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Characters / Friendship is Dragons

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In attention to some different takes on the familiar cast of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Friendship is Dragons has the players themselves naturally playing a role, along with the GM.

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Player Ponies

    Twilight's Player 

Twilight Sparkle/Ocellus

A Lawful Good Wizard and the young apprentice of Princess Celestia. Her special talent is literally Magic, and Spike is her Familiar. While her personal studies have kept her from interacting much with other ponies, a fateful trip to Ponyville changes all that.

This is her player's first campaign. While she's familiar with the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons, putting them into practice — and dealing with the social aspects of the game — is new for her, and she's learning as she goes.

During the School Raze arc, she plays Ocellus the Druid, wanting to combine a Changeling's Change Appearance and the Druid's Wild Shape.

  • Big "WHAT?!": At the end of the first part of the Discord arc, she freaks when the GM discusses some possible future plans for her character.
  • Character Development: Has been learning how to loosen up and work together with her friends despite their differences.
  • Meta Game: Accidentally does this when meeting Rarity, as she acts suspicious in-character due to OOC knowledge.
  • The Munchkin: She doesn't fully realize that this practice is frowned upon when it's overdone, and when the GM confirms that the Sixth Element is Magic, she grins very smugly. After meeting Natalie, Luke and Cory, however, she realizes the similarities between Twilight and Trixie and has to be reassured afterward that she isn't THAT bad.
  • Noob: Though she's studied the way the game works before trying it out.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: When the GM as Spike gives a Big "NO!" from the other room, Applejack asks Twilight if she derailed the campaign again.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: Both she and her player are learning the finer points as they go.
  • Spanner in the Works: Has repeatedly become this to the GM by sending their plots Off the Rails.
  • Superpower Lottery: Specifically designed this way by her player, who wanted to circumvent the usual limitations on magical ability.
  • They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Responded very poorly to the GM introducing Shining Armor into her backstory, but refuses to expound upon why, citing this.

    Applejack's Player 

Applejack/Sandbar

A Lawful Good Ranger and the head of Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack is a practical and level-headed pony who knows how to exploit all her talents to their fullest extent. She knows Ponyville and all its citizens inside and out, how to read ponies, and how to use that knowledge to her advantage.

Her player is one of the most experienced members of the group. Thoughtful and pragmatic, she's quick to pick up on nuances, subtleties and cues.

During the School Raze arc, she plays Sandbar the Monk, as she considers herself "brave enough to be borin'" and add some stability to the otherwise non-pony "cultural exchange".

  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Led the effort at the end of the Dragonshy arc to convince the GM to let them interact with more citizens of Ponyville. Was none too pleased when those introductions included her own sister from her Backstory as an obvious Railroading agent.
    • Happens again in Return to Harmony. She's offered a deal to have one question answered by Discord in exchange for a curse. She quickly takes the deal, thinking she'll be able to outsmart the curse, and asks for Discord's plans in detail. She gets those details... but then the curse given forces her to conceal the truth, explicitly preventing things like Blatant Lies and double speak that would let her Meta Game her way out of it. She ends up focused on trying to solve this problem for the way of the session, avoiding any further metagaming for fear of further punishment, and not helping the other players in the process.
  • Brutal Honesty: Twi's player even uses this to justify assigning her the Element of Honesty; AJ's player comments that most people find the same traits she's praising annoying.
  • The Clan: Created by her player along with Sweet Apple Acres for the benefits they provide.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Her accent disappeared when she played Sandbar. Pinkie's player freaks out at this, since it either means that AJ's player has been faking an accent for years, including out of character, or she learned how to perfectly mimic a Midwestern accent just in case she ever needed to play someone with one.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Can and will snark at anything.
  • Meta Game: Thanks to Applejack's familiarity with how things work in Ponyville, her player is able to justify this to a certain degree.
  • The Munchkin: She manipulates the system to her character's benefit.
  • Old Shame: In-Universe: One of her old 3.5e characters, which had Sizeshifter powers, granting her the full range of size-related bonuses for any situation. Given that she had been giving Twilight and Fluttershy grief for their own 3.5e characters, Twilight calls her out on it.
  • Required Secondary Powers: Many of her talents as an apple farmer also benefit her character class.
  • The Roleplayer: Played with in that all the effort she put into fleshing out her Backstory has helped build the game world and given her practical advantages.
  • Team Mom: She's patient with the new players, using her insight to defuse situations and help guide everyone along. This also enables her to prevent problems with the justification that she's familiar enough with her fellow Ponyville citizens to know when they're about to do something stupid.

    Dash's Player 

Rainbow Dash/Gallus

A Chaotic Evil Barbarian, Rainbow Dash thirsts for the thrill of battle and all its glories! Being stuck in a boring town like Ponyville brings her no end of frustration, something she tends to take out on those around her.

Out of all the players, hers has the gravest doubts about the setting, and she shares them. Frequently. She's gamed with Applejack and Rarity's players before.

During the School Raze arc, she plays Gallus the Rogue/Bard, wanting to try something new and feeling like the griffon her friend rolled up was quickly overshadowed by her second "Cheese Sandwich" character.

  • The Berserker: Her character acts impulsively in getting into fights. She also laments that she could have had an ax as her cutie mark.
  • Brutal Honesty: Does not censor herself at all, telling it exactly how she feels it is.
  • Dumb Muscle: After an embarrassing incident during another gaming session, her player starts worrying that the others view her as nothing more than this.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Her alignment doesn't prevent her from being loyal to the party, or even helping Fluttershy with bullies when they were little.
  • Hidden Depths: While she seems like a mindless punching machine, she explains that she doesn't actually just fight everyone at random. Instead she fights the people that the rest of the party wants to fight but isn't allowed to for whatever reason. If she didn't reign herself in like that, no one would put up with her.
  • Hidden Heart of Gold: Though she downplays it, she does try to help out 'the Druid' in understated fashion.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Her player explictedly calls her a "super-tough barbarian racer!"
  • Implausible Deniability: Refuses to admit how much she enjoys the setting, continuing to insist that she's reserving her judgment.
  • The Nicknamer: Rather than bothering to learn the others' names, Dash calls them by their character classes. This stops after she goes through Character Development, however.
  • The Real Man: She prefers to fight over details and roleplaying, though she'll get into those if they result in a fight.
  • The Unfettered: Chose her alignment so that Dash can do whatever she darn well pleases, including evil actions.
  • Undying Loyalty: Whatever else you may say about Rainbow Dash, she will stick by her party no matter what. This gets slightly deconstructed during Return to Harmony. When Discord offers her the Sadistic Choice of either staying with her friends or saving Cloudsdale, she chooses her friends without hesitation, which helps her avoid being cursed. While this initially helps the group by being a second voice of reason (or at least consistency) along with Twilight, Discord lets slip about the choice and Dash explains what happened. The party voices some concerns about this, especially Applejack, who steps out-of-character for a moment to explain that Dash's choice could have negative consequences for the rest of the party, and that the potential destruction of an entire town should not have been treated lightly. This isn't helped by Dash not showing any regret over the decision, justifying it as being "an arbitrary, binary challenge designed by an all-powerful god" that would have screwed them over either way.

    Rarity's Player 

Rarity/Princess Luna/Smolder

Though she presents herself as a dressmaker and fashionista, Rarity is actually an Evil (now Unaligned) Rogue — or, put more accurately, a "social rogue". Far from your stereotypical thief, she's focused on the cutthroat world of high society, making her mark and passing herself off as a member of the elite.

Rounding out the trio of experienced gamers, Rarity's player is primarily focused on the roleplaying aspects of the game. Because of this, she sees a lot of potential in the setting; while she's quick to point out flaws, it's more for the sake of improving the game by ironing those out.

After Rarity gets blacklisted by Elusive, Rarity's player briefly takes over Princess Luna until she can work out Rarity's character arc. During the School Raze arc, she plays Smolder the Sorceror, wanting to "expand her narrative horizons" and play with the expectations of a combat-oriented race.

  • All of the Other Reindeer: Has dealt with this from her own teammates; even though Dash is more of a Token Evil Teammate, Rarity's profession has caused more friction with the others. This leads to considerable complications during the A Dog and Pony Show arc; they could have avoided it if they trusted each other a little more, Twilight and the others refuse Celestia's offered aid because they fear their ruler finding out who they associate with, and Twilight can't copy her jewel-finding spell because she deems they wouldn't hang out at all other than when adventuring together.
  • Character Development: After the Mare in the Moon arc, she shifts from Evil to Unaligned. invoked Her own player seems bemused by this change.
  • Classy Cat-Burglar: Though Rarity is more likely to con people than burgle.
  • Damsel in Distress: During the Dog and Pony Show arc, much to her dismay.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Expresses horror upon learning how Dash was backstabbed in another session; if nothing else, she wouldn't have conned her out of all her winnings!
  • Foil: While just as savvy as AJ's player, she's extremely devoted to staying in character and avoiding metagaming. This isn't to say she doesn't look for advantages; she just relies on in-character knowledge, whereas the other justifies her metagaming by claiming it's reasonable for AJ to have picked up on these things.
  • Go-to Alias: The Sweet and Elite session starts with Rarity trying to develop one of this with 'Dainty Dove'.
  • Gold Digger: Her ultimate goal is to marry into the wealth and status she strives to pass herself off as already a part of.
  • Just Like Robin Hood: According to the cast page, she loves shows like Leverage and Hustle.
  • Large Ham: Her overdramatic reaction to Twilight pointing out how she generously helped the sea serpent.
  • Master of Disguise
  • The Roleplayer: Creating a fascinating and complex character is her player's passion, and she's willing to follow her muse's development even when it surprises her.
  • Writer's Block: Rarity's Character Development sometimes leaves her own creator at a bit of a loss as to where to take her. After the Sweet and Elite session climaxes with Elusive blacklisting her, she's so taken aback that she declares that Rarity's simply unplayable at this point.

    Pinkie's Player 

Pinkie Pie/Silverstream

An Unaligned Bard who serves as Ponyville's Primo Party Planner. Quirky and unpredictable, to say the least.

Her player is a bit of a mystery. None of the others really know whether or not she's actually gamed before; if she has, it wasn't with Applejack, Dash and Rarity's group. However, she's got a knack for improvising.

During the School Raze arc, she plays Silverstream the Cleric, after her indecision between choosing a seapony and hippogriff has the GM decide that the two races being connected is an interesting duality.

  • Crazy-Prepared: When coming up with a Glib Limerick, she has at least eight stanzas ready to go, apparently right off the cuff.
  • Hidden Depths: Beneath her somewhat eccentric exterior, she's better at reading people more than one might think. For example, she was one of the first to catch on that Gilda's player was scheming something, and began to (possibly) mess with her in turn by... not messing with her, instead reacting to Gilda's goadings with sincerity, even taking some advice to heart in a way that infuriated Gilda. She also (quite accurately) guesses what Gilda and Rainbow Dash will say to each during their argument towards the end.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Revealed to be the origin of Pinkie Sense: she felt all the other ponies had really cool, special and unique traits and wanted something like that for Pinkie, too.
  • Jack of All Trades:
    • Her player's choice of words when describing how she leveled her up before the second arc.
    • The DM's dialogue suggests that she did, in fact, take the Jack Of All Trades feat. It is also on her character sheet on the cast page.
  • The Loonie: Loves being silly. She even chooses abilities for how much fun they will be to use, instead of for twinking.
  • Railroading: When acting as PM for the Feeling Pinkie Keen arc, she turns out to be a massive railroader who blatantly manipulates and tailors things to go whichever way she wants the plot to go. For instance, when Twilight makes a save to avoid distraction, Spike fails, and when Twilight is reluctant to bother Pinkie Pie, she's accused OOC of being a horrible friend.
  • The Roleplayer: She isn't a loonie to mess up the game, but because her character would like to have fun all the time.
  • Unwitting Pawn: In Bridle Gossip, thanks to the GM feeding her information ahead of time designed to make the party quarrel.
  • Winds of Destiny, Change!: After the character rebuilding/birthday party, Pinkie Pie remakes her character as a bard that could sense the future and alter it to an extent (accidentally justifying Pinkie Sense in the process). This proves to be very helpful to the party, especially in the fight against Elusive/Blueblood.

    Fluttershy's Player 

Fluttershy/Yona

A Good-aligned Druid, Fluttershy is shy and softspoken, far better at dealing with animals than other ponies. Still, she strives to be helpful despite all her awkwardness, wishing only to do whatever she can for everyone who needs it.

Like Twilight's player, hers has never played any tabletop games before. Though not familiar with the rules, she's enamored with the setting and tries to do her best.

During the School Raze arc, she willingly plays Yona the Barbarian, and assures the others that things will be fine once she gets into character.

  • Beware the Nice Ones: As the Game Master found out the hard way, YOU DO NOT! HURT! HER! FRIENDS!!! Fifteen points in Intimidate will do that for a pony.
  • Brutal Honesty: During the Return to Harmony arc, when it's her turn for the one-on-one with Discord!DM, she recognizes what's about to happen and decides her best defense against Discord's strategy is to "take the fun out of it" by bluntly calling out the Manipulative Jerk tactics that would shift blame from himself. However, while Fluttership had aimed her speech at the character, it struck a bit of a nerve with Discord!DM, to the point that the pony GM took over the scene out of concern that it would get out of hand (which Discord!DM later admitted was a good move).
  • Foil: Whereas Twilight's player knows the rules of D & D but struggles with all other dynamics of the game, Fluttershy's player is unfamiliar with the mechanics but more attuned to the social and roleplaying aspects.
  • Hidden Depths: The crossover with Steven and the Crystal GMs revealed that Fluttershy's player is into heavy metal. According to Marcie (who introduced her to the music genre), Fluttershy had once headbutted Marcie so hard while head-banging that took Marcie to the hospital for fear of a serious injury. The players have trouble believing this story, and apparently so did the hospital staff.
  • Literal-Minded: Responds to Twilight asking what her character's like by rattling off her stats.
  • Noob: One who has to have game mechanics explained to her at times. Given that she's a druid, her putting the most skill points into charisma instead of wisdom should be an indication that she's new to gaming.
  • The Roleplayer: To the point that when Fluttershy is cursed in the Bridle Gossip arc, she surprises everyone by actually affecting a deep, manly voice when speaking in-character. They have a similar reaction to her more boisterous performance as Yona.
  • Shrinking Violet: She, and her character, don't tend to act out unless really pushed.
  • The Quiet One: Not prone to speaking up, but does sometimes have things to say.

    The Game Master 

The Game Master

Designed the campaign world and is testing it out for the first time with this group.

  • Ambiguous Gender: 'He' is used for convenience below; the strip has yet to confirm a gender for the GM.
  • Author Avatar: In-Universe, the GM has Spike and Princess Celestia, who usually represent them in the comic when a Reaction Shot is needed.
  • Control Freak: A running theme is how he struggles to present the players with a fun and well-planned out session while loosening his grip enough to let them guide the story flow.
  • Creator Breakdown (In-Universe): Suffered one during the Dragonshy arc. AJ's player suggested it was because he was trying too hard to make the series "adventurey" instead of exploring the world he'd created.
    • During The Cutie Map arc, the GM reveals that he's planning to quit playing D&D soon, or at least taking a long break, due to a combination of burnout and growing awareness of deeply his Control Freak issues have affected him and the need to seek consultation before he plays again. This also signals the coming end of the comic. Downplayed, as it's not really a breakdown as such, more a slip of the tongue about something they already planned to do.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Which tends to leak over into his NPCs.
  • Genre Blind: Struggles with the concept that players can and will send a GM's plan Off the Rails.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Said word for word after his Rage Breaking Point during Dragonshy.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Whatever his plans were for the climax of Sweet and Elite, he definitely didn't anticipate that Rarity's player would respond to her blacklisting so strongly.
  • Railroading:
    • Would really, really prefer that they not stray Off the Rails in their very first session, when he's trying to lay a plot down.
    • Generally doesn't respond well when a plot doesn't go as planned. Frequently seems to have a very precise idea of how the ponies are supposed to deal with given challenges, and tries to nudge the players in that direction, only to watch them do something else entirely.
  • Rocks Fall Everybody Dies: While generally not a Killer GM, he did not take Twilight's sudden insight on how the Elements work very well, making Nightmare Moon threaten a Total Party Kill now that she knew they actually posed a threat.
    • Actually attempted a literal "Rocks Fall" when AJ's player hit his Rage Breaking Point during their second session. Thankfully, he quickly reconsidered.
  • Throw It In! (In-Universe): Likes to include things the players suggest, whether or not they meant to give him ideas.
  • The Unreveal: "Apology Accepted" almost ends with revealing their name, but he backs off at the last moment.

NPCs

    Spike 

Spike

Twilight's Familiar and personal assistant, as well as the GM's primary NPC voice for obvious reasons.

  • Apple of Discord: Attempted to act this way during Natalie's introduction as The Great and Powerful Trixie by calling her out in a way that doubles as a Take That! to Twilight.
  • Big "NO!": When Rarity is kidnapped by the Diamond Dogs.
  • Familiar
    • GM PC: During the Dog and Pony Show arc, he reveals that he's tweaked Spike's stats beyond the standard for familiars. Specifically, he's strong enough to join the ponies side-by-side in combat, which Dash is leery of.
  • Mister Exposition: During the Equestria Girls guest arc, the spin-off GM mentions that Spike's only identified in the borrowed notes as "Exposition".
  • Precocious Crush: As in Canon, has a huge crush on Rarity. Twilight's initial reaction to this is to pretend That Didn't Happen.

    Celestia 

Princess Celestia

Twilight Sparkle's mentor, ruler of Equestria, and Physical Goddess.

  • Brutal Honesty: When called out by Twilight before Nightmare Moon breaks free, she opts to tell her flat-out that yes, the fate of the world does rest on her making friends.

    Angel Bunny 

Angel Bunny

Fluttershy's animal companion, who she claimed after the events of the Mare in the Moon arc. While he's a cute little white bunny, he's also a houseruled Call-Back to an old adversary from previous gaming sessions.

    Apple Bloom 

Apple Bloom

Applejack's little sister, introduced as an NPC during the Bridal Gossip arc. Takes after AJ a lot.

  • Apple of Discord: More successful at this than Spike, thanks to having Pinkie Pie's help stirring up doubt.
  • Demoted to Extra: She, along with the other CMCs, don't show up nearly as much as in the show. The GM mentions plans for their running sideplot, but it never really manifested.
  • Railroading: The GM uses her to effectively control and direct the plot of Bridal Gossip until Twilight takes back the reins near the end.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Lampshaded in "The Decider":
    Rainbow Dash: That's a lot of tactical talk for a kid.
    GM: She's an adventurer's sister. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

    The Spa Pony 

Lotus Blossom/The Spa Pony

Appears briefly at the end of the Bridal Gossip arc, and is well received by the players, despite only saying one sentence in her intro.

    Sapphire Shores 

Sapphire Shores

The 'Pony of Pop', who's also secretly a ranking member of the Thieves' Guild that Rarity belongs to.

  • Villain with Good Publicity: Works against her, as her cover identity as a popular singer makes her too high-profile to perform roguish activities without taking extensive care to maintain said cover.

    Fancypants 

Fancypants

A noble pony Rarity meets while in her "Dainty Dove" persona who invites her to the Canterlot Garden Party

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: In-universe and Played for Drama, with Rarity not being sure if he's an ally or not based on not knowing if he's in the Thieves' Guild or not, noting how there are various explanations for who he could be and his motives. A big part of the Garden Party storyline is trying to figure him out. Eventually his charactarization is revealed as a nice and legit pony with some sympathies to thieves..
  • Gray-and-Gray Morality: While he considers the Thieves Guild's criminal actions a problem, he also considers the agency that moves against them to be overzealous in their actions. While he feels the Equestrian Crimes Commission has good intentions, he also feels they ignore that thieves are people who can change as well.
  • Love Redeems: Professes belief in this.
  • Nice Guy: Perfectly cordial to Rarity and eventually revealed to be totally legit.
  • Red Herring: Is set up as possibly being Elusive, the leader of the Thieves Guild, but turns out to be a legitimate, honest man.

    Headmaster Glimmer 

Starlight Glimmer

The headmaster of the school of friendship in the School Raze one-off. Her mysterious disappearance, orchestrated by Cozy Glow, allows the young child to briefly usurp her position.

  • Damsel in Distress: She spends the majority of the story arc trapped within the elaborate conjuration that Cozy's been using to siphon all the world's magic.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In-universe, it's blatantly obvious that she's a recolored Twilight, so much that the players make note of it.

Antagonists

    Nightmare Moon 

Nightmare Moon

The first major villain the party faces, who was intended to serve as a major threat for the entire campaign.

  • Final Boss Preview: Was meant to be this, along with a Hopeless Boss Fight.
  • Long Lost Sibling: Announced in the campaign opening; pity nobody was really paying that much attention...
  • Not Worth Killing: She was supposed to do this so that the party would survive their first fight with her. Then Twilight figured out how the Elements worked, and she decided to kill them after all. Then Twilight successfully used the Elements and rainbow-nuked her to oblivion.

    The Red Dragon 

The Red Dragon

The antagonist of the second campaign, a dragon whose den is too close to Ponyville. Not particularly fond of ponies.

  • Breaking Speech: After Rainbow Dash finally snaps and attacks him, he starts a snide lecture about how all their talk of 'love and friendship' is nothing more than talk... only to get cut off by Dash bucking him again.
  • Fantastic Racism: Does not like ponies, seeing them as pathetic and inferior.

    Zecora 

Zecora

The focus of the third campaign. Is this mysterious zebra Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, or just as sinister as she seems...?

    The Diamond Dogs 

The Diamond Dogs

A group of enemies that start as the focus of a Rarity-centric adventure, but become the whole party's problem after they abduct her.

  • Breaking Speech: Unlike the Red Dragon, the Head of the Diamond Dogs manages to deliver a full rant about the perceived hypocrisy of po-nies without getting interrupted.
  • Mister Exposition: Specifically, they provide exposition about how their race views the po-nies.
  • Screw You, Elves!: The basis of the leader's rant, replacing elves with ponies.
  • Simpleton Voice: Exploited by the GM: their speech style caused Rarity's player to underestimate them at first.
  • Verbal Tic: "Po-nies".

    Blueblood 

Blueblood/Elusive

After Rarity has a falling-out with her guild, the group decides to give the character a spectacular send-off by getting her engaged to a prince. However, he turns out to have a much larger, devastating secret than just being a pompous jerk.

  • Arc Villain: He's responsible for blacklisting Rarity, trying to defame Luna, and causing chaos at the Gala.
  • Antagonistic Offspring: He sought to undermine and usurp power from his aunt Celestia.
  • Artifact of Doom: Used Rarity and Sapphire Shore's past contributions to the guild to acquire the Alicorn Amulet, amplifying both his powers and his insecure personality traits.
  • Bad Boss: His closest lieutenants are quick to abandon him when deemed disposable, and are easily convinced to deem him a "fake" Elusive when the Guild falls under new management.
  • It's All About Me: Much like the original show's version of Blueblood, he's incredibly pompous and would prefer humiliating Rarity over getting himself dirty.
  • Legacy Character: After his defeat, Celestia "goes all Shadow Broker" and becomes the next Elusive, to secretly keep the Thieves' Guild in check and invoke some internal reform.
  • Mistaken for an Imposter: The next "Elusive", Celestia, denounces him as a crazy impostor in order to gain control of his Guild.
  • Secret Identity: He's Elusive, the leader of the Thieves' Guild.
  • The Unfavorite: Celestia admits after his downfall that, out of everyone that could have been Elusive, it's actually a relief that it was her arrogant nephew all along.
  • Walking Spoiler: There's a rather significant, character-defining twist to him that wasn't present in the source material.

    Discord 

Discord, co-DM and God of Chaos

The greatest villain the heroes have ever faced, not only is he a God of Chaos but he is played by an entirely new DM.

The normal DM called in Discord and gave him all the information he needed to mess with the players in meta ways, making him a threat like nothing they had ever faced.

  • A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The party and the pony GM use the events of the "What About Discord" arc to show him firsthand what it feels like having his own flaws (both in-character and real-life) used against him in a manipulative manner. This isn't used solely for revenge - the GM believes that while Discord's player would have understood the problem academically if it were just explained to him, he needed to have some firsthand experience of why this method of playing was a problem. Discord's first response is that the GM might just have an issue with communication (which they admit is one of their problems) but otherwise sees the point. The party admits to themselves that this would not have been a good thing to do to a newbie player, but with how experienced Discord was, they decided it was worth trying.
  • Arc Villain: Dealing with him directly is the focus of both the "Return of Harmony" and "What About Discord" arcs, with the arcs in-between still indirectly affected by his actions.
  • Broken Pedestal: The pony GM looked up to Discord's player as a shining example of a DM who could craft exciting plotlines that challenged their players and left them with stories that would last long past the table, even inviting him to the DM's own table as he fears that he can't make it "impressive" enough for his players. It's only when seeing the effects of Discord's play style on the pony players that he realizes that it might have be more harmful than either of them thought, and that something needed to change. Played with, in that the two still consider each other friends even after the conclusion the "What About Discord" arc and plan to play with each other again, and the pony GM still respects Discord!DM's talents away from the table, he just doesn't have his "rose-tinted glasses" regarding his mentor anymore.
  • Conflict Ball: His initial strategy in the Return of Harmony arc was to leave each PC with a curse that would strain their relationship and weaken the Elements of Harmony. The problem was that this involved targeting the flaws of the players as much as their characters, creating a risk of the table falling apart.
    • With Applejack, he targeted the player's metagaming tendencies by offering to reveal information in exchange for the PC being cursed. The player readily accepted and asked for details about Discord's plan, thinking she could outsmart the curse... only for Discord to laden her with a curse that prevented her from talking about what she learned in any obvious way. As she puts it later, he left her a puzzle box and she ended up focusing on that puzzle to the detriment of the rest of the party.
    • With Rarity, he played into her roleplaying, suggesting that if she didn't take the diamond offered, it would be offered to her enemies, as well as identifying her in-character need for control, leading her to accepting the curse. Rarity is initially excited about this, but ends up leaning too much into the curse, focusing on her own enjoyment in playing someone crazy paranoid while aggravating the party.
    • Like with Rarity, Discord!DM appealed to Pinkie Pie's sense of roleplaying, but in a different direction - framing it as an opportunity to broaden her horizons by coming up with new jokes (being disingenuous about the fact that it was a curse meant to divide the party, as even the regular GM noted afterwards). In this case, Pinkie Pie opted to parody the overly grim and serious types, playing Pinkie Pie almost like a 90s Anti-Hero. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the party were busy dealing with the various curses and either missed the joke or just didn't find it funny. Pinkie Pie, not used to a joke not just falling flat but actually depressing people, opted to double-down in the hopes that it would loop around to funny again.
    • Like in the show, Discord's attempt to fool Fluttershy failed and he had to force the curse on her. In this case, the player immediately recognized what was happening and didn't even entertain him, calling him out on the manipulative tactics. Discord!DM took this personally (though she had intended it more for the character than the person) and he gave her the curse of not using a filter on what she was saying. While Fluttershy managed to be somewhat helpful by telling Twilight about the curses, her frustrations with the situation slipped through a lot more and she ended up acting a lot meaner than normal, to the point of wondering if this was the real her.
    • Discord offers Rainbow Dash the same Sadistic Choice as in the original show (either betray her friends or leave Cloudsdale to crumble). In the webcomic Rainbow Dash sides with the party without hesitation, and even manages to not get cursed. Unfortunately, Discord revealing that RD willingly let a town face a cataclysm sparks a brief argument between her and Applejack, not helped that RD was a bit smug about the whole thing.
    • Twilight Sparkle... isn't cursed at all. Instead, she starts to crack from the building frustration with her friends and the situation (wanting to solve the problem while her friends become bigger and bigger obstacles towards that). Discord even starts to gloat about this.. which makes the pony GM realize this might have gone too far, forcibly calling a close to Discord!DM's monologue before calling break to talk with Twilight (and soon the rest of the players).
  • Indy Ploy: Pulls off a succession of these in the "What About Discord?" arc; he retreats upon realizing the players have powered up, and upon realizing the one hit he took has given him a time limit before complete re-petrification, utilizes the normal GM's lore notebooks and a potential loophole from Feeling Pinkie Keen (which was covered by the comic roughly eight years previously) in order to attempt to weaponize the Power of Friendship against the players.
  • The Mentor: He was the pony GM's first DM, who taught him not just the game but how to DM. A lot of the GM's less popular tactics (such as blacklisting Rarity from the Thieves' Guild without discussing it with her player) can be traced back to Discord liking to surprise his players.
  • Meta Guy: Weaponized. He attacks not just the ponies, but the players, exploiting their flaws and finding ways to trick them into roleplaying their own friendship fallout.
  • Reality Warper: As AJ puts it, he has all the normal reality warping powers of a DM, without the limiter of needing to make the changes logical.
  • Sadistic Choice: He gives one to Rainbow Dash, telling her that Cloudsdale is about to be destroyed, but if she flies off to save it she'll be quitting the game and screwing over her friends. She stays with her friends (unlike in the show), and AJ's player actually drops out of character to tear into her for doing it way too quickly.
    Applejack: The correct answer to a hostage-taking is NEVER "Just burn it down; I don't care!" Ah know you'd rather punch things than let yerself get yanked around, but you gotta look fer more options! You can stall. You can negotiate. You can run a game of your own. Ya don't just blow it all up!
    Fluttershy: Not to mention, that choice plays right into Discord's hand by creating... this situation...
    Rainbow Dash: It was an arbitrary, binary challenge designed by an all-powerful god. Refusing to play might've been seen as breaking Rule 2. There was no guarantee something wouldn't happen to Cloudsdale LATER. The choice I made was meaningless!

    Cozy Glow 

Cozy Glow

As a sort of "palate cleanser" after the Return of Harmony arc, the GM decides to set up School Raze as a one-off, set in a mostly ambiguous future where different races have come together to learn the power of friendship. Contrasting the overly cruel nature and godly powers of the previous villain, the main antagonist is a conniving, short-sighted, intentionally riff-able child that plans to take said power, and all the world's magic, for herself.

Guest Players

    Natalie 

Natalie

A devoted roleplayer, she responds eagerly to the invitation to design characters for this new pony-based system and comes up with the Great and Powerful Trixie.

  • Foil: To Twilight, causing her player to worry that she might have overloaded her own character with too many 'super-special and unique' traits.
  • Last of Her Kind: The Sole Survivor of her Doomed Hometown and has draconic blood and is the last descendant of an ancient unicorn civilization.

    Cory 

Cory

A cousin of AJ's player, which is how he and his friends get introduced to the pony system. Though reluctant at first, he can't help putting his usual flair into his character designs...
  • The Munchkin:
    • His first character attempt was Snips, whose talent was that he could cut anything. Anything. As a trade-off, he was a short, socially awkward Jerkass.
    • His second design was Mare Do Well, who he wanted to have all of the racial talents. By making him an Earth Pony Swordsmage who was also half Pegasus and half Unicorn.
    • His third attempt? Big Mac... as a Feral Earth Pony who already had a 'Hitching Saddle of Strength', and who was related to AJ solely to mooch off the sweet setup she'd created with her Backstory.
  • The Voiceless: Mare Do Well took a vow of silence.

    Luke 

Luke

Cory's long-time friend, and a gamer who lives by the Rule of Fun and Rule of Funny.

    Rika 

Rika

Another cousin of Cory and AJ's player. Wasn't present for the first shared session, but later tries to help organize one online.

    Gilda's Player 

Gilda/Cheese Sandwich

A friend of Dash's player that shows up for her birthday-slash-character-rebuilding-session (due to the online character builder moving up to 5th edition D&D and locking the 4e tools behind a paywall), and decides to join in. However, knowing Dash's player's preference for combat over diplomacy, having heard Dash's own accounts of "lame and boring" past sessions, and assuming she's just "putting up with" her current group, she tries to force the other players to re-evaluate their characters and take on more optimized builds. After an argument with Pinkie's player, she also quickly rolls up a secondary character to try and out-Bard her.

  • The Munchkin: Tries to manipulate the other players into adjusting their skills and min-maxing their abilities, because she knows Dash prefers action & combat, and assumed she wasn't really having fun playing a story-focused pony game. She's also known for building overpowered builds in the past, with her regular DM allowing their players to start at Level 16 to immediately take advantage of whatever crazy build they can think of.

    Shining Armor's Player 

Shining Armor

Originally, Shining Armor existed to pad out Twilight's backstory, which her player initially resisted due to personal issues. However, following the School Raze arc, Twilight learns that her actual brother and fiance would be visiting soon and wanted to join a game...for a session that they helped design, at that.

  • Didn't Think This Through: He says as much when realizing that introducing his fiance by having her play a seemingly evil fiance might not have been the wisest choice.
  • Real-Life Relative: In-Universe twice over; his character's sister is played by his real-life sister, and his character's fiance is played by his real-life fiance.
  • Shared Family Quirks: Applejack's player notes a similarity to Twilight's when learning that the first thing he wants to do when he gets to town is play a tabletop game. And Twilight's player, learning that her brother would usually be inclined to get to the root of a problem and focus on it to the detriment of even his own fun, utters a small "You too?"

    Princess Cadance's Player 

Princess Cadance

Originally existing to pad out Twilight's backstory, until the news that Twilight's actual brother and fiance would be visiting. She and Shining bonded over roleplaying, and he even proposed during a past game.

  • Mean Character, Nice Actor: Cadance is rude and dismissive of everyone during the wedding preparations, but her player makes sure that she doesn't cross any boundaries (such as by skipping a confrontation with Fluttershy), and compliments the hard work of others (such as Rarity's dress design).
  • Obviously Evil: Cadance is pretty obviously up to something, made all the more obvious because her player is a bit of a ham. Twilight initially feels weird being distrustful of her, but Cadance steps out of character to remind her that it's all a game and investigating what's going on is part of the fun.
    Applejack: ...Y'all realize that's basically admittin' yer up to somethin', right?
    Cadance: Who, me? Never.
  • Real-Life Relative: In-Universe. Her character's fiance is played by her real-life fiance.

The Guest Arc

    The Game Master's Friend 

The Spin-Off Game Master

A friend of the DM, who's now the first-time GM for an entire group of new players, and wants to give them a fun time. They lacked initiative, but were interested in the tales of others' adventures, so they requested some notes on the pony campaign that their players could use as a starting point. Twilight's player decides to join them for a session, when the rest of the main group have scheduling conflicts.

  • Gone Horribly Right: Is happy that Twilight is reinvigorating the group, until they start thinking that Twilight's player is conspiring to steal their friends (not helped by "talking behind their back" with their regular DM via texts).
  • Green-Eyed Monster: When they convince themself that Twilight's player is conspiring against them.
  • Heel Realization: Has one at the end of the Guest Arc, realizing that over-adherence to a set plan and jumping to conclusions nearly ruined not only the game, but also their friendships.
  • It's All About Me: Gets blindsided by their image of a perfect game, until it's pointed out that it's something shaped by everyone, players included.
  • Plot Parallel: They have much in common with their own portrayal of Sunset, after Twilight/her player befriends everyone and seems to turn them against Sunset/the GM in a single session. The difference is, until confronted with their actions, the GM doesn't think they're also a bully.
    Sunset!GM (as Sunset): Just couldn't let things be, could you? Had to ruin all of my hard work.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Assumes their players will only stay interested in the game if they continue following the plans, that Twilight wants and is able to run the campaign better than them, and that Twilight's gossiping about them to the other DM behind their back, all of which leads to the breakdown at the arc's end.
  • Railroading: Believes there is a way things are "supposed" to play out, not wanting the campaign to flop and their passive players feeling unsatisfied at not having as grand an adventure as the pony group.
  • Serious Business: Is really emotional concerning the campaign, not helped by the fact that they loved playing and don't want to accidentally permanently dissuade others from playing by messing up as GM.
  • Talking the Monster to Death: When their frustrations come to a head, they try to wrap up the campaign with Sunset Shimmer powered to Nightmare Moon-ish levels. But instead of fighting it, the players vocalize their opinions, causing the GM to reevaluate their actions and what makes for a "good" game.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Is crying when they have Sunset transform and attack the party, and goes to pieces when their players point out how they're not acting like their friend.

    The New Players 

A group of five first-timers, plus one that's absent for the session Twilight partakes in. Although they struggle with coming up with original builds and identifying when their talents would be handy, after hearing about the regular and spin-off GM's "Story Time", they became intrigued towards the pony campaign and decided to base their own campaign on it.

  • Call-Back: The alt-Fluttershy starts off introducing her character by listing stats, just like the original, until Twilight asks her why she chose that character as a base.
  • Never the Selves Shall Meet: The player that used Twilight's character sheet as their base is absent for the session Twilight's player attends.
  • Not as You Know Them: The characters are similar, but there are some key differences with the players themselves. Alt-Pinkie, for example, is played by a drummer who was interested in all of her abilities, rather than being a constant source of levity.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Invoked, all of the players used the pony campaign and characters as starting points.

    Sunset Shimmer 

A reoccurring bully character in the other campaign, and the spin-off GM's primary mouthpiece.

  • The Bully: Her primary role.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Twilight.
  • GMPC: Shimmer was originally "built for [Twilight's] game" as one, with her backstory as Celestia's student allowing her to relay objectives to the players. She was discarded in the main campaign due to Twilight herself filling that role.
    GM: The idea was a PC that could know the world more... naturally. Keep things from going too far off rails.
  • I Have Your Wife: When Twilight's player's phone buzzes one too many times, the GM grabs it, states that Sunset's kidnapped Twilight's dog, and Sunset's "going to smash either him or [Twilight's] portal home with a sledgehammer".
  • One-Winged Angel: The Spin-Off GM, when their frustration peaks, has her transform into a demon to try and invoke a Nightmare Moon-esque epic fight that they expect everyone wants...
  • The Unfought: ...But when the players express their frustrations at the GM's current attitude and perceptions, the fight is ignored in favor of talking things out.

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