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How would you make a Non-unicorn/alicorn villain?


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So, as the topic says, how would you go about making a credible Non-unicorn/non-alicorn pony villain? The other 2 races, lets be frank, just have significantly lower magical potential as the show's set things up, and its hard to imagine any singular pegasi/Earth pony as a credible threat in a two parter sense in the same way that an Alicorn or Unicorn could be due to their magic being basically undefined and limitless.

 

 

So, how would you do a proper Premier/Finale 2 parter episode? Without resorting to "They found a magical artifact that is the true reason they're able to threaten everyone, not their own natural abilities" :P

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I've only gotten as far as their basic power and the type of character they are. A cursed earth pony, who instead of helping to enrich the lands with life, now causes anything that goes near him to age, wither, and eventually become dust. Also rendered immortal, they once secluded themselves away from everyone and everything, but the long isolation and unfairness of their situation has taken its effect on their mind, eventually turning that character into a nihilistic pony who goes out seeking all life, watching how they live in one moment before their time is all taken away.

Admittedly it's a bit dark. Might soften things up by the aging process not being and instantaneous thing. Instead it's more like watching someone age a year a minute, giving that earth pony time to leave before he kills someone and just leaves them incredibly aged.

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I think either a special skill they have or, my preferred method, having them be able to control others. Not through magic, but sheer convincing and he/she could amass a small army of ponies willing to go against the main 6, who would have to break through the ponies conviction and maybe even their own. That is the basic idea I have.

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a master pegasi warrior and tactician decides to revolt against equestria and create his own kingdom of pegasi he would wear magic resistant armor and be very charismatic perhaps he would try to take control of cloudsdale and its weather factory to convert other pegasi to his cause and use the weather as a super weapon against the two sisters 

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Personally I think it'd be interesting if they did some pegasi servants of windigos; So that its not so much that they personally are the ones who will destroy equestria directly, but are trying to either bring the Windigos back or releash a seal on some of them from the past, Kind of in a Lovecraftian Cultist type deal where the villains aren't able to destroy the world but are seeking to unleash beings that will.

I think the weather tradition aspect of pegasi might make it a good fit for some of them to have fallen under the sway of the windigos for some reason.

 

49 minutes ago, Marimo said:

I've only gotten as far as their basic power and the type of character they are. A cursed earth pony, who instead of helping to enrich the lands with life, now causes anything that goes near him to age, wither, and eventually become dust. Also rendered immortal, they once secluded themselves away from everyone and everything, but the long isolation and unfairness of their situation has taken its effect on their mind, eventually turning that character into a nihilistic pony who goes out seeking all life, watching how they live in one moment before their time is all taken away.

Admittedly it's a bit dark. Might soften things up by the aging process not being and instantaneous thing. Instead it's more like watching someone age a year a minute, giving that earth pony time to leave before he kills someone and just leaves them incredibly aged.

Ah, reminds me somewhat of the Blighter from D&D, basically a nega-druid essentially.

Ironically, that setup is probably the one I'd see being most FITTING for a redemption kind of situation, since I could see them reforming if their curse were removed XD

 

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Earth Ponies and Pegasi are fully capable of creating conflict through simply disagreeing with the ideologies of the protagonists, but if you are wanting to create a more dangerous antagonist there needs to be something more: Power.

Dragons, Earth Ponies and Griffons are naturally strong and powerful without relying on magic, but brute force. If they were to create a scenario in which an alpha rose to power with an army, there would be some potential there, they could destroy towns or hurt other ponies.

There are a lot of things that Pegasi and Bat Pony can do as well. In Wonderbolt Academy, two fast flying pegasi literally created a whirlwind capable of destroying a hot air balloon. If a Pegasi army created a whirlwind, who knows what could happen? It's a matter of power, and if a pony with grey morals rose to it, there would be consequences.

Edited by maemaee
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Despite the show's obvious pre-industrial, high-fantasy setting, the only way I can think of having a non-unicorn/alicorn character be a legitimate threat is for them to utilize some kind of technology or weaponry that would render raw magical power ineffective.

Maybe an earth pony with a brilliant mind, yet feels great envy for the other pony races because of their abilities, and seeks to replicate and surpass them through scientific means?

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49 minutes ago, BadHorse said:

Despite the show's obvious pre-industrial, high-fantasy setting, the only way I can think of having a non-unicorn/alicorn character be a legitimate threat is for them to utilize some kind of technology or weaponry that would render raw magical power ineffective.

Maybe an earth pony with a brilliant mind, yet feels great envy for the other pony races because of their abilities, and seeks to replicate and surpass them through scientific means?

 

it would make sense to make the Earth ponies be the ones with a natural affinity for tech in their universe, though sadly most all technological dev we've seen so far has been from Unicorns using magitek :(

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14 minutes ago, Raven Drakeaurd said:

 (to be fair they were different species. But I digress.)

well the intent here of this thread is specifically for non-alicorn/unicorn PONIES, not things like changelings or centaurs. I suppose my title could be a little clearer there. (So specifically pegasi/Earth pony villains, ala how Sombra or Starlight were able to hold up as 2 parter villains)

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Well, of course an Earth-Pony could be a villain, a very un-treating villain mind you, but a villain none the less.

But the only time I have seen an Earth Pony or Pegasus be a villain was in the MLP Comic were Apple Jack was a ruthless business mogul, and Flutters fills the Pegasus quota, she lead an army of animals to destroy pony-vill.

So in short, yes an Earth-Pony or Pegasus could be a villain, and in Flutters case an actual threat.

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Some of ya'll are think too much about magic, when there is a trait even non magical human beings posses that has the potential to destroy the planet (no its not nukes... technically..) The ability to unite, manipulate and control others. with words. sure. a magical spell does the job much quicker, but a common belief is still quite the adversary as we have seen throughout history and even today, on both large and small scales.
Even just an earth pony that knew their way with words could pose a substantial threat, just look at how everybody knows and loves pinkie pie and her influence on the entire community. if that kind of stature was used for evil who knows what could happen.

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1 minute ago, JU88snow said:

Some of ya'll are think too much about magic, when there is a trait even non magical human beings posses that has the potential to destroy the planet (no its not nukes... technically..) The ability to unite, manipulate and control others. with words. sure. a magical spell does the job much quicker, but a common belief is still quite the adversary as we have seen throughout history and even today, on both large and small scales.
Even just an earth pony that knew their way with words could pose a substantial threat, just look at how everybody knows and loves pinkie pie and her influence on the entire community. if that kind of stature was used for evil who knows what could happen.

This. Any pony that was able to unite others for a common cause (either good OR bad) is definitely a potential antagonist that could cause wars or, heck, mass destruction or genocide. Magic is pretty irrelevant when it comes to charisma, unless your magic deals with mind manipulation.

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If you want a serious pegasus or earth pony villain for two part episode it should be some kind of group. Some kind of well intentioned extremist style conflict maybe.

What I would like if some crystal ponies would not like being part of Equestria and tried to take over Crystal Empire but it would not be framed as Sombra style tyranny but resistance to modern changes and nationalist movement and maybe even dislike for the Equestrian imposed royalty (but that would probably be too over critical of monarchy for this show and Cadance was a part of the group who saved them from Sombra and she has shown to be respectfull for the Crystal pony traditions so there would not be that much reason to be againt her). Crystal ponies have been really underused by the show, we don't have any named ones so it could be kind of of meta if in show they felt like underappreciated. And them adjusting to modern world would be interesting to see regardless. Crystal Empire could have some kind of secrets and magic which could be only used by the crystal ponies making them a threat. That library could be hiding all kinds of interesting secrets.

But maybe you think crystal ponies is not quite what you had in mind and all magic should go unused I would suggest that some Earth ponies (or maybe just one) could maybe have some special connection some kind of Ent like creatures who would have some grievance against most ponies (maybe some environmental issue if handled subtly) and they would team up with a Earth pony leader who really wants just power.

Additionally I know these are not ponies but zebras are ponylike and I think a zebra villain using potions magic would be quite interesting. Or actual war against Saddle Arabia or Meretonia...

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24 minutes ago, JU88snow said:

Some of ya'll are think too much about magic, when there is a trait even non magical human beings posses that has the potential to destroy the planet (no its not nukes... technically..) The ability to unite, manipulate and control others. with words. sure. a magical spell does the job much quicker, but a common belief is still quite the adversary as we have seen throughout history and even today, on both large and small scales.
Even just an earth pony that knew their way with words could pose a substantial threat, just look at how everybody knows and loves pinkie pie and her influence on the entire community. if that kind of stature was used for evil who knows what could happen.

No magic and just a charismatic pony using influences is kind of what we got in season 5 premiere even if magic was used as plot device and that pony was a unicorn. You can't do just the same thing again and it's natural to seek some magic or the conflict becomes similar to the season 5 premiere or the conflict is more small scale and better suited for some other episode like a map one rather than a 2-parter. Not that it can't be done.

 

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Well given how Starlight kinda reminded me of Amon from the Legend of Korra, if they were to be either an earth pony or pegasus villain, in order to make them a threat, I would make them go full Amon.

The villain would be a disgruntled earth pony who would acknowledge how much more powerful unicorns and even pegasi are than earth ponies and would start up a social revolution by feeding on the same kinda conflict the three races of ponies had in Hearth's Warming Eve.

As the conflicts between the races would continue to grow, we could see the return of the Windigos, which would require Twilight with the rest of the princess to deal with, allowing for the remane 5 to get more focus during the episodes where they would be focused on stopping the coup.

 

Edited by cmarston1
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I'd argue that it's impossible to make an non-unicorn villain feel threatening at all. I mean, the mane six have already fought so many powerful villains that it's a little silly to pretend  that they struggle fighting someone without powers. 

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It wouldn't be that hard. They could also find something to give them power, though it may be overused. I would love to see the other two races shown to have more power, especially Earth ponies.

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43 minutes ago, Foxy Socks said:

It wouldn't be that hard. They could also find something to give them power, though it may be overused.

So they'd basically be unicorns without the horn then?

So sorry for the multpost, by the way. Forgot that the character minum was messed up. 

Edited by Yamet
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Do bat ponies count? Cause I could make a mean bat pony assassin.

Smoke bomb into echolocation into sleep dart/plunder dust = one rekt powerful unicorn

It kinda needs to be a bat pony since the only reasonable way to take down a powerful unicorn by another pony is to limit their vision and surprise them. Plus bat ponies and toxic assassin-y stuff make for a well-rounded fantasy theme.

 

And for the bigger conflict I could always brush the dust off my Mad Arabian. Let's say his heir wants to prove that Star Swirl and the Canterlot's finest scholars made a mistake when they dismissed his ancestor as an unprofessional fool.If Hollow Shades is the equivalent of Arkham how would one ponify Miskatonic University?

 A disreputable professor of the occult by day and a bat pony rogue by night. Kinda cliché, but this is FIM so buck it.

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I've actually created a villain who is an earth pony. He basically is a hater of Non-earth ponies, and he creates a police state where only earth ponies are allowed. The city itself is protected by a forcefield that the maine 6 have to destroy in order to get to him. When they get to him, he tells a sad story of when the earth ponies were pushed around in the olden days, and all he wanted was for earth ponies to be treated fairly. He then learns that all ponies should be treated fairly, no matter who they are.

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