Which Magnus Powers do the MLP villains belong to · 10:29pm Jan 8th, 2021
I wonder how big of an overlap there is between the MLP audience and the Magnus Archives. I don't imagine it's huge, but then, who knows! I'm rarely as original as I think I am haha. That said, the overlap between MLP, Magnus, and my followers probably is much smaller 
Anyway for anyone not in the know, The Magnus Archives is a horror anthology podcast with a larger overplot behind the scenes. Spoilers ahead, if you are already listening but just getting started. Basically uh, everything after this will be spoilers for the later seasons. So, keep that in mind! That said, I won't be spoiling specific characters or events, just some of the background information. Which, to be fair, might actually be the bigger spoiler. I guess what I'm saying is, read with caution!
So in The Magnus Archives, most or all events fall under the purview of one or more of The Powers, basically wide categorizations of the range of human (and some animal) fears. These Powers are something akin to the Old Ones of Lovecraft fame, basically huge, unknowable entities that feed on human suffering. In short, they're dicks. Though whether or not they're actually intelligent, or even their own beings, is up for debate. They're unknowable, that's the point. I guess the proper term is Cosmic Horror, in other words horror so vase and impossible to escape as to be, well, cosmic in scale.
Anyway, the Powers can roughly be categorized under 14 distinct territories.
The Buried: Claustrophobia, fear of being buried or caged, forgotten or lost. Suffocating.
The Corruption: Also known as The Rot. Good things going bad. In the literal sense- sickness, disease, even parasites and things that feed on death. Also more figurative, such as corruption of values or morals, or the twisting of love or friendship into a nasty, harmful thing.
The Dark: Literal fear of the dark, as well as what might lurk in it. Fear of the unknown.
The Desolation: Possibly the most evil, in my own opinion. This covers destruction, loss, intentional harm. All the burning and destructive forces of fire with none of the light or warmth.
The End: Fear of Death.
The Eye: The observer, the voyeur, the ceaseless watcher. This covers the fear of being watched or spied on. Having your secrets revealed. This power is most central to the plot of The Magnus Archives.
The Flesh: This one is interesting. It's one of the few powers not so directly related to humans. It is the animal fear of being slaughtered and eaten, raised as a commodity. It also covers aspects of cannibalism and body horror.
The Hunt: Another power closely linked with animals, though not exclusively by any stretch. The fear of being chased, followed, hunted.
The Lonely: Fear of abandonment. Of being alone in a crowd. Of suffering in silence. Of reaching out, and finding nothing.
The Slaughter: War. Murder. Violence. Delight in killing.
The Spiral: In a word, madness. The loss of sanity. Obsession. Making patterns out of nothing, and losing the patterns that do exist. Also covers things like amnesia and insomnia.
The Stranger: This covers a lot. The uncanny valley. Mannequins and toys that don't look quite right. People you don't know, and people you thought you did. Things moving on their own. Clowns.
The Vast: Space, the ocean, flying and falling. The insignificance of the human experience.
The Web: Conspiracy. People working behind the scenes, manipulating you, playing you like a puppet. Lies and half truths. Traps and addiction. Also literal spiders.
There is also The Extinction, which doesn't quite fit in with the other powers, but it basically the fear of the end of humanity, or the world itself.
As you can see, there's a lot of overlap between the powers. The Web and The Spiral might both drive you mad. The Buried and the Vast both love the Lonely, but hate each other. The Dark is the antithesis of the Eye, yet one might fear being watched from the dark. The categories are not a true separation, so much as a feeble attempt at quantifying the unquantifiable.
So how does that fit in with MLP? Well... the human brain loves its patterns. And after listening to all 186 currently released episodes, I can't help but start dividing other things up by the powers. Because with few exceptions... they cover a lot! So with all that out of the way, let's get started.
The easiest to categorize is probably, ironically, Discord. He is basically the embodiment of the Spiral. Madness, chaos, rejection of the mind. He doesn't make sense, and that's the point.
Likewise, Tirek is the Desolation to a T. Of all the villains, he's probably done the most permanent damage in the show, destroying Twilight's library. He took all of the magic from Equestria, used pure force, and basically just... destroyed anything in his way.
Chrysalis. She is the one that really got me thinking on this track. It was a hard decision, but I think I have to place her with the Stranger. Now that might sound really obvious. She's a shapeshifter! That's like the definition of the Stranger. But she also embodies the Rot pretty well. A corruption of familial affection and care, and a force that quite literally feeds on love and perverts it into something gross. But, since her nature is that of an outsider, rather than someone you know turning against you, I think she suits the Stranger best.
Sombra is of the Dark. Obvious? Perhaps. But it's not just his literal power over darkness, but his ability to obfuscate the truth and make you see what you fear. He doesn't find your fear, he makes you present it yourself. And I think that is the soul of the Dark.
Nightmare Moon. Ironically... not the Dark. She uses the darkness, and the night is her element, but she, more than anyone, is of the Rot. A good pony gone bad. Corrupted by anger and jealousy. Infected by her resentment, and turned against her sister and her people. Even after once more becoming Luna, the power lingers, in the form of the Tantabus, and even the Nightmare which occasionally makes its appearance in other media like the comics. That said, an argument could also be made for the Lonely.
Similarly, I think Starlight Glimmer would also fall under the purview of the Rot. While she treads close to the Web, her entire backstory is friendship gone wrong, and a hatred of what is supposed to make ponies great. And she uses that against ponies, taking their special talents and twisting them into something horrible, something to cut out. And she twists their trust into a tool, something to control them with.
Anyway, that's my own clumsy attempt at categorizing everypony. I haven't really touched Cozy Glow, so I don't even know how to begin to place her. She seems like she could be the Web or the Rot, but as Tirek's disciple maybe she is the Desolation. Idk, this was just a thought exercise haha. Maybe I'll do EQG next.
So I don’t listen to Magnus Archive but for Chrissi... actually I think she’s Flesh. She’s the commodification and consumption of love and, while there’s overlap with the Rot, her endgame is every pony in a pod.
Cozy seems to fit The Conspiracy quite well since she spends basically 90% of her screentime in her debut season putting on this innocent filly act that nobody bought. (I personally think it'd have been amusing if she had no idea she was unintentionally acting creepy and she really was that saccharine, but that's a story for another day.)
5431687
Ooh, interesting! I think if Chrysalis had her way, she definitely would turn all of Equestria into a factory farm for the changelings! Good argument for the Flesh. See how she's challenging to place?
My only problem with Chrysalis being Flesh is that the Flesh is generally very literal about meat and blood and bones, and Chrysalis is not actually consuming ponies. I think to an extent all of the powers want to consume their victims, the Flesh is simply most literal. It's definitely a very interesting thought experiment.
5431790
Haha, that would have been a great twist of her character. I kinda wish it was that, actually XD. Actually, being seen through also sort of suits the Web, since it's not just about literal conspiracy but also fear of conspiracy. So knowing you're being manipulated jut unable to do anything about it! Sounds like it suits her well haha.