chrysalis seems to hate them the most. Fitting, seeing as they're evil opposites of two of the most pleasant and likable members of the Mane Six.
• Impostor-Exposing Test: In front of the Tree, each begins to act inversely to their Element, which briefly turns black in response. Once all Elements have gone through this, the Tree grabs them with tendrils of light and drains the spell that gave them life out of them.
• Irony: They are created from trees, yet they are destroyed by one.
• Jerkass: Exaggerated. The very reason they exist is to be this, and there is no shred of kindness in their hearts. Unlike Mean Twilight, who at least has capability to be a competent Big Bad outside of being a huge jerk, the other Mean Six members are defined entirely by their cruelty.
• Karmic Death: After everything the clones did to the real ponies throughout the episode, the Tree of Harmony rightfully rewards them by draining the spell that gave them life right out of them.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Mean Fluttershy encounters a baby bird that fell out of her nest, and proceeds to mock her. She even follows the bird all the way back to her nest, taunting her every step of the way. This causes the animals to hate the real Fluttershy and admonish her.
  • Mean Applejack cruelly mocks Starlight over all the camping equipment the real Applejack gave her, making Starlight feel like Applejack only gave her the equipment so she could laugh at her.
  • Mean Pinkie complains to Twilight that this is a "boring, lame, no-fun retreat," while Mean Twilight shows No Sympathy toward Fluttershy when Pinkie tries to calm her down. This causes the real Twilight to think her friends don't like the retreat, and the real Pinkie to assume Twilight doesn't care about her friends when they need help, and the two get in a heated argument with each other once they meet up.
• Lazy Bum: Mean Rainbow is this, being disloyal and sitting out on every task. She also dismissed herself in many ways.
• Manipulative Bitch: Mean Twilight is a subtle one, but she is still very good at being this. She preys on Chrysalis' desire to find the Elements and get revenge on the Mane Six, and once she, Chrysalis, and the others get to the Tree of Harmony, she plans to take the Elements all to herself.
• Mistaken Identity: All of them are mistaken for the actual Mane Six, causing a rift amongst them when they regroup. They also mistake the Mane Six for members of their own group as well. Neither group realizes the difference.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: All the clones actually manage to do is give the actual ponies another activity to bond over during their retreat, specifically learning even the greatest of friends can get on each others nerves sometimes.
• No Sympathy: Mean Twilight shows absolutely zero remorse at the real Fluttershy is breaking down, leaving right before the real Twilight shows up so the real Pinkie puts the blame on her.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Though she denounces them as "fools", Mean Twilight doesn't mistreat the rest of the Mean Six like Chrysalis does, making it easy for her to convince them to turn against Chrysalis.
• The Psycho Rangers: Each acts inversely to the element they're assigned. Mean Twilight is a Manipulative Bitch schemer, Mean AJ is a compulsive Bad Liar, Mean Pinkie is a boring wet blanket, Mean RD is an unhelpful Lazy Bum, Mean Fluttershy is a complete Jerkass, and Mean Rarity is a greedy thief.
• Slasher Smile:
  • Mean Twilight flashes some of these throughout the episode, but her biggest and scariest one is when she is in a Beam-O-War with Chrysalis and is close to overpowering her.
  • Mean Fluttershy also flashes some of these as well.
  • As does Mean Rarity when she hordes.
• Spot the Impostor: Aside from having slightly muted colors for the coats and manes, unkempt manes and tails, and "discorded" attitudes, each Mean Six has their own visual difference from the pony they are cloned from.
  • Mean Twilight has darker purple eyes, her cutie mark is a twelve-pointed magenta star (rather than a six-pointed magenta star with a six-pointed white star beneath) and her hair stripes are in opposite order.
  • Mean Applejack's hat is more ragged, her cutie mark's apples are green instead of red and her hair ties are also green.
  • Mean Pinkie Pie's yellow balloon on her cutie mark is lower than the blue ones (the real Pinkie's yellow balloon is higher).
  • Mean Rainbow Dash's rainbolt cutie mark is upside down and her lower mane and tail's colors are in opposite order.
  • Mean Fluttershy's cutie mark butterflies are opposite colored (pink bodies with blue wings)
  • Mean Rarity's cutie mark diamonds are a different, darker shade of blue, and their positions are reversed.
• The Starscream: Mean Twilight plots to steal the power of the Elements for herself and overthrow Chrysalis for being weak and inept. She almost succeeds.
• Sticky Fingers: Mean Rarity tries to claim anything and everything she sees for her own, even if it's something as meaningless as a rock, or a stick.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Mean Twilight was on the verge of defeating Chrysalis, and would have done so if it weren't for the rest of the Mean Six attacking the Tree and showing actions adverse to the elements, causing it to attack and kill them.
• Token Good Teammate: Mean Rainbow is the least mean of the group. Unlike the other five who are Psycho Rangers through and through, she is merely lazy and only follows the group without doing anything truly mean or evil. She's also the only one who does not mess with the real Mane Six in any way (along with Mean Fluttershy who does not meet the real Mane Six at all), nor does she take part in the attack on the Tree of Harmony in the end.
• Transflormation: They are created out of heartwood, a sample of each pony's hair, and pictures. After the Tree of Harmony destroys them, they turn into colored versions of the wood where they were formed.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Mean Twilight decides to split the team up to find the Elements faster while secretly plotting to betray Chrysalis, not knowing at said time, the actual Mane Six have split up as well. This causes the clones to intertwine with the real group in various situations, resulting in various troubles for their camping trip, leading to the actual ponies to hate each other for the episode.
• Villain Ball:
  • Mean Applejack stumbles upon Starlight, giving her the perfect opportunity to lead her to Chrysalis. Not long after, however, she insults Starlight over all the camping equipment Applejack gave her, driving her away — mere moments before Chrysalis would have come across them, to boot.
  • In general terms, several tend to act in pointlessly, often self-destructively evil ways for no good reason. Mean Applejack constantly makes up needless, barely believable lies regardless of whether she stands to gain anything from it, Mean Rarity is so obsessed with hoarding goods that she actively sabotages attempts to rescue her out of a belief that her rescuers want to steal her current hoard of junk, and Mean Fluttershy viciously antagonizes every living thing she encounters seemingly for the sake of it alone. More often than not, their obsessive needs to indulge their particular vices act as the primary obstacles in their respective ways.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The log that was once Mean Twilight is seen in "Frenemies" as Chrysalis's Companion Cube, yet is never seen again after that episode.

Sludge

Debut: "Father Knows Beast"

Voiced by: Dave Pettitt

A fat dragon who arrives in Ponyville and claims to be Spike's father, but there's more to him than meets the eye.

---

• Appeal to Inherent Nature: After his trickery is revealed, he tries to defend himself by arguing that taking advantage of the gullible is just what dragons do. Smolder is prompt to call him out on this pretext.
• Bad Liar: Played with; while his story has several blatant holes in it, nobody bothers to probe further.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He seems polite and fatherly to Spike when he meets him, but is revealed later on to be a slob and a fake.
• Big Eater: May overlap with Sweet Tooth. He can scarf down multiple cupcakes and trays of desserts easily.
• Broken Pedestal: After spending the whole episode with Sludge father/son style, Spike soon loses all respect for him when he blabs that he's not even his real father after he tries to steal Spike's pillow.
• Captain Crash: First seen crash-landing in Ponyville like a meteor, leaving a literal impression (as Pinkie lampshades).
• Con Artist: Turns out to be one, lying about being Spike's dad so that he could live in the lap of luxury in Twilight's castle.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: When Spike asks why he was orphaned, Sludge finds himself spinning a long-winded tale explaining this. According to his story, he was absent because he was imprisoned by "scale collectors".
• Disappeared Dad: He claims he is Spike's long-lost father. He's not.
• Fat Bastard: The fattest dragon yet seen, and he's definitely not a nice guy.
• Hypocrite: He talks a good game about how dragons should live in harsh conditions, but all he wants is to live in luxury in Twilight's castle.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Makes one crucial mistake with his story, but it's subverted as no-one bothers to probe further.
  Spike: How'd you know I was a boy?
• It's All About Me: He's more interested in being comfortable and well-fed than anything else, including his son. When Spike falsely claims that he has found a cave for the two of them to live in, and that teaching him how a dragon would not live in the castle no longer matters, he blurts out "It matters to me!" before catching himself.
• Jerkass: To the point where even Smolder, the Jerk with a Heart of Gold of the students, finds him disgusting.
• Karma Houdini: Sludge never gets any comeuppance for lying and exploiting Spike; he even keeps the pillow he steals from Spike — though he is forced to abandon his newfound life of luxury and fend for himself in the wild again.
• Lazy Bum: He'll take any opportunity to mooch off others, even his own son. Or not. Rather, he's only pretending to be Spike's father to live a life of luxury.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He claims to be Spike's long-lost father. Ultimately subverted when it turns out he was lying in order to weasel his way into a comfortable life at Spike's expense.
• Manipulative Bastard: He plays to Spike's identity issues by pretending to be his father so he can live in luxury.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Prior to his debut, all dragons raised in the Dragon Lands (even the friendlier ones, like Ember and Smolder) were shown to be tough, independent, and self-sufficient. In contrast, Sludge is a fat Lazy Bum who prefers to lie around all day, being waited on by others.
• Mythology Gag: He shares a name with a minor villain from the G1 story "Quest of the Princess Ponies".
• Pet the Dog: While he was lying the whole time about being Spike's father, he does indulge Spike in taking part of all the activities Spike's wanted to do with his father.
• Rage Quit: After Smolder twice shuts down his claims that he just did what any other dragon would do, he angrily says "I don't need this", and decides to leave rather than argue the point further.
• Shout-Out: He also shares his name with a Dinobot from the G1 Transformers cartoon.
• The Sociopath: He cares about nobody but himself, and he doesn't show any remorse in lying to the orphaned Spike that he's his father and exploiting him as a servant while he lives in luxury in the castle. One example is when he throws a bathtub out the window with Starlight in it, especially when he didn't know beforehand Starlight could catch herself.
• Technicolor Fire: Like many other dragons, his fire comes in a specific color — in his case, hot magenta with a yellow core.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Spike and his friends help Sludge recover after he crashes in Ponyville, and Sludge thanks them by lying about being Spike's father as soon as he learns that Spike was raised by ponies and proceeds to mooch off of Spike's hospitality.
• Unreliable Expositor: In Sludge's story, he paints himself as a loving husband and father who flew thousands of miles to reunite with his wife, and even gives himself a Heroic Sacrifice. Given what we know about Sludge later, it's all painfully inaccurate.

---