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,--> The Mane Six. These are our heroines. From trying to get along at a slumber party to defeating Physical Gods of darkness and chaos, these girls overcome just about any obstacle with the Magic of their Friendship. They're cute. They're awesome. They're the embodiment of the Elements of Harmony and they're here to Love & Tolerate the crap out of you.
Oh and Spike and Starlight Glimmer are here too.
Return to the character index here.
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- Absentee Actor: In season 6 onward, there have been episodes where none of them appear. It could be either a Cutie Mark Crusaders episode, or to focus on newer characters (examples: The Young Six, Starlight Glimmer, etc.).
- Action Girl: All of them have their moments but Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Twilight Sparkle fit the best.
- All-Loving Hero: All of them are this to an extent, but Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy fit this best. Even Rainbow Dash can be seen as this too, just a more snarky example.
- Amazon Brigade: They are pretty much more independent and competent then both G1 and G3.
- G1's ponies seemed to be too dependent on Megan.
- G3's ponies didn't have villains at all.
- Badass Adorable: Each of the main characters qualify but in different ways.
- Twilight Sparkle is a Badass Bookworm.
- Spike is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse.
- Applejack is a Badass Normal.
- Pinkie Pie is a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass.
- Rainbow Dash is a straight-up Badass.
- Rarity is a Badass Damsel and Action Fashionista.
- Fluttershy is a Badass Pacifist.
- Badass Crew: Even without the Elements of Harmony, they can accomplish some impressive tasks when they work together.
- Even if Starlight Gimmer doesn't have an Element of Harmony, she still has impressive magic skills and is a former antagonist.
- Badass Teacher: In season 8, they opened a school about friendship, and they have saved Equestria many times in the past.
- Beware the Nice Ones: They are all pleasant and supportive towards others, but push their buttons and... well... Discord and Tirek learned the hard way.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn:
- Beauty: Rarity and Fluttershy
- Brains: Twilight and Pinkie (after all, she's smarter than how she looks)
- Brawn: Applejack and Rainbow Dash
- (The later addition of Starlight Glimmer makes an interesting balance of Brains (intelligent and rationality) and Beauty (socially adept and even open-minded).)
- Break the Cutie: They all experience this at some point, and then Discord comes along and takes this Up to Eleven.
- Break the Haughty: However, sometimes they may act overconfident and they get comeuppance for it.
- Brutal Honesty: All of them have done this at least once, but Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, and especially Applejack do this the most.
- In Applejack's case, there was an episode all about her going too far with her honesty.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: All of them have their habits, quirks and flaws but they are competent for the most part, and save Equestria countless times. The finale for Season 5 shows that if they never met, then they would've had awful futures.
- Character Exaggeration: Most of the characters have underwent this to some slight extent in later episodes, due to higher individual focus compared to the intitial episodes (which focused more on the whole cast and their bonds), with most of their defining flaws made more overblown and detrimental to their actions. Their other personality traits are still given focus however, along with some feasable Character Development, preventing it from leaning into Flanderization.
- Character Development: All of them undergo this as the series goes on.
- Twilight becomes less socially awkward and more cheerful and confident.
- Fluttershy becomes more assertive.
- Rainbow Dash becomes more caring and less arrogant, and more genuinely confident instead of mere bravado.
- Applejack is more willing to accept help from others.
- Rarity is more willing to get her hooves dirty.
- Spike became more kinder and intelligent.
- Even Pinkie Pie had more of her character revealed.
- Circle of Friendship: When they activate the power of the Elements of Harmony, they form this.
- Color-Coded Characters / Color Motif:
- Twilight is associated with the coming of the night so therefore Twilight is purple.
- Purple was also a royal color in Roman Empire because it was hard to make. She becomes an alicorn in the Season 3 finale.
- Pink is a cheery color, so true to her name and personality, Pinkie Pie is well pink.
- Rarity has a white color and purple mane. This leads to regal appearance.
- Rainbow Dash loves flying, therefore her body is sky blue. True to her name, she has a rainbow mane and tail.
- Fluttershy has a timid personality, so she's yellow. Her tail and mane are supposed to represent her feminine side.
- Applejack is orange, so it's to represent the fact she's been working out of the sun for a long time. They could also represent autumn colors.
- Spike is green and purple, so it's to represent his boyish and naive personality (the green part), and him being related to Twilight Sparkle (purple).
- Starlight Glimmer is purple with a dark purple mane. She is also really powerful with her magic abilities that can rival Twilight's.
- Twilight is associated with the coming of the night so therefore Twilight is purple.
- Cool Big Sis: Most of them are this. Applejack and Rarity have little sisters who both look up to them and think they're the coolest ponies in town.
- Twilight is a surrogate one to Spike.
- Pinkie Pie acts this way towards Apple Bloom and Spike. She helps AB make cupcakes when she's upset and invites Spike to be her co-announcer when she sees that he wants to but is afraid to ask. Fluttershy is a little less amused when Pinkie tries this on her.
- She also hangs out and chaperones the other kids in town on "Nightmare Night."
- Then there's the Cake twins.
- Fluttershy herself gets the admiration of the Cutie Mark Crusaders after saving them from a cockatrice.
- Rainbow Dash is this in Scootaloo's eyes although this is also averted by Word of God who says that she probably wouldn't be the best big sister in the world.
- She does get moments of this towards Fluttershy in later episodes however. She also becomes Scootaloo's surrogate big sister in "Sleepless In Ponyville".
- Cool Pet: All of the main characters have one. See here for info on them.
- Deadpan Snarker: They all have their moments of this with Twilight Sparkle being the most prominent.
- Depending on the Writer: While the Mane Cast all have consistent defining traits, the extent they are played or exagerrated varies from episode to episode. This can make all the difference between them playing The Straight Mare or a complete Cloudcuckoolander (both of which all seven have played at least once).
- Determinator: These are some stubborn ponies. See below for more detail.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: They have defeated two Physical Gods, both incredibly powerful threats to Equestria. Ironically, Starlight Glimmer managed to defeat them (albeit temporarily) with the help of her villagers in her debut. Cozy Glow did too, even though she is a normal Pegasus filly.
- Distressed Damsel: Thanks to Discord's temporary Face Heel Turn, all of the Mane 6 (with the exception of Twilight) are held captive by Tirek in the finale of Season 4.
- Thanks to a vengeful Queen Chrysalis, all of the Mane 6 and Spike, along with the royal family: Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart were being held captive in revenge to her defeat at the Royal Wedding to make way for the Changelings' invasion of Equestria in the Season 6 finale.
- Distinctive Appearances: Rainbow Dash and Applejack, two tomboys, doesn't have bottom eyelashes. While the more feminine ones, Fluttershy and Rarity, have them.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The Mane Cast has saved the world twice, got publicly honored and knighted by Celestia the second time and they've done some pretty impressive stuff individually. And yet with a few exceptions, no one seems to remember this. Though truth be told, they themselves don't seem prone to broadcasting that fact nor do they actively seek recognition for it.
- Averted in "Flutter Brutter", where Fluttershy is apparently a national hero, while Zephyr Breeze (Fluttershy's brother) is insecure about his failures.
- Also averted and deconstructed in "Fame and Misfortune", where the Mane 6 publish a friendship journal, then are harassed and pestered by their fans.
- Dynamic Character: Most episodes feature them getting development, and this does stick in later episodes.
- Ensemble Cast: Even though Twilight is the protagonist, the other 5 get a lot of screen time and focus episodes (with the exception of Spike).
- Fire-Forged Friends: While all the ponies had broad knowledge of the other's existence beforehand and some were explicitly shown to have known each other (Such as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash going to the same Flight Camp), it's also implied that some of them wouldn't have associated with each other prior to the series (Such as Applejack and Rarity) so for most of them their first significant activity together was saving the world from Nightmare Moon.
- Foil: They are this to each other, examples include:
- Applejack is a farmer who hates fashion, while Rarity is a fashionista who hates getting dirty.
- Rainbow Dash is brash, loud and aggressive, while Fluttershy is shy, quiet, and peaceful.
- Twilight Sparkle is logical and calm, while Pinkie Pie is foolish and boisterous.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Rainbow Dash and Applejack are Choleric.
- Pinkie Pie is Sanguine.
- Twilight Sparkle and Rarity are Melancholic.
- Starlight Glimmer is Phlegmatic.
- Fluttershy is Supine.
- A Friend in Need: They generally do this all the time, it is the name of the show after all!
- Friend to Bugs: Every main character except Pinkie (though especially Fluttershy) finds Parasprites endearing until realizing the harm they cause and even then, still consider them cute as far as appearance goes.
- Reinforced in the toy-line. Two Rarity toys and one Fluttershy toy are accompanied by butterflies, one Rainbow Dash toy is accompanied by a dragonfly and one Applejack toy is accompanied by a ladybug.
- Genki Girl: If any of them get excited over something, stay away of them.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: Within the six, there are three pairs of ponies who are noticeably closer to each other than the others.
- Rarity and Fluttershy: The two regularly go on spa dates, and Fluttershy is the first to be called when Rarity tries to figure out what is wrong with the first set of Gala dresses.
- Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash: This is cemented when the two bond over pranking.
- Twilight Sparkle and Applejack: They turn to each other first for advice and comfort.
- Interestingly, they all seem to alternate these positions recently. In particular, Rainbow Dash has been shown with Fluttershy quite often, Pinkie Pie with Twilight, and Applejack with Rarity.
- Hidden Depths: One of the greatest things about this cast is the fact that they all have different dimensions to their personalities.
- Humans Are Flawed: Despite being good ponies, they still have a flaw they need to work on every episode. Discord knows all of their flaws unfortunately.
- Humble Hero: They save Equestria numerous times but they don't brag about it, even if Rainbow has the occasional Glory Seeker moment
- Innocently Insensitive: All of them have done this at least once.
- Idiot Ball: All of them have a poor habit of doing this sometimes.
- Master Character Heroines:
- Twilight Sparkle is an Athena the Father's Daughter.
- Applejack is a Hera the Matriarch.
- Pinkie Pie is a Persephone the Maiden.
- Rainbow Dash is an Artemis the Amazon.
- Rarity is an Aphrodite the Seductive Muse.
- Fluttershy is a Demeter the Nurturer.
- Large Ham: Some are more apparent than others (eg. Rarity and Rainbow Dash rarely aren't), but all of them like Chewing the Scenery when the time fits.
- Manchild: All of them are young adults (with the possible exception of Pinkie) but they can be outright childish at times.
- Meaningful Name: Their names have something to do with their personality or appearance.
- Ms. Vice Girl: They have their flaws and weaknesses.
- Twilight can be an obsessive perfectionist and cynical sometimes.
- Rainbow Dash can be insensitive, brash, and prideful.
- Applejack can be stubborn.
- Rarity often likes attention too much.
- Fluttershy can be too shy and cowardly.
- Spike can be rude and greedy.
- Pinkie Pie can be too eccentric and Innocently Insensitive.
- Starlight Glimmer can be very meticulous and logical to the point of coming off as heartless sometimes.
- Nice Girl: All of them are this to an extent but Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Twilight especially qualify.
- Not My Lucky Day: They can be a Butt Monkey whenever one of them gets the spotlight.
- Not So Different: They can be overconfident at best but prideful at worst causing a lot of Break the Haughty.
- The One Guy: Spike is the only male of the cast, and he's not even a pony!
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Only they can wield the Elements of Harmony now. Celestia and Luna, while they once did, can't anymore. Spike and Starlight Glimmer cannot do so either because they don't have an element to begin with.
- Pals with Jesus: They are close to Princess Celestia
- Twilight becomes an alicorn in the Season 3 finale.
- Starlight Glimmer after being Twilight's pupil can be seen as this too.
- Personality Powers: They have the Elements of Harmony, people. This is justified.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: These ponies may be little, but they've all displayed impressive feats of strength with Applejack and Rainbow Dash as the top contenders.
- The Power of Friendship: This is the main point of the show, friendship.
- How Starlight got redeemed is by Twilight stopping her and simply talking to her. The other 5 then saw her potential and became friends with her.
- Prehensile Tail: Their tails are functioned as extra limbs. Fluttershy in "Buckball Season" uses this to play a sport called buckball.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: They're a graduate student taught by a Physical Goddess, a stubborn apple farmer, a hyperactive baker, a brash sound barrier-breaking flyer, a prim and proper fashion designer, and an overly shy animal caretaker. Not only have these True Companions defeated two gods with their Elements of Harmony, but Celestia seems content with letting them take care of a stubborn dragon whose smoke threatens Equestria.
- Starlight is this, as she was simply a misfit who turned into an evil dictator. After her Heel Face Turn she seems to have a knack to befriending others.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Such pairings exist between all members of the mane cast. From most red to most blue, the cast would be as follows: Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Spike, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer, and Fluttershy. This is given the following evidence (the Red Oni is listed first followed by the Blue Oni):
- In general:
- Spike and Twilight Sparkle
- Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle
- During an episode:
- Applejack and Twilight Sparkle ("Applebuck Season")
- Applejack and Rarity ("Look Before You Sleep", "Sisterhooves Social")
- Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash ("Griffon the Brush Off")
- Pinkie Pie and Spike ("Fall Weather Friends")
- Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle ("Feeling Pinkie Keen", "MMMystery on the Friendship Express")
- Pinkie Pie and Applejack ("Hearth's Warming Eve")
- Rainbow Dash and Applejack ("Fall Weather Friends")
- Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy ("Sonic Rainboom", "Hearth's Warming Eve", "Hurricane Fluttershy")
- Rarity and Fluttershy ("Green Isn't Your Color")
- Rarity and Twilight Sparkle ("Hearth's Warming Eve")
- Spike and Rarity ("A Dog and Pony Show")
- Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy ("A Bird in the Hoof")
- Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle ("The Cutie Remark", "No Second Prances")
- Spike and Starlight Glimmer ("The Crystalling")
- Pinkie Pie and Starlight Glimmer ("Rock-Solid Friendship")
- In general:
- Romance Genre Heroines: According to Lauren Faust, the main girls are based around these:
- Sanity Slippage: All of the ponies have had at least one moment when they act contradictory to their personalities, whether out of physical and/or emotional stress.
- Starlight Glimmer in her debut is very bipolar and had a tendency to switch between sane and crazy in the blink of an eye.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: They all looked wonderful in their dresses in the Grand Galloping Gala.
- In the season 2 finale, their dreeses looked really wounderful too.
- Spike looks nice in a tuxedo.
- Starlight Glimmer looks wore a black dress in the Season 5 finale. It looks pretty cute on her.
- Sixth Ranger: Starlight Glimmer.
- Super Mode: What the Rainbow Power basically is.
- Six Pony Band
- The Heroine / The Smart Girl: Twilight Sparkle
- The Lancer: Rainbow Dash
- The Big Girl: Applejack
- The Chick: Rarity and Pinkie Pie
- The Heart: Fluttershy
- Sixth Ranger: Starlight Glimmer
- Town Girls: The six form this type of trio x2. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are the tomboys, Rarity and Fluttershy are the girly girls. Pinkie and Twilight are the in betweens.
- True Companions: Despite their differences, it's clear they have strong bond between with it growing stronger throughout the series.
- Vague Age: All of them are old enough to live alone (Applejack's case is justified by the fact she works on a family farm), have jobs, and hold major roles in Ponyville community activities like Winter Wrap-Up, yet emotionally they are officially "young adults with a maturity level of anywhere from 12-18," which explains such things as Twilight's appreciation of slumber parties, Rarity's thinking like a fairy tale, etc. Yes, that's as close as we are gonna get.
- And one episode reveals that Fluttershy's one year older than Pinkie Pie.
- Spike is often referred as a "Baby Dragon", but acts like a preteen. He has a full-time job with many hours, and is not in school or any mandatory education in Equestria.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: They may get on each other's nerves, but when one of them needs help, the other is there.
- Applejack and Rarity are a prime example.
- Applejack and Rainbow Dash too.
- Twilight Splarkle and Rainbow Dash work as well.
- The Worf Effect: In "To Where and Back Again", they are immediately caught by Queen Chrysalis. No explanation other than as how easily they got kidnapped during those hours when Starlight was away with Trixie.
- Would Hurt a Child: In the series finale, they had no problem with using physical force to defeat Cozy Glow. Given that she's a terrible child, this is justified.
Twilight Sparkle[]
Voiced by Tara Strong |
The protagonist of the series, a unicorn from Canterlot who serves as Princess Celestia's apprentice. She's less than thrilled at first about the suggestion that she should try making friends but naturally winds up giving it a shot. Has a natural talent for Magic that goes far beyond what most unicorns are capable of. She's also very intelligent, levelheaded and organized, making her a great unofficial leader for the six.
- Aborted Arc: Her role as student of Princess Celestia appears to have been dropped entirely as of "Lesson Zero".
- It shows up occasionally. In Baby Cakes, she can't babysit on account of finishing up a (humorously overplayed) homework assignment, and in It's About Time, her status as Celestia's student indirectly keeps her above suspicion for sneaking around Canterlot Castle. It's just that it's no longer her defining trait.
- Her role as a student resembles that of a graduate student with a very lax advisor. She is expected to do her own research into friendship and occasionally update the Princess with status reports, occasionally completing side projects as well
- Adorkable: Whenever genuinely excited about something such as what can safely be assumed is her first slumber party ever, her awkwardness comes into focus. And it is adorable. Dialed Up to Eleven during her flashback in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and then again immediately afterward.
- Agent Scully: Tends toward this despite being a purple unicorn who can do magic
- She justifies this in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" by explaining that true magic as can be done by all unicorns is essentially nothing more than Sufficiently Analyzed Magic.
- All-Loving Hero: A more cynical example than most, but can play this role well.
- She was the only one who didn't get Hate Plagued by Discord.
- She was able to see through Queen Chrysalis (who was in disguise as Princess Candance at the time) because she knew her so well.
- She forgave Starlight Glimmer despite what she has done, showing her to be forgiving.
- Ambiguous Disorder: Her obsessive nature, anxiety attacks, love for schedules, and her poor social skills imply something is up.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: At the end of most episodes, she writes a letter to Princess Celestia describing the Aesop she learned that week.
- Becomes a Chekhov's Gun when after her losing faith thanks to Discord in the season 2 premiere, Celestia sends them all back to break her out of her Heroic BSOD and motivate her to reunite her friends.
- As of Lesson Zero, she has been given permission to pass this duty on to pretty much anyone around her that learns An Aesop.
- Anime Hair: Gains this for most of "It's About Time" because of Spike accidentally burning her hair.
- Anti-Heroine: In the pilot she was a type II, being aloof and unsympathetic to her future friends. She grew out of it but has occasional relapses, such as "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "Lesson Zero" -after all, Ponies Are Flawed.
- Anti-Magic: Her force fields can cancel out other magic.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Being an Only Sane Woman, she seems to believe that things that wouldn't normally happen in real life are bogus and hooey.
- In "Bridle Gossip", she doesn't believe that Zecora cursed the group, and claims that zombies, ghosts, monsters are ridiculous.
- In "Feeling Pinkie Keen", she doesn't believe the Pinkie Sense is real, up until Pinkie saves her from a hydra.
- In "It's About Time", she tells her future self that she is not scientifically possible. Once her future self claims there are time travel spells, she believes it and proceeds to start asking questions about the future.
- Audience Surrogate: She can be seen as this.
- Awesomeness By Analysis: Twilight places fifth out of an unclear but large number of racers (one competitor's numbers 82 which suggests that there were at least 82 entrants) in the annual Running of the Leaves race despite knowing about racing only from having read books about it.
- Badass Bookworm / Magic Knight: Not only talented at magic but perfectly capable and willing to lead a charge to the point where she's willing to run right at Nightmare Moon though this is actually a feint to teleport past her. She also places 5th in a marathon despite it being her first, using mostly her book-smarts.
- Badass Bureaucrat: She manages to take the mess that is the Winter Wrap-Up and make it a smooth and efficient process by administrative expertise and organization.
- Badass in Distress: In some episodes like Stare Master she has to be rescued by one of her friends.
- Badass Family: She is a certified Badass Bookworm/Magic Knight, her brother is the captain of the Royal Guard. As if that wasn't enough, he marries Princess Cadence, a Badass Princess and Princess Celestia's niece, making her now part of Celestia and Luna's family too. And if the theory about her mother being the G1 Twilight is correct, she probably counts too.
- Barrier Warrior: She can create Anti-Magic force-fields that she can move as seen in "Return Of Harmony Part 2" and Ponyville Confidential"
- As of the second season finale, she seems to have gotten that spell from her brother.
- Berserk Button:
- Ponies making fun of Princess Celestia.
- Messing with her books/desk.
- Saying the phrase "just a test".
- Lord Tirek destroying the library made her extremely pissed off.
- After the movie she seems to have another: sabotage. Ask the Cutie Mark Crusaders (although they did nothing).
- Beware the Nice Ones: Not to the same extent as Pinkie or Fluttershy, but you don't want to make her mad.
- In the episode "The Return of Harmony Part 2", Twilight Sparkle quite literally beat up Gray Pinkie Pie and Applejack after they stole her book.
- In "The Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", she went into Unstoppable Rage after the thought of her brother being in danger.
- After Tirek destroys her library in "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2", she goes absolutely berserk.
- Big Eater: In "Twilight Time", she was seen eating a lot of burgers.
- Big Brother Worship: As a filly, she thought of Shining Armor as her best and only friend (at least until she hatched Spike). When she came to Ponyville and made new friends, however, they started to drift apart. It's also what makes it hard to get others to side with her when she claims that Cadance is evil, since she has been coming off as possessive of her brother for much of "A Canterlot Wedding".
- Bookworm: Her most defining character trait. She is often seen reading a book in some scenes.
- Break the Haughty: A Lighter and Softer version; starts as an Ineffectual Loner who believes she simply doesn't have time for friendship and is smugly convinced that Celestia will naturally listen to her concerns. Then Celestia seemingly blows her off, sends her off to run some mundane errands and expects her to actually try and make friends in a town where she thinks she's the Only Sane Pony...
- Broken Ace: She is very intelligent and skilled with magic, but if she's not managing to be The Ace, she thinks everyone will hate her and her life will fall apart.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: She has OCD, a big inferiority complex, and poor social skills, but she is very competent with magic and managed to hatch a dragon egg.
- Burning with Anger: Rarely does it such as in "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
- Butt Monkey: Shares this role with Spike.
- Iron Butt Monkey: But as shown in "Feeling Pinkie Keen", she can take a lot of damage and still keep on going.
- The Cameo: Most of the time, when Twilight is not the main character, she is this.
- Catch Phrase: "URRRRRRRRGH!" - when she is frustrated about something.
- Character Development: During the two-part pilot, she started out as a bit of an asocial jerk who wouldn't be caught dead, working with the others. Over the course of that episode, she learns the value of friendship, and she is now almost always seen working with or helping her friends.
- In "The Summer Sun Setback", she finally overcame her poor habit of stressing out over big responsibilities.
- At the beginning of season 9, she was nervous about ruling Equestria, by the series finale, she became more confident into doing so.
- The Chew Toy/Humiliation Conga/Slapstick Knows No Gender: Expect her to be on the receiving end of a lot of accidents as soon she starts questioning facts, attempts to fit in or figure out things, such as in "Winter Wrap Up" and "Lesson Zero".
- Her Chew Toy status is played for major drama in "The Return of Harmony, Part 2".
- City Mouse: The pilot and a few Season 1 episodes revolve around Twilight getting acquainted with Ponyville and its traditions, with varied success.
- The City vs. the Country: Her initial plot arc is a Lighter and Softer version of this. She's sent from Canterlot to Ponyville in part to prepare for a celebration held there but is also told to make friends while there. She resents having to do this and focuses on work instead but by the end of the pilot, she's warmed up to her newfound friends and wishes to stay with them.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: While most characters play this to Pinkie Pie, Twilight is her most prominent foil.
- Color-Coded Characters / Color Motif: Her name is Twilight so naturally she's purple.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: Her horn and objects affected by her magic glow when she uses it. It was at first a light purple that matched the color of her coat but it is now a red-violet color that matches the center of her Cutie Mark and her mane's Skunk Stripe. Her mother and big brother have the same red-violet magic aura, so it may run in the family.
- The Comically Serious: Big time. Anytime she attempts to look dignified and intellectual, expect it to be ruined by some other ponies' antics or her own hidden goofiness.
- Control Freak: Though not overbearing per se, her over attention to detail and occasional irritance with her friends leads her to be insistant on her own direction of things. She can also be a nagger something Spike knows all too well.
- Cool Crown: Unlike the other five Elements of Harmony (which are necklaces), her Element of Magic is a "big crown thingy."
- She gains one in the Season 4 premiere, after the Mane 6 give their Elements of Harmony to the Tree of Harmony. She stops wearing it in season 5.
- Crazy Prepared: Very much so. In "The Crystal Empire - Part 1" she's seen rushing to gather anything she might need for Celestia's test, and tells Spike she's going to need him to quiz her on everything she's learned.
- Cute Bookworm: She's an Adorkable bookworm!
- Cute Librarian: She takes up management of the Golden Oak Library in addition to living inside of it. She fits the personality type of Hot Librarian, but is more cute than hot.
- Cute and Psycho: Not to the same extent as Fluttershy or Pinkie but "Lesson Zero" shows us that she can be scary.
- Deadpan Snarker: Perhaps more frequently than any other character in the show. She's voiced by Tara Strong, it's practically a requirement.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Non-romantic example; she was this in the pilot with her friends, however she grew out of this later on.
- Determinator: When she wants to do something, she'll keep trying no matter what. For better or worse.
- The Ditherer: Most prominently when she wants things in order.
- Ditzy Genius: She can name all stars in the sky, but so ditzy to the point of not knowing what a pillow fight is, and can't organize a slumber party.
- Emperor Scientist: Becomes a princess after showing her skill of magic.
- Elemental Powers: Not weaponized but she can make a strong gust of wind and spark a candle among her abilities.
- Expy: Of G1 Twilight. The cartoon even (jokingly) implies that Twilight Sparkle is the daughter of the original Twilight. Her coloring also resembles that of Twilight Twinkle from G3.
- Flat Earth Atheist: Doesn't believe in many of the weird things that happen in Ponyville despite the fact that she uses magic (which she claims is different from other "Mumbo Jumbo") and is the personal student of a Physical Goddess.
- Forgotten Phlebotinum: She fails to use her teleportation for most of the first season, starting after "Applebuck Season". Averted in Season 2 which has her putting it to regular use.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic: introverted, organized and high expectations.
- Friendless Background: In the first episode, it's shown that "she's more interested in books than friends." Some hints later on show it might not have been quite that simple. In "Look before You Sleep", she reveals she's "always" wanted to have a slumber party. In any case, as seen in the first episode, her studies were certainly getting in the way of having a social life, even if she might have wished for one when not occupied with something else interesting as in that episode.
- It is revealed in "Amending Fences" that that the mares who invited her over to Moondancer's party really consider her as a true friend, but Twilight was too busy to notice that.
- Funny Afro: Twilight temporarily has one after Rainbow Dash messes up her mane in the first episode.
- Good Is Not Nice: Was this at the beginning of the series, as she was aloof towards her future friends in the first episode, however she got Character Development and evolved into...
- Good Is Not Soft: After Character Development, she became much more friendly, and attacked Queen Chrysalis in one episode as she gloated about having her brother.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Seems to be a side effect when she uses espically powerful magic, such as her Power Incontinence episode in her Flash Back in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and any time she uses the Elements of Harmony.
- Grumpy Bear: At times, while she's not pessimistic in general, she is rather cynical and non nonsense in personality, and has a rather grouchy temper if riled up enough. She can switch between cynical and naively optimistic at the blink of an eye however.
- Guile Heroine: She can be this at times.
- Heroic BSOD: When the stress of the parasprite invasion finally gets to her and her tortured psyche (briefly) snaps.
- Has an even bigger one in "The Return of Harmony, Pt. 2" when she crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
- And has an even more psychotic one over the course of "Lesson Zero".
- Blames herself for her friends' abandonment in "A Canterlot Wedding".
- Overall, she seems to have Responsibility OCD.
- The Heroine: Is the main protagonist and hero of the series.
- Hidden Depths: Despite her history of not socializing by choice, she reveals in "Look Before You Sleep" that she's dreamed about throwing the perfect slumber party and is innocently enthusiastic about getting the chance to try her very first one. This being Twilight, she even has a guide to ensure she does everything by the book.
- She is revealed to have some sewing ability, as shown as hoof-sticthed the ropes in her Nightmare Night costume, Starwhirl the Bearded.
- Humble Hero: Wants nothing to do with being associated with the greatness of her deeds. Rather she wants to be viewed as an ordinary unicorn unlike her Shadow Archetype Trixie.
- This also makes her a great Foil to Rainbow Dash.
- She never exactly thought of herself of being better than others, and was mostly content of being Celestia's student.
- Granted, as much as she tries to keep her ego under check, she sometimes can't resist acting haughty due to her role as Celestia's apprentice and very often considering herself the Only Sane Woman. See Pride below.
- Hypocrite: In "Feeling Pinkie Keen", when she proceeds to sneak up on Pinkie to spy on her (Pinkie actually knew the whole time, but Twilight didn't know about that), Spike shows up and she berates him about sneaking up on other ponies. She gets called out on this by Spike, however.
- I Can't Dance: Sweet and Elite shows us that dancing is one of the many social activities she's yet to master.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Defied at first; she doesn't want friends when she first comes to Ponyville and it isn't until they help her defeat Nightmare Moon that she realizes how much she really needs them.
- Image Song: The Theme Tune Extended (included as a sing-along on the DVD The Friendship Express, and partially included elsewhere) can be seen as one for Twilight.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: A bookworm through and through, Twilight considers re-shelving library books or "a crazy weekend of studying" the height of entertainment.
- Her favorite toy growing up was "Smarty Pants", an ugly pony doll with accessories so you can pretend she is studying. Not only does she think this was a great toy, she thinks it was so great that offering it to some young fillies will naturally cause them to fight over it.
- Ineffectual Loner: Other ponies make clear efforts to reach out to her before the plot kicks off but she blows them off.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Twilight can be rather condescending and arrogant about her intelligence over the others at times, and frequently badgers others over tasks, however it's revealed she has brought herself up with very high standards to upkeep and is absolutely terrified of disappointing peers or friends (especially Princess Celestia). She had a complete mental breakdown when she was out of schedule for even one single task.
- Informed Flaw: In the special "The Best Gift Ever", her friends and Shining Armor (Twilight's brother) claim that she freaks out every Hearth's Warming Eve. While she freaked out before this was the first time we saw her acting like that in that holiday.
- Innocently Insensitive: Justified because Twilight doesn't have a lot of experience with dealing with ponies yet. But she doesn't realize her feelings are necesarily feelings anypony else will share, and she doesn't realize her point-blank bluntness hurts feelings.
- When she was losing her grip in "Lesson Zero", it didn't even occur to her that anypony else would think that her Smartypants doll, that comes with accessories for doing homework, wasn't a great toy.
- In "Secret of My Excess", Twilight is embarrassed to realize that the books she's given Spike for his birthday every year were not really appreciated as birthday presents by the little dragon.
- In the episode "Baby Cakes", she offers to help Pinkie Pie babysit the Cake Twins because she states Pinkie can't handle the job alone, and offends Pinkie in the process.
- Also in the episode "The Last Roundup", when the mail pony shows up at Applejack's surprise party and thinks that the party was for him because it was his birthday, Twilight rudely takes Applejack's message and slams the door on his face without a second thought. Lucky for the mail pony, Pinkie gives him a slice of cake for his birthday.
- In "Amending Fences", shows that this could become worse than one could thought, when one of of unappreciative friends from Canterlot had low self-esteem. Her older friends were so used to her being innocently insensitive to the point where they didn't care when she moved away without saying goodbye.
- Innocent Prodigy: She studied magic for Celestia, not for pride or anything else.
- Insufferable Genius: Light example. She is the most intelligent of the main cast and (often) shows a lot more common sense. Her neurotics can be irritating the others however and she can be a bit smug and prideful if over aware of her logic. Not to mention being an apt Deadpan Snarker. She does at least try to be humble, unlike most examples.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: She was always smart in her lifetime, but didn't exactly care about making friends (at first).
- I Work Alone: Her attitude during the pilot but after her Character Development she prefers working with others.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Was this in select Season 1 episodes, but then she Took a Level In Kindness and became a Nice Girl.
- The Kirk: She's generally at the balance between being emotional and logical, hence why she's the unofficial leader of the six.
- Knight in Sour Armor: When she's in Grumpy Bear mode.
- Large Ham: Despite being introverted, she can Chew the Scenery at times. In "Magical Mystery Cure", she somehow manages to get the whole town in song, for example.
- Lawful Stupid: In "School Daze - Part 1", she was persistent on following the book and doing everything by it, despite students and teachers being bored out of their mind.
- The Leader: Leadership is one of Twilight's main secondary abilities, thanks to her organizational skills and levelheadedness. She serves as a Type I and Type II leader for her group of friends, and even for the whole town of Ponyville at times.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: She's made a better person of sorts when forced to make new (some definitely bizarre) friends. As far as she's concerned, friendship really is magic.
- Lovable Nerd: She's socially awkward, and it could come off as Adorkable.
- Madness Makeover: Trope picture despite being the Only Sane Woman most of the time.
- Magic Librarian: She's a bookworm, and she is often skilled at magic.
- Meaningful Name: In the first two episodes, Twilight eventually brings peace to the ponies representing night and day. Twilight is the time when night and day briefly intersect. Additionally the book on the Elements of Harmony talk about a "spark" needed to ignite their power; this ends up being Twilight Sparkle.
- Mind Over Matter: And a particularly strong telekinetic too. She can simultaneously levitate a humongous bear and a huge water tower.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: At the ending of the short, "Ali-corn", she randomly turns into a foal and then cries afterwards.
- Motifs: She tends to be associated with stars.
- Symbol Motif Clothing: Her dress for Grand Galloping Gala has many stars on it.
- Ms. Vice Girl: Although she is normally calm, she can be grouchy and grumpy, especially when somethings bugging her. She does seem to have an insensitive side (although this is mostly indirect).
- Multicolored Hair: Purple with pink streaks.
- Nerd Action Hero: In her regular life, she is a nerdy person, if Equestria is in danger, she and the other 5 will do it.
- Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: She seemed excited when Princess Celestia gave her 12 books to read over the course of one weekend in "Spike at Your Service".
- Nervous Wreck: When her neurotics reach their worst.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Justified as she is almost always studying and learning new things (magical and otherwise). She can improvise spells as well, though this does not always work out so well.
- Nice Girl: In the earlier seasons, when she wasn't in Grumpy Bear mode.
- She became even more friendly and sweet-natured in later seasons.
- Nice to the Waiter: In the pilot, she politely thanks the guards who were carrying her chariot, calling them "sirs". Despite being in a grumpy mood for most of the episode, she is a good-hearted pony at heart.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her attempt to use magic to stop the Parasprites from eating all the food in town just causes them to start eating the town instead.
- When she tries to use magic to clear a field during the Winter Wrap-Up, it results in the plow going out of control and causing the part of the field already plowed to be covered up again.
- She quickly figures out Discord's riddle...or so she thinks. It turns out she took it too literally and as a consequence, she leads her True Companions on a wild goose chase that results in all of them getting broken and Brainwashed by Discord.
- In "Lesson Zero", she decides if she can't find a friendship problem to solve, she'll make one to solve. Cue the whole town fighting over her old Smartypants doll she enchanted with a "Want It, Need It" spell she isn't able to disenchant.
- No Social Skills: Because of her solitary life, she starts out like this.
- She returns to form in "Look Before You Sleep", running her first slumber party straight out of the book to ensure success. And it works!...sort of.
- Even later on she still has a bit of this. In "Baby Cakes" she casually tells Pinkie Pie that she knew Pinkie wouldn't be up to babysitting the twins by herself and completely fails to pick up on the fact that Pinkie is offended by this statement.
- Not Quite Flight: Her magic force-fields can do this.
- Obsessed Are the Listmakers: Most notably her slumber party and in "Lesson Zero". It comes in handy in "Winter Wrap-Up" as she's the only pony there who knows how to prioritize.
- Odd Name Out: She's the only pony in the Mane Six to have four syllables in her name (Twi-light Spar-kle) instead of three.
- This most likely doesn't actually mean anything though as the characters didn't all have the same names in early development (for example, Pinkie Pie was originally a white Pegasus named "Surprise").
- The names of the rest of the Mane Six were trademarks left over from the G3 series and their names may have intentionally been chosen to have three syllables to make the G3 theme song easier to write ("Rainbow Dash always dresses in style/Sweetie Belle's magic brings a great big smile....") The only ponies in G3's core 7 not to have three-syllable names were Toola Roola and Starsong.
- Only Sane Pony: Generally the voice of reason compared to her friends. Most obvious in the pilot where her first impression of Ponyville comes from Pinkie Pie. Made even more obvious in "MMMystery On The Friendship Express" when Twilight, relegated as The Watson to Pinkie's Sherlock Holmes role, keeps shooting down Pinkie's ridiculously wild accusations so often that they exchange roles with no argument from Pinkie.
- Inverted Trope during "Look Before You Sleep" where she's so intent on throwing a perfect slumber party that she insists on consulting a guidebook for everything. Justified in that she's never experienced one before and is completely unfamiliar with all of the classic trappings. She doesn't even know what a pillow fight is! She also wonders if a tree falling through her window is part of the procedures but we'll just blame that on the probable concussion.
- Exaggerated Trope when all the other ponies were Brainwashed by Discord.
- Deconstructed in Lesson Zero. When she approaches her friends for help on completing her weekly friendship report and they dismiss it as a trivial problem, Twilight believes she is the only one who understands just how dire the situation truly is but the audience clearly sees that it is Twilight who is bottoming out on sanity. Further deconstructed when her myopic perspective actually results in disaster.
- Like every other character with so much as a speck of sanity over the others, the show seems very fond of displaying her own flaws and making her do something odd or indignifying whenever she gets too high a pedestal.
- Deconstructed in Lesson Zero. When she approaches her friends for help on completing her weekly friendship report and they dismiss it as a trivial problem, Twilight believes she is the only one who understands just how dire the situation truly is but the audience clearly sees that it is Twilight who is bottoming out on sanity. Further deconstructed when her myopic perspective actually results in disaster.
- Exaggerated Trope when all the other ponies were Brainwashed by Discord.
- Inverted Trope during "Look Before You Sleep" where she's so intent on throwing a perfect slumber party that she insists on consulting a guidebook for everything. Justified in that she's never experienced one before and is completely unfamiliar with all of the classic trappings. She doesn't even know what a pillow fight is! She also wonders if a tree falling through her window is part of the procedures but we'll just blame that on the probable concussion.
- OOC Is Serious Business: In the movie, she gets angry at her friends to the point of where she tells them that she would be better without them.
- Out of Focus: In Season 2, at least compared to her role in Season 1. So far she's only had two focus episodes, has been in more of a supporting role in most episodes, and has been missing entirely from three. Quite odd, considering that she's supposed to be the lead protagonist of the mane cast. The writers clearly reveled a bit in not needing to shoehorn her into every story after "Lesson Zero."
- Parental Substitute: Can be seen as a mother or sister figure to Spike...especially knowing that she hatched him as part of passing the entrance exam at her school and also following the events in "Owl's Well That Ends Well".
- Platonic Life Partners / Promotion to Parent: With Spike because of the above.
- The parental skills are further supported by her remarks to Pinkie in "Baby Cakes". She seems to know well what babies need.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything:
- Despite being a librarian, she never seems to be one other than caring for her books.
- She seems to be one of the functions as princess, when other princesses aren't available, despite this she lives a normal life like before.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Telekinetically anyway.
- Plucky Girl: At times.
- Power Copying: Unicorns use magic spells associated with their special skill. Twilight's special skill is magic, allowing her to learn spells used by almost any other unicorn.
- This is seen directly in "A Dog and Pony Show" when she copies a spell used by Rarity though Rarity did teach her how to do it. She even does it better than Rarity; while Rarity can only find one deposit of gems at a time, Twilight can reveal them throughout a volume the size of a room.
- She also uses teleportation right after being subjected to it by Nightmare Moon, notably making her the only unicorn capable of it (not counting the princesses of course).
- Power Incontinence: A flashback reveals that the awakening of Twilight's magic immediately turned her into a immense danger to everyone and herself. Her attempts at using magic to rectify a problem have about a 50% chance of going this way.
- Pride: Clearly takes a lot of pride in having Celestia as her Mentor. However she's afraid of being seen as too prideful after witnessing how ponies react to Trixie's bragging.
- Properly Paranoid: The only one who thinks the behavior of "Princess Cadence" is suspicious.
- In "No Second Prances", she's afraid of Starlight becoming friends with Trixie because she believes the latter will be a toxic influence on her. She's somewhat right, as Trixie had done this as revenge on Twilight to make her miss an important dinner with Celestia.
- Purple Eyes: Used to reflect her powerful magic skills.
- Purple Is Powerful: She's a purple unicorn who's one of the most powerful magic users in the show.
- Psychic Powers: Has telekinesis like all unicorns, and also has limited Telepathy, as seen in "Swarm of the Century" and "The Return of Harmony".
- Rags to Royalty: Type 1. She starts out as a bookworm but then her friendship lessons led her to become an alicorn princess.
- The Red Mage: Twilight's special talent is the ability to learn any magic.
- Renaissance Man: She's good at magic, math, science, physics, and even athletics, the only thing she's bad at is arts and crafts.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the Blue Oni to all of her friends, expect Fluttershy.
- Renowned Selective Mentor: She was just trying to get into the royal academy. One magic overload later, she's studying directly from Princess Celestia.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Twilight's magical skill is off the chart but she's a social misfit and painfully incompetent at basic manual labor.
- Downplayed later on. In the first episode of Season 2, she lifted a huge rock ("Tom") and in the last episode she pushed a mine cart by herself.
- Sanity Slippage: Very infamously so. With "Lesson Zero" being the most prominent.
- Sanity Strengthening: Candance tries to teach her how to remain calm by a breathing exercise.
- Schedule Fanatic: In "It's About Time", she was obsessed about making a schedule for next month's schedule, just because she didn't do one last time.
- Serious Business: Since her teacher is Celestia, aka the ruler of all Equestria herself, Twilight takes her studies very, very seriously. As seen in "Lesson Zero", the mere idea of failing an assignment and disappointing her teacher (which would surely be cause to send her back to... MAGIC KINDERGARTEN!) is stressful enough to unhinge her. Spike and the others tend to lampshade this now and then.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Not to an excess, but she has a more advanced vocabulary and more correct grammar than her friends. This makes her a Foil to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, both of whom tend towards Buffy-Speak, and to Pinkie Pie who is a Cloudcuckoolander.
- She does play it completely straight in "Hurricane Fluttershy", complete with Spike providing a Layman's Terms punchline.
- Skunk Stripe: The pink and lighter-purple stripes of her mane.
- Slasher Smile: Gets one in "Lesson Zero" when she goes completely off the deep end.
- The Smart Girl: She is the most intelligent character out of the six.
- The Snark Knight: A lighter version, as she tries hard to maintain friendships and is a nicer version than most examples.
- Socially Awkward Heroine: And how! Even within the first episode, she runs away from the "lots and lots" of friends Pinkie Pie introduces her to, but not from Nightmare Moon imprisoned in the moon for centuries and just escaped.
- Partly attributable to seeing it as part of her duty to confront Nightmare Moon, but not to make friends.
- Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot: Sorta. Sometimes she performs amazing feats of power but she often also spectacularly messes up spells and makes everything much worse.
- When she tries to stop Parasprites from eating all the food in Ponyville, the spell just makes them eat the buildings instead.
- In another instance, enchanting a plow to clean up snow on its own made the plow go out of control, making the mess worse when it ends up causing an avalanche that ruins everyone else's work.
- In "Lesson Zero", Twilight tries to create a problem she can solve using the "Want It, Need It" spell on a doll which quickly affects every pony in town. The ensuing riot prevents her from disenchanting the doll.
- The Spock: When not being The Kirk, she takes a very logical and scientific view on the world. She refuses to believe in anything that doesn't seem to make sense.
- Straight Man: She can play this role to Pinkie Pie, as she has to deal with Pinkie's antics. That being said, however...
- The Strategist: She has a tendency to make the plan for others.
- Strong as They Need to Be: Twilight's magic can range from very menial strength to near unlimited depending on what the scenario calls for. While some episodes do at least put a better distinction on what she is capable of (or what strain it has on her), there are definitely scenarios or obstacles that shouldn't really be a problem compared to her power against others.
- Supernatural Is Purple: Lavender, but she is a powerful source of training.
- Super OCD: On and off; often whatever happens to be funnier. Alternately leaves her library in an unholy strewn mess and then applies neurotic meticulousness rivaling Rarity's in cleaning it.
- When given materials to make a bird's nest in "Winter Wrap Up", in the first two seconds it takes the camera to pan away and back,she's already laid out all the ribbons and sticks into neat rows and sorted individual strands of straw by hue.
- "Lesson Zero" shows just how bad this can get.
- She makes checklists for everything including checklists, to ensure she has everything she needs, to make checklists.
- In "It's About Time", she's shown staying up all night worrying about not having left time in this month's schedule to make a schedule for next month.
- Season 2 appears to make it consistently 'on', now that she no longer has to be the star.
- In "Spike at Your Service", she gets so wrapped up on reading assigned books that she doesn't hear Applejack entering the room and yelling at her.
- In "The Saddle Row Review", she nudges Rarity into letting her sort and organize her new boutique, but then desperately begs her to organize the rows.
- When given materials to make a bird's nest in "Winter Wrap Up", in the first two seconds it takes the camera to pan away and back,she's already laid out all the ribbons and sticks into neat rows and sorted individual strands of straw by hue.
- Superpower Lottery: Short of Celestia and others like her, Twilight is the single strongest unicorn in the series. For bonus points, she isn't even limited by a specialized discipline, instead having magic itself as her skill. She also seems to be able to use other unicorns' talent-related magic at higher levels than the original user.
- Though the Power Incontinence mentioned earlier fortunately balances it out, so that she doesn't completely overshadow the rest of the Mane-rs in capability.
- Swiss Army Superpower: Her magic. Sure, spells have some vague rules, but she specializes in every kind of magic and has an enormous amount of raw power. The only story-wise limit for her magic might be that she can't do an outright Deus Ex Machina.
- Team Mom: Sometimes she takes this role with Spike and the other ponies.
- Teleport Spam: Twilight has a tendency to warp around quickly when flustered like in "Lesson Zero" when fretting about not submitting a friendship report to Celestia on time.
- Exaggerated in "Applebuck Season" while dealing with a sleep-deprived Applejack; if AJ takes more than four steps away from her, she'll instantly teleport over rather than simply walk the three feet separating them. To be fair, Twilight was getting increasingly annoyed at the time and likely wasn't thinking straight, though not nearly as much as the above example.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Unlike previous My Little Pony series, she is the only unicorn with the ability to teleport that we've seen so far. Strangely when she teleports Spike with her, he comes out slightly singed. She says she did it by accident in that instance.
- Since "Secret of My Excess," it has been shown that Twilight is capable of teleporting others to her and with her. She apparently teleports long-distance in "Dragon Quest", and it also establishes her teleportation is not a Story-Breaker Power because long-distance teleportation takes too much energy to do regularly.
- Rarity dressed Twilight in her "Winter Wrap Up" vest by teleporting it onto her.
- Tempting Fate: Twilight seems to have an unfortunate habit of asking whether things could possibly get worse. They almost always do.
- The Protagonist: Is the main protagonist of the series.
- Took a Level In Badass: While she was already powerful, in the season 4 finale, she absorbs the powers of other princesses, and using those powers to fight Lord Tirek afterwards in a Dragon Ball-esque battle no less!
- Took a Level In Kindness: In the earlier seasons, she was rather condescending and somewhat insensitive towards others, but in later seasons she's learned to sympathize with other people, even to people who antagonized her (i.e: Discord, Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, etc).
- Turn the Other Cheek: Twilight is shown to be forgiving to others.
- She forgives everyone (i.e: her friends, her brother, her mentor) for disbelieving and abandoning her in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2"
- She forgave Trixie in "Magic Duel" after from her reign of terror. In later episodes, however she becomes wary of Trixie, for example she was worried about her being a toxic influence on Starlight in "No Second Prances".
- Her forgiveness towards Discord in "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2" suddenly is able to save Equestria where it was in despair.
- In "The Cutie Re-Mark", Starlight Glimmer engaged in Time Travel shenanigans that would've altered Twilight and everyponies' lives, but she immediately forgave her and took her in as a student.
- Twitchy Eye: Gets this in "A Bird in the Hoof" when she panics about Celestia's presence.
- Also in "Swarm Of The Century" for the same reason.
- In "Lesson Zero", worried about letting Celestia down by being late with her Friendship Report, she gets this, twitchy ears, a teeth-grinding slasher smile, and a mussed up mane due to really, really losing it.
- Undying Loyalty: To Princess Celestia, considering she's "her most loyal and faithful student".
- Unfortunate Names: 'Twilight Sparkle. Given Ms. Faust's comments on the matter, may have been intentional.
- Unskilled but Strong: Actually she's the most magically powerful unicorn in the whole show as is repeatedly pointed out. The "Unskilled" comes from the fact she often only practices a new spell until she can pull it off right in practice once and then moves on to the next, more difficult spell. This practice severely limits the practical and effective use of her stronger spells in helping her with her day-to-day problems which sometimes comes back to bite her in the plot when the obstacles she faces require high-level magic and the magic backfires or falters on the field. The 'strong' portion of this trope refers to her magical abilities; she is the physically weakest of the six but can often use her intelligence (or magic) to help in situations where strength isn't an option.
- "Well Done Student" Girl: Her relationship with Princess Celestia has some definite shades of this. Twilight obviously idolizes Celestia and desperately seeks her approval though Celestia's approval is not nearly as conditional as Twilight thinks it is.
- When She Smiles: Double Subverted, as Twilight does smile a decent amount, but when she's genuinely happy it really stands out.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- It's revealed that in "Party Pooped", that she's afraid of quesadillas and their "chessiness"
- The "Starlight the Hypnotist" short reveals that she is afraid of ladybugs.
- "Winter-Wrap Up" reveals she's afraid of snakes and bats.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Well...she's a young adult but she has been shown to be much more effective at leading than the elderly mayor of Ponyville.
- With Great Power Comes Great Perks: Like all unicorns, she uses magic for just about everything (where appropriate). And she gets even more perks than most unicorns because she can use any type of magic.
Spike[]
"You really should lighten up, Twilight. It's a party!" |
Voiced by Cathy Weseluck |
A baby dragon who hangs around Twilight as her "#1 Assistant" and seems to be the closest thing she had to a friend before traveling to Ponyville. He can transport messages to Celestia by burning them with his green flames; this communication goes both ways as she can then send messages that he burps out. Messages he sends to Celestia arrive in a much more dignified manner.
- Aborted Arc: Attempts to give Spike a Catch Phrase ("Holy Guacamole!") in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" have mysteriously vanished.
- Adorkable: Especially around Rarity.
- Adaptational Badass: Unlike other Spikes, he has managed to breathe huge blasts of fire occasionally, and is the first one to be able to fly.
- Aesop Amnesia: Despite feeling awful about it in "Just for Sidekicks", he seems to forget all about the events that have happened due to his greed on 1st birthday, up until Zecora reminds him.
- In "Dragon Quest", he accepted the fact about who he is and rejects the other dragons due to being Jerkasses, and embraces the Mane 5 (since Fluttershy wasn't there) as his family. However, in "Father Knows Beast", he has the exact same problem, even though he already acknowledged the ponies were his true family.
- All Love Is Unrequited: He has a major crush on Rarity who seems to either not notice this or not care. She never shows any indication she could imagine getting together with him nor of being bothered by the notion and wanting to reject it. Unless she's being really blind to his obvious feelings, it probably has something to do with how the only reason they are even remotely the same size is because he's still a child or the fact that he's still a child.
- This status quo is demolished at the climax of "Secret of My Excess" when Spike finally confesses his feelings to Rarity. Not only was she did she know all along, she was deeply touched.
- All There in the Manual: According to Lauren Faust it was Princess Celestia who raised Spike and taught him how to magically send messages. Apparently Ponies know very little about dragons and have never seen a baby one before which is why Celestia decided to take the challenge of raising one herself.
- However this was Subverted, as Lauren had said that this was just a concept that was never actually added to the show yet.
- In addition, in "Father Knows Beast", Spike confirmed he was raised by Twilight.
- However this was Subverted, as Lauren had said that this was just a concept that was never actually added to the show yet.
- Always Save the Girl: He is shown to be really protective of Rarity, as shown when the Mane 6 were against the Diamond Dogs.
- Always Someone Better: His initial view on Owloysius.
- Audience Surrogate: Sometimes ends up getting pulled into the girls' adventures against his will and then ends up enjoying it all in spite of himself. Clearly some of us are meant to relate.
"I don't want any of that girly, frilly, frou-frou nonsense" he says and then walks out giggling after receiving his ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. |
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: A running gag in "Secret of My Success", where he runs at every single object that doesn't belong to him.
- Badass Adorable: It's not seen a whole lot (see The Load) but when pushed enough he can fight back pretty well if a friend is in danger.
- Badass Longcoat: He wears one in the episode "The Mysterious Mare Do Well".
- Badass Mustache: Wears one on several occasions
- Berserk Button: Never come between him and Twilight or disrespect Rarity while he's around.
- Beware the Nice Ones: In the movie, he uses his fire to kill a Storm Guard.
- Big Eater: Spike will eat almost anything and everything. He's got a lot of growing to do after all.
- Big No: He does this after his plan backfires in "A Dog and Pony Show".
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Normally understated but "Secret of My Excess" emphasizes that Spike's got some serious physical quirks compared to most creatures that ponies deal with.
- Blessed with Suck: Dragons are amongst the most powerful creatures in Equestria. A power gained by losing control of your materialism and becoming a mindless beast.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Spike is helpful and obedient to Twilight. However, he can be incredibly obnoxious and childish at times, not to mention has a very dry wit.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: He does this in "Bridle Gossip", where he directly addresses the audience (and even the creators).
"Uh...I got nothing. 'Twilight Sparkle?' I mean seriously; I can't even work with that." |
- And again in "Lesson Zero", ending Twilight's imagine spots.
- Breath Weapon: Like all dragons, he can breathe fire, though he hasn't yet been shown to use it as a weapon even in a serious fight. Indeed, even though he is known to use his fire for cooking and popping popcorn, even a full on (albeit accidental) blast only gives Twilight a new hairstyle.
- In Season 8, his fire breath became more stronger after his molt, as shown in "Molt Down" where he made the Roc back down after a direct burst to the face.
- In "The Ending of the End - Part 2", he uses it against a powered-up Chrysalis' magic blast, and fights her to a standstill with Rarity's help.
- Brutal Honesty: Exceptions are when he's worried about Rarity's feelings, then he says everything that comes to mind.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: He does have his childishness but he is rather good at his job.
- Butt Monkey: Shares this role with Twilight Sparkle.
- Iron Butt Monkey: The cartoon even lampshades this by explaining that (unlike Twilight) Spike's natural body armor allows him to shrug off a lot of damage. He says this while being used as a literal pincushion for Rarity, and later shown to be exceptionally sturdy even by dragons' standards.
- Character Development: In episode 3 he didn't want to be seen at a "Girly Gala Gunk". 45 episodes later he's seen wearing pink apron out in the open, not being embarrassed to be seen in it (until Rainbow Dash started teasing him).
- Few episodes later Spike is seen enjoying spa with the other girls. Even Rainbow Dash wouldn't be caught dead getting a manicure! Although in Spike's case the right sort of a manicure might qualify under "proper maintenance of natural weapons for maximum effectiveness".
- In earlier seasons, he is shown to be worried if Twilight will fire him if she finds a better assistant or finds a new one. In later seasons, he loses this fear and is more comfortable to be part of Twilight's family.
- He is shown to be much more intelligent and kinder in later seasons.
- Cheerful Child: He is usually friendly and cheery.
- Earlier on he seems to act like a young child, but as the series goes on, he can take on responsibilities alone, while he can have immature moments, he is more of a teenager than an actual child by the shows end.
- The Chessmaster: He becomes this in "Twilight's Seven". He manages to get Luna to help him exploit Twilight and Shining Armor's manipulation.
- Cincinnatus: He was temporarily the Dragon Lord, meaning that he was the ruler of dragonkind, but he decided that Ember (his friend) would be better as a Dragon Lord, and gives that up to give the power to her instead.
- Compressed Hair: See Nice Hat below. The question of where his spikes go when his head is covered is never addressed. It's especially notable because unlike hair (or manes, whatever) they're rigid, though they do briefly go floppy when he gets drenched with water in "The Return of Harmony Part 2".
- Cowardly Sidekick: Depending on the Writer. Spike can be either (with thanks to Monty Python) suicidally brave or hilariously cowardly depending on which is funnier at the time.
- Crazy Consumption: Spike loves to eat gemstones. Not only can he chew them with ease but he can also suck on one and melt it as if it were a large piece of hard candy.
- Curtains Match the Window: for particularly scaly definitions of "curtains"
- Cute Little Fangs: He has them as part of his teeth.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not quite as much so as Twilight Sparkle but still noticeably so. (Perhaps it's a result of being raised by Twilight?)
Spike: That nest needs to be condemned! |
- Determinator: He is determined to win Rarity's heart and won't give up no matter what.
"There is no pain that would keep me from assisting the most beautiful creature in the world!" |
- Does Not Like Spam: If this Hub commercial is to be believed, he thinks green beans are nasty.
- Although this is not in the actual show, it is implied he dislikes them.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: A dragon falls in love with an equine immediately after they meet. This sure seems familiar.
- Dogged Nice Guy: To Rarity.
- After the events of "Secret of My Success", she apparently knew about his crush, but still sees him as a sweet boy. Although one could wonder who made the Rarity T-shirt in the first place.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Goes through some cases of this, especially since he does A LOT of work for the girls, with not too many thanks from them (this is Subverted only in Owl's Well That Ends Well), and is even mysteriously absent at many of their parties, or adventures. As proven a few times though, Twilight is very grateful to have him around, even if she doesn't always make it apparent.
- Early Installment Weirdness: The pilot has Spike not understanding some words, for example as Twilight dictates a letter to him. After the events of the pilot, he seems to have no trouble understanding Twilight.
- Eat Dirt Cheap: His favorite food is gemstones.
- Era Specific Personality: G1 Spike was less sarcastic (and in the original pilot was an antagonist before receiving a Heel Face Turn) while G3 Spike was a 1000 year old Stuffy Brit.
- Expy: Of G1 (prototype) Spike, G1 (TV series) Spike and G3 (DVD only) Spike.
- Extreme Omnivore: He'll eat grass, fruit, gemstones (his favorite), worm-filled muffins he scooped from the trash...
- Although he seems oddly picky about apples.
- Although he does treat gems like a human would treat a high-quality steak or fine cheese. In "Secret of My Excess", he talks about a rare fire ruby he's been carefully aging for some time now and expresses great excitement over eating it for his birthday dinner.
- Although this Hub commercial has him claim that green beans are nasty.
- He eats ice cream off the floor in "It's About Time", which also says something about the cleanliness of Canterlot's floors.
- He would even eat a Tome of Eldritch Lore!
- Familiar: Spike seems to be this for Twilight, though Owloysius may be a better fit.
- Flight: From "Molt Down" onwards, he has the ability to fly after a molting process.
- Food as Bribe: Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy have each offered him gems to eat in exchange for a favor.
- For Halloween I Am Going as Myself: What costume does he wear on Nightmare Night? A dragon costume. Real original.
- Formerly Fat: In the series finale, he is seen as a muscular dragon.
- Fun Size: He's TINY compared to an adult dragon. He could fit in its palm and bring several friends. "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", "Secret of My Excess", and "Dragon Quest" all VERY strongly indicate that Spike will eventually grow to a massive size.
Pinkie Pie: Little Spikey-wikey! Who knew that big ferocious dragons started out so cutesy-wootsey? |
- Gasshole: Downplayed, but can be seen as this at times. Whenever he belches, this summons a letter written by Princess Celestia.
- Genre Savvy: He immediately recognizes that Twilight Sparkle's Freak-Out in "Lesson Zero" will end badly and tries to take steps before it gets too out of hand.
- Greater Need Than Mine: He gives Rarity his Fire Ruby that he's been saving for month for his birthday dinner all so she can be happy.
- Greed: Dragons have an innate predisposition to this fault. Spike doesn't normally show it but excessive gifts can trigger this in him. This is also seen as one of his Fatal Flaws.
- Happily Adopted: As of "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", it looks like he was raised by Twilight and it's obvious in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" that he sees her as a surrogate mother or big sister, which makes sense, since she was responsible for hatching him.
- Heavy Sleeper: This is justified, as he is a baby dragon and he needs a lot of rest.
- Hidden Depths: It's been shown that he doesn't like being shoved to the sidelines as he claims, and is presumed to have some issues with self-esteem. See Dude, Where's My Respect? above.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Spike is very skilled at cleaning, cooking, categorizing, taking notes, sending and receiving messages, etc. He can also fight, quickly spots mistakes in Twilight's plans, takes care of diplomatic business on his own and has connections with important people such as the famous Hoity Toity. On top of that, he absolutely loves his job.
- Oddly in the very first episode, a brief scene gives Spike a less-than-average understanding of spelling basic words. Thankfully averted in the series since.
- I Got Bigger: He grew up to be bigger in the series finale.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Temporarily in "Owl's Well That Ends Well", complete with with a Dastardly Whiplash attire and a hammy Evil Laugh.
- Innocent Prodigy: Arguably even more so than Twilight since he actually is a kid.
- Innocently Insensitive: Occasionally.
- "Hurricane Fluttershy" is a particularly gruesome example, when his statements made in practicality on Fluttershy's poor flying ability break her spirit.
- Also in "Party of One", he confesses falsely to Pinkie that the other Mane 6 don't like her just to her off his mind. He doesn't seem to realize that Pinkie was upset by the news.
- In-Series Nickname: "Spikey-Wikey," used by Pinkie Pie in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" and by Rarity in "Secret of My Excess" and "Dragon Quest".
- Interspecies Romance: Hopes for one with Rarity.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Spike can seem awfully rude at times like when making fun of his friends' afflictions in "Bridle Gossip" or his machinations against the owl in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". Apart from that though, he's an okay guy.
- Keet: He has his moments of this.
- Kingmaker Scenario: At the end of the sixth season, due to him befriending both of them, both Ember and Thorax became rulers of the dragon and changeling species respectively.
- Large Ham: Sometimes he becomes this.
- Large Ham Announcer:
- In "Fall Weather Friends", he enjoys announcing the Iron Pony Competition so much that Pinkie Pie makes him co-announcer for the Running of the Leaves.
- In "Suited for Success", he gives a ridiculously pretentious intro for Rarity's first fashion show...which is par for the course as far as fashion shows go.
- Likes Older Women: Rarity being the example.
- As some fan art has pointed out, this would lead to a weird Mayfly-December Romance, since while he is a Baby Dragon, he'll also live much much longer than any Pony will.
- The Load: When things get gritty at least. Spike is a highly competent assistant to Twilight and proves useful outside the action, but in terms of actual physical involvement, he's mostly useless, either staying on the sidelines or needing the ponies to protect him. He does get sparse moments however.
- Love at First Sight: When he meets Rarity for the first time, he starts having a crush on her.
- Magikarp Power: So far we've seen that Dragons are obscenely powerful beings almost without equal but since Spike's a baby, he's relatively easy to thwart. This becomes all the more apparent when he occasionally stops being a baby and becomes a much greater threat to everyone nearby.
- Magitek/Mundane Utility: He uses his magic fire to send and receive letters which makes him a living fax machine.
- He's also incredibly useful to the rest of the cast because he's the only main character with usable hands.
- He's also used for cooking in "Over a Barrel" and "A Bird in the Hoof".
- Meaningful Name: He's called Spike because he has spikes.
- Meta Guy: He seems to be the only character thus far to canonically be aware of the audience (and possibly even the creators of the show) despite Fanon about Pinkie Pie.
- My Friends and Zoidberg: On the receiving end in-universe and out.
- Mysterious Past: The origins of Spike's egg are unknown, it could possibly be that his parents died or abandoned him.
- The episode "Father Knows Beast" reveals that he is an orphan egg however.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He is this trope in comparison to the other Jerkass dragons in "Dragon Quest".
- Narcissist: It's downplayed, but he is depicted in some episodes to be a little vain.
- In "Party of One", he straight up admits to Pinkie Pie that when nopony is around, he flexes his body in front of a mirror and says "Looking good, Spike! Looking good!"
- Nice Guy: He is pretty helpful and will often help others when he is asked.
- Nice Hat: Spike seems to have a thing for sweet headgear. Apparently the animators like putting stuff on his head because it's funny.
- The Nicknamer: Takes this role in "Bridle Gossip" when he comes up with clever nicknames for the girls after they've been affected by the poison joke.
- Non-Pony Sidekick: To Twilight Sparkle.
- The Not-Secret: In "Green Isn't Your Color", Spike "reveals" to Twilight and Pinkie Pie that he has a crush on Rarity. Twilight of course already knows although Pinkie Pie is surprised and forces Twilight into keeping it secret.
- As "Secret of My Success" shows, even Rarity is aware of his crush.
- Odd Friendship: Believe it or not with Twilight; the two of them really don't have that much in common yet they stick together. The argument can be made that they're more like family than friends though.
- He also seems fond of Pinkie Pie, despite his rational, cynical personality. He acts as befuddled as everypony else at her stranger excesses, but they often end up sharing scenes and supporting each other. To be fair, she is a Friend to All Children, and Spike is used to dealing with Twilight's less coherent moments.
- The One Guy: The only male main character in the cast, and he's not even a pony!
- Only Sane Man: Whenever Twilight becomes crazy, he usually serves the role.
- Out-of-Character Moment: In "Spike at Your Service", he suddenly becomes bad at cooking, and being a housekeeper in which he has been shown to be good at cooking and housekeeping prior to that episode.
- Opposites Attract: Spike is a dragon (which are greedy by nature) with a crush on Rarity (the bearer of the element of Generosity).
- Scratch the surface and it starts looking like Not So Different: greed is a major vice of Rarity's while Spike's willing to put Rarity's happiness above his own.
- Played with, really. On the surface, Rarity is a vain and greedy girl while Spike seems endlessly giving and humble. But Rarity will put someone's happiness above her own without a second thought and Spike has an ego and (literally) monstrous greed that he usually suppresses. Similar qualities but different presentations.
- Our Dragons Are Different: And apparently used as living E-mail clients.
- He even appears to be a separate species from the grown dragons that live in the Everfree forest; he's flightless for one thing and capable of sending letters with his flame although Word of God says that the latter is a learned skill.
- Out of Focus: He has considerably less screen time in season 2 than in season 1, even having the ponies that learn An Aesop just say it in a narrative voice instead of having him directly write the letter most of the time, causing some fans to joke that Spike is now unemployed.
- It's especially funny because in the first half of the season Spike was featured in almost every episode (even ones where Twilight never appeared) "Spike is the new main character" became a meme.
- Overly Long Tongue: As seen in "Lesson Zero" and "Secret of My Excess".
- Pals with Jesus: Like Twilight, he has a direct line to Princess Celestia (mostly because he is the direct line to Princess Celestia) though oddly he's far more laid back around her than any of her other subjects are.
- Word of God states that Celestia raised him after Twilight caused his egg to hatch. Jesus is his mommy.
- Phrase Catcher: "Spike, take a letter."
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Don't let his size fool you; he's a lot stronger than he looks. The Diamond Dogs learn this the hard way. In his head anyway.
- Nigh Invulnerable: His offense might not be much to write home about, but being covered in dragon scales means there's not much that can do more than knock the breath out of him.
- Platonic Life Partners: With Twilight; see Odd Friendship.
- Playing with Fire: He breathes a "magic fire" to send messages to Princess Celestia but is also capable of producing plain old regular fire too. "Owl's Well That Ends Well" suggests that he can even produce fire from his claws.
- Or even produce fire by accident. He's also accidentally sneezed green fire, resulting in random items being sent to Princess Celestia.
- Becomes amazingly literal when he hatches Peewee the phoenix at the end of Dragon Quest.
- The Power of Love: It turns out that Spike's love for Rarity is what reverts him back to his normal self when he turns into a rampaging monster.
- Precocious Crush:
- Purple Is Powerful: See Pint-Sized Powerhouse.
- Raised by Ponies: Comes up in "Dragon Quest."
- Real Men Wear Pink: He at first thinks the Grand Galloping Gala is too girly for him, but later is enthusiastic about going. He's also willing to serve a as a model for Rarity's designs.
- He also wears a pink apron and has tea and biscuits picnic complete with china set in ""Dragon Quest".
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: This is normally averted. However, in "Secret of My Success" where he gains more reptilian features and looks.
- In "Molt Down", he gets afraid when he goes through the said molt, developing "stone scales" and the scales made a horrifying smell afterwards. He goes to Zecora to make a cure for it, but then she shoots down the possibility of a cure.
- Shoulder-Sized Dragon: He is often seen riding on other ponies' backs, and at times Twilight's head.
- Shout-Out: Spike's magic green fire may very well be this to the Floo Network fireplaces in Harry Potter.
- Significant Birth Date: Twilight hatched his egg on the same day that she got her Cutie Mark.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: While he hasn't yet sung in the show itself (outside of Crowd Songs in which his individual voice can't be made out), the "Equestria Girls" video implies that the song's male backup is Spike despite not sounding like him (i.e., sounding like Snoop Dogg).
- Spanner in the Works: The reason Twiight couldn't able to escape King Sombra's spell and find the Crystal Heart because he disobeyed her command and tried to handle it alone.
- In "Power Ponies", he was able to save the girls because the villain didn't catch him, with the Mane-aic thinking he wasn't a threat.
- In "The Times They Are A Changeling", he met Thorax and became his friend, and then he convinced the Crystal Empire that Thorax simply wanted friends. In the season finale, "To Where and Back Again", his friendship was Thorax ended up saving Equestria from a changeling invasion and thus helps the species (with the exception of Chrysalis) to perform a Heel Race Turn.
- Spike of All Trades: Just like in previous series, he is a baby dragon.
- Supreme Chef: He is shown to be quite good at cooking, however in "Spike at Your Service", he botches a pie due to him acting out of character.
- Straight Man: His most consistent role.
- Sweet Tooth: He seems to like candy apart from gemstones.
- Superpowered Greedy Side: see Magikarp Power above.
- Tagalong Kid/Sixth Ranger: He is a child, and he tags along the Mane 6's missions.
- Technicolor Fire: His fire breath is a neon green color.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the ninth season, he wins the Sparkle family crown of Sibling Supreme, and both Twilight and Shining Armor acknowledge that he is a true part of their family.
- Token Heroic Orc: Most dragons seem to be rude and look down on other creatures, they are also unhelpful. Spike on the other hand is a Nice Guy and helps others when needed.
- Took a Level In Badass: Episodes from Season 4 onwards feature Spike's fire breath as more powerful, and in season 8, he gains wings, meaning he could fly now. His The Load status seems to have disappeared.
- Took a Level In Kindness: Became a much nicer person later on in the series.
- Totally Radical: At least in the Polish version when compared to the other main characters. He uses phrases and words such as "Jesteś w dechę!" (You're totally awesome!), "wtopa" (bummer) or "ściema" (a slang variation of "lie").
- Trademark Favorite Food: Gemstones. This is a little frustrating for him living in Ponyville as the few ponies who do trade in gemstones use them as decoration instead of food.
- The Unchosen One: In "The Crystal Empire", he managed to be the one who saved the day.
- Undying Loyalty: To Twilight Sparkle, and the rest of his friends to a certain degree.
- Especially to Rarity, as he helps with almost everything she asks him. However he has a limit in "Inspiration Manifestation", where he was unwilling to speak out against Rarity Mad with Power over the book, but he takes it from her and swallows it so she could snap out of it.
- Unknown Rival: To Owloysius at first.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He causes problems in some episodes mostly due to his greed but other flaws can cause problems too.
- Vague Age: This applies to most of the cast but Spike is probably the one who sticks out the most because he is younger than the mane cast but seems to be older than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Dragon biology[1] and society[2] offers much in the way of questions but little in the way of answers, so figuring out his relative age comes down to looking at how he acts and how the rest of the cast treats him. Judge how his behavior compares to the Mane Six for yourself.
- On the high side, he has a full time job as Twilight's assistant/valet, he has been left in charge of the library and Fluttershy's pets when the others go away, and takes care of business in Canterlot on his own. He's also the voice of reason when Twilight starts freak out.
- On the low side, he's run away from home out of jealousy, he tends to get talked down to, and his advice is often ignored. He also has terrible tact.
- He was hatched around the time Twilight was entering school, so therefore he is older than the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who can be presumed to be middle schoolers by the seventh season.
- Vocal Evolution: Spike's voice has been getting slightly deeper since his first appearance. He's still growing so it makes sense.
- It actually might just be Weseluck getting into the role. In an interview, she said that she thought he was a toddler at first.
- In "Secret of My Excess", his voice gets progressively deeper until even modulating his actress' voice digitally doesn't cut it anymore and they just start using animal grunts, growls and roars instead.
- Wise Beyond His Years: Although he is young, he is pretty close to the Mane 6, sometimes maturity-wise.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: In "Dragon Quest", this was the reason why he couldn't destroy the defenseless dragon egg.
- Would Hurt a Child: In "The Ending of the End - Part 1", he had no problem using his Breath Weapon to burn Cozy Glow (this could be justified as she was an alicorn, but still).
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: His biggest fear is that Twilight and her friends won't need him anymore if he stops being helpful. In the premiere episode of the third season, his greatest fear is Twilight not needing him anymore.
- You Need a Breath Mint: According to Twilight, Spike's breath always stinks.
- Brimstone, or sulfur, a common ingredient of dragon fire, smells like rotten eggs.
Applejack[]
"This is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies?" |
Voiced by Ashleigh Ball |
An earth pony from the huge Apple family, a herd that runs multiple apple farms across Equestria. Applejack helps run Sweet Apple Acres, the ancestral farm of the family. Sensible and down to earth, she's admired for her honesty and integrity. However she also has a bit of a stubborn streak at times.
- The Ace: Very good at super strength due to kicking trees for her whole life.
- Action Girl: She is a very strong pony and uses this ability to fight.
- Adaptational Badass: Is much more competent than G1's Applejack.
- Affectionate Nickname: Sometimes calls her closest friends "sugarcube"
- American Accents: She has a distinctive Tennessee drawl, as is fitting given the large number of apple orchards in that particular region.
- Bad Bad Acting: Due to be a Bad Liar this is justified, as shown in "Spike at Your Service".
Applejack: (unconvincingly) * Oh no! I seem to have got my hoof caught in between two rocks! I cannot run away! I am a damsel in distress! Help me, Spike! (sticks her head in puppet timberwolf's mouth) |
- Badbutt: Although she is an Action Girl, but due to the show being for all-ages, the writers try not to make it too far.
- Badass: Her super strength can be seen as this.
- Bad Liar: Representing the Element of Honesty, Applejack isn't usually one to lie but when she does, she's terrible at hiding it as shown in "Party of One" (despite her excuses technically being true) and in "The Return of Harmony", after Discord brainwashes her into being a compulsive liar.
- In "Where the Apple Lies", she is revealed that she wasn't always honest when she was younger however. It endangered her family and business to the point where it made her the honest pony she is today.
- Berserk Button: In "Applebuck Season", if you doubt her abilities, she will rant about it and make her more determined to show you up. She gets better later on, however.
- She got really pissed off and angry about Strawberry Sunrise insulting apples to her face.
- Big Eater: Applejack's heavy farm chores make her burn a lot of energy so she is used to eating a lot of food. This is made explicit when she moves with her Orange relatives and is baffled at the minuscule food servings they're used to eating there.
- According to Granny Smith in "Apple Family Reunion", she (Applejack) had a big appetite as a foal too, such as eating a tray of fritters in seconds.
- The Big Girl: Possibly the strongest out of the Mane 6.
- Book Dumb: In "Applebuck Season", she criticizes Big Macintosh for bringing numbers into their conversation.
Applejack: This is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends and most dependable of ponies? |
- **She describes most things which aren't the stuff of salt-of-the-earth ordinary farm life as "fancy." For example, in "The Cutie Pox", when Apple Bloom starts speaking French, Applejack proclaims she's "speakin' in fancy".
- Broken Ace: Often plays this in her spotlight episodes. She's incredibly gifted and relied on frequently by the rest of Ponyville, because of this however she cannot take failing someone even in the most understandable of circumstances and works herself ragged trying to please everyone above her capabilities. Similar to Rainbow Dash her arrogance can perk up and hinder things at times as well.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: True to her "cowgirl" demeanor, Applejack is a rowdy and assertive Cute Bruiser, but ultimately friendly and rational minded.
- Brutal Honesty: Well, it is her element, so therefore she has a poor habit of doing this due to her element.
- In "Honest Apple", this bites her, when Rarity made her a judge for a fashion show, she becomes too honest to the point of being hurtful, and she says "fashion is ridiculous". She realizes this when Strawberry Sunshine insults apples.
- Buffy-Speak: To a less extent than Rainbow Dash, but she has her moments of this.
- She appears to stutter when she is confused about something.
- Busman's Vocabulary: Due to being a farmer, she uses farmer related metaphors. Applejack calls them "countryisms" in "The Cutie Map - Part 2", whenever her cutie mark was taken away, she stops and loses her ability to say this.
- Call to Agriculture: Turned down the fancy life in Manehattan to settle on her old farm and hasn't regretted it even once.
- As far as we know. She may be the embodiment of honesty, but that doesn't mean she can't stretch the truth.
- Catch Phrase: "What in Tarnation?" when she is frustrated about something.
- "Yee-haw"! due to being a cowgirl.
- Celibate Hero: In "Simple Ways", she believes it's silly that Trender Hoof has a crush on her. She also doesn't care about romance at all either.
- Character Development: In "Applebuck Season", she wants no help from others and wants to do the truckload alone, but in "The Super Seedy Cider 2000", she accepts help from her friends. This sticks later on as shown in "Apple Family Reunion", she asks for her friends help, but went overboard on making the reunion perfect. This leads to her learning a different lesson instead.
- She became more calmer in season 2 onward.
- She became a Team Mom later on, thus making her pick up on social cues that somepony is having a hard time.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: A more mundane example than Rainbow Dash, but equally defining. Applejack is renowned for her reliability throughout Ponyville, often providing help where ever she can. It is this status however that leads her to sometimes exhaust herself in her devotion to others.
- The Clan: Has a large extended family with apple-related Theme Naming like Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Apple Brown Betty, Braeburn, etc.
- Living with her on the farm are the similarly theme-named Granny Smith, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh.
- There's also Aunt and Uncle Orange up in Manehattan.
- Pinkie Pie may possibly be a very distant cousin too, but this is unknown - the family tree was smudged up by the time Pinkie and Applejack looked it up.
- Her cousins: Babs Seed, Uncle Apple Strudel, and Tyrolean too.
- The Comically Serious: Not as often as Twilight, but her gruffness and straight faced demeanor sometimes plays her into this. She is a cowgirl after all.
- Competition Freak: Not quite as bad as Rainbow Dash, but her brashness does provoke this hard at times, especially against the former.
- Companion Cube: Treats one of her apple trees, Bloomberg, as one of her own children.
- Conflict Ball: Despite often acting as the voice of reason, she arguably has the largest number of Feud Episodes with another pony, most often with Rainbow Dash. Perhaps what leads Twilight to so quickly assume that the two are fighting at one point.
- Cool Aunt: In the series finale (which takes place in the future), Big Mac's son runs to her to give her a big hug as seen as he sees her, thus implying they have a good relationship.
- Cool Big Sis: Often plays this role to Apple Bloom. She seems to play this with a few other ponies as well, most recurringly Twilight.
- Cool Truck: Her Farm Truck from the toys (the Periphery Demographic may not think so, but it wasn't meant to appeal to them).
- Country Mouse: According to her in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", she apparently visited her aunt and uncle and that made realize that she belonged on the farm.
- Cowgirl: Very much so. She appears as one and does cowboy related activities such as being good at a rope.
- Cute Bruiser: Can be one of the faster or slower ponies depending on the episode but always the physically strongest. In Rainbow's "Hot Minute" profile, she admitted if she and Applejack would've done a race on the ground (meaning Rainbow wouldn't use her wings) then Applejack could possibly win.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not to the extent of Twilight or Rainbow, but she can get pretty snarky.
- This is taken Up to Eleven when she plays Smart Cookie in the Hearth's Warming Eve play.
- Determinator: She becomes this especially if/when her stubbornness gets the better of her...particularly in "Applebuck Season".
- Edible Ammunition: She planned to kick some of her apples at the dragon in the episode "Dragonshy".
- Era Specific Personality: Friendship is Magic's Applejack is one of Ponyville's best athletes. Her First Gen counterpart is...uh...not.
- To put it more clearly, G1 Applejack was a Disaster Girl type of character, constantly getting herself in trouble for doing things she was NOT supposed to do, or simply causing (unintended) mayhem around her, thanks to her clumsiness, HUGE appetite for apples and her lack of "Horse Sense".
- On a UK story tape, G1 Applejack got a special song dedicated to her clumsiness, titled "Who's a Silly Pony?" Some sample lyrics:
- Era Specific Personality: Friendship is Magic's Applejack is one of Ponyville's best athletes. Her First Gen counterpart is...uh...not.
Watching all the rosy apples; whoops; there goes another fence |
- This was a bit of an Informed Flaw, though, since in the My Little Pony TV Specials the one big accident she was involved in was thanks to Firefly's recklessness. She did fall off a bridge later, but that would have happened regardless of which pony walked across last.
- Naturally the internet has made the most of this.
- Like every other pony, Applejack isn't immune to clumsiness or slapstick. Her athleticism doesn't stop her continuing the role of Iron Butt Monkey it seems.
- Everypony Hates Mathematics: "Applebuck Season" hints that math...or even counting for that matter...isn't Applejack's strong point.
- Averted in the episodes "Fall Weather Friends" (instantly adding 17 seconds and a 5 second penalty to get 22 seconds as her time for the Barrel Weave) and "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" (she instantly realizes that losing the money from selling cider will cause the farm to go under financially.)
- This is alluded to in "Suited for Success", where she had to count out loud to figure out six mares will need six dresses.
- The Everyman: She's really the most normal of her group of friends, albeit still by comparison only
- This is possibly the reason why she is Out of Focus; due to her relaxed personality, she doesn't really trigger and plot lines and/or dilemmas, rendering her to be a Straight Man most of the time. In season 1 however, she got more focus to being more Hot-Blooded and arrogant making her be the cause of some problems, likely because she had more roles in that season.
- Expy: For the original Applejack.
- It probably wasn't intentional but she's also an expy of Megan from G1. They're both highly competent Action Girl team moms that work on farms. Megan was more maternal than Applejack is generally portrayed as but she was also almost always the designated adult.
- The Face: Appears to be the most prominent member of the Apple family in Ponyville, mostly due to Big Macintosh's quiet demeanor and Granny Smith's age.
- Family Business: Growing and selling apples along with all the myriad methods of preparing them. Applejack takes this very seriously; her primary interest in the Grand Galloping Gala is setting up a stand there.
- A common fandom joke is that she sells apples and apple accessories.
- Fantastic Racism: In "Briddle Gossip", she was especially wary of Zecora, who is a zebra, and believes she's evil just because she's not like any pony she has seen. She grows out of that later on.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: She rarely interacts with Fluttershy for some reason, they do get spotlight together in "Viva Las Pegasus", and "Sounds of Silenece" however.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric: extroverted, confident and stubborn.
- From a Certain Point of View: She's the element of honesty, but that doesn't mean she has to tell the whole truth.
- Genre Motif: Country/bluegrass played on banjos or acoustic guitars. She sometimes gets a motif reminiscient of western movie "riding" themes when she gets into action.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Her being named after an alcoholic beverage may or may not be intentional but the nickname Spike chooses for her when she shrinks in "Bridle Gossip" certainly is.
- Girlish Pigtails: Wore these as a foal.
- Green Eyes: She appears to have green eyes.
- Good Ol' Boy: A sympathetic version. Her cowboy personality and being protective of tradition and heritage seem to be prominent in her spotlight episodes.
- Good Old Ways: She's really proud of being an earth pony and wants to do everything by hoof.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has these and is very friendly.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Minor example, but in season 1, it was quite easy to offend/anger her. She becomes more mellow later on.
- Hair Decorations: She wears red scrunchies on her mane and her tail.
- Hartman Hips: "Shadow Play, Pt. 2" implies that her bottom is quite fat. In one scene, Pinkie hugs Applejack's bottom, and it very visibly expands and contorts when she does so.
- Honesty Is the Best Policy: She seems to believe in this a lot and tries to do so.
- Honor Before Reason: In "Applebuck Season", she struggles to keep all of her promises (and turning down help) despite being stretched to her limits, nearly working herself to death through exhaustion.
- In "The Last Roundup," she's so ashamed at her failure to win any rodeo events that she decides to start a new life in another town and refuses to return to Ponyville until she earns enough to replace the prize money she failed to win.
- Hot-Blooded: In her earlier appearances (mostly in season 1), she was pretty short-fused and confrontational, and was more impulsive. She gets better in later episodes, that being said it doesn't mean that she hasn't gotten rid of it completely.
- How Do You Like Them Apples?:
- Just to drive the point home, she says it word for word in "Applebuck Season".
- Which is then turned around on her less than five seconds later.
- Hypocrite: In "Yakity-Sax", she wanted to tell the truth to Pinkie Pie about her yodiaphone playing. However when the other Mane 6 members confront her about it, Applejack is willing to Pinkie herself, instead she tells Rarity to say something to her.
- In "The Best Gift Ever" short "Triple Pony Dare ya", she accuses Rainbow of doing nasty dare. Applejack's dares involved daring Rainbow to fly slowly, causing her to almost fall in the air, and dared her to dig holes from the ground like an earth pony, in which Rainbow chipped her tooth. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash's dares, although they are mean-spirited, weren't exactly harmful to Applejack.
- I Call It "Vera": She calls her back legs Bucky McGillicuddy (her left one) and Kicks McGee (her right one).
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Utilized with her work overzeal. When given a difficult task, Applejack can be rather pig headed and arrogant, refusing help from others. Ultimately however, she is only insecure about her strengths and reliability, and takes letting someone down very hard (even when the person in question is far less upset about it). Also plays into her Team Mom role, while she is usually kind and understanding to others' shortcomings, she has great difficulty accepting her own.
- In-Series Nickname: Her name is often shortened to "A.J." in series.
- Intergenerational Friendship: In the toys, she apparently has one with toy-exclusive unicorn filly Star Dreams, seeing as they "love having slumber parties together!"
- I Work Alone: She's not a loner in general, but hates being told she needs help, and when driven to complete a task on her own, there's rarely any reasoning with her.
- Jack of All Trades: In The Last Roundup she competed in a national rodeo and, according to Cherry Jubilee, scored in the top four of every event.
- Master of None: What Applejack THOUGHT she was, which was the source of her personal drama for the episode.
- Kick Chick: Granted she is a pony but she uses her kick far more than anyone else...especially when she knocks apples off of the trees on her farm.
- Knight Templar Big Sister: She is shown to be very overprotective and strict in protecting Apple Bloom in "Bridle Gossip" and acts extremely paranoid and hostile to Zecora at the thought of her harming her. This trait is toned down in most later episodes, where she is more of a Cool Big Sis.
- The Ladette: Applejack cringes at the thought of wearing feminine clothing, regularly lapses into crude and aggressive behavior and won't hesitate to charge into action when needed.
- The Lancer: She seemed to be The Hero before Twilight came to Ponyville, and she does seem to take this role.
- Lovable Jock: She's a strong athlete but she is ultimately friendly too.
- Married to the Job: She's pretty much a workaholic.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Applejack has to pause to catch her breath when she introduces them to Twilight Sparkle.
- Maybe Ever After: The series finale leaves it unknown if she and Rainbow have a relationship or not, according to the crew, it's up to the viewers who decide if they are.
- Meaningful Name: "Apple" is obvious. "Jack" may refer to a jack-of-all-trades; i.e. someone who can do a lot of different things but isn't a specialist.
- Applejack or apple-brandy is a high-proof beverage distilled from cider. It has something of a kick to it (FiM) and also tends to result in less-than-optimal coordination and judgement (G1).
- Ms. Vice Girl: Applejack's stubbornness does help when she's in a tough spot but it also gets her in trouble on a fairly regular basis, most notably in "Applebuck Season" where she refuses to admit that she needs help and when it interferes in attempts to negotiate with the Buffalo in "Over A Barrel".
- In season 1, she was short-tempered, and is often vindictive whenever she feels like someone had insulted/provoke her. She was levelheaded in comparison to Rainbow Dash and Rarity but still ended up in an Escalating War with the both of them after they wound her up. She improves the flaw by being levelheaded later on.
- Never Bareheaded: She always seems to wear a cowboy hat...even when in a formal dress. Averted in the toys, however, where she is almost never seen with a hat.
- Nice Girl: Although she may hold the Jerkass Ball occasionally, she is pretty fair-natured, and her abrasive moments are for more selfless reasons than most others, in season 1 she is more arrogant, if altruistic.
- Nice Hat: Is always wearing a cowboy hat.
- Not So Different: While she plays Blue Oni to the impulsive Rainbow Dash, her stubborn streak makes her in turn a Red Oni towards others like Rarity. There are also times she is shown eagerly assisting Rainbow Dash with stunts.
- Number Two: In episodes where the entire Mane Six is facing a common problem, Applejack often falls into the role of a second-in-command to Twilight.
- Only Sane Pony: She usually takes the role when Twilight and Spike aren't.
- Out of Focus: Compared to the rest of the main six she gets the least episodes as the main character. Though on the other hand if she's a primary supporting character she gets that honor in spades, due to her maturity and being something of a Team Mom to the others. She also gets the lion's share of episodes shared between two characters (often due to her Conflict Ball moments).
- Parental Abandonment: t's semi-confirmed that her parents are dead. Granny Smith is the only thing close to parental role for Applejack and her siblings. In "Crusaders in the Lost Mark", Applejack mentions that her parents would be proud of Apple Bloom. "The Perfect Pear" practically confirms they are dead, but it is unknown how they died.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She may be small but she has no problem moving several carts of apples bigger than she is at the same time. In "Shadow Play" she kicked a boulder the same size as a small house.
- Power Blonde: She's the sole blonde and the physically strongest of the six.
- Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure: She isn't interested in pop culture, as she never heard of Countess Coloratura.
- Pride: Has a stubborn streak miles wide and hates backing down from any challenge.
- Raised by Grandparents: An SDCC interview at the My Little Pony panel reveals the reason for her parents' absence is because kids need to learn an important lesson on how that may happen, and they have trepidation on how to handle something like that.
- The Reliable One: Is this for Ponyvile.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Applejack is actually both depending on the situation. She's Red Oni to Rarity and Blue Oni to Rainbow Dash.
- She's also the Red Oni to her brother, Big Mac.
- The Rival: Had an occasional (usually) friendly competitive streak with Rainbow Dash early on.
- Second Place Is for Losers: She thinks this way, especially in "The Last Roundup".
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Her dinner with her rich relatives in Manehattan proves this.
- Sir Swearsalot: Although not actually swearing (due to being a show for all ages), but she has said the most in-universe swears however.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Once in a great while, her name will be spelled as "Apple Jack."
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: In season two she and her family have more screen time than any of the other mane cast, even Twilight.
- On the other hand, she has noticably more minor roles in most season two episodes, even her own centric episodes often give another character an equally prominent role, in contrast to the first season, where she was a leading character in several episodes.
- Spirited Competitor: She not only likes winning, she likes competing too!
- Stealth Pun: She has her mane tied up in a ribbon to make her hair into a ponytail. Her actual pony tail is styled the same way.
- She's the Element of Honesty and the tough one of the lot, making her the embodiment of Brutal Honesty.
- Stepford Smiler: Implied to be this in "Tanks for the Memories" as Pinkie Pie says that Applejack "cries on the inside", Applejack then claims it's true.
- Straight Mare: Due to being one of the more sensible and levelheaded ponies in the group, she is often this. However, she has her moments of silliness...
- Stubborn Mule: When she has decided something, she has her mind locked in the matter, and that's impossible to make her reconsider. This is often one of her flaws.
- Supreme Chef: Explicitly stated but so far we haven't seen it. We get to see her cooking while tired and overworked.
- Well, we do know that she can make some great apple treats, like Soarin's apple pie.
- The cartload of goodies she rolled out as a bribe to Twilight in "The Ticket Master" counts, even if Twilight refused to eat any of them.
- She was in charge of the catering for the wedding.
- Team Mom: Especially highlighted in "Dragonshy" where she demonstrates saintlike patience with Fluttershy's severe timidness.
- Theme Naming: Applejack and all of her relatives are named after different types of apples and apple-related items.
- Plus Aunt & Uncle Orange in Manehattan and her late mother Pear Butter.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: A Visual Pun even!
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She dislikes fashion and hates doing anything that could be considered girly, but she was OK with wearing a dress to the gala, and was alright with going to the spa, or participating in fashion shows.
- Undying Loyalty: To her friends and family to a fault, and doesn't care for her own well being while she was trying to help them.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 with both Rainbow Dash and Rarity.
- Voice Changeling: In a Best Gift Ever short, "Mystery Voice" show this, as she is able to do several different voices while she is supposed to make announcements in the School of Friendship intercom.
- Vocal Evolution: Her voice was a little higher pitched in the first few episodes and has gotten deeper over time. This was intentional on Ashleigh Ball's part as she felt Applejack and Rainbow Dash (the other main character she voices) sounded too similar and wanted to separate the two a little.
- Workaholic: To the point that it nearly kills her.
- Youthful Freckles: She had even more as a filly.
Pinkie Pie[]
"♪ This is your singing telegram; I hope it finds you well, |
Voiced by Andrea Libman |
A hyperactive earth pony who prances to the beat of her own percussion section. The sheer force of her cheerful personality can be overwhelming at first but anyone who shows a little patience with her eccentricities is rewarded with a truly unique and wonderful friend who fills every day with laughter. And musical numbers. And PARTIES! Try to imagine a pink rocket made of happiness. That's Pinkie Pie.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: It's almost a Verbal Tic.
- Aesop Amnesia: She does get some Character Development, but she does still have some quirks (ex: her Innocently Insensitive side).
- Aerith and Bob: In a world with characters with names like Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, her full name is (we assume) Pinkamena Diane Pie.
- Alliterative Name: It's literally in the name.
- All-Loving Heroine: She really wants to make everypony happy.
- Aside Glance: She does this on a number of occasions.
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Almost all the time, but Pinkie Pie can concentrate whenever she want to do so; in "Too Many Pinkie Pies", she was concentrating on Twilight's "test" so much to the point where she didn't notice that her clones have disappeared and she was the only one left standing up until the others address her.
- Attention Whore: A much nicer example than most.
- Awesomeness By Analysis: She has an eidetic memory for what makes people happy.
- Babies Ever After: In the finale, she has a son named Lil' Cheese, and is married to Cheese Sandwich. Him having eyeglasses cause some confusion (due to it being for girls), but Jim Miller confirmed it was to make him cuter.
- Badass Normal: She doesn't have the powers of a unicorn or the flight of a Pegasus but she still manages to accomplish a lot of things her powered friends can't and is smarter than she looks. For instance, she manages to solve the problem of the Parasprites by herself while none of her friends can. She is also able to outrun Rainbow Dash. (Or at least randomly popping up at Rainbow Dash's destination).
- Becoming the Costume: She goes to insane lengths to stay in character of a Nightmare Night costume.
- Including "pecking" at candy lying on the ground and somehow laying an egg when frightened by Princess Luna.
- Berserk Button: Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER break a Pinkie Promise.
- Making her burn her cakes is another one.
- She would not be happy if a friend trusts you with a secret and you giving it away.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She takes neglect very hard.
- Big Eater: Can slurp up an entire cake (larger than her head) with her tongue. She also drank all the mugs of apple cider in one sitting, much to Rainbow's chagrin.
- Black Sheep: Her sisters are extremely different from her. Maud is emotionless, Marble is a Shrinking Violet, and Limestone is grumpy.
- Break the Cutie: The episode "Party Of One" covers this completely.
- The episode "Baby Cakes" does this too, until she is literally bawling her eyes out at the end because she can't handle it anymore.
- Poor Pinkie Pie seems to be going through quite a bit of this in season 2- she's driven to the brink of tears by the Cake twins' antics in 'Baby Cakes', in 'A Friend In Deed' she is clearly upset when Cranky Doodle Donkey repeatedly rejects her friendship (although he does accept it by the end of the episode), and 'Putting Your Hoof Down' has Fluttershy reducing both her and Rarity to tears.
- In "Too Many Pinkie Pies", she was so distressed by her clones to the point where she questions herself whether if she was the real Pinkie Pie or not.
- "Magic Duel" gives her worse. First Trixie removes her mouth, rendering her unable to speak or eat, then Trixie forces her to dance against her will.
- "Pinkie Pride" was even worse, where all her friends where distracted by Cheese Sandwich to the point were they seem to forget Pinkie exists.
- This is played extremely hard in the movie, where after tons of screwups from the both of then, Pinkie, completely serious, calls out Twilight Sparkle for stealing the Pearl of Transformation and ignoring her friends. Twilight, in a rage, tells Pinkie Pie that she wasn't being serious about the mission, and practically disowned her as a friend. Although Twilight regretted that, Pinkie was still sad to talk to her.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Done occasionally, either with an Aside Glance or a closing iris gag.
- Broken Bird: During "Party of One".
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Despite appearing completely insane to outsiders, Pinkie Pie is regularly entrusted with important tasks by local authority figures who have known her long enough to be aware there's a method behind her apparent madness.
- Highlighted in "Swarm of the Century" where nopony takes her seriously until her music drives the parasprites out of Ponyville, demonstrating that she was right all along.
- Butt Monkey: Due to being the comic relief, she does get this sometimes, especially in "Magic Duel", where Trixie removed her mouth for a long time.
- The Cameo: Her face shows up in a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo during the "Wingin' It" musical number on The Aquabats Super Show episode "Cowboy Android!"
- The Cat Came Back: One of her stranger abilities.
- Catch Phrase: "Okey dokey lokey."
- Character Development: Minor, but she became more considerate of others.
- Her deal with rejection has improved later on, in "Pinkie Pride", although she doesn't take rejection well, she didn't go "Pinkamena" mode unlike last time, or go in Determinator mode like in "A Friend in Need".
- The Chick: One of two, in terms of laughter.
- Chocolate Foal: Her mother is silver and her father is brown, but she came out pink.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Especially in episode 13, where she doubles as a Cuckoolander Commentator:
Spike: You know, Pinkie; these two ponies have a bit of a grudge match they're trying to settle, trying to prove who's the most athletic. |
- And remember: this is Pinkie Pie when she's sane.
- Color-Coded Characters/ Color Motif: Her name's Pinkie so naturally she's pink.
- Cool Big Sis: To the Cakes' twin babies. Even after her first disastrous babysitting experience.
- Cool Car: Her RC Car from this toy commercial and the toys, though it's hard to tell how cool it really is since the only other car we've seen so far is Dan's car (in this Hub Crossover commercial).
- Crazy Prepared: How does she set up parties so quickly? Simple. She has a party cannon!!!
- She also keeps marshmallows on her person in case somepony eats something too spicy, and keeps rubber balls and eyepatches stashed all around Ponyville in case of emergencies.
- Cuckoolander Commentator: In "Fall Weather Friends"
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: In "Swarm of the Century". and again in "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
- Cute and Psycho: When you ignore her or break a Pinkie Promise, she becomes scary!
- Cute but Cacophonic: She has a tendency to screech if she's frustrated, like in "Griffon the Brush Off", "Swarm of the Century", and "Party of One".
- in "Luna Eclipsed", Twilight Sparkle defined it as shrieking and made her promise to stop doing it as she was trying to get ponies to accept Princess Luna as a friend rather than the fearsome former Nightmare Moon.
- In "Wonderbolts Academy", when she yells at a megaphone, her voice somehow made the mountains in the background move by force.
- The Cutie: She's really childlike and cheerful.
- Death Glare: In "Party of One", poor Applejack has to endure about ten or twelve different variants from her in a row when standing at the barn door to keep her from entering.
- Determinator: Proven in "Party of One". When she wants to find out something, she will.
- The Ditz: Some of the time. Other times...
- Dreadful Musician: Not the most blatant example of this trope, but she loves to sing and takes the same scattershot, stream-of-consciousness approach to music as she does to everything else. She is specifically called out as this in Over A Barrel, where her song is actively harmful to the peace talks.
Chief Thunderhooves: It seems that Sheriff Silver Star and I have come to an agreement. |
- It happens again (kinda) in "Baby Cakes" when she tries to entertain Pound and Pumpkin by singing her "Oink oink oink" song. The reception is less than positive.
- Edible Ammunition: She throws cakes to fend off Spike after he transforms into a huge rampaging monster in the episode "Secret Of My Excess".
- Era Specific Personality: G3 Pinkie Pie was the leader of the Core 7 late into the generation (beginning around 2007) and wasn't nearly as hyperactive.
- Everyone Has Standards: Pinkie Pie may love pranks but she knows better than to prank Fluttershy who is extremely sensitive.
- She will eat almost anything, but she was still disgusted by Sugar Belle's muffins.
- Expressive Mane: Her mane falls down and becomes straight whenever she's unhappy/serious.
- Expy: Of Surprise, a G1 pegasus who loved fun things as well as G3 and G3.5 Pinkie Pie who also loved parties.
- Extreme Omnivore: Not so much as Spike but she is willing to eat cupcakes with hot sauce and totally burned cupcakes. In one instance, she is capable of devouring a big cake in one gulp.
- She does have some standards however, since she was disgusted by the "baked bads" Applejack made and found it disgusting that Spike liked them.
- For Happiness: Her motivation for just about everything.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine: fun-loving, loud, and driven to seek others' attention.
- Friend to All Children: She loves playing with little kids, and chaperons some of them during Nightmare Night.
- She also loves the Cake Twins dearly, like they were her own little siblings.
- Full Name Ultimatum: Pinkamena Diane Pie, as revealed by her mother in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles".
- Fun Personified: Pretty much nonstop fun and excitement.
- Funny Schizophrenia: Underwent this in "Party of One", where she thinks her friends don't love her anymore, and she makes friends with inanimate objects; objects in which she voices, arguing and talking to.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Not stated explicitly, but occasionally implied (like with her flying machine in Griffon The Brush-Off and her party cannon from Sweet And Elite). What makes this more amusing is that her voice actress has a degree in engineering.
- GASP: Her introduction.
- Does it again after Spike reveals to her that he has a crush on Rarity.
- Genius Ditz: Despite being a bit scatterbrained and crazy, she's very good at baking and arranging parties, and gets handed the Smart Ball fairly often.
- She also remembers everything about everypony, because she loves to see people smile.
- In "Dragonshy", she somehow manages to beat Rarity a tic-tac-toe game 35 times in a row.
- She was the only one in Ponyville to know what parasprite was.
- "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" reveals that she is in charge of organizing files at the Town Hall.
- Genki Girl: An Up to Eleven Exaggerated Trope Parody for the majority of her onscreen appearance. Her genki-ness was however also Deconstructed, Subverted Trope, and Double Subverted in Party of One.
- She does simmer down in the later episodes, that being said it doesn't mean that she might not relapse.
- Genre Savvy: Pinkie's perceived "randomness" tends to actually be her way of resolving issues she sees long before the other ponies. A good example of this is in "Swarm of the Century": Not only does she realize what the Parasprites are going to do but she instantly figures out exactly what ridiculous method she's going to have to use to stop them. For the rest of the episode, she ignores all cries for help and accidentally sabotages all of her friends' efforts because she knows getting a ton of musical instruments is going to be WAY more important.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: In "Party Of One", you can see she has a large teddy bear in her bedroom. However, she apparently doesn't love it quite enough to invite it to her crazy party (the guests at said party include a bag of flour, a pile of rocks, and a ball of lint). Additionally the Ponygeist billboard shows her with a doll of Spike.
- Girly Bruiser: Occurs when a Pinkie Promise is broken.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: A very perky and bubbly pony who really loves cooking and is in general a Nice Girl. However she is very loud and a Big Eater
- Good Feels Good: Pinkie genuinely feels her happiest when she makes other ponies happy, whether it be from a joke or from one of her many parties. Her "I Am" Song "Smile Song" establishes this beyond the shadow of a doubt.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Comes up most notably in "Griffon the Brush-Off" where Gilda insists that the party pranks were all part of Pinkie's secret plan to humiliate her.
- Happily Married: In the series finale, she is married to Cheese Sandwich.
- Hates Being Alone: "Party of One" reveals this trait, as she went insane afterwards.
- The Heart: "A Friend in Deed" and "Magical Mystery Cure" show, she is one for not just the Mane 6, but the whole town as well.
- Hidden Depths: "Party Of One" shows that if she ever feels betrayed and alone, she will perform an emotional 180 and become a recluse. Quite impressive seeing as how until this point, she was probably the flattest character in the mane cast.
- "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" implies that this is actually her original pre-Sonic-Rainboom personality; care of a Fantasy Counterpart Puritan upbringing on a Rock Farm.
- "A Friend In Need" shows that Pinkie has a rather large memory of personal details (like birthdays) for every resident of Ponyville.
- This is highlighted in "Too Many Pinkie Pies", where her clones are flanderized versions of her, allowing the original Pinkie that her ability other than having fun, allowing her friends to distinguish her.
- "Pinkie Pride" reveals she is better at handling rejection.
- In "Filli Vanilli", she is revealing to be good at turkey calling.
- In "Party Pooped", she has folders of everyone she meets and the characteristics to plan their ideal party! Also, she is in charge of organizing files at the Town Hall in "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows".
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: According to her, she grew up on a Rock Farm. Although not intentionally abusive, it falls under the "seriously bizarre methods of parenting" heading.
- "I Am" Song: Her "Smile Song" from "A Friend in Deed".
- Implacable Pony: Is able to follow a rapidly fleeing Rainbow Dash during "Griffon the Brush-Off" and even get ahead of her, despite the fact that Rainbow flies at top speed while Pinkie skips ahead without a care. Repeats the feat during "Party of One", although she doesn't bother with the skipping.
- Inexplicably Awesome: Pinkie Pie regularly stares at, leans on or ignores the fourth wall, defies the laws of physics whenever plot- or humour-convenient and launches into musicals when nopony else does. She's popped out of locations too small for her to fit into, appeared inside a mirror (although it may have just been Twilight's head) and even fought the closing iris at the end of an episode. While this in itself isn't unusual for a cartoon, she's the only pony in this show who behaves like that. Everypony else is well aware that Pinkie Pie doesn't really work with the same rules as anypony else and they just do their best to ignore the weirdness. Her strange actions drive the plot in several episodes.
- To drive the point home, this is a setting with magic-using ponies, and Pinkie is strange even to them. She is explicitly stated to be simply too weird for magic to explain.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: She's happy and cheerful and has the eyes to match!
- Innocently Insensitive: Pinkie is never mean, her goal in life being to make others laugh and be happy, but she has a tendency to assume that her idea of fun is everyone's idea of fun. Fluttershy is an exception: Pinkie refuses to prank her (or let others do so) because she's well aware of how sensitive Fluttershy is and that she may get the wrong idea from any pranks. It's not certain if Fluttershy herself appreciates Pinkie's protective behavior, though...
- After a poorly executed stunt lands Rainbow Dash in the hospital, the first question Pinkie Pie asks the doctor is, "Is her face going to stay that way?"
- "A Friend in Deed" involves her unintentionally annoying Cranky (a donkey).
- In "Over the Barrel", she insisted on repeating her original flop of a song, this caused the war into going to full outbreak.
- In "Filli Vaniili", all she wanted was to make Fluttershy feel better, but she made an accurate description of stage fright, and the consequences made Fluttershy even worse.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Cranky Doodle Donkey.
- Jabba Table Manners: Her favorite method of eating often seems to involve plunging her face into food. Of note, her table manners horrified Mr. and Mr. Cake during Princess Celestia's visit, as well as Canterlot's elites when she attended their garden party.
- Jekyll and Hyde: Pinkie/Pinkamena.
- Kid Appeal Character: Was basically the Hub's mascot during its' existence.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Although she is not dumb (see Genius Ditz above), she can be airheaded, but she is one of the kindest ponies in the show other than Fluttershy.
- Know When to Fold'Em: In "Pinkie Pride", she forfeits the goof-off when she realized she went too far and when Rainbow Dash wasn't having fun.
- Kubrick Stare: Delivers one to the mane cast after being dragged to her surprise party in "Party Of One".
- Large Ham: Usually she can be this as she puts a lot of spirit in what she says.
- Life of the Party: Her forte is throwing parties and she also acts as a partygoer.
- Literal Minded:
Gilda: I'll be watching you...like a hawk. |
Rainbow Dash: This guy's a barrel of laughs. |
- Loss of Identity: In "Too Many Pinkie Pies", her clones caused so much distress to the point where she doesn't know if she was the real Pinkie or not. Her not knowing that she is the real Pinkie Pie possibly caused her to pass the test.
- Love Hungry: She was pretty clingy is some episodes (mostly in season 1), where she pretty much demanded that her friends attend her parties(although they went one the day prior). When she met Cranky Doodle Donkey in "A Friend in Need", she was dumbfounded by the fact that her did not want to be friends with her.
- The Mad Hatter: She knows she's crazy and loves every second of it.
- Magnetic Heroine: There is literally no pony in Ponyville that isn't her friend. It seems the only characters she can't befriend are the antagonists, and that's probably only because they don't stick around long enough or are too fundementally screwed up. This led to some trouble when she met someone who didn't want to be her friend. And she ''still'' managed to befriend him by the end of the episode.
- Meaningful Name: She's pink and she loves sweet things.
- Motor Mouth: This becomes weaponized in The Last Roundup.
- The Music Meister: As of season 3, she sung the most songs on the show, and seems also capable of causing others around her to participate, as seen in "A Friend in Deed".
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- In "Too Many Pinkie Pies", she clones herself many times just so her friends can have fun with a Pinkie clone, but then she realized it was a bad idea.
- In "Pinkie Pride", she has this again when Rainbow Dash wasn't having fun during the goof-off. She (Pinkie Pie) immediately forfeits the goof off as a result.
- Nice Girl: She's a good example of this unless you push her Berserk Button.
- Nice Hat: Wears one while playing Chancellor Puddinghead in "Hearth's Warming Eve".
- No Sense of Personal Space: Gets really close to somepony to the point where it can be seen as not respecting somepony's privacy. Lampshaded in "Briddle Gossip".
Rarity: Pinkie Pie! Haven't you ever heard of personal space? |
- Not Good with Rejection: Her biggest flaw.
- "Party of One" is the best example of this.
- "A Friend In Need", Cranky's rejections only make her more determined to be his friend.
- In "Wonderbolts Academy", she gets worried that Rainbow Dash will forget about her.
- In "Secrets and Pies", she became increasingly worried after finding out Rainbow wasn't eating her pies.
- Odd Name Out: Her full name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, which means she's one of the few characters so far to have a middle name.
- Official Couple: See Happily Married above.
- Offscreen Teleportation: She always spawns out of nowhere if she is not on-screen.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Her friends call her "Pinkie Pie".
- OOC Is Serious Business:
- "Party of One" reveals that she goes insane and depressed whenever she thinks her friends don't like her.
- In the movie, she told Twillight she didn't want to talk to her anymore after she (Twilight) tried to steal the pearl from Seaquestria and yelled at her afterwards, saying she is better off without friends. If Pinkie Pie doesn't want to talk to you, you screwed up.
- In "The Mean 6", she drops all goofball tendencies whenever she saw Fluttershy crying alone in the forest, and angrily shouts at Mean Twilight (who Pinkie thought was the real Twilight) just to defend Fluttershy.
- Overly Long Tongue: As seen in "Swarm of the Century".
- Perpetual Frowner: Was this up until Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom happened.
- Perpetual Smiler: She seems to smile at almost every scene she's in.
- Pink Means Feminine: It's literally in the personality.
- Photographic Memory: Pinkie can remember every detail she's ever seen or heard about her friends, no matter how small or obscure.
- Phrase Catcher: "Pinkie Pie, you are so random" and "She's just being Pinkie" tend to get thrown her way a fair bit.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Practically the main source of the shows sense of humor.
- The Pollyanna: She has such a bright outlook on life that she can literally laugh away her fears. MOST of the time. She also seems to believe that anyone is capable of being a friend if you're nice enough to them, no matter how hostile they've been in the past.
- Poor Communication Kills: If Pinkie Pie had just told her friends in the beginning how dangerous the parasprites were and that music would lure them away, a lot of trouble could have been saved.
- The Power of Oompah: Swarm of the Century
- The Prankster: Though it's made clear that her pranks are all in good fun and she refuses to prank Fluttershy for fear that her friend would take it too seriously.
- Precognition: "Pinkie Sense." She also has the uncanny ability to predict where other ponies are going to be and what they're going to do.
- Promotion to Parent: The Cakes literally promote her to regular babysitter of their twin children at the end of the episode "Baby Cakes".
- Quirky Curls: Oddly, her hair seems to be naturally straight. It poofs up when she witnesses the Sonic Rainboom and experiences joy for the first time. And it's basically stayed that way ever since, only straightening again when she's depressed (i.e. almost never).
- Reality Warper: Any time it aids the joke, she's shown with this ability. She's appeared in two places in a single animation frame several times and spends about half of "Green Isn't Your Color" popping out of places she can't possibly fit in just to remind Twilight that secret-keeping is a big deal, to the point of appearing inside a mirror (Although that may have been Twilight's imagination but still).
- This little piece says it all...
- If you want a great full episode example, A Friend In Deed pretty much takes this Up to Eleven
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the only member of the mane six who's never been a Blue Oni to any of her friends.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Not as frequently as Zecora, but Pinkie still likes to rhyme a lot... especially when she's singing.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: She's has well pink hair and is very cheery and enthusiastic.
- Round Bushy Hair: In some scenes she is seen with one.
- Rule of Funny: See Inexplicably Awesome, above, and Super Speed below.
- Sad Clown: Pinkie Pie is the Element Of Laughter, and near perpetually bubbly and cheerful. Take that happiness away from her however and the reaction is rather depressing.
- Sanity Ball: While she is known to be the craziest pony in the cast, she takes over this role in "Swarm Of The Century", where she is the only pony to have any knowledge of the parasprites, and nopony else (not even Twilight) will listen to her when she knows of a way to get rid of them.
- She is also the one to find a book on the Elements of Harmony. "It was under 'E'."
- In "Sonic Rainboom", it takes her no time to find the book Twilight needed although the library was a mess. Her explanation was "It landed on my face when Rainbow Dash knocked me into the bookcase."
- In "Too Many Pinkie Pies", she is more calmer than her clones, and even suggests a plan for Twilight to get rid of the clones.
- Sarcasm Blind:
- Referring to a tree called Bloomberg they are transporting on a train, this exchange takes place between Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie:
Rainbow Dash: When we get to Appleloosa, do you think we're going to need to carry that heavy tree all the way from the train to the orchard? |
- After a frog falls on Twilight's face...
Pinkie Pie: Uh...Twilight? You got a little something on your face there. |
- Serious Business: Never ever attack Sugarcube Corner, or break a Pinkie promise. You have been warned.
- Parties are another example, as she claims you will have the best party ever, and she'll try to make that happen.
- Sidetracked by the Analogy: Constantly. "Sticking to you like caramel on a candy apple"? She'll reminisce about candy apples. "Watching you like a hawk"? She'll ask why you can't watch her like your own species. "Hit the books"? She'll question why you're hitting them instead of reading them. "Holding a grudge"? She'll notice 'grudge' rhymes with fudge and proceed to chat about how she loves fudge.
- Simpleminded Wisdom: When Pinkie gets the Smart Ball, it often comes in this form.
- When Twilight can't find any information in her library about the Elements of Harmony:
Pinkie Pie: The Elements of Harmony: A reference guide. |
- Skip of Innocence: She typically walks like this.
- Spell My Name with an "S": Once in a great while, her name will be spelled as "Pinky Pie."
- Spider Sense: Her Pinkie Sense essentially is this.
- Stalker Without a Crush: Multiple times in a series but given that she's stalking her friends, it's similar in theme to stalkers WITH a crush.
- "Griffon The Brush-Off" has Pinkie Pie following Rainbow Dash around quite a bit but in a fairly cheerful way. Dash finds this slightly annoying at worst but also amusing.
- "Party Of One" features a less pleasant variety when Pinkie's friends seem to be making excuses for why they aren't coming to her latest party. She puts on a "disguise" to spy on them and then Dash—who can tell it's Pinkie but not that she's trying to disguise herself—says "Hi, Pinkie Pie." Then It Gets Worse; Pinkie chases Dash very aggressively and angrily, loudly asking what the real reason Dash doesn't want to come to the party is. When Dash hides in Applejack's barn, Pinkie full-on interrogates Applejack about why she's in there.
- Stealth Hi Bye: She's so skilled with this that she can keep pace with Rainbow Dash using this ability.
- Stepford Smiler: Type 3 in "Party of One", where she goes insane.
- In "Pinkie Pride" she tries to put on a fake smile when Cheese Sandwich comes for the party.
- Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish: At the beginning of "Feeling Pinkie Keen", she claims to understand a frog's ribbit as "'nice catch' in Frog."
- Super Speed: She can run on land faster than Rainbow Dash can fly! Whenever it serves a sight gag, that is.
- Supreme Chef: She works as a baker/candy maker at the Sugarcube Corner and is very much adept at it (unless assisted by an exhausted or overenthusiastic pony) even if Gummy taking a bath in the punch is her "special ingredient".
- Sweet Tooth:
(Pinkie is participating in the Equestrian equivalent of trick-or-treating with several foals much younger than her) |
- That Reminds Me of a Song: Lampshaded the first time she launches into one:
Twilight: Tell me she's not... |
- A running gag is that whenever Pinkie launches into a musical number, no one else joins her. They usually just stand aghast at the insanity. Pinkie of course couldn't care less.
- The one she sings in "Over a Barrel" is so awful that it drives the Buffalo and the Apple-loosians into an all-out showdown.
- Pinkie Pie's actually aware of it, too. In "A Friend in Deed" she includes "Sing a random song out of nowhere" as part of her checklist.
- Thinking Out Loud: Does this most of the time, lampshaded in "Too Many Pinkie Pies".
Pinkie Pie: Aw, Pinkie, you have got to stop talking to yourself. [beat] ...Starting now. |
- Theory of Narrative Causality: Pinkie Pie's super power. She can warp reality because it's funny.
- The Three Faces of Eve: Pinkie Pie is the Child.
- Toon Physics: Often uses this.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate Cake, as explained in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well".
- Chocolate in general is probably more accurate; in "Return of Harmony", she repeatedly interrupts whatever she's doing to get a drink from chocolate rainclouds.
- Twitchy Eye: During "Party of One" when she thinks she's throwing her party of crazy.
- Vocal Dissonance: Though still feminine, her voice gets a lot deeper when she starts crying.
- Voice of the Legion: Played for Laughs, she chews out Applejack in one after she breaks a Pinkie Promise in The Last Roundup.
- Weirdness Coupon: Perhaps best demonstrated in "Party of One", when Rainbow Dash's freakout at meeting her has absolutely nothing to do with the fact Pinkie Pie's dressed like a haystack in Groucho Marx glasses.
- Works against her in "Swarm of the Century", when her search for instruments is dismissed as her just being Pinkie.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer: Her solution to a large number of problems seems to be "throw a party."
- When She Smiles: This is actually a plot point considering the fact that when she was a filly, she was pretty dreary considering her upbringing. Once she saw the Sonic Rainboom and learned how to smile, she found her love of parties and earned her cutie mark.
- Wingding Eyes: In "Bridle Gossip" as part of her song, and in this piece of stock art.
- Wolverine Publicity: If Twilight is the main character, than Pinkie is the show's ambassador. She's in most of the promotional material, most likely because she's pink and was the main character for a while in G3. As of 2018, Rainbow Dash replaces her as this role.
- Womanchild:
- Vague Age aside, Pinkie Pie clearly has shades of this as demonstrated by her trick-or-treating in Luna Eclipsed and getting asked if she's too old for this.
Pinkie: Too old for free candy? Never! |
- The second season episodes Baby Cakes and A Friend In Deed serve to demonstrate the more problematic aspects of this trope. In the former, Pinkie lacks an understanding of the responsibilities attendant to childcare, initially seeing the newly born Cake Twins as little more than new playmates and taking a full episode learning about what it means to actually be responsible for them. In the latter, she shows a strong lack of understanding about the importance of privacy and property, rooting through Cranky's possessions and forcing her way into his home, frequently ignoring pleas to stop.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Her Imagine Spot in The Ticket Master makes it clear that she thinks she's in an earlier generation of the show.
- Your Answer to Everything: When there is a problem, Pinkie Pie will either throw a party or sing a song. In her defense, these things work most of the time.
- Except when a dragon attacks. Then she assaults it with cake.
Rainbow Dash[]
Voiced by Ashleigh Ball |
A speedy pegasus hailing from Cloudsdale who loves to race and compete whenever she can convince someone to go against her. Though a Prideful braggart, she's also loyal to her friends despite a somewhat self-centered attitude.
- The Ace: Can presumably be the best flyer in Ponyville.
- Ace Pilot: See The Ace above.
- Action Girl: Just like Applejack, she is a good fighter as well.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Once she's the town hero, her attitude goes from "I'm awesome" to "I'm awesome and everyone should admire me for it." She gets better, though.
- Adorkable: Especially around Daring Do or the Wonderbolts.
- All-Loving Hero: By season 4, she can be seen as this, just a more snarky example than most.
- Ambiguous Disorder: In "Testing, Testing 1 2 3", it is revealed that she is bad at studying. This along with other parts of her personality (i.e: being impulsive), it is implied that in certain levels that she has ADHD.
- Animals Hate Her: In "Magical Mystery Cure", Fluttershy's animals tried to cook and eat her.
- This is subverted with Tank, who actually loves her, and she loves him back.
- Always Someone Better: Her initial view on Mare-Do-Well.
- Anime Mane: She appears to have spiky hair.
- Anti-Heroine: Arrogant, brash, boisterous, aggressive, and lovable all around--type II behavior.
- Ascended Fangirl: She is a big fan of the Wonderbolts and as of "Newbie Dash", she is offically a Wonderbolt.
- She is appeared in a Daring Do novel at least once.
- Attention Whore: At times.
- Awesomeness By Analysis: This is how she studies for her test in "Testing Testing 1, 2, 3": while she flies, she takes in everything around her in every direction, and then figuring out what it is and where it's going and what the thing means; all without really thinking about it. Thus meaning she can memorize the Wonderbolt's history in minutes.
- Badass: Inarguably the biggest one of the six. She kicked a fully-grown dragon in the face and made it flinch and she's the only pony ever to break the sound barrier.
- Badass Bookworm: As of "Read It and Weep", she can be seen as this.
- Badbutt: Although she is a Badass, she still says stuff like "Hay yeah!", also in "Wonderbolts Academy", she is shown to say Never Say "Die" and Totally Radical phrases.
- Bad Liar: "Rainbow Falls" reveals that she is bad at lying/coming up with excuses. She attempted to fake an injury just so she wouldn't have to pick between the Ponyville and Cloudsdale teams; here is what she says while she tries to lie:
I, uh, tripped on a, uh, foam hoof and...landed on a, uh... |
- Batman Gambit: She conned Garble out of the Netitus shield in "Shadow Play - Part 1" after he went back on his word and tried to race with Spike.
- Beneath the Mask: In the earlier seasons, she is shown to have a tough, somewhat dumb, and emotionless personality. However, there have instances where she does not act always act like this. In "Tanks for the Memories", she is shown to be emotional and she is actually intelligent. In later episodes, she is more comfortable at showing her feelings to everypony.
- Berserk Button: Never threaten or hurt her friends if you know what's good for you.
- Beyond the Impossible:
- In "Rarity Investigates", it is implied that she broke a record of long-distance flying on
- Her ability to perform the Sonic Rainboom.
- In "Rarity Investigates", it is implied that she broke a record of long-distance flying on
Rainbow Dash: Most people thought the Sonic Rainboom was just an old mare's tale but on that day, the day I discovered racing, I proved that the legends were true; I made the impossible happen! |
- Big Eater: Downplayed, but in "Pinkie Pride", she somehow ate a path of a huge cupcake pizza.
- Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Most of her spotlight episodes look into her prideful nature, showing her insecurities and drives to be the best.
- Big Fancy House: Her house is very tall due to living in an "cloudodioum" (actually a file name for Rainbow Dash's house).
- Big Sister Instinct: To Fluttershy due to their past as childhood friends.
- Also to Scootaloo as of "Sleepless in Ponyville".
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Downplayed, but in "Parental Glideance", her favorite meal was pasta and potato sandwich with sourdough bread. According to her mom, she "liked to carboload".
- Blow You Away: Actually an ability shared by all Pegasi, going hand in hand with their cloud-controlling abilities.
- Blood Knight: Is typically to first one to get physical when against a threat.
- When Luna entered her dream, she was seen fighting a bunch of Changelings and Rainbow just laughed like she loved the dream..
- Boisterous Bruiser: She manages to pull this off while being an adorable pegasus. Loud, obnoxious, lazy and possessed of an enormous ego, give her a target or a threat to her friends and she will lay right into it with enthusiastic violence and undeniable courage. She tends to give everyone a hard time, especially if she perceives you as an "egghead" or wimp, but accepting her insults and hyper competitive behaviour with dignity and good humor will win you a friend who would protect you with her life.
- Bookworm: Becomes one during "Read It and Weep," having nothing else to do but read while recovering from a broken wing. She goes to great lengths to hide this from everypony else. In later episodes, she is perfectly fine with reading books openly.
- Book Dumb: "Testing Testing 1 2 3" reveals she is easily distracted and can't study really well. However, she is good at passive learning and isn't exactly dumb.
- Brilliant but Lazy: She's very competent but tends to slack off every so often. This is said to be the reason she was kicked out of flight school though she protests that assertion.
- Broken Ace: Rainbow Dash is apparently a renowned heroine in Ponyville and her skills are genuinely amazing. She has quite an ego because of it however, and often seems quite needy for attention. She is also shown to be very insecure about losing, and reached the brink of a nervous breakdown at the thought of publically making a fool of herself.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: For as tough and action-y as she is, she'll still shed a few tears at heartwarming moments. (Oh Rainbow Dash, you don't need to hide your feelings from us.)
- Her "soft center" part is more prominent later on, as she is emotional on the inside.
- Brutal Honesty: She can be very blunt at times.
Rarity: I'm nothing but a laughingstock! |
- Bully Hunter: She stood up for a young Fluttershy who was being bullied back in Cutie-Mark Chronicles.
- She also stood up for Spike when he was being hassled by the teenage dragons in "Dragon Quest".
- She also stood up for Pinkie in "Griffon the Brush Off", where her old friend, Gilda, was yelling at her.
- In "The Lost Griffon of Brushstone", in a flashback, she stood up for a young Gilda when she being mocked and bullied for being the only Griffon at the school.
- Buffy-Speak: Has a poor habit of doing this.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: She is seen taking naps and/or doing flying stunts but she is pretty good at her job and seems to control Ponyville's weather.
- Burning Rubber: When flying close to the ground, she can leave a trail of flames. Naturally the flames are rainbow-colored.
- Butt Monkey: Slowly becoming one in season two. Part of it also comes from the fact that she is the bold, straightforward, fight-picking character in a show about friendship and tolerance, so she frequently ends up failing, crashing into stuff or being held back by her friends in order not to create a contradictory message, even though her attitude would make her a fine protagonist in an action series, More like an Iron Butt Monkey.
- Captain Crash: Sort of. Dash is a superb flyer; her landings however are sometimes far from graceful as Twilight's library can attest. Taken Up to Eleven when she's afflicted by Poison Joke which inverts her wings, leaving her crashing into things every few seconds, thrust-vectoring into the floor and other such mishaps.
- A lot of crashing is indicated to come from constantly attempting impossibly difficult stunts in an effort to impress the Wonderbolts. She also has a tendency to lose concentration or get distracted at critical moments (if she starts talking to someone while flying, it's a safe bet she's going to hit something in the next few seconds).
- Catch Phrase: "Best __________ ever!"
- "OH COME ON!" when she is annoyed by something.
- Character Development:
- Regarding her friendship with Fluttershy. In early episodes, Rainbow Dash had little patience for Fluttershy's meekness. Starting with Season Two however, she is shown devoting more time to her and acting more gentle and encouraging, somewhat taking the role of an abrasive Cool Big Sis.
- Her interactions with Scootaloo as well. In the first 2 seasons, she saw Scootaloo as a fangirl, but in "Sleepless in Ponyville", she became a Cool Big Sis toward her and actually cheered her up in "Flight to the Finish" when Scootaloo was heartbroken.
- Her interactions with Tank. In "May the Best Pet Win!", she wanted a pet just so she wouldn't be left out of the pet sessions her friend partake in. Even so, she didn't like how Tank (a tortoise, which are slow) was participating in her competition. In "Tanks for the Memories", she suddenly became attached to him to the point of almost stopping winter from happening just she wouldn't separated from him.
- Her (friendly) rivalry with Applejack. In "Fall Weather Friends", it was somewhat hostile to the point where Rainbow can be seen as a bad sport. In "Castle Mane-ia" it was less hostile than before and actually for more good natured.
- In season 1, she was so obsessed with the Wonderbolts to the point of them speaking to her made her so excited. In seasons 3 and 4, she became more perspective on her dreams and goals to the point of telling Spitfire off for something Rainbow thinks it's wrong.
- Childhood Friends: With Fluttershy.
- Something of a variation. Most of their closeness as adults comes from being pegasi and Cloudsdale natives, but as children, it's unclear whether they even knew each other's names.
- With Gilda as well but their relationship got worse in "Griffon the Brush Off", in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" they reconcile.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Especially in the episode "The Mysterious Mare Do Well".
- Class Clown: In certain levels she can be seen as this as a fiily, as seen in "Sonic Rainboom" and especially "Testing Testing 1 2 3".
- Closet Geek: Of Daring Do briefly during "Read It and Weep." By the end of the episode, she comes out of the closet, and is seen reading it during "A Friend In Deed."
- Color-Coded Characters / Color Motif: She spends a lot of time flying in the sky so naturally she's blue.
- Combat Pragmatist: During the fight with the changelings, Rainbow Dash protects Fluttershy by pretending to be a changeling so she could blindside them before they could attack. She also shows hints of this in "Over a Barrel".
- Commander Contrarian: Due to aforementioned reasons, Rainbow sometimes ends up as this, prefering a "fight first, ask questions later" tactic in a team of peaceful and tactizing characters. She sometimes picks up the Smart Ball however.
- Competition Freak: Rainbow Dash hates losing. In "Wonderbolts Academy" however, she is shown to have some limits on doing so, as she doesn't like when ponies hurt others when trying to be too competitive.
- Cool Big Sis: Despite her arrogance, she is shown looking out for her team mates a lot of the time, most notably Fluttershy. She also stands up for Pinkie and Spike against bullies on separate occasions. Scootaloo pretty much sees her as this in full form. Rainbow becomes this to Scootaloo in "Sleepless in Ponyville", and becomes her teacher in "Flight to the Finish".
- Cool Helmet: Wears one while playing Commander Hurricane in "Hearth's Warming Eve".
- Also wore one in when jousting with Fluttershy in "The Crystal Empire - Part 2".
- Cool Shades: Wears a pair in "Lesson Zero", "May the Best Pet Win!" and "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", "Too Many Pinkie Pies", and "Testing Testing 1 2 3".
- She wears more in The Merch. The Fashion Style Rainbow Dash toy and the About To Get Magical, Rainbow Juice, Mane Six & Scootaloo and Dash shirts show her wearing different pairs while the Radicalness shirt & hoodie and EQD Pony Party shirt show her wearing the same pair from the show.
- Cool Teacher: In "Flight to the Finish", she can be seen as this, and in season 8, she becomes a gym teacher.
- Cry Cute: When a cocky pony like Rainbow cries, it can be seen as heartbreaking.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not as much so as Twilight Sparkle but still noticeable.
(When they were preparing to climb a tall mountain and Rarity took out her scarf...) |
- Determinator: She refuses to give up when her mind is on something.
- For example, in "Hurricane Fluttershy",where she didn't give up to get water to Cloudsdale.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In "Dragonshy", she attempted to kick a dragon in the face. It doesn't work.
- Does Not Like Spam: In "Secrets and Pies", it is revealed she hates pies. Even Pinkie's pies which are supposedly delicious in-universe, as Rainbow tried to get rid of them without Pinkie noticing throughout the episode.
- Drama Queen: She has a few lines of this, for example:
But the cider! Won't somepony PLEASE think of the CIDER! |
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: She can have a very dominating voice as seen in the beginning of "Sonic Rainboom" and "May the Best Pet Win!"
- Although in "Hurricane Fluttershy", she was encouraging in a gruff manner, but she was rather supportive of Fluttershy.
- Averted in "Flight to the Finish" where she is more supportive than normal.
- Embarrassing Nickname: In "Newbie Dash", she hated being called "Rainbow Crash" due to a mishap on her first day as a Wonderbolt. Despite trying to fix it, she learned that other Wonderbolts had embarrassing nicknames too, but she learned from them to move on.
- Era Specific Personality: Put her together with her previous incarnation and you get Tomboy and Girly Girl.
- Everything Makes a Mushroom: Apparently her Rainboom can make one if used to demolish something.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Thanks to her rainbow mane, she can even leave rainbow blurs in her wake while zipping around.
- Everything's Better with Spinning: A regular part of her repertoire, whether it's spinning clouds at top speed for a new stunt or generating an instant whirlwind by flying around at high speed.
- Expy: Word of God confirms Dash is meant to be the Firefly of the cast.
- She's also an expy of the G3 and G3.5 Rainbow Dash (who by the way was a plain and girly Earth Pony).
- Rainbow Dash is also the Mane Character with the most obvious parallel among the Powerpuff Girls (her fellow tomboy Buttercup).
- Facehoof: Has over time become a signature move of Rainbow Dash. Mostly directed at Fluttershy or Rarity.
- Fangirl: Of the Wonderbolts and Daring Do.
- Fantastic Nuke: Applejack asks her to destroy her old barn. Rainbow Dash happily obliges. HOLY SHIT ensues.
- The Fettered: She is set on proving herself to be the fastest flyer, but is trying to do so without harming other ponies as seen in "Wonderbolts Academy".
- The Friends Who Never Hang: She barely interacts with Rarity. In "Sonic Rainboom", Rarity supported Rainbow Dash, but they didn't have conversation at all. In "Rarity Investigates!", however, they interacted a lot, and since they had nothing similar, it nearly caused their friendship to disappear in "The End in Friend".
- Fiery Redhead: Played with; the way her mane colors are layered displays the red, orange and yellow most prominently for her bangs while the cooler colors are mostly hidden behind her neck.
- For Want of a Nail: Turns out her first Sonic Rainboom actually indirectly caused all the rest of the Mane Six to get their own cutie marks as well as helping Pinkie Pie "create Equestria".
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric: ambitious and prone to aggression.
- Friend to All Children: To the point where she has her own fan club run by Scootaloo.
- She tried to be a coach in "Flight to the Finish", and the foals seemed to enjoy it.
- Genki Girl: She can be this at times, but not to the same extent as Pinkie Pie.
- Genre Motif: Rock. Her appearance is often accompanied by an electric guitar in musical numbers that don't use the instrument anywhere else such as Rarity's second fashion show and "At the Gala".
- Genre Savvy: Despite not representing the Element of Honesty, Rainbow Dash seems to clue in the quickest when somepony is being deceitful.
- Possibly because she's got some experience in deceit/sneakiness from the other side of things.
- Glory Seeker: In "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", she wanted everypony to admire her for doing good deeds for them. Afterwards, she has humbled herself.
- Goal in Life: She wanted to be a Wonderbolt, and as of "Newbie Dash", she becomes one.
- Guilty Pleasure:
- Reading as of "Read It And Weep." Stops feeling guilty of it by the end of the episode.
- She doesn't want to show affection to her pet tortoise when anybody is looking.
- "Applejack's 'Day' Off" reveals she goes to the spa secretly and wanted the other ponies to think she's too "cool" to have one.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Due to being Hot-Blooded, it could be quite easy to anger her.
- Hates Being Touched: A mild example. In "Ponyville Confidential" she first refuses to have a hooficure because it's too girly for her, then she nearly agrees to have one only to admit she hates other ponies touching her hooves. In "Applejack's Day Off", she secretly liked going to spas and didb't want her friends to find out.
- Hates Being Alone: Admits to herself in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" and in "Tanks for the Memories", she didn't want Tank to be separated with her to the point of attempting to stop winter.
- Heavy Sleeper: She is pretty lazy and is often seen sleeping in a cloud.
- Hot-Blooded: She is quite prone to anger.
- Improbable Flying Skills: Despite her tendency to crash when attempting a fast landing or something especially difficult, Rainbow Dash can achieve phenomenal speed and agility in the air. She can literally break the sound barrier and has been able to perfectly dodge falling rocks and debris in two separate instances.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Underneath all her boasting, she's extremely insecure about losing as seen in "Fall Weather Friends" and "Sonic Rainboom" in which she is terrified into near catatonia at the thought of failing in front of the others (in particular, her idols, The Wonderbolts).
- Also crops up in "The Mysterious Mare Do-Well" where she has a breakdown once it becomes clear that the Mare Do-Well is better than her.
- In "Wonderbolts Academy", she is paired with Lightning Dust, and she becomes insecure to the point of letting her walk all over her.. up until Rainbow's friends are in danger.
- Inelegant Blubbering: In "Tanks for the Memories", she cried hardly when Fluttershy tells her that Tank needed to leave.
- Innocently Insensitive: Sometimes, she can be really insensitive and is not the best at reading other's feelings.
- Insane Troll Logic: She used 20% More Awesome for her dresses, for example.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rainbow Dash has a tendency towards being obnoxious and insensitive to others. However while she sometimes seems full of herself, she has no problems helping out other ponies in need as well as sticking by her friends no matter what.
- In later seasons, her "Heart of Gold" part is more prominent.
- Knight in Sour Armor: In season 2, she can come off as cynical and rude.
- She improves her attitude, that being said, it does not mean her snark dies.
- The Knights Who Say Squee: Any time she's near the Wonderbolts or Daring Do.
- The Lancer: To Twilight Sparkle.
- The Ladette: She's as close as you can get to this trope in a G-rated work.
- Large Ham: Due to her boisterious personality, she can come off as this.
- Laser-Guided Karma: she seems to experience this quite a bit.
- Lazy Bum: Oddly enough. She's insanely fast and athletic but also terribly lazy. It's implied that this is what got her kicked out of flight school.
- Also hinted at by Spike in one Cold Open.
Twilight Sparkle: Ahh; what a gorgeous day! |
- Leeroy Jenkins: Her first instinct is to fight whatever threat may happen to pop up, be it a manticore, a dragon or Nightmare Moon. She is stopped from doing so with Nightmare Moon and the dragon incident backfires on her.
- Lampshaded in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" when Twilight Sparkle is facing a giant Hydra to buy time for her friend's escape.
Twilight Sparkle: Oooh...what would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash do? (Beat) CHAAAARGE! |
- She began to subvert this due to being intelligent and levelheaded throughout the series. Rainbow Dash actually attempts to use stealth and caution to track down the buffalo and save Spike. Pinkie Pie showing up
- Let Me At Him: Applejack usually restrains her during her Leeroy moments.
- Lightning Bruiser: She is a boisterous tomboy and has been shown to not only fly fast enough to accomplish the legendary "Sonic Rainboom" - the only pegasus known to have ever done so, including the two god-princess alicorns - but has since also gained enough control over the ability to manipulate it into a thermonuclear explosion used to utterly demolish a huge old barn. And that's just the tip of the iceberg; on another occasion, she kicked a fully grown dragon in the face hard enough to not only provoke it into going on the offensive, when the entire problem the dragon posed was that it refused to get up from its nap, but actually whine near-tearfully about it afterwards in conjunction with Fluttershy's amazing verbal beatdown.
- Lovable Jock: Although she is arrogant, she is an altruistic and loyal flyer to Equestria.
- Made of Iron: There is barely an episode without her flying face-first into something. Still she never seems to suffer any lasting injury (except when it's a plot point).
- Making a Splash: She can do this when she makes clouds produce rain.
- Marely Tears: Sheds some over Fluttershy's 'hole in our hearts' statement from "The Last Roundup". She snaps out of it though in an effort to save face.
- Meaningful Name: She loves to dash and every time she does, she creates a rainbow. And then there's her Sonic Rainboom, the epitome of technicolored velocity.
- She even says it herself in Boast Busters.
Rainbow Dash: They don't call me "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothing! |
- Morality Pet: To Gilda.
- Ms. Vice Gal: She has a huge ego and can sometimes be a jerk, but her heart's in the right place and she can always be counted on to do the right thing in the end.
- Multicolored Hair: All the colors of the rainbow in fact.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A minor example but it is Rainbow Dash who tells Apple Bloom to keep trying various things in rapid succession in the hopes that she finds her cutie mark. This carries on into the Cutie Mark Crusaders' modus operandi.
- Nice Hat: She wears one in "May the Best Pet Win!", "Hurricane Fluttershy", "Flight to the Finish", and "Magical Mystery Cure".
- Noodle Incident: We know Rainbow Dash was kicked out of flight school but the reasons are unclear.
- Not So Different: She can be a drama queen just like Rarity when the time comes.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Somewhat. As Beneath the Mask shows above, she had a somewhat dumb personality. However, in later seasons, it is shown that she is intelligent in actuality.
- She also tricked a dragon at one point and challenged to race him, however she didn't care and just simply grabbed the shield, and left, making the dragon look stupid.
- Odd Friendship: How she sees her relationship with Pinkie Pie after warming up to her.
- To Fluttershy, despite their opposite personalities.
- One-Dimensional Thinking: Rainbow Dash often tries to escape from land-based threats by flying straight ahead rather than straight up.
- Only Child Syndrome: In "Parental Glidance", she didn't want to be near her parents due to them giving her too much attention as a child. They were simply proud of her achivements, but simply couldn't stop bragging and boasting about them.
- Opposites Attract: In a non-romantic way with her pet tortoise Tank, considering that she's one of the fastest ponies ever and he's a slow tortoise.
- Paralysis by Analysis: She has this issue, particularly when her idols, the Wonderbolts, are involved. For instance, in "Sonic Rainboom", she enters into a big stunt flying competition for which the Wonderbolts are judges. However, her inability to pull off the titular move a second time (after pulling it off once as a young filly) while practicing gives her pause for thought, which quickly snowballs into panic, and eventually leaves her practically catatonic with fear. Then she has to save Rarity and the 'Bolts from falling to their death, and Rainbooms without even thinking about it.
- Passionate Sports Girl: She succeeds at competitive flying.
- Personality Powers: Free-spirited and impulsive, the only kind of personality for the fastest pony alive.
- Plucky Girl: She's quite determined.
- The Prankster: Enabling her to bond with Pinkie Pie.
- And she really goes all-out in Nightmare Night, taking every chance to shock someone from behind with a lightning cloud.
- Gets paid out in her own coin at the end...
- In "28 Pranks Later", where she can be seen as the antagonist, she got carried away with her pranking, and it's not just her friends, it's everypony who tries to repay her.
- And she really goes all-out in Nightmare Night, taking every chance to shock someone from behind with a lightning cloud.
- Pride: She knows she's talented.
- However, in "Wonderbolts Academy", she apparently became more mature to swallow her pride to accept an inferior position by ponies who are superior than her.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: At times.
- For example in, "Flight to the Finish", she maanaged to stop the train to Crystal Empire, went to Scootaloo's house, and convinced her to Be Yourself, and went to Crystal Empire for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to win the honor of carrying the Ponyville flag.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the Red Oni to all of her friends, except Pinkie Pie.
- Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: Her Sonic Rainboom is one of the few if not only acomplishments that gets brought up more than once.
- The Rival: To Applejack in some early episodes. She's mostly a Friendly Rival...mostly. In "The Castle Mane-ia", it has gotten less hostile and more friendly.
- To Lightning Dust, starting from "Wondebolts Academy" and continues in "The Washouts".
- Screw Destiny: Unlike everypony else, she firmly believes it's possible to make your Cutie Mark appear. After all it seemed to have worked for her.
- Secret Test of Character: She had to choose between Cloudsdale and Ponyville teams for the Equestria Games in "Rainbow Falls". She chose the latter and due to her loyalty, Spitfire awards her with her Wonderbolt pin, and it became her key to the Chest of Harmony.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Really doesn't take losing very well.
- Shipper on Deck: She apparently shipped Daring Do and and Ahutzolti. When, the former mockingly flirted with the latter.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: She looks good when she wears a dress.
- Shock and Awe: She can induce clouds to release lightning. She mostly uses this to startle others.
- Signature Move: The Sonic Rainboom.
- Simpleminded Wisdom: She can be perceptive at times, despite her seemingly uneducated demeanor. Mostly happens when loyalty is involved.
- Smug Super: She seems to know about her abilities and takes pride in it.
- Squee:
- Upon winning the Best Young Flyers Competition and getting to meet the Wonderbolts.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" |
- Also when invited to "hang out" with the Wonderbolts in the final episode of Season 1.
"I'm hanging. With the. Wonderbolts!" *Squeee!* |
- The Squadette: Can be seen as this, seeing as she is most like the military (i.e: talking like a drill sergeant, practicing karate, etc.).
- Spirited Competitor: Really loves competing. In particular in "Wonderbolt Academy", and "Fall Weather Friends".
- Super Speed: In flight. Her sprinting speed is simply that of a well-trained pony. By season 6, she can break the sound barrier without the Sonic Rainboom.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: Rather abrasive and boastful, but she can be a loyal friend at her best.
- The Team Wannabe: Wants to join the Wonderbolts, and does so in "Newbie Dash".
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: How does she get rid of Applejack's decrepit old barn in "Lesson Zero"? She NUKES it!
- Tomboy: One of her most well-known traits.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Although she is a tomboy; "Applejack's "Day" Off" reveals she secretly goes to the spa.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: While considerably more tomboyish than Pinkie, she gets along with her fairly well.
- Also plays this role (perhaps even more so) in relation to Fluttershy.
- Too Fast to Stop: Quite often. Only Pinkie Pie's shown to catch up to her, much to Rainbow's confusion. Inverted by the Sonic Rainboom which seems to allow her to turn on a dime at over Mach 1.
- Mach 10, if Death Battle is to be believed.
- Took a Level In Kindness: In later seasons, while still being abrasive and an egotist, has significantly became nicer to others. Compare her from "Dragonshy" to "Campfire Tales", one can tell she has gotten nicer as the series goes on.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Cider. She goes nuts about it everytime it is mentioned.
- Tsundere: Type A towards ponies like Applejack and Fluttershy. She also said a tsundere line in "Just for Sidekicks". She insisted on not hiring Spike to watch Tank because she is worried about him slacking off.
- Tsurime Eyes: This is practically required due to her personality.
- 20% More Awesome: The (partial) Trope Namer! In regards to the dress Rarity makes for her, she simply says it needs to be "20% cooler".
- Undying Loyalty: Towards Celestia, her friends and her homes, Ponyville and Cloudsdale.
- Rather than inverting her emotions, Discord merely plays on this: he forces her to make a choice between saving Cloudsdale (when it wasn't even in danger in the first place) or sticking with her friends and "wandering this maze forever".
- In "The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2", in an alternate-timeline Equestria ruled by Nightmare Moon, Rainbow Dash is one of her loyal royal guards. She demands that Twilight give Nightmare Moon the information that she wants to know.
- Up, Up, and Away: Frequently flies like this.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 with Applejack.
- And again with Fluttershy. They are the definition of Red Oni, Blue Oni, but they are often very devoted to each other, with later episodes playing them as a team more and more.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the Brazilian dub, her voice sounds male (she's still referred to as female though). Mind you, she's still voiced by a woman in this version, albeit one with a rather low-pitched voice. Probably they cast this way to make Dash sound more tomboyish. Her original voice isn't the most recognisably female one around, either.
- Weather Control Pony: Her job is controlling Ponyville's weather
- We Used to Be Friends:
- To Gilda in "Griffon the Brush Off", they became enemies, after Gilda's outburst to Rainbow's newer friends (specifally Pinkie Pie). However the reconciled in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone".
- As of "Wonderbolts Academy", she and Lightning Dust became enemies after Rainbow realizes that Lightning Dust is pretty dangerous and self-centered. Unlike the last example, they don't reconcile as they remain enemies in "The Washouts".
- Womanchild: Not to the same extent as Pinkie Pie, but given she can be a Drama Queen, and does show shades of Genki Girl, she qualifies for this trope.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In "Tanks for the Memories", she is fine with halting winter, even if it meant that she spent more time with Tank. This is the same pony where she was annoyed with her tortoise's slowness and cried when winter still happened. She accepted the fact the Tank needed to hibernate anyway.
- Wolverine Publicity: Not only has she inherited Firefly's personality but she seems to have inherited this trope as well. She shows up on almost every single official t-shirt and was the focus of hyping up "Cutie Mark Chronicles", a popular episode expanding on the mane cast's backstory.
- The Wall Street Journal agrees.
- As of 2018, she replaces Pinkie as this role.
Rarity[]
"A unicorn needs to be more than just muscle. A unicorn needs to have style. A unicorn is not a unicorn without grace and beauty!" |
Voiced by Tabitha St Germain |
A unicorn with an eye for fashion and a generous spirit, Rarity is a beautiful clotheshorse. A huge fan of Fairy Tale-style romances and Happily Ever Afters. While there's nothing new about a girl's cartoon having a fashion-focused character, Rarity breaks from this stereotype in that instead of following trends, she creates them as the owner and lead designer of Ponyville's premier dress shop: the Carousel Boutique.
- Action Fashionista: For a prim & proper dress maker she sure isn't afraid to get in a fight.
- Affectionate Nickname: Spikey-wikey for Spike, after he gave Rarity his cherished fire ruby just to make her happy. The nickname stays for the rest of Season 2, and sometimes in season 3 and 4.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Rarity's parents are kind and carefree but they look and behave like a couple of middle-class hicks. Among other things, they dress in gaudy clothes, enjoy eating disgusting food and don't have even a sliver of Rarity's (or even Sweetie Belle's) class.
- Rarity's mom looks like Peg from Married... with Children and her father may or not may be a gritty Earth Pony since the place his horn would be is always hidden by a gaudy straw hat. That sums it all.
- Several fans have noticed a comparison between Rarity's dad and Tom Selleck's character of Thomas Magnum from Magnum, P.I..
- Rarity's lifestyle purposely appears to be completely counter to her parents' behavior.
- Rarity's mom looks like Peg from Married... with Children and her father may or not may be a gritty Earth Pony since the place his horn would be is always hidden by a gaudy straw hat. That sums it all.
- Anti-Heroine: Her vanity and occasional self-centered attitude indicate type II material.
- Attention Whore: One of her most prominent flaws as this is most prominent in "Sonic Rainboom".
- Badass Longcoat: Wore one in "Rarity Investigates!"
- Barrier Warrior: In "The Ending of the End", she summoned a gem-liked shield (just like in Equestria Girls) to protect Spike from Chrysalis. It appearently shattered against her power, but it shattered her magic blast quite effectively.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: She is pretty beautiful and generous.
- Berserk Button: After Rarity states that she's above challenging Trixie…
Trixie: Ooooo; what's the matter? Afraid you'll get a hair out of place in that rat's nest you call a mane? |
- Big Damn Heroes: Became this in the Grand Finale, when she threw a rock at a villainous trio to save Twilight.
- Big Sister Instinct: She threatens to rip the teenage dragons apart if they hurt Spike, who she cares for very much. She also goes out of her comfort zone to play with Sweetie Belle.
- Break the Cutie: On multiple occasions. Her first fashion show with Hoity Toity is a great example of this.
- Break the Haughty: Her encounter with Trixie leads to this. It isn't pretty, literally or figuratively.
- And her "fall from grace" when her temporary wings melt high in the sky right before Rainbow Dash saves her life.
- Rarity is the pony incarnate of this trope.
- Can't Take Criticism: Although she can be a huge drama queen at her worst, however Rarity is pretty generous and she can emphasize with others and is easily hurt when the right buttons are pressed. She does tend to take her work really seriously or implying she's selfish or uncaring.
- During "Fame and Misfortune", two snobbish ponies state that she is narcisstic and her role in her friends is unimportant, thus causing Rarity to suffer through Sanity Slippage.
- Catch Phrase: "It-Is-ON!"
- "I vant to be alone!"
- "Eye-dee-ah!"
- "Darling" when she talks to people she likes and "Ruffians!" when she talks to people she doesn't. Sometimes she mixes them for sarcastic purposes.
- She uses "Divine", when she is enthusiastic about something.
- Character Development: Although she doesn't really have a character arc per se, but she has grown since the pilot. As many of her lessons tend to stick with her.
- She got more patient with Sweetie Belle as the show goes on. Just compare her from "Sisterhooves Social" to "For Whom the Sweetie Toils".
- Her interactions with Applejack. In "Look Before You Sleep", it just seemed like she and Applejack are enemies. However, by episodes like "Trade Ya!" or "Simple Ways", they both have more strong feelings of esteem for each other and often seen in good terms, even if they sometimes argue.
- She is more supportive of her friends as the series goes on. For example, in "Bats!", she is the first to back up Applejack's side of the fruit bat argument.
- She seems to not care if she gets dirty, as shown in "Sisterhooves Social".
- She is closer to Spike, and treats him like a little brother.
- She is less forceful of Fluttershy as of "Filli Vannili", though she still encourages her to be more outgoing, compare that to "Green Isn't Your Color" where she was pretty forceful for Fluttershy to be outgoing.
- The only lesson she didn't learn from is that she lies to not hurt her friends' feelings. As of the end of season 4, the flaw has not been directly mentioned. In fact, no pony has demonstrated to learn that either. It can be assumed she learns her lessons faster, but it's still currently unknown.
- The Chick: One of two, in terms of generosity.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: In season 9's "Dragon Dropped", with Spike apparently.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: Objects affected by her magic have a pale blue glow.
- Cool Carriage: Her Gem-Encrusted Royal Gem Carriage from the toys.
- Cool Crown: Briefly wears one during "Sweet and Elite". She wears a different one while playing Princess Platinum in "Hearth's Warming Eve".
- Cute but Cacophonic: She's pretty and she's a talented designer but her voice when she's whining is the most grating thing you'll hear in all of Ponyville and she knows it. She uses it to invoke Pity The Kidnappers in "A Dog and Pony Show" after which her abductors let her go with crates full of jewels.
- Ironically her singing is often praised by fans.
- Cultured Badass: She has pretty some serious kung-fu skill.
- Crazy Cat Lady: This is discussed in "Suited for Success", while Rarity does in fact own one cat, she isn't this trope due to being sociable and levelheaded. In the episode, her trauma from her first fashion show being a failure shocked her so much to the point where she became a recluse, and this exchange:
Applejack: Well, we can't just leave Rarity like this! |
- Crippling Overspecialization: Just like most unicorns, she uses magic only primarily her special purpose - which is beauty and artistry. In later episodes, she does exhibit more spells.
- Distressed Damsel: Subverted. While she did seem like the trope in "A Dog and a Pony Show"; she somehow made the Diamond Dogs work for her by the time her friends save her.
- She is general subverts the trope, as she uses her intelligence to get out of these situations. In "Spike and Your Service", she and Applejack discuss this on how to act like one.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not to the same extent as Twilight nor Rainbow, but she can get snarky sometimes.
- Determinator: When she wants to finish a dress, nothing's going to stop her.
- Dowsing Device: Her horn is used this way in order to locate gems.
- Doing It for the Art: This is implied in-universe by her career as a fashioner designer. It may be hard to trying to sell clothing to a species who doesn't wear clothes at all, and wears it on special occasions.
- Drama Queen: Although self-aware about it. Still, the girl brings a portable fainting couch on picnics.
- The Empath: She is the holder of the Element of Generosity for a reason. Not only can she perfectly read the rest of the cast most of the time but she is ready to throw everything away to help them or a stranger in an instant.
- In particular, she was the only pony to notice Rainbow Dash's stage fright in "Sonic Rainboom" and seemed concerned about Twilight early on in "Lesson Zero."
- She even was perfectly happy to help find gems for the Diamond Dogs (despite the fact that they kidnapped her and dragged her underground) but started getting extremely irritated very fast when they wanted her to dig them up, lug them around in an extremely heavy cart with a rusty and tight harness and generally were abusive slavedrivers towards her.
- Almost immediately, she recognized Fluttershy's actual motivation in "Filli Vanilli".
- She immediately saw through a pony's facade in "Rarity Investigates".
Rarity: That's the polite, but disingenuous laugh you make when you want to seem happy, but really, you're not. |
- Era Specific Personality: FiM Rarity is a young adult with refined tastes, great talent, a generous heart, a strong sense of responsibility and the maturity and sensibility to run a successful business. Her G3 counterpart is a filly who only wants to have fun, needs constant adult supervision and whose irresponsibility causes a nationwide disaster. Curiously enough in both incarnations, Rarity befriends a baby dragon named Spike.
- If you put her together with her previous incarnation, you also get Tomboy and Girly Girl.
- Etiquette Nazi: A more benign one; while she can get exasperated by ponies being "rude", she can move from this and maintain civility and friendship with relative ease and she honestly believes it is for their own good.
- Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Her usage of gems is a special talent.
- Expy: Strongly resembles Glory, sharing many of the same physical characteristics (white unicorn with dark purple hair and blue eyes).
- Despite resembling Glory, she's based off Sparkler. Rarity also resembles G3's Rainbow Dash in personality and they both have an accent (though Rainbow's is a British Accent) and say "darling" quite a bit.
- Similarities in appearance to an Italian variation of Sparkler have also been noted.
- Also G3 and G3.5 Rarity who is a multicolored filly unicorn. (To be exact, she is the young Princess heir of Unicornia.)
- Despite resembling Glory, she's based off Sparkler. Rarity also resembles G3's Rainbow Dash in personality and they both have an accent (though Rainbow's is a British Accent) and say "darling" quite a bit.
- The Fashionista: Played with in that Rarity is never seen gushing about shopping or poring over fashion magazines. Instead she's written as a (somewhat haughty) artist whose medium happens to be clothes. And when she's making clothing, her demeanor changes entirely: She's overjoyed to be in her element and won't stop or cut corners until the customer has exactly what they want no matter how hard she has to work.
- This was a specific intention by Word of God to satisfy Hasbro's desire to have clothes to accessorize the toys while still providing a completely counter character to the stereotype: "We portray her not as a shopaholic but as an artist."
- The Expanded Universe, having different writers, does occasionally give her an interest in shopping. In The Hub's game Adventures in Ponyville, one of the problems she needs help with is that she was overloaded with sweets while shopping at Sugarcube Corner and forgot to pay for some that she had already eaten. And in the Sparkle World story Rain, Rain Go Away!, she goes shopping with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie and even says "I love shopping!"
- Femme Fatale: Downplayed, but she can come off as this at times, especially in "Rarity Investigates!"
- She in general is not hesitant to seduce other ponies to get what she wants.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic: work-focused and obsessed with detail.
- A Friend in Need: While she might stray every now and then ("Sonic Rainboom"), nothing will stop her from helping her friends when they are in need.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: She rarely interacts with two characters:
- She barely interacts with Rainbow, even "Sonic Rainboom", an episode where she supported Rainbow Dash, barely had any conversation. In less spotlighted ways however, in "Dragon Quest", where both ask Twilight if she can accompany them for breakfast, and "Just for Sidekicks", when they are hanging out with their pets. They got a spotlight episode together in "Rarity Investigates!". However, she does not have any similarities to Rainbow Dash, it almost caused their friendship to break apart in "The Friend in End".
- Also with Pinkie Pie as well, in "The Last Roundup", since they were forced together by circumstance, Rarity restrained herself from getting physical with Pinkie, implying she finds Pinkie really annoying. In "Putting Your Hoof Down", however, she and Pinkie were together, but they seem to not have a conversation without Fluttershy being involved. They get episodes together in "The Gift of the Maud Pie" and "Spice Up Your Pie".
- "Friend or Idol?" Decision: Nine times out of ten, she will choose friends. She's not perfect after all.
- Friendship Moment: She is made out of this.
- Gem-Encrusted: Loves jewels and gems and can use her horn to detect them. "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" shows that her penchant for covering her designs with jewels started when she was quite young though it's suggested that most jewels are so common in Equestria they're considered nothing more than pretty rocks. Spike eats them by the bowlful.
- Girly Bruiser: Was the first to attack the manticore, and was more than prepared to lay down a whooping to protect Spike in Dragon Quest. She also does pretty well in physical activities, when she gets over her distaste with dirt.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak:
- She is normally girly, but she is also a great fighter and has no hesitation to show this side.
- When her mane got messed up, she got a punk outfit and hairstyle instead, not caring if she was feminine or not.
- Good Feels Good: Even though she's a Fashionista who can be stuck-up sometimes, she is really, truly happy when she helps other people. This is exemplified when she goes to extreme lengths to design dresses for her friends to their exact specifications even though they are incredibly tacky by the final revision.
- . Her "I Am" Song named "Generosity" confirms she truly like helping others, and believes if you help them, they'll repay the favor in a way.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Her mane and tail and several of her outfits. Her white body color even has a slight lavender tint to it. In "Griffon the Brush Off", when it's time to play Pin the Tail on the Pony (which she states is her favorite game), she asks for the purple tail.
- Greater Need Than Mine: It's the element she bears.
- Gratuitous French: Due to many fashion terms being in French, this is justified.
- Greater Need Than Mine: She makes big sacrifices just to help someone else.
- Greed: Her love of gems and accessories is turned against her by Discord.
- It also derails her efforts to charm away the dragon in "Dragonshy".
- In contrast however, her kindness ends up subduing Spike's own Greed in "Secret Of My Excess" (if somewhat obliviously).
- In "Just for Sidekicks", this is zigzagged a little. She gave Spike a small ruby for taking care of Opal (in which he still enjoys). However the other gems from the other ponies are for minor things like donuts for example, Rarity's gem was for a powerful hairdryer.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In "A Dog and Pony Show", she states that a lady is never jealous. However she spends most of "Green Isn't Your Color" being jealous of Fluttershy's new-found popularity. Subverted in that she notices this rather quickly and is disappointed in herself for it.
- Guile Heroine: Rarity can be pretty crafty when she wants to be. This is most prominent in "Rarity Investigates!".
- Happily Ever After: As her fantasy during "The Ticket Master" shows, she dreams of meeting her Prince Charming and experiencing her very own. Subverted HARD after learning the Prince Charming is anything but due to his personality.
- Heroic BSOD: She suffers a breakdown of epic proportions after being chewed out by Hoity Toity.
- Hidden Depths: Her Establishing Character Moment sets her up as very concerned about fashion and personal appearance; then in Everfree Forest, she knowingly subverts Beauty Is Never Tarnished by lopping off her own tail and giving it to a very depressed sea serpent to cheer him up. Promptly Lampshaded by Twilight's stunned reaction at having her first impression shaken so suddenly.
- She's also quite capable of bucking a manticore in the face during the second episode, shows off the pony equivalent of Martial Arts in Return of Harmony II and displays amazing athletic aptitude in the Sisterhooves Social. Basically she's a lot stronger than she looks.
- Fridge Brilliance: She has to mine her own gems most of the time. While they aren't too rare in Equestria, she still has to dig them up and she needs lots of them.
- She also values generosity to a high degree, both when giving and receiving. She is shown drooling over the ruby Spike gives her; however, as much as she loves its beauty, it has sentimental value to her as well since it was a gift from her "widdle Spikey-Wikey".
- Her songs show some traits as well. "Becoming Popular" showed her to love attention and congratulates herself for being in the High Society. Also "Generosity" shows she loves helping people.
- In "Honest Apple", she managed to do an intense guitar solo on an acoustic guitar.
- "Filli Vanilli" shows while she has a fashion business, she is also a leader of a cappella quartet called the Ponytones, and Big McIntosh as one of the members.
- She's also quite capable of bucking a manticore in the face during the second episode, shows off the pony equivalent of Martial Arts in Return of Harmony II and displays amazing athletic aptitude in the Sisterhooves Social. Basically she's a lot stronger than she looks.
- Hoist By Her Own Petard: Played with. Three times she's gotten herself into severe trouble but it's never done by ego or pride; instead it's either her generosity getting the best of her or her work being so good that it has unforeseen consequences.
- Hypocritical Humor: Rarity is a common source of this: she'll promote a reasonable response to a situation only to explode once something offends her personally, or call someone a "drama queen" from atop her fainting couch. She is, however, self-aware enough to acknowledge the fact most of the time.
- I Am Very British: She speaks in a British accent.
- Her accent is a blend of both called a "Mid-Atlantic Accent" (which is a blend of American and English accents, due to the name) (which by the way doesn't occur naturally; she had to purposefully cultivate it).
- "I Am" Song/"I Want" Song: "Becoming Popular (The Pony Everypony Should Know)" from "Sweet and Elite", also "Generosity" from "Rarity Takes Manehatten".
- I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: Downplayed, as she doesn't have breasts, but she is good at sweet-talking male ponies into doing what she wants to do.
- Irony: She is concerned about her outward appearance, yet when she got old in "The Last Problem", she is the first one to get gray hair, suggesting she is (possibly) old.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Not to the same extent as Pinkie or Fluttershy, but she has these, albeit some jerk traits.
- Jack of All Trades: In combat situations, while her magic isn't as strong as Twilight's and while she is strong, not to the point on being in the same level as Applejack or Rainbow Dash. In season 9 however, she gotten more skills for more power for magical and physical means, thus giving her more options to fight, and those are for occassions where she does truly fight.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: More like "Heart of Gold with occasional Jerk tendencies." She's primarily nice...but she let her greed derail an attempt to speak with a dragon, nearly ruined Twilight's slumber party (although Applejack didn't help the situation at all) and stole the spotlight from Rainbow Dash during the Best Young Flyers competition. She also took advantage of her friends to help her replace the first line of dresses for Manehatten's fashion week (in which she regretted afterwards.
- Jerkass Realization: She seems to know her faults at an early stage rather than the other ponies who stubbornly refuse their faults until it is too late. This is due to the fact the she wants to improve herself for the main source of conflict. She also realizes it without being told, whereas the other ponies usually point the other's behavior.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Her cat's name is Opalescence or Opal for short. She loves her dearly even if the feeling is not exactly reciprocated.
- Lady of War: Shows this in the second episode, where she kicks a manticore in the face!
- Also in her fight with Changelings, kicking one out with a hook.
- Large Ham: She tends to get pretty hammy when she goes into histrionics. Which is pretty often.
- Laser-Guided Karma: When she thinks of Greed or fashion.
- For example, in "Castle Mane-ia", when she wanted to improve the tapstrides of the Castle of the Two Sisters. This led to her badmouthing and insulting the buliding when it didn't let her do it. The castle did not take kindly to that at all.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Being vain (though not quite as much so as she seems), Rarity represents the "dark" half in comparison to Fluttershy.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: She may be vain, but she can still be helpful and embodies The Element of Generosity well.
- Master of Illusion: Of a mundane sort. She creates some fairly impressive special effects for her second fashion show in "Suited for Success".
- Manipulative Bastard: A rare heroic version, but she shows her skill at manipulation.
- After being kidnapped by the Diamond Dogs, she went from being their slave into being basically a pampered queen in the manner of minutes.
- She flirted with two stallions, just to pull her carriage in "The Best Night Ever".
- In "Sweet and Elite", she tried make a plan on convincing two groups of ponies, that she is only going to their party, but in fact she is going to both at once, she almost got away with it, but failed.
- In "The Secret of My Success", she convinced Spike into giving her, his own present on his birthday.
- Her sister learned it from her too, as she has done some of the same things in the later seasons.
- Married to the Job: Not to the same extent as Applejack, but she can be still obsessed with her job with fashion designing.
- Meganekko: She wears glasses while she's designing clothes.
- Milking the Giant Cow: When she becomes more hammier she gets into this at times.
- Morality Pet: For Spike, when he rampages through Ponyville in the episode "Secret Of My Excess".
- Ms. Vice Gal: Her vice is vanity. She often displays humorous superficiality and fusses over neatness and can sometimes get carried away by her love of attention. Still, far from being perpetually self-centered, she can be very considerate towards others and her caring for her friends is perhaps the strongest motivation she displays.
- Motor Mouth: This is how she escapes the Diamond Dogs.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Gets this twice: the first time was in "Sisterhooves Social" and the second was "Rarity Takes Manehattan".
- Neat Freak: She is obsessed with keeping things in order.
- Nerves of Steel: Played with. Rarity goes into amusingly over-the-top histrionics over the most minor of things, and she's as vulnerable to Heroic BSOD as any other mane cast member. However in the face of actual danger, she's often completely unflappable.
- Also shows up in her interactions with Prince Blueblood and Sweetie Belle. Despite the abuse both have put her through (though Sweetie Belle is well meaning), she manages to put up with most of it. It's only after a near constant onslaught of it that she snaps and even then she just gets mad instead of suffering Sanity Slippage like some of the others have.
- The best illustration of this is when she gets captured by a rampaging dragon. While she's concerned about the safety of her friends, and her cape, she starts chewing it out while being held in its tail.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Most of the time she has a pretty good grasp on this but when she's excited or agitated, she can get rather close to the person she's talking to. This is seen best with her behavior around Twilight in very early episodes but it crops up again when she's grilling Fluttershy about how to improve her dress.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Does this in "Suited For Success" when Applejack shows surprise that Rarity can make dresses for the six of them "lickety split". She also does something like this in "Sonic Rainboom"; while not the usual "Oh ho ho ho" stereotype, it's...interesting.
- It's more of a giddy sort of "Wha ha haaa!" She just was so impressed by how pretty her wings looked. It's only a little off from an Evil Laugh which just shows how much she's lost it.
- Non Standard Character Design:
- She is the only pony so far with a shaded mane. This is likely because her mane is so intricately coiffed that without the shading, it would look like a mess. The fashionista would be appalled.
- Rarity is also one of the few ponies to have eyelashes in groups of four (though they aren't real). Nearly all the other ponies have eyelashes in groups of three if they have them at all.
- Not So Above It All: She thinks of herself as ladylike, but she has her moments of physical and situational comedy like the rest.
- Odd Friendship: Between her and Applejack. She has also been seen with Rainbow Dash on occasion.
- Oh Crap: She gets one at the end of "Suited For Success" after Hoity Toity asks her to make a dozen of each dress she just showed to him before next Tuesday. That makes 72 hand-made dresses right after she was pushed beyond her limits to make "only" 11.
- Again at the start of "Dog and Pony Show": after Rarity spends all her gem supplies on one dress, Sapphire Shores orders 5 more dresses of the same type.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: When providing Rarity's singing voice, Kazumi Evans doesn't affect the mid-Atlantic accent that Tabitha St. Germain normally gives Rarity. This is most notable during "Winter Wrap Up" though Kazumi seems to be making a much more concerted effort to sing with the accent in later songs.
- It's becoming a running joke that she starts sounding oddly Swedish whenever she's in the middle of a bout of self-pity, riffing off Greta Garbo's "I vant to be alone!" line.
- She also lacks a majority of her accent as a filly though it has been said you don't have a set accent until puberty.
- Probably justified; her parents as seen in "Sisterhooves Social" don't have an accent anywhere close to hers so she probably cultivated it in an attempt to seem classier.
- Out of Focus: In the third season, she had very minor roles, and didn't get an episode focused on her. "Spike at Your Service" was supposed to a Rarity-focused episode but she felt like a jerk, so it featured Applejack instead, according to Meghan McCarthy.
- It also happened in season 8 up until "Friendship University".
- The Perfectionist: She tries to make her dresses perfect, but it's not for ego, but her generosity. She does try to please her clients like her friends and Sapphire Shoes for example, and tries to be at their level of perfection.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Doesn't wear one around town but her fashion choices amount to this as we see when she forces them upon Twilight. Rarity's particularly fond of Gem-Encrusted things.
- Designs a whole horde in "Suited for Success" with some turning out better than others....Mind you; that's what her friends have demanded of her and she's too nice to point out the flaws while making them.
- She also wears one in the episode "Sonic Rainboom" when she enters the Young Fliers competition.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Unicorns are not known for their physical strength but Rarity is capable of dragging large carts of gems with ease. She can also carry a rock TWICE HER SIZE on her back.
- Pride: In her appearance, making it an easy target for anyone looking to bring her down a peg.
- Taken Up to Eleven in "Sonic Rainboom" after receiving a temporary enchantment of gossamer wings. Of course, Pride goeth before a (literal) fall...
- Princess Curls: Rarity is confident enough to make stallions to help and do as they say by using her beauty and charm.
- Proper Lady: Elegant, poised, able to conduct herself in society and she never gets her hooves dirty. However she is Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak meaning that she does inelegant things sometimes.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "It is ON!"
- "Look upon me, Equestria for I! AM! RARITY!"
- Of all the worst things that could happen, this is THE WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When she confronts Sweetie Belle about being Gabby Gums in "Ponyville Confidential," despite her earlier initial fury about the article about herself, she gives Sweetie Belle a deserved scolding, uses her own rifling through Sweetie Belle's stuff to make a point, and wraps it up by asking if she really wants writing hurtful gossip stories to be her destiny, which prompts the Cutie Mark Crusaders to try and stop being Gabby Gums and write their letter of apology at the end. Everypony else either shunned them outright or was so angry that they sent the CMC away to avoid saying something they'd regret.
- She tried to fight back her temper in "Sisterhooves Social", but Sweetie Belle snapped before Rarity does.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Like Applejack, she fulfills both roles, acting as a Blue Oni to Applejack and a Red Oni to Fluttershy.
- Sanity Slippage: In "Inspiration Manifestation", she became insane and tried to make the whole town fabulous, and then the world.
- Secret Test of Character: She had to choose between winning Fashion Week or apologizing to her friends for mistreating them in "Rarity Takes Manehatten". She choose the latter making Coco Pommel do the same thing and gains a key to the Tree of Harmony chest while appearing to be a rainbow thread.
- Self-Made Woman: Her parents were middle-classed at her childhood, but around the age of 11 or 12, she made 5 costumes with a sewing machine, thus getting her own shop at Ponyville. Nowadays, she sells clothes in not just Ponyville, but all of Equestria. Although handful of ponies help her manage her Canterlot and Manehatten boutiques when she is absent, she usually does it all by herself.
- Skewed Priorities: She does this sometimes, making more problems than anything else.
- She was pretty interested in a dragon's treasure than trying to stop him in "Dragonshy".
- In "Secret of My Success", she talks to a giant rampaging Spike, when he kidnapped her for tearing her new robe, calls this a "crime against fashion". She couldn't care if she was eaten as long as she got her treasure back.
- In "A Canterlot Wedding", Rarity made sure to collect the gowns before the hit the ground. While the other strip out their gowns and try to race for the Elements.
- "Simple Ways" reveals this isn't for fashion/gems. As she tries to re-invent her original vision for a festival and tried to be "country-pony" to impress her crush.
- In "Make New Friends But Keep Discord", this is lampshaded by Applejack.
Rarity: Oh! My shoes will be ruined forever! |
- Skunk Stripe: She got a silver streak on her mane when she was older in "The Last Problem".
- Silk Hiding Steel: The most promnient example of the series. Underneath her lady-like appearance, she has a formidable mind and a strong will. For example, she has engaged with hoof-to-hoof combat at times.
- Smooch of Victory: She gives Spike one after she succeeds in receiving his Fire Ruby, and also when he comes to his senses after he nearly destroys Ponyville in his adult form.
- Socialite: One of her goals is becoming one of these.
- Spoiled Sweet: She comes off as a bit of a prissy snob most of the time but she represents the element of generosity for a reason.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
- She had three episodes focused on in consecutive order in a row in the fifth season. However she shared the other two with another pony, but still.
- In the first half of the sixth season, she had the most appearances, aside for Twilight.
- Stepford Smiler: Not usually but in "Suited For Success" when her friends don't like the first dresses, she hides how crushed she is and tries her very best for them.
- This is also how she repeatedly stops herself from losing her temper at Sweetie Belle in "Sisterhooves Social".
- Super OCD: Oh so much.
- Demonstrated in "Look Before You Sleep" where she shows an almost obsessive attention to detail, bordering on the compulsive. However by the end of the episode, it's explained as her being attentive to small details in contrast with Applejack's attention to big details with both being necessary and neither alone sufficient for all-around sensible action.
- She also spends half a day trying to fix Twilight's bird nest in "Winter Wrap Up" and eventually breaking down in tears because it's so appalling.
- And again in "Green Isn't Your Color" with the outfit Fluttershy is going to model.
- If you look closely during her first freak out in "Lesson Zero" she straightens out a rug.
- Proved beyond a shadow of a doubt in Sisterhooves Social where she goes ballistic any time Sweetie Belle messes with anything of hers.
- Including, ironically, when her little sister "helpfully" tidies up the carefully-cultivated disorder of her "inspiration room."
- In a Bad Future in "For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils", this is taken to a crippling degree as she becomes a mad incluse and constantly checks her work for mistakes.
- Talking The Monster Into Submission: This is how she escapes the Diamond Dogs.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: More like "Thinks Like a Fairy Tale". She imagines meeting Celestia's nephew to play out like a fairy tale. It doesn't of course.
- Third Person Person: Slips into this when she's in the zone.
- Three Faces of Eve: Rarity is the Seductress.
- Took a Level In Badass: In the ninth season, she became much more better at magic than before, using the ability to shoot laser and sheild spells and due to her spells, she managed to throw a large boulder at Tirek. While she still works together with Spike, she gained the upper hand at Beam-O-War against Chrysalis (who was really powered).
- Token Minority: Since Twilight's transformation into an alicorn in the season 3 finale, she has been the only unicorn in the main cast. However, Starlight Gilmmer joined the cast at the end of season 5 and the beginning of season 6, thus leaving Twilight as the odd one out.
- Tsurime Eyes: Highlighted by her blue eyeshadow.
- Twitchy Eye: Whenever she gets stressed as seen in "Inspiration Manifestation", "Fame and Misfortune", and in the Bad Future in "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils".
- Unkempt Beauty: Rarity is one of the cleanest and prettiest ponies around but she also manages to look great while dripping wet.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Has a wide assortment of pretty dresses, hats and accessories, all self-designed. "Rarity Investigates!" reveals she does this 7 times (which is lampshaded).
- Vain Sorceress: Rarity's pride and obsession with her appearance combined with her magical abilities sometimes borders on this description.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 with Applejack but they grow out of it (mostly), but by the time of "Trade Ya!", they were ribbing on each other, but it's was pretty much amusing to them.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: The serious child to her parents' wackiness.
- With Great Power Comes Great Perks: She mostly uses her magical abilities for fashion.
- Woman in White: Her white coat color, emphasizing her refined nature as well as her cleanliness.
- The Workaholic: While not as bad ad Applejack, she can overwotk sometimes.
- Your Makeup Is Running: Multiple amounts of mascara wash down her face when she cries.
Fluttershy[]
"Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness." |
Voiced by Andrea Libman |
A Pegasus also from Cloudsdale who is just as shy as her name suggests. Gentle and kind, she has a natural way with animals but has trouble dealing with other ponies due to her Shrinking Violet nature. Still, don't even think about hurting her friends.
- Acrophobic Pegasus: Fluttershy is afraid of almost everything including heights.
- Spike lampshades this in "Party of One".
- In-universe this is somewhat justified as she is mentioned to be a weak flier normally. However, she is better at flying when she is pushed.
- Adorkable: All you have to do is merely express interest in wanting a pet and she's all over you with a menagerie of animals to offer up as potentials.
- All-Loving Hero: Due to being The Element of Kindness, this is normal for someone like her. She is willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and befriend Discord, of all beings, in "Keep Calm and Flutter On".
- All of the Other Reindeer: She was bullied when she was a filly growing up in Cloudsdale. The only pony who actually stood up for her was Rainbow Dash. This led to her Performance Anxiety, as she is more comfortable with animal friends than other ponies, and shows off her true colors when danger is near.
- Animal Motifs: Even though her cutie mark is butterflies, she is capable of flight (due to being a Pegasus) and is docile, also her name rhymes with "butterfly".
- Apologises a Lot: Almost like she was brought up in a culture where apologizing is the social grease for everything you ever do.
Rarity: [exasperated] Oh, what now?! |
- Badass: The thing involving a dragon that Rainbow Dash did to earn her Badass cred?, Fluttershy topped that in the same episode.
- Badass Pacifist: Don't let her timid demeanor fool you: If you upset her enough to spur her into action, she will kick your ass and she won't even have to resort to violence to do it.
- She stares and talks down a dragon and a cockatrice (which was in the process of petrifying her no less) to protect her friends from harm.
- She also manages to calm down Cerberus when it invades Ponyville by giving it a belly rub. That's right, the guardian of the underworld is still no match for Fluttershy.
- In the second part of "A Canterlot Wedding", she joins the other Mane Cast in fighting off an army of foes, despite her visible trepidation in doing so. Yet she manages to hold her own, faking out the enemy and using her shyness to cause one to trip up.
- She somehow managed to reform Discord by being nice to him, and threatened to end their friendship when Discord tried to freeze Sweet Apple Acres with ice and snow.
- She also managed to expose Starlight Glimmer's lies, and orchastred her defeat without attacking her. The worst she did was simply threw a bucket of water on her, which it did not her Starlight in the process.
- In the movie, she helped one of the Storm King's guards talk about its feelings and befriended it afterwards.
- Badass Pacifist: Don't let her timid demeanor fool you: If you upset her enough to spur her into action, she will kick your ass and she won't even have to resort to violence to do it.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: She is really kind, and her design is beautiful.
- The Beastmistress: No, she doesn't use it for combat; mostly organization. She has however commanded a dragon and a cockatrice to concede when her friends are in danger, and pacified Cerberus by giving him a belly rub.
- Beast and Beauty: After "Keep and Flutter On", she is the Beauty to Discord's Beast, as she is a mild, retiring, and a soft-spoken pony.
- Berserk Button: Animals running from her and not wanting to be her friend will send her off the deep end.
- Threatening her friends isn't a good idea. You. Do. Not. Hurt. Her. Friends.
- Threatening children in front of her is an even worse idea.
- In "The Return of Harmony Part 2", the idea of Discord emerging triumphant is enough incentive for Fluttershy to stop crying and push herself to her physical limits while the ponies are chasing Rainbow Dash.
Twilight Sparkle: If you can't catch her, Discord wins! |
- She also tends to hate bullies, as she was bullied when she was little. In "Power Ponies", the Mane-iac found that out the hard way when she killed a firefly.
Fluttershy: Are you kidding me!? I mean, I know you're evil and everything but you'd hurt a teensy, little, harmless firefly!? REALLY!? Well you're just a great... big... MEANIE! THERE! I SAID IT! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'RE SO SPECIAL!? LIKE THE RULES OF COMMON COURTESY DON'T APPLY TO YOU!? WHY DON'T YOU TRY PICKING ON SOMEPONY YOUR OWN SIZE!? [unleashes an angry *ROAR* before pummeling the Mane-iac's Doomsday Device to scrap] |
- Beware the Nice Ones: She hardly ever gets angry but when she does...
- In "Dragonshy", despite being terrified of a facing a full-grown dragon, she suddenly develops the wherewithal to make said dragon back down completely (and even whimper) after seeing what it's done to her friends.
- From Fluttershy's character video: "But don't be fooled. Although she is timid, she is a determined pony with admirable strength. She always defends those who are treated unfairly."
- The "admirable strength" part of that description was played with hilariously in "Lesson Zero". Twilight tries to see if Fluttershy is having one of her Cowardly Lion moments only to find her beating the living crap out of a bear three times her size, then killing it by snapping its neck. She was really giving the bear a chiiropathic lesson, but Twilight and the audience no doubt shared a moment of shock.
- Completely pushed to its logical extreme at the Grand Galloping Gala. Like Pinkie she doesn't take rejection well.
- Brought up once again in Putting Your Hoof Down, where it becomes downright terrifying.
- "Magic Duel" is another example, as she threatens Twilight if Twilight's spells screw up on Fluttershy's animal friends.
- In "Power Ponies", she basically gets the same power as Incredible Hulk. Don't make her angry, you wouldn't like it when she is angry.
- She exposed Starlight Glimmer out on her lies, all by herself with very few help with Twilight and her friends.
- Beyond the Impossible: She manages to outstare a cockatrice, i.e. a creature that turns others to stone by staring at them. All while protecting three young fillies.
- Break Them by Talking: She is really skilled at getting other creatures to back down, whether it was to talk to or talking down to them. The efffect can sometimes vary, but not out of spite or anything.
- Brutal Honesty: In "The Ticket Master" and "Suited for Success".
- She gives an incredibly scathing speech to Pinkie Pie and Rarity in Putting Your Hoof Down in regards to their chosen careers.
- A positive example, but in "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies", she learns that sometimes it is really necessary that a pony needed to be stern for the goof of others, this is a lesson she learned a lot from.
- Just like above, this is another positive example, in "Tanks for the Memories", she pushed Rainbow Dash into accepting the fact Tank needed to hibernate.
- Butt Monkey: She does get into a lot of slapstick as of season 3.
- Catchphrase: A soft "yay" in the earlier episodes. It fell out in later seasons.
- Character Development: She changed a lot throughout the entire series.
- Post-Discord corruption and throughout season 2, she seems to have become more assertive and willing to actually get physical. Of note, she did a Limit Break while dragging a hot-air balloon, the bear wrestling sequence, shouting loudly and engaged in an off-screen tussle with Twilight, actually dragging Rainbow Dash off to her house, and becoming a valid target for RD's cake prank, as well as participating in its retaliation.
- She learned the lesson between politeness and assertiveness in "Putting Your Hoof Down", and actually did manage to befriend, reform, and tame Discord, while she keeps his mischievious side in check. In later episodes, like "Make New Friends and Keep Discord", "Fame and Misfortune, and "A Health and Information", she can be strong-willed whenever she wants to be, and has become somewhat snappish whenever she is pushed against her limits. This is extremely different from the meek and easily scared pony in her first appearances.
- In "Hurricane Fluttershy", after she gained enough confidence, she was willing to participate in a flight competition in the Equestria Games (which is basically the My Little Pony version of the Olympics).
- She learned the lesson with the Breezies and the need of occassional love of tough love and some Brutal Honesty, such as calling out Twilight and Rainbow for arguing in "Testing Testing 1 2 3", and in "Tanks for the Memories", she bluntly told Rainbow that she needed to let Tank hibernate.
- She is also kind but firm to Zephyr Breeze, her lazy brother. Zephyr claimed that she was pretty bossy towards him, but due to him being lazy, he could've been overexaggerating everything.
- She expresses her opinion more often in the later seasons, and isn't afraid to express her honest thoughts towards something, for example in "Fluttershy Leans In", she stood up for herself when her vision for her animal sanctuary is not met.
- Chewing the Scenery: Even she has her moments of this. "You're...going to LOVE ME!!!!!"
- When she briefly held the Jerkass Ball in "Putting Your Hoof Down", she says some quotes that are like this, an example is: Nopony pushes New Fluttershy around! Nopony!".
- "Power Ponies" shows her losing her temper after Saddle Rager kills a firefly because it get on the way of Fluttershy.
- When she briefly held the Jerkass Ball in "Putting Your Hoof Down", she says some quotes that are like this, an example is: Nopony pushes New Fluttershy around! Nopony!".
Fluttershy: THERE! I SAID IT! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'RE SO SPECIAL? LIKE THE RULES OF COMMON COURTESY DON'T APPLY TO YOU? WHY DON'T YOU TRY PICKING ON SOMEPONY YOUR OWN SIZE? |
- The Comically Serious: Fluttershy is The Quiet One version. Whenever she tries to be loud, it is simply pitiful squeak or simply something that is basically Flat Joy. When makes her the trope is that she believes that she is being loud.
Fluttershy: Oh Fluttershy, you're such a loudmouth. |
- Cool Teacher: Is one in-universe to the students of the School of Friendship by winning Teacher of the Month seventeen times in a row. "Teacher of the Month" short shows her do some things like for example, making up for a field trip being cancelled by making students play games, and hosted a "clean-up dance party".
- Childhood Friends: With Rainbow Dash.
- Something of a variation. Most of their closeness as adults comes from being pegasi and Cloudsdale natives, but, as foals, they were already together at flight camp.
- "Flutter Brutter" shows that Rainbow knows Fluttershy's family.
- Children in Tow: There are scenes in both "Griffon the Brush-Off" and "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" where she is seen helping a mother duck lead its ducklings.
- Color-Coded Characters/Color Motif: She's timid and gets afraid very easily, so naturally, she's yellow.
- Cowardly Lioness: She's usually a pushover and terrified of danger, and happily admits to being "weak and helpless", but get her protectively angry and her willpower multiplies by a factor of about a million.
- Cowardly Sidekick: She is terrified of nearly everything...even her own shadow.
- Cute and Psycho: Normally a sweet and gentle pony…but when she gets pushed to her limits, as seen in "Best Night Ever", she's scary.
- She also has severe anxiety issues due to being constantly bullied as a foal, as can be seen here.
- Cuteness Proximity: Noticing Spike helps draw her out of her shell when she first meets Twilight. In a flashback, landing on the ground for the first time and seeing all the cuddly animals is enough to make her burst into song.
- The Cutie: Provides the trope image. Most fans believe not loving Fluttershy borders on some sort of criminal act.
- Justified further by "Hurricane Fluttershy", a by-the-book Break the Cutie Fluttershy episode.
- Cute Little Fangs: Gains these when she turns into a vampire pony in "Bats", at the end of the episode, she kept the fangs, meaning that her transformation didn't fully work.
- Dandere: She's cripplingly shy but sometimes she forgets that.
- In the first episode, she's so nervous when she meets Twilight that she can barely even say her own name out loud. And then she notices Spike.
- In "May the Best Pet Win", she's extremely apologetic when they realize they haven't invited Rainbow Dash to their pet playdate, and then practically Squees when Rainbow expresses an interest in a pet, dragging her to home to sing a song about pet selection.
- Death Glare: Yeah; you read that right.
- She uses some strange melange of a Death Glare and a Care Bear Stare really.
- This is taken Up to Eleven in the episode "Best Night Ever" when she chases a herd of animals into the palace while trying to befriend them.
- There may actually be power behind this beyond just her stare and choice of words: in "Applebuck Season" she apparently harvests all the apples from one tree just by staring at it.
- Defeat Means Friendship: How she stops the manticore's rampage. And when her talking down the dragon causes it to burst into tears, she immediately tries to calm it like a mother with a frightened and upset child.
- She uses friendship to try and tame Discord in "Keep Calm and Flutter On", and in future episodes she keeps their friendship in check.
- Determinator: She will try to make a pony happy whenever she helps others that she cares for.
- She tried to make the animals love her in "The Best Night Ever", and was determined to do so.
- She didn't want to let Discord win, even if it means somehow outflying Rainbow Dash (who is arguably the fastest pony in Equestria) while she towed three ponies in a hot air balloon.
- She stares down a cockatrice that is using its gaze attack to turn her to stone. And it works!
- Demoted to Extra:
- In season 5, she got hit by this as she only had two focus episodes (with one being shared with Twilight) and got the least screentime and appearances out of the mane cast. Speaking of the episodes, the two didn't occur up until halfway throughout the season.
- Season 6 as well. The only difference is that her focus episode was at the beginning of the season. Other than that she had the same role as she did season 5 with two episodes focused on her (this time being shared with Applejack), and continued to get less focus and screentime than most of the cast.
- Season 7 however, it is reversed as she gotten three episodes focus specifically on her, and speaking more and getting more screentime than some Mane 6 members.
- The Ditherer: In the "Best Gift Ever" special, she couldn't decide on a favorite food due to her "not wanting to hurt other foods' feelings".
- The Eeyore: When her self esteem at her worst to the point where she calls herself out on being really pathetic and does it a nonchalent manner.
- Era Specific Personality: G4 Fluttershy is very shy. G3 Fluttershy was an earth pony and a shutterfly, basically making her an earlier Photo Finish. Let that simmer for a moment.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Much to her dismay in "Green Isn't Your Color".
- Expy: Of G1's Posey, sharing her coloring, mane style and elements of her personality.
- She's also a lot like G3's Wisteria, who is also very shy and has an affinity for nature.
- Extreme Doormat: Given her shy personality, she is naturally rather passive and unassertive a lot of the time.
- Lampshaded, parodied and called by name in Putting Your Hoof Down. The whole episode is about Fluttershy becoming more assertive.
- Evil Laugh: She has only done so once and it was in "The Best Night Ever", where she basically lost her sanity.
- The Face: But only for non-ponies. Otherwise she's a Shrinking Violet. For example, in Dragonshy Twilight's Plan for dealing with a dragon boils down to: 1.) Escort Fluttershy to the dragon's cave and 2.) have her talk with it.
- Feather Fingers: Briefly displayed that pegasi can use their wings as hands, at least when it comes to opening saddlebags.
- Flat Joy: Her cheering in "Sonic Rainboom" is spirited and heartfelt but done so softly it's hard to tell. At least until Rainbow Dash actually pulls off the stunt.
Fluttershy: [breathes in heavily] Yayyy. |
- Fluffy Tamer: The clearest example seen so far is the encounter with the manticore with Baby Talk and everything but there's no reason to assume she only has a thing for manticores; Twilight automatically assumes she'd be of help dealing with a dragon too. Of course this doesn't mean she doesn't usually deal with critters others would agree to be cute too.
- Another example is her giving Cerberus a belly rub in "It's About Time."
- In "Trade Ya!" she tames his brother, Orthurus.
- Forgot About Her Powers/Forgot I Could Fly: Fluttershy is shown walking on the ground far more than other pegasai in the show, Particularly compared to Rainbow Dash.
- Specific example: Fluttershy is so terrified in "Dragonshy" that she initially forgets that she can fly instead of climb...and then after an ill-timed snore from the dragon, is scared to the point that her wings totally lock up, rendering her completely unable to fly.
- It happens again in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" when she and the others are being chased by the Hydra.
- In "Putting Your Hoof Down", she ends up kicking over a pair of carts being driven by some rude ponies because they were blocking her way. Many fans were quick to point out how she could have just flown over them.
- It's also been shown in several episodes like "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" and "Hurricane Fluttershy" that she's very self-conscious about her flying ability, especially around other pegasi, who used to bully her constantly about her apparant lack of flying talent.
- This is lampshaded in "Wonderbolts Academy" where she realizes that she could've flown when the Mane cast are rescued by the pegasus cadets.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Supine: introverted, compassionate and docile.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The responsible one to Zephyr's foolish.
- Fragile Flower: She is, however, growing out of it, as explained in Character Development.
- "Friend or Idol?" Decision: Inverted during "Green Is Not Your Color" as Fluttershy accepts becoming a famous model (which turns her life into a living hell) because she thinks that Rarity will feel sad if she refuses to do so.
- Friendless Background: In her childhood, she had no friends and was bullied constantly dur to her poor flying skills. The only she did have was Rainbow Dash, but she gained more animal friends at the day she met them.
- Friend to All Children: Proven when she takes care of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
- She became really popular at the School of Friendship with the kids, and earned the School of Friendship awards with ease.
- The Friends Who Never Hang:
- There is little to no interaction between her and Applejack. The first episode that they primarily interacted was in "Bats", in which they spend the episode as antagonists on each other's side, with Fluttershy trying to change Applejack's mind about getting rid of the vampire fruit bats. They do finally have two episodes with each other, one in "Viva Las Pegasus", and "Sounds In Silence".
- She doesn't interact with Pinkie Pie that much either. It may due to some personality differences between extroversion vs introversion. Being a good player at buckball is the only thing they share the same perceptive with.
- Friend to All Living Things: More comfortable around animals who aren't ponies. Or grown dragons.
- Fluttershy takes this trope very literally; she loves the ugly or mean creatures just as much as the nice cute little critters.
- Friend to Bugs: Yes; even them. Perhaps especially them; she referred to a Parasprite as "the cutest thing ever." During "May the Best Pet Win!," she suggested several bugs as potential pets, including a cricket, a ladybug, a monarch butterfly and a wasp.
- Her cutie mark is butterflies which is about as close to having "friend to bugs" literally written all over her as a pony can get.
- "Keep Calm and Flutter On" takes this to another level by befriending Discord of all people!
- The exceptions are adult dragons, due to be afraid of them, but even so, she'll comfort them when they are no longer hostile, at times to the point of tears.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She is usually very nuturing, graceful, and doesn't resort to violence. However, she doesn't mind being dirty with her animal friends, and is a very skilled goalie when playing Buckball.
- Gollum Made Me Do It: In Putting Your Hoof Down, Fluttershy referring to 'Old' Fluttershy and 'New' Fluttershy has very strong echoes of this.
- Gone Horribly Right:
- Iron Will's assertiveness training seminar was unfortunately a little too effective on Fluttershy. She gets better though.
- Her determination to cure Zecora of an unknown illness she accidentally caused her to get in "A Health for Information", made her push herself to exhuastion, refusing to listen to other ponies that she needs to rest. This leads Fluttershy to contract the illness herself, and pushed herself so hard (along with her trying and failing to tame aggressive Flash Bees) to the point of simply passing out for three days.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: Downplayed on the "evil" part, but she has bat wings as a vampire pony.
- Guile Hero:
- She managed to manipulate Discord by using her wits in "Keep Calm and Flutter On".
- In "The Cutie Map", she managed to uncovered the info needed to defeat Starlight Glimmer, and became a really good Fake Defector for the six. She also planned to arrange her Engineered Public Confession, while she was seperated with her friends.
- In "Memnagerie", she pretended to struggle with her "misbehaving" animals (who are in the act as well), whenever Twilight visits her, this motivates Twilight to remember her past memories with Fluttershy, while Starlight and Spike can collect the memories for the scrapbook that they are making.
- Hartman Hips: Averted for the most part, but Bridle Gossip and Filli Vanilli each have a scene that depicts Fluttershy's butt as much fatter and rounder than usual (in both instances, she's shaking her butt around).
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Her love and connection to animals (along with the Sonic Rainboom) are what help her find her Cutie Mark. This also gives her the desire to help and protect her friends no matter what.
- Her connection to animals also applies to mythical animals, effectively making her the one who calms down the giant rampaging beast kicking the rest of the mane cast's flanks.
- Treating ponies kindly doesn't seem like it'll work compared to the others' combat solutions, but her kind heart that forever removes Dr. Caballeron, Ahuizotl, and even Discord as threats to the six. Her friendly and innocent personality made her completely No Sell to Discord's mind games, thus forcing her to get brainwashed instead.
- The Heart: Her Element of Harmony is kindness.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite her brave and heroic actions in season 1, she agreed with Discord that her friends consider her weak and helpless quite calmly.
- Hidden Depths: Fluttershy has quite the eye for sewing and fashion trends, which she demonstrates in "Suited for Success" to Rarity's shock.
- Spends most of Season 1 having her flying capabilities made out to be of poor standard compared to most other Pegasus Ponies. Then in the second part of The Return of Harmony, we find out she's able to come close to matching Rainbow Dash in speed when she has to. And that was while she was towing a hot air balloon...imagine her speed unladen.
- In Hurricane Fluttershy we finally get a chance to. Though it is greately hindered by the worst case of performance anxiety ever, once she overcomes it she makes up for eight pegasi.
- In Rainbow Dash's defense, Fluttershy was towing an in-flight air balloon while Rainbow Dash was towing Pinkie Pie and Rarity as dead weight
- In "Rainbow Falls", she is shown to join a rely flying team and did so well to the point where her team qualifies for the level that is similar to the Olympics and goes on to medal.
- In season 5 it is implied that she likes reading. Ever since the beginning, she had a wall on her cottage that had a bookshelf. She uses an animal book to explain to Rainbow that Tank needed to hibernate in "Tanks for the Memories". In "Scare Master", her plans for Nightmare Night had a lot of books involved. The "uninvited guests" shown in the books show that she (possibly) reads manga too. In "The Hooffields and McColts" she had a book club with her animal friends, where they read a My Little Pony version of Wuthering Heights and discuss the plot of that. In "Green Isn't Your Color", she was seen reading a fashion magazine, implying that's how she learned sewing.
- "A Health of Information" confirms this. As she was insistent about help Zecora cure an incurable disease, she went to Twilight's library and tells her she needed info on mysterious healer named Mystical Mask to help her find the cure. Twilight was intimidated by this, and Fluttershy speed-reads the books and gets no information. This led Fluttershy to get sleep-deprived, but she reported to Twilight that she found out the identity of the Mystical Mask by captioning seveal books on the subject, and somehow learned how to translate texts from Olde Polish. Twilight outright stated that she is impressed by Fluttershy's research skills, and both Twilight and Zecora are impressed of the discovery.
- "Flutter Brutter" reveals that she was always the assertive one out of her family, despite being an Extreme Doormat to everypony else.
- It is implied that she is a great actor despite her shy personality and stage fright. For example in "Scare Master", her Flutterbat act scared her friends, and in "Fake It Until You Make It", she adopted many multiple personas in a mindset of a salespony, initally it worked but the personalities discouraged customers instead. In "Horse Play", she mentioned she can memorize lines pretty well.
- Spends most of Season 1 having her flying capabilities made out to be of poor standard compared to most other Pegasus Ponies. Then in the second part of The Return of Harmony, we find out she's able to come close to matching Rainbow Dash in speed when she has to. And that was while she was towing a hot air balloon...imagine her speed unladen.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: She is the only one who doesn't fall to Discord's Hannibal Lecture. A frustrated Discord finally has to resort to "brute force" Brainwashing.
- Innocently Insensitive: Just like Pinkie, Fluttershy means no malicious intent but her polite comments can come off as cynical at times. For example in "Sonic Rainboom", she tells Rainbow Dash a speech that everypony would be watching her and thus led Rainbow into panic attack with Troubled Fetal Position.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: She has blue eyes, and is very kindhearted and caring.
- Ironic Fear: She's afraid of… a lot of things, but since she's a Pegasus, the one that fits here is her fear of heights.
- Jerkass Ball: She took her assertive training too far and became a bully as a result in "Putting Your Hoof Down".
- Karmic Protection: Just like Pinkie, her shyness tends to excuse her bad actions, although she is pretty much a Butt Monkey in any other way makes it excusable.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: It comes with the territory considering that she's a Friend to All Living Things. Rarity's cat Opal would have to agree.
- Lampshaded by Rarity, to whom Opal has not taken a liking.
"Well, you should have a picture of Opal as a cutie mark instead of those butterflies." |
- Let's Get Dangerous: Prone to these moments quite a bit.
- Her confrontation with the dragon in "Dragonshy"
- Her talking down the cockatrice in "The Stare Master"
- "I just can't go any faster (tears)" to "I won't let that big meanie win! (zoom)" in "The Return of Harmony Part 2".
- In "A Dog and A Pony Show", she is pretty effective at throwing off the attacking Dig Dogs just like the others.
- In "Princess Twilight Sparkle", she is surprisingly agile to the point of dodging outmaneuvering dangerous plants.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Being sweet, kind, and caring, (most of the time) Fluttershy represents the "light" half of this in comparison to Rarity.
- The Load: Seen as this in "Dragonshy". Awesomely subverts it by ultimately being the one to get the dragon to go away.
- And to a minor extent in "Swarm of the Century" when she decides to keep one of the Parasprites after the ponies get rid of the first batch which starts the vicious cycle all over again.
- Discord certainly tries to paint her this way in "The Return of Harmony". She frustrates him by politely agreeing.
- Long Mane Is Feminine: Pretty, pink and long enough to hide behind. From certain angles her locks even appear to frame her face in a heart.
- Lovable Coward: She can get dangerous when the time calls for it, most of the time however she is scared of her own shadow, and downright adorable because of it.
- Mama Bear: She defeats a cockatrice to protect the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
- Also towards her friends. She's even willing to stand up to a full grown dragon (which she has justified fear of) when it hurt her friends.
- The Matchmaker: Of a not-romantic type. One of the few things that will elicit an enthusiastic and energetic response from her is suggesting you might be interested in getting a pet. When Rainbow Dash suggested she might eventually want a pet, Fluttershy proceeded to drag Dash off to her cottage so she could introduce her around to the various and sundry animals she's caring for at the moment.
- Maybe Ever After: "The Last Problem" leaves it extremely unknown if Discord and Fluttershy have a relationship at a some point. According to the crew, it's up to the viewer's choice.
- Meaningful Name: She flutters and she's shy.
- Also she has a particular place in her heart for butterflies. They're her cutie mark after all.
- The Medic: She usually is shown healing injured animals.
- Morality Chain: For Discord.
- In "Princess Twilight", she threatened to end the friendship whenever he didn't clean up, and he obeyed her.
- In "Dungeons and Discords", she simply raises her eyebrow to force him to stop the train from going into an active volcano he created.
- In "Make New Friends but Keep Discord", she lectured him on about sending another pony to another dimension, thus indicating that she is pretty competent enough to make him not go too far on his schemes.
- Morality Pet: Ironically for her own pet Angel Bunny.
- This is completely subverted in "Putting Your Hoof Down".
- Seems to be acting as one for Rainbow Dash in Season Two. While still very benevolent, it's rare to see the usually aggressive braggart have many gentle and nurturing moments to another pony.
- Became one for Discord, of all beings, in season 3.
- In "Daring Doubt", she became one for Dr. Cabarellon and his minions.
- Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed, but the animators seem to use her for sexual inneudo such as "The Super-Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" and "Hurricane Fluttershy", also see Hartman Hips above.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Her reaction to making Rarity and Pinkie Pie cry after she takes her assertiveness training too far.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Perhaps the only pegasus who isn't boastful/arrogant.
- Nice Girl: MOST of the time.
- Non Standard Character Design: In "Cutie Mark Chronicles", we see Fluttershy as a filly and she's noticeably taller and ganglier than her peers. Either she was older than the other foals we saw in her flashback (which has some support with her canonically being older than Pinkie Pie) or she hit pony-puberty a bit early.
- Her thinner legs and overall shape mimic the body style of the first generation's Flutter Ponies which had butterfly-style wings. Mythology Gag maybe?
- Adult Fluttershy shows as well two subtle design differences compared with her friends. One, she is the only character who flaps her wings while she's running and two, she might be the only left-handed character seen in the cartoon (she's seen opening her bag with her left wing).
- Not So Above It All: A Nice Girl variant rather than being an Only Sane Pony. While she is normally a really nice pony, she does have some moments of weaknesses in personality and can sometimes act against character. For example, she along with the other ponies where hostile to Zecora at first, and is one of the ponies who ate the Cakes' entry for the National Dessert Competition. Most of time, she is apologetic for her actions.
- She is typically really humble and very rarely talks about her own achivements, but in "Dragonshy" after she stood up against a dragon, she teases Rainbow Dash about "not everypony is as brave as me", she did get spooked by a leaf, however.
- Not Good with Ponies: True to her personality, she is more confident around animals than other ponies.
- Not So Weak: Fluttershy is an adorable, cute little Pegasus who is literally afraid of her shadow. However, despite what Discord and herself think, Fluttershy is a lot tougher than she looks, especially if you hurt her friends.
- Odd Friendship: To Rainbow Dash, despite their opposite personalities.
- Also to Discord as of the third season, just like Rainbow, they have really different personalities, but Fluttershy truly understands him and accepts him for he is, and Discord is somewhat aware of that. In "Discordant Harmony", a number of ponies' disbelief that the two of them are friends is what sets up the plot by making Discord doubt how well Fluttershy would react to a visit to his pretty choatic home dimension, given that she is uncomfortable with his chaos in general.
- Older Than They Look: : In the fifth episode, she reveals that she is a year older than Pinkie Pie but her sweet and innocent nature makes her appear a lot younger than most other ponies. See Non Standard Character Design above for her filly appearance that coincides with this.
- OOC Is Serious Business: Prone to these.
- She became so insane in "The Best Night Ever" to the point of setting up traps because she wants the animals to love her.
- "Putting Your Hoof Down" is full of this, where she confused assertiveness with rudeness and started acting harsh to others for little to no reason. She also flied more often, in which this is rare as she does so when she absolutely needed to, or Rainbow Dash tells her to do it.
- "Flutter Brutter" as well, as she was pretty snarky with her brother, Zephyr Breeze, and really doesn't take his excuses to get out of work. She also tells Rainbow that she is "peeved" (an in-universe swear, with the swear in real life would've been "pissed"). This could be seen as shocking by fans, but it also reveals that she is the assertive one out of her family, but apparantly this side of hers wasn't shown until now (even though she could be seen acting this way sometimes to her animals).
- In "Buckball Season", when Applejack and Rainbow Dash took their Training From Hell too far, she shouts at them and states the she and Pinkie don't want to play anymore. Pinkie, of all ponies, Cannot Spit It Out.
- Out of Focus: Mostly in the first half of the second season.
- Our Vampires Are Different: She randomly turned into a fruit-vampire in the episode named "Bats!", and at the end of the episode, her teeth are shown to be spiky at the end, so there is some fruit-vampire in her.
- Pals with Jesus: Is Discord's close friend and are implied to live together in the finale.
- Peek-a-Bangs: Is typically seen with hair covering her eye, and even more so as a filly.
- Performance Anxiety: Spelled out in full in "Hurricane Fluttershy" - She can show great flying if it's an emergency, but put her in front of an audience, and she can barely fly.
- Her other skills as well such as singing (shown in "Filli Vanilli") and buckball (shown in "Buckball Season"), despite being good at them, she dislikes doing these in public. For the latter however, she gains confidence when she represented Ponyville's buckball team, because she simply had the mindset of playing for fun, and not for winning.
- Personality Powers: Due to her kind and gentle personality, it could depend whether it damages her or helps her in the long run.
- Prehensile Tail: Her tail is rather really long.
- In "May the Best Pet Win!", her tail can carry Angel to the point of making him ride it.
- In "Bats!" the tail can somehow make Fluttershy dangle from a tree.
- The tail also makes Fluttershy a great goalie in "Buckball Season", as she blocks the ball with that very tail.
- Plucky Girl: She has her moments of this.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Has a habit of doing this the few times she gets genuinely ticked off. This is normally a sign bad things are in store for the target.
- "How DARE you!"
- "You're... going to LOVE ME!"
- "THAT...BIG...DUMB...MEANIE!!!"
- "I....SAID...NO!!!"
- "I'm not... YOUR... FRIEND!"
- "Are... you... KIDDING ME?"
- Puppy Dog Eyes: Does this in season 4.
- In "Filli Vanilli", she tried to convince Big Mac into letting her do his voice the last time she puts on a stage.
- In "Trade Ya", she along with Rainbow Dash tried to convice a trader to go back to his stall. It doesn't work.
- The Quiet One: Due to being shy, she has a very quiet voice, and sometimes doesn't talk much. Even her cheers/screams are pretty much squeaking noises most of the time. She became more of a confident pony and seems to grow in volume in voice too.
- Rapunzel Hair: Besides maybe Rarity, she has the longest hair out of the main characters.
- Her tail is the only one out of the mane six that trails on the ground.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: To the Cutie Mark Crusaders when she takes care of them.
- Reluctant Fanservice Girl: In "Green Isn't Your Color" she can be seen as one of these, because she is miserable about the attention Photo Fanish is giving her.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: She's the only member of the mane six who's never been a Red Oni to any of her friends, particularly to Rainbow Dash, a loud, brash, and competitive speeder, and Discord, a loud and theatrical draconequus.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: She typically has a really gentle and kind personality.
- Sanity Slippage: Suffers through one in "The Best Night Ever" whenever the animals wouldn't play with her.
- Secret Test of Character: In "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" she let the kindness get the best of her, despite Seabrezze's protests. She learns her lesson about it and kicks out the Brezzies just for her own good. Seabreeze does the same thing, and gave her a flower as a gift, leading her key to the Chest of Harmony.
- Ship Tease: She is pretty close to Discord and is stated multiple times that they hang out a lot offscreen. When Discord saved her from the changelings and then he proceeded to say that Fluttershy was his favorite pony, she blushed.
- Shrinking Violet: Again, growing out of it.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Definitely fits the character type (humble, loyal, wise, nurturing, etc. but with a clear touch of iron).
- Socially Awkward Heroine: VERY shy, yet still bold in standing up to creatures several times her size.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Her special talent is communicating with (non-equine) animals on a different level than most ponies.
- Squee: Done adorably in "The Stare Master".
- Does one to the point where she almost explodes in "May the Best Pet Win!"
- Super Speed: It's rare, but in "The Return of Harmony - Part 2", she is shown to keep up with Rainbow Dash at her best.
- Staring Down Cthulhu: A dragon and a cockatrice, a monster that can turn you to stone by staring at you!
- And she's being Taken for Granite as she stares it down!
- She's the page picture for a reason.
- And now, she's also stared down a monster...I mean, minotaur.
- Talking the Monster Into Submission: She's done this on multiple occasions.
- Tareme Eyes: Very noticeable when compared to the others.
- Team Mom: Mainly towards animals. Also has a Mama Bear moment in "The Stare Master".
- Technical Pacifist:
- Despite being pacifistic, she smashes Mane-iac's hairdryer (in which the Mane-iac used as a weapon) to bits in "Power Ponies".
- She still sent animals to attack Cozy Glow in "The Ending of the End".
- Tender Tears: She is rather empathetic. As seen in "Tanks for the Memories" where she is the first one to cry for Rainbow Dash when Rainbow's Inelegant Blubbering got worse. Thus causing Rarity and Pinkie to cry too.
- This Means War: When she actually gets mad at someone, you know they've crossed the line and are in trouble now.
- Taken Up to Eleven in Putting Your Hoof Down, when she starts to make a vendetta out of the smallest things, such as the mailman accidentally mixing up her mail with someone else's.
- Three Faces of Eve: Fluttershy is the Wife / Mother.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Rainbow Dash's Tomboy.
- Token Good Teammate: Became this and their Morality Pet to Dr. Caballeron and his team when she joined him to raid a temple in "Daring Doubt".
- Tranquil Fury: She's displayed this from time to time.
- Trademark Favorite Food: While it is unknown if that is her favorite food, but she has cucumber sandwiches at every tea party she makes.
- Twitchy Eye: Seen when she becomes increasingly unhinged in "The Best Night Ever".
- Took a Level In Badass: She appears to take one in each episode she appears in.
- Unstoppable Rage:
- In "The Best Night Ever", she threw a temper tantrum because the animals living in the Canterlot castle gardens avoid her. When the traps don't work, she screams out that she wants the animals to love her.
- While failing to be in-character in "Power Ponies", she loses her temper after witnessing a firefly being smacked away by the Mane-iac, causing her to take the form of a huge muscular monster (aka basically being the Incredible Hulk)
- Vocal Dissonance: Her voice gets deeper whenever she is crying, as shown in episodes like "Hurricane Fluttershy", and "Ponyville Confidential", episodes where she mainly cried.
- Vocal Evolution: Andrea's voice for her was pretty quiet and basically made her whisper, at around mid-season 1, she had more enthusiasm in her voice.
- The Voiceless: A small hooffull of episodes (so far, "Ponyville Confidential" and "A Canterlot Wedding, Part 2" have her appear prominently, but act even quieter than usual (which is saying a lot). There are even spots where you can tell she was supposed to have lines, but where she says nothing - the Pinkie voice must put a serious strain on Andrea.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Everyone of her friends tend to annoy or frighten her by accident at least once. With her friendship with Rainbow Dash being the most prominent.
- Waif Prophet: Shows this somewhat during her conversion of Discord, saying she knew he was trying to trick her from the start, but used her Element of Harmony (Kindness) as a weapon instead.
- Who Dares?: Right before her Badass Adorable Talking the Monster to Death moment: "How DARE you!"
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She isn't scared of young dragons like Spike, but is terrified of adult dragons.
- According to Discord in "The Big Mac Question", she is secretly afraid of clowns.
- You Don't Look Like You: Her fully-molded toys and collector cards all depict her as a Palette Swap of Rainbow Dash.
- Your Answer to Everything: "Uh... panic?"