Characters / Friendship Is Magic: Redeemed

Beware of massive spoilers!

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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

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These are characters that started off as villains or bullies, but through friendship and their own desire have managed to move away from their awful ways. Now they may still be a little rough around the edges and might even still be kind of jerks, but they are trying to be good and in the end will do the right thing.

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Universal Tropes

• Being Evil Sucks: To one extent or another they all find that staying evil/bad only results in their own misery or loneliness and the "benefits" are just not worth that, motivating them to change.
• Easily Forgiven: Several of them commit pretty atrocious deeds in their villainous run, but get accepted with maybe a small bit of lingering distrust at worst. In cases such as Discord, it is even lampshaded they did very little to deserve redemption. Downplayed with Sunset Shimmer, whose primary character arc revolves around feeling unworthy of the forgiveness she received from her new friends and still needing to earn the trust of those outside the group.
• Heel–Face Turn: The degree of their being heels vary, but all eventually wind up on the side of good. It is what defines this category, after all.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: In a series with shockingly heinous villains, they had something that made them less so then others, leaving their redemptions on the table.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Just because they're no longer evil doesn't mean that they are goody-goodies. Discord still likes his trickery, Trixie is still a braggart, Sunset is still a hothead, etc. As Spike puts it, "he (Discord) may be reformed but he's not that reformed".
• Rousseau Was Right: Their reformations have set a high bar for how much cruelty one can redeem themselves of.

Discord

See Discord

Gilda the Griffon

"This is your idea of a good time? I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life!"

Debut: "Griffon the Brush Off"

Voiced by: Marÿke Hendrikse^note according to these two tweets by Kelly Metzger^{Foreign VAs}Akeno Watanabe (Japanese)

A griffon and an old friend of Rainbow Dash's from flight camp. Rainbow Dash sees her as a Cool Big Sis, but Gilda thinks she's vastly superior to all the ponies save Rainbow and enjoys picking on them. She returns in Season 5's "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" when Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie visit the griffon kingdom.

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• Adaptation Name Change: The Hub's synopsis of "Griffon the Brush Off" refers to her as Grizelda; Lauren Faust says "her original name was Grizelda, but it didn't pass legal."
• Aerith and Bob: Gilda is friends with Rainbow Dash and trying to avoid Pinkie Pie.
• Alliterative Name: Although she's never referred to as "Gilda the Griffon" in-universe. This would have been even more true of her originally planned name "Grizelda". From what we hear in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", this appears to be true with all griffons, whose names all start with a "G".
• Alpha Bitch: She has elements of this trope, such as the bitchiness, though she's more tomboyish than most.
• Back for the Finale: She returns in the series finale as one of the members of The Cavalry.
• Badbutt: She's portrayed as being rougher than Rainbow Dash, but with an even heavier dose of Totally Radical and some copiously kid-friendly insults to go with it.
• Berserk Button: Becomes visibly incensed whenever anypony laughs at her, even in good fun.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Rainbow Dash thought Gilda was like her; brash and cocky but overall a Nice Girl. She legitimately was one before she Took a Level in Jerkass, but they patched up that relationship.
• Break the Haughty: Pinkie Pie's party eventually does this to her, thanks to her coincidentally triggering all of Rainbow Dash's pranks.
• Broken Pedestal: To Rainbow Dash. She shouldn't have bullied Rainbow's other friends behind her back in the first place. The pedestal is rebuilt after she (Gilda) helps save her and Pinkie's lives.
• The Bully: Shunning Pinkie Pie and driving Fluttershy to tears.
• The Bus Came Back: She reappears in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" in Season 5.
• The Cameo:
  • She is briefly seen in a Flashback during "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks", giving Gabby a letter to deliver to Rainbow Dash.
  • She also appears during Gallus's flashback in "The Hearth's Warming Club", taking part in the griffons' Blue Moon Festival.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Sees Pinkie Pie as a third wheel in her relationship with Rainbow Dash and tries driving her off.
• Deadpan Snarker: In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" she's evolved into this, with a dash of Silent Snarker.
• Evil Counterpart: To her old flight school friend Rainbow Dash, who has her arrogance and brashness without being a jackass all the time. She got better.
• Fantastic Racism: She considers ponies in general to be "lame". Could also count as a Stealth Pun, as Greek Mythology states that griffins and horses are natural enemies. She gets better in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone".
• Fire-Forged Friends: While minor, the events in the Abysmal Abyss have made her this with Pinkie Pie and helped rekindle her friendship with Rainbow Dash.
• Freudian Excuse: Played with. "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" reveals she was bullied as a kid in flight camp before Rainbow Dash became her friend to protect her from bullies. However, that's not the reason she's a grump now; the entire griffon species has an excuse that their once proud and prosperous kingdom has become a dump.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", she's torn between risking Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's lives, or trying to retrieve an ancient relic of the griffons. Of course, she saves the ponies, letting the idol fall.
• Hero of Another Story: "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" ends with her being tasked with introducing friendship to the griffon species, all by herself.
• Humiliation Conga: During the party at the end of "Griffon the Brush-Off", she gets pranked repeatedly. Rainbow Dash claims this wasn't on purpose, but just "dumb luck" that Gilda set them all off.
• Interspecies Friendship: Gilda, a Griffon, is friends with Rainbow Dash, a Pegasus, at least until they had a falling out at the end of "Griffon the Brush Off". They reconcile their friendship during the events of "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone".
• Jerkass: Rude, shunning, drives ponies to tears, etc.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", Pinkie Pie picks up there really is a decent griffon underneath all the cynicism and snark.
• Kick the Dog: Take your pick: trying to sabotage Pinkie's friendship with Rainbow, scaring Granny Smith out of her wits, or bullying Fluttershy until she cried. For Pinkie Pie herself, it's the last one. She was the victim of the first and witnessed the other two.
• The Lad-ette: One thing she has in common with Rainbow is tomboyish-ness.
• Genre Motif\Leitmotif: Gilda's entrance and establishing character moments are backed with hair metal-esque guitar chords.
• Lethal Chef: Her griffon scones are hard as rocks, even causing Pinkie Pie to lose some teeth when she eats one. A little baking powder fixed that, though.
• Meaningful Name: The name Gilda means "gilded" or "golden". This may not seem like much until you remember the old phrase "All that glitters isn't gold", which hits Genius Bonus territory when you remember that during her entrance, Gilda seemed like a cool and awesome friend, but turned out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing which proves the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover". However, in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", she proves she does have a Hidden Heart of Gold.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: She's half Feathered Fiend and half Panthera Awesome.
  Pinkie Pie: What's a griffon?
  Rainbow Dash: She's half eagle, half lion.
  Gilda: And AAAAAALL awesome!.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Bizarrely, Gilda seems to be friendlier than most griffons, if only to a very minor degree; she was capable of befriending an outsider (Rainbow Dash), even if that friendship temporarily went sour due to her possessiveness, and in Griffonstone, she actually shows some concern for her fellow griffons, such as Grandpa Gruff. When Pinkie and Dash leave Griffonstone, they trust her enough to leave the task of teaching the other griffons friendship to her.
• Noisy Nature: She can both screech like a red-tailed hawk and roar like a lion.
• Our Gryphons Are Different: With a Stealth Pun made based on other depictions of griffons: Granny Smith mistakes Gilda's tail for a snake.
• The Prankster: Unlike Pinkie and Rainbow, she has no reservations about scaring others for her own amusement. Of course, as the saying goes, she can dish it out but she can't take it.
• Prehensile Tail: While taking a bite out of an apple she stole, the hair on her tail grips it like she had an extra pair of fingers hidden under them.
• Pride: She doesn't hold back on how awesome and superior she thinks she is compared to the ponies. This fits with Animal Stereotypes common to both eagles and lions; being apex predators associated with royalty, they tend to have pride and a superiority complex as Fatal Flaw.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • To Rainbow Dash. While both are athletic show-offs and proud of it, Gilda is a complete Jerkass to everypony she encounters except Rainbow Dash. While Rainbow ends up backing off of pranking Fluttershy when she realizes Fluttershy would take it the wrong way, Gilda yells at the poor pony just for bumping into her. Finally, while Rainbow Dash is perfectly happy with making new friends, Gilda only cares about Rainbow and looks down on everypony else.
  • Also to Pinkie Pie, considering they both like sweets, playing pranks, and hanging out with Rainbow Dash. The difference is that Pinkie Pie pranks others out of fun and to share a laugh with others, while Gilda does it to push others around. Furthermore, like Pinkie, she bakes for a living.
• Shrinking Violet: She was very withdrawn when she was younger.
• Smug Snake: Her expressions when she ditches Pinkie Pie and flies up into the sky to avoid her. Clearly she has no idea who she's dealing with.
• Spell My Name With An S: Her episode cemented the fact that her species is spelled "griffon" within the franchise, instead of "griffin" or "gryphon".
• Super-Speed: This is the only way she could keep up with Rainbow Dash.
• Sweet Tooth: "Vanilla lemon drops! Don't mind if I do!"
• Tomboy: Like Rainbow Dash she is competitive in sports and has a crude/cocky demeanor.
• Tomboyness Upgrade: A flashback in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" shows that she used to be a Shrinking Violet like Fluttershy. In the present day, she's The Lad-ette like Rainbow Dash.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Although still evidently a jerk, her first reappearance in about four seasons shows that underneath her cynicism and snark, she is actually a decent person- to the point where she risked her life and sacrificed the Idol of Boreas to save Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie from falling to their deaths.
• Toothy Bird: When the expression requires it, she not only gains teeth but also lips that extend far beyond her beak.
• Totally Radical: Talks like this. For example, anyone who isn't cool in her book is called a "lame-o", "dweeb" or "doofus". Though this is gone in her second appearance.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When she first arrived in Junior Speedsters flight school, she was very shy and withdrawn. Rainbow Dash standing up for her changed that.
• Vegetarian Carnivore: A weird example; Gilda's a mix of two animals that are known for being carnivores, and yet she has a taste for apples and vanilla lemon drops.
• We Used to Be Friends: She and Rainbow Dash by the end of her first appearance. This also convinces Gilda to help Rainbow in her second appearance. "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" shows that she and Rainbow have been sending each other letters since then, having fully rekindled their friendship.
• When She Smiles: Her genuine smiles when she's finally rekindled her friendship with Rainbow are surprisingly adorable.
• X-Ray Sparks: When she gets shocked by Pinkie's joy buzzer at the party.

Trixie

Debut: "Boast Busters"

Voiced by: Kathleen Barr ^note  Foreign VAs: Ryōka Yuzuki [Season 1], Erina Okuno [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)

The Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon is a blue unicorn who boasts about and greatly exaggerates her magical powers. Initially arriving in Ponyville as a traveling showmare, she was embarassed when Twilight defeated a monster Trixie was powerless before, when earlier she boasted she was famous for defeating one. Trixie returned in "Magic Duel", using an Amplifier Artifact called the Alicorn Amulet to boost her magic so she could challenge Twilight on more equal footing, but she was thwarted.

In Season 6, Trixie became friends with Starlight Glimmer and was moved up to a semi-recurring role. She and Twilight still really don't get along.

She also has an Equestria Girls counterpart; tropes specific to this character go to her dedicated entry.

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• Adaptation Name Change: At one point, the two parts of her name seemed to be separate names, as everything but the toy line only referred to her as Trixie while the toy line only referred to her as Lulamoon. Hasbro rectified this by having subsequent toy releases refer to her as Trixie Lulamoon.
• Adaptational Badass: The Gameloft adaption show Trixie's gradually developing magic skills lead her to becoming a reliable hero; even though she still has a tendency to cause problems, she becomes an expert at finding solutions too. It reaches the point where during the Crowns and Chaos story event, when the leaders of Equestria are accidentally imbued with Discord's chaos magic causing Cozy Glow and Chrysalis to break out of their imprisonment, Trixie figures out the root of the problem and is working on a solution long before Twilight does.
• Adaptational Skill: The Gameloft adaption follows through on her otherwise briefly-mentioned magic training in the series. For all of her showboating and lack of unicorn magic skill herself, Trixie develops a strong knowledge of many different types of magic present in Equestria. This includes Tirek's centaur magic and Discord's chaos magic, which becomes vital when Queen Chrysalis and Cozy Glow break out of their imprisonment.
• The Adjectival Superhero: She's "The Great and Powerful" Trixie.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The European version of her Wave 4 collector card◊ reveals that she "has a favourite star!" (Her other out-of-show descriptions don't reveal anything that isn't apparent from her appearance in "Boast Busters".)
  • It's stated by Lauren Faust herself that Trixie once attended the School for Gifted Unicorns, just like Twilight and Sunset did.
  • The Ultimate Guide book confirms that Jack Pot, the Las Pegasus stage magician from "Grannies Gone Wild", is Trixie's father.
• All There in the Script:
  • Lulamoon, the second part of her name, has only been used by the toy line. It was eventually added to her counterpart's name in the credits of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks
  • Her title of "the Magnificant" has only been used by the Gameloft app.
• Always Someone Better: Her view on Twilight Sparkle, after the Ursa Minor incident.
• Anti-Hero: Her Season Six-onward appearances have her in this role: she (mostly) means well and cares for her friends, especially Starlight, but she's still vain, self-centered, and often oblivious to how her actions affect others.
• Anti-Villain: In "Boast Busters", she doesn't do anything villainous — even if she is an arrogant show-off. In "Magic Duel", most of her wrongdoings are the amulet's fault.
• Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Believes this wholeheartedly, and says so word-for-word. In practice, though, she doesn't actually outdo anypony, just humiliate them with their own tricks.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Or Arrogant Magician Girl in her case. She brazenly shows off her magic tricks and dares anyone to do better than her. Justified as she is a show pony and "Challenge Acts" have been used by many magicians in Real Life.
• Assumed Win: In "A Horse Shoe In", Trixie is convinced that the vice-headmare tryouts are just a "formality", and that she'll get the position no matter what.
• Attention Whore: As her career path should be a hint to, Trixie loves attention and showing off.
• Ax-Crazy: While under the influence of the Alicorn amulet and while enslaving Ponyville.
• Badass Boast: Such as her Ursa Major victory.
• Becoming the Boast: While she never actually beats an Ursa Major, she does eventually become a national hero with a feat comparably as impressive (helping defeat Queen Chrysalis).
• Becoming the Mask: She originally befriended Starlight as a means of one-upping Twilight, but quickly developed genuine feelings of friendship for her.
• Best Friend: Starlight's, as Trixie was the first proper friend she made on her own outside of the Mane Six (who were really more acquaintances through Twilight), and their close friendship is the focus of several episodes. Twilight is comically jealous of this (although part of it comes from a not unjustified worry that Trixie might be a bad influence on Starlight).
• Brainwash Residue: It takes a short while for the Alicorn Amulet's corruption to wear off after it's been removed, but afterwards she does change for the better.
• Break the Haughty: As a result of Twilight showing her up in "Boast Busters" she became a laughing stock, couldn't make a living with her performance, and had to work on a rock farm. Initially this made her furious at Twilight; eventually she accepts her humble pie and becomes a nicer pony.
• Breakout Character:
  • She began as a one-shot Villain of the Week, but received a massive amount of fan attention and got a sequel episode in Season 3.^note For nothing to do with the fan reception; the premise for "Magic Duel" was submitted not long after "Boast Busters" aired, and it just took until Season 3 to get it to air. Season 6 saw her come back to become friends with Starlight Glimmer, netting her a major role for the season finale, and she was bumped up to supporting cast from Season 7 on.
  • In the comic books, she's made repeated cameos and been the focus of several story arcs.
  • Her human counterpart in the Equestria Girls series has been a recurring supporting character since it began.
  • In the Gameloft adaption, she has been promoted to the de facto main character, appearing as the lead in nearly every game-exclusive story.
• Buffy Speak:
  • In "Magic Duel". After taking what she believes is a more powerful artifact than the Alicorn Amulet, she tells the citizens of Ponyville to "Gaze upon an ever 'Greater and Powerful-er' Trixie!"
  • After Starlight lists her positive qualities, Trixie refers to herself as "Trixie the Great and Powerful Advice Giver, Problem Talk-Through-er, and Student Care-About-er!".
• The Bully: Initially starts out as this by embarrassing other ponies, and Magic Duel makes her even worse when she's under the corruption of the Alicorn Amulet. She mellows out considerably at the end of the episode and her later appearances show it stuck.
• Bullying a Dragon: Despite being a "reformed" villain she still has a habit of causing problems and being rude to others who are clearly stronger than her.
  • In "No Second Prances" she clearly causes Twilight a very hard time just for the heck of it. This is one of the four main royal figures in the country and one of the most powerful ponies alive; she only got off easy because this is Twilight we're talking about. She even continues to do this in "To Where and Back Again – Part 1" where she is clearly happy Starlight wanted her to come to her old village with her rather than Twilight.
  • During the Season 6 finale, "To Where and Back Again – Part 2" she engages with a lot of Snark-to-Snark Combat with Mad God Discord, insulting his intelligence and saying he has an annoying personality.
  • Though unintentional, her attitude to not care about the problems she causes and not even apologize for them angers Starlight in "All Bottled Up".
• The Caligula: She becomes this in "Magic Duel" under the corrupting influence of the Alicorn Amulet. You know she's far gone when she stops trusting wheels.
• The Cameo:
  • She makes a brief appearance in the beginning of the movie setting off fireworks during the song "We Got This Together" with Starlight Glimmer in the background, and playing with her during the end credits.
  • She also briefly appears at the beginning of the Rainbow Roadtrip special, walking through Ponyville market with Starlight.
• Cartesian Karma: The sole truly evil things Trixie has ever done were while she was under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet, which turned her into a megalomaniac. Otherwise, she's just a rather harmless braggart. Nonetheless, the inhabitants of Ponyville (including Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship herself) were still distrustful of her in her next appearance, "No Second Prances", despite the regrets she expressed. Admittedly, they likely also know that Trixie intentionally saved up for the amulet with the express purpose of humiliating Twilight, giving them reason to dislike her outside of the corruption the amulet later caused. There is also the fact that before the amulet, her act consisted of her challenging others to contests of talents and rather than beat them, she just uses their tricks against them to humiliate them while also building herself up. She may have regretted her actions under the amulet, but she doesn't seem remorseful for her obnoxious attitude and performance. As Twilight lampshaded when called out on it by Starlight, she did forgive her, but that doesn't mean she has to put up with her being an infuriating egomaniac.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Her appearance in "No Second Prances" sets her up to take the stage as one of the Main Characters in "To Where and Back Again".
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Her natural magic aura is pink, but the Alicorn Amulet makes it turn red. She's notable for being one of the few ponies whose color isn't somewhere on their bodies. It took a while for the show to nail down the Color-Coded Wizardry. At first, all unicorns had a light pink glow. Since she was one of those ponies, they kept it.
• Commonality Connection:
  • With Starlight Glimmer, both of them being reformed antagonists who struggle to make friends because they are judged on what they did in the past and they share a similar snarky, playful sense of humour.
  • She quickly connects with Sunburst in "Uncommon Bond", due to a shared love for stage magic.
• Commuting on a Bus: An inversion. Even though she's been promoted to recurring character, Trixie is still a travelling showmare who goes all over Equestria performing out of her wagon. Thus, while she's in-town for when she has to appear in an episode, Trixie usually doesn't appear very often otherwise and can be presumed to be out on the road.
• Companion Cube: "Road to Friendship" reveals that she sees her wagon as this, calling it her "only friend on the dark and lonely nights on the road", and is horrified when Starlight trades it away behind her back.
• Cowardly Lion: The Season 6 finale reveals that Trixie very easily panics when dealing with "princess-level" threats, though it doesn't stop her from trying when she is one of the ponies left to do something.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • At the receiving end against the Ursa Minor.
  • Delivers this in the beginning of "Magic Duel", and is on the receiving end of one at the end of the episode.
• Cute Witch: Dresses the part for her stage act with a hat and cloak.
• Determinator: Not when it comes to external threats, but when it comes to her stage magic, she refuses to give up on a new trick, even if her life is on the line. Shown in "No Second Prances" when she refuses to give up the Moonshot Manticore Mouthdive despite not having Starlight to save her, and in Trixie and the Razzle-Dazzle Ruse when she refuses to give up on a stunt despite a curse slowly turning her body into a statue.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu??: In "To Where and Back Again", she shows no qualms over insulting Discord himself, even before his powers are negated by Chrysalis's throne.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: When Trixie reveals that she originally only made friends with Starlight to get back at Twilight, she tries to recover, saying that she really felt a genuine connection after using Starlight — and then adding in that "beating Twilight is just a bonus!" She then recognizes that she's only making herself sound worse.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Trixie spends two-thirds of "A Horse Show In" totally convinced that she's going to get the Vice-Headmare job no matter what, and that Starlight's other interviews are just a formality. Even when Starlight says "If I had to pick a Vice-Headmare right now, it wouldn't be you," Trixie still doesn't get it.
• Driven by Envy: In "No Second Prances", she confesses to Starlight that she's jealous of Twilight for being better than her. In fact, that was the initial reason she befriended Starlight, to show up Twilight (though she does develop genuine feelings of friendship for her).
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Her Alicorn Amulet increases her power, but also makes the user Drunk with Power.
• Easily Forgiven: Twilight Sparkle forgives her for her heinous actions at the end of "Magic Duel". Granted, she was under the influence of a corrupted artifact, but why would she use such a dangerous item in the first place? Though this is subverted somewhat in "No Second Prances", as Twilight tries to stop Starlight from being friends with Trixie because she doesn't trust the latter not to be a bad influence. Both ponies call her out on this.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Once she's free from the Alicorn Amulet, she's truly remorseful of how badly she treated everypony while under its influence.
  • Even under the Amulet's influence, she's willing to let Fluttershy's beavers leave the barrier freely, despite her having no reason to do so.
• Evil Counterpart: Presented as one to Twilight. Trixie has magical powers but exaggerates and boasts to prop up her ego, while Twilight has superior powers but is humble and doesn't want to show off. It gets more prominent when she gets the Alicorn Amulet, when she gains power great enough to outdo Twilight and uses it to conquer Ponyville and enslave Twilight's friends. The "Reflections" arc in the comics show that in a Mirror Universe, it was Trixie, not Twilight, who became an alicorn princess.
• Evil Is Hammy: She has a very high strung and volatile personality.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: She is warned the Alicorn Amulet is dangerous, but takes it anyway to increase her power. The result is it corrupting her mind and turning her from (reasonably) bitter to a sociopathic trigger-happy tyrant.
• Evil Laugh: She does this (while corrupted by the amulet) when she wins a magic duel to Twilight.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: She claims to have defeated an Ursa Major, but can only mildly annoy an Ursa Minor.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: After her humiliation in Ponyville, she has to temporarily become a rock farmer to make ends meet.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Trixie and Discord constantly get on each others nerves in "To Where and Back Again", even while they are working together to help rescue the Royal Family and Mane Six. By the end of the journey, they are on (somewhat) better terms and seem to have at least grudging respect for one another.
• Fluffy the Terrible: You think that "Trixie", being a cute name as it is, would mean that she's a nice pony? You'll be wrong.
• Foreshadowing: The Gameloft commercial showcased a less antagonistic Trixie before she reformed and joined the supporting cast.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • After being humiliated by Twilight, Trixie was considered a laughing stock around Equestria. This prompted her to return to Ponyville later to get revenge for ruining her life (even though it was her own fault to begin with). The Alicorn Amulet also makes its user go Drunk on the Dark Side, turning her from bitter to cruel.
  • She admits to being jealous of Twilight's magical power in "No Second Prances", and eventually that she befriended Starlight Glimmer and got the idea of one-upping Twilight.
• Friendless Background: If her remark in "No Second Prances" regarding Starlight being her "first friend" is to be believed, Trixie has never known true friendship before.
• Friend to All Children:
  • Inverted. The children seem to like her, but she isn't nice to them.
  • Played straight in the IDW comics, with Trixie being much nicer than before and even starting an Inter Generational Friendship with Babs Seed.
  • Through Character Development, it's eventually Played Straight: Thought she bombed the audition for the Co-Headmaster position in "A Horse Shoe-In", it's revealed she empathizes with the students the most out of all the candidates, and she's given Starlight's former job as Student Counselor once Starlight becomes headmaster. Come the Time Skip, she seems to have taken quite well to the position.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Thanks to the Alicorn Amulet, she goes from a stage magician barely powerful enough to annoy an Ursa Minor to a near-unstoppable tyrant who defeats Twilight and enslaves Ponyville.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She requires very little provocation to fly off the handle.
• Having a Blast: She has the ability to summon fireworks, which seems to be one of her few unique skills.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Depending on the Writer, other pieces of expanded universe material suggest that Trixie might not be completely reformed. The Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell chapter book has her pulling pranks and scamming ponies alongside Gilda, and in Issue #9 of the IDW series she puts on a puppet show version of the Ursa Minor incident, except that it glorifies her and demonizes the Mane Six. She's back at it again in "No Second Prances" where she lambasts Twilight Sparkle for failing to forgive her, before acting highly antagonistically and proving Twilight right to do so with some very underhanded motives. She eventually learns her lesson and it sticks this time.
• Hero of Another Story: Has become this in the comics post-Heel–Face Turn. It's clear she goes around Equestria on her own adventures and even helps out ponies, crossing paths with the Mane Six here and there for a team-up.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Starlight Glimmer is her best friend, "great and powerful assistant" and otherwise the most important pony in her life. Despite her intense fear of changelings, she'll give one the benefit of the doubt if Starlight vouches for them.
• Hidden Depths: During the chaos of her debut episode, instead of freaking out and running away when the Ursa shows up, she is ready to at least attempt to live up to her exaggerations on stage.
• Humble Pie: What she doles out to those who challenge her claims by taking whatever task they challenged her with and twisting it to her own ends. She staunchly refuses to eat the piece that's served up to her after Twilight deals with the Ursa Minor. When Twilight outwits and tricks her in "Magic Duel", Trixie gets served another piece and this one takes.
• Incompletely Trained: She's a very skilled showmare with some magical knowledge, but it turns out her practical training in using magic is lacking. Starlight Glimmer's lessons show she always had a lot of magical potential, she just needed training she'd lacked access to.
• Iconic Outfit: Her magician's cloak and hat.
• I Gave My Word: In "Student Counsel" Trixie promises Maud that she and Starlight will bake a cake for her "Spring Sols-tastic" party. When an overworked Starlight suggests just buying one, Trixie refuses on these grounds.
  Trixie: We promised to make a cake, not buy a cake, and the Great and Powerful Trixie keeps her promises!
• Ignored Epiphany: Downplayed example, but Trixie states in "To Where and Back Again – Part 1" that the trick to mistakes you make is to forget about them and move on. While this is good advice for some things it also means she never learns from the mistakes she makes.
• Implausible Deniability: She invokes this in "A Horse Shoe In" when Starlight goes to her wagon to apologize.
  Starlight Glimmer: Trixie? I know you're in there.
  Trixie: Well, you're wrong!
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Her constant boasting and reliance on practical tricks is to cover up that she has little talent with real magic, especially compared to ponies like Twilight and Starlight.
• Innocently Insensitive: In "All Bottled Up" she keeps riling Starlight up without realizing it.
• Insane Troll Logic: Doesn't trust wheels after taking over Ponyville during her season 3 return. This is one of the signs that the Alicorn Amulet is driving her mad.
• In-Series Nickname: Starlight Glimmer calls her "Trix".
• Insistent Terminology: She prefers to be called "The Great and Powerful Trixie" at all times.
• Insufferable Genius: Trixie is a genuinely talented showmare and magician, and when she puts her mind to it she's been able to master higher-level magics including transmutation and teleporting large objects great distances. The problem is that she won't shut up about how amazing she is and grossly exaggerates her capabilities.
• In the Hood: At the beginning of "Magic Duel" to avoid attention.
• Invocation: After getting magic lessons from Starlight in Season 7, she has a tendency to shout the spell she does (or tries to do). After learning a transformation spell she shouts "Teacup! Teacup! Teacup!" when turning things into teacups, and when trying to cast a teleportation spell in "To Change a Changeling", she shouts "Teleportation spell, go!"
  Trixie: Teleportation spell, go! Teleportation spell, go! [gasps] Teleportation spell—!
  Starlight Glimmer: Ugh! Why do you keep doing that? You know it doesn't work that way.
  Trixie: I know, but this is my process!
• Irony:
  • Her claims of being the most powerful unicorn who ever lived are meant to be painted as extreme narcissism and boasting, but for a brief period, thanks to the artifact, she might very well have been in the running.
  • She loses to Twilight in her rematch thanks to trickery and sleight of hoof, which is supposed to be her specialty.
  • Trixie initially played Unknown Rival to Twilight during her villainous run, who was about the only pony who didn't want to show her up for being narcissistic. Following her Heel–Face Turn and befriending Starlight Glimmer, Twilight is her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis and finds Trixie's boastfulness most insufferable out of anyone (though they manage to be far more friendly with each other starting from season 7).
  • It turns out she actually is a very powerful unicorn capable of high-level magic, even if she's not as strong as she boasted she was; she just needed a proper teacher.
• It's All About Me: The reason why she likes to calls herself "Great and Powerful". She gradually becomes more selfless following her Heel–Face Turn (although she still has her moments of self-centeredness).
• Jerkass: How well she rose to the challenges of other ponies is debatable; the thing she definitely did was humiliate anyone that talked back at her while she was boasting. The Alicorn Amulet turns it up.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Twice in "A Horse Shoe In".
  • Trixie gets into an argument with Grandpa Gruff over his apathy towards Gallus's development, with Trixie accusing him of being an unfit guardian and not caring about Gallus. This is lampshaded by Starlight being glad Trixie stood up for Gallus (and tacitly agreeing) but taking issue with how Trixie did it (mainly, she was worried about a potential vice-headmare getting into arguments with parents/guardians).
  • After Trixie summons the flash bees, Starlight blows up at Trixie about how her performance during the interview process wasn't even acceptable, let alone exceptional. She even calls Trixie incompetent and tells her that there's no way she'd ever be vice-headmare. While it is harsh, Trixie admits that she wasn't a good candidate when Starlight goes to Trixie's wagon.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Following her reformation and especially her promotion to recurring character. Trixie is still arrogant, selfish, and boastful, but she doesn't actively cause trouble anymore and will try to fix things and apologize when she does so without realizing it. She also demonstrates that in her own ways she's a good and caring pony.
• Juggling Dangerously: Downplayed in "A Horse Shoe In"; as she and Starlight discuss the qualities of a vice-headmare inside her wagon, Trixie is juggling with three of her smoke bombs. Naturally, she ends up dropping them, which results in a cloud of smoke that transition to the next scene.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • In her debut appearance. She's a little too eager to humiliate Twilight, who even Trixie's defenders admit wasn't doing anything wrong, and takes pleasure in humiliating Applejack and Rarity, who only defend their friends.
  • Exaggerated when she's influenced by the Alicorn Amulet which turns her into a sociopath. Once it's removed and has time to wear off, she feels terrible and helps Twilight with her performance out of gratitude.
  • "All Bottled Up" indicates that Trixie doesn't even realize how annoying she is, or the impact of her actions on others.
  • "A Horse Shoe-In" suggests that Trixie is finally growing out of this; she talks Starlight through her problems and helps her finally pick out a Vice-Headmare, and stands up for Gallus when Grandpa Gruff disparages him. It's enough that Starlight promotes her to the new guidance counselor of the School of Friendship.
• Large Ham: Justified, as she is a show pony. Even after she makes a Heel–Face Turn and is genuinely apologizing for her actions, her presence is still larger than life.
• Lethal Chef: In "Student Counsel", the cake that she and Starlight bake for Maud's party is pointy, jagged, crooked and hard enough for the metal utensils to bend on contact. Sunburst points out that the cake isn't supposed to be sharp.
• Lovable Coward: Though normally full of herself, she goes to pieces in the face of actual danger. Notably this doesn't stop her trying to confront it... despite looking ready to wet herself the entire time. In "To Where and Back Again", from the moment the changeling threat is revealed, she spends most of the two-parter shaking, screaming, hyperventilating or outright panicking. She still manages to demonstrate plenty of courage when it is really needed, however.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: She usually calls herself "the Great and Powerful" but she occasionally substitutes for "Great and Apologetic" or "Great and Unscareable".
• Magicians Are Wizards: All Unicorns have some degree of magic, but Trixie augments hers in her stage act with fireworks and smoke bombs.
• The Magic Touch: In Trixie and the Razzle-Dazzle Ruse, she gets the ability to turn anything she touches into glowpaz, a rare and incredibly valuable gem after being accidentally cursed by Rarity.
• The Magnificent: She's more than happy to tell you she's the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie! The Gameloft app also literally calls her the Magnificant.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The name "Trixie" means "bringer of joy", and she is first and foremost an entertainer.
  • "Trixie" is also a shortened version of the name "Beatrix", which means "voyager" or "traveler" — fitting for a traveling showpony.
  • "Trixie" sounds like "tricksy", meaning devious. Plus her specialty is performing tricks.
  • The name "Lulamoon" references her cutie mark, which includes magic sparkles in a shape resembling that of a crescent moon.
• Miles Gloriosus: Trixie is legitimately talented, but not nearly to the degree she claims. She claims to be mighty enough to defeat an Ursa Major, and when Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity challenge her to a duel, she defeats them by interfering with their own tricks rather than by displaying superior skill. When Snips and Snails lead an Ursa into Ponyville, Trixie runs away, and only fights back when urged to by her adoring fans. She fails miserably, forcing her to admit that all of her amazing tales were just lies to make her look more important.
• Mugging the Monster: When the crowd doesn't respond to her open challenge, the first pony she tries to pick a fight with is Twilight Sparkle. The only reason Trixie doesn't get her flank handed to her on the spot is because, again, it's Twilight Sparkle.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After the Alicorn Amulet is removed and its corruption wears off, she shows genuine remorse for her behavior and apologizes to Twilight.
  • In "No Second Prances", Trixie befriends Starlight Glimmer as a way of trying to beat Twilight at something, but genuinely likes Starlight for herself. When Starlight finds out about Trixie's ulterior motives, she runs out in tears and Trixie feels so guilty she sheds Tears of Remorse.
• Mystical High Collar: She wears a robe with one as part of her magic act.
• Mystical White Hair: Trixie has this sort of hair, though with shades of light blue and it goes with her motif as an amazing magician.
• Narcissist: She puts herself above others, exaggerates her talents ("I'm the Great and Powerful Trixie"), constantly lies to make herself sound better and often cheats (buying the amulet) to get what she wants. She has next to no shame about any of this, and being called on it will only make her Attention Whore harder.
• Never My Fault: In "Magic Duel", she lays the blame for her fall from grace entirely on Twilight's shoulders. While it's true Twilight showed her up, she only had to do it because Trixie falsely bragged to all and sundry about defeating an Ursa Major, leading two of her more impressionable fans to prove her "greatness" by bringing the Ursa Minor to Ponyville. But Trixie flat-out refuses to acknowledge that her own lies led to her undoing.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Trixie's eye design is unique compared to other ponies: her pupils have only one catchlight and her lashes protrude outward. Most other ponies have two catchlights (foals have three), and their lashes stay inward. However, starting with "To Where and Back Again", she is depicted with the traditional eye design.
• Noodle Incident: In "Ponyville Confidential", one of the school newspaper's headlines is "The Great and Powerful Trixie's Secrets Revealed!", but we don't get any details.
• No Sense of Direction: In "Student Counsel", Trixie guides her friends all around the Everfree Forest, but ends up leading them to right back where they started. Starlight even lampshades how they've gone in circles.
• Not Me This Time: In the Gameloft game story Crowns and Chaos, Trixie is the prime suspect when the rulers of Equestria are suddenly imbued with Discord's chaos magic, making them go berserk. Trixie insists she's done nothing wrong, despite her previous shows having similar disastrous consequences. She's right; the crystals Twilight had set up to prevent chaotic magic had instead absorbed Discord's chaos magic from outside and funneled it all into the Town Hall. Trixie is elated to be right.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Originally little more than a pompous buffoon in "Boast Busters", the Alicorn Amulet gives her the power and sociopathy to outmatch Twilight and take over all of Ponyville in "Magic Duel".
• Opinion Flip Flop: In "To Change a Changeling", she initially agrees wholeheartedly with Starlight's claim that Pharynx is a "lost cause". But after the newly-transformed Pharynx (who had overheard them talking) brings up Starlight's words in front of the whole hive, Trixie acts outraged, calling Starlight out for saying that.
• Parental Abandonment: Possibly. The unicorn magician Jack Pot in "Grannies Gone Wild" is strongly implied to be Trixie's father — which is confirmed in the Ultimate Guide and supervising director "Big Jim" Miller's Twitter. But Big Jim further implies that Jack Pot doesn't even know he has a daughter. Of course, how seriously this suggestion should be taken is another question entirely.
• Passing the Torch: Receives one from Starlight in "A Horse Shoe In" when she is made the new guidance counselor of the School of Friendship, as Starlight becomes the new principal prior to Twilight's coronation.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: In "To Where and Back Again – Part 1", she takes great delight in Starlight inviting her to go with her to her old village instead of Twilight. Trixie "praises" Twilight for her "wisdom", making sure to emphasize how she's Starlight's best friend.
• Pride: Why else would she give herself a title like "the Great and Powerful"? Her friendship with Starlight has curbed this somewhat, as she freely admits to her friend that she's made mistakes in the past (although this is inverted later on when Starlight later asks her to repeat this statement; Trixie initially mumbles it through gritted teeth, clearly not happy to say it again).
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Trixie appears in the opening to Season 8 in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment during the Establishing Shot of the School of Friendship.
• Punny Name: She is a magician, she does tricks. Tricksy. Trixie.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: When apologizing to Twilight at the end of "Magic Duel".
• Purple Is Powerful: Her eyes, hat, and cloak.
• Pyrrhic Victory: In "No Second Prances", Trixie manages to keep Starlight from going to Twilight's dinner with Celestia and cites it as a victory over Twilight since Starlight chose to help her instead. But after Starlight runs off crying, Trixie realizes that her "win" is meaningless if it cost her a genuine friendship.
• Reality Warper: When using the Alicorn Amulet, she becomes capable of advanced spells that all have varying effects on reality. Case in point, she uses a spell that conjures a cursor and computer trash bin to remove and delete Pinkie Pie's mouth. And in "All Bottled Up", Starlight helps her master a Transformation Ray, this time via her own power.
• Redemption Promotion: After her redemption, she shows she's much more competent, such as her Smoke Outs working correctly and even helps save the world. After getting magic training from Starlight, she shows some pretty impressive magic.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Alicorn Amulet in "Magic Duel" gives her red eyes. It also tints her magic red.
• Reformed, but Rejected: There's a minor version of this with the police chief as her actions in Ponyville (alongside finding the real Ostlerheimer Diamond in her hat) are what convince him Trixie is the jewel thief despite her attempts at showing that she has changed.
• Revenge: Her primary motivation in "Magic Duel".
• Robe and Wizard Hat: Her stage outfit, which she also wears in day-to-day life as often as not, consists of a light purple cape clasped with a gem and a broad-brimmed, pointed hat of the same color, both decorated with blue and yellow stars.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Her title from the Gameloft app, Trixie the Magnificant.
• Running Gag: Starting with her return in Season 6, her wagon has a bad habit of one of her smoke bombs going off inside it when it gets jostled.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In "A Horse Shoe-In", she tries to use her friendship with Starlight Glimmer to land a job as vice-headpony of the School of Friendship. It goes disastrously; said friendship allows her to last longer than she would/should have otherwise, but ultimately she cannot make up for her sheer incompetence and is denied the job.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • For Twilight Sparkle. Trixie's an utter braggart and flaunts her abilities, while Twilight treats them like no big deal and is quite friendly and afraid of looking like a showoff.
  • For Rarity, considering that they are both unicorns with a lot of pride and they have younger males that are interested in them. The difference is that Rarity is very nice to Spike on the whole, whereas Trixie was pretty mean to Snips and Snails after they had done what she wanted.
  • For Rainbow Dash, since they are both blue mares that are admired by children, love to show off their talents, and often let their ego get the best of them, but while Rainbow Dash is indeed a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Trixie is undoubtedly a Jerkass. This makes it rather surprising that two end up working quite well together in Friends Forever #6; it probably helps that Trixie, at this point, is much nicer than before and acts a bit more like Rainbow Dash, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • The positive aspect of the trope also comes into play: Trixie shows off her abilities to great personal satisfaction and wins a good deal of appreciation from her audience (presumably, before her ego got too big, her audience liked her even more). Twilight wants to use her magic and take pride in it, but is holding herself back for fear of being seen as a braggart. (The events of "Winter Wrap Up" may have given her a wrong impression of Ponyvillian expectations of magic.) At the end of the episode, Twilight learns that it is okay to indulge in her talents as long as she doesn't let it go to her head, thus embracing Trixie's positive qualities while rejecting the negative ones.
  • The IDW Comics take this a step further by having it revealed a Mirror Universe version of Trixie was the one who became a heroic Alicorn instead of Twilight, which implies Trixie could potentially have been just like Twilight if things had been different. Ironically enough, her mirror counterpart is the Element of Humility.
• Shared Family Quirks: Aside from sharing a strong resemblance with her father Jack Pot, both of them work as stage magicians, and both even use the same smoke-bomb escape tactic.
• Shock and Awe: She can create a raincloud to shock ponies with. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to subdue a humongous bear.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis:
  • To Twilight. It is one-sided initially, though after she starts to befriend Starlight Glimmer, Twilight's distrust (and mild own jealousy) towards Trixie comes into play. Still being an infuriating Smug Snake towards Twilight doesn't help either. Though this aspect of their interactions fade from season 7 onwards, with the two being genuinely friendly and respectful toward each other.
  • She enters into this dynamic with Discord in "To Where and Back Again", the two constantly bickering with and mocking each other.
• Small Name, Big Ego: All she can do are simple magic tricks and a few mean-spirited telekinetic pranks (at least until Starlight starts teaching her), but she talks down to everyone, including the Mane Six, who defeated Nightmare Moon and don't brag about it.
• Smoke Out: She loves making a departure by blowing up a smoke bomb, though initially it doesn't last long enough to completely cover her exit. When she tries it in "Magic Duel", she runs away and trips over herself. In "To Where and Back Again – Part 1", Trixie uses a smoke bomb to help her and Starlight Glimmer escape from Starlight's old village. This time, it works, as the smoke lingers longer and makes the ponies cough and clutch their eyes, so the two are far away by the time they recover. In "Part 2", she gets to put her smoke bombs to good use inside the hive, with Thorax's help, to confuse a changeling patrol.
• Smug Smiler: A condescending smirk to everyone.
• Smug Super: Doesn't hesitate to boast about her superior skills, regardless of the fact that she isn't as good as she claims. Exaggerated once she gets her hooves on the Alicorn Amulet.
• Spanner in the Works: Serves as one in the Nightmare Knights comic. She spends most of the comic being distracted from the actual mission, and Eris effortlessly beats her and throws her into the prison cell with Daybreaker and Tempest. With Tempest having just convinced Daybreaker to switch sides and the Shock Collar broken, Trixie creates illusionary shock collars, allowing them to get close to Eris without attacting suspicion.
• Stage Magician: Her profession. Her cutie mark is even a Magic Wand! Granted, genuine magic does exist in this world (and Trixie herself wields it), but few ponies make a magic act out of it. She backs it up with tools such as smoke bombs.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With her dad, Jack Pot (who's confirmed to be Trixie's dad in secondary sources). They could almost be gender-swapped clones, with their identical coloration and very similar manestyles. Most other parent-child pairs on the show don't look nearly this much alike.
• Taken for Granite: In Trixie and the Razzle-Dazzle Ruse, the Gem Hoof curse Rarity accidentally casts on her slowly transforms her into a glowpaz statue. By the end of the book, over half her body is solid before Starlight finally gets the cure to her.
• Talking in Your Sleep:
  • In "To Where and Back Again – Part 1", as Starlight Glimmer is trying to wake up Trixie to get her help, Trixie mutters "Yes, Princess Celestia, I'd love to perform for peanut butter crackers." This also counts as a Mythology Gag to My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.
  • Trixie is shown again talking in her sleep in "Road to Friendship". According to Starlight Glimmer, she's rehearsing her whole show all night long.
• Third-Person Person: Only when she wants to emphasize how great and powerful she is. Which is always. Perhaps the only challenge she wouldn't have been able to twist to make the other pony look bad would be referring to herself in the first-person.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: In a downplayed sense, she's the girly girl (concerned with her image, regularly attends spas, is often flamboyant in personality) to Twilight Sparkle's studious, snarky, unkempt, and combat-capable tomboy.
• Too Important to Walk: She pulls this on Snips and Snails, who have to drag her around on a carriage without wheels.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • After she became Starlight's best friend, she started giving Trixie some coaching on improving her magic. With a bit of practice, Trixie has been able to master transmutation and can teleport fairly large objects a great distance, including teleporting things to her from somewhere else. She's also implied to be working on self-teleportation, but hasn't gotten the hang of it yet.
  • In the IDW Comics that predated Season 6, she helped take part in defending Ponyville from the Nightmare Forces, assisted the Manehattan police in the capture of an evasive jewel thief, and in a Mirror Universe her counterpart became an alicorn princess.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: She goes from a stage magician who's ineffectual at backing up her claims in "Boast Busters", to a pure Jerkass who changes ponies For the Evulz in "Magic Duel". The result of the Alicorn Amulet both increasing her powers and corrupting her.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After her reformation, becoming friends with Starlight, and becoming a recurring character, Trixie has considerably mellowed out and become a lot more sociable. These days her boasting is framed as part of her Large Ham stage persona instead of being genuine, as she considerably tones down the ego when she isn't trying to look good in front of somepony.
• Too Much Alike: Humorously, she and Discord have a highly argumentative relationship due to their mutual massive egos and love of the spotlight.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Downplayed but still apt with her friendship with Starlight. Trixie can still be very selfish and abrasive at times and oblivious about it, and she can seriously tick Starlight off when she gets going, causing Starlight to lose her temper and lash out. While Starlight may bring out Trixie's good side, Trixie has an unfortunate knack for bringing out Starlight's bad side.
• Transformation Ray: After Starlight helps her master this spell in "All Bottled Up", she's clearly having a blast creating teacups left and right.
• Troll: In "No Second Prances", she turns some of Twilight's silverware into a sculpture of herself, just to annoy Twilight. On a grander scale, most of the episode's plot is a long con by Trixie to try and befriend Starlight Glimmer as a way to rub Twilight the wrong way. This, unfortunately, backfires spectacularly and any genuine goodwill Trixie was building up (as even she herself admits was there) with Starlight almost gets squandered by her ulterior motives.
• Trrrilling Rrrs: When she calls herself "The Great and Powerful TRRRRRRIXIE!!!"
• True Blue Femininity: Downplayed. Her coat is blue, but while she is not overly feminine as such, she can be quite flamboyant, vain, and concerned with her image sometimes.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • After Twilight saves her, and the rest of Ponyville, from an Ursa Minor, she just says Twilight will never be as good as her and runs off. When she returns in "Magic Duel" she blames Twilight for ruining her with the Ursa Minor incident, even though she lied about being able to beat it herself to make herself look better.
  • When she returns once again in "No Second Prances", she admits that she is still jealous of Twilight despite how she saved her from the Alicorn Amulet's corrupting effects. She even admits that the reason she made friends with Starlight Glimmer in the first place was to have her choose Trixie over Twilight so she could finally beat Twilight at something, until she actually became real friends with Starlight.
• Unknown Rival: Not "unknown", but she has this dynamic with Twilight after her Heel–Face Turn. It would be a stretch to say Twilight considers Trixie a friend, but she tolerates her most of the time and at worst considers her a nuisance. Trixie, on the other hoof, is still not quite over their old rivalry from their "Magic Duel" days and is still jealous of Twilight's superior abilities. In "To Change a Changeling", Starlight mentions that Trixie has "settled for being second-best", and she is quite annoyed by the idea.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Once she gets a proper magic teacher in Starlight, she shows capable of some very impressive and powerful magic, implying she actually is far more powerful than she seemed but lacked the knowledge to properly utilize it. Even after Starlight teaches her, she's is still inexperienced with her magic, especially in stressful situations.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: She clumsily runs off at the end of "Boast Busters", then returns in "Magic Duel" before leaving in much the same fashion, albeit on much better terms with the townsfolk.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Twilight seems to overpower her during their rematch in "Magic Duel".
  Trixie: This... this can't be!
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Starlight have become this as of Season 7. Her attitude and disrespect often get on Starlight's nerves to the point where Starlight tries to literally keep her anger bottled up to keep Trixie from knowing. They later begin to throw jabs at each other, like Trixie saying she could reform a rogue changeling faster if she worked alone, and Starlight saying Trixie has accepted she's second best compared to Twilight.
• Wandering Wizard: Downplayed since her magic really isn't used for anything other than entertainment, but Trixie is a magician who spends her days traveling and performing magic for a living. She eventually settles down in Ponyville, getting permanent employment at the School of Friendship and is seen running it with Starlight in the Distant Finale.
• Weak, but Skilled: Her magical ability is leagues behind Twilight's, but the tricks she can do are accomplished with a quickness and efficiency that Twilight usually only has on her better days and in routine telekinesis. The most likely explanation is that she has practice and finesse in everything she does already, while Twilight is still constantly pushing for a new, more challenging spell. The weak part of this can also be debated. Outside special cases like Twilight and Shining Armor, she's actually stronger than the average unicorn, and unlike the average unicorn, she has a wide array of tricks. Starlight Glimmer sincerely calls her the greatest magician in the world at least. She later gets actual training from Starlight, after which she manages some impressive magic, though she still needs practice with a few of her spells.
• Weather Manipulation: Her one genuine act of powerful magic is to summon a thundercloud above the Ursa. It is woefully underpowered and only serves to anger her target, but the act itself is a decent display of power.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Alicorn Amulet gives her tremendous power, but also turns her into a power-mad and insane despot. She has Snips and Snails pull her chariot without wheels because she doesn't trust wheels.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In "Magic Duel", we're shown the Ursa Minor Incident ruined her magic career and her life, forcing her to work on a rock farm just to make ends meet. This results in her trying to get revenge on those that she blames for it all. While it doesn't justify anything she did in the episode, she didn't do much to deserve that. She's also corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet into a tyrant. She's restored in the end and makes a Heel–Face Turn.
• Would Hurt a Child: When she returns to Ponyville, she torments a number of children, especially Snips and Snails (they were the ones who awoke the Ursa Minor, leading up to her fall) because she was corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet.
• You ALL Look Familiar: Multiple Trixies (all lacking cutie marks) appear in a shot from "Bridle Gossip" and "The Return of Harmony – Part 1".
• You Don't Look Like You:
  • The toy line and some of The Merch lack the peculiarity of her eyes.
  • Her brushable toy's box gives her an additional bit of mane in front of her horn.
  • Her molded toys and collector cards all depict her as a Palette Swap, usually of Rarity but in one toy's case of Twilight Sparkle.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon

The duo smugly judges your pathetic attempts to get a Cutie Mark.^note From left to right: Diamond Dazzle Tiara and Silver Spoon

Debut: "Call of the Cutie"

Diamond Tiara voiced by: Chantal Strand ^note  Foreign VAs: Yumi Uchiyama [Seasons 1-2], Rena Koba [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)
Silver Spoon voiced by: Shannon Chan-Kent ^note  Foreign VAs: Asami Yoshida [Seasons 1-2], Shinobu Izumi [Season 3-onwards] (Japanese)

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are Spoiled Brats who regularly tormented the Cutie Mark Crusaders, teasing them over not having their cutie marks yet.

---

Both

• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Diamond Tiara wears a diamond tiara, while Silver Spoon wears glasses and a pearl necklace.
• Alliterative Name: Both of them, though Diamond Dazzle Tiara has only been referred to as Diamond Tiara outside of the toy line.
• Arc Villain: They serve as this during the CMC's Story Arc to find their cutie marks. The CMC convincing Diamond Tiara to reform and realizing they found it more rewarding to help her than trying to get cutie marks is the epiphany that earns them their marks.
• Attention Whore: Both of them, Diamond Tiara especially.
• The Bully: They take pride in demeaning the CMC for their lack of cutie marks.
• Bully Turned Buddy: Diamond Tiara used to bully the Cutie Mark Crusaders for their lack of a Cutie Mark, and showed little mercy to the other classmates too. As of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", however, her cruel tendencies are revealed to have been born of her mother's emotional abuse. The Crusaders reach out to her after seeing what she goes through on a daily basis, and by the end of the episode, Diamond Tiara breaks out of her shell and openly considers the Crusaders to be her friends. During their brief appearance as adults in "The Last Problem", they are shown talking pleasantly with Twist, another of their former victims.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Both fillies do this while teasing the other fillies. Tiara gets a particularly cruel one after Apple Bloom trips at the party.
• Demoted to Extra: Despite patching things up with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara has made only a few voiceless appearances in the background during the sixth season and onward. Silver Spoon meanwhile has appeared even less, showing up for all of two seconds throughout the same season. It's especially odd since Diamond Tiara's parents have both continued to make speaking appearances in the show while she's remained silent. ^note  To make it more odd, Chantal Strand also voices Diamond Tiara's mother. During Season 8, Silver Spoon makes a brief cameo in "Marks for Effort", but Diamond Tiara doesn't appear at all. In the season 9 episode "The Last Crusade", Diamond Tiara appears twice; once at school and again at the CMC appreciation day celebration (waving at the Crusaders). The two also briefly appear in "The Last Problem", as adults in the Distant Finale.
  • Diamond Tiara makes a brief appearance in one page of the Ponyville Mysteries comics, where she has an understandably testy reaction to the CMC accusing her father of committing arson.
  • Four real-life years after her redemption, she finally gets an important role in the Spirit of the Forest comic series, where she acts as a Morality Pet for her father and convinces him to embrace environmentally responsible logging practices.
• The Dividual: A pair of bully side characters. Diamond Tiara stepped out of this in "Ponyville Confidential" because she appeared on her own in a major role.
• Don't Tell Mama: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are terrified of being ratted on when Babs Seed threatens to tell their mothers about their attitudes. After meeting DT's mom in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", this is justified.
• Fantastic Slur: "BLANK FLANK!"
• For the Evulz: This seems to be their most likely motive for bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders as it hasn't been explained why they do so. This finally gets elaborated on in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark". Diamond Tiara was raised to be condescending to everyone who wasn't in high society by her snooty mother and Silver Spoon was simply tagging along (possibly because of Diamond Tiara's clout).
• Freudian Excuse: Diamond is a Spoiled Brat due to the upbringing by her mother, Spoiled Rich; Silver merely follows her along.
• Full-Name Basis: Neither of them are ever referred to as simply "Silver" or "Diamond" in-universe.
• Funny Background Event: In "Pinkie Pride" the two are shown ordering ice cream treats. Silver Spoon's milkshake is more elaborate than Diamond Tiara's small bowl of ice cream. Annoyed, DT knocks her own food onto the ground and moves to drink the milkshake. Then she gets swept up in the Crowd Song, and Silver Spoon drinks her milkshake anyway.
• Giggling Villain: At the CMC's regular failure.
• Handshake Substitute: It involves a double high and low hooves followed by a knee bump and finishing it with a butt bump while saying this phrase in unison: "Bump, bump, sugarlump rump!"
• Hidden Depths:
  • For her first couple of appearances, Diamond Tiara is just haughty and vindictive towards her peers, but in "Ponyville Confidential", she shows she's a very organized and demanding leader that gets things done and is quick to praise employees when they met her high standards, albeit still being insensitive and snide. She shows that same ability to organize a crowd of foals in "Twilight Time", and she doesn't resort to blackmail or insults this time around. Instead she smooth-talks everyone, including the CMC. "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" runs away with this trope, revealing she acts this way as a result of her emotionally abusive mother berating her into being the best and improving her reputation no matter the cost.
  • "On Your Marks" shows Silver Spoon taking the lead in a baking class Apple Bloom is attending.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Their attempts to humiliate Apple Bloom and the Cutie Mark Crusaders normally end up backfiring and earning Diamond Tiara (and sometimes Silver Spoon) a Humiliation Conga.
• Humble Pie: In "Call of the Cutie" and "The Cutie Pox". This continues in "Family Appreciation Day", although unlike the previous two times, only Diamond Tiara got it; Silver Spoon did something nice and didn't get karmic retribution this time. Diamond Tiara gets slapped in the face with a dish of Humble Pie once more in "Ponyville Confidential" (Silver Spoon barely appears in the episode).
• Hypocrite:
  • Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have shades of this. They make fun of other ponies for not having a cutie mark, and yet in their debut episode Diamond Tiara is having a party for recently receiving hers.
  • In another episode, both girls insult Apple Bloom about her cutie mark being hoops. Even without Apple Bloom demonstrating how awesome her skills are at using hoops, one has to question what kind of talents one excels at with cutie marks like a tiara and a spoon. It turns out that Diamond actually does feel that way about her mark, until she actually manages to figure out it means Leadership.
  • In "One Bad Apple", their reason of bullying the Crusaders is blown out of the water when they accept Babs Seed (who doesn't have a cutie mark).
  • Both of them are earth ponies but in "Flight to the Finish", they tease Scootaloo (who is a pegasus) for not being able to fly.
• Jerkass: Both go out of their way to insult and belittle Apple Bloom and Twist about not having their marks yet instead of having fun at their own party. "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" revealed that Diamond Tiara only acted mean because that's how her mother (an even bigger bully than she is) taught her to act; she knows her behavior is wrong, and she wants to change but doesn't know how, though she eventually finds out how and Took a Level in Kindness.
• Kids Are Cruel: To varying degrees. Diamond Tiara shows no pity to anyone except her father. Silver Spoon once applauded Granny Smith's story.
• Laser-Guided Karma: They often (but not always) get struck by this.
  • "Call of the Cutie" — For trying to embarrass Apple Bloom, they end up getting embarrassed at Diamond Tiara's own party.
  • "Family Appreciation Day" — For bad-mouthing Granny Smith, Diamond Tiara is forced by her dad to help with the Zap Apple rituals.
  • "Ponyville Confidential" — For running a hurtful gossip column and blackmailing the CMC, Diamond Tiara gets demoted to working the printing press.
  • "One Bad Apple" — For convincing Babs to become a bully, they get told off by her at how much they suck for being bullies and fall into a mud puddle.
  • "Flight to the Finish" — For trying to ruin the CMC's act to win a competition, they lose.
  • "Twilight Time" — For mocking the CMC, they get put in their place by Twilight.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Silver Spoon comes from the idiom "born with a silver spoon in one's mouth", which means to be born into wealth.
  • Diamond Tiara's name means exactly what you think it means. Diamond's turns out to have a different true meaning: her actual Special Talent is leadership, so her name is signifying her being a leader. Further, diamonds are formed when coal is exposed to tremendous pressure — and it is eventually revealed that Diamond Tiara is being put under a lot of pressure by her overbearing, perfectionist mother.
• Missing Mom: "One Bad Apple" implies that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon have mothers but they haven't been seen or even mentioned otherwise. Inverted with Diamond as Spoiled Rich is finally introduced.
• Oh, Crap!: Have a priceless one in reaction to Babs Seed threatening to tell their parents on them.
• Out of Focus: Following "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", they have both been relegated to non-speaking background appearances.
• Pet the Dog: Each of them has at least one moment of this.
  • "Family Appreciation Day" — Silver Spoon was the first one applauding Granny Smith's story about the founding of Ponyville. On the flip side, Diamond Tiara was the only one to take interest in her father's story while nopony else in class was.
  • "Hearts and Hooves Day" — Diamond Tiara receives a Hearts and Hooves Day card in class. It helps that she is genuinely thrilled to have gotten one.
  • "Ponyville Confidential" — While buried beneath mounds of Kick the Dog, Diamond Tiara does compliment the CMC's work as Gabby Gums and depends on them to get her good stories despite them being Blank Flanks.
  • "Pinkie Pride" — Diamond Tiara literally sings praises about Pinkie Pie. Although this is counteracted by DT trying to take Silver Spoon's milkshake for herself while she's singing.
  • "Twilight Time" — Despite their selfish motives behind it, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are a lot friendlier to the CMC in this episode than any other episode prior to "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", giving them a good reputation with all their other classmates and even inviting them to a private pool party at Diamond Tiara's house, with the two of them chilling out with Sweetie Belle at said party, apparently not bothered to be hanging out with Blank Flanks. Even when they mock the CMC again towards the end, it's due to enjoying seeing the Crusaders' own Laser-Guided Karma over what they had done wrong.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 8, the two appear in a blink-and-you'll-miss it moment alongside Cheerilee near the start of the intro.
• Recurring Character: Notable in that they were the only antagonists to make speaking appearances in more than two episodes (provided you count two-parters as a single episode) until "Keep Calm and Flutter On" when Discord returned. They're also the only antagonists in every season (though no longer speaking since their Heel–Face Turn).
  • However, Diamond Tiara wasn't shown at all in Season 8 while Silver Spoon was shown once.
• Rewatch Bonus: Once you've found out Diamond's attitude was because of Spoiled Rich, all the previous seasons cast both her and Silver in a new light.
• Rich Bitch:
  • If Silver Spoon's name is any indication, she might have a family based on old money.
  • As found out in "Family Appreciation Day", Diamond Tiara's wealth only goes back a few generations. Her great-grandfather worked his way up to gain said riches by selling Zap Apple Jam made by Granny Smith herself.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Both of their cutie marks match their names exactly. Which really makes no sense unless their special talent is Narcissism. Subverted for Diamond Tiara when its eventually revealed her mark is symbolic of her ability to influence others. Silver Spoon is also shown to have talent for cooking in "On Your Marks", which would explain the spoon.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • In "On Your Marks", they are shown happily baking a cake with another filly.
  • In "The Cart Before the Ponies", Diamond Tiara is seen helping her butler Randolph in the building of her derby cart (when the old her would have simply made him do all the work), and even checks to make sure he's okay after the big pile-up.
  • In "The Last Crusade", Diamond Tiara happily waves at the CMC during their appreciation day.
• Valley Girl: Both of them. Which gets, like, totally mocked by Scootaloo.
• Villains With Good Publicity: They're so popular that no pony in Ponyville tries to stand up for The Cutie Mark Crusaders when they bully them. They eventually lost this in "Crusaders Of The Lost Mark".
• Wealth's in a Name:
  • Diamond Tiara's name references both her wealth ("Diamond") and her tendency to boss and order others around ("Tiara", referencing crowns and thus authority).
  • Silver Spoon's name is derived from how people born into wealth and advantage are said to have been born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

Diamond Tiara

• All There in the Script: She has a middle name, "Dazzle", which has only been used in the toyline; specifically, in the Miniature Collection's Class of Cutie Marks Set.
• Alpha Bitch: Diamond Tiara is the bitchy one out of the two.
• Beneath the Mask: Diamond turns out to be under a metric ton of stress due to her mother's perfectionism, and to secretly envy the CMC for their friendship and still having their future ahead of them.
• Be Yourself: This is an Aesop that she learns. Because she was always a mean bully, she lost not only the election, but her only friend as well. Diamond Tiara learned that she doesn't have to act like her mother to gain the respect of her classmates. She learned to be herself.
• Blowing a Raspberry: She does this in "Ponyville Confidential".
• Cool Crown: Diamond Tiara wears a diamond tiara.
• Daddy's Girl: She is one of only two fillies paying attention to her dad's presentation during "Family Appreciation Day". Indeed, she hangs on his every word with an adoring look on her face.
• Da Editor: Following Namby-Pamby's graduation, Diamond Tiara serves as the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, the Foal Free Press, until the position is stripped away from her and given to Featherweight.
• Enfant Terrible: She shows shades of this (until her redemption), a key example being in "Ponyville Confidential", wherein she outright states that she cares about nobody else's feelings but her own.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The one time Diamond Tiara is seen smiling out of (ostensibly) pure happiness is during a business lecture by her father that has put the rest of the class to sleep.
• Evil Counterpart: Diamond Tiara, not evil per se, is this to Apple Bloom. They are both leaders of the town and relatives of important business ponies, but unlike Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara can be extremely bossy and demanding. She lacks the empathy and compassion Apple Bloom has for a leader ("Feelings, I don't care about feelings!!").
• Expy: In the same way that the Cutie Mark Crusaders are pony counterparts to The Powerpuff Girls, Diamond Tiara is their Princess Morbucks.
• Foil: "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" makes it clear that Diamond Tiara's this to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. While they were having a hard time dealing with not having cutie marks, Diamond Tiara was struggling with having a mark that she didn't fully understand and was unable to use effectively until the Crusaders helped her. It's heavily implied that she's mean partly out of jealousy.
• Hate Sink: Diamond Tiara's main purpose for being in the show seems to be a Jerkass with few entertaining and no sympathetic qualities so the viewers can hate her (or at least love to hate her). In fact, despite having a good deal more appearances than many of the show's villains, she shows less humanity (so to speak) than many of them and has taken no steps towards redemption until season 5 that is.
• Icy Blue Eyes: She has these to go with her lack of empathy and ruthless editor streak.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: She has a huge ego and is constantly bragging about it...but is mainly acting that way to cover how stressed and demeaned she is by her mother and has a lot of issues underneath it.
• Irony: Diamond Tiara bullies the Cutie Mark Crusaders for not having cutie marks. She ends up being the reason they get their cutie marks, when they help her discover that her true talent is leadership, and decide to start helping other ponies get their cutie marks.
• Kick the Dog: Blackmailing the Cutie Mark Crusaders in "Ponyville Confidential" is a sign that she still isn't a very nice character, even if she did praise their work as Gabby Gums.
• Lack of Empathy: The only compassion she's ever shown is for her father and Silver Spoon; she doesn't seem to give a darn about anypony else at all. She gets better.
  Sweetie Belle: But the gossip we've been printing is hurting everypony's feelings!
  Diamond Tiara: (outraged) Feelings?! I don't care about "feelings"!
• The Leader: Her real special talent is leadership.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: She becomes this after her Heel–Face Turn.
• Manipulative Bastard: Diamond Tiara, in "Family Appreciation Day", for shooting down Apple Bloom's attempts to avoid the day and in "Ponyville Confidential" for blackmail.
• Mean Boss: During her tenure as editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, she has no problem blackmailing the Cutie Mark Crusaders into creating more Gabby Gums stories even though they don't want to because of all the ponies that have been hurt by the stories.
• Not Bad: She sings part of "Pinkie the Party Planner" where she admits Pinkie is good at throwing parties. Pinkie isn't sure how to react but settles for a thank you.
  Diamond Tiara: ♪ She planned my cute-ceañera, my dad made me, I won't lie
  I demanded all the best, I suppose she passed the test
  Sure, it was pretty good, all thanks to Pinkie Pie! ♪
• Pink Means Feminine: Her coat is a pinkish color and the outfit she wears for her cute-ceañera is pink.
• Smug Smiler: It's her default facial expression, usually sneering at Apple Bloom's failures.
• The Social Expert: Diamond's special talent is in leading others, which makes her a convincing and influential speaker and skilled at organizing teams.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: She is revealed to be this in the fifth season, as her mother is the reason why she's a haughty Alpha Bitch in the first place. In reality, she wants to be a natural-born leader but doesn't know how.
• Spoiled Brat: Averted. Her own father doesn't approve of her insolence and is quick to lay down the law on the few occasions he gets involved in her bullying. Sadly, by the end of season three, it's only happened once. Unsurprisingly, her mother reared her to be one.
• Teacher's Pet: She tries to be this to Cheerilee, but it backfires (or simply passes over Cheerilee's head). Considering the way Ponyville's school system functions in "Call of the Cutie", it's probably the latter.
• Tragic Villain: "Crusaders Of The Lost Mark" reveals, in addition to being made to act as she did by her abusive mother, Diamond Tiara wanted to be a better pony, but had no idea how. She finds out how.
• Ungrateful Bitch:
  • When it's revealed that she's only rich in the first place thanks to Granny Smith, Diamond Tiara still tries to humiliate her and Apple Bloom and shows absolutely no gratitude.
  • Subverted with Pinkie, who, while begrudgingly, she admits did a good job planning her party. It seems that Diamond is capable of gratitude... if you're not related to her enemies.
• Vocal Dissonance: She sounds much older than she is in "Ponyville Confidential".
• Vocal Evolution: Her voice sounded older and raspier in "Ponyville Confidential".
• Walking Spoiler: Her Alpha Bitch tendencies are due to her upbringing by her mother, Spoiled Rich, who raised her to be one and not let any other ponies get in her way, even blank flanks.
• When She Smiles: She proves to have one of the sweetest pony smiles out there when she finally gives up the smug smirk she normally uses.

Silver Spoon

• Beta Bitch: She always follows Diamond Tiara's lead.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Diamond Tiara is shocked when Silver Spoon is the first pony to applaud Granny Smith's story to the class in "Family Appreciation Day". Then, in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", she doesn't vote for Diamond after being rejected in helping out with her school presidential campaign.
• Flat Character: Unlike Diamond Tiara, who at least has Hidden Depths and got some Character Development in the end, there's not much more to Silver Spoon beyond being a generic Beta Bitch (look at the size of this section, for starters). It does not help that, like Scootaloo, we know nothing of her family.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: She wears glasses and is a vicious bully.
• Hairstyle Inertia: When she appears as a grown mare in "The Last Problem", her mane still has the braided style from her fillyhood.
• Heart Symbol: She has a small one in the handle of the spoon in her cutie mark.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: She finally abandons Diamond after she didn't let her contribute to her presidential campaign in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark".
• Satellite Character: Although Diamond Tiara can be perfectly antagonistic on her own (as seen in "Ponyville Confidential"), Silver Spoon is never seen without her best friend around.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to Diamond Tiara in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" after being repeatedly pushed around and belittled.
  Diamond Tiara: Silver Spoon! You didn't vote for me?!
  Silver Spoon: No, I didn't.
  Diamond Tiara: But...you're my best friend!
  Silver Spoon: Am I? 'Cause I tried to help by mentioning your "surprise" statue, and suddenly I wasn't even allowed to speak! You could have actually won this election if you just listened to me. You wanna know how? [whispering] Sorry. I'm not allowed to speak. [closes Diamond's dropped jaw with her hoof]
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: According to the Enterplay trading card game, "Just because Silver Spoon stopped being a bully doesn't mean she's going to stop being really, really bossy sometimes."
• The Unreveal: The meaning of her cutie mark is never explained, unlike Diamond Tiara's. There is once a hint it could be related to cooking, but nothing conclusive.

Garble

The only thing worse than ponies is a pony-loving troper!

"When I'm in charge, the first thing I'll do is get revenge on those puny ponies!"

Debut: "Dragon Quest"

Voiced by: Vincent Tong^{Foreign VAs}Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese)

The ringleader of a group of teenage dragons. He viciously hates ponies and considers Spike more of a pony than a dragon, due to his upbringing among ponies resulting in him acting completely contrary to how Garble thinks dragons should act. He serves as a recurring antagonist to Spike when the show visits the Dragon Lands, before eventually reconciling with him in "Sweet and Smoky".

---

• Adaptational Villainy: In terms of design and personality, he's an Expy of Fiery from G1, but Fiery was depicted as a friend of the ponies from the beginning. Garble dislikes Ponies as well as Spike for being brought up by them, up until his Heel–Face Turn in the final season episode "Sweet and Smoky"
• All There in the Script: He was unnamed in "Dragon Quest" but was named in the script. He gets named in dialogue in "Gauntlet of Fire".
• Arch-Enemy: For Spike. Spike has traveled to the Dragon Lands four times, and all four times he has ran afoul of Garble and had to put him in his place. The feeling is mutual on Garble's part, too — he hates ponies, but he especially hates Spike as a "pony-loving dragon."
• Arc Villain: With "Dragon Quest" and "Gauntlet of Fire," he serves as this in the Dragon Lands episodes (he also makes a brief appearance in "Shadow Play", as an obstacle for Spike and Rainbow Dash to overcome). He appears in an antagonistic role one last time in "Sweet and Smoky", and is reformed by the end of that adventure.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the leader of his gang and he's the toughest of them. In "Gauntlet of Fire" he comes within reach of getting the Bloodstone Sceptre and being crowned the new Dragon Lord, and he got to that point by surviving a gauntlet of Death Traps that no other dragons except Spike and Ember finished nearly as quickly.
• Back for the Finale: He comes back for the series finale as one of the members of The Cavalry to fight off the evil trio of Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, Tirek.
• Bait the Dog: In "Dragon Quest" he seems to be warming up to Spike as Spike proves his worth. Then Garble leads him to find and destroy some phoenix eggs For the Evulz, and it turns out he really is just a Jerkass after all.
• Beatnik: He is a beat poet. Of course, he doesn't want to tell anyone about it out of fear that other dragons will make fun of him. The only exception to that is Smoulder, at first.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He has some lofty ambitions, namely becoming Dragon Lord and leading an invasion to conquer Equestria. Also, being a dragon makes him a legitimate physical danger. However, he has no real power and is rather stupid, so there's little chance of him ever actually becoming a real threat. As much as he wants to become otherwise, Garble is just a brute and a bully.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: "Sweet and Smoky" reveals that he's been a Cool Big Bro to Smolder since they were kids, he has a love of poetry and he picks on Spike to cover up his insecurities and look good to his "friends".
• The Bully: He's a very rude and mean-spirited teenage dragon who loves to pick on other creatures he considers to be soft, weak and puny to show off his own strength, even other dragons (which Spike can attest to).
• Butt-Monkey: In "Gauntlet of Fire", he's repeatedly shown to be an idiot and gets tons of physical abuse.
• Character Development: Garble finally receives some in "Sweet and Smoky", going from being a one-note dumb muscle bully to having actual motivations for his behavior and Hidden Depths nobody could have seen coming.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: As punishment for his behavior, Spike orders him to go home and hug every dragon he sees on the way, and not tell anyone why.
• Cool Big Bro: While still being a jerk, Garble gets along well with Smolder, even opening up to her with his poetry.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Averted; despite getting bested by Spike and his friends thrice, he remains as antagonistic as ever. However, his Cool and Unusual Punishment can be considered a comical Deconstruction of this.
• Denser and Wackier: In "Dragon Quest" he was a stock thug and bully, and at times could be rather unsettling. In "Gauntlet of Fire" he's still wrathful and thuggish, even more so in fact, but he acts more like a blithering Sitcom Arch-Nemesis for Spike. This characterization sticks when it comes to his next appearance in "Shadow Play", and his semi-sympathetic role in "Sweet and Smoky".
• Determinator: Garble might be a jerk, but he sure is persistent, coming in third at the Gauntlet of Fire behind Spike and Ember and well ahead of the rest of the pack.
• Dirty Coward: In "Shadow Play - Part 1", Garble tries to run away when Rainbow Dash grabs the rock he threw at Spike and tosses it right back at him. The best part is that, if you look closely at the trajectory, there's no way he would have been hit if he didn't flee, but Rainbow Dash obviously anticipated his reaction.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In "Gauntlet of Fire", his plan after winning the title of Dragon Lord is to take revenge on the ponies. The only crime the ponies committed against him in his prior appearance was to dodge his gang's charge, resulting in them crashing into a tree. For that, Garble is perfectly willing to loot Equestria of its riches, then burn it to the ground.
• Dumb Muscle: He's strong, but not too bright.
• Easily Forgiven: After being Spike's bully and Sitcom Arch-Nemesis since Season 2, "Sweet and Smoky" ends with Spike burying the hatchet with Garble after he learns about his insecurities and Garble finally does a selfless deed.
• Embarrassing Nickname: As his sister, Smolder likes to call him 'Gar-Gar', which he would very much like to keep on the down-low.
• "Eureka!" Moment: He has one during the climax of "Sweet and Smoky". When the dragons are breathing fire onto the cold, overdue eggs to hatch them, Garble figures out they can make the flames hotter by making the dragons laugh. So he grabs his bongo drums and performs his beat poetry in-front of everyone to get them to laugh uncontrollably.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As much as he hates Spike, when Spike gets the Bloodstone Sceptre and becomes the (temporary) Dragon Lord, Garble reluctantly kneels and then follows his orders.
• Eviler than Thou: He's this to the other dragons. They're jerks who brag about abusing ponies, but only in the spirit of being bullies; Garble desires outright war with Equestria. They also generally have at least some reason for attacking the heroes (having part of their horde stolen, being kicked in the face, etc.) or don't understand they're causing trouble, or in the case of his group are following his lead. Garble, however, does things For the Evulz and out of Fantastic Racism taken to an extreme until his reformation in "Sweet and Smoky".
• Expy: He's similar in appearance to Fiery from the G1 UK comics, who in the toyline was also said to have a forceful personality.
• Fantastic Racism: He hates ponies. When other dragons are joking about stealing from them, Garble darkly sneers that when he's Dragon Lord he'll lead the dragons in an invasion of Equestria, taking what they want and burning what they don't. In "Celestial Advice", Twilight's fantasy chooses him as to represent her worry about some dragons hating ponies (namely bodyslamming Starlight into a lava pit), and Spike doesn't argue.
• Flanderization: "Gauntlet of Fire" considerably ramped up his hate of Spike and ponies. Presumably his first encounter with them going south is to blame. His occasional dimness is also now exaggerated into outright Butt-Monkey levels.
• Foil: From "Dragon Quest" to "Sweet and Smoky", Garble serves as a foil to Spike and his evolving attitudes. Considering how self-conscious and suggestible Spike was about his identity as a dragon living amongst ponies in the early seasons, Garble serves as a glimpse of what Spike might have become if he had made different choices. Over the years, Spike has become a lot more secure in his masculinity, accepted his unorthodox upbringing of being raised by ponies, paid respect to the virtues of friendship and love, and refuses to be ashamed of his more feminine interests, allowing his values to constantly evolve. Meanwhile, Garble is a much more superficial dragon who loves to shame other people for not reaching his standards of dragonhood, he shuns affection and kindness as weakness and only takes up tough, edgy, stereotypically masculine interests for the sake of posturing, he buries any part of himself that wouldn't allow him to conform, and he builds his entire identity around being what he and his gang figure a rough, brutish dragon ought to be, keeping himself a shallow, one-dimensional caricature and a static character. By "Gauntlet of Fire", it's very apparent that Spike has started to surpass him in terms of maturity (despite Spike being the younger dragon), and the maturity gap between them is even more noticeable in "Sweet and Smoky", when Garble is just as childish as ever and seemingly hasn't changed at all in years. Even Fluttershy acknowledges that Spike is a much more well-adjusted person than him.
• For the Evulz: The guy wants to kill a nest of Phoenix eggs for fun. He tops this in his second appearance where he wants to demolish Equestria.
• Four Is Death: Inverted. He pulls a Heel–Face Turn at the end of his fourth direct appearance.
• Freudian Excuse: "Sweet and Smoky" finally provides him with one. He acted like a bully all this time because he was hiding his sensitive side, out of fear of being mocked by his friends, and acted like the toughest dragon around to compensate for it. It is also suggested that he picked on Spike so much because Spike's open sensitivity reminded Garble of his own repressed nature.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: It is revealed Garble only acts like a jerk and bullies Spike and others he sees as "weak" due to peer pressure from his "friends". He actually has a softer side and enjoys beat poetry but hides it from everyone but Smolder out of fear of being humiliated. Smolder sympathizes with him at first, until she finds out he has been picking on Spike, a friend of hers, behind her back. When Garble says Spike deserves being picked on for being a weakling anyways, Fluttershy tells him to his face that Spike is stronger than he is because Spike isn't afraid to be who he is no matter what anyone thinks of him.
• Hate Sink: Up until "Sweet and Smoky" He was shown to be nothing more than a violent to the point of murderous bully, who tried to kill babies and expressed horrible plans towards Equestria.
• Heel–Face Turn: After he's successfully convinced that he should be less superficial and shallow and accept every part of himself, Garble decides to give up bullying people and he uses his special talent to help save some unhatched dragon eggs.
• Heel Realization: In "Sweet and Smoky", Fluttershy and Smolder help Garble to realize how much of a hypocritical prick he's repeatedly been to Spike, while masking his own insecurities, which finally causes him to have an attack of conscience.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He has a non-lethal example in "Sweet and Smoky". He willingly humiliates himself in-front of the other dragons by performing his beat poetry so that they will all laugh at him and their flames will become hot enough to make all the dragon eggs hatch. Subverted afterwards when Ember calls him the Hero of the Dragon Lands for this action, negating any mockery that could be thrown at him.
• Heroes' Frontier Step: After spending most of his appearances in the series being at best a brute and a bully, and at worst a murderous, sadistic sociopath, in the episode "Sweet and Smoky" not only does he reform, he also performs an amazing act of heroism. This episode reveals that he's Smolder older brother and that he genuinely cares for her. It's also revealed that most of his bullying and jerk behavior was to hide his insecurities, keeping his beatnik poetry a secret from his friends and continuing to bully Spike throughout the episode. When Smolder and Fluttershy call Garble out on his actions, pointing out that Garble has been kicking around Spike to appear tough and masculine in front of his crew, while covering up his own sensitive interests for fear of mockery, where Spike is brave enough to be himself, he admits their point. But the thing that redeems him is when he learns that the dragon eggs need heat to hatch, and Spike gives him the idea to read his poetry to the dragons. Most of the dragons start to laugh, causing their fire breath to get hotter, and soon the eggs start to hatch. He's willing to subject himself to the humiliation and mockery he's dreaded would come with his passion in order to ensure the survival of the baby dragons. Garble finally admits his sensitive side to Spike and apologizes for his past behavior.
• Hidden Depths: Garble is a beatnik poet. The reason these depths were hidden was because he was afraid of being mocked by the others dragons in his gang for it.
• Humiliation Conga:
  • At the end of "Gauntlet of Fire", Spike orders him to hug every dragon he meets on his way back home and not to tell them why.
  • Experiences a short but effective one in "Shadow Play - Part 1"; first, he is bested in Lava Surfing by the "pony-loving dragon" he hates, then Rainbow Dash grabs the rock he threw at Spike and throws it back at him, briefly pinning Garble by the tail. After that, Rainbow tricks him into putting down Flash Magnus's shield on the pretense of a race up the cliff. Not only does Rainbow take the shield, but she still manages to ascend faster than him (even while carrying both the shield and Spike), both outsmarting and out-flying him.
• Hypocrite:
  • Despite firmly believing that "dragons don't do helping", he doesn't hesitate to beg Spike for help when he gets trapped under a boulder in the early stages of the Gauntlet.
  • Gets angry at Rainbow Dash for just swiping Flash Magnus's shield and running instead of racing him... because Spike already beat him for the shield and he refused to keep his word.
  • In "Sweet and Smoky". Garble picked on Spike for being weak, in spite of the fact that he had been trying to hide his own "weakness" from his gang. Even after admitting his love of poetry, he laughs at the idea of Spike being strong.
• Hypocritical Humor: In "Shadow Play - Part 1" Garble gets annoyed at another dragon for explaining a joke at his expense; in "Gauntlet of Fire", Garble himself had the habit of explaining his own (lame) attempts at humor.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Smolder and Fluttershy are quite rightly pissed when they learn that Garble has been kicking around Spike to appear tough and masculine in front of his crew, while covering up his own sensitive interests for fear of mockery, and unlike previous instances of Garble being chewed out, he finally considers what they have to say and reluctantly agrees with it.
• I Lied: Garble races Spike for Flash Magnus's shield, but when Spike actually wins, he instantly refuses to keep his word and tries to beat Spike up. It's little wonder Rainbow Dash doesn't trust him to keep his word in their race and just snatches the shield and flies off while he's not looking.
• Ineffectual Loner: Going along with "Gauntlet of Fire's" moral, Garble, despite being a very effective competitor in his own right, can't compete against Spike and Ember working together, both in the actual race to the Scepter and in their fight later.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: In his second appearance he's promoted from a mere bully to a Big Bad Wannabe. Unfortunately for him, the Butt-Monkey role comes with the promotion (though his bullying ways make the "sympathetic" part kind of a stretch).
• Insistent Terminology: In "Sweet and Smoky". When Garble admits to Fluttershy that he's a poet, he claims that he is not a "flowery, namby-pamby poet", he is a "beat" poet.
• Irony: In most of his appearances, Garble seemed to be the one calling the shots for his gang. But in "Sweet and Smoky, he's shown to actually follow their lead in appearing to be a "tough dragon".
• Jerkass: Exaggerated. Most dragons tend to be unpleasant, and Garble is the worst of all.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Smolder certainly believes Garble to be this, since he was apparently a good brother to her in the past, and after a good scolding, he does ultimately prove that he's capable of growing up and making amends for his past actions.
• Laughing at Your Own Jokes: When he amuses himself with a joke about Spike's size.
  Garble: But I've wasted enough time making small talk. Get it? Heh-heh, because you're too small to win this. Heh, I'm funny.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Among the teenage dragons, the red one is The Leader.
• Living a Double Life: "Sweet and Smoky" reveals that while he acts as a bully most of the time, in private, he's a poet.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Although Dragon Lord Ember had commanded the dragons not to attack ponies, Garble still tries to attack Spike because she didn't say anything about "pony-loving dragons". Spike points out the flaw in this logic, claiming that hurting the friend of a pony wouldn't do wonders for dragon-pony relations either, but Garble is still willing to take the risk.
  • He then gets a taste of his own medicine; when Rainbow and Spike demand the Fireproof Shield of Flash Magnus from Garble, he refuses, citing "finders keepers". Later, after Garble puts it down under the pretense of a race with Rainbow to the top of the lavafall, she promptly grabs it while his back is turned and bolts, with Spike saying "finders keepers" as they fly away.
• MacGuffin Guardian: Garble unwittingly ends up in this role in "Shadow Play" by finding the Netitus shield and clinging to it when Rainbow Dash and Spike come to retrieve it. They play along with his Lava Surfing challenge at first, but when it becomes obvious he's not going to keep his part of the deal, Rainbow just tricks him into letting go of the shield and they dash away with it.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Garble means "to distort the meaning of a message". Garble is a distorted representation of his kind that convinced Spike he was the norm.
  • "Sweet and Smoky" takes this in a different direction; In hiding his true self from all but his sister, Garble was misrepresenting himself all along.
• Morality Pet: As bad as he was, his little sister Smolder is the only one he was genuinely kind towards. Her calling him on his bullying is part of what forces him to change.
• The Nose Knows: Garble has a keen sense of smell and can recognize ponies by scent. He almost discovers Rarity and Twilight's presence this way in "Gauntlet of Fire".
• Not Helping Your Case: Once Smolder learns that Garble has been picking on Spike and angrily questions Garble about it, all Garble says in his defense is a nervous "only when you're not looking". He also says he would be a target of bullying otherwise and that Spike deserves it for being a weakling anyway, which just earns him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Fluttershy.
• No True Scotsman: Because Spike was raised by ponies and has a very different set of values from normal dragons, Garble doesn't consider him a true dragon and thinks of him as more of a pony than a dragon. Of course, Garble himself isn't exactly a typical dragon either, being much more openly sadistic and murderous, and as a result of this mentality convinced Spike that all dragons were like him.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He came dangerously close to becoming the next Dragon Lord, which, given his plans, would have been very bad news for Equestria.
• One Degree of Separation: "Sweet and Smoky" reveals he's Smolder's brother.
• Pet the Dog: When Garble gets his "Eureka!" Moment on how to save the dragon eggs, observing the dragon's laugh fire, he quickly credits Spike for the idea after Spike says that the laugh fire could "burn somepony", petting him on his head and calling him his nickname.
  Garble: Burn... Good idea, Spikey-Wikey!
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Minus the rape, obviously, this is Garble's plan for Equestria should he become Dragon Lord.
  Garble: We'll take whatever we want from Equestria and burn the rest!
• Real Men Hate Affection: He frequently scorns Spike for being soft, girly and oversensitive by dragon standards, and he always tries to put on a front of being tough, strong, manly and untouchable to his gang. "Sweet and Smoky" finally divulges the downsides of Garble keeping up that facade.
• Reformed Bully: After being thoroughly shamed by Fluttershy and Smolder, Garble finally acknowledges that he's been a shallow, cowardly hypocrite who's stifling his own passion for faux acceptance among his peers, and he gives up his bullying ways for good to make amends with Spike and embrace every aspect of himself.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Spike's sarcastic quips fail on him.
  Spike: It's nice to see you, too, Garble.
  Garble: I didn't say it was nice to see you. It's not. I don't like you. Was I not clear about that?
• The Sociopath: He has signs of being one.
  • While dragons are harsher than ponies, Garble is openly sadistic and has no empathy for anyone, even those that are kind to him. He's also shown a manipulative side towards Spike on several occasions. He even checks the "tortures and kills small animals" aspect by trying to kill a nest full of phoenix eggs for kicks, later showing that murderous streak extends to other sapient lifeforms — his plan of action in "Gauntlet of Fire", should he become dragon lord, is quite directly to sack and torch Equestria, whereas the other dragons want much more harmless things.
  • During Twilight's Fantasy Sequence where Starlight becomes friendship emissary to the Dragon Lands and subsequently gets tossed into a pool of lava by Garble, Spike doesn't question the possibility (or even the likelihood) that he'd try to outright murder Starlight, only Starlight's (in)ability to handle him.
  • An alternate interpretation of his Ungrateful Bastard moment below is that he only pretended to be unable to move the boulder by himself, just so he could have an extra opportunity to humiliate Spike.
• Sore Loser: When Spike manages to beat Garble in lava surfing, Garble not only refuses to hand over the shield of Flash Magnus, but attempts to attack Spike.
• Stupid Evil: He's a Big Bad Wannabe with a history of For the Evulz moments that have inevitably backfired, and he still refuses to learn his lesson. He finally does in "Sweet and Smoky".
• Super-Toughness: A known fact already for dragons, but "Gauntlet of Fire" shows that Garble is very sturdy, notably when he survives being hit by an obstacle spike which would have skewered a pony.
• Teens Are Monsters: The worst of the dragons shown so far (until Sludge in Season 8) is just a teenage bully. He's also decidedly not above attempted murder, and even the heroes are aware of it to the point Spike doesn't doubt he'll try and murder Starlight, if not for Starlight's ability to handle him.
• Ungrateful Bastard: He's pinned under a boulder during "Gauntlet of Fire" and calls for help after noticing Spike nearby. After Spike helps push the boulder off of him, Garble just laughs that he knew Spike would do it, and insults him before kicking sand all over him.
• Unmanly Secret: He considers his love of poetry to be this, even though several other characters argue otherwise.
• Would Hurt a Child: He has no problem pushing around Spike, who's only a baby, and also plots to steal and smash some phoenix eggs just because he can.
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Garble's eyes have yellow sclera and tiny pupils. Yellow eyes is a trait shared by some other dragons, but certainly not all.

Babs Seed

See Mane Family Members.

Sunset Shimmer

See Sunset Shimmer

Ahuizotl

Debut: "Read It and Weep"

Voiced by: Brian Drummond^note according to these two tweets by Brian Drummond^{Foreign VAs}Shōzō Iizuka (Japanese)

A villain based on an Ahuizotl from Aztec Mythology. He's the big bad of the book Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. And since he's an in-universe fictional character, he's a hilariously cliched and over the top bad guy... or so we thought. He's actually not so fictional after all.

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• Arch-Enemy: Daring Do. The adventurer is constantly foiling and opposing his schemes, and Ahuizotl in turn spends a good deal of his time trying to make Daring's life miserable and prevent her from opposing him in the future.
• Badass Fingersnap: He summons his cat minions with a snap of his tail hand's fingers in both appearances.
• Badass Normal: Relatively speaking; even if he's obviously a dangerous creature, Ahuizotl is the only major villain without magical powers of his own. He makes up with his size and strength, and his many Badass Normal mooks and minions (including several large cats).
• The Beastmaster: Being partially feline, Ahuizotl seems to have control over cats in general.
• Big Bad: Seems to be the one for all of Daring Do's books, if Twilight and Rainbow's explanations of the books in "Daring Don't" are any indication. It also turns out he's Real After All.
• Big "NO!": Of course he had to release one of these.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Instead of having his cat minions take care of Daring Do directly, he opts to leave her in an ancient Death Trap. Granted, it's a darn good deathtrap.
• The Bus Came Back: After a five-season absence following "Daring Don't" (and being mentioned in "Daring Done"), Ahuizotl returns in "Daring Doubt" in the show's last season.
• Depending on the Writer: The reveal that he was just trying to keep the ancient artifacts safe from Daring Do and other such thieves like Caballeron is at odds with his portrayal throughout his other appearances in the show and supplementary materials. Some of his villainous acts in the Daring Do books can be a case of Unreliable Narrator, i.e. Yearling describing him more evil than he really is.
• Diabolical Mastermind: He's a classic example of the trope; highly intelligent, focused on his goals and always manages to come out ahead until just the very last moment. Not to mention the fixation on Death Traps.
• A Dog Named "Dog": They can get away with this since there aren't many other Ahuizotls to confuse him with.
• The Dreaded: Daring Do never confronts him directly, due to his greater size and strength giving him the advantage, and tends to take him more seriously than her other foes. In "Daring Doubt", she unhesitantly attempts to flee from him rather than fight back when he attacks both her and Caballeron's groups in a rage.
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: "Daring Doubt" reveals he's a heroic guardian chiefly concerned with protecting his jungle and the artifacts and temples under his watch. All Expanded Universe materials portrayed him as an unrepentant monster, with his trading card describing him as a straight up Omnicidal Maniac.
• Endless Daytime: While it's never actually stated, based on the dialogue and the ways things are framed, his plan to bring 800 years on scorching heat seemed to involve locking the sun in the sky. Somehow, this is only supposed to affect just the valley he is in and not the rest of Equestria.
• Eviler than Thou: Dr. Caballeron is occasionally Daring Do's Big Bad on a few of her adventures. However, whenever Ahuizotl shows up at the same time, Caballeron is Demoted to Dragon and is shown to be outright scared of him.
• Evil Is Hammy: He is also known for his over the-top villainous theatrics.
• Good All Along: The episode "Daring Doubt" reveals that he's actually a guardian of the various ancient artifacts he and Daring Do have been fighting over, and sought only to keep them where they belonged.
• Harmless Villain: Compared to the other major villains that the Mane Six have faced in the series, he's very small time. His Evil Plan involves bringing only 800 years of unrelenting heat to a single valley. Justified, as Daring Do is consistently keeping Ahuizotl from gaining enough power to be a bigger threat than he is now. The The Daring Do Adventure Collection also depicts him as a more serious, and far more dangerous villain to the point he permanently maimed another character.
• Kick the Dog: Slashing off Mojo's cutie mark in The Daring Do Adventure Collection. For a character normally portrayed rather comically, this is surprisingly ruthless.
• Killer Gorilla: He is part ape and a villain, after all.
• Large Ham: He's a character in a book, after all. Only he's real. Just as hammy as ever.
• Lightning Bruiser: He can move faster than a pony at full gallop, and yet he's also as strong as a giant gorilla.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: A giant feline-monkey hybrid.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • He's still a decent threat to his actual nemesis and has very good Death Traps. He also managed to take Rainbow Dash off guard and capture her. It's also implied that the only reason he hadn't become a major threat is because Daring Do had stopped him from obtaining the magical artifacts that would give him high-level powers.
  • The Daring Do Adventure Collection certainly portrays him somewhat less comically. Daring Do treats Ahuizotl as The Dreaded, and he acts much more sinister, holding Daring hostage in front of her uncle and even scarring a pony who no longer wanted to be his henchpony.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: Ahuizotl don't usually appear much in popular culture, do they?
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Comes across as this considering he's not a Physical God level threat like the the major villains. He's still dangerous, but not on Nightmare Moon, Discord, and King Sombra's level. Of course unlike them, he's also not facing other Physical God level beings and is instead the nemesis of a Badass Normal.
• Prehensile Tail: The production team have Shown Their Work; this is one of the ahuizotl's most notable features in Aztec Mythology.
• Punch-Clock Villain: It's revealed in "Daring Doubt" that he actually is a professional guardian, protecting the treasures of the jungle. In fact, it's arguable that Daring Do is the villain in their relationship.
• Real After All: Hard to believe, but Ahuizotl are apparently real creatures in the My Little Pony universe. Most ponies, however, think they're mythical creatures, which explains why they think Ahuizotl only exists as a fictional villain in Daring Do's stories.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Plenty of villains have a Right-Hand Cat, but not many have one so adorable as Ahuizotl's fluffy white kitten.
• The Reveal: Season 9's "Daring Doubt" reveals that Ahuizotl actually isn't a villain at all; he's an official treasure guardian, and Daring Do is basically a self-righteous treasure thief who has been stealing the artifacts he was charged with guarding. This is the real reason why Celestia and Luna have never taken any notice of him; he's not a bad guy.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: Ahuizotl has several great cats (and a small kitten) at his command to sic on meddling heroes in general (and Daring Do in particular).
• Shown Their Work: Besides his physical appearance, Ahuizotl also shares his mythical counterpart's fondness of death traps. The ahuizotl from myth attracts victims to water by mimicking a baby's crying, then grabs them with a prehensile tail and drowns them.
• Threat Backfire: When he first confronts Daring Do in "Daring Don't" he crawls toward her while demanding she give him the ring she has before lunging at her. She avoids him and then proceeds to mockingly flirt with him, acting like the ring he is demanding is an engagment ring.
  Ahuizotl: The ring, Daring Do! Give it to me!
  Daring Do: Now Ahuizotl, you know I love you, but I can't give you the ring till I've properly proposed.
• Villain of Another Story: He's apparently having world-conquering plots and fights with Daring Do while the Mane Cast and their villains are busy having their own fights for the fate of the world. Apparently, the fact he lacks high level magical powers of his own helps him get under Celestia and Luna's radar, explaining why the Princesses hadn't done anything against Ahuizotl themselves despite the fact he seeks for magical artifacts that would make him as dangerous as the other major villains. "Daring Doubt" subverts this, as he's just a guardian trying to protect the jungle and is otherwise harmless.

Ahuizotl's cats

Debut: "Read it and Weep"

A tiger, a black panther, a cheetah, a lynx and a housecat that serve as Ahuizotl's minions, and are usually the ones to fight Daring Do on his behalf.

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• Artistic License – Biology: The tiger and jaguar have slitted pupils; in real life, big cats have round pupils.
• Butt-Monkey: The housecat. It's predictably a much less effective fighter than the bigger animals, and most of its performances involve it being ridiculously ineffective. Depending on the situation, this can involve things from being casually leaped over by Daring Do when the cats were trying to surround her to being trampled by the other cats or kicked in the eye and thrown in the bushes with a big black shiner.
• Cats Are Mean: They represent a broad and inclusive slice of the greater cat family, and each and every one of them is a foul-tempered, aggressive minion to a power-hungry villain.
• Cute Kitten: The housecat. It has most of the stereotypical traits associated with cuteness — a proportionally large head and huge eyes, paired with a small size compared to all the others — resulting in something like a deliberate caricature of the idea of an adorable white kitten.
• Furry Confusion: It's not really clear how intelligent these felids are, something compounded by the show's general depiction of some animal species as intelligent people and others as simply wildlife. They never talk and mostly behave like regular animals, but they're smart enough to follow complex orders, use weapons and tie people up.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Parodied in "Read it and Weep" — a lynx, a cheetah, a tiger and an adorable fluffy white cat all turn up in the Equestrian analogue of the Mesoamerican jungle as predators after Daring Do (the panther wouldn't be misplaced in this context, however — jaguars are native to the areas where the Mesoamerican civilizations flourished, and can be melanistic in the same way as leopards). This is later justified by the reveal that they're actually Ahuizotl's henchmen, and thus not necessarily native fauna of the area.
• Mook Chivalry: In "Daring Don't", Ahuizotl's cats considerately attack Daring Do one at a time, allowing her to clobber them on a one-on-one basis, instead of rushing her all at once.
• Nearly Normal Animal: They're quite normal in almost all respects — they have mostly realistic anatomy instead of being exaggerated or stylized like other species in the show, they don't have facial expressions beyond snarls, and they largely display behaviors typical of predatory big cats. Mostly, they're much more intelligent and coordinated than big cats are in real life.
• No Name Given: None of them are named, or even referred to by a nickname, group name or appellative in any of their appearances.
• Right-Hand Cat: Collectively, they serve as this to Ahuizotl, acting as his muscle and primary henchmen... or, well, henchcats.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The white kitten. Played for Laughs: its deliberately exaggerated cuteness is almost always contrasted with the much more dangerous menace of its bigger companions.
• The Runt at the End: The kitten comes last in a team composed of a tiger, a black panther, a cheetah and a lynx. It also seems to be a much less effective fighter, mostly serving as punching bag while the others do the heavy fighting.
• Stock Scream: In "Daring Don't", when Daring Do is clobbering them offscreen, one of them lets out a Wilhelm scream.

Dr. Caballeron

Debut: "Daring Don't"

Voiced by: Michael Dobson

A villain who appears in the Daring Do novels. He is a rival archeologist of Daring Do who once tried partnering up with Daring, but was rejected. In the episode "Daring Don't", he turns out to be Real After All.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Daring Do. The two have a long-running history that keeps putting them into conflict time and again.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In "Daring Don't", he runs off with a huge bag of bits after delivering Ahuizotl the ring he needs to carry out his Evil Plan.
• Becoming the Mask: In "Daring Doubt", his friendship with Fluttershy is initially just a way to manipulate her into helping him steal an artifact. However, he and his mooks come to genuinely value her kindness.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He has rather large black eyebrows, which is pointed out at the Daring Do convention, where Derpy is cosplaying as him with a cardboard mask sporting huge paper eyebrows.
• Blatant Lies: In "Daring Doubt". He tells Fluttershy that he only wants to find artefacts so he can put them in museums, and only sells them so he can reopen his own after Daring Do's interference caused it to close. He also feigns ignorance over the Truth Talisman requiring a Pegasus to retrieve it.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: In "Daring Doubt". When he writes his own version of Daring Do's adventures (under a false identity), he refers to himself as "mild-mannered".
• Demoted to Dragon: Seems to serve as Daring Do's Big Bad in several adventures, but whenever Ahuizotl is also present, Caballeron is his lackey rather than an independent threat.
• Dirty Coward: In "Daring Doubt". When Fluttershy insists she can handle the attacking big cats, Dr. Caballeron calls her "crazy" and tells her she's on her own, leaping into a bush to hide.
• Easily Forgiven: At the end of "Daring Doubt". After he gives up the treasure-hunting game, he and Daring collaborate on a book together, Daring having put aside their past rivalry.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In "Daring Doubt", he is genuinely confused when Fluttershy offers to share her food with his group.
• Everything Sounds Sexier in French: His name comes from the Spanish word for "gentleman" and "knight" (caballero), that is derived from "caballo", which means "horse"; and he speaks with a Spanish accent.
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear: How he exits "Stranger Than Fan Fiction"; he is chased off by the Cipactli.
• Expy: He's the René Belloq to Daring Do's Indiana Jones.
• False Friend: Befriends Fluttershy in "Daring Doubt" to manipulate her... at least at first.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: He's an evil businesspony with a slicked-back mane.
• Hate Sink: He becomes this in "Daring Done?", where he goes to extreme measures to besmirch Daring Do's reputation. He gets better in "Daring Doubt".
• Heel–Face Turn: By the ends of "Daring Doubt", he's decided to give up on the artifact raiding business.
• Hidden Depths: "Daring Doubt" reveals that he's both a history professor, and an amateur birdwatcher.
• Insistent Terminology: "That's Doctor Caballeron to you!"
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the beginning of "Daring Doubt", his book signing overshadowed AK Yearling's own appearance. At the end, it is Ahuizotl's own book that overshadows his and AK's collaboration.
• Manipulative Bastard: He is revealed to be this in "Daring Done?", where he spread false rumors about Daring Do being a public menace in the village of Somnambula to ruin her reputation and break her spirit and steal a bunch of glowpaz diamonds.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He never really states what he's a doctor of (archeology one presumes), just that you call him "Doctor".
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: He defies this in "Daring Doubt", where he once again attempts to sully Daring Do's reputation.
• Only in It for the Money: His only motivation for helping Ahuizotl is to make a fortune and retire from archaeology in splendor.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Daring Done?" he poses as a citizen of the village of Somnambula, wearing a cloak that conceals the top half of his face. This fools everyone; even Daring Do doesn't recognize him, or his voice.
• Perma-Stubble: His face is covered in a five o'clock shadow.
• Playing the Victim Card: In "Daring Doubt", he tells Fluttershy that he does what he does because Daring Do is always getting to artefacts before he can, and refused to team up with him.
• Real After All: Just like every other Daring Do character, as revealed in "Daring Don't".
• Solid Cartoon Facial Stubble: Caballeron has a solid patch of grey on his snout with a set of darker dots along it to give off the appearance of uneven stubble.
• Villain Ball: He drops several in "Daring Done?":
  • When Rainbow Dash confronts him about sullying Daring Do's name, he drops his disguise, revealing his true identity, for no real reason.
  • By kidnapping Rainbow Dash and placing her in a deathtrap, he inadvertently gave Daring a reason to revert back to her heroic ways.
  • Shortly after, he and his minions drag their bag full of stolen glowpaz through the streets of Somnambula, in full view of the villagers. When Daring surprises them, the bag opens, revealing Caballeron as the true thief.
  • When Daring confronts him, Caballeron loudly boasts about his plan to trick the villagers into thinking she stole their glowpaz - again, in full view of said villagers. This leads to the villagers turning against him and driving he and his minions out of Somnambula.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: His usual method of departure is to simply run away as fast as he can.
• Voice for the Voiceless: Since his henchponies have no speaking lines until "Daring Doubt", he does the talking for them. However, one of them has been shown speaking in "Stranger Than Fan Fiction".

Starlight Glimmer

See Friendship Is Magic: Starlight Glimmer

The Pony of Shadows (Stygian)

"You summon me at your peril, Star Swirl! Once I defeat all of you, this realm will embrace the darkness as I did so long ago!"

^{Click here to see Stygian.}

First mention: "Castle Mane-ia"
Full debut: "Shadow Play - Part 1"

Voiced by: Bill Newton

A Living Shadow said to be a remnant of Nightmare Moon's magic left behind when she was banished, that haunts the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. In "Castle Mane-ia" it's believed to be just an old legend, but it turns out to have an element of truth to it: the Pony of Shadows was real and acts as the villain of Season 7's finale "Shadow Play".

The Pony of Shadows was once Stygian, a friend of the Pillars of Equestria, six heroes of the ancient era led by Star Swirl the Bearded. Lacking power on his own, Stygian intended to conduct a ritual to absorb the powers of the Pillars, and for this, he was banished from their group. He turned to darkness for power instead and transformed into the Pony of Shadows. Considering him a great threat to Equestria, yet unable to defeat him directly, the Pillars banished him to Limbo along with themselves.

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• Ambiguous Situation: The shadowy entity in "Castle Mane-ia" was presumed to be the Pony of Shadows, but never confirmed. "Shadow Play" reveals the actual Pony of Shadows looked nothing like it and was sealed away at the time, raising more questions as to what it was. It was teased in a tweet that it may have very well been Tirek.
• Animalistic Abomination: He looks like a mass of shadows in the shape of a pony.
• Arc Villain: Of the two-part Season 7 finale "Shadow Play".
• Back for the Finale: He returns in the series finale at Twilight's coronation, sitting among the other Pillars.
• Bond Creatures: As Stygian aptly put it, the Shadow accepted and welcomed him unconditionally when no other pony would.
• Card-Carrying Villain: As The Pony of Shadows, He's extremely upfront about being evil and wanting to plunge the world in eternal, hopeless darkness.
• Casting a Shadow: He is called the Pony of Shadows, after all. His magic seems to literally be based on darkness, with the group investigating "dark places", like caves and regions reputed to be shrouded in eternal night, as places where he could draw power.
• Combat Tentacles: As the Pony of Shadows, his main combat ability is forming these out of shadow. Aside from battle, he used them to destroy Ponehenge and later on to try and prevent Stygian from being released within his form.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Green-Eyed Monster. The Pillars believed he stole their artifacts due to being jealous of their recognition while he was overlooked. In truth while he was jealous, he only borrowed them to copy their powers so he could fairly earn recognition helping them. It was only the Pillars wrongly assuming the worst of him due to this trope that caused him to become a monster.
• Demonic Possession: The Pony of Shadows is a dark entity that has taken corporeal form by possessing the body of Stygian.
• Despair Event Horizon: After being cast out of the Pillars when they jumped to conclusions too quickly, Stygian apparently gave into the darkness because it accepted him when no one else would. A significant part of him being redeemed is also that he believes he's far beyond redemption for what he's done and believes the Pillars will never accept him back.
• Dark Is Evil: Calls himself the Pony of Shadows, talks a lot about darkness, the sky grows overcast when he appears... yeah he's got this schtick going for him. Subverted with Stygian himself; all he ever wanted was to be as strong as the Pillars, and he only turned to darkness when they rejected him.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The IDW comics depict him as a drawing at the end of Issue #53 before he appears in the Season 7 finale.
• Enemy Without: After Stygian is convinced to mend fences with the Pillars, he is pulled out of the Pony of Shadows leaving only its dark husk behind.
• Evil Brit: Stygian has a soft English accent that remains as the Pony of Shadows.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Stygian was soft-spoken, but gets a much deeper voice as the Pony of Shadows.
• Expy: Colored entirely black with some white, attacks using inky black tendrils, is a corrupting force towards its host...it's basically Venom in pony form.
• Face–Heel Turn: He was once a friend of the Pillars, but he turned to darkness after they rejected him.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Upon being freed, the Pony of Shadows attempted to regain his strength by traveling to the "dark corners" of Equestria. Unfortunately for him, a thousand years of growth and modernization meant there were far fewer dark places in the land for him to go to. In particular, Appleloosa and Manehattan had gone from empty wastelands to bright, bustling cities during the time he was gone.
• Foil: To Starlight Glimmer. Like her, Stygian was a Seventh Ranger to a group of six heroes who wanted to help them defend Equestria. However, while Starlight is a magical prodigy who ended up using her powers for evil means, Stygian had no power of his own and tried to perform a ritual to gain it, and for it was cast out and turned to evil. Their similarities are a major plot point in "Shadow Play" that serve to help convince Twilight that the Pony of Shadows could be redeemed instead of just banished.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Stygian went from being a normal pony to a major threat in Equestria.
• Godzilla Threshold: Star Swirl considered it such a threat that he was willing to banish himself and the other Pillars of Equestria to limbo just to bind the Pony of Shadows there too. Later, Star Swirl was willing enough to sacrifice the Elements of Harmony as a Plan B to banish him again.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Stygian just wanted to be powerful in his own right to help the Pillars defend Equestria from great evil. When they cast him out from their group, he ended up becoming one of those great evils himself.
• Informed Ability: The Pillars speak of him as one of the greatest evils to ever threaten Equestria, one so dangerous they resorted to sealing themselves in Limbo to take him with them. However, apart from the fact that it took Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer (two exceptionally powerfully magical ponies) to defeat him in a Beam Of War, he does nothing to demonstrate why he's such a dire threat. This is somewhat justified in that Star Swirl and the Pillars are Unreliable Expositors, and the Pony of Shadows predates most of the other major villains the show has featured; Star Swirl presumes that once the Pony of Shadows was sealed, Equestria had spent the next thousand years at peace, unaware that numerous other great evils sprang up after they were gone. The Pillars probably only considered him a major threat because they didn't have much to compare him to.
• Jagged Mouth: The Pony of Shadows has fangs that blend into the rest of his face, giving him a serrated silhouette of a mouth.
• Leitmotif: His genre theme songs is a mixture of orchestra and ambient music. In an example of one of his genre theme songs can be heard here.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: The season 8 episode "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" reveals that Stygian has taken to writing about his past. This has produced multiple bestsellers, notably giving him the respect he wanted during the time with the Pillars. While he is still weaker by comparison, his time spent with them is paying off more now than 1000 years ago, giving both him and the Pillars more renown.
• Living Shadow: The Pony of Shadows is a nebulous cloud of darkness in the shape of a pony.
• Made of Evil: The Pony of Shadows is comprised of a dark, nebulous energy that corrupts those who give themselves up to it and uses their body to ravage the world, feeding off its host's sentiments like resentment and rage. In many ways it is a lot like Nightmare Moon as she was created from Luna's similar feelings of being overlooked and disrespected by her sister. However unlike her, the Pony of Shadows is a separate entity from its host, Stygian, and Stygian himself remains intact and distinct from the shadow energy.
• Meaningful Name: "Stygian" means "of or related to the River Styx", but is metaphorically used to mean "very, very dark."
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After the Pillars mistook an attempt to empower himself as an attempt to steal their power and cast him out, he became the Pony of Shadows and tried to wreak havoc on Equestria.
• Mysterious Past: Applejack's tale of the Pony of Shadows was the only sort of backstory it had at the time, and even then we had no way of knowing if that was really its origin. We don't even know if the hooded figure from the castle is the person from Applejack's legend or someone entirely unrelated (a passing tease from Twitter implies it was Tirek). "Shadow Play" later reveals its history in full, and even then, the Well of Shadows it sprung from is never elaborated on in future stories, leaving even more unanswered questions.
• Not Me This Time: The hooded figure seen in "Castle Mane-ia" may have very well been Tirek and not him given what we learn about his origins in Season 7.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: Essentially his goal (as the Pony of Shadows): he wants to make the entire world feel as hopeless as Stygian himself.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Pony of Shadows was trapped in Limbo by his former friends, and after Stygian is removed from it the dark entity is sealed away in Limbo again. Like Tirek, this imprisonment took its toll and he's been badly weakened by the time he gets out, though still more powerful than Twilight is.
• Shout-Out: In Name Only to the Lord of Shadows from Castlevania, since its debut episode's title is a Shout-Out to the game.
• Stone Wall: While he doesn't really show much in the way of offensive powers (at least while weakened by his long imprisonment), he's nevertheless such an Implacable Man that even the Elements of Harmony struggle to stop him (keep in mind that Nightmare Moon, and Discord ^note It's unknown if Celestia and Luna used them on King Sombra, though. could barely — if at all — resist the Elements' effects).
• The Strategist: During his time with the Pillars he was the one who brought them together, learned about their enemies, and came up with ways to beat them. Unfortunately this resulted in the Pillars getting all of the glory while he was further pushed into the background.
• The Symbiote: The actual shadow entity is this. It bonded with Stygian and granted him immense power, but also seems to influence him. However, given Stygian's explanation of where he got it from, it seems it was at least at the time unable to do much without a host and needed him to cause trouble. Also, the spell to banish him was predicted to have the unpleasant side-effect of destroying the Elements of Harmony, and he was able to fight it for a long time — until his host is removed, at which point he is banished almost instantly and without the predicted side-effect.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Twilight and Starlight eventually do this when they convince Stygian to try and mend his relationship with the Pillars, allowing himself to be pulled out so the Pony of Shadows can be destroyed.
• Tragic Monster: Stygian can be considered this due to his backstory... and the fact that, similar to Nightmare Rarity in the comics, much drama in the "Shadow Play" two-parter comes from the prospect of the Pillars (joined by the Mane Six, Spike, Starlight, and Sunburst) fighting their old friend who brought them together in the first place and what's become of him following his transformation into The Pony of Shadows. When Twilight notices Stygian's true form sticking out of the Pony of Shadows' body, and flies inside, it's clear that Stygian (his true personality) is in despair over how his friends apparently betrayed him and can't overcome the darkness on his own.
• Un-person: Fear of another following in his oath is what drove his descendant Shadow Lock to try and erase all knowledge and memory of his existence, turning him into this in one of the comic arcs, before Twilight and company stopped the well-intentioned unicorn.
• Villainous Legacy: Among the villains, his historical impact is unmatched. He's the reason that the Pillars of Equestria (including Star Swirl the Bearded) ended up disappearing, thus forcing Celestia and Luna to pick up the slack in protecting Equestria from the likes of Discord, King Sombra, etc. Likewise, he — as Stygian — turns out to have brought the Pillars together in the first place, thus forming the group that would eventually plant none other than the Tree of Harmony.
• Was Once a Man: The Pony of Shadows was once just a normal pony named Stygian.
• We Used to Be Friends: Stygian was The Strategist and a friend of the Pillars until he felt beneath the other heroes because despite being a unicorn, he was sorely lacking in both magic and physical strength. It only got worse when his attempt to replicate their artifacts and gain power from them was mistaken for robbery and he was banished from the group.
• Winged Unicorn: While never addressed as such, The Pony of Shadows takes the form of a black alicorn. His vessel, however, is a normal unicorn.
• Worf Had the Flu: Like the Pillars, the Pony of Shadows was weakened by his long imprisonment. It's unclear if he managed to regain his true strength come time for the Final Battle or not.

Chancellor Neighsay

Princess or no, he expects things done by the book.

Debut: "School Daze - Part 1"

Voiced by: Maurice LaMarche

The head of the Equestria Education Association. He's a powerful unicorn who wants what he sees as best for Equestria, and insists on doing things by the guidelines he's created. However, he's severely prejudiced towards non-pony intelligent species.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Despite his attempts to make Equestria safe, none of the ponies appreciate his prejudice towards the non-pony creatures. In fact, the species leaders pretty much hate him. In the Season 8 finale, the ponies attending the School of Friendship immediately turn on him after Cozy Glow reminds them how he shut the school down.
• Anti-Villain: He just wants to make questionable actions in order to make sure Equestria is safe, nothing personal. He's not a villain or a heroic unicorn, he's in fact neutral. As it all turns out at the end of the eighth season, Chancellor Neighsay has good intentions, it's just the fact that he has a misguided view on what non-pony races really are. Eventually he faces the reality and apologizes for his actions.
• Amplifier Artifact: His E.E.A. badge allows him to open portals to anywhere in Equestria and cast magic far greater than he would normally be capable of. He first demonstrates this by using the badge to cast a locking spell on Twilight's school (it locks the door and produces a shield that coats the entire building). It doesn't seem to quite get him on the power level of an alicorn, though, as Twilight has no trouble breaking the spell unaided. This turns out to be a plot point in the season finale; while unicorns have lost their magic, the magical artifacts of the kingdom still have some power, letting Neighsay open one last portal to try and go get help from the Princesses.
• Back for the Finale: He comes back for the series finale as one of the members of The Cavalry.
• Beard of Evil: Not exactly evil/villainous, but he does possess a stereotypical pointy villain goatee.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: His redemption arises from the Young Six forgiving him and letting him go in an Enemy Mine against Cozy Glow.
• The Cavalry:
  • At the end of "School Raze - Part 2", he shows up to arrest Cozy Glow along with Princesses Celestia and Luna and the Royal Guard.
  • In the series finale, he is one of the members of the army the Young Six raise for the final battle.
• Cheated Angle: For much of "School Daze - Part 1", his badge is on his left. However, at one point in Part 1 and in his sole appearance in Part 2, it's on his right, as it is in his picture shown here. Even more puzzling when you consider that he's seen from his right at multiple points in Part 1, and only in that one shot is the badge not missing. In addition, the front shots we see of him show that the ribbon the badge is attached to only hangs over one shoulder (usually his left), yet it's always hanging over the shoulder shown to the viewers, regardless of if it's his left or right, or if the badge is visible or not.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike the previous antagonists of each season premiere/finale, he's not a villain with grand designs for world domination or the like. Instead, he's a simple Jerkass who wouldn't feel out of place in the Slice of Life episodes.
• Dean Bitterman: He is very conservative, insisting that the E.E.A.'s schools strictly follow the guidelines to a "T", and wary of non-pony students, describing them as dangerous. He closes the E.E.A. school of friendship's doors, which prompts Twilight and the other students to re-open the school as an independent, non-accredited academy.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: He is this for Jerkass Has a Point. Fantastic Racism aside, he is very unlikable and makes no effort to warm up to anyone, and shows no respect for Twilight or her methods. That said, he is well within his rights to have the school shut down, and does give a lot of painful truths. For instance, the Mane Six had no idea how to teach their classes within the guidelines, they weren't able to rein in students who were playing hooky out of boredom, and the exchange students caused an accident that demolished one of the school's towers and almost buried several ponies in rubble. When he points this out to everyone, they can't do anything but glare at him because they know he has a point. When Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six end up locked away in Tartarus, he uses the opportunity to remain in charge, completely unaware that nopony likes him at all, and finds this out too late when Cozy Glow provokes the students who admired Twilight into turning against him and locking him in Twilight's office. He ends up recognizing that he needs an attitude adjustment and pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
• Didn't Think This Through: In the Season 8 finale.
  • Cozy Glow points out to him that Neighsay is basically going around saying that he knows better on how to run the School of Friendship than the Princess of Friendship who was supported by Celestia and Luna. When she phrases it this way out loud to him, Neighsay suddenly starts reconsidering his stance.
  • He declares that with Twilight gone, he is taking over the School of Friendship, and he will run it the way the E.E.A. would. He makes the mistake of announcing this before Twilight's students who all love her and know Neighsay has already shut the school down once before. No prizes for guessing what happens next.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Twilight proposes her school of friendship, he misses that the entire point of it is to teach the magic of friendship to other species. Instead, he thinks of it as a way for the ponies to learn to properly defend themselves against other creatures.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He treats Star Swirl with the respect he deserves, amazed and wide-eyed when seeing him in person and speaking highly of him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Shown twice during the "School Raze" two-parter.
  • In part one, he immediately believes Sandbar when he claims to no longer want anything to do with the rest of the Young Six, never considering that it might be suspicious how Sandbar would suddenly turn against his friends.
  • In part two, he initially believes the Young Six have come to gloat over his situation, and is genuinely confused when told that they're come to free him.
• Evil Is Petty: Deconstructed; Neighsay takes Twilight running her school without accreditation as a personal insult, which clouds his judgment on matters pertaining to her.
  • He accredited Flim and Flam's school so quickly simply to spite Twilight and her school and enjoyed rubbing it in, which unfortunately turned out to be a bad idea since the Friendship University was a scam.
  • This bites him hard in the Season 8 finale. He triumphantly and proudly declares that he is taking over the School of Friendship in Twilight's absence, and he will run things according to E.E.A. standards as should have been done all along. Unfortunately, this attitude makes it easy for Cozy to turn the students against him because they liked how Twilight ran things.
• Fantastic Racism: He is shown to be quite bigoted towards other creatures, seeing them as nothing more than threats to Equestria, and he even says that maybe friendship should only be for ponies. His prejudice prevents him from even considering Twilight's ideas, even after he sees that her approach is working because some of the students have formed an Interspecies Friendship. In "Friendship University" he supports Flim and Flam's school because of the pony-only environment and believes that the "ill manners" of Twilight's non-pony students are "contagious". In the first half of the season 8 finale he goes so far as to call them monsters and accuse the Young Six of being behind the magic crisis for no other reason then they are not ponies and imprisons them with no evidence to back up his claims. He also says that, under his control, the School of Friendship will be pony-only "as nature intended". At the end of said finale, however, he gets better.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. He's convinced that his way of doing things is the right way, and refuses to be challenged. This leads him to develop a grudge against Twilight for both refusing to run the School of Friendship by E.E.A. standards and allowing non-ponies to attend; even the fact that Celestia herself supports Twilight's decisions does nothing to sway him. In fact, he's so sure he's right that at one point, he states that everypony else will "come to their senses" and agree with him eventually. This mindset ends up backfiring on him during "School Raze":
  • Both Sandbar and Cozy Glow are able to trick him into thinking they're on his side simply by agreeing with his views, allowing them to enact their own agendas right under his nose.
  • When he announces that Twilight's "reign" is over, and that he will be running the school according to E.E.A. standards, he expects the pony students to go along with it without question. Instead, they quickly show concern (since they look up to Twilight and like the way she runs the school), and (with some prompting from Cozy Glow) rise up against him, not wanting him to ruin the school like he almost did before.
• Foil: To Cozy Glow. Both are antagonists in the Season 8 finale who try to take over the School of Friendship and exhibit Fantastic Racism towards non-ponies. However, their general attitudes and how they go about things are very different. Neighsay is unlikable but somewhat well-intentioned, and eventually pulls a Heel–Face Turn. By contrast, Cozy Glow is charismatic while enacting a plan to seize power for herself, and remains evil after her defeat. While Cozy Glow largely uses prejudice towards non-ponies as a tool to manipulate others, Neighsay's speciesism is genuine, though he eventually gets past it. Cozy Glow is also pragmatic enough to be a Villain with Good Publicity, intending to keep running the school as Twilight would have, while Neighsay allows his dislike of Twilight to become a personal issue, which clouds his judgment and ends up turning the students against him.
• Good Is Not Nice: He may be a speciesist, arrogant jerk, but he genuinely wants Equestria to be a better place. He has no qualms about allying with the Young Six against Cozy Glow and manages to bring in the cavalry.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: He serves as the "bad" to the main heroes' "good" and Cozy Glow's "evil". While he is a speciesist jerk, he is still loyal to Equestria and allies with the heroes to stop Cozy Glow.
• Hate Sink: For his Fantastic Racism against the creatures the Mane Six have befriended and his treatment of Twilight, as well as his overall attitude of condescension and pompous behavior. He was intended by the show creators to be as unlikable as possible. However, by the Season 8 finale, he comes to realize what a jerkass he was being.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the Season 8 finale, he finally begins to accept the Young Six and attempts to get Celestia and Luna to stop Cozy Glow. He does succeed with using the last of his magic in his medallion to reach Canterlot and warn them, joining them as they take an entire battalion of Royal Guards on foot to Ponyville, before the return of their magic allows them to fly/teleport there faster to apprehend Cozy and punish her for high treason against her fellow ponies. He also apologizes to Twilight for doubting her.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In "Friendship University", he aligns himself with the Flim-Flam brothers (a.k.a. known con artists) over Twilight. This is partly because Flim and Flam's Friendship University is apparently pony-only, and his beef with Twilight was largely centered on her teaching members of other species, and because he saw Star Swirl happily studying at and endorsing the university.
• Insane Troll Logic: A big part of the reason he dislikes Twilight teaching members of other species is because he has somehow concluded that they would then use friendship as a weapon against Equestria, and when Twilight questions how he came to that conclusion, his support is... less than logically sound.
  Neighsay: Ah, yes, how to teach friendship to creatures who will one day use it as a weapon against us.
  Twilight: How could they use friendship as a weapon?!
  Neighsay: You tell me, it's your book.
• Irony: He fears the consequences of teaching non-ponies about friendship, thinking they would use what they learn against Equestria. It's a pony who uses this knowledge to take over Equestria, and the species he shunned are the ones who ultimately derail the plan.
• Jerkass: He's a speciesist to all creatures that aren't ponies and chews out Twilight if even a single thing isn't done "by the book".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Deep down underneath that elitism and speciesism is a decent pony. When magic begins to vanish from Equestria in the Season 8 finale, Neighsay goes to the School of Friendship to warn Twilight, but she's already away to investigate it herself, and as far as Neighsay finds when he gets to the school, Twilight left Cozy Glow in charge and not Starlight. Furious over Twilight leaving the school full of children in the care of a foal, Neighsay forcibly takes command of the school in the name of protecting the students from whatever is happening. The "jerk" kicks back in when he thinks the other species are somehow behind it and so confines the Young Six, suspicious of them for no reason but their species, and only lets Sandbar go when he echoed Neighsay's suspicions as a Fake Defector gambit in order to save his friends. Even then, though, he says he will keep the Six imprisoned until he can contact their guardians to retrieve them, showing no intent to hurt them (though he seems ignorant that this really won't look good when their guardians show up).
• Knight Templar: He's single-mindedly determined to protect Equestria from the threats posed by other species, and is fully convinced that non-pony species pose a real and constant danger to ponykind. As a result, he's willing to shut down any institution trying to foster diplomacy with other nations and openly antagonize said nations' leaders, evidently failing to realize that he's only encouraging the very kind of conflict he's trying to work against. He sees the error of his ways after the Young Six save him from Cozy Glow's prison.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He is a speciesist jerk to other species due to seeing them as threats to Equestria, and when he takes over the School of Friendship while Twilight is absent he accuses the Young Six of being responsible for stealing all the magic in Equestria just because five of them are not ponies, without any evidence to back up his claim. This eventually bites him when Cozy Glow convinces the rest of the pony students to rebel against him due to all of them knowing how he will just enforce the E.E.A. rules again and ruin the school. He ends up being restrained to a chair by chains, similar to how he restrained the Young Six, by the students he thought he could trust without question. He is later saved by the Young Six, with Yona getting mild revenge against him by pushing him over backwards hard enough to shatter the chair he's on, further proving his speciesism and paranoia wrong.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: He temporarily shuts down the School of Friendship after listing a series of violations it has made (students skipping school, unqualified teachers, and so on). That, and he sees Twilight as a danger to Equestria because she isn't only helping ponies.
• Perpetual Frowner: The guy almost never cracks a smile, a signature to his unbending and strict persona. He smiles for the first time in "Friendship University"... while taunting Twilight about there being another friendship school in competition with hers. He finally grows out of this in "School Raze".
• Pet the Dog: In the first part of the Season 8 finale, he claims he came to the School of Friendship to warn Twilight about magic vanishing from Equestria, and then says that since the school has (as far as he is aware) been left in the care of Cozy Glow, herself a foal, he is taking charge of things in the name of protecting the children. Though in the same sentences he combines this trope with Kick the Dog, since he thinks the non-pony races attending the school are to blame and he has to protect the pony children from them.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: While he always wanted to protect Equestria and therefore was never truly evil his Fantastic Racism against non-pony species is what prevented him from being a hero. It's only when he realizes that said racism is politically incorrect and drops it that he truly becomes a protector of Equestria.
• Punny Name: His name is a pony-themed pun on "naysay", which is something he does a lot towards Twilight due to not approving of her teaching methods or that she's teaching other creatures besides ponies.
• Red Herring: He's built up as the Arc Villain for Season 8, implied to be working with Cozy Glow to undermine the School of Frienship. He isn't — Cozy Glow was actually working with Tirek, and she's the real Arc Villain.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Twilight promises him the School of Friendship will help better Equestria, a fed-up Neighsay retorts with "Or destroy it!" and exits through his portal.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: His outspoken Fantastic Racism almost causes the very kind of international incident he claims to be a Well-Intentioned Extremist against.
• Smug Snake: His voice is so full of condescension, you can practically see it dripping out of his ears.
• Spanner in the Works: In the Season 8 finale. Cozy Glow had taken over the school to use it for her own purposes... until Neighsay showed up and took control of the situation, hoping to avoid any chaos at the school in the Mane Six's absence, unaware of Starlight's situation as part of Cozy's scheme.
• Super-Speed Reading: He is seen browsing through Twilight's school curriculum in a few seconds.
• Thinking Up Portals: Using his E.E.A. badge, he can open glowing blue-and-black portals to anywhere in Equestria at a moment's notice, instead of employing self-powered magical teleportation that the most talented/powerful unicorns are capable of. This comes into play in the Season 8 finale as a last resort to reach Canterlot and warn Celestia and Luna of Cozy's plans before his medallion is drained of its magic by Cozy's spell. Once he has his magic back, he uses it to reach the School of Friendship at the same time Celestia and Luna arrive there by their restored ability to fly to apprehend Cozy and send her to Tartarus for her crimes.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After being essentially told to step aside by everyone when Twilight reopens the school, Chancellor Neighsay says that he still considers the school to be a threat to Equestria, and leaves through a portal.
• Villainous Widow's Peak: His mane sports a prominent one, although being a unicorn the point is a bit obscured by the horn.
• Villainy-Free Villain: He makes several correction observations on how Twilight's School of Friendship does not meet the proper standards of an educational institution as set by the Equestria Education Association, so he's perfectly in his rights to refuse her school accreditation and shut it down. Where the villainous part comes in is the extreme arrogance and speciesism he exhibits while going about that business.
• Vocal Evolution: In his first appearance, Maurice LaMarche is largely just doing a copy of his voice for the Brain, but upon his return in "Friendship University" it's gotten deeper and more distinct.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He honestly believes he's looking out for Equestria's best interests, but sees other species as a threat rather than potential allies, even when it's demonstrated that they can get along. As far as he's concerned, the potential for them to be dangerous and to use what they learn against Equestria is too great a risk, and Twilight's school is more likely to destroy Equestria than to better it. In consequence, he said he's doing questionable actions only for the greater good, and that's what doesn't make him a full-fledged villain.

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