Tirek (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

"How does it feel, knowing that soon every pegasus, unicorn and earth pony will bow to my will, and that there is NOTHING you can do to stop it?!"

- Lord Tirek ""Is he friend, or is he foe?", the pony wonders? I can assure you... I am no friend. I am Lord Tirek, and I will take what should've been mine long ago."

- Tirek while stealing a unicorn's magic.

See also Tirek (My Little Pony)

Lord Tirek is the main antagonist of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season 4 finale "Twilight's Kingdom." He is a powerful demonic centaur with the ability to drain ponies' magic. Lord Tirek is a revamped version of an antagonist from the first generation My Little Pony cartoons.

Role
Tirek and his brother Scorpan tried to take over Equestria, but when Scorpan became friends with Starswirl the Bearded, he came to appreciate Equestria and tried to turn Tirek away from his quest. Tirek refused, so Scorpan warned Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who were able to imprison Tirek in Tartarus (possibly by using the Elements).

When Cerberus left his post at the gates of Tartarus, however, Tirek was able to escape. Sometime after he began absorbing unicorns' magic. Celestia received a vision of this and sent Discord after Tirek. However, Tirek was able to manipulate Discord into betraying his friendship with Fluttershy and joining his side. Tirek began eating energy from pegasi and earth ponies to take away their flight and strength. Finally he went after Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, but finding their magic to be gone he imprisoned them in Tartarus.

Discord thought Tirek didn't value him as a partner so Tirek gave him his medallion, saying that it was his only keepsake from someone close to him. Then Tirek saw a stained glass window of Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Discord explained to him who this new princess was. He and Discord captured Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Spike, and Tirek ate their power before doing the same to Discord, saying that his medallion actually came from Scorpan, and that Discord is as worthless to Tirek as Scorpan was.

Growing to tremendous size from the magic he absorbed, Tirek attacked Twilight, and when he destroyed her library, she became enraged and fought him in an epic battle. The two were evenly matched, though Twilight seemed to have a slight advantage, so Tirek revealed the other Mane 5, Spike, and Discord, imprisoned in orbs. Tirek told Twilight to give him her magic and that of the three Princesses, and she agreed, so Tirek released all except Discord. Twilight told Tirek to release him as well. He accepted and then ate Twilight's magic, increasing his size to massive proportions. To thank her for her kindness, Discord gave Twilight Scorpan's medallion which was the final key to the Tree of Harmony box. Unlocking it, the Mane 6 received Rainbow Power, which they used to blast Tirek with a rainbow not unlike the one produced by the Elements of Harmony, leaving him imprisoned in a cage in Tartarus with no power while restoring Equestria and the ponies to the way they were.





Appearance
Similarly to his G1 incarnation, Tirek is a demonic-looking being with elements of a centaur. His lower body is black, with a white horse tail and cloven hooves. His upper body appears to be covered in black fur, except his arms and face, which are crimson. He has a pair of horns and a white beard, his eyes are jet black with yellow pupils. He dons steel bracelets, a steel collar, and a ring in his nose, he also wears a gold amulet that is a keepsake from Scorpan. In the beginning Tirek appears far smaller than he was in Generation 1, he is also scrawny and old-looking. However, the more power he absorbs, the bigger and nastier he gets.

Personality
Befitting Tirek's status as a revamp of one of G1's darkest characters, Tirek is extremely power-hungry and brutal. He wants to be the ruler and god of Equestria, and he will stop at nothing to accomplish this goal. However, he does not kill his enemies, preferring to leave them alive, but powerless, the better to oppress them. Tirek is very quick to anger, and his wrath is absolutely terrifying to behold.

Despite this, Tirek is not purely a brute - he can be deceptively intelligent. He is shown to be patient, as he waited for a long time after escaping Tartarus, recovering enough power to become able to launch an assault on ponies. Tirek is also an expert manipulator, who cannot be trusted - he was even able to persuade Discord, himself known as an expert master of puppets, into joining him - only to betray him and consume his power after gaining enough magic to do so. Despite this, he will sometimes keep his word - but only when he feels he's not really losing anything out of the deal, such as when he released Twilight's depowered friends.

Powers / Abilities
Tirek has manifested the following abilities so far:
 * Magic Drain: In his first appearance Tirek is shown to be able to consume the magic of ponies, removing their cutie mark in the process - he seems to literally suck this magic into his mouth, like a more kid-friendly version of "soul stealing". A pony drained this way is completely stripped of all magic. Tirek adds the stolen magic to his own, increasing his size and power. The more magic he drains, the more powerful he becomes. After devouring enough unicorn magic, he becomes able to strip pegasi and earth ponies of their innate magic as well. At very high levels of power, he becomes able to strip even an alicorn or a draconequus of all magic. If Tirek drains the magic of every single pony in Equestria, he effectively becomes its God, able to single-handedly control all the aspects of the land that ponies normally regulate collectively.
 * Immense Strength: At high levels of power, Tirek displays an enormous degree of super strength. He is able to lift and throw boulders bigger than himself, and smash the ground to create a fearsome shockwave. Presumably, his physical power depends on the amount of earth pony magic he has consumed.
 * Demonic Magic: Tirek displays a degree of magical power consistent with the amout of magic he has consumed. At low levels of power, he is only able to fire a weak, paltry blast. After consuming enough magic he becomes almost unstoppable. He has displayed enormously powerful energy projection in the form of blasts and beams, the ability to create magical shields, high-level telekinesis, high-level magical entrapment, the ability to create portals, and more. His magic seems to be affiliated with fire. The way he casts spells is unique to him: instead of emitting magic directly from his horns, he instead forms a ball of infernal energy in the empty space between his two horns.
 * Durability: Tirek's durability seems to be immense, as he survived the magical equivelent of a nuke and even managed to ram himself and Twilight through an entire mountain without seeming to injure himself. Tirek almost never shows any sign of feeling pain (except at rare occasions like when Twilight blasted him in the face) and never seems to be injured at all. He may even be immortal, since the rainbow did not kill him, instead only draining his power and sending him back to Tartarus. Also, like Celestia, he is over a thousand years old.
 * Flight: During his battle against Twilight Sparkle, he seems to be capable of wingless flight, which would be consistent with him stealing pegasus magic.

Differences from G1

 * In G1, Tirek uses the Rainbow of Darkness to transform ponies and other creatures into monsters. In G4, he eats unicorn magic, and eventually the power of pegasi and earth ponies, and increases his size.
 * G4 Tirek shoots energy waves with his horns while G1 Tirek only seems to use the Rainbow of Darkness or attack physically (although he did cause an explosion to blow up part of the wall of his castle).
 * G1 Tirek wanted to bring eternal darkness, while G4 Tirek wanted power.
 * G4 Tirek is Scorpan's brother while G1 Tirek turned a prince into Scorpan and forced him to work for him, threatening to behead Spike after Scorpan's repeated failures.
 * G4 Tirek has a few appearance differences from G1 Tirek, such as a white beard and tail, a longer tail, a nose ring, and no spikes on his wrists. His wrist braces also break when he becomes big enough.
 * G4 Tirek does not ride a Chariot of Midnight.
 * G1 Tirek is destroyed while G4 Tirek is reimprisoned in Tartarus. A similarity, however, is that both were defeated by a rainbow.

Trivia

 * In his fully powered state, Tirek is easily the most powerful antagonist in G4 (much as he was in G1). After consuming enough magic, he surpasses even Discord in power (a character who is constantly portrayed as near-omnipotent).
 * He is considered the most evil villain in Friendship Is Magic, along with Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra. Despite this, he was not killed, unlike the evil king (though whether Chrysalis was killed is a subject of debate).
 * His role in G1 and his relationship with Scorpan are given a nod in G4, but Scorpan is not shown outside of the flashback and the existance of Meghan is not acknowledged.
 * He seems to be a sort of Satanic archetype for the show. He is obviously a demon, the most powerful antagonist of his generation, and beyond a doubt one of the most evil. He corrupts Discord into betraying the Mane Six, and his ultimate ambition is to rule as God of Equestria.
 * The reboot of Tirek is similar to that of the Joker in The Dark Knight and Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness; they have different appearances (some more so than others), are portrayed by a different person, and unlike their original, they are imprisoned rather than killed.
 * Tirek is similar to the Dragonball Z villain Garlic Jr. Both are immortal, and in defeat both are reduced from a big, muscular form into a weakened emaciated form and permanently reimprisoned in a dimension that they previously escaped. Tirek sending the princesses to Tartarus could echo Garlic Jr. trying to suck the Z Fighters into the Dead Zone.
 * The fight with Tirek is also similar to Dragonball Z battles, and is considered the most epic moment of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
 * Tirek can also be said to be similar to Galactus from Marvel Comics. He is the most powerful and dangerous enemy the ponies have ever faced, just like Galactus is one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel universe, and he grows stronger by devouring magic, just like Galactus sustains himself by devouring the life energy of planets. He also initially is served by Discord, who helps Tirek capture ponies to devour the magic of, just like Galactus is served by a herald who finds planets for him to devour. Discord is betrayed by Tirek and rejected from his service after his morality gets the better of him, just like Galactus rejected the Silver Surfer from his service after a similar moral crisis. The major difference between the two is Galactus is consistantly shown as "beyond good or evil" while Tirek was just plain demonic.
 * Tirek is also similar to Ganondorf (whom fans were expecting King Sombra to be like instead of Sauron), particularly in Ocarina of Time: Both seek to gain ultimate power, and get a high amount of it (Ganondorf gets the Triforce of Power while Tirek absorbs the power of many ponies and Discord), both seek power in the possession of the main character and a princess (both of which Twilight is) to become unstoppable, and both are apparently immortal and can only be sealed away in a hell dimension (though Ganondorf is later killed after he uses up his Triforce of Power to form the Triforce, which is snatched from him at the last second, similar to how Tirek's power is taken away soon after he absorbs all the alicorn magic from Twilight). Also Tirek's powered up form and increase in size can be compared to Ganondorf's transformation, Ganon.