THIS DEVIATION IS SUBJECT TO FUTURE EDITS
 
I’ve been thinking a lot about all of the big villains that have appeared in all of the season premieres and finales throughout the series, as well the MLP Movie.  
I didn’t want to include the Equestria Girls villains because I felt that, that series was too different to be compared to the pony-world series.  
I wanted to depict all of the big baddies of the show alongside what it is that they represent individually, all of the vices that formed the foundation of their villainy:
 
Nightmare Moon: Envy  
Most of us who’ve seen MLP ever since the 1st episode, should already know this story. Princess Luna, ruler of the moon & younger sister to Princess Celestia, the ruler of the sun, became envious of her older sister because of the fact that all of the ponies paid more love and attention to her sister and the daytime, and none gave any love and attention to her and the nighttime. Once all of her envious rage had reached a boiling point, she transformed into a new being and had fully become an evil creature of the night, now going by the name Nightmare Moon. Unable to accept the less-fortunate circumstances of her life, she gives in to her envious hatred of her sister’s “perfect life”, and takes it away, believing her and Equestria’s failure to appreciate her and the night must be punished and must recompense for it endlessly by worshipping her and the night FOREVER!
 
Discord: Nihilism  
When Discord was first introduced to us, he announced himself as the spirit of chaos, and from what we saw of him when he was still in his overt villainous state, he loved turning every situation he could find into a chaotic joke, he basically destroyed all of ponyville and made it look like it was some sort of bizarro fun-house and he ENJOYED every moment of it. And he LOVED it when he was able to corrupt all of the mane 6 into going against their morals and became the opposite of what their personalities usually were. All of his actions were all an attempt to show to the world, that life is meaningless, in fact the very first words we ever hear him say were “Make sense? Oh what fun is there in making sense?”. Rejecting the value of meaning is the very definition of nihilism itself. No better way prove that by being the spirit of chaos, he is also the embodiment of nihilism, at least during his days as a villain.
 
Queen Chrysalis: Utilitarianism  
The definition of utilitarianism, is the belief that the right consequences determines the right moral choice, the ends justify the means. And this perfectly describes Chrysalis’ philosophy because it wasn’t just that she wanted to manipulate all of the ponies into giving her and her changelings all of their love, but it was also because she felt she HAD to do it so that in turn she could feed herself and her changelings and therefore help her and her subjects survive. Chrysalis’ origins are still that of a big mystery, but if there’s anything we know is solid, it’s that Chrysalis fully embraces the philosophy of utilitarianism.
 
King Sombra: Darkness (MY FAVORITE VILLAIN)  
There’s really no secret why I think everyone would agree that Sombra represent darkness. EVERYTHING, from his design to his powers, to his goals, everything  
King Sombra is and does just oozes darkness. The fact that he can become a dark shadow cloud that will encompass and destroy everything in its path is already the most obvious example. There’s also the fact that he can actually manipulate the minds of others and make them experience their worst fears and nightmares, and the fact that his goal, vaguely as it was presented, clearly suggests that all he wants to do is to enslave every creature in Equestria and subjugate them all into his will, corrupt their very morality to serve his own philosophy of evil or else destroy them by using their own fears and darkness against them. King Sombra, is the only villain that has ever been depicted as a pure-evil villain, you won’t hear any arguments from him detailing why he does the things he does. And the fact that he also seems to want the ponies to give in to their darkest selves, also depicts him as sort of “evil will itself”, not necessarily just an evil character, but also more of a force of nature if anything else, a force of darkness.
 
Tirek: Hatred  
One of my favorite villains, and one of the greatest villains of MLP of all time. One of the things that set Tirek apart from most of the other MLP villains up to this point, is that Tirek unlike all the other villains, doesn’t want to rule over Equestria, but wants to destroy it. He didn’t want to make his own kingdom, like how Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis wanted to replace Princess Celestia, nor did he want to subjugate the people to his power like what Discord and King Sombra wanted, he outright just wanted to steal everyone’s life energy and DESTROY everything he sees on site. Unlike all the other villains, Tirek genuinely didn’t want to create his own kingdom, because he genuinely hates everything, he even despises the very concept of friendship itself, and he believes it to be a form of imprisonment. So since he feels this way, it would then stand to reason why I believe he represents hatred. If he hated the idea of ever becoming friends with other creatures, then it really wouldn’t satisfy him any further if he even became their ruler, as it would require him to make relationships with others, abusive relationships, but relationships nonetheless. Tirek is the embodiment of a fully violent and rage-fuelled form of hatred.
 
Starlight Glimmer: Equalitarianism  
Starlight Glimmer changed the game of the series when we were introduced to her town and her ideology. Everyone must be equal, the very definition of equalitarianism: male & female, young & old, magical & non-magical, everyone must be treated equally. However, in Starlight’s case, it isn’t just that everypony had to be treated equally, but also they had to be TRANSFORMED equally, meaning no one is allowed to do better than anyone else, i.e. removing everypony’s cutie mark. Basically, in response to the fear that by having cutie marks and by extension having certain ponies be better than others, it will cause those who don’t have cutie marks to be neglected and be put in a miserable disadvantage, so cutie marks must be outright abolished. So, if those who don’t have cutie marks can’t get cutie marks and can’t reap the rewards of having so, then nobody gets to have them, NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO BE SPECIAL. Her desire for everything and everyone to be COMPLETELY EQUAL to a dangerous and destructive degree, perfectly displays how she represents the evil that comes with equalitarianism.
 
Pony Of Shadows: Despair  
I think it’s pretty obvious why I would believe the Pony of Shadows represents despair. Stygian, friend to the Pillars of Friendship, in trying to help his friends by trying to copy their powers and having been misunderstood for it, was unknowingly betrayed by them. Feeling the anguish and despair of having been misunderstood and having lost valuable friendships, traces of Nightmare Moon’s dark magic seeps into Stygian during his lowest and most vulnerable moment and transforms him into the Pony of Shadows. The Pony of Shadows’ goal is to make all of the creatures of Equestria, give in to their despair and ultimately take his revenge.
 
Storm King: Totalitarianism  
If I could use a few words to describe the Storm King, it would be these: Ego and Total control. The Storm King was one of the funniest and most powerful villains the creators of My Little Pony have ever given us. If I could describe his motive for him, it would be this: I am the greatest and most powerful being in the world and I deserve to have everything. Control of every land and kingdom, every species, every treasures and every power, even the power to control the elements of reality itself, and on top of all that, I will never share anything with anyone, I will never really trust anyone, and all shall bow down to my will. To say the Storm King is evil, is an understatement, not only does he represent evil, but specifically a totalitarian evil. Leading a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the main authority, i.e. complete enslavement to the Storm King. You will never find a villain in the MLP universe that has as great an ego and over-bloated desire for total control as the villain of My Little Pony: The Movie, the Storm King, MLP’s comedically evil and preeminent totalitarian villain.
 
Cozy Glow: Megalomania  
Although megalomania can be attributed to many of the other villains presented in this list, I think it perfectly describes what it is the deceptively cute and villainous Cozy Glow represents. Not only is Cozy Glow one of the most manipulative, ruthless and intelligent villains of MLP, but she also has possibly the strongest and greatest obsession for attaining untold power. She was so intoxicated with becoming the most powerful pony to have ever existed, that even though she herself does believe in the spirit of friendship, she nonetheless uses the friendships others give to her, just because it is only a means for her to become powerful. She only values the utility of friendship, because it is only just one more step in climbing the ladder of gaining more power. Cozy Glow’s gluttonous desire for unimaginable amounts of power makes it pretty appropiate to say that she definitely represents megalomania.
 
Grogar: Tyranny  
(Just started watching season 9 even though season 9 and MLP G4 just ended) Grogar, leader of Equestria’s greatest villains, Father of Monsters, Emperor of Ancient Equestria and the symbol of tyranny. Although it was revealed that Discord was behind the mask of Grogar (didn’t complete season 9 yet, but was spoiled by the internet sadly), Grogar’s identity nonetheless shined through Discord’s deception and commitment to the role. And through Discord’s act we see a villain that completely represents pure tyranny. Both the opposite of Discord’s chaos (as tyranny is and evil order) and the inversion of friendship. As unlike in friendship, where all serve for each other, with tyranny, all serve one and the one only serves oneself. ‘Grogar’ believed in the utility of ‘teamwork’ like friendship. However, it was never meant to uphold a lasting unity between him and others, it was just a means to an end to become ruler of all things, to be his own god and the world becoming his inescapably obedient subjects. Tyranny would always be the greatest enemy of friendship, as it is the philosophy that distorts friendship from a unity towards harmony and peace to a unity towards selfishness and suffering. Not only did Grogar exemplify this through his forceful demands of Equestria’s villains to all work together to become a greater force of evil, but he also insults and disrespects their own individuality AND demanded that they all submit themselves to him, else they suffer to their own mistakes. By far Grogar(played by Discord) was one of the greatest tyrants that had ever existed in Equestria. As not only was he so close to taking over Equestria as a whole, but he also managed to form an order of powerful evil beings to essentially do his bidding for him and was nearly successful with their combine efforts. If Discord’s passion was having gleeful unbridled chaos, Grogar’s passion is having a cruel & selfish order. Grogar was the perfect villain to represent the intelligence, cunning, danger, cruelty and self-centeredness that came with pure tyranny.
 
Let me know, in the comments below, which of these villains were your favorite, if you have one.
 
(I will update this again once I finished watching Season 9!)