Stygian should have been an Earth pony

[ShootingStar159 2,155]

Seriously, it was the perfect chance to have a non-unicorn pony villain and they didn’t use it. There wasn’t even a reason to make him a unicorn, he didn’t have any special magical powers. Shadow Play is my favorite finale, but this is going on my “missed opportunities” pile.

[Jade Fire 7,036]

yeah like starlight's cutie mark not being on the map with the other 6. she fixed the friendship problem, but the map, that picks whoever is needed to fix the problem, didnt call her. and with her being called by the map before it would have been a great way to tie the episodes together.

[Brainstorm 4,092]

Stygian is fine the way he is, maybe the Pillars and Main Eight (Including Spike and Starlight) can help him overcome his guilt and become a Pillar too, like he wanted.

[Hierok 11,829]

3 hours ago, ShootingStar159 said:

Seriously, it was the perfect chance to have a non-unicorn pony villain and they didn’t use it. There wasn’t even a reason to make him a unicorn, he didn’t have any special magical powers. Shadow Play is my favorite finale, but this is going on my “missed opportunities” pile.

I was thinking of this too. The only problem with it is that The Pony Of Shadows would have been an Earth Pony too.

[BastementSparkle 20,312]

2 minutes ago, Hierok said:

I was thinking of this too. The only problem with it is that The Pony Of Shadows would have been an Earth Pony too.

The Pony of Shadows has wings as well as a horn, even though Stygian is only a Unicorn. I don't think it's too far-fetched for the Pony of Shadows therefore to be able to give an Earth Pony a horn as well, and the wings too.

Edited November 3, 2017 by BasementSparkle

[Hierok 11,829]

1 minute ago, BasementSparkle said:

The Pony of Shadows has wings as well as a horn, even though Stygian is only a Unicorn. I don't think it's too far-fetched for the Pony of Shadows therefore to be able to give an Earth Pony a horn as well, and the wings too.

Totally forgot about that.  

[Will Guide 21,325]

Technically, it's the Darkness that's the true evil etity. The Pony of Shadows is simply Stygian consumed by the Darkness. He himself refer to it as the Darkness.

The same thing applies to Nightmare Moon being Luna consumed by Jealousy toward her sister. Or She-Demon Sunset being Sunset consumed by the evils of Ambition or Midnight Sparkle being Human Twilight consumed by a twisted form of Curiosity. 

Simply put, it doesn't matter what species or race you are, The evil kind of Darkness will consume you if you let it.

Edited November 3, 2017 by WiiGuy2014

[Guest]

In a way it could be seen as unicorns having the lack of will to become these kinds of monsters whereas pegasi and earth ponies not having any vulnerabilities like that. 

[Brainstorm 4,092]

4 minutes ago, WiiGuy2014 said:

Technically, it's the Darkness that's the true evil etity. The Pony of Shadows is simply Stygian consumed by the Darkness. He himself refer to it as the Darkness.

The same thing applies to Nightmare Moon being Luna consumed by Jealousy toward her sister. Or She-Demon Sunset being Sunset consumed by the evils of Ambition or Midnight Sparkle being Human Twilight consumed by a twisted form of Curiosity. 

Simply put, it doesn't matter what species or race you are, The evil kind of Darkness will consume you if you let it.

Yes, those ponies weren't truly evil, they were corrupted.

[Singe 2,109]

It a common conception that a unicorn would be ambitious to become more powerful when dealing with magic. That doesn't fit an Earth pony.

Edited November 4, 2017 by Singe

[heavens-champion 1,893]

2 hours ago, Singe said:

It a common conception that a unicorn would be ambitious to become more powerful when dealing with magic. That doesn't fit an Earth pony.

If an earth pony was able to clone herself, I think an earth pony can turn into something more powerful.

[Jeric 46,835]

This isn't something I generally focus on in the show unless it is key to the theme of the presented story, so it didn't bother me. In the end, PoS was basically a pseudo male Alicorn so that would have overshadowed his race for me ... come to think of it I actually didn't remember he was a unicorn until this thread mentioned it. 

[Lektra Bolt 2,337]

I agree this could have been done in a writing balancing sense since we haven't had one of these, but the way the story was written he became POS specifically because of his magic being corrupted by his jealousy feelings, even though he lacked aptitude with it in pony form. Even though as mentioned his POS form had both wings and a horn so it wasn't species dependent, I feel it's more likely for Unicorns to have their magic corrupted than other races, since their magic is in an active form. If it was a situation of being corrupted in general like the other villains who's corruption wasn't species dependent, then I could see this being a thing, but Stygian seemed to have been written specifically with his Unicorn magic corrupting due to his feelings.

Now that he's been cured, I feel his name might not fit anymore since it means very dark.

[Will Guide 21,325]

Actually Stygian had very little magic on his own. In fact, he's what could have happened to Sunburst, seeing that the latter's unicorn abilities were nothing special either. Although Sunburst makes up for it by being very knowledgeable about magic and putting it to good use, instructing others what to do.

Also Stygian's jealousy of apparently not given credit makes him a foil to Starlight since her misguided belief that Cutie Marks ruin friendship is what caused her to do awful things as she must have grown jealous of Cutie Mark at such a young impressionable age.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

It means unicorn race is the race that easy to be corrupted  Whenever a unicorn is unhappy, a million will suffer. They need psychologists more than any race of Equestria. Only Earth Ponies are the most happy race because they usually positive, even the most depressing one didnt go around and screw people. There are some proof:

Unicorns went to wrong path: Tempest, Starlight, Stygian, Sombra, Flim & Flam (they screw the world in alternative timeline)

Earth Ponies with not very happy background but still a decent pony:

Maud, Cheese Sandwich, Pinkie Pie

There are corrupted Earth pony like Gladmane or Sven, but they didnt become an evil emperor that ruin over hundred Earth ponies life, a cult leader and woobie destroyer of the world, a Eldritch worshipper that will relinquish light and hope, evil businessmen that could ruin Equestria by turn everything into factories.

........................

Yeah, Stygian is a villain and a Unicorn, perfectly logical.

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

I disagree because I'm fine with Stygian being a unicorn.

[They call me Loyalty 1,941]

He is too weak to be an earth pony. Let him have magic at least.

[Props Valroa 26,043]

I wish he was an Earth Pony.

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

He would've been pretty cool as an Earth Pony but he probably wouldn't have been too different if his magic skills were bare minimum before he got his shadow magic, so who knows.

Edited May 18, 2022 by ExplosionMare

[Toastypk 920]

I think this is a leftover from when people were remarking how unicorns are almost always the villains. At least then we got Cozy Glow, and later Sprout.