Character Profile: Stygian, The Pony of Shadows

So, thanks to a bunch of my friends requests to learn more about my version of the Pony of Shadows, I am posting this character profile to explain his powers, motives, etc.

So sit back and read about the Dark Demon Pony, Stygian, the Pony of Shadows!

Stygian and his Alter ego, The Pony of Shadows. (Above) (Credit to Derpibooru!)

Stygian, The Pony of Shadows
Real Name: Stygian Hyde (Get it?)
Full Title: Stygian, The Pony of Shadows and Destroyer of Light
Ht: 4' 11" (as Stygian)
Alternate Ht: Varies, but approximately 12' 10" (as the Pony of Shadows)
Wt: 75.3 lbs (As Stygian)
Alternate Wt: Varies, but approximately 254.3 lbs (As the Pony of Shadows)
Species: Unicorn (as Stygian) Shadow Demon (As Pony of Shadows)
Eyes: Blue (as Stygian) none, only white backgrounds (as the Pony of Shadows)
Fur: light gray (as Stygian), Pitch Black with Gray lines (As Pony of Shadows)
Mane and Tail: navy blue (As Stygian) Shadow Black with gray edges (As Pony of Shadows)
Mark: A pony's shadow (as Stygian) N/A (As Pony of Shadows)

Memorable Quote: "You summon me at your own peril, Starswirl! Once I defeat all of you, this realm will embrace the darkness, as I did so long ago!"

Pony of Shadows to Starswirl, MLP Season 7 Finale "Shadow Play"

Background: over 1,000 years ago, Starswirl the Bearded and the Six Pillars of Equestria defended their lands from various evil beings. What the legends didn't tell was of the seventh member, Stygian Hyde. Or as the world would know him, The Destroyer of Light, The Infamous Pony of Shadows! Few knew of his existence, as Starswirl and the Pillars sealed him in Limbo, which took them as well to fight him for over 1,000 years.

The Return: When the Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle learned of Starswirl's fate, she and her friends set out to find the artifacts to free her hero and return the Pillars to Equestria. Unfortunately, she didn't think that through and brought the Pony of Shadows back as well. He promptly tried to strike down Starswirl and Twilight, and came close to overpowering them until the unicorn known as Starlight Glimmer helped the pair repel his attack. Knowing that he wasn't at full strength, The Pony of Shadows fled to Hollow Shades, and the Elements of Harmony and Pillars began a search for him.

Search for Shadows: Starswirl wasn't as kind to Twilight as she thought he was, which was understandable considering her mistake. But, her friends defended her feelings and even told him of her prowess in completing his spell, which turned her into an Alicorn. Starswirl assumed that The Pony of Shadows couldn't be helped, and thus was willing to banish him, sacrificing the Elements of Harmony to do so. Starlight had other ideas, she felt as if the dark being was willing to talk, she believed that this was a friendship problem, not a problem that could be solved by violence.

Freeing Stygian: Starlight eventually learned of the Pony of Shadows's former name, Stygian. When the Elements and The Pillars found the dark beast in Hollow Shades, they confronted him and attempted to seal him away in Limbo again. Twilight stopped and saw Stygian struggling to escape, and dived headfirst into the body of the demon. She heard Stygian's side of the story, that he was envious of the Pillars and wanted to be like them. Starswirl heard this as well, and obviously felt horrible that his pride clouded his judgement. After a long and hard battle, everypony freed Stygian from the Pony of Shadows and the dark beast was banished to Limbo again...

The Leftovers: Or so they thought, after Starswirl returned to Canterlot to announce his plans to travel across Equestria for a while, The Pony of Shadows reemerged as a permanent part of Stygian. Fearing banishment again, Stygian hid that power and ran off to someplace far away from Starswirl. He eventually settled down in Manehattan, where he was found by Midnight Sparkle and dragged into her vendetta against Celestia. Now, he works with her, but secretly plots to kill her and rule in her place...

Personality: Before becoming evil, Stygian was rather soft-spoken, persuasive, imperturbable, and non-confrontational. In the present day, he is much more intimidating, clever and deceptive, which he masks with a facade of kindness and naivety.

The Pony of Shadows on the other hand is stoic and arrogant, He constantly belittles the Pillars of Old Equestria and mocks Twilight for unknowingly setting him free. Even as he is being defeated he maintains his unfeeling attitude until the bitter end.

In the present day, he is powerful and intimidating and can be compared to how King Sombra acts, dark and disturbingly unbalanced. His personality is highly unstable, and he can be hard to control.

Powers: on his own, Stygian has great power, drawing upon his huge magic reserves he developed to contain and harness the Pony of Shadows's power. He can teleport, fire blasts of concussive magic, and other standard Unicorn spells. He can switch back and forth from his normal form and his Pony of Shadows form at will.

As the Pony of Shadows, he resembles an Demon-like Alicorn made of some sort of substance called Shadow Flesh. This substance is extremely durable, flexible, and can be morphed into various appendages that let him move and/or attack in a variety of ways. He can grow wings to fly, flatten himself to the ground, melting into the shadow of something nearby, even increase his size to the point where he is nearly 50 feet tall.

In terms of offense, The Pony of Shadows grants him incredible strength, speed, and magic power. He can turn his horn into a sharp sword, unleash waves of Darkness, sprout pointed spikes from his body, cast some of the most powerful Dark Magic and normal magic spells. The most unique ability the Pony of Shadows has is his ability to create construct attacks and defenses by manipulating the shadows of objects. His affinity with magic rivals Starswirl the Bearded, and his strength rivals Rockhoof the Brave.

In terms of defensive abilities, His Shadow Flesh body is durable enough to survive all but the most devastating magical blasts, and any injury can be quickly patched up. He can create a bubble shield made of magic that an deflect magic and physical blows, use his wings as hands to grab and throw opponents away, even turn himself intangible.

Weaknesses: The Pony of Shadows has very few weaknesses, the main method of defeating it being barraging it with extremely powerful spells such as Burning Star's Star Strike or The Beam of Harmony from the Elements of Harmony. Really, just about anything extremely powerful will shatter the Pony of Shadows, revealing Stygian's vulnerable body. Despite Stygian's intelligence, the Pony of Shadows is a beast run by instincts alone, and thus can be led into a trap. Light based magic (Like Hyper Flash or Heavenly Spear) is extremely effective at incapacitating it.