Since the creation of the brony fanbase, original characters of all sorts have dominated the web. From the generic ponysonas to the black-and-red Mary Sues, the variety has been huge.
And today, we've got two of the most well-known original characters in the arena, ready to duke it out!
Nyx, the filly reincarnation of Nightmare Moon...
...and Fluffle Puff, the mute but crazy living furball!
I'm Yah-Shee and he's Arrell, and it's our job to analyze their weapons, armour, and skills to find out who would win an Equestrian Death Battle.
Species: Alicorn
Reincarnation of Nightmare Moon
Summoned by a cult using Twilight Sparkle's blood
Special talent is protecting others
Fought and defeated both Celestia and Luna
The original Mary Sue OC?
Created in the Everfree Forest by a cult who worshiped Nightmare Moon, Nyx is essentially just that - Nightmare Moon. However, there are a few things that set her apart from the season one premiere's villain.
For one thing, Nyx is only a little filly, about the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders! Because of this, she focuses a lot less on conquering Equestria and a lot more on just having fun...which eventually turns into conquering Equestria.
Being an alicorn, Nyx is capable of both flight and magic. However, after the essence of Nightmare Moon was drained from her by Princess Luna, her magical capabilities were decreased down to that of an ordinary unicorn, taking away a large portion of her power.
Since this ended up making Nyx not nearly as powerful as people remember her, we're just gonna ignore that little detail so the fight can be more fair and awesome!
As such, Nyx's magical powers will be taken from early on in the story, before her transformation into Nightmare Moon rather than after. This means that Nyx has an extremely high amount of magic power, far beyond that of even the most gifted unicorns. However, since she's only existed for a short while, she hasn't learned many new spells to use.
It isn't until she becomes Nightmare Moon - or, as some call her, Nightmare Nyx - that she actually learns a ton more magic spells she can use, like being able to summon lightning bolts or split herself into copies!
Overall, while Nyx possess near-infinite magical capacity, she doesn't have many spells as a filly to use in battle...or many situations at all, really. Though she did turn Fluttershy into a tree temporarily, so...that has to count for something.
Magic powers aside, being a filly spells out a lot of trouble for Nyx! Makes her physically weak and fragile, not to mention pretty damn gullible! Seriously, when the two fillies who've been bullying you suddenly start acting nice for no reason whatsoever, you don't trust them!
This personality does not seem to completely disappear when she becomes Nightmare Moon, however. While she no longer seems as easy to manipulate or as quick to become upset, she also stays moderately pleasant to the point where it's hard to even call her a villain.
She walks Nightmare Moon's walk and talks Nightmare Moon's talk, but the amount of mercy she shows to her "enemies" is incredible! Twilight Sparkle infiltrates her hidden castle? Send her to the dungeon and give her first-class treatment! Cutie Mark Crusaders do the same thing and eat her food? Put them in the same dungeon and set them free a couple weeks later!
However, when her friends and subjects are at risk, Nightmare Moon does not show this same empathy, as shown when fighting off Everfree Forest creatures attacking Ponyville. In fact, she doesn't even hesitate to brutally slaughter each and every one of them that doesn't just run away.
So, yeah...she's got that Mary Sue personality, and those Mary Sue powers! What about the typical Mary Sue weakness of nothing?
Actually, I'm glad you brought that up. Nyx, whether as a filly or Nightmare Moon, actually does have quite a few weaknesses.
...really?
Aside from her tendency to angst, Nyx-as-Nightmare Moon's loyalty to her friends and subjects - at least, the ones she doesn't consider enemies - has led to her putting herself in constant danger without hesitation in order to protect them. This involved her utilizing her "self-duplication" spell, which has a weakness of its own: while it did allow for at least a couple dozen different Nightmare Moons to roam Ponyville, all connected by a hive mind of sorts, each Nightmare Moon was more susceptible to pain than if there was less of them.
And when she calls all the clones back to her to become one again, what happens? She has to deal with every injury all of them got at once!
This, capped off with having to fight one more creature, left Nightmare Moon unconscious from her injuries and in desperate need of medical help in the middle of a town full of ponies who had to live under her fearful rule...all of whom, somewhat understandingly, did nothing. It is quite likely she would have died then and there, if not for Twilight stepping in.
"You...YOU MONSTERS! SHE JUST SAVED YOU! SAVED YOUR CHILDREN! WHY WON’T YOU HELP?!"
Oof.
Whether a filly or Nightmare Moon, Nyx seems to function mostly the same. She has incredible magic capabilities, she can be childish, she's extremely protective, and she only really goes with the flow. The only reason she became the villainous Nightmare Moon everypony knew was because Spell Nexus and the other members of his weird cult forced her into it, and everypony already feared her. It's pretty obvious throughout her stint as Equestria's dark ruler that all she wants is to go back to normal.
Because that's what she is: a normal filly with a normal life.
...not even close.
Yeah, that was sarcasm.
"Bad decisions...now that’s the understatement of the millennium. Answer me this: How many bad decisions can a pony make before she is a bad pony?"
Species: Earth pony
Romantic interest of Queen Chrysalis
Doesn't speak; communicates through noises
Warps reality
Omnivorous
Dances on rainbows
Fluffle Puff is a fanmade earth pony who's basically what Kirby would be if he didn't shave!
Surprisingly, that's very accurate. Fluffle Puff's origins are unknown, but it's likely that she's just an ordinary pony who has a few things wrong with her.
Like a Rogaine addiction?
For one thing, she refuses to speak, instead choosing to communicate through actions, noises, and writing. It's up for debate whether she can't actually speak or if she just doesn't want to, but since she has screamed in the past, it's likely not a problem with her vocal cords. Plus, she can write coherently and understand other ponies, so the possibility of her just not knowing the language is definitely out the window.
But getting past that, we should really talk about her most prominent feature and the positive effect it's having on the wallets of shampoo makers all over Equestria!
...do you have these written down or something?
All improv, buddy.
Of course. Obviously, Fluffle Puff is...well, fluffy. Her fur is big and thick enough that a pony can actually get stuck in it, and as Ditzy Doo demonstrated, a pegasus who gets stuck could pop their wings out and start flying with Fluffle Puff still attached for several seconds.
Yet despite having more hair on her body than an Internet forum has posts about Adolf Hitler, she's one of the quickest and most agile ponies out there! Several times over, she's shown off how fast she can move and how far she can jump, and let's just say she could almost outdo Sonic the Hedgehog - both in speed and crazy hairstyles!
This speed and agility comes in handy when she's...well...just being Fluffle Puff, I suppose. There's not really a way to describe everything she does in one sentence.
Makes Pinkie Pie look normal?
That works. Fluffle Puff is constantly cheerful, only sometimes getting annoyed when she feels that she or a friend has been wronged in some way. Her cheerfulness often leads to "playing" with ponies in ways that can irritate or even hurt them, from hugging ponies after eating messy food to pounding everypony in Ponyville with pillows.
FROM SPACE!
Yes, Fluffle Puff is apparently so intelligent, she can construct a working spaceship out of nothing but pillows, along with a weapon to fire...more pillows. It's unclear exactly how this works, but thankfully, the ability to build things with pillows won't be a deciding factor in this battle.
Aww...I wanted to see them making pillow forts! ...come on, that'd be adorable!
This intelligence also translates into another, lesser-seen ability; specifically, the ability to keep her mind protected from the influence of others. For example, when Discord attempted to...well..."Discord" her, she was unaffected the first time and needed several rapid-fire attempts for it to actually work. Even then, all that happened was she became a pink version of Nightmare Moon-
How ironic!
-and smashed Discord's face with a rock before returning to normal, meaning that even if she does get somewhat mind-controlled, she still remains somewhat in command and can go back to normal quickly.
Man, I wish I had that sort of power! Able to keep doing what you want even when someone's controlling you...could've saved my marriage!
Another trait of hers is her ability to eat just about anything. Aside from typical pony food, she has also eaten paper, crayons, and...wait for it...ham.
The cute fluffy pink pony is an omnivore?! Great! So she's fast, doesn't speak, can't be manipulated, has the potential to destroy an entire town with pillows, and she eats meat?! How do we even know she's a good guy?
...let's be honest. Do you look at her and think "evil"?
...eh, not really.
"Pbbbth."
Alright, the combatants are set! Let's end this debate-
And get people to stop asking us to have Nyx in a battle!
...once and for all.
IT'S TIME FOR AN EQUESTRIAN DEATH BATTLE!
There was no delay. As soon as the scene opened, the two competitors were already waiting in the forest where their battle was set to take place. The young filly looked confidently ready to battle, while the pink ball of fluff seemed to just be staring off into space, her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
As soon as the signal was given, Nyx charged forward. Fluffle Puff just stared obliviously in her opponent's general direction, making it hard to tell if she was actually watching her run or if she was just lost in thought. Either way, she didn't react to the filly's galloping, nor did she react to Nyx's first attack.
...which was nothing more than a slap in the face.
Fluffle Puff blinked, pulling her tongue into her mouth and looking down at the filly, who slapped her again. And again. And Nyx could swear she heard crickets chirping, even though it was the middle of the day. If you actually played that YouTube link with the music, if it started buffering at this point, consider that part of the battle.
Getting increasingly frustrated, Nyx turned around and bucked her apparently immobile opponent in the face. This actually had an effect, as the pink ball of fluff was knocked over with a quiet eep-ing sound. Nyx smirked and turned to face her, preparing to continue her slap assault (if nothing more effective came to mind), but blinked when she saw that her adversary had vanished.
Out of nowhere, the alicorn filly was suddenly glomped by a warm ball of fluff. Yelping, she struggled to break free, but was only rewarded with more hugs for several seconds. Finally, she lit her horn and used magic to forcibly pull her foe's forelegs away from herself, sighing in relief as her hooves touched the ground again before jumping away. Fluffle Puff tilted her head, looking down at Nyx for a moment before gasping and smiling. Nyx gulped, starting to back away slowly, only to be stopped by a sudden surge of magic being forced into her body...
Fluffle Puff stood and watched with an oblivious smile as Nyx was suddenly engulfed by magical energy. With a crack of thunder, the magic dispersed, and Nyx stood...much taller than before.
She had become Nightmare Moon.
She laughed, but it wasn't the giggle of a filly. It began as a dry chuckle, but grew in volume, becoming loud and haughty. She raised her head, looking at the night sky as her laughter became crazed and maniacal.
It was the laughter of somepony who had just realized a cruel and terrible truth.
Nyx finally understood everything. She understood why she woke up in the Everfree Forest when she did. She understood why she had-
...her train of thought that was copy-and-pasted by the author was cut off when she looked down at Fluffle Puff, still staring at her, but now looking up rather than down.
She grinned wickedly and lit her horn, firing off a magical beam at the ball of fluff, who literally rolled out of the way. She tried again several times, but was dodged every time. With each beam fired, Fluffle Puff's smile began to disappear, until eventually she was outright frowning. She jumped out of the way of one beam and began to run at Nyx-turned-Nightmare Moon, who simply scoffed and shot a much larger beam where she anticipated Fluffle would be running into.
Sure enough, Fluffle Puff didn't dodge, taking the hit head-on and seeming to disappear. However, before she could celebrate, Nyx felt a hoof on her shoulder and turned to find that pink face staring right at her. Her vision was suddenly obscured by a field of white as a pillow was impaled on her horn, and by the time she got it off, Fluffle was standing on top of her.
"Get off of me right now!" she ordered, trying to buck the offender off of her back. At first, Fluffle seemed to hold on tight, but one strong buck finally knocked her onto the ground, where she landed flat on her face and didn't move. Nyx had no idea if she was actually out cold or just comfortable lying like that (not that the latter made much sense), but seizing the opportunity, she charged forward, head down and horn pointed outward.
Fluffle didn't move as Nyx ran right into her, appearing to stab her horn right into her torso. However, just as Nyx felt she had achieved victory, she noticed that all she had hit was hair. She tried to back up and see what happened, but she couldn't move, her entire upper body being stuck in the massive piles of tangled hair.
Meanwhile, the pink pony had stood back up and noticed her foe getting caught in her fur. With a smile, she began half-trotting, half-dragging her fluff prisoner over to a nearby lake. Opening her mouth and taking in a deep breath, she hopped in.
Nyx felt her body being submerged, and the water began to seep through Fluffle's fur. Panicking, she flailed about, muffled cries coming from within the mass of pink fluff that were muffled even further by the liquid that began blocking out any little bits of oxygen that might have been available. Fluffle, for her part, just sat at the bottom of the lake, her cheeks comically large as she effortlessly held her breath.
After several minutes, Nyx's flailing died down, and her body went limp. Fluffle rose to the surface of the lake despite making no physical motions, popping onto shore and dropping the drowned corpse onto the grass.
She then proceeded to go chase a butterfly.
K.O.
Uh...what just happened?
Nyx may be considered the "ultimate Mary Sue" by some - despite that not even being anything close to the proper terminology for what she really is - but she isn't invincible. She's just a kid, even as full-on Nightmare Moon, and as such has the mentality as one, instantly putting her at one of the biggest possible disadvantages for a pony-versus-pony battle.
Granted, Fluffle Puff isn't much better, but there's a difference between acting like a child and thinking like one! Fluffle Puff may act like an oblivious and energetic little filly, but she's really just having fun, whereas Nyx literally doesn't know any better than to think like an immature foal.
Mentality aside, however, the combatants were surprisingly close-matched...which isn't saying much. With Nyx as a filly, she couldn't actually do much of anything due to a lack of knowing any good magic off the top of her head, and not really having much physical strength. However, in terms of defense, she actually had an advantage. Since she was just a filly, Fluffle Puff would see no reason to attack her with anything majorly painful, let alone lethal...but as we've seen in some of her Tumblr comics, Fluffle Puff has a knack for giving ponies "exactly what they need". In this case...she gave Nyx a transformation.
How did she even do that?!
It's simple. In Past Sins, Nyx was turned into Nightmare Moon via a ritual process by the Children of Nightmare. It consisted mostly of just casting a spell, then letting Nyx absorb some magic power. Fluffle Puff being Fluffle Puff, though, she could easy give this magic power if she realized doing so would help Nyx. Keep in mind that, at this point, Fluffle Puff doesn't see Nyx as a threat; actually, she sees her as a friend.
You're probably thinking that goes against usual battle rules, and we're supposed to make them want to fight! Actually, nope! The rule is just that we remove any refusal to fight or kill in general, not with that specific opponent! But Fluffle Puff's dealt with Dan of all people, so a little filly slapping her a bit is nothing she can't handle.
Upon transforming, however, Nyx gained new magical capabilities...which ended up being her downfall. By becoming more of a threat, Fluffle Puff actually considered her an opponent who should be properly fought and defended against. So she was able to avoid Nyx's attacks, while doing some damage of her own.
And then all that hair won her the battle! We've seen that it's hard enough for gravity to pull her and somepony stuck in her fur apart, so once Nyx got stuck, there was no way she was getting out with that panicked mind she had going!
One well-placed lake and use of Fluffle Puff's oddly large lungs later, and there's one less OC in the world.
She really got out of a hairy situation this time!
The winner is Fluffle Puff.
Next time on DEATH BATTLE: Equestria:
The tournament is in the hands of KenSES64 and RazortheAwesome now, so I no longer have any control over when exactly those battles come out. So, from now on, I'll be using these "Next time" segments to tell you the next regular battle!
And, next regular battle, we'll be having a bit of an odd two-on-two battle that was accidentally leaked a few weeks or months ago. Let's see who takes to the air better: the flyers or the jumpers!
Got a suggestion for an Equestrian Death Battle? Post a comment below suggesting matchups, or send me a PM with suggestions in it!
You may suggest OC characters, provided they are from a story or other fan creation that is at least somewhat well-known.
Please do not suggest matchups that have already happened. You may suggest individual characters to appear in matches against a different opponent than one they have fought previously, but suggestions like those are less likely to be used (unless I REALLY like the idea).