Pony POV Series Epilogue Timeline Other / Characters

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The Nameless Passenger / The Voice

A mysterious being who helps the heroes on their adventures. May be more than what she appears on the surface...

A God Am I: Not only has she literally become a Goddess of sorts, she chose the name of Nightmare Eclipse out of the belief that she'd eclipsed Celestia and Luna, and exceeded them both.
All There in the Script: The title "Nameless Passenger" isn't mentioned in the fanfic, it's only used in the audio adaptation scripts, primarily so there's something to call it in the credits. Rarity actually calls her a "nameless passenger" after she finally reveals herself.
Alternate Self: Appears to be a version of Dark World Twilight who was consumed by her desire for revenge against Discord. She ultimately turns out to be a potential future version of her.
Ambiguously Evil:
- While it clearly wants to dispose of Discord (in a painful fashion), it seems determined to drive a wedge between Twilight and her friends, or at the very least doesn't see the value in trying to bother with them. Oh, and it's an Omnicidal Maniac.
- Discord's dialogue with it at the end of 'The Ultimate Foe' implies it may be someone who's become He Who Fights Monsters out of its thirst for revenge.
- "The Real Hoof Blues" pretty much clinches the fact she's a villain by having her encourage Twilight becoming She Who Fights Monsters and turning into a Nightmare. The Evil Laugh she gives while telling Angry Pie Prepare to Die is also quite unnerving.
Arch-Enemy: Discord is her main one and vice-versa, but she quickly becomes this to every version of Twilight and the Mane Six. Tirek is also one for her, as he, once he absorbed Discord's magic, was the only enemy she had never been able to neatly defeat once in any loop, to the point that Manacle assumed that she was almost afraid of him.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In order to defeat the redeemed Doctor, she had to whip up a Dalek Empire TARDIS defense shield disruptor, invent a sonic-screwdriver nullifier, memorize every galactic and temporal law book in existence, rent a Dahaka, and buy several cartloads of pears.
Ascended Fanon: Began as Nightmare Purgatory from the "Fading Futures" Recursive Fanfiction.
Ax-Crazy: Once she reveals herself, we see just how unstable she really is. Even when we see her Start of Darkness, it's clear she started out more insane than the current Twilight did and just went downhill from there.
Bad Samaritan: Acted as The Mentor and helpful towards Twilight and the heroes, but it was all part of her Evil Plan.
Berserk Button:
- Does not like being compared to Discord. When Discord pulls a "Not So Different" Remark on her, she basically went mouth-frothing mad.
- Being reminded of the 'Pinkie Sense' incident and Spike defying her both tick her off.
Big Bad:
- Seems to be the other one that the Valleyard alluded to in his Final Speech, as she fits the description and outright tries to make Twilight become She Who Fights Monster and go Nightmare. It's cemented with the reveal that she turned the entire Dark World into a "Groundhog Day" Loop to punish Discord for all eternity. She finally emerges for the Final Battle after Discord's death and Twilight refuses to reset time, revealing herself to be a version of Twilight who turned into a vengeance-crazed Nightmare.
- She, or rather a previous loop's incarnation of her, is also this of the Sirens vs Nightmares Gaiden Story alongside Adagio.
Big Bad Slippage: She originally 'appeared' in a Recursive Canon story that inspired her. There she was simply Twilight Sparkle trying to stop Discord, though technically, that Twilight became part of her.
Big "NO!": When Twilight asks it whether it's some kind of repressed part of Discord, its response is one of these loud enough to leave her cross-eyed and temporarily aphasic.
Blasphemous Boast: She boasts that she's given Princess Celestia a teacher's greatest joy by surpassing her. Forgetting or ignoring that Celestia is among those in Dark World she's erased, brought back, and erased again a few zillion times.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Doesn't keep track of how long she's been torturing Discord, and doesn't bother remembering the names of anyone other than her direct pawns. This is especially clear when Apple Pie questions her on her twin sister, Poison Apple.
Apple Pie: Please...how many times did you let Poison Apple die?
Nightmare Paradox: Who?
Apple Pie: Yah... yah don't even know?
Nightmare Paradox: Silly pony, I don't pay attention to the unimportant NPCs. That's what notebooks are for! He was your coltfriend right?
Cannibalism Superpower: She's been keeping the Dark World timeline in a continuous time loop. Every time Twilight and her friends defeat Discord, Nightmare Eclipse finds some way to corrupt the Twilight of that timeline into a new Nightmare Eclipse, then absorbs her to increase her own power and resets the timeline back to the beginning. Lather, rinse, repeat...for hundreds of millions of years.
The Corrupter: Constantly tries to convince Twilight to just kill her corrupted friends instead of trying to redeem them, or abandon the ones she has redeemed. Becomes this trope fully in "The Real Hoof Blues" when she attempts to turn Twilight into He Who Fights Monsters mode and go Nightmare just like her, then going into a rage when she's pulled back.
Cross-Popping Veins: Her reaction to Twilight bringing up the "Pinkie Sense" incident.
Dark Messiah: According to the song writer, her Villain Song was meant to invoke this. Word of God even describes her as having a Messiah Complex.
The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: As shown in her Start of Darkness, she first reset the world to end Discord's reign; revenge was simply a bonus she felt she could indulge in since the world was resetting anyway and no one would ever know. By the time she went Nightmare and took her revenge, she'd become so obsessed with it that she starts a "Groundhog Day" Loop that kept the world trapped perpetually in Discord's reign. Also, she was once friends with Apple Pie in her cycle as well, but when we see her in the present, she sees Apple Pie as someone who never should've existed at all.
Deadpan Snarker: Quite frequently.
Deader than Dead: Confirmed by Word of God: Twilight absorbing her destroyed her persona, identity, and self, meaning for all intents and purposes, there is no longer an Eclipse in any sense of the word. This is later referenced in story where the Concepts point out that Twilight had to do this or Eclipse might have just gone right back to her old ways.
Death by Irony: Every time that Twilight refused to continue the Dark World loop, Eclipse would force her hoof by using the super-charged Elements of Harmony to destroy the world and kill Twilight's friends in front of her, leaving her with no choice but to become a new Nightmare. Eclipse herself is defeated by the Dark World heroes using the Elements against her, and the last thing she sees are her own friends-turned-Nightmares being washed away in a river of rainbow light.
Demonic Possession: Tries to pull this on Twilight when she breaks free of the latter's influence. Her friends' support repels it. This forces her to possess the body of Wind Whistler that Discord left behind when he died.
Didn't See That Coming: Despite being omnipresent, even it can be taken by surprise by things like Derpy becoming the Element of Loyalty or Rancor impaling Discord with the Concept-Killing Spear. This is also the first sign that she isn't completely infallible...which also means that the possibility of defeating her exists.
Dissonant Serenity: When happy, she sounds exactly like Twilight would if she were talking about a fun science project... while gleefully revealing how she was able to keep the Dark World timeline trapped in an endless 1000-year "Groundhog Day" Loop for the purposes of torturing Discord for all eternity.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Seems to genuinely care about her Psycho Rangers, particularly Banneret, and vice versa. Seems to being the operative word, as the fact that she Mind Raped them all into becoming Nightmares shows just how poisonous her "love" for them is.
Even Evil Has Standards: She's disgusted by the actions of the Mane Six in the "Harmony Queens" timeline, where they subjugated Equestria and forced it to conform to draconian standards in the name of maintaining harmony. She plans to save their Equestria from them eventually.
Evil All Along: After being Mission Control for most of the series, she turns out to be the true Big Bad and worse than Discord.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She was once like Twilight, and Discord's actions drove her to stop him. The thing is, she's become so convinced that Discord is utterly irredeemable that she cannot and even refuses to accept the fact that Discord is capable of turning good or loving someone else from the goodness of his heart. Even kind acts from him, such as turning Celestia's prison into a paradise, are rationalized as ploys for something horrible. Every time Discord tries to act on his Heel Realization, it's overridden with a copy of his villainous actions from a previous loop, just so he wouldn't 'break character'. When she encounters an untainted counterpart of herself (Twilight), she immediately tries to mold her into a new Nightmare Purgatory so she can absorb her like every previous Twilight, so Discord will always remain a villain. She sees herself as a hero, but is so consumed by her desire for revenge that she is left almost completely unable to see and understand the inherent good in others. This view also extends to Fluttercruel, whom she sees as a defective, soulless clone of Fluttershy, and doesn't understand that she is capable of genuine love towards Discord, Fluttercruel's father.
Passenger: (in reaction to Fluttercruel's Draconequusification) Did seeing Discord harmed give this creature strength?!
Evil Counterpart: To Twilight obviously. Ironically, she's also one for the original Nightmare Purgatory, who eventually did turn back into Twilight.
Evil Laugh: Gives one while telling Angry Pie to Prepare to Die at the hooves of Proto-Nightmare Twilight.
Evil Mentor: Gives Twilight advice during her conflict with Discord, but it's gradually revealed she's actually the second Big Bad and The Corrupter, seeking to turn Twilight into a Knight Templar Nightmare. She also repeatedly tries to convince Twilight to kill or abandon her friends.
Eviler than Thou: Everypony seems to agree that she's worse than Discord.
Evil Versus Evil:
- When Discord was still evil, she had this with him.
- She's fought Tirek before in previous loops and was never able to beat him.
- Also fought the Sirens in the one loop they managed to make it back to Equestria. This battle is depicted in Sirens vs Nightmares, with her personally fighting Adagio. In the timeline where Twilight didn't reset the timeline midfight, Nightmare Eclipse loses.
Expendable Clone: Sees the entire Dark World, minus Twilight and Discord, as this. To her, they're just 'NPCs' to delete whenever Discord's met his end at the climax of each cycle of her "Groundhog Day" Loop. She's the only one who feels this way though; everyone else is suitably horrified by the implications, including Apple Pie, whose twin sister was one of Discord's victims.
Expy: Of Kriemhild Gretchen. At least in role, being the Superpowered Evil Side of The Hero and a Dark Messiah seeking to ultimately create what she sees as a paradise and who's creation/arrival results in a time reset, each loop making her stronger. She also has elements of Walpurgis Night, being a super powerful Nightmare formed from multiple other Nightmares (though this has only been implied by Word of God to be the case with Walpurgis) and her arrival is foreshadowed by her being called 'an Alicorn Witch' who will destroy the world when she arrives. Given Alexwarlorn is a Madoka fan, this makes sense. That said, her personality and powers are pretty much entirely unique.
Face–Heel Turn:
- Following Discord's death, she finally has enough of the redeemed team's idealism and decides to take her desires into her own hands.
- She was already Heel — though since she's an potential future Twilight-turned-Nightmare, it's safe to say this trope already happened.
- We finally see the moment of the turn in "A Fading Future".
Fallen Hero: Was one a version of Twilight Sparkle who went Nightmare.
Faux Affably Evil: When she reveals herself, she still talks and, to some degree, acts like Twilight Sparkle... which makes the fact she's an Ax-Crazy Psychopathic Manchild who gleefully erased millions of ponies several million times for the sake of punishing Discord and has not intention of stopping all the more disturbing. Even In-Universe, the heroes agree the dissonance makes her terrifying.
Fatal Flaw:
- Her thirst for vengeance. Her original plan to Set Right What Once Went Wrong only failed because she allowed it to consume her and turn her into Nightmare Purgatory, causing her to turn the Set Right What Once Went Wrong into a "Groundhog Day" Loop all for the sake of punishing Discord more.
- It directly leads to her undoing when Discord prank-calls her from the afterlife and presses her Berserk Button that she can't stand the thought he actually succeeded in saving Fluttercruel (instead of her dying as part of her Evil Plan to torture him). As a result, she is so enraged that she fails to notice Twilight finishing up the spell that ultimately defeats her.
Flaming Hair: Her mane and tail are made up of magenta flames.
Foreshadowing: During her Breaking Speech to Fluttercruel, she calls her a defective copy of Fluttershy that never should have existed, making a comment about how it should be proper to erase "excess selves" because "they just take up space and it's not like they're really alive anyway". Later we find out that she doesn't consider anyone in the Dark World timeline besides Twilight and Discord to be "real ponies", just mindless puppets she can use at her leisure to torture Discord for all eternity. In fact, she's reset the Dark World timeline countless times, not giving a shit that every reset killed all the living beings in that iteration, for the purpose of forcing Discord to live in an endless, unescapable, unwinnable 1,000-year "Groundhog Day" Loop.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: She was put through the same situation as Twilight presently is, and has every right to be furious at Discord. However, it's pointed out what she did to punish him made her worse than he ever was, and it's been pointed out she could have defeated him and saved the future without it but didn't.
Future Me Scares Me: Is a potential future version of Twilight and part of her goal is to convince Twilight to turn into her and continue the "Groundhog Day" Loop. She even refers to Twilight as "me" and "myself". Twilight is reasonably freaked out to discover this.
Glamour Failure: When Twilight finally breaks free of its influence and asks it directly who it is, the others suddenly realize they all can hear it and that it never occurred to them that that's unusual.
Good Angel, Bad Angel: While what she is hasn't been revealed, with the arrival of a second, more benevolent voice that encourages Twilight to redeem her friends, The Voice has become the Bad Angel to its Good Angel.
Happy Ending Override:
- Every loop of the Dark World timeline has ended with her wiping out all life in that world, forcing that incarnation of Twilight to become a Nightmare like her, and then absorbing the new Nightmare Eclipse to increase her own power. The key to freeing the world isn't defeating Discord (who is now as much a prisoner of Eclipse as Twilight and her friends are), it's finding a way to put down Eclipse for good so that the loop stops, once and for all.
- Her final defeat inverts this: as she merged with every Nightmare Purgatory at the moment of their genesis, she effectively tied the fate of all her alternate selves to herself. As such, when she's defeated, no other version of her in the entire multiverse will ever succeed and Amicitia makes sure to nudge every loop of Dark World into splintering into an alternate timeline where Twilight and company defeated her.
Hellfire: Being Nightmare Purgatory's evolution, her mane and tail are still composed of this, though her wings are no longer on fire. Discord says the immolating him with this was her favorite way to kill him whenever she did it personally.
He Who Fights Monsters: One of her goals is to turn Twilight into this. It's implied that this is also what happened to her, as while she wants revenge on Discord and to take him down, it's been pointed out repeatedly that she's become no different from him. Considering she's a Twilight who went Nightmare and trapped Discord in a "Groundhog Day" Loop to perpetually torment him, and doesn't care about the Dark World denizens being erased from existence each time, she more than qualifies.
Hidden Agenda Villain: While she's upfront about her plan to take revenge on Discord, her plans to turn Twilight into a Knight Templar Nightmare aren't fully revealed until the battle with Angry Pie.
Hidden Villain: She's been there since early in the Dark World Arc, her plans have gradually come to light, but only bits and pieces of her true identity have been revealed as the arc begins heading for its Grand Finale.
Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Since she first became Nightmare Eclipse, she has, without fail, turned every iteration of Twilight from every loop of Dark World into a new Nightmare Eclipse and absorbed them to increase her own power. All iterations of Nightmare Eclipse throughout the multiverse exist because of her. But when the first Eclipse is finally defeated, because Eclipse merged each of them with herself, their fates were tied to hers. As a result, not only was Eclipse beaten, every version of her was doomed to be beaten as well.
Rota Fortuna: Their Fate/Myself cannot separate itself/Myself from your own because in essence, you have made them a part of you. You have shackled them all to the same wheel as yourself, and when that wheel turns, they can only follow.
- The reason she and her Gallery can't beat the Sirens is because the very negative energy and corruption that makes them Nightmares feeds the Sirens. By corrupting the Elements of Harmony as they have, using it against the Sirens blows up in their face as the Sirens merely consume it and get even stronger.
Humanoid Abomination: As opposed to the other "Super Nightmares", she still looks like a normal, if dark and menacing, Alicorn. However, due to the fact she's a several hundred million year old insane goddess who's reset the timeline over and over again, as well as her occasional habit of speaking in a Voice of the Legion when singing or pissed off, and the fact she spends most of the story as a disembodied voice, that just makes her creepier.
Hypocrite: As the heroes point out, she seems incapable of realizing many of the ideas she uses to condemn others and justify her actions could just as easily be used to condemn her. For example, she says the heroes can't be real because they're not exactly the same as they were a thousand years ago (Applejack is more lady-like, Rarity is more rough and tumble, etc.), Twilight points out that by that logic, a mass murdering, psychopathic, revenge-crazed Nightmare version of Twilight shouldn't exist either. Paradox just ignores her.
I Hate Past Me: Views the present Twilight (her past self) as a naive child still clinging to 'dolls' that aren't real who needs to wake up to Paradox's twisted worldview. In a bit of irony, Paradox herself is this for Twilight in some ways, as she retains many of the flaws Twilight has overcome and cranked them up, something which annoys and frustrates Twilight.
I Have Many Names:
- Originally called herself Nightmare Purgatory, then Nightmare Dusk, now Nightmare Eclipse. Apple Pie is the one who suggests Nightmare Paradox, and Discord refers to her simply as Nightmare Twilight.
- The Concepts also refer to this particular Eclipse as Eclipse Prime, due to her being the very first one.
Insane Troll Logic:
- As a Nightmare, her worldview operates on this. She believes (or has deluded herself into believing) that all the characters in the Dark World timeline are just factory-programmed robots that exist to follow her scripts, ignoring that they have minds of their own and can even do things she never anticipated (such as Derpy becoming the Element of Loyalty), which wouldn't be possible if she was controlling their every action. The only beings she considers "real" are herself, Twilight, Discord, and the iterations of her friends she converted into Nightmares to follow her.
- One of her arguments for why killing the living beings in Dark World isn't murder is that "clay has potential to become a pot, but you aren't destroying pots when you squash clay", effectively saying that they have potential to come alive, but are not alive—ignoring that all of them are fully sentient and very much don't want to die.
I Reject Your Reality: According to her, every single character in Dark World other than Twilight and Discord himself is an unthinking, unfeeling robot that only exists to be used as a tool for Discord's eternal torment. This makes her no different from Fluttercruel, who is so insane that she sincerely believes her victims only exist for her or her father's amusement, like toys or sprites in a video game.
Benevolent Interloper: Just how many lives are you willing to sacrifice?
Nightmare Eclipse: There are no lives! None of you are real! You are all but illusions I created to torture Discord!
Ironic Echo: Earlier in Dark World, the heroes give Fluttercruel a Shut Up, Hannibal! saying they know they're flawed and are okay with that. When the heroes call her out on her atrocities, she uses the same argument in return.
Irony:
- Despite seeing everyone else as NPCs, she herself is so bound by her nature as a Nightmare of revenge that for all she talks about her Villain World, she will likely never actually get to it and if not defeated would likely have ended up repeating the cycle over and over forever...very similar to what she accused everyone else of being.
- Nightmare Eclipse has been perpetuating the entire Dark World loop as a gigantic act of revenge against Discord, who is now her favorite punching bag. One of those that contributes to her downfall is Rancor, the Concept of Revenge itself, who stabs Discord with the Concept Killing Spear and removes him from the mortal plane, taking him out of Eclipse's reach. She also wounds Twilight with the spear in such a way that it will stun Eclipse during the final battle.
In-Series Nickname: Nightmare Paradox, given to her by Apple Pie, and Nightmare Twilight, given by Discord. Her real name, however, is Nightmare Eclipse.
Karmic Death:
- Her defeat mirrors several of her actions towards Twilight in previous cycles, including having to witness her friends be torn from her and be forcibly fused with Twilight. Lampshaded by Rota Fortuna.
Rota Fortuna: …You are right. Crimes are crimes, and we should never turn a blind eye to them. You who have judged others, you too shall be judged.
- The version of her from the potential future were the Sirens usurp the timeline from her suffers one as well: being left to be erased from existence along like she has so many others, with the Shadows of her victims eagerly waiting.
Kill It with Fire: The flaming mane and tail aren't just for show, fire is one of her main methods of attack. Discord also states that her doing this to him was her method of choice whenever she personally killed him.
Knight of Cerebus: She manages to be this for the Dark World timeline! When the story turns to focus on her, it instantly turns into a Wham Arc and the stakes go from freeing the world to saving the universe from being erased from existence. The fact she's built up as being worse than Discord and actually lives up to it combined with her frightening Faux Affably Evil personality and the fact she has undoubtedly the largest body count of any villain in the series (having erased the Dark World timeline and everyone in it enough times to amount to several hundred million years) more than qualifies her for this trope.
Kick the Dog:
- Telling Twilight to murder an innocent Sea Pony which, as the Benevolent Interloper points out, was completely unneeded.
- She seems to make it a point to be more dismissive and demeaning to Apple Pie, probably due to her belief that Apple Pie shouldn't exist. Ironically, she and Apple Pie were best friends once.
Kill the God: She plans to kill Rota Fortuna, the Concept of Fate, since she believes that Rota forces ponies to follow only predetermined paths and doesn't allow them to take control of their own lives, when actually things are quite the opposite. Backfires when Rota herself ends up being the one to judge her for her crimes after she's finally defeated.
Knight Templar: While she wants to defeat Discord, her methods, which include encouraging Twilight to abandon or kill her corrupted friends, push her firmly into this territory. Goes even further by outright encouraging Twilight to become He Who Fights Monsters.
Nameless Passenger: If Hell does not exist, it must be made.
Light Is Not Good: She wears bright white armor, has a flaming mane and tail, and thinks of herself as an Exalted Torturer sent to punish Discord for his many crimes. She is also an insane Nightmare directly responsible for the permanent Crapsack World state of the Dark World timeline, as well as the continued suffering of every single living thing trapped in it.
Logical Weakness:
- She's memorized the timeline and more or less knows every possible outcome...until Rancor and the Benevolent Interloper, two outside elements, enter the picture and completely derail her plan.
- As a Nightmare, her entire existence is based on a negative version of what she embodies and what they corrupted their Elements of Harmony into. This means she and her Gallary of Nightmares can't beat the Sirens period.
Mad God: Like all Nightmares, despite seeing herself as a hero.
Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Every time the heroes manage to beat Discord in a way that didn't lead to Twilight becoming her and resetting time, she'd emerge and make sure things went bad enough that Twilight had no choice but to do it. Ultimately, she still fails.
Manipulative Bastard:
- It's manipulated everyone thus far, with varying degrees of success. Most notably managing to give an effective Break Him By Talking to Discord!
- The only person who it hasn't been able to manipulate is Rancor, who shoots it down and ignores it.
Meaningful Name: Despite not being her preferred name, Paradox is a fitting description of her, seeing as her very existence is a Temporal Paradox.
Mission Control: For most of Dark World, providing Twilight with tips and advice. Though it also tries to push her in scary directions.
Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Turns out she's actually the real Big Bad (one of two, anyway) and seeking to turn Twilight into a vengeance-crazed Nightmare like herself.
Monster Progenitor: Was the original Dark World Nightmare and manipulated things so the other five would come into being. She's also the original Nightmare Eclipse, the first one to ever exist, and thus all others that had existed came from her. This kind of backfired.
Moral Sociopathy: Wants to see the wicked punished for his crimes, but only cares about that. She'll gladly destroy the entire universe over and over, erasing countless lives from existence to punish Discord for his sins.
Never My Fault: Refuses to accept that she's capable of making mistakes, always blaming Discord... even though now she's no better than he was and is the reason he's still doing everything he does. It gets worse as she blames him for Cadence dying... when previous loops show she originally didn't perish period, and in the first loop he turned her into a platinum statue, meaning if she hadn't gone evil, she'd never have died period.
Never the Selves Shall Meet: While her and Twilight can interact and make contact, she can't touch Minty Pie because, being Twilight's potential future self, she and Minty Pie are joint Reincarnations of G3 Minty, and if they touched, it would threaten to cause them to fuse together.
Nothing Is Scarier: As details are gradually revealed, it becomes more and more frightening that all that's really known about her true identity is she's female and someone who became an insane vigilante due to Discord's actions, not who she is or even what she is.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Unlike her Co-Dragons, who seemed to have more or less moved past their respective grudges against Discord, at least enough that they put creating a better world above it, Eclipse would rather reset the timeline and let the cycle continue, even if by some miracle their current selves managed to pull off Everybody Lives, if it meant she could get more pleasure out of watching Discord be tortured for something he long ago had a Heel Realization for and would have stopped doing if she would stop forcing him through the role.
Oh, Crap!:
- Has this reaction when Twilight sicks the Princesses on her Psycho Rangers. We find out a few moments later why: she has Synchronization with her Nightmares and all the damage they suffer is inflicted on her as well.
- Has another one when Minty Pie is teleported directly above her, and teleports out of the way instantly (remember, since she's Twilight's potential future self, touching Minty Pie would have the same effect as it did on her)).
- Has one when she realizes 'the Hydra wasn't the doozy' and she just allowed Discord to distract her while Twilight put her real final attack into motion.
- It's mentioned that the Sirens managed to make her panic. We finally see the context in the Sirens vs Nightmares Gaiden story when Adagio copies her Reset Button spell and negate her use of it.
Omnicidal Maniac:
- She doesn't have a very high degree of faith in the Dark World and says its "only salvation is destruction".
- Turns out her goal is to reset the Dark World over and over again to trap Discord in an Ironic Hell, erasing everyone and everything from existence to accomplish that.
Origins Episode: "A Fading Future", and to a lesser extent the other two cycles shown, explains her Start of Darkness and how she came to be. Also counts as a Villain Episode.
Ouroboros: Seems to be one of her symbols, appearing twice during her advent. Makes sense considering what her plan is.
Pay Evil unto Evil: Deconstructed. She went Nightmare in the first place in order to punish Discord for his crimes, but by the time she'd actually done the deed, she became obsessed with obtaining vengeance for the sake of it.
Pet the Dog: Her treatment of the Doctor after she defeated him was relatively kind by her standards. She transformed him into a baby with a fob watch containing his memories and left him on the doorstep of a warm-hearted, infertile couple who had always wanted children.
Pocket Dimension: Has one resembling a strangely orderly version of Hell. She takes Twilight there to try and convince her to reset time. Rarity thankfully breaks through using the Elements of Chaos to rescue her.
The Power of Hate: Well, Revenge, but she still seems to believe in this.
Prank Call: During the final battle, she was subjected to one by Discord. From the afterlife. This gave Twilight enough time to prepare a powerful spell to fire at her.
Protagonist-Centered Morality: In-universe, she sees the world from this perspective. She still thinks she's the hero, and therefore all her heinous actions are justified because they're to stop the bad guy and bring about a utopia. It only made her a villain, one that's even worse than Discord.
Psychopathic Man Child: Shows shades of this during her Motive Rant. And even before that, her entire reason for continuing the loops to keep punishing Discord is essentially the equivalent of a stubborn child throwing a massive temper tantrum and refusing to admit that "enough is enough".
"The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- She loves giving them to Discord.
- Gives another one to Ender Dash during the Duel of Tears.
- Ends up on the receiving end of one from Rota Fortuna, which combined with a couple of self-realizations sends her into a Villainous Breakdown.
Red Herring: Its statements seem similar to those of Twilight's Sparkle personality, but it's kept replying to comments even after she faded away and Twilight became 'Twilight the Unicorn'. Then it's revealed that Applejack hears it as well, meaning it can't be Sparkle.
Reset Button: She keeps resetting Dark World in a loop to punish Discord and can do a short term version to turn back time and reverse what just happened.
Revenge: Seems to hold a serious grudge on Discord, but why has yet to be revealed (revealed to having been due to being a version of Twilight Sparkle he subjected to the hell the current one is experiencing). But it wants him to suffer, brutally for whatever it is he did to it.
Revenge Before Reason:
- Deconstructed. She's so consumed by her thirst for revenge, she can't even realize the only reason Discord is even doing the things she wants to punish him for is because she's forcing him to as part of the Ironic Hell she put him into. In addition, her original plan to Set Right What Once Went Wrong only failed because her thirst for revenge got the better of her.
- Sirens vs Nightmares showcases this even more strongly: after she's been beaten by the Sirens, drained of her power, and the Sirens are about to usurp the timeline from her, the only way to stop it is if she releases the Shining Armor she consumed who had the Element of Trust and allows herself and the Nightmare Gallery to be purified. Even with the stakes so high, Eclipse is so addicted to her revenge for Discord that to her frustration, she still won't cooperate willingly.
Running Both Sides: Essentially reduced Discord to her tortured prisoner who did only what she allowed him to do (with the ability to Villain Override his actions if he didn't), forcing him to play the part of the Evil Overlord long after he'd had a Heel Realization, while simultaneously acting as Mission Control for the heroes.
Sanity Slippage: What Discord put her through combined with going Nightmare followed by several hundred million years worth of time loops has turned her into an Ax-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac.
Satanic Archetype: A devil (which is what fallen Alicorns are called) who used to be the good and heroic servant of a deity before "falling from grace". Eclipse is an Omnicidal Maniac associated with Hellfire who plays as The Corrupter to everyone she once called an ally to further her nihilistic agenda. She opposes and tries to tempt her Messianic Archetype past self into following her plans and just like Satan, her story is one of revenge. This is one of the ways she's become no different from Discord, since he is also a Satanic archetype for Equestria.
Screw Destiny: A rare villainous example, and a subverted one at that. She talks a big game about defying fate and making her destiny her own, and seemingly encourages Twilight to do just that. But as Rota Fortuna points out, all Eclipse has done is shackle herself to the wheel of fate by repeating the same thousand years of Dark World over and over again for the sole purpose of making an eternal hell for Discord.
Self-Inflicted Hell: She may have created the "Groundhog Day" Loop for the purpose of torturing Discord, but she doesn't realize she's trapped herself in it too, because no amount of suffering she forces him to swallow will ever be enough for her.
Discord: ...you're trapped like me. You're never going to be satisfied. No matter how many times you put me through the meat grinder. It's never going to keep a smile on your face for more than a nanosecond. You're just like me.
Shadow Archetype: To Twilight. As Apple Pie points out, her personality is closer to Twilight when she started than Twilight now, only more psychopathic and with all her flaws taken up to eleven.
Shut Up, Kirk!: Twilight tells her she's all alone. She replies by saying she's not and summoning her Psycho Rangers.
Smug Super: Takes Twilight's overconfidence up to eleven, but at the same time, she is stronger than Discord, so she has every right to be..
Start of Darkness: We see it in "A Fading Future". She reset time to stop Discord's reign, but decided to indulge in a little bit of revenge since the world was being erased and no one would ever know. She allows her rage and thirst for revenge to grow in order to invoke going Nightmare to punish Discord. By the time she'd gotten her vengeance, she'd become so consumed by it she decided that once wasn't enough...
Static Role, Exchangeable Character: This is how Nightmare Eclipse sees the other Elements of Harmony besides Twilight Sparkle in every cycle (because she sees them as philosophical zombies), even encouraging her to try and topple Discord singlehandedly at time (this is because she did exactly that herself). Each cycle ends with Discord's defeat and Twilight resetting time anyway, no matter who she does or doesn't bring with her.
Soundtrack Dissonance: According to the song writer, her Villain Song was intended to be something that, in most contexts, would sound heroic, but who she is is what gives them a villainous twist.
Superpowered Evil Side: A Twilight Sparkle who was consumed by her rage and desire for revenge against Discord. An alternate version of 'Fading Futures' was posted as an actual chapter detailing her origins. Like in the original, she invoked this transformation so she could take her revenge.
Superpower Lottery: She is Twilight's Nightmare after all.
Synchronization: Any wound inflicted on her Psycho Rangers is inflicted on her as well. Twilight exploits this by siccing the Princesses on them.
Take That!: Her rant about how Twilight's friends are "fakes" because they look and act differently from how they did 1,000 years ago sounds like a hardcore fan of a TV show refusing to accept any major changes to its basic structure.
Tautological Templar: Takes Twilight's own ego up to eleven and firmly believes she's right in her actions and everyone else is too stupid to acknowledge she is.
Technicolor Fire: Her mane and tail are composed of purple, black, and magenta Hellfire.
Temporal Paradox: According to Word of God, the fact she exists simultaneously with Twilight (allowing her to basically ENFORCE a Stable Time Loop ending with her becoming Nightmare Purgatory and then Paradox) basically is one of these, violating the laws of cause and effect just by existing. It's implied that this becomes a major reason why Eclipse!Rainbow Dash was ascended to Concepthood and given the power to influence/break time cycles. It also bites her in the flank, as it means, due to being Eclipse Prime, when the original loses, she tied her existence to every other version of herself, and thus there exists no Nightmare Eclipse who wins in all the multiverse.
Tempting Fate: Literally. She outright announces for all to hear that her ultimate goal is to kill Rota Fortuna, the Goddess of Fate, destroying fate and allowing her to remake the universe how she pleases. This makes the Benevolent Interloper ask her if it was really a smart idea to say that out loud. And indeed, after her defeat, it is Rota Fortuna who gives her the final judgment on her actions, allowing her to be buried and fused with every version of Twilight in existence in order to remove her presence from every timeline permanently.
Time Dissonance: Due to how long the "Groundhog Day" Loop has been going on and coming from a potential future, her perspective of time seems rather warped. She causally mentions that the loop has happened for several hundred million years and constantly refers to Twilight as 'myself'. How much of this is due to the "Groundhog Day" Loop and how much is due to her just being completely insane by now isn't clear.
Time Master: Can rewind time.
Treacherous Quest Giver: Gives Twilight and company advice and tries to send them after certain objectives, but clearly has her own goals rather than theirs in mind. She's actually the true villain and actively trying to destroy the world as part of a loop that's torturing Discord.
True Final Boss: For the Dark World timeline.
Uniqueness Value: She believes only one 'real' version of a being can exist period and all other ones don't matter.
Villain Has a Point: While she's undoubtedly become as bad if not worse than he was, she has a point that Discord was an unrepentant monster when she started who actually deserved the Ironic Hell she trapped him in. The problem is she trapped the entire world with him and he's had a Heel Realization and wants to change but she won't let him, since she's utterly convinced that "once a villain, always a villain".
Villainous Breakdown:
- Has a brief one when her plan to convince Twilight to become like her and go Nightmare is foiled, being reduced to Angrish and screaming at Discord, accusing him of foiling her plan.
- Also has one of the This Cannot Be! variety throughout 'Off The Rails' as things begin to go more and more away from her script. As Discord points out, even her insults towards him become less structured and devolve into her just insulting him to try and make herself feel better about Rancor's actions completely wrecking her script.
- She has her biggest one yet in "All Things In Twilight" when Twilight refuses to reset time and shuts down all her attempts to convince her to do so after seeing Discord's memories. While the Passenger has insulted Twilight before, this is the first time she completely loses her temper with her, even going so far as to impersonate Cadence trying to get her to do it.
Nameless Passenger: (((THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOUR MISTAKES! IT'S ABOUT DISCORD'S MISTAKES YOU MORON!)))
- Has a gradual one over the course of the Final Battle as the heroes keep countering her tactics and the Big Damn Heroes and Eleventh Hour Rangers keep showing up. While she's always been able to maintain her composure, as the fight wears on and her frustration and anger mounts, it begins to slip more and more, leading to begin screaming in rage whenever one of her tactics fail. This reaches its zenith when Minty Pie destroys the time travel scroll she was trying to get Twilight to use and refuses to die, ultimately cutting off Twilight's horn to prevent Paradox from corrupting her. The Benevolent Interloper even says Paradox is getting desperate.
Nightmare Paradox: YOU! WHAT PART OF 'LIE ON THE GROUND AND SILENTLY BLEED INTO DEATH' WAS HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!
- Her biggest starts when Discord prank-calls her from the afterlife and tells her Havoc is going to prevent her from overwriting Fluttercruel's Draconequusification, meaning Discord succeeded in getting a loop where she survives. Eclipse proceeds to blow her top and tell him she's going to make Mad Tiara and Screwball suffer more for it. It worsens as she realizes she let herself be distracted from Twilight's real plan, but then her parents (their growth apparently still supercharged) hold her in place and she realizes they're doing so for the same reason Shady and Fluttershy restrained their children. She goes catatonic in response. After a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Rota Fortuna, she's reduced to a defeated, scared little Alicorn begging to escape the same fate she forced on millions and gazillions of Twilights across countless time loops.
Villainous BSoD: Her response to her parents holding her in place for the Combination Attack of six sets of Elements of Harmony, mirroring Discord's original defeat and Odyne!Cruelty's, and making her realize she really isn't any different from Discord. She goes catatonic and doesn't even respond as her Co-Dragons beg her to help them fight back. It continues as she's confronted by Rota Fortuna and broken by talking which drives the point in even further that she's done nothing but become a worse version of Discord. By the time its over she's left a broken shadow of herself begging Twilight to finally Set Right What Once Went Wrong for good far too late for it to be possible.
Villainous Friendship: Between her and her Psycho Rangers.
Villain Override: Did this to Discord whenever he tried to 'break character' by copying and pasting his actions from a previous loop over and forcing him to carry out what she desired him to. This fails during the final confrontation because, thanks to Rancor, none of her 'footage' fit enough to work.
Villain Song: Sings one upon emerging based off What Once Was Mine called "Walker of the Endless Wheel".
The Voice: Is simply a mysterious voice that Twilight has been hearing, and that has responded to comments. So far who or what it is hasn't been revealed.
- Now it's been revealed Applejack can hear it as well!
- It talks to everyone, even Discord!
- As noted when it starts talking to Rancor, she's the only one who notices that it's speaking to her from nowhere, as opposed to just accepting it. It's shocked. And she implies the voice is female.
Voice of the Legion: When singing her Villain Song and when she gets enraged after emerging, she slips into this. It turns out there's good reason for that.
Walking Spoiler: The fact she's female, and a villain. Also, the fact that she's Twilight's potential Nightmare.
White Mask of Doom: As Nightmare Purgatory, she has a skull mask. Now she just has half her face is covered with a white mask that has a sun and moon engraved on it. We find out later that it covers a Wound That Will Not Heal inflicted by Alicorn!Trixie in a previous loop.
Who's Laughing Now?: Spent the first cycle of the "Groundhog Day" Loop as Discord's toy, suffering the same abuse the present Twilight suffered. In the end, she snapped and invoked her original Nightmare transformation into Nightmare Purgatory to take her revenge and ultimately trapped him in an And I Must Scream fate for several hundred million years. Also a literal example as she actually went Laughing Mad while she tortured him to death in the first cycle.
Nightmare Purgatory: The sick buck's finally getting what he deserves! Hahaha!
Why Won't You Die?: Starts feeling this way about the Mane Cast (sans Twilight who she needs alive for her plan to work perfectly) as the Final Battle goes on, the frustration leading to a gradual Villainous Breakdown.
World-Wrecking Wave: What her and her group's Elements of Harmony do now. Thankfully we only see this in a Fission Mailed, but still...
Would Hurt a Child: Is more than willing to kill Apple Pie, since she's convinced she's not "real". Her means of invoking the "Groundhog Day" Loop for Discord means she has no qualms letting billions of foals getting killed by Discord again and again and again and again...
Wound That Will Not Heal: Alicorn!Trixie left a fourth degree burn on her face before she lost that she's incapable of healing, even with her Time Master powers. The resulting wound is the reason for the White Mask of Doom she wears.
Wreathed in Flames: Hellfire to be exact. She even lampshades it while discussing how excited she was to discover a timeline that would let her figure out how to work her "Groundhog Day" Loop plan.
Nightmare Paradox: My hooves were on fire (more so than usual) as I raced up and down it, taking in every tiny detail!
You Are What You Hate: It's pointed out that by the end, Eclipse has simply become a worse version of Discord himself and was the only reason he even did the things she hated him for anymore.
You Cannot Fight Fate: Played With. Her fusing with every Nightmare Purgatory the moment of their birth locked all their fate's to her own. Thus, when she's finally defeated, it means that she's essentially doomed every alternate version of herself to this trope, as their fate is tied to hers.
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Its reaction to Derpy being the Element of Loyalty.
You Have No Chance to Survive: Essentially her reason for holding back was to try and prove how pointless fighting her was...which let them last long enough figure out how.
Your Soul Is Mine!: Assimilated countless Twilight Sparkles over the time loop, whether they wanted to be or not. Their souls are still inside of her. She also consumed a version of Shining Armor who had the Element of Trust, which is both how our Shining Armor was created from Amicitia, and a plot point in the Sirens vs Nightmares story.

Spoiler Character 1

Paradox's "Friends"

Ascended Extra: They only appear in the Final Battle of Dark World, but return during the Wedding (offscreen) and Rumors Arc as major characters.
Attack Reflector: Nightmare Mirror is capable of doing this by letting attacks pass through her body and out another part of her.
The Atoner: All of them after being purified, but most notably Manacle, who's the hardest on herself out of the lot.
Armored Dragon: Nightmare Banneret is Spike's Nightmare, a massive dragon covered in gold and sapphire armor.
Ax-Crazy: Manacle and Granfalloon. They both get better.
Being Evil Sucks: Mirror and Manacle. Manacle still has Traitor Dash's self loathing, possibly worse than she had and Mirror, being the Cruelest of Truths, knows full well she and her fellow Nightmares are earning an eternity in Hell for it, with only the possibility The Extremist Was Right and they'll leave a better world behind makes her keep doing it.
Big Damn Heroes:
- Nightmare Bannerette performs this to fight Abandon when he reveals himself after the Crusaders purify Light World!Rarity of the corruption of Discord's Endgame.
- Nightmare Mirror saves the CMC and Light World!Applejack from Nyarlathotrot and imbues her power on the latter after exploding to form Veritas.
Bling of War: Nightmare Banneret wears gold armor inlaid with sapphires.
Co-Dragons: To Paradox.. at least until Nightmare Whisper becomes a Dragon Ascendant.
Construction Is Awesome: Invoked. After Manacle ran off to a moon in space, having all of the Nightmares pre-maturely finding out Discord was helping them make the universe, Mirror tries to comfort Manacle of her many issues, with assuring her that they will be able to create a new universe to maintain for the lost souls of the previously demolished timelines, and that it will be wonderful.
The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Like Eclipse herself, they all got hit with this, but Rainbow Dash feels she was the most after her memories are restored and she realizes this happened to her due to having her sanity restored.
Rainbow Dash: Please...stop...please...I...I lost track of myself...of what I wanted, of what I hoped for...I . . .
Dragon Ascendant: Nightmare Whisper becomes this after Eclipse's defeat, being the one controlling the fake Ponyville the other four and the various ponies saved from various loops are trapped in.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- They still genuinely seem to care for each other and Nightmare Eclipse. Nightmare Mirror also seems to have compassion for Apple Pie (and saved her own version who she keeps in her wings) and Spike still loves Rarity, but neither of them are willing to spare them for this.
- Granfalloon's goal is ultimately to restore her friends from G3 as well.
- It's revealed Manacle managed to save Scootaloo several hundred thousand times because of this trope.
Evil Virtues: Their Villainous Friendship enables them to use the Elements of Harmony for evil.
- Mirror, the Nightmare of Honesty, forces painful truths onto ponies without showing them the positive side of the coin.
- Whisper, the Nightmare of Kindness, believes it is kinder to reset Dark World over and over (with every reset killing everyone in that iteration) than let them continue suffering under Discord.
- Banneret, the Nightmare of Generosity, selflessly gives everything he has to his friends and Eclipse, allowing her to continue the loop.
- Granfalloon, the Nightmare of Laughter, wants to make a golden world for her friends where everyone can be happy, and is willing to reset Dark World over and over with her friends in the hopes of making one.
- Manacle, the Nightmare of Loyalty, lets her loyalty drive her to help Eclipse continue the "Groundhog Day" Loop, causing countless innocent ponies to suffer along with Discord. Though ultimately as Eclipse brainwashed her to be loyal to her, her true loyalty is to her Twilight who Eclipse absorbed and had Eclipse not brainwashed her, she intended to defeat her eventually.
Fallen Hero: All five, being previous timeline versions of the Mane Six, minus Rarity, and Spike. They eventually rise back up, but Manacle has serious problems with feeling she still isn't this.
Forged Message: Banneret writes one to Spike from Princess Cadence to inform them she's not going to be saving Twilight from the Rumors and they need to do it. Button assumes it's from Spike's future self, which isn't entirely inaccurate.
Good Powers, Bad People: Their Villainous Friendship allows them to supercharge the Elements of Harmony to create a World-Wrecking Wave, which they use at the end of every Dark World timeline to "delete all the NPCs" and force a reset back to the beginning. Normally, the Elements cannot be used without the willingness of Fauna Luster, as they are derived from Her power (and She, who loves every being in creation, would never allow Herself to be used in such a way), but Paradox and her friends combined the Elements with their own raw dark magic and The Power of Hate to pervert them into a tool of destruction instead of restoration. This blows up in their face in the Sirens vs Nightmares Gaiden story, since it means the Sirens can consume their attack.
Heel–Face Turn: All of them but Whisper in the Rainbow Dash sub arc of the finale, due to the Elements having purified their souls.
Heel–Face Return: Due to having been purified by their defeat, all of them but Whisper have already seen the error of their ways by the time we see them again.
Heroic Sacrifice: Mirror sacrificed herself to save the main universe Applejack from one of Nyarlathotrot's attacks, and to fuse with her to transform her into Veritas so she could defeat him. While she is separated and reincarnated, the original is gone for good.
Hold Your Hippogriffs: Apparently a group of Nightmares is specifically called a Galley.
Killing Your Alternate Self: They've done this so many times they've lost count. It's estimated to be in the millions.
Lotus-Eater Machine:
- During the final battle, Nightmare Whisper tricks Apple Pie and Applejack with illusions of Poison Apple and the pre-Discord Apple family, respectively.
- After they were defeated and their souls were purified, Nightmare Whisper put everyone else except for Eclipse into one.
Mind Hive: They stay inside of Paradox's body until she summons them, at least while projecting through her.
Monster Clown: Nightmare Granfalloon.
My God, What Have I Done?:
- All of them have this when their memories are restored while they're trapped in Rainbow Dash's fake Ponyville by Nightmare Whisper, due to their defeat purifying their souls.
- Nightmare Mirror has one when her plan to convert Main!Applebloom into a Nightmare is about to succeed, realizing by doing so she's become no better than Nightmare Eclipse. It's enough for her to instantly come out of hiding and tell Applebloom to stop.
- The alternate version of Nightmare Mirror from the Sirens vs Nightmares story has one when she realizes her Apple Pie is at risk of becoming as revenge crazed against Eclipse as the alpha Nightmare is against Discord because she spent all this time filling her head with hatred.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Nightmare Bannerette performs one to end his battle with Abandon, stomping the head of the Eldritch Abomination until he dies.
No Place for Me There: While it's not outright stated, Nightmare Mirror is completely aware of the monsters she and her fellow Nightmares have become, even going so far as to say they deserve Pony Hell for what done, but truly seems to believe the world they're creating for everypony else will be worth it. She later more or less says she'd planned to drag them to Hell herself. Manacle actually had the same intention.
Not Quite Dead: It turns out in the Finale Arc that they weren't destroyed when they were defeated and somehow lost their memories, living in a fake Ponyville. They've also had their souls purified, though their bodies weren't.
Obliviously Evil: Nightmare Granfalloon is both too insane to truly understand what they're doing and sincerely believes she's in a "Groundhog Day" Loop story Played for Laughs and thus no one is actually dying or getting erased. She was very wrong.
One-Winged Angel: Subverted with Whisper during the Nightmare Ponyville Arc, where she appears just as monstrous as her main self...but in this case that was the illusion, she looks like a perfectly normal Nightmare.
Pet the Dog:
- Nightmare Mirror reassured Apple Pie that she isn't the one who shouldn't exist and saved her own version of her. Doesn't stop her from trying to kill her, but hey, it's better than most of the Nightmare's attitudes.
- Nightmare Manacle created a copy of the Pre-Discord Ponyville and Cloudsdale and saved versions of its inhabitants from being erased. From Eclipse's statement, it seems the only thing she does their is sit in her house looking sadly at it all. She saved Scootaloo several hundred thousands of times.
- Nightmare Mirror saved her Apple Pie and hid her from Eclipse and hid her in her wings.
Playing with Fire: Unsurprisingly, Nightmare Banneret has this ability due to being Spike in Nightmare form. Notably these flames are hot enough to burn dragons.
People Puppets:
- Nightmare Manacle has this power.
- Whisper's fake Ponyville plays this literally with her fake Ponyville.
Psycho Rangers: To the Mane Six, though notably, only Paradox herself and Nightmare Banneret are the Superpowered Evil Side of their counterpart, due to the Elements having changed hooves.
Reforged into a Minion: In yet another way that Eclipse became no better than Discord, she did the same thing and corrupted her friends into her Co-Dragons.
Superpowered Evil Side: Of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike. This is also the first time we've seen Spike's Nightmare or one that's not a Pony.
Sympathy for the Devil: The Mane Six end up feeling this way for them in the second fight. The most obvious are Nightmare Mirror, Manacle, and Banneret. The former two hate themselves for what they've become while the latter is heartbroken over their inability to make Rarity become a Nightmare so they can be reunited. Another aspect of this is the fact Eclipse manipulated event and in other cases flat out forced them to become Nightmares in the first place. Worst of all is Manacle, who Eclipse put a Restraining Bolt in the brain of to force to work for her.
That Man Is Dead: Mirror feels she no longer has a right to use her family's name because of her crimes.
Mirror: [The other Apple families] all have their AJ, and Ah ain't her, and Ah stopped bein' mah family's AJ a long time ago.
There Are No Therapists: Subverted; they all get therapy from Starlight's group and it actually helps them.
Tragic Dream: The only thing Nightmare Banneret wants is a true Nightmare version of Rarity so they can finally be together. For his sake, Nightmare Eclipse has been searching the multiverse for hundreds of millions of years trying to find a version of Rarity she can corrupt into a true Nightmare, but she'll never find one no matter how hard she looks, because the balance between Rarity's positive traits (generosity) and negative traits (greed) makes it impossible for a true Nightmare version of her to exist.
Tragic Monster:
- Nightmare Mirror's flashback implies Paradox manipulated all of them into becoming Nightmares to begin with. The straightest example is Mirror herself and Manacle, both of which hate themselves for what they've become.
- This is especially true of Manacle, who joined with Eclipse to try and save her Twilight as a Fake Defector after having tried as hard as she could to save her...only for Eclipse to more or less remove the Element of Free Will from her and lobotomize her to force her to be her minion.
Undying Loyalty: To Eclipse, their leader and friend. Manacle most of all, being the Nightmare of Loyalty, though in her case it was originally to her Twilight, and Eclipse more or less lobotomized her to make it apply to her.
Villains Out Shopping: The side story "Nightmare's House" shows them playing video games and hanging out with Eclipse in their personal pocket dimension.
Verbal Tic: Nightmare Granfalloon likes to repeat-repeat-repeat words three-three-three times in a row like this-this-this!
Walking Spoiler: Not just their existence, but the fact they survived.
Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- Unlike Paradox, they all seem to be putting the possibility of creating a better world above a grudge on Discord. Nightmare Mirror is the straightest example because the possibility The Extremist Was Right is the only thing that seems to be keeping her seeing their horrific actions as a Necessary Evil.
- Whisper remained this after they were purified, having only wanted to save her friends from Tartarus and the ponies she and Manacle had saved from Oblivion. As it turned out, neither had actually been what the Gods intended.
Would Hurt a Child: As Eclipse's minions, they have no qualms about killing Apple Pie or any other child for her. Even though Manacle saved 171,015 versions of Scootaloo, she is not exempt, and even when purified in rage tries to strangle answers out of Bright Night until Pinkie stops her and tries to sacrifice Half-Light Dawn along with her sisters and Shining to resurrect Amicitia before being stopped and convinced to stop.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Nightmare Granfalloon thinks the story is one of those Groundhog Day Loops were the ponies just reset to the previous day (or thousand years ago) with no harm...it's not, every reset erases all those ponies from existence! Granfalloon does not take this well when she's restored to sanity.

Spoiler Character 2

Flutternice

Abusive Parents: Nightmare Whisper was unknowingly emotionally abusive towards her, while insane Manacle was a more clear version of this trope, even if it stuck to emotional abuse.
Arbitrary Skepticism: When told that a Reaper's weapon is sentient, she says that's ridiculous.
Black-and-White Morality: She sees things like this: her mother and her 'aunties' (the other Nightmares) as good, and Discord and the Pantheon as evil. She's this to the point even after Whisper's defeat, she refuses to believe Starlight and company were doing the right thing or that Discord's Heel–Face Turn had actually happened.
Condescending Compassion: Nightmare Whisper's (and the Nightmare Gallery in general) treatment of her, if unintentionally. She's so sorry she has so much 'evil essence' inside her, it's not her fault.
The Dragon To her mother, Nightmare Whisper, once she becomes the Big Bad of Manacle's arc.
Foil: To both Fluttercruels. Whereas one was raised by Fluttershy and the other by Discord, this one was raised by Nightmare Whisper. In some ways she ended up even more screwed up than Dark World Fluttercruel.
Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: A major deconstruction. Whisper has convinced her her Special Talent is inherently evil and that she should hate it and suppress it. For eons. This naturally has left the girl's mind a wreck. Note, the following quote is not Played for Laughs.
Flutternice: Five times the pain for you means five times the love you know I have for you! Nonononono! Mommy said those thoughts are bad bad bad! I need to smile! But be sad when I need to hurt somepony! She said hurting you is bad, but I need to hurt you so you don't hurt yourself! Mommy is right! So that means I can hurt you and you know it's because I love you! Yippie!
Me's a Crowd: Is capable of dividing herself up into her component animals and fight as a small army. According to Word of God, all Draconequi or Demi-Draconequi are capable of this in principle, but some like the egotistical Discord simply can't bring themselves to use it.
Named Weapons: She calls her double ended buster blade sword 'Iron Will.'
Obliviously Evil: Ironically, something she shares with her 'half sister' Fluttercruel: she was raised by six Nightmares, including Eclipse herself, and follows Eclipse's belief that the denizens of Dark World weren't ponies unless Eclipse, Whisper, or Manacle saw fit to save them, and that the Pantheon and anyone who works for them is evil. On top of that, she's not very sane due to her mother forcing her to see her Special Talent as evil and vile. Justitia and Judicium flat out declare her 'not guilty by reason of insanity' for her crimes, unlike her Dark World counterpart.
Psychopathic Man Child: She's millions of years old, but mentally a very messed up child.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: Technically speaking, she was Made of Evil (or more accurately Made From Evil), being created from Discord's cruelty so the Gallery was right she was born with it in her, but the Nightmare Gallery treating that as the same thing as BORN evil, rather than simply with a predisposition towards aggression and cruelty (which her main timeline counterpart, and even her final Dark World counterpart eventually, shows can be refocused and changed towards a benevolent purpose) is what results in her turning out with immense psychological issues.
Sanity Slippage: However long she's been with her mother, being forced to suppress her urges and being raised to believe her Special Talent is evil have not done her sanity any favors.
Stepford Smiler: Of the 'Unstable' verity. See the quote under 'Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?'.
Tyke Bomb: Was essentially raised by the Nightmare Gallery to be their pet guard dog for their real bodies when astral projecting.
Walking Spoiler: Just like her mother, but even more so.

Spoiler Character 3

The Benevolent Interloper / Princess Amicitia

All There in the Script: Its title only appears in the script for the same reason as the Nameless Passenger.
Big Good: Sort of, it's at least against the Passenger and giving good advice to the heroes. It even made a token effort to redeem Discord of all beings.
Good Angel, Bad Angel: The Good to the Passenger's Bad.
Good Counterpart: To the Passenger. She is a version of Twilight-turned-goddess, after all...
Mission Control: Takes over from the Passenger once she reveals her true agenda. It also covertly relays Twilight's plan to defeat Nightmare Eclipse to the rest of the group.
The Reveal: It ultimately turns out to be Twilight/Amicitia creating a Stable Time Loop by helping herself against Paradox, because she remembers a second voice helping her.
The Voice: Just like its Evil Counterpart.
Walking Spoiler: The fact that it's actually a version of Twilight who ascended to Concepthood, and the good counterpart to Nightmare Eclipse.

Spoiler Character 4

Mirror's Apple Pie

Ascended Extra: While important to Mirror's character, she doesn't appear or even speak all that much for most of the story. She is then a major character in Sirens vs Nightmares.
Innocence Lost: Several hundred million years of watching Eclipse's crimes from inside Mirror's wings, starting with everypony she knows and loves being erased from existence, means she's not an innocent filly anymore. Twilight is heartbroken to see this.
It's Personal: Quite understandably, she despises Nightmare Eclipse and would've given her a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the Sirens vs Nightmares timeline while she was weakened if Mirror hadn't stopped her. This separates her from her prime self, who forgives more or less anypony and managed Restrained Revenge on Discord.
Morality Pet: For Eclipse's Nightmare Mirror, who genuinely cares about and protects her.
Sympathy for the Devil: Mirror made sure she has no delusions how awful the Nightmares are, but she's also aware they're only like that because Nightmare Eclipse forced them to be. In the Sirens vs Nightmares timeline, she outright begs Twilight and company to save Mirror and the rest of the Gallery.
Time Abyss: Despite appearing to be a filly, she's several hundred million years old. Those years have not been kind.

Santa Hooves

Anthropomorphic Personification: Implies he may be this of Christmas and/or Hearth's Warming Eve, which is why he's Nigh-Invulnerable.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Ends Discord's extremely long List of Transgressions with 'and put the empty milk carton back in the fridge'.
Badass Pacifist: He does his job as the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Eve without one act of violence or aggression, simply acting like a jovial, friendly person the entire time.
Badass Santa: Breaks into Discord's palace every year to hoof-deliver him a lump of coal, and nothing stops him. He's notably the one being in Dark World that Discord is completely powerless against (even Changelings are vulnerable to indirect effects of his magic).
Death Glare: Shoots one when Discord asks him why he doesn't just take him out and bothers to break in every year just to hand him a lump of coal.
Humble Pie: Pretty much tells Discord the reason for his yearly coal delivery is to force-feed him a slice of this.
Santa Hooves: And I bother because…it's always worth reminding you that you aren't the final word in power.
Implacable Man: Nothing will stop him from delivering his gifts and/or coal, not even Discord's power.
List of Transgressions: Reads Discord his sins for the entire year, every year, in his normal pleasant, jovial tone. The one we see took twelve hours to be finished. Even Discord, who is usually unfazed by such things, finds this incredibly annoying.
Loose Canon: The story he appears in is ambiguously canon, but his yearly visit is mentioned by the characters in the main story, so it seems it actually does happen and he does exist.
The Marvelous Deer: This Santa doesn't have reindeer; he is a reindeer.
Nigh-Invulnerable: Nothing Discord or his Co-Dragons throw at him so much as phases him. He seems to be a combination of most of the types, as attacks go through, bounce off, or are just no-selled. He gives an explanation when asked how he does it.
Santa Hooves: Can't touch Christmas... oh, sorry, I meant Hearth's Warming Eve with bad intentions...
Discord: Corporate Equestria says otherwise! Twilight Tragedy! He's a threat to our perfect chaos!
Tragedy: Yes, master. (Tries to vaporize Santa Hooves only for it to bounce off.)
Santa Hooves: Misguiding someone else's good intentions still counts as bad intentions, Discordance. Particularly when you were the one who indoctrinated like that in the first place, and the true heart can never be touched by wicked intent.
The Omniscient: He knows about every terrible thing Discord has ever done, no matter how minor, and shows up at the Chaos Castle every Christmas just to read him a list of his transgressions and give him a lump of coal. He also gives Angry Pie green socks every Christmas, suggesting that he knows about Minty (who loved green socks) having been her best friend in a past universe.
Discord: How was he even able to COMPILE these rap sheets? Some ultra-sophisticated 24-hour surveillance network? Clairvoyance of some sort? Or WHAT IF he was in with the Alicorns...?! Suppose one of Celestia's siblings up in Pony Heaven had decided it was finally time to stop being an unresponsive nonparticipant in mortal affairs and actually... nah, that was just dumb.
Shout-Out: His tradition of breaking through Discord's defenses to give him a lump of coal every year is a reference to the DC Comics version of Santa doing the same thing to Darkseid.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Discord asks him that why, with the amount of power he clearly has, he doesn't just dispose of Discord himself. Santa shoots him a Death Glare and responds that's not what the holiday is about.

Queen Chrysalis (Dark World)

Attack Hello: How she greets Cadence.
Alicorn Unaware: Chrysalis is Cadenza's original Shadow of Existence, left behind after her battle at the Dawn of Time and given a new Light by Pandora.
Bequeathed Power: As her final act, she transferred something important into Cadence.
The Determinator: After running out of energy, she kept herself alive with nothing more than pure willpower. This is how she survived losing her original Light of Existence!
Exposition Beam: Somehow casts the memory spell on Cadence, reawakening her true nature as Concept of Music and Harmony.
The Last Dance: Knowing how little love energy there is in Discord's Equestria, she wagers all-or-nothing on subduing Cadence.
You Kill It, You Bought It: Enforces this trope on Cadence, having made her the new Queen of the Changelings.

The Chaos Castle

Alien Blood: When wounded by Rancor, it bleeds chaos.
Animate Inanimate Object: Is not only alive, but capable of moving on its own.
Bizarrchitecture: It's Discord's castle, what else would it have?
Door Roulette: Due to its shifting nature and the sheer number of bizarre rooms in it, this happens when Twilight is trying to find Spike until she meets up with Applejack, whose Element of Deceit makes things infinitely easier. The second time they're there, it's promised to remain neutral, so this isn't an issue.
Eldritch Location: Is constantly moving and shifting and walking through its entrance is described as being like a bad acid trip. Oh and it's also sentient and alive, being capable of sprouting legs and running away. It also contains a portal to Ponythulhu's realm. However, following Discord and Nightmare Paradox's defeats as well as Rarity's ascension into Liberalis, it becomes a benevolent version of this once it's purified of its chaos, but maintains its sentience.
Gem-Encrusted: After the defeats of Discord and Nightmare Paradox, it is recreated with a crystal and jewel motif to fit its new owner, Queen Liberalis.
Genius Loci: Despite being Discord's Supervillain Lair, it's a living thing and intelligent enough to be reasoned with, as well as being capable of moving. It was even convinced by Applejack to remain neutral during the coming fight with Discord. Even after being purified of its chaos, it's allowed to keep its sentience.
I Gave My Word: Pinkie Promises to remain neutral in the fight between the Elements of Discord, and keeps it even as the battles inflict more and more damage on it.
Luck-Based Search Technique: Pretty much the only way to find anything you actually want to find is to not look for it and find it with this trope if you don't have the Element of Deceit or convince it to stop hindering you.
Meaningful Rename: After the defeats of Discord and Nightmare Paradox, it's (or rather her) officially returned to being called Canterlot Castle, but is allowed to choose the name Eden.
Portal Door: Has a number of these, naturally. One of which leads to a world made entirely out of building blocks.
Samus Is a Girl: Turns out it's actually female.
Supervillain Lair: Is Discord's home base.

Sunset Shimmer (Warning! Spoilers!)

Big Bad Wannabe: In Sirens vs Nightmares, she's attempts to break back into Equestria to begin her own plans...but the Sirens instantly sense the massive amounts of negative energy present. While powerful, dangerous, and smart, she simply can't compete with them and is swiftly overpowered and brainwashed. After being freed from their control, she realizes even if they hadn't, she can't measure up to Discord or Nightmare Eclipse and would've ended up this trope anyway.
Break the Haughty: She returns to Equestria, only to be usurped by the Sirens and turned into their minion, then discovers her entire motivation had been All for Nothing, as Celestia missed her and still loved her. She then discovers that in the few years she'd been gone, a thousand years have passed and even if she hadn't accidentally released the Sirens, she would've been outmatched by Discord and Nightmare Eclipse, and Twilight was now far more experienced than her. Worst of all, she realizes she was no different from Nightmare Eclipse, which was exactly what Celestia had feared she'd turn into. All of them thoroughly crushes her ego.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the Sirens vs Nightmares timeline, her attempt to break back into Equestria accidentally releases the Sirens back into it at the absolute worst possible time.

Characters / Pony POV Series Epilogue Timeline Other

Paradox's "Friends"

Flutternice

The Benevolent Interloper / Princess Amicitia

Mirror's Apple Pie

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Characters / Pony POV Series Epilogue Timeline Other

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Paradox's "Friends"

Flutternice

The Benevolent Interloper / Princess Amicitia

Mirror's Apple Pie

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