I have a new idea for a fanfic, but I'm sure you'll be too bored into to detail. I was wondering what DarkXlight ships work best with these characters. What I'm trying to say is which out of these chosen characters work best with a chosen villain. So, what villains do you think are your favourite when shipped with these characters:

Twilight SparkleX

FluttershyX

Pinkie Pie X

Rainbow DashX

Twilight Moon
Shombrashy
Discopie
Rainbow ?

2753502
Twilight X Trixie
Fluttershy X Manticore
Pinkie X Discord
Rainbow X Nightmare Moon

2753502
Twilight x Sunset Shimmer
Fluttershy x Sombra
Pinkie x Discord
Rainbow x Trixie

Okay, I think I've got it

Twilight X Nightmare Moon
Fluttershy X Sombra
Pinkie X Discord
Rainbow X NightShade The ShadowBolt

2753767
I agree with all except maybe the last, but go for it. We don't have enough Nightshade.

2753907
I shall, but I'm not sure about how they would work together.

2753767 I didn't even know the Shadowbolts had names...

2754599
Well, someone created them. It comes up on google.

2753978
Rainshade will be glorious.

2753502
I don't have any particularly preferences for pairings, so to speak. I look at it this way, you're going to have to put in a lot of work to make most of these relationships work, since villains tend to push people away from them. I also see the interest in a lot of combinations. My honest opinion is that Discord goes great with everyone. But if you want, I can explain what I think is amazing for each protagonist. In all honesty though, it just depends on what you're looking for in your pairing.

Twilight Sparkle
Twilight is adorkable and enthusiastic about learning. I love this! She also has anxiety issues and OCD. She's very smart, very caring, and yet she does have her failings. She knows most of her limits but that doesn't mean she always makes the right choices. If you're working with alicorn Twilight, there is the angle of royal duties, an incredible potential knowledge of empathy and understanding, and a loooot of magical potential. She fanboys, she's open to new things, and she's funny when she's being trolled.

She's great with Discord, because of the Order/Chaos dynamic, the ability to have trolling and friendship and love lessons, and of course the royalty angle adds some interesting depth, depending on how you think Discord views politics and society on certain key points. There are so many ways to take this relationship, but the key dynamic is a lot of push and pull. It's great for humor and surprising depth. There's also the potential for age, race/species, and class differences, if you want. Discord is essentially anything improbable, impossible, or unlikely as well as a number of very common and well-loved tropes.

Twilight and Sombra can do anything. Sombra is mostly unexplored, but the possibility for some BDSM is obvious and of course his history could make things very interesting. You get to decide how this works and there's almost nothing that most people could say is "wrong" but some things are less likely.

Twilight and Chrysalis is very interesting. It's probably competitive, it has some interesting spy options, and there is a lot of room for coming up with creative ideas regarding her species. This one has the strongest predator/prey potential and some surprising possibilities, depending on how you want to write Chrysalis. Is she remorseful? Is she a perpetual jerk? Does she have a softer side? What is her life like? This can also happen anywhere and any when, which opens up a lot of possibilities.

Twilight and Nightmare Moon is kind of weird. My personal opinion is that Nightmare Moon has little chance of being plausible, unless you want to fiddle with AUs or you consider the comics uncanon and decide to make it an alternate personality for Luna. There are some fascinating opinions though, depending on how you think Nightmare Moon exists and what you want the pairing to do. I think this has the strongest potential for bittersweet stories, since this is a really hard one to create a durable relationship with. The others at least exist outside of Luna's head for certain. We're not entirely sure that Nightmare Moon exists. If you decide to go with the comics as canon, you could also consider this a separate entity from Luna and expand on that, but the thing needs to possess someone else to have a body, so this is still unusual. Falling in love with Nightmare anything probably won't end well, unless the other character decides to become possessed by the Nightmare entity.

As for any other antagonist, I could go on and on, but it's roughly the same ideas, in different manners, especially since we know even less about most of these other antagonists. Discord is the one we know the most about and even he is a bit of a mystery, and strongly open to interpretation.

Fluttershy
She's adorable, shy, and has a lot of hidden depths. She's also elegant and potentially elusive. Many of the above comments apply, but it's notable that her friendship with Discord offers an easier in with that pairing, though there is still groundwork to lay down about how it turned romantic. In general, Fluttershy's hidden strength, incredible kindness, and odd quirks are what is great to bounce off of any antagonist. With Flutterbat involved, you have some considerable humor and certain tropes to tinker with. Most people probably see the reform or vampire style angle with Sombra best, but honestly Fluttershy can do anything she does with Sombra with any other villain. It just depends on who you want the other partner to be in this romance, and certain villains bring certain things to the table. I don't want to repeat myself, so consider the above with regards to her. Some of it doesn't apply, but Fluttershy is smart, she can bounce off the more wild aspects, and she isn't really competitive but she can hold her own. In general, I don't see Fluttershy putting her hoof forward for a pairing, unless she can be reassured that they love her or they can convince her that a one-night stand would be fun. Overall, I think they would pursue her instead, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for her to pursue them. She would be very subtle about it, until she felt comfortable revealing her feelings more directly.

Pinkie Pie
Pinkie is sweet, funny, and nothing but fun. If you want a pairing full of energy and excessive devotion and potential drama, you've got it here! She has the least fear, even less than Rainbow Dash, so you could easily pair her with anyone that she finds interesting. Be warned, she isn't accepting of bad behavior, so she'll probably butt heads with any villain being a butt-head. There is a lot of push and pull here, plus some great silliness. It's like having Discord-lite, but more straight-forwardness. Pinkie is also very outgoing and openly loving, so affection has no end once she's interested.

The hard part is getting her interested, but that's up to the author, and she's pretty random, so whatever reasons you've got should work unless they're hopelessly stupid. Pinkie isn't stupid and anyone who loves her as a character would be disappointed if you did that. Doesn't mean she can't make mistakes, but it bears mentioning. I think she actually works better with other pairings, since her and Discord is great but everything has been doubled! It gets exhausting in the long term, but it'll be a riot in the short term, so Discord and Pinkie are better for shorter one-shots IMHO, whether you think the pairing will be long-lasting or a short fling. That doesn't mean you don't have to give them a set-up; never assume they don't need that unless you're writing just the sex scene, but it does mean you might get exhausted if you don't add some quiet moments in.

I personally love Pinkie with Sombra, I think her strangeness plays off his expectations humorously, and she would be fascinating with Chrysalis. I really like her with any other antagonist you can think of too! She is best with a partner who can play the "straight man" role if you're looking for long-term humor. But not everything has to be funny with Pinkie. She has hidden depths, potential for depression, and a lot of tenderness and anxiety that can be explored.

Rainbow Dash
Rainbow's stubborness, daring, hidden fears, and brashness are what makes any pairing with her delightful. Many people disagree over how she'd be in love or in bed. I think you can go a variety of ways with her and all of these are fascinating with the villains. She's actually great with Discord, except she's more likely to run if it looks too frustrating, but I like the idea of him pursuing her and her thinking it's an elaborate prank (which it could be, however you want to handle it.) She's an interesting match for Sombra and Chrysalis as well, though I think she's best with Chrysalis. Her inclination to overlook/ignore the specific plight of another until it comes to a head could add some serious interest to that pairing. Overall, she's good with a lot of antagonists, if you want a Tsundere style pairing or if you want her to be oblivious or if you just want a blunt, unassuming, and very direct relationship. Rainbow Dash is loyal, so once she's in a pairing, she's probably staying there, and unless she falls out of love for some reason, I think she'd be devoted to who ever she's dating, but still determined to do her own thing and live her own life.

Rarity
DO YOU WANT DRAMA WITH YOUR ROMANCE? HERE YOU GO!

Rarity is shockingly practical and yet melodramatic to a fault. She's theatrical, yet her concerns are deeply embedded in reality and the little details of life itself. She is highly unlikely to let her pairing rule her life, and still she will swoon, she will cry, and she will agonize over what her partner is thinking. She is also no-nonsense when it comes to them acting like a jerk, but if she knows they love her, she will be very generous with her love. I don't think she'd necessarily be demanding, since what she has with Spike is currently canonically just a one-sided child's crush. I'm pretty certain she'd have a lot more give and take in a genuine relationship. Rarity is also the most likely to be looking for love and the most stubborn if a villain tries to woo her. She would however eagerly chase any villain that she has her heart set on, but she might be very lady-like about getting her intentions across. I actually think she'd be amazing with any of the big villains and if you want her with Nightmare Moon, there is the possession angle for Nightmare Rarity, but handled differently. This has so much potential! And if you want a lot of standard romance tropes that are beloved by many, Rarity can deliver.

Applejack
If Rarity is down to earth, then Applejack is even more so. She's kind of a combination of Rainbow Dash and Rarity, but less dramatic about it, unless she's in a strange mood. She's warm, loving, and never going to let a relationship stop her from doing what she wants. Ultimately, if you want a permanent relationship between her and a villain, I can see Applejack being the most likely to settle down, so you're going to have some fun describing how the villain feels about farm life! Applejack is also very straightforward and she could be the pursuer or she might wait for them to come to her (she could be very traditional.) Discord and Chrysalis add the most interest IMHO. Applejack is really different from Discord, even more so than Twilight in some respects, though a lot of the same conditions can hold true here, so it's a case of opposites attracting. Applejack is also a strong opposite of Chrysalis, given the deceptive aspect that all changelings have. On the whole, she doesn't get much love in villain pairings, since it's much harder to explain how AJ fell in love, but I think it's some really unexplored potential. She's also fascinating with a reformed Sombra, since she'll expect him to help out the way Big Mac does.

2753767
I just wanted to add, that I think it's a lot better to focus on only one or two Dark x Light ships in any given fanfiction. These pairings require more effort to explain than a pairing with some random background pony would, because the villains aren't inherently open-minded or open about their feelings. That's not to say you couldn't pull off any of those and many users who are in this group may not care, but I personally roll my eyes whenever an author just assumes some pairing will happen. There are very few canon romances in the show itself, so any non-canon pairing needs a set-up to explain how it happened.

Also, by default, I want a story devoted to whatever pairing is being explored. I don't give a crap about some random side-pairing that isn't going to be examined in depth. I prefer focus and trying to cram a bunch of different pairings into one story does nothing for me. I just completely ignore whatever pairing isn't the main one, because that's typically what the author is doing. If the author actually has some cool ideas for these pairings and manages to work them in subtly but interestingly, then I'm pleasantly surprised, but otherwise I don't get disappointed that way.

Besides, any time taken to explain or show the side pairings is time taken away from explaining or showing the main pairing. It's a delicate balance kind of thing, IMHO.

2763412
Hrmmm... interesting. In that case, the romance is less the focus and it's really more of a focus on their individual personalities? I could see that working out, although it still means you'll have to juggle between them all.

2763406
Those could work just fine.

Now, Pinkie Pie would be hard to do. She's bouncy and incredibly like Discord from afar. This is where I have to think deep. They could have a conversation where they both hate each other at the beginning, then the conversation could lighten into a deeper way. Pinkie goes on about something and Discord distracts her for a second with a cupcake and kisses her. She's in shock and Discord leaves in sorrow. The next day Pinkie Pie spots him and kisses him back

I think Pinkie was actually angry with Discord, because they're so much alike. They do have differences, I'd never deny that, but it's their similarities that make his actions so upsetting to her. She has always been fine with any random chaos that she sees as harmless. The gravy boat and the chocolate rain are the most obvious examples. She likes Discord just fine, until she sees him acting in a way that she views as malicious. This is when she starts yelling at him for ruining the dinner party and demanding that Discord turn the bunny rabbit cute again. (I think the gripe about a lack of whipped cream, to go with the chocolate rain, was her internal rationalization for why she doesn't like him more than she does. The truth is much more complex, but she wouldn't be able to explain her reasons that well.) They'll be the best of friends whenever Discord finally learns how to be a friend, but Pinkie has trouble explaining to him why she doesn't like what he does. Pinkie does similar things, but she does her antics because she's happy and it will amuse any onlookers. She doesn't understand why he can't behave himself and show some restraint, when she clearly can (although I am also a firm believer that Pinkie has trouble controlling her use of silly magic, so most of her antics are random happenstance for the sake of humor, whereas Discord is in full control of the magical results that he gets.)

This is why Fluttershy was a better choice for getting Discord to consider reformation than Pinkie was. Pinkie understood Discord just fine, but she could never be patient with Discord's truly anti-social behavior and she'd have a hard time making him understand why she loves having friends so much. She saw the differences and the similarities, but she couldn't figure out what to do, other than to chastise him, because she thought that would work. Fluttershy recognized how to cross the gap better, because she's better at correlating this information. That's also why Pinkie kept annoying Cranky Doodle Donkey, until she went and fetched Matilda. It's not that Pinkie couldn't see his feelings and why he disagreed with her, but she couldn't reconcile Cranky's perspective with her own, because she tends to assume everyone else thinks the way that she does and is as outgoing as she is.

I would in fact argue that Pinkie being so similar was a detriment to Pinkie potentially reforming Discord, because she probably assumed too much was the same, and she saw the differences, but she didn't understand what was causing the differences. She assumed Discord was just like her, which meant him acting mean was inexcusable, because Pinkie would never do that. She didn't recognize that he has trouble sympathizing with anyone, because no one else was sympathetic towards him. There are other reasons as well, but I think that's the big one.

But yeah, if they have a conversation where some of this gets aired out, and Discord isn't cruel, but shows an interest in befriending or otherwise being romantic with Pinkie, then she would be very accepting of him.

2763593
I love your ideas so much! Sorry for the short posts. Anyway, I really like the idea of Pinkie being stranded by Discords emotions. I'm going to get started on this straight away. This is an odd question, but do you think they should be anthro?

2763731
No problem! (Also don't worry about not having long replies. I just love speculating head canon at length, so I tend to ramble.)

Pinkie is fascinating, because she's a very good communicator, but everything she says is very strongly filtered through who she is. It explains why she reacts the way that she does. She has very strong opinions and views about the world around her and how it works. For the most part, she's smart enough to see the truth, but when it doesn't match her opinion of how it should be or how she wants it to be, she changes the truth to match her thoughts (this is an inherently human thing to do and it's a lot more common than most people realize.) Typically she does this to make everything more fun than it actually is, but sometimes she deludes herself because she can't accept what she knows is true. This is why if the truth, or the supposed truth, hurts her feelings, she gets really upset. If it involves potentially losing her friends, who are the dearest ponies in the world to her, then her entire perspective comes crashing down and she becomes depressed. She doesn't want to be in a world where she's alone.

Which is also why Discord's trolling boggled her mind. She likes pranks, but she can't imagine willingly angering others with it. She always wants others to accept her, so pushing them away by intentionally upsetting them goes against her expectations of what anyone else would want and it confuses her. That's why she tried so hard to apologize to Cranky, even though she had just met him. I'm pretty sure she just didn't think Discord understood what he was doing was having that effect, but he mostly knew what he was doing, which is why her trying to make him understand by expressing her outrage didn't work. That's what he was after and he didn't bother examining her anger any closer, especially since Pinkie didn't know how to explain why it was wrong or why he should change his attitude.

I think ironically neither one could look past their impressions of the way the world works in order to become friends. But since Fluttershy set Pinkie up for giving Discord more of a chance, and Pinkie has shown more willingness to interact with him as long as he's not being too bad, then they'll be friends at some point. The hard part is actually getting Discord to spend some time with her, because he's not really used to someone as persistently outgoing as Pinkie trying to connect with him, and I don't think he knows what to make of that. He already knows she's less forgiving of what he does, so he's more reluctant to be around her, unless he's trying to annoy her. But then if he's trying to annoy her, and she doesn't take the bait, that part backfired. So he's sort of in a no win situation, unless they're both looking for the same thing at the same time. It's do-able, but I can see why he's wary of just hanging out. That and I'm not sure if he knows what hanging out is yet. He needs to know what friends do before he can do friend things.

At least, this is all my head canon rationalization anyway. You're free to use any of it, because I also really like these ideas and I'd love to spread them around!

This is an odd question, but do you think they should be anthro?

I'm totally fine with anthro, but some people hate it. If you feel that anthro makes everything easier, and there's a good reason to give them all hands, then go for it. Or if you just really want to write them as anthro, that's also good enough for me. This isn't one of those things where there is any definite answer, although since some people may avoid reading it for that very reason, you might want to consider whether that matters to you. If it doesn't, I would go with whatever you think works best.

2763406
Rainbow and Nightshade.

2764084
The problem is I don't know anything about Nightshade.

I think Rainbow Dash is very straight forward, unless the plot gives her a reason not to be. So if you went with the idea of them just hanging out and enjoying some hobbies together, then I think that's really all they need over enough time to form a bond. But I'm guessing, since it sounds like she was potentially Discorded, that it isn't as simple as all that?

2764958
Well, she is the leader of the Shadowbolts, So I'm going to have to fit that in somewhere.
2764854
Rainshade or NightDash

2769966
wow those are very dashing names
very very dashing

2753502

Twicord.
FlutterFlam.
PinkiFlim.
RainSombra.

2779074
Oh those puns
2779105
Good idea.

2779182
2779182

Yup.

2779188
Uh huh.

2779182
There isn't enough Nightshade.

2779105
No, PinkieFlam and FlutterFlim!

Pinkie needs that glorious moustache!

2782840

2781821
I know. Sad really, it could work.
2782840
Lol

2785722
Indeed it could.

2788547
yeah.

2793072
What will this fic be rated?

2794903
Teen. Why?

2795052
I don't read mature.

2795875
Oh I see. Neither do I.