| Name | Species | Gender | Body color | Hair or mane color | Eye color | Special, Episode and Film debut | Voiced by |
|---|
| Nightmare Moon | Alicorn | Female | Dark Navy Blue | Blue | Aqua | Friendship is Magic | Tabitha St. Germain |
| Nightmare Moon is the corrupted form of Princess Luna. Over time of raising and setting the moon, Luna became convinced that while the ponies all loved her sister Celestia, they sleep through her night and ignore her. Jealous of her sister, she caused a solar eclipse which transformed her into Nightmare Moon. Celestia then reluctantly harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony and banished her to the moon, taking responsibility for both sun and moon and maintaining harmony in Equestria. In the season one premiere, "Friendship is Magic", Nightmare Moon escapes a thousand years later and attempts to take over Equestria. Twilight Sparkle and her new friends eventually manage to defeat Nightmare Moon by finding and using the Elements of Harmony against her. After being restored to her original form and sharing a tearful reunion with Celestia, Luna returns to ruling alongside her once more. Nightmare Moon appears in nightmares and flashbacks onwards. In the official IDW comic series, Nightmare Moon is shown to be a symbiotic force that convinced Luna to turn against her sister, feeding off of her insecurities to take control of her mind and body. She is also revealed to be capable of corrupting other beings into serving her, which she did so with the Nyx, creatures who inhabit the moon and create dreams for ponies. After Luna was freed by the Elements of Harmony, Nightmare Moon survived and hatched a plot to take control of one of the Element bearers, rendering the other Elements of Harmony useless against her. She ultimately ends up possessing Rarity when the Nightmare Forces convince her that her friends will eventually abandon her. Dubbed Nightmare Rarity, she leads an assault on Ponyville, but is ultimately defeated when the other Element bearers use memories of Rarity to free her from Nightmare Moon's control, with some added help from Celestia and Luna. Her status after Rarity was freed is unknown. |
| Discord | Draconequus | Male | Multicolor (true form)
Blue (as Grogar) | White eyebrows and facial hair/black mane (true form)
White (as Grogar) | Yellow with red pupils (both in his true form and as Grogar) | The Return of Harmony (true form)
The Beginning of the End (as Grogar) | John de Lancie (true form)
Doc Harris (as Grogar) |
| According to Princess Celestia, Discord is the ancient spirit of chaos who, before the reign of Celestia and Luna, ruled the land of Equestria, making the lives of unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies miserable. In a battle over 1000 years ago, before Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon, the sisters wielded the Elements of Harmony and turned Discord into a stone statue. In the season two premiere, "The Return of Harmony", Discord's statue is on display in the gardens around the royal palace, until the inharmonious aura caused by the quarrels of the Cutie Mark Crusaders give him enough strength to break free of his prison. He lures the Mane 6 into a maze and is able to make them abandon the qualities that make them bearers of the Elements. The result ends pitting them against one another, rendering the Elements of Harmony useless. However, despite his efforts, Twilight manages to restore all of her friend's true elements and they face Discord using the Elements of Harmony, defeating him by sealing him back to his original stone form, albeit this time with a look of horror frozen on his face. He reappears in the season three episode "Keep Calm and Flutter On" when Celestia gives the girls the task to reform Discord. Fluttershy is eventually able to do so, becoming his first friend and showing him how important friendship is to him. In the two-part season four premiere, "Princess Twilight Sparkle", Discord is revealed to have planted powerful plants known as Plunderseeds in an attempt to destroy the Tree of Harmony, from which the Elements originated. After the Mane 6 destroy them by returning the Elements to the tree, Discord admits that he didn't tell this to Twilight because he wanted her to learn that even though she is now an alicorn princess, her friendship with the others will not change. Later in "Three's A Crowd", he tests Twilight to see if she really cares for him by tricking her and Princess Cadance into finding a plant that will cure him of a disease he made up. In the season four finale, "Twilight's Kingdom" Discord is tasked by Celestia with finding and capturing Lord Tirek. However, Tirek tricks him into betraying his friends, giving him a necklace as a token of gratitude and loyalty. After he captures the non-princess ponies for Tirek, he double-crosses Discord by stealing his powers and admits that the necklace has no meaning to him, for it was given to him by his traitorous brother, Scorpan. After a fight between Twilight and Tirek that results in a draw, Tirek trades all of Twilight's magic for her friends and Discord. Discord admits that he now understands the true meaning of friendship and gives Twilight the necklace. The necklace turns out to be the sixth and final key needed to access the chest at the Tree of Harmony. The Mane 6 take it as Tirek starts going on a mindless rampage and they use the newly unlocked Rainbow Power to transport Tirek back to his imprisonment and save Equestria. Discord appears in later episodes as a reluctant ally of the Mane Six, occasionally causing mischief while struggling to become a better friend to them. In season nine, he helps Twilight track down and defeat Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow by disguising himself as Grogar, a blue ram who ruled Equestria several millennia ago until he was defeated by Gusty the Great. He then tricks the three villains into forming an alliance with each other so the Mane Six can defeat them and Twilight would have the confidence needed to succeed Celestia and Luna as ruler of Equestria. |
| Queen Chrysalis | Changeling | Female | Black | Dark Green | Teal | A Canterlot Wedding | Kathleen Barr |
| Queen Chrysalis is the queen of the changelings, a race of shapeshifting pony-like insects that feed off of love. In the season two finale, "A Canterlot Wedding", she takes the form of Princess Cadance so that she could feed off of Shining Armor's love, whom she plans to keep for herself so she and her subjects have a constant food supply and power. With that, they can conquer Canterlot and assume control over Equestria. Twilight Sparkle had seen all the signs throughout the organizing of the wedding, but was dismissed as being too possessive of her brother. To prevent Twilight's further interference, and the threat of the Elements of Harmony being used against her, Chrysalis forcibly teleports Twilight to the forgotten diamond caves under Canterlot. However, the Queen makes a disastrous error taunting Twilight in an attempt to anger her to the point where she would kill Princess Cadance, who is also being held in the mines. Instead, the prisoners recognized each other and escaped the mines to expose the Queen at the wedding ceremony. Even though Chrysalis had gained enough power to enable her species to invade Canterlot while she personally struck down Celestia, she had not counted on Twilight enabling Cadance to free her fiancé and using their combined power to cast the changelings out of Equestria. In the season six finale, "To Where and Back Again", as an act of revenge against Twilight, whom she holds responsible for her defeat, she launches a mass invasion on Equestria, replacing the Mane 6, Spike, the Princesses, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart with changelings. However, she is ultimately defeated and dethroned as the changeling's ruler by Thorax, a benevolent changeling who, along with Starlight Glimmer, convinces the changelings to share love rather than steal it. Starlight offers Chrysalis a chance for redemption, but she rejects it and flees, vowing revenge on Starlight. In the season eight episode, "The Mean 6", Chrysalis creates clones of the Mane Six to take control of the Elements of Harmony but the clones betray her before they are destroyed by the Tree of Harmony and Chrysalis escapes again. In season nine, Chrysalis is summoned by "Grogar" (Discord in disguise) who tricks her into joining his team of villains, bent on conquering Equestria and defeating the Mane Six. Chrysalis initially has issues working with Cozy Glow and Tirek, but she later learns to cooperate with them in order to finally conquer Equestria, steal magic, and defeat her enemies once and for all. Chrysalis and her cohorts are sent to retrieve an ancient artifact known as the Bewitching Bell that once belonged to the real Grogar, and they use it in their scheme to gain its magic and betray "Grogar", which also exposes him as Discord. Chrysalis and her cohorts are briefly victorious when they defeat the Mane Six and their allies and imprison them while Twilight Sparkle escapes. However, after the rest of the Mane Six escape and the windigos appear as a result of their evil scheme to create distrust among ponies, Chrysalis and the other villains face off against the Mane Six and their army of allies in a grand battle. Chrysalis and her cohorts are defeated and de-powered back to her normal form. As punishment for their crimes, Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow are imprisoned in stone by the combined magic of Discord, Celestia, and Luna. In the official IDW comic series, Chrysalis is a recurring villain who again seeks revenge on Twilight for defeating her. |
| King Sombra | Unicorn | Male | Grey | Black | Scarlet and green | The Crystal Empire | Jim Miller (The Crystal Empire)
Alvin Sanders (The Beginning of the End) |
| King Sombra is a unicorn described by Princess Celestia as having "a heart as black as night". Prior to Nightmare Moon's banishment, he took over the Crystal Empire and enslaved the native Crystal Ponies before being overthrown by the Royal Sisters, who imprisoned him in the Frozen North just beyond the Empire. However, Sombra managed to curse the Empire, causing it to disappear upon his defeat. In the season three premiere, "The Crystal Empire", he and the Crystal Empire return one thousand years later, and Twilight Sparkle and Spike search for the Crystal Heart, the only thing capable of defeating him. Due to a trap at the top of the Crystal Castle, Sombra manages to capture Twilight, but Spike is able to take the Crystal Heart to Cadance. Cadance flies Spike and the Crystal Heart down to the Crystal Ponies, who are able to power up the heart and defeat Sombra with a blast of light which causes him to shatter into several pieces. In the season nine premiere, "The Beginning of the End", he is resurrected by "Grogar" (Discord in disguise), who tries to persuade him into working together with Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow to defeat the Mane 6 and take over Equestria. Sombra refuses, preferring to take over Equestria himself, proving to be pompous and arrogant. He takes over the Crystal Empire and is seemingly destroyed by the Elements of Harmony, but this turns out to be a trick so they'll lead him to the Tree of Harmony, which he destroys. Sombra proceeds to take over Ponyville, brainwashing the ponies to attack Canterlot. After Sombra "injures" Discord while attacking Fluttershy, the Mane 6 discover they have the power to defeat Sombra themselves, and destroy him with a magic explosion powered by their friendship. "Grogar" does not revive him again, using him as a warning to secure Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow's loyalty. In the official IDW comic series, Sombra was revealed to be a shadow pony (or umbrum), created to free an army of shadow ponies imprisoned below the Crystal Empire. Born with no knowledge of his true purpose, Sombra was taken in by the Crystal Ponies, but was ridiculed by his classmates for his strangeness. The only friend he had among them was a fellow unicorn named Radiant Hope, who gained powerful healing magic as she got older. Fearing that Hope would abandon him upon learning that she was invited to study under Celestia and Luna, Sombra ran off into the Frozen North in fear and discovered a red crystal claiming to be his mother. Learning of his true heritage and mission (to destroy the Crystal Heart), Sombra enslaved the Empire after turning its original ruler, Princess Amore, into a black crystal statue that he broke into several pieces and scattered around the world. Radiant Hope informed the Royal Sisters of what had happened, sealing Sombra's fate. In the present day, Sombra is revealed to have survived his defeat and Radiant Hope leads an attack on the Crystal Empire during which she restores Sombra to his physical form. He quickly manages to defeat the Mane 6 after rallying Queen Chrysalis, the Changelings, Iron Will, the Flim-Flam Brothers, and Lightning Dust under him. Celestia and Luna try to stop him, but interference from Hope allows Sombra to turn them both to stone. He then retires to his private study to rest. Meanwhile, Hope takes Cadence to the umbrum's home where they learn of the umbrum's true nature and are forced to escape, ending up in Sombra's study, where the Mane 6, Spike, and Shining Armor arrive after being freed from imprisonment. After Hope takes a blast from Twilight meant for him, Sombra unleashes the umbrum on the assembled ponies. Sombra successfully retakes the empire, but Hope resents him for his decisions and informs him that she gave up her future as a princess to try and save him from his fate. When the Mane 6 return to the Empire with reinforcements to free Twilight, Shining, and the other princesses, Sombra has a change of heart and uses the Crystal Heart to banish the umbrum back to their prison. As Sombra is about to be killed by the Crystal Heart's energies, Hope uses her magic to hold his physical form together and the princesses turn him into a real unicorn as a sign of forgiveness. Sombra and Hope then leave to find the pieces of Princess Amore's statue and eventually restore her. |
| Lord Tirek | Centaur | Male | Red and Gray | Black | Red | Twilight's Kingdom | Mark Acheson |
| Lord Tirek is a tyrannical magic-stealing centaur who came with his brother, Scorpan, to steal Equestria's magic. However, Scorpan came to appreciate the ways of Equestria and urged his brother to abandon their plans but when Tirek refused, Scorpan alerted the princesses of Tirek's plan. Tirek was then sent to Tartarus for his crimes while Scorpan left to return to their home land. In the season four finale, "Twilight's Kingdom", it is revealed that Tirek managed to escape Tartarus and he is able to convince Discord to join forces with him and steals magic from the ponies of Equestria, growing progressively larger and more powerful with each attack, but later double-crosses Discord and steals his magic. Soon, Tirek finds Twilight, and after a long fight that results in a draw, he trades Twilight's friends in exchange for her magic. He is later defeated by Twilight and her friends and imprisoned back in Tartarus. In the season eight finale, "School Raze", Lord Tirek conspires with Cozy Glow all for the sake of revenge against the Mane Six, trapping them in Tartarus alongside him. But after suffering from Pinkie Pie's antics, Tirek reluctantly helps them escape and Cozy Glow is defeated, imprisoned in Tartarus alongside the evil centaur. In season nine, Cozy Glow and Tirek are freed by "Grogar" (Discord in disguise) who tricks them into joining his team of villains, bent on conquering Equestria and defeating the Mane Six. Tirek initially has issues working with Cozy Glow and Chrysalis, but he later learns to cooperate with them in order to finally conquer Equestria, steal magic, and defeat his enemies once and for all. Tirek and his cohorts are sent to retrieve an ancient artifact known as the Bewitching Bell that once belonged to the real Grogar, and they use it in their scheme to gain its magic and betray "Grogar", which also exposes him as Discord. Tirek and his cohorts are briefly victorious when they defeat the Mane Six and their allies and imprison them while Twilight Sparkle escapes. However, after the rest of the Mane Six escaped and the windigos appear as a result of their evil scheme to create distrust among ponies, Tirek and the other villains face off against the Mane Six and their army of allies in a grand battle. Tirek and his cohorts are defeated and de-powered back to his weakest form. As punishment for their crimes, Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow are imprisoned in stone by the combined magic of Discord, Celestia, and Luna. In the IDW comics, a younger Tirek appears in FIENDship is Magic #2, where he had a poor relationship with his own family and is trained to steal magic by his mentor, Sendak the Elder. |
| Starlight Glimmer | Unicorn | Female | Light purple | Dark purple with normal purple and turquoise streaks | Blue | The Cutie Map | Kelly Sheridan |
| Starlight Glimmer, first appearing the season five premiere "The Cutie Map", is initially the leader of a town where everyone has given up their Cutie Marks. She is able to remove Cutie Marks using an artifact called the "Staff of Sameness" and store them in a hidden vault. She is later revealed to have been hiding her own Cutie Mark and using the Staff of Sameness as a front to hide her powerful magic. Afterwards, the townsfolk and Mane 6 reclaim their Cutie Marks and Starlight disappears. She believes the only way to achieve true friendship is for everyone to be equal, believing that having individual talents will lead to others bragging that they are better than others. In the season five finale "The Cutie Re-Mark", it is revealed that her beliefs stem from being abandoned by her childhood friend Sunburst after he received his cutie mark. Perfecting a spell originally created by Star Swirl, she travels back in time to stop Rainbow Dash from performing the Sonic Rainboom, causing several alternate futures when Twilight and Spike attempt to stop her. Twilight ultimately convinces Starlight to put aside her agenda and learn about friendship in Ponyville. She appears as a recurring character in season six onwards. |
| Stygian | Unicorn | Male | Medium grey | Moderate cerulean with arctic blue streaks | Brilliant azure | Shadow Play | Bill Newton |
| Stygian, also known as the Pony of Shadows, is a scholar and the founder of the Pillars of Equestria, who brought the six heroes together to save his home. After the rescue, Stygian sought to join the Pillars in battle, but lacked any power of his own, and thus attempted to make copies of their signature artifacts. However, the Pillars believed he was out to steal their powers and cast him out. He was then transformed into a monstrous pony made entirely of shadows and had desires to cover the entirety of Equestria. He was banished alongside the Pillars to limbo for over a thousand years, until being set free by Twilight. Weak after being in limbo, the Pony of Shadows retreats to the darkest corners of Equestria to regain his strength. In the end, the Mane Six and the Pillars help free Stygian from the darkness after they learn that he was only trying to use their artifacts to become their equal, and the Pony of Shadows is banished back to limbo while Stygian forgives the Pillars for their mistake. In the episode "The Last Problem", he attends Twilight's coronation, along with the Pillars. |
| The Storm King | Unknown | Male | Gray | White | Blue | My Little Pony: The Movie | Liev Schreiber |
| The Storm King is a fearsome satyr-like tyrant who has conquered half the world with the help of his army of yeti-like Storm Creatures. He launches an invasion in Equestria led by his second-in-command Tempest Shadow, and succeeds in absorbing the magic of all four alicorns into his mystical Staff of Sacanas, betraying Tempest when she is no longer of use to him. He creates a powerful tornado to destroy Canterlot, but Twilight manages to take the staff from him and disperse the storm. The Storm King throws an Obsidian Orb at the Mane 6 in an attempt to turn them to stone, but Tempest jumps in front of them, turning both her and the Storm King to stone and sending the Storm King falling off the castle balcony, shattering to pieces. |
| Tempest Shadow | Unicorn | Female | Dark purple | Dark red | Turquoise | My Little Pony: The Movie | Emily Blunt |
| Commander Tempest Shadow is a broken-horned purple unicorn and lieutenant to the Storm King. She joined the Storm King in hopes that he could restore her damaged horn (which was broken by an Ursa Minor when she was a filly, leaving her magic dangerously unstable). She spends much of the film chasing after the Mane 6, eventually capturing Twilight so the Storm King can absorb her magic. The Storm King reveals he was only using Tempest and tries to destroy her, but Twilight saves her, leading to her redemption. She nearly sacrifices herself to defeat the Storm King, but is saved by Twilight. At the Friendship Festival, she uses her magic to create fireworks, and reveals her real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist. In the season nine finale, "The Ending of the End", she along with the Mane Six's allies face off against Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow and defeat them and then in the episode, "The Last Problem", she attends Twilight's coronation. |
| Grubber | Hedgehog | Male | Dark grey | White | Turquoise | My Little Pony: The Movie | Michael Peña |
| Grubber is a pug-faced hedgehog who serves as an assistant to both the Storm King and Tempest Shadow in the 2017 film. Despite his small stature, he hails from a tribe of hardened warriors and earned his place in the Storm King's employ due to his wisecracking and cunning. |
| Chancellor Neighsay | Unicorn | Male | Light azureish gray | Dark grayish azure | Moderate turquoise | School Daze | Maurice LaMarche |
| Chancellor Neighsay is the head of the Equestrian Educational Association (EEA) who first appears in the season eight premiere "School Daze." Displaying a strict regard for rules and regulations and a prejudice against non-ponies, he was appalled upon learning that Twilight Sparkle had invited several of them to attend her School of Friendship. He withdrew EEA approval from the school and sealed it off, offending several non-pony leaders in the process. After Twilight broke the seal, intending to run the school under her own rules, Neighsay appeared and opposed her. However, he was overruled, and departed with a dire warning of what he believed these events would allow. In "Friendship University", he gives credit to the Flim Flam Brothers' school due to it being a pony only environment. However, Twilight and Rarity exposed the brothers' scam and the school is shut down. In the season eight finale, "School Raze", he takes control of the School of Friendship and accuses the Young Six of being the ones draining Equestria of its magic. However, Cozy Glow causes a school uprising against him and takes back control of the School of Friendship. He is later freed by the Young Six and leaves for Canterlot to warn the princesses of Cozy Glow's plans. He later apologizes to Twilight and the Young Six after realizing how wrong he was about non-ponies. In the season nine finale, "The Ending of the End", he along with the Mane Six's allies face off against Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow and defeat them. |
| Cozy Glow | Pegasus
Alicorn (temporarily, formerly) | Female | Pink | Pale, light grayish arctic blue and light arctic bluish gray | Moderate scarlet | Marks For Effort | Sunni Westbrook |
| Cozy Glow is a small pink pegasus and former student of the School of Friendship. Her Cutie Mark is reddish rook from the game Chess suggesting correctly about her high intellect despite her age. In season eight, she was a student of the School of Friendship until the season eight finale, "School Raze", she attempts to take all of Equestria's magic and become the Empress of Friendship. When Chancellor Neighsay takes control of the school, Cozy Glow usurps it back by causing a school uprising against him. However, the Young Six along with the Tree of Harmony foil Cozy Glow's plot and the magic is returned to Equestria. Cozy Glow is sent to Tartarus for her crimes next to Tirek who helped her steal the magic in the first place. In season nine, Cozy Glow and Tirek are freed by "Grogar" (Discord in disguise) who tricks them into joining his team of villains, bent on conquering Equestria and defeating the Mane Six. Cozy Glow initially has issues working with Tirek and Chrysalis, but she later learns to cooperate with them in order to finally conquer Equestria, steal magic, and defeat her enemies once and for all. Cozy Glow and her cohorts are sent to retrieve an ancient artifact known as the Bewitching Bell that once belonged to the real Grogar, and they use it in their scheme to gain its magic and betray "Grogar", which also exposes him as Discord. Cozy Glow and her cohorts are briefly victorious when they defeat the Mane Six and their allies and imprison them while Twilight Sparkle escapes. However, after the rest of the Mane Six escape and the windigos appear as a result of their evil scheme to create distrust among ponies, Cozy Glow and the other villains face off against the Mane Six and their army of allies in a grand battle. Cozy Glow and her cohorts are defeated and de-powered back to her normal form. As punishment for their crimes, Cozy Glow, Tirek, and Chrysalis are imprisoned in stone by the combined magic of Discord, Celestia, and Luna. |
| Grogar | Ram | Male | Blue | White | Red | The Beginning of the End (Discord's disguise) | Doc Harris |
| Grogar is a blue ram sorcerer who once ruled the land that would become Equestria with an iron fist several millennia ago as its emperor back when it was only a mere collection of farms and pastures. He became known as the "Father of Monsters" after he created the foulest of creatures and allowed them to terrorize the ponies. He also wielded an ancient artifact known as the Bewitching Bell to make himself stronger. He was then confronted by Gusty the Great and her unicorn warriors and after battling them, Gusty stole Grogar's Bewitching Bell and banished him. In season nine, Discord disguises himself as Grogar to trick Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow into forming an alliance with each other in an effort to prepare Twilight as the new ruler of Equestria, but this ends up backfiring when the villains retrieve the real Grogar's Bewitching Bell and steal Discord's magic which also exposes him of his Grogar disguise. |
