Ahuizotl (My Little Pony)

"You thought you could evade me and capture the relic for yourself, but you are sadly mistaken, Miss Do. And now, you shall meet your doom!"

- Ahuizotl

Ahuizotl is a character and a recurring antagonist from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He is Daring Do's arch-nemesis and the main antagonist in the episodes "Read It and Weep" and "Daring Don't". He also appears as the main antagonist in the book, Daring Do and the Eternal Flower.

Initially, it is believed that he is a fictional character within the series, but he is revealed to be real in his second appearance.

He was voiced by Brian Drummond.

Read It and Weep
He first appears in Read It and Weep and the main antagonist of the book Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. He, like Daring Do, was also after the the Sapphire Stone. Ahuizotl captures Daring-Do with the help of the wild cats, whom he calls with a quick whistle. He then puts Daring-Do into a room with closing walls with spikes, quicksand, snakes, and spiders. However, she escapes and reclaims the Sapphire Statue from Ahuizotl. He is then surprised and he calls out angrily, "What! Noo! Curse you Daring-Do!".

Daring Don't
Ahuizotl later appears again as the main antagonist in Daring Don't, where it is discovered that he is a real inhabitant of Equestria. During a scene in which Dr. Caballeron is about to sell a golden ring to a disguised Daring Do, Ahuizotl angrily storms onto the scene and demands the ring. After Caballeron runs off and Daring snatches the ring away, Ahuizotl sics his jungle cats upon her. Using the nearby Rainbow Dash as bait, Ahuizotl distracts Daring Do long enough for her to be subdued and restrained, and hauls her off to the Fortress of Talicon.

After leaving Daring Do bound to a wall in a chamber filling with piranha-infested water, Ahuizotl begins a ritual with the ring to usher in 800 years of unrelenting heat. His efforts are thwarted by not just Daring Do, but also Rainbow Dash and her friends. Through Rainbow Dash and Daring Do's actions, the Fortress of Talicon comes crumbling down. Upon emerging from the rubble, Ahuizotl swears revenge on Daring Do.

Daring Do Adventure Collection
In the "Daring Do Adventure Collection", he is shown to be the main focus in the first two books. In "Daring Do and the Marked Thief of Marapore", he is mentioned but is a big plot point to the main antagonist, Mojo; who is using the Flankara Relics to heal his scarred cutie mark. During Daring Do and Mojo's aggressive confrontation, Daring compared him to Ahuizotl before she begins her action. Mojo went into shock, and confessed that Ahuizotl was the one that cause his cutie mark to be scarred. Because of this, Mojo is reformed.

In "Daring Do and the Eternal Flower", he is one of the few antagonists who tries to get to the Eternal Flower. A holy grail-esque plant that grants eternal life and immortality to anyone who drinks its nectar. Ahuizotl sent Caballeron to retrieve one of the Everleaves that are used to locate the flower, and succeeded. He then told Daring that Ahuizotl took Gallant True as hostage in search for the Eternal Flower as he has one of the leaves. When Daring track down Caballeron, she convinces him that it would doom all of Equestria due to Ahuizotl living forever. He did not listened of course.

After her battle against his henchponies, she is aided by a Pegasus mare named Rosy Thorn who was also trying to track down Ahuizotl. However, Daring decline due to her loyalty towards Caballeron. When they were at the fortress, Ahuizotl uses a magical device that disables Gallant True when they and Ahuizotl's army of "Hench-ponies" went outside of his fortress. After a battle to retrieve the leaves and rescuing her uncle, Daring uses the leaves to head towards a magical island where the flower is located. Ahuizotl has kidnapped Rosy Thorn after Daring and Gallant went away. Daring then summons a dragon named: Knuckerbocker to head towards the island. But when the arrived, Ahuizotl got there first. And Gallant True's colleague is shown to work with him. And Rosy Thorn turned against Daring for not rescuing her. Ahuizotl also brought a couple of his henchponies with him after the travel. He then uses the Everleaves to head towards the location of the flower. But a dragon swoops up and made a hassle. When Daring and Gallant True is in the island's Grotto after they built a raft to get there, Ahuizotl claims that he has the flower and shouts in victory. But it is revealed to be Poison Joke and shrunk into mouse size. He is then scooped up by his henchponies and retreated back.

In the ending pages of Daring Do and the Marked Thief of Marapore, and in Daring Do and the Eternal Flower; he appeared in the books glossaries with his pronunciation, spelling, and summary. He is said to be "a giant evil beast who will stop at nothing to gain riches and power". He is also Daring Do's biggest foe.

Personality
Ahuizotl is typically portrayed as an egotistical and mysterious creature with a very fearsome and maniacal demeanor. He is prone to greed and ferocity, shown in his repeated attempts to thwart Daring Do and bellowing at Dr. Caballeron when he reneges on their business deal. However, he is also prone to entertaining and comical blunders, such as when Daring steals the Sapphire Statue during his moment of glory and when he falls victim to poison joke in Daring Do and the Eternal Flower.

Despite of his comedic relief, he is shown to be highly ruthless and very twisted. As mentioned in Daring Do and the Marked Thief of Marapore. Where the main antagonist, Mojo, was shocked when Daring Do compared him to Ahuizotl. He then confessed that Ahuizotl scarred his cutie mark for trying to leave his gang of ponies in order to restart his life. Daring becomes to shock, as she did not knew that Ahuizotl was the cause of all this.

And in Daring Do and the Eternal Flower, when Daring and Rosy Thorn tracked down Ahuizotl, he and his henchponies came out of the fortress, and was helding hostage to Daring's unicorn uncle, Gallant True. He disable his horn with a cylindrical device called The Hooravian Unichain. While may be as pleasant, the book stresses that it is the most horrible act upon a unicorn. And even goes by saying that "this is low, even for Ahuizotl".

Appearance
His overall appearance and name mirror the mythical creature Ahuizotl from Aztec culture. Rebecca Dart, original creator, based the shape of his head on "an ancient sculpture", putting his eyes where the nostrils would be in order to "mix it up". The hand on his tail was influenced by the original mythology as it is said in "The Art of Equestria".

Ahuizotl has an elongated dog-like head, except for his eyes, which are positioned over his nose at the end of his snout. He walks on all fours, with dog-like hind limbs and ape-like forelimbs, and a long monkey-like tail with a hand on its end. Despite of being a "dog", he is said to be a cat by fans due to his pink nostril and overall placement of face, as well as jaguar spots on his back.

Ahuizotl has a tuxedo style coat, having navy fur over most of his body, while his stomach, lower jaw and limbs are sky blue. Ahuizotl wears gold jewelry, such as a necklace, a single ear ring, and three bracelets, one for each foreleg, and one around his tail's wrist. He is bigger than an average pony in terms of height, and thickness of body appearance.

Powers and Abilities
Ahuizotl has a prehensile tail with a hand that he can use to hold things, he is also very strong and powerful, as shown when he break down trees. And has shown to have knowledge on artifacts and relics. He is also shown to weasel his way into things as seen in Daring Do and The Eternal Flower. And seemingly can use his manipulation to get what he wants.

Reception
Ahuizotl is arguably one of the show's less popular villains because most fans consider him a stereotypical over-the-top bad guy or because he was initially thought to be a fictionized character within a show. Despite this, he is still liked by the fandom for being a good archenemy to Daring Do and some fans even ship Ahuizotl with Daring Do.

Trivia

 * Ahuizotl was named after the Aztec king who also took his name from the legendary creature in Aztec mythology.
 * The story of Daring-Do was based on Indiana Jones, Ahuizolti was loosely based on René Belloq. They both take something that was once discovered and obtained from the main hero. But later in the series, another character named Dr. Caballeron is fully based on Belloq.
 * In his second appearance in "Daring Don't", Ahuizotl is loosely based on Mola Ram as they both planned to use items for their evil deeds.
 * He is also similar to Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the James Bond series, where in one scene he was petting the white house-cat.
 * Ahuizotl is based on a mythological Aztec creature. It was described as a dog with monkey paws and a hand at the end of its tail. The Ahuizotl was thought to devour the nails, eyes, and teeth of unfortunate victims lured by its childlike cry.
 * Ahuizotl was voiced by Brian Drummond, who has also voiced Ryuk in Death Note.
 * Ahuizotl is the fourth recurring antagonist on the show. The others are: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Trixie, Discord, the Flim Flam Brothers, Garble, Caballeron, and Chrysalis.
 * He is one of the other villains not being deceased, reformed, nor imprisoned. The other villains are Queen Chrysalis and Flim Flam Brothers.
 * Ahuizotl is surprisingly one of the only villains who did not have a reign in Equestria in the Season 5 finale, Cutie Remark. But it could be possible that both he and Daring are at a struggle to survive due to the enormous conflicts of the undefeated villains in the alternate timeline and eventually, passed away in the distant timeline. Then again, Ahuizotl lives deep in the South of Equestria, (Tenochtitlan) so nothing is "totally destroyed". Where Daring, it could be a big possibility that she is deceased, as some theories proclaim that she lives in Vanhoover, where it is possible that that is also destroyed.
 * His defeat in Daring Do and The Eternal Flower after he drank the nectar of Poison Joke which is thought to be the Eternal Flower is reminiscent to Applejack's Poison Joke symptom in Bridle Gossip.
 * His overall defeat in Daring Do and the Eternal Flower is a blatant parody of Walter Donovan's death in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the whole book was a possible intention of G.M. Berrow as both premises focus on the search of immortality). Unlike in the movie where he dies from old age by drinking the wrong grail, Ahuizotl was defeated by drinking Poison Joke and shrunk him smaller.
 * He is the only villain who never have a FIENDship is Magic origin story by IDW. Though, it could actually be possible that he is not well-liked or is deeply loved by the fandom. Or, it could be that the writers are questionable that he is a real creature and not a fiction within fiction character.