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Characters: Friendship Is Magic-The Princesses
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The land of Equestria is not ruled by a king or queen, but by a pair of beautiful Princesses. Celestia, the elder, is responsible for raising the Sun at dawn, and the younger Luna is responsible for bringing out the night at dusk. Together, they rule the land in harmony for all the different types of ponies. Celestia also has a niece with the title of "Princess" named Mi Amore Cadenza, who prefers to be called Cadance. Her special talent is inducing romantic love between ponies, though she is quite young and doesn't seem to be as powerful as the ruling sisters. All the princesses are pegasus unicorns, which is a rare among ponies and denotes their regal status (the only other ponies seen are pegasi (winged ponies), unicorns (can wield magic), or plain earth ponies). For Prince Blueblood (the sisters' nephew) and Princess Platinum (one of the founders of Equestria), see the Celebronies page, and for Léon (a Canon Foreigner cousin of Celestia's and presumably Luna's) see the Canon Foreigners page. Return to the character index here.
open/close all folders Tropes shared by Celestia and Luna "Reluctantly the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony! Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since." - All Your Powers Combined: Word Of God states that Winged Unicorns combine the natural abilities of Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth Ponies.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Compared to Celestia, Luna shows off her powers a lot more, and from what we see they appear to be impressive even outside of her Nightmare Moon incarnation. Control of weather with lightning galore seems to be one of her favorite tricks, but she also displays various other powers, such as turning toy spiders into actual huge spiders. However, it appears that Celestia is not one to be underestimated either: she is able to instantly revert all the effects caused by Twilight Sparkle's burst of wild magic and to dispel the Want It Need It spell from the entire population of Ponyville, not even getting into allegedly wielding the Elements of Harmony against Nightmare Moon on her own.
- Badass: Not only were they able to harness the greatest magic known to ponydom before the Mane Six, they used it to defeat Discord.
- Badass Princesses
- Bodyguarding A Badass: They both have their own guards despite possibly being the most powerful beings in the world. They seem to be there partly because it's traditional, and partly to handle to small stuff (they appear to be practically useless against real threats).
- Retired Badass: Both of them. Back when they could use the Elements of Harmony, they saved Equestria together at least once and then Celestia had to save it from Luna/Nightmare Moon. Celestia is still pretty Badass but she lets Twilight and the rest of the Mane Cast do the world saving now. At least unless a threat to Equestria uncloaks right in front of her.
- Badass Family: Luna and Celestia are both badasses, and their niece Cadance reveals herself to be Badass Princess in her own right. Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle became a part of the Badass Family thanks to Shining Armor's marriage to Cadence.
- Bishie Sparkle: Both princesses give off a sparkle at all times.
- Cain and Abel: While Luna was Nightmare Moon anyway.
- Cool Carriage/Flying Carriage: It isn't as if they need them but Celestia and Luna use their own Pegasus-drawn carriages almost always when they need to fly to certain parts of Equestria. While Celestia's royal carriage is very beautiful and graceful, Luna's carriage
 looks like a funeral carriage, full of spikes, chains and pulled by two really sinister-looking Pegasi.- Luna's sinister carriage must have been designed that way Just for Pun since another name for a funeral carriage is "Hearse", which means that Luna (A winged unicorn) is a Flying Horse on a Flying Hearse.
- Cool Crown
- Creation Myth
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Celestia and Luna defeated Discord in ancient times with the Elements of Harmony, despite him being much stronger than them even then.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: It's hard to do most of the time but do not get them mad. They're both extremely powerful Physical Goddesses and are not to be taken lightly (except for Discord but he's on a higher plane than both of them and paid for it in the end regardless). This is clearer with Princess Luna, who is far less reserved in showing off her power.
- Everything's Better with Princesses: Justified since they rule together and you cannot have two queens; also enforced by the Hasbro execs, who wanted the rulers to be princesses since many young girls (the target demographic) still equate queens with evil.
- Fish Eyes: In the toys, they both tend to suffer from this.
- Fleur de Lis: The ornament on their hooves.
- God Empresses
- A God I Am Not: They're powerful immortal forces of nature but they'd much rather relate to their subjects on a personal level and forgo with protocol.
- King of All Cosmos: Both princesses are Physical Gods who have their quirks. Celestia has a surprisingly mischievous sense of humor while Luna is quick-tempered and socially awkward.
- Large and in Charge: They're considerably larger than most of their subjects with Celestia as the older sister being the larger of the two.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine
- Meaningful Names
- Non-Standard Character Design: Along with Cadance, they're the only permanently winged unicorns (a.k.a. "Alicorns") to appear in the flesh on the show so far and they're noticeably more horse-like.
- Older than They Look: More noticeable on Princess Luna who looks younger than she actually is. A standing theory for this is that when Luna became Nightmare Moon, she stopped aging as Luna which explains why she became younger when she reverted back.
- Of course Celestia was described as the elder sister so it's possible they always looked that different. We have no idea how many years (even centuries) she is older by.
- Precursor Heroes: They were the wielders of the Elements of Harmony before the mane cast over one thousand years ago.
- Physical Goddess: Operating on the planetary and stellar levels.
- In "Luna Eclipsed", Luna displays a lot more of this than Celestia, pretty much summoning Dramatic Thunder and manipulating the weather with no effort at all. Since Celestia is the big sister, it can be assumed she's got the same power but is far more reserved in its use.
- Celestia's encounter with Queen Chrysalis in "A Canterlot Wedding" suggests that they may not be quite as 'cosmically' powerful as control over the sun and the moon respectively might indicate in another setting (and as they appear in some fan works), after all. Still quite powerful by pony standards, though.
- Which makes sense, as her cutie mark is the sun: her ability, unlike Twilight or even Trixie, is never stated to be magic, just magic that relates to controlling the sun which isn’t particularly helpful in a fight: I guess you could focus the power of the sun on an opponent in a fight, but I’d hate to think of the collateral damage of doing so indoors, surrounded by your loved ones, in the centre of your capital city.
- Princesses Rule: Word Of God says Executive Veto is the only reason Celestia's not Queen. According to the execs at Hasbro, little girls now associate queens with evil and Princesses with good.
- Really 700 Years Old: Both being over a thousand years old and part of the Creation Myth with Luna being the younger of the two.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Contrary to what was popular belief before "Luna Eclipsed," Luna is the Red while Celestia's the Blue.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Celestia is in charge of bringing forth daytime while Luna brings forth the night.
- Besides attending her royal duties, Celestia regularly visits her people and goes to their aid whenever the need arises (such as a Parasprite infestation in Fillydelphia). She has also been raising and lowering both the freaking Sun and the Moon on a daily basis for a millennium after Luna's banishment.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Celestia represents the sun while Luna represents the moon. Also Celestia is rather more laid back, friendly and even-tempered than Luna though that might be a result of Luna's outdated ideas of royal protocol (although she's pretty hammy without them).
- Supernatural Elite: Being both the rulers of Equestria and Physical Goddesses.
- The Usurper: The season 2 premiere reveals that Celestia and Luna stole the throne from Discord and appointed themselves as the new rulers of Equestria after trapping him in stone. Of course this was a good change as Discord's reign was a never-ending nightmare of chaos and suffering which was the reason they rose up against him in the first place.
- Winged Unicorns: The sisters and their niece Cadance are notably the only Winged Unicorns in the show (animation errors aside). What being a Winged Unicorn actually means in this setting is somewhat of a mystery, which coupled with their extreme rarity fuels a lot of speculation for fans.
- What they're technically called is something of a debate. The show's storybook opening calls the sisters unicorns and a post on the official Facebook page called Luna a "Pegasus unicorn", however most fans, some of the show's staff, and some officially licensed t-shirts use the term "alicorn"note note that technically "Alicorn" is actually the material that makes up a unicorn's horn. Why its used by most fans is probably because it sounds cooler. Also the term alicorn is often used because they're not just a cross between Pegasus and a Unicorn but a mix of all three races.. Just know if you see "alicorn" or "Pegasus unicorn" floating around in My Little Pony discussions, they're talking about Winged Unicorns.
- You Don't Look Like You: In the toys, Celestia is extremely pink (in earlier toys, at least), while Luna is closer to Twilight Sparkle's shade of purple and has Multicolored Hair.
Princess Celestia "I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart." Don't ask us how she brushes that mane.
Ruler of Equestria. According to the Creation Myth, she governs both the sun and the moon though she originally commanded "merely" the former and only assumed control of the latter after a disagreement with her sister pony-goddess. A white winged unicorn with a multicolored mane, she is noticeably taller and more slender than her subjects. She appears, is mentioned, or is depicted in every episode of the show so far. - Berserk Button: Threatening her domain and causing trouble for her subjects do not please her.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Oh, indeed.
- Big Eater: "Ponyville Confidential" caught her indulging herself on mountains of cake. Possibly justified in that she is over twice the size of most of her subjects.
- Big Fancy Castle: An expy of Minas Tirith.
- Big Good
- Catch Phrase: "That's quite alright."
- When addressing multiple ponies at the same time, she usually refers to them as "My Little Ponies" *
Justified perhaps since she's one of very few full-size horses in the series
- Characterization Marches On: Season 2 has been showing a more serious and strict side of Celestia, contrasting with her ever calm and relaxed personality from Season 1.
- Now we get to see that yes, it IS possible to see Celestia being fallible, vulnerable and overwhelmed. She can also get scared, upset or even angry. Ohh boy, you don't want to see Celestia getting angry.
- The Chessmaster: The pilot, the first season finale and the two-part season 2 opening though a rather benevolent version.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: As of Season 2, her horn and objects affected by her magic have a bright yellow glow.
- Cool Big Sis: To Twilight and her friends, to a certain degree. Being their goddess, they're in awe of her.
- It's obvious Celestia adores Luna after she gets reverted from being Nightmare Moon and part 1 of "The Return of Harmony" confirms they were good friends before that (sharing the Elements of Harmony).
- Cool Crown
- Cool Pet: Her sickly pet bird Philomeena who is actually a Phoenix near her rebirth phase.
- And a Troll appropriately enough given the later entry.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Completely averted by what we've actually seen, but some of her subjects (Twilight in particular, who should really know her better) seem to fear she will engage in this for minor infractions like looking after her pet without permission or missing a school assignment.
- Eccentric Mentor: She's got a rather mischievous sense of humor for a Physical Goddess.
- Ermine Cape Effect: While not to the tacky extreme seen in other girl shows, she is constantly dressed in impeccable finery and a tiara every time she appears. There's also her rainbow-colored gravity-defying hair.
- For Happiness: And Friendship. And Magic. And cakes.
- God Job: Bringing the Sun and the Moon up every day for a thousand years until Luna was redeemed and the Sun alone for some while before.
- God of Good: While her overt role is being the goddess of the sun, she fills most other qualities.
- Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Notable in that all of her accessories are gold.
- Good Is Not Soft: She's a genuinely good pony who cares about her subjects and sister with all her heart. That said, she shows no mercy to a truly evil villain like Discord (twice) and was willing to seal her own sister away when she turned into Nightmare Moon.
- Guile Hero: Despite being a hero, she's more than willing to resort to Batman and Xanatos Gambits to lead the heroes to victory. And then there's masterminding Discord's defeat by simply sending Twilight Sparkle all of the friendship letters she'd sent the entire first season.
- Hidden Depths: She comes across mostly as a formal and regal High Queen and it probably comes across stronger to her subjects. Now observe her mischievous side.
- The High Queen: Most everypony around her treats her like this but it's implied she'd prefer a more relaxed approach.
- Hot Goddess: She is drawn more aesthetically...more clean, shiny, "beautiful" and pretty...compared to the rest of the cast. It's implied that she is (or at least fits) the ideal for equine beauty in Equestria; for example, the beauty parlor in Ponyville has a picture of a pony with her tall and slender proportions.
- 100% Adoration Rating: Her people absolutely love her.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness
- It's Personal: While we don't learn exactly what he did, it's clear from how she reacts to Discord that she hates him with a passion.
- Light is Good
- Lonely at the Top: She suffers a small degree of this though it may have been cured after her reunion with her sister.
- Mama Bear: The Changeling Queen almost learns this the hard way when she reveals her plans to ruin the wedding.
- Modest Royalty: Fits the personality associated at least. She is very social and prefers livelier more personal get-togethers over extravagant soirees. It turns out this is one of the major reasons she invites Twilight and her friends to the Grand Galloping Gala. She hates how dull the event usually is since she spends effectively the whole Gala welcoming guests and doesn't get to enjoy it and she's hoping the girls will liven things up a bit. They do.
- Multicolored Hair: Rainbow pastels.
- My Greatest Failure: It really tore her up when she exiled her sister to the moon and the entire plot of the pilot is to remedy this.
- She also feels rather guilty about not realizing the seal keeping Discord imprisoned has been broken until it's too late.
- No Nonsense Nemesis: Her reaction to Discord's escape is pretty much this. She calls the Mane Cast in and outright tells them to use the Elements Of Harmony to take Discord out ASAP. Unfortunately Discord is more Genre Savvy but she earns points for trying. Justified as she was there the last time he'd been free and knows just how dangerous he really is.
- One-Hour Work Week: Averted hard. In all her appearances, she is shown to be at work, giving work, going to work or being called almost immediately to work either directly to the government or trying to keep the very realm happy and safe.
- OOC Is Serious Business: Her behavior in the season 2 premiere is at odds with her normally relaxed manner in the first season which serves to underline just how serious a threat Discord is. To compare, when dealing with Nightmare Moon, she just sort of lets Twilight stumble upon the answer. Here she gives the Mane Six the Elements of Harmony (or tries to anyway) and straight up tells them to take Discord out. This may possibly be subverted: in the first example, the elements wouldn't work at all until Twilight made friends who could wield them. In the second, they could already use them.
- Also the season 2 premiere is the first time when Celestia is shown to be vulnerable and fallible: She is unable to wield the power of the Elements of Harmony, Discord manages to outsmart her by stealing the Elements under her nose and rather than resort to an alternate plan, Celestia's only reaction is to jaw-drop and stand there with an Oh Crap expression on her face. Yes; Discord is that much of a menace.
- "Lesson Zero" also showed us the first time Celestia gets visibly upset for Twilight's irresponsible use of magic: the Oh Crap look on Twilight and her friends was worth a thousand words.
- In "A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1," she's obviously pissed at Twilight after the latter confronts the fake Cadance at the wedding rehearsal. In part 2, she goes straight-up Lady of War on the revealed Queen Chrysalis...right before getting worfed.
- Parental Substitute: Word of God mentions that Spike was raised by Celestia.
- Peek-a-Bangs
- The Power of the Sun
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Averted in-show as she has pink in her Multicolored Hair and has pink outlines but is mostly white. However the earlier toys based off her were Enforced into becoming this, as toy retailers would only sell it in pink despite the fact that she's actually shown as white on the box (and in the commercials).
- Reasonable Authority Figure
- Renowned Selective Mentor: Is this for Twilight Sparkle.
- Requisite Royal Regalia: Not really necessary, but she is always adorned with a golden tiara, a golden necklace, and golden shoes.
- Rose-Haired Pony: The show's Storybook Opening depicts her as this.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: She maintains life in Equestria. Apparently, she also seems to be the source (or a catalyst) of many of the magical properties in Equestria.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Celestia, granted, generally desires a less formal relationship with her subjects and has a rather puckish sense of humor, but she clearly is a mare of great elegance and refinement. At the same time, when the chips are down, the steel comes out as when she orders the Mane Six to do away with Discord.
- She even goes horn-to-horn with Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings in order to keep her kingdom safe.
- Socialite: Averted. She prefers more casual reunions and is so bored by the biggest and most important social event in the country that she is ecstatic when the core group quite almost literally brings down half of her palace because it livens things up. She also enjoys very much the casual reunion in the small donut shop with her student and friends.
- Standard Royal Court: Or more standard-ish than the rest of the incarnations. So far, there have been nobles, guards, a few royal positions and the Mayor as a model of government.
- Stern Teacher: In "Lesson Zero", she gives Twilight an extremely stern look and an equally stern order for Twilight to "meet her in the library". Absolutely justifiable though considering the chaos Twilight caused and the fact that Celestia had to fix it.
- Stop Worshipping Me: Well...not literally but in many of her appearances, she's shown to be quite uncomfortable with all the genuflection and adoration (or fear) her subjects display. This could also explain why she takes so much interest in Twilight's lessons and letters and why she enjoys the meetings between her and the core cast so much.
- Sweet Tooth: "Ponyville Confidential" and "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" both imply she has a weakness for pastries.
- Teleporters and Transporters: "Lesson Zero" revealed that Celestia can teleport at will...possibly over a far greater distance than Twilight can. She implicitly came directly from her castle, a distance Twilight is shown to match only under extreme emergency, and that only once so far. This can explain why she literally appeared out from nowhere during season 1 to deliver her advice to Twilight and friends.
- This Means War!: The actions of Discord upon his return angered her. Until that moment, nobody even knew she could get angry. Her explanation of what happened over 1000 years ago and what we see Discord do in the present imply she has very good reason to hate him.
- Trickster Mentor: She occasionally manipulates Twilight Sparkle in order to teach her a valuable lesson or encourage her to do something exceptional. Usually. See below for when it's for personal reasons.
- Troll: Mostly according to Fanon, but "A Bird in the Hoof" and "The Best Night Ever" do show her engaging in a bit of lighthearted mischief at her subjects' expense.
- Unmoving Plaid: The colors of her mane wave...just not in the same way that the mane itself moves. Might have something to do with her practically being a Physical God.
- Woman in White: Emphasizing how Light is Good.
- The Mare Wearing the Princess-ly Mask: A far more benign example but Celestia shows a great desire to be in a closer and more personal relationship with her subjects instead of the adoration, noble politeness, praise and nervousness she causes wherever she goes and she holds extremely dear her informal relationship with her star student.
- The Worf Effect: The Changeling Queen defeats her at the Royal Wedding, since the Changeling Queen had absorbed enough power from Shining Armor's love at that point. Though it should be noted, even with her massive power boost, Queen Chrysalis was visibly straining against Celestia's power, so she didn't lose that easily.
- You Don't Look Like You: Celestia in the cartoons is white, but her earlier toy incarnations are pink.
Princess Luna "You no longer have reason to fear us. Screams of delight is what your princess desires...not screams of terror."
Princess Celestia's younger sister. She co-rules Equestria alongside her older sister. According to the Creation Myth, she used to govern nighttime, but grew jealous of her sister and wound up sealed away for a thousand years as the Mare in the Moon. After being defeated by the reformed Elements of Harmony, she Heel Face Turns and becomes Princess Luna again, resuming her nighttime duties. Her only appearances in the show so far are " Friendship is Magic, part 2", " Luna Eclipsed" (her only major role), " A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1", and " A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2". For her "corrupted" form, Nightmare Moon, see here Princess Cadance "This day was going to be perfect. The kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small." Voiced by Britt McKillip * tweet by Jayson Thiessen, this tweet by Daniel Ingram, and this interview with Ashleigh Ball]]
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, better known as Princess Cadance, is a pretty pearl pink princess pony and niece of Princess Celestia (and probably Luna's). She had been acquainted with Twilight Sparkle as she was her foal-sitter when she was really small. It was also back then that she met the colt who would eventually become her husband, Shining Armor. Her main talent appears to be bringing love to others. However, she had not been acting as herself in the days coming up to her wedding... - All There in the Manual:
- Her being Celestia's niece has only been mentioned in promotional materials.
- Her collector card◊ reveals that she "loves tiaras."
- Badass Princess: She vanquishes Chrysalis' brainwashed bridesmaids, dispels Chrysalis' brainwashing spell on Shining Armor, and together with him banishes the evil Queen and all of her changeling swarms far away from Equestria with a powerful magic blast.
- Battle Couple: With Magic Knight and captain of the Royal Guard Shining Armor. The first time we actually see the real Cadance with him as a couple, they kick Queen Chrysalis' flank.
- Color-Coded Wizardry: Her magic aura is the same color as the heart in her cutie mark.
- Cool Big Sis: Was this to Twilight when she was a filly and Cadance was her foalsitter. She returns to being this when they're reunited. Then literally becomes this by marrying Twilight's brother.
- Curtains Match the Window: Her eyes match part of her Multicolored Hair (the main part, judging by the color of its outline).
- Damsel in Distress: Queen Chrysalis imprisons her under Canterlot until she's rescued by Twilight Sparkle. However, once freed she shows she can handle herself pretty damn well.
- Dark Secret: Subverted in that the real Cadance doesn't have one, her impostor does.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Returns the favor to Queen Chrysalis for doing this to her aunt when she and Shining Armor's love is used to power a combined spell that defeats Chrysalis.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She and Shining Armor were advertised well before their debut.
- Everything's Better with Princesses
- Foil: To Chrysalis. It is probably most apparent in their duet, "This Day Aria"
- In-Series Nickname: Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is known throughout the kingdom as Cadance. It's such an established nickname that even Twilight didn't know it wasn't her real name. Justified, as it seems she personally prefers to be called Cadance over her full name.
- Happily Married: To Shining Armor.
- Heart Beat Down / The Power of Love: Seems to be her form of magic. She even has a heart-shaped jewel as her cutie mark.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Compared to commanding the sun and moon and the Physical Goddess level powers her aunts show, control over love doesn't seem that impressive. Then she weaponizes The Power of Love alongside her husband to give a Heart Beat Down to the Big Bad even her aunt couldn't beat. Even though The Power of Friendship is the most powerful magic in Equestria, underestimating its close cousin is still a very bad idea.
- Love Goddess: While never stated, this seems to fit her and is her special talent. In a flashback, she uses her magic to quiet an arguing couple and help them remember their love for each other. Then she and Shining Armor's magic was able to repel the changelings.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Meta-example; she was showcased months before her relationship to Celestia was revealed, however its only mentioned in an episode synopsis and not the show itself.
- Magical Nanny: Cadance and Shining Armor first met when Cadance would foal-sit for Twilight Sparkle.
- Meaningful Name: "Mi Amore" is Italian for "My love".
- Not quite. 'My Love' in Italian would be 'il mio amore' or possibly 'amore mio'. 'Mi Amore' gets the point across, though.
- Modest Royalty: Doesn't even think being a member of the royal family is a big deal.
- Multicolored Hair: Interestingly, it's pretty much the same colors as that of toy-exclusive Earth pony Cupcake/Sugarcup, another pink mare.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Besides being a winged unicorn, she has gradient wings.
- Only Known by Their Nickname/Some Call Me Tim: Her full name is Mi Amore Cadenza, but she's known as Cadance; it must be easier to remember. Twilight, who has known her from childhood, never knew her real name until Shining Armor told her in "A Canterlot Wedding Part 1".
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The pink to Shining Armor's blue.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: She's one positively pink pony princess. Her toys are just as pink as Pinklestia, if not moreso.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: She and Shining Armor saved Canterlot from Queen Chrysalis with a love-powered magic spell!
- When she was a teenager, she babysat Twilight even before Twilight became Princess Celestia's student.
- Spell My Name with an S: Both "Cadance" and "Cadence" have been used multiple times by multiple sources. "Cadance" tends to be used in newer promotional media (The Hub's homepage, back when it listed the name, used "Cadence" at first but later switched to "Cadance"), while "Cadence" is how it's spelled by the script of "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" and how it tends to be spelled by the show's crew; Jayson Thiessen has said "I personally use 'Cadence' but it may be debatable." Based on the evidence, it seems that the official spelling was changed from "Cadence" to "Cadance" late in the game. Looking at the two spellings, it's hard to tell because "Cadence" as a proper word would fit the show's pattern of meaningful and/or punny names much better and be a more obvious derivative of "Cadenza" (which is basically just Italian for, yet again, "cadence"), yet on the other hoof "Cadance" apparently does exist as a proper if uncommon female first name in real life. The jury may still be out.
- Spoiled Sweet: implied to be this. Even though Cadance is a princess, she still foal-sat Twilight Sparkle and thoroughly enjoyed doing it. And Twilight has very fond memories of her, which is why her cold, superior attitude upon meeting her again immediately sets off some alarm bells in her head. She's right - that Cadance is not the real one, but a Changeling imposter.
- Stealth Pun: Her full name is Italian, and since Pegasus unicorns are sometimes called alicorns, this would make her an Italicorn.
- Celestia looks after the day, Luna looks after the night, and Cadance looked after Twilight (Sparkle).
- Tuckerization: Named after Cadince◊, the daughter of a Hasbro Studios executive.
- Unkempt Beauty: Despite being locked and dirtied in a cave for Celestia-knows*
Not really; she didn't even know her own niece had been replaced by an impostor. how long, she still quite the stunner when she is found. - Unmoving Plaid: When she performs a Power of Love-fueled spell with Shining Armor, her mane begins to flow just like Celestia's for a short time, only to settle back into a solid form when it's all done. That sort of flowing mane might be an indication of power among Winged Unicorns.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Despite being a royal Alicorn, Cadance's magic is very weak and limited (Twilight's magic is more powerful and versatile than hers) plus her special "love" talent cannot create love, only rekindle and amplify the one already present between couples. This trope is subverted at the end, as Cadance's love power is what allows Shining Armor to perform once again his barrier spell, this time supercharged with Cadance's own power.
- Wing Pull: Justified. Being in an underground cave, her wings aren't much use, and are kept tucked in close to her sides while escape attempts are made. But when Twilight and her aren't going to make a long jump, they finally come out in full force.
- Winged Unicorn: She seems to be a garden variety one compared to the Physical God princess duo. Flashbacks demonstrate that she's about the same age as Shining Armor is.
- Cadence was originally going to be a regular unwinged unicorn, but it was changed somewhere along the line.
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