When Villains Fight: Speculation and Apex Artillery

Villains are amazing. They create conflict and tension in a story and often thereby make it one. They can also be interesting characters. Sadly, because villains usually arrive only one at a time, we fans can only speculate how they would interact.

This is what this is: Speculation on what would happen were one to pit the major villains of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic against each other. And by 'major', I mean 'warranting a two-part episode'.

So here are our combatants, in order of appearance, with some little notes attached on how I interpret some of their capabilities.

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Nightmare Moon: While at least as powerful as Celestia, her judgement is likely clouded by her insanity.
Discord: Due to his reformation, he is now somewhat vulnerable to somepony using his friends against him as leverage.
Queen Chrysalis: While she has an army of changelings at her disposal, I would assume that normally, her personal power levels are far lower than when gorged up on Shining Armor's love.
King Sombra: Dark magic, hatred and fear, crystals. Also angry shouting.
Plunder Seeds: Lack a localized centre of life and possess the ability to disrupt magic, making escape virtually impossible once the vines wrap around you, especially if there are no friends to help you.
(Lord) Tirek: Maybe lord of something. This considerably hangry thaumivorous centaur can steal magic, but his capabilities depend vastly on what he's been eating lately.

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Now, without further ado, to the battle grounds!

Nightmare Moon Vs. Discord
While I would hardly call that a fight, it would probably be entertaining to watch. Since Nightmare Moon is so easily aggravated, Discord would take full advantage of her temper and keep playing her until she drops down in despair.

Nightmare Moon Vs. Queen Chrysalis
Now that would be interesting. The changeling army would presumably give Chrysalis a big advantage in spite of the Nightmare's superior firepower. Depending on exactly how powerful each one is, this fight could possibly go either way.

Nightmare Moon Vs. King Sombra
This, again, could go either way. On the one hand, it might simply result in the Nightmare curb-stomping Sombra, and on the other side of the spectrum, Sombra might use the Nightmare's fears and insecurities (remember why Luna turned into Nightmare Moon?) to turn her into an emotional wreck.

Nightmare Moon Vs. Plunder Seeds
In the short term, flight and laser beams might hold the vine tentacles at bay, but in the long run, it's just a matter of time until the Nightmare runs out of breath, some vine creeps up behind her and disables her magic. The Plunder Seeds are just too hard to get rid of.

Nightmare Moon Vs. Tirek
If Tirek has absorbed enough power beforehand, he can just drain her magic and finish her off. If not, he'll probably get cut to pieces by her magical laser beams that sound suspiciously like a Dalek gunstick.

Discord Vs. Queen Chrysalis
Due to the sheer scope of his abilities and his teleportation, I don't think armies are much use against Discord. Chrysalis' only real hope is capturing and impersonating Fluttershy, or let the changelings attack disguised as his friends. If the deception works, she might have a good chance. If, however, Discord can see through the disguise using his freaky magic sense or if he uses a spell to cancel the transformation, she's got a big problem.

Discord Vs. Plunder Seeds
Well, in the Season Four Premier, the vines seemed to largely ignore Discord. Possibly due to him being the one who created them in the first place. Imagine a fight between you and a potted plant.

Discord Vs. Sombra
If Sombra manages to take one of Discord's pony friends hostage, he might just manage to use his fear magic on Discord and pull off a win. This is, however, quite unlikely, as Discord is apparently able to easily circumvent magical defences, teleport his friends and quite adept at mind games and magic himself. Not to mention possibly somewhat resistant against it, since Fluttershy's Stare has no effect on him.

Discord Vs. Tirek
This is where we can refer to canon: Discord curb-stomps Tirek, unless the latter has absorbed enough magic to drain Discord of his. However, Tirek might find it difficult gathering that much without having Discord's help in the first place.

Queen Chrysalis Vs. King Sombra
Changelings feed on love. Sombra's magic is fuelled by fear and hate, so it would probably make quite the effective weapon against them, possibly weakening or even starving them on contact. It would still probably be a glorious battle, with squadrons of changelings buzzing through the air, being struck by beams of dark magic and crystal spires that rise from below—quite the epic image.

Queen Chrysalis Vs. Plunder Seeds
This is the point where an army is nearly useless. Without any way to effectively combat them, the vines would take the changelings out one by one, up to their slow, but sure, defeat. Sorry, Queenie, no love to drain here.

Queen Chrysalis Vs. Tirek
This is where the army is helpful. While being able to drain large crowds of ponies, I don't think Tirek can sap the magic of a swarm of changeling soldiers without Discord there to hold them in place. Zerg-rushing and blasting him with everything available will probably be the best tactic. Unless he's eaten quite a lot of magic, Tirek will go down sooner or later.

King Sombra Vs. Plunder Seeds
Crystals against vines? Could be quite interesting. However, Sombra can't fly, so once the plants manage to send his magic on the fritz, he has pretty much lost.

King Sombra Vs. Tirek
Also known as Battle of the Angry Evil Guys. Due to his powers of inducing fear and the fact his magic seems positively revolting and indigestible, I'll give this one to Sombra.

EDIT because I forgot:
Plunder Seeds Vs. Tirek
Tirek's main problem here is that he just doesn't seem to have the skill to effectively deal with the Plunder Seeds, even if he has eaten enough magic. Draining them is outright out of question. By blasting them, he might hold the vines at bay indefinitely, but that won't get rid of them in the long run. If he doesn't suddenly start using spells beyond deadly beams of fire, the best Tirek can manage here is a draw.

All Of Them At Once, Just For The Fun Of It
Chaos. Chaos! Discord wins.

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So, this post is mainly speculation. If you think of something I might have missed, please tell me in the comments. I just threw this together at a whim, after all.