My Little Pony Complete Villain Guide (All Generations)

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My Little Pony collector Caitie Bee revisits all the best baddies from the hit MLP animated series

Co-authored by Caitie Bee and Amber Crain

Last Updated: February 2, 2026 Fact Checked

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• G1 Villains
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• G2 & G3 Villains
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• G4 Villains
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• G5 Villains
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My Little Pony has a reputation for being sweet and innocent, but any fan knows: this series is dark. Like, really dark! The TV series, movies, and comics featured tons of fascinating villains over the decades, from the Smooze to Discord. If you want a complete retrospective of the key antagonists to grace My Little Pony since the 1980s, you're in luck. With the help of My Little Pony collector Caitie Bee, we've compiled a list of all of the best baddies from each generation of the long-running franchise (including some villains you might not have heard of!). Keep scrolling to learn more!

Most Famous My Little Pony Villains

My Little Pony collector Caitie Bee says the most evil MLP villain is Tirac/Tirek, who appears in G1 and G4. Other well-known villains are Nightmare Moon, The Smooze, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra. There are also a few complex villains who eventually redeem themselves, like Discord and Misty Brightdawn.

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Section 1 of 4:

My Little Pony Generation 1 Villains

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   Tirac (sometimes spelled Tirek) According to Bee, Tirac is the most evil villain across the entire series. He’s a demonic male centaur and wizard who resides in the Midnight Castle with his minions and loyal servant Scorpan. He wields the Rainbow of Darkness, which Bee says appears as a throbbing heart of shadows pulsing in his hand. It corrupts everything it touches and can turn captured ponies into evil dragons.

   • “I consider him the most evil villain because he kidnaps ponies (including a baby pony) to enslave them, literally sending dragons down from the sky to kidnap [and] shackle ponies in heavy chains, and transforms them into fanged dragon-horse monsters to pull his evil chariot and fly him around. He also slaps a baby dragon!” Bee explains.
   • Bee says Tirac first appeared as a demon in the Firefly's Adventure animated special and has a much darker tone overall. According to her, it’s spookier than the other G1 episodes.
   • Tirac is brought back in the G4 (Friendship is Magic) series. Bee says he’s still evil in G4, but he never does anything quite as evil as kidnapping and transforming helpless ponies into monsters in order to serve him.
   • Scorpan (a loyal servant of Tirac) is also a villain. He was originally a human prince, but Tirac gave him his demon form after corrupting him with the Rainbow of Darkness.

   Meet the wikiHow Expert

   Caitie Bee, known as Ponyguru online, is a My Little Pony collector based in Southern California. She’s been collecting My Little Pony since the 1980s and has a growing collection of nearly 6,000 figures.
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   Garth Bee ranks Garth’s evilness almost as highly as Tirac’s. Garth appears as a one-off character from the episode “Flight To Cloud Castle Part I/II.” “He spends the whole episode acting like an entitled creep to a princess, and forces the ponies to do a lot of 'romantic deeds' on his behalf so he can show off to her,” Bee explains. “At one point, Garth is fully prepared to let everyone die as a floating castle plummets to the ground.”

   • Bee says he's not as evil as Tirac, but he “brings to mind the kind of entitled, sleazy loser you might meet on Tinder, and that's some real world horror right there!”
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   Zeb Bee says Zeb deserves an honorable mention as one of the most evil villains. He’s the sleazy manager for Knightshade, a pop-singing pony. “While Knightshade performed to his adoring fans, Zeb would use an evil shadow monster to eat their shadows, which also drained their lifespan,” Bee explains. “This reduced the ponies to elderly, wrinkled versions of their former selves.” She says seeing their wrinkled pony faces was pretty horrifying (they appear in the My Little Pony and Friends episode “Bright Lights”).

   • Zeb often works with Erebus and usually sends giant rats to do his work.
   • Which My Little Pony character are you? Take our quiz to find out!
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   Hydia, Reeka, & Draggle (The Witches of Volcano Gloom) Bee says these witches are fan favorites. Hydia is a powerful witch and the main villain in My Little Pony: The Movie. She lives in the Volcano of Gloom with her daughters Reeka and Draggle. “The witches are mostly hapless, with the two daughters Reeka and Draggle being particularly goofy and useless, but Hydia summons the Smooze (another villain that returns in G4) to swamp Ponyland and drive the ponies away,” says Bee. “[She] wants to use the Smooze to take over Ponyland, in order to turn everything just the way she likes it–dark, dank, and dreary.”

   • Bee says Hydia is sillier and more fun than Tirac, with her “overdramatic rages and her penchant for throwing things at her useless daughters, and she's just a lot of fun to watch, even as an adult.”
   • If you want to get a taste of their antics, Bee suggests checking out their songs from the movie, “Evil Like Me” and “I'll Do The Dirty Work.” The latter is about “each sister trying to pawn off the hardest part of a magic spell on the other.”
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   Wizard Wantall A greedy wizard who tries to steal things from the ponies in the G1 comic books. He’s “not very well known but a top contender for most evil,” says Bee. He “enslaved ponies to work in his diamond mine, and as a result, the ponies went blind.” Majesty magically fixed their eyes, resulting in the Twinkle Eye Pony toys, which feature large diamond-shaped gems in place of eyes, notes Bee.
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   The Smooze A massive slime-monster and villain in My Little Pony: The Movie. The Smooze is partially sentient, can only express rage and malice, and has limited speech (mostly just roars and grunts). He is raised and unleashed by Hydia, one of the witches of Volcano Gloom.
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   Grogar An evil ram, sorcerer, and leader of Tambelon who tried (and failed) to take over Ponyland 500 years ago. He returns in the present day to capture Unicorn Ponies and banish them to the Shadow World. Grogar is eventually defeated by Megan, who banishes him to the Shadow World.

   • Bray: A sneering donkey and Grogar’s most loyal Henchman. In his first appearance, Grogar asks him to bring a disgusting meal to the unicorns.
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   Catrina A humanoid feline witch. Her source of power is The Witchweed Potion, which she forces slaves to make for her using a special machine. She tries to kidnap the ponies to be her slaves, but is stopped by the Rainbow of Light. She redeems herself later by destroying the machine that produces the Witchweed Potion.

   • Rep: A shape-shifting lizard and Catrina’s assistant. He can transform into any shape as a disguise.
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   Lavan An evil lava demon. He kidnaps the Princess Ponies, steals their magic wands, and uses them to transform himself into a powerful crystal being. He is eventually destroyed by the Princess Ponies.
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    Erebus A malevolent Cloud Demon who devours shadows to gain power in the Bright Lights special. Erebus uses the popular singer Night Shade to draw crowds to his concerts so he can steal shadows from the audience.
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Section 2 of 4:

My Little Pony Generation 2 & 3 Villains

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   MLP G2 didn’t have any villains or an animated series. MLP G2 was a redesign of the toy line from 1997 to 2003. G2 didn't have an animated series, but Bee says there were some European-only comics that were mostly lighthearted in tone. There was also a computer game called My Little Pony: Friendship Gardens. The game focused on friendship rather than conflict.
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   MLP G3 didn’t have any villains and limited animated content. G3 was another redesign of the toy line that ran from about 2003 to 2009. There were a few direct-to-video animated specials and films (The Princess Promenade, A Very Minty Christmas), but these cartoons were more “slice-of-life” and didn’t feature a lot of conflict. “They were [mostly] about interpersonal problems [and] unfortunate situations without a villain to defeat,” Bee explains.

   • For example, A Very Minty Christmas is all about Minty accidentally messing up the Ponyville Christmas tree, and then traveling to the North Pole to try and fix it so Santa will still come deliver their presents, says Bee.
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Section 3 of 4:

My Little Pony Generation 4 Villains

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   Discord Bee says Discord is the most popular (and well-known) G4 villain. Discord is the Spirit of Chaos, an ancient evil who wants to turn Equestria into a lawless land of strife. He eventually becomes an ally to the Mane Six and Lord Tirac/Tirek's archenemy. Bee explains that Discord eventually redeems himself, although he continues doing lots of villainous (but mostly harmless and annoying) stuff.

   • Discord was popular enough to be brought back multiple times over several seasons, she says. He even becomes Fluttershy's implied romantic interest in the final episode, and has a spinoff arc in the G5 comic series.
   • In that series, “he is illustrated as an elderly draconequus, with a long white beard. He’s also voiced by John DeLancie, well known as the character Q from Star Trek, so he’s got some star power that elevates him a little higher in some fans' eyes,” explains Bee.
   • “I think part of his popularity is that he is one of few stand-out male characters,” Bee notes. “Coupled with the chaotic nature of his personality/magic, he lends himself to a bit of a comparison to Heath Ledger's Joker character, chaos for the sake of chaos.” Male fans tend to identify with Discord because he's ‘cool.’
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   Queen Chrysalis One of the main villains in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and the Queen of the changelings. She’s also a shapeshifter who appears as Princess Cadance. Bee says Queen Chrysalis is quite popular, potentially because she’s mysterious and we don't get a lot of her backstory. “She's moderately evil for evil's sake (she feeds off of emotions, so she needs to menace the ponies to survive),” she explains. She can be manipulative, sadistic, and cruel. Her main goal is to gain subjects and expand her rule across Equestria. She is eventually defeated and dethroned as changeling queen.

   • In later seasons, she returns to form “a sort of evil villain group with Tirec, Cozy Glow, and Grogar (another G1 villain who turns out to be Discord in disguise),” notes Bee.
   • “Chrysalis is just a very cool design (black and neon green in a sea of pinks and purples, with her hooves and legs carved away like Swiss cheese),” says Bee. “She can shapeshift to mimic any pony (and does so, almost marrying Twilight Sparkle's brother and becoming queen of the Crystal Empire!) and she's never redeemed like other popular villains. Sometimes a bad guy is so stylish and cool that you can't help but enjoy their every appearance, and maybe even root for them!”
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   Nightmare Moon She is one of the main villains in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (G4), although she’s eventually redeemed. She is an evil manifestation of Princess Luna, who is corrupted by her jealousy of Celestia (her sister). Nightmare Moon is eventually defeated by the Mane Six, restored to her normal form of Princess Luna, and reconciled with her sister.
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   King Sombra A powerful and sadistic unicorn who conquers the Crystal Empire with dark magic. He captures the crystal ponies and hides the Crystal Heart artifact from them. He summons black crystals to battle his foes. He’s eventually dethroned and imprisoned by Princesses Celestia and Luna.

   • Bee says King Sombra is another contender for most evil because he tried to enslave the ponies and made the Crystal Empire vanish for a thousand years (with all of the ponies in it). “Slavery and vanishing ponies for a thousand years might make him one of the most outright evil ponies in the series, which is probably why he didn't get brought back,” she explains.
   • Which My Little Pony villain are you? Take this quiz to find out!
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   Tempest Shadow Tempest Shadow appears in the G4 movie (My Little Pony: The Movie). Bee says this is one of her favorite villains, but the movie tends to be overlooked by MLP fans. She was a tragic type of villain, abused and abandoned by her community. She joins forces with another evil villain, the Storm King, who also didn’t resonate much with fans. “He wasn't ‘cool’ like Discord or Chrysalis. He seemed kind of goofy at times,” Bee notes.

   • Tempest Shadow is later redeemed after being betrayed by the Storm King.
   • “The spinoff of G4, the Equestria Girls films, had other one-off villains who were popular within their own fandoms, with the most popular probably being the redeemed Sunset Shimmer,” according to Bee. “She has a lot of ardent fans, but unfortunately, G4 fans didn't click that well with Equestria Girls, so she's relatively unpopular.”
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Section 4 of 4:

My Little Pony Generation 5 Villains

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   Misty Brightdawn A unicorn initially under Opaline Arcana's control as her assistant and adoptive daughter. Initially, she sits on the sidelines and watches as Opaline Arcana plots against the Mane Five, but she eventually befriends the Mane Five and becomes an ally. This whole redemption arc has been very popular with the G4 crowd, according to Bee. After Opaline is defeated, she moves to Crystal Brighthouse in Maretime Bay with her friends.

   • Bee says that a lot of G4 fans didn’t love the way G5 was handled. Misty Brightdawn could have been just as popular as Chrysalis or Discord, but she ended up falling a little flat with fans.
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   Opaline Arcana A vain, manipulative, and ambitious alicorn and the main villain in G5. Initially, she can do very powerful magic, but she’s banished from Equestria for believing that alicorns are superior to all other ponies. Her goal is to reclaim her lost unicorn magic and steal magic from the rest of ponykind.

   • “Opaline has some interesting backstory, but it seems like most of the fans didn't really care to dig deeper,” Bee notes, again citing the issues G4 fans seemed to have with G5 storylines.
   • Misty and Opaline appear in the miniseries, My Little Pony: Make Your Mark.
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   Sprout Cloverleaf A misguided Earth pony who is jealous of unicorns and pegasi. He’s the son of business mogul Phyllis Cloverleaf and the former deputy of Maretime Bay. His main goal is simply to create division between the different pony types. He is eventually defeated and begs the Mane Five for forgiveness, which they agree to, and they give him community service.

   • Sprout and his mother are the primary villains in the G5 movie My Little Pony: A New Generation. “I'll be honest, I don't think anyone cares about Sprout. Poor Sprout!” Bee notes. “I enjoyed him, though. He was a very whiny and entitled villain!”
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   Allura A power-hungry and cunning winged snow leopard who uses ice and hypnotism to manipulate others. She wants to conquer Starlight Ridge and beyond, but she also has a soft spot for characters close to her, like Twitch (her assistant) and Alterro (her brother). Most of her villainous acts stem from her difficult childhood, making her a more complex character.
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   Twitch A male rabbit who is often seen either smirking or pouting. He is very loyal to his master, the winged snow leopard Allura (although he often annoys her), and he helps her with her evil schemes against the ponies. He is also allied with Opaline.
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