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Characters / Friendship Is Magic: Fluttershy

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The Main Cast: Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, the Cutie Mark Crusaders
Supporting Cast: The Princesses (Princess Celestia, Princess Luna), Mane Family Members, the School of Friendship, Ponyville, Other Locations, Animal Companions
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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fluttershy_7.png
Don't stare too long, you may die from cuteness.
"Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness."

Voiced by: Andrea LibmanForeign VAs 
As "Flutterguy": Blu Mankuma ("Bridle Gossip"), Alvin Sanders (speaking) and Marcus Mosely (singing) ("Filli Vanilli")Foreign VAs 

The bearer of the Element of Kindness. A Pegasus 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. Her Pillar of Old Equestria is Mage Meadowbrook.


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    Tropes A to C 
  • Acrophobic Bird: In early episodes, Fluttershy was afraid of heights despite having the ability to fly. Said fear of heights also appears in flashbacks to her childhood. Justified, as she's noted in-universe as being a weak flier under normal circumstances (though she's demonstrated that she's actually capable of being much stronger when pushed). Spike lampshades this in "Party of One".
  • All-Loving Hero: When you're the Element of Kindness, it comes naturally. She's willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, up to and including Discord.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Fluttershy was bullied while growing up in Cloudsdale because of her poor flying ability. At flight camp, whenever she failed to fly, the other pegasus foals would surround her and chant, "Fluttershy! Fluttershy! Fluttershy can hardly fly!" The only pegasus that ever stood up for her, much less befriended her, was Rainbow Dash. This led to her Performance Anxiety; she's far more comfortable amongst her animal friends, and can only show off her true skills before other ponies when danger is imminent.
  • Animal Lover: She loves animals, looks after them, and one of her, well, pet peeves is an animal in danger. Notably, she is shown to be entirely indiscriminate in her love of animals — while by default she's seen interacting with a straightforward assortment of Woodland Creatures, she's often shown interacting with ferocious monsters and with traditionally "gross" or "creepy" animals such as spiders, snakes, bats and the like, which she treats with the exact same unconditional gushing and affection that she has for squirrels, birds and bunnies.
  • Animal Motifs: Even ignoring her cutie mark being three butterflies, she's docile and capable of flight like the insect. Her name also rhymes with "butterfly".
  • Apologizes a Lot: It's like she was brought up in a culture where apologizing is the social grace for everything you ever do. Just ask Rarity:
    Rarity: [exasperated] Oh, what now?!
    Fluttershy: [completely sincere] Oh, sorry. I thought the "Open" sign meant you were open, but I must have been mistaken.
  • Badass Adorable: THE ultimate cute pony, second to none and the crowning example for this series. 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 to the point of tears and then a cockatrice that was in the process of petrifying her to protect her friends from harm.
    • She calms down Cerberus when it invades Ponyville by giving it a belly rub. That's right, not even the guardian of the underworld is any match for Fluttershy. Granted, Cerbeus is domesticated in this series, but she was also the only pony in town not the least bit terrified of him.
    • 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 holds her own by faking out the enemy and using her shyness to cause one to trip up.
    • She reformed Discord by being nice to him and then threatening to withhold her friendship.
    • She's the one who manages to expose Starlight Glimmer's lies and orchestrate her defeat, without once laying a hoof on her. The worst she does is throw a bucket of water on her.
    • In the movie, she gets one of the Storm King's minions to open up to her about its insecurities and manages to befriend it in the process.
  • Badass Pacifist: She never resorts to violence, even when enraged, and is the resident Friend to All Living Things. And yet she is able to scold a nest of angry bees into not attacking, pacify an angry Manticore, admonish a dragon into submission, and make a cockatrice almost soil itself after she gave it "The Stare", staring down a creature whose own stare was turning her into stone. In "Keep Calm and Flutter On", Fluttershy and her friends were given the seemingly impossible task of reforming Discord. Fluttershy's effort to befriend him was key to actually accomplishing this goal. In other words, she managed to make a reality warping Mad God do a Heel–Face Turn by simply being nice to him.
  • Bat People: In "Bats!", she's turned into a nonhuman variant of this after taking in the nature of vampire fruit bats, gaining batlike wings instead of her feathered ones and turning into a feral, vampire-like fruit-sucker.
  • Beast and Beauty: The Beauty to Discord's Beast after "Keep Calm and Flutter On" — she's a mild, retiring and soft-spoken pony, while he's a chimeric, towering and intractable spirit of chaos.
  • The Beastmaster: She rarely uses it for combat, mostly organization, but when somepony is in danger she commands a dragon and a cockatrice to concede and pacifies Cerberus by giving him a belly rub.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: She's as beautiful as she is kind. In-universe, without even trying, she's considered beautiful enough to be a supermodel.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Animals running from her and not wanting to be her friend will send her off the deep end.
    • No matter who you are, you do not! Hurt! Her! Friends!
    • 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!
      Fluttershy: That. Big. Dumb. MEANIE!
    • Fluttershy also really loathes bullies, which makes sense when you consider what her childhood was like. The Mane-iac learns this the hard way at the end of "Power Ponies".
      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: Fluttershy is generally pleasant and innocent, but even she can get pushed past her limit. She won't neccessarily hurt you (at least, not much), but it's still best to steer clear of her at all costs...
    • In "Dragonshy", despite being terrified of facing a full-grown dragon, she suddenly develops the wherewithal to make said dragon back down and even break down sobbing 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 is 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 crap out of a bear three times her size and then killing it by snapping its neck. (She was really giving the bear a chiropractic session.) Twilight and the audience no doubt shared a moment of shock.
    • 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 as Fluttershy goes to town on everypony who's been mean to her (She actually beats up one for stealing her taxi seat, and later throws a mailpony a great distance). She does come to her senses after making Pinkie and Rarity cry, however...
    • There's also "Magic Duel", which sees her eerily threatening Twilight if one of her spells screws up on any of the Pegasus's animal friends.
    • In "The Crystal Empire", when the Crystal Ponies ignore her, Fluttershy reveals an absolutely chilling Kubrick Stare!
    • In "Power Ponies", she basically acquires the same power set and trigger as the Hulk. Don't make her angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry.
    • She's basically the one that exposes Starlight Glimmer, by herself with only a little help from Twilight and the others.
    • In "Flutter Brutter", she helps her extremely passive parents stand up to her younger brother who is still living with them and has no respect for their belongings. While she is nice and tries to help her brother find a job, she doesn't tolerate his disrespectful attitude towards their parents or his willingness to give up on a job for dumb reasons.
  • Beyond the Impossible: She outstares a cockatrice, i.e. a creature that turns others to stone by staring at them. All while protecting three young fillies.
  • Big Sister Instinct: An interpretation of her behavior with Zephyr is her enforcing some Tough Love on him. She lets him stay with her, but under the condition that he finds a job. When he fails to look for work on his own, as she expected, she gets him jobs with her friends that are really simple. When she learns how insecure he is of his own skills, she and Rainbow Dash encourage him to pursue his dreams as a mane therapist.
  • Break Them by Talking: When needing to put her hoof down, she is surprisingly' skilled at getting creatures to back down, whether it be talking to or talking down to'' them. The effect varies, but it's never out of spite.
  • Brutal Honesty:
    • In "The Ticket Master" and "Suited for Success", if somewhat obliviously.
    • In a rare moment of anger, she gives a scathing speech to Pinkie Pie and Rarity in "Putting Your Hoof Down" in regards to their chosen careers, which drives them to tears.
    • On the more positive side, in "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" she learns that sometimes it is necessary to be stern for the good of others, a lesson which she retains.
    • Another positive example is when she pushes Rainbow Dash into accepting Tank's hibernation in "Tanks for the Memories"... which ends up causing Rainbow Dash to go through a Heroic BSoD and end up crying loudly as she still refused to let Tank hibernate.
  • Bully Magnet: Fluttershy was bullied as a filly many times because of her lackluster flight skills.
  • Butt-Monkey: She gets the short end of the stick a lot more often as of Season 3.
  • Catchphrase: An extremely soft, sometimes barely audible "yay" in early episodes. Like many of the show's catchphrases, it largely falls out of use by the end of the first few seasons.
  • Character Development:
    • Post-Discord corruption and throughout Season 2 and onwards, she becomes more assertive and willing to 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, 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 also seems more confident and cheerful in socializing (compared to her Establishing Character Moment in the pilot where she can barely form a sentence to a stranger). Her meekness comes more often from her dislike of conflicting with others.
    • After learning the proper balance between politeness and assertiveness in "Putting Your Hoof Down," she starts demonstrating assertiveness when necessary at critical moments, enough so to befriend, tame, and reform Discord, and later on keep his mischievous side in check. This keeps well into later seasons, as can be seen in episodes like "Make New Friends But Keep Discord", "Fame and Misfortune" and "A Health of Information"; she is perfectly capable of being firm and strong-willed when she needs to be, and in fact actually develops a tendency to become somewhat snappish and pushy when forced past her limits, in sharp contrast to the meek and easily scared wallflower she started the show as.
    • After gaining confidence in her flight capabilities in "Hurricane Fluttershy," she proves willing and able to participate in a flight competition in the Equestria Games (which is more or less the Equestrian version of the Olympics).
    • She retained the lesson she learned from the Breezies about the occasional need for tough love and Brutal Honesty, calling out Twilight and Rainbow for arguing in "Testing, Testing, 1 2 3," and bluntly telling Rainbow Dash the truth to force her to let her emotions out in "Tanks for the Memories".
    • Tying into the above, she also seems more willing to accept when her way of helping others isn't what they need, compared to earlier episodes like "Call of the Cutie" and "The Best Night Ever", where she had a more selfish perception of "kindness" in getting to nurture and care for cute creatures as always, sometimes against their will, and actually getting very possessive or anarchic when she wasn't allowed to. Later episodes such as "Discordant Harmony" in particular show her being much more versatile in knowing what particular individuals require in times of need, if still in her usual adorable way.
    • She also proves very kind yet firm with her lazy brother Zephyr Breeze. This particular case may be a subversion since Zephyr claims that she's always been bossy towards him, but considering his laziness and unreliability, he could have been lying, exaggerating, overreacting, and/or just straight-up teasing.
    • She has become more forward in expressing her opinion, like when she stands up for herself when trying to build her animal sanctuary.
  • Chewing the Scenery:
  • Childhood Friends: With Rainbow Dash. Most of their closeness as adults comes from being pegasi and Cloudsdale natives, but as children, they were already together around the age for flight camp. "Flutter Brutter" also shows Rainbow Dash to be familiar with 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: She's timid and gets afraid very easily, so naturally, she's yellow.
  • The Comically Serious: Fluttershy counts as The Quiet One variant. In episodes where she tries to be loud, the best she can manage is a pitiful little squeak or something resembling Flat Joy, in spite of her sincerity. What lands her in this trope is the fact that she genuinely believes she is being loud.
    Fluttershy: Oh, Fluttershy. You're such a loudmouth.
  • Cool Teacher: To the students at the School of Friendship, winning Teacher of the Month seventeen times in a row. The short "Teacher of the Month" shows her making cleaning up after class fun by holding a "clean-up dance party", teaching the students responsibility by having them look after baby animals, and making up for a field trip being canceled due to rain by letting them play games instead.
  • Cowardly Lion: She's usually a pushover, terrified of danger, and happily admits to being "weak and helpless", but get her protectively angry and her willpower multiplies by a factor of a million.
  • Creepy Cute: During her stint in "Bats!" of being a bat pony, despite (or perhaps because of) her fangs and rougher appearance, she remains cute as a button.
  • Cruel to Be Kind:
    • A trait learned in season 4, but surprisingly has stuck ever since. She's employed this twice: Firstly, she forced the lazy Breezies out of her cottage for their own good because they would never survive if they stayed in Ponyville. Secondly, fed up with Rainbow Dash's stubborn denial of having to accept that Tank has to hibernate/brumate to survive, she bluntly tells Dash that her winter is going to be "petless", which is the push that Dash needed to finally let go and have a good cry.
      Rarity: Whatever did you do that for?!
      Fluttershy: Because she'll never get past this until she lets it all out.
    • She is also persistent in forcing her Lazy Bum brother, Zephyr Breeze, out of his comfort zone so he'll get a job instead of stewing in his failures and mooching off their parents.
  • Cute and Psycho: Fluttershy is the shyest, sweetest, most precious of the ponies in Equestria... and also the scariest pony in all Equestria. Threatening her friends will put you on the receiving end of her Stare, which made an adult dragon burst into tears. Some well-intentioned assertiveness training resulted in a complete 180 flip from an Extreme Doormat to a violent, hateful bully. As seen in "Best Night Ever", after a bunch of animals refused her offer of friendship...
  • Cute Little Fangs: When she becomes a vampire pony. She keeps them, albeit not as pronounced, after the transformation is reversed.
  • 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: Most fans believe not loving Fluttershy or finding her adorable borders on some sort of criminal act. There's a reason why she currently provides the page image for this trope.

    Tropes D to F 
  • Dandere: Seems like it sometimes. For example, in the first episode she's initially shy, but upon seeing Spike she instantly opens up to Twilight.
  • Defeat Means Friendship:
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • In Season 5, she speaks and appears the least of all the Mane Six. She would only get two episodes centered around her (one of which was shared with Twilight) and both of them didn't occur until well over halfway into the season.
    • This continues into Season 6. Besides her solo episode airing within the first half of the season, her status and how much of a presence she had in this season is by-and-large the same as in Season 5 with only two episodes centered on her (one of which is shared with Applejack) as well as being absent or not speaking for roughly half the season. However, in a somewhat reversal of fortune with Season 7, she had three episodes centered at least on her, and she actually spoke more than a few members of the Mane Six.
  • Determinator: When it comes to helping others whom she cares for, she'll do whatever it takes to make them happy.
    • This is proven in the episode "Best Night Ever". She WILL make all of the animals love her, one way or another.
    • She will not let "That... big... dumb... MEANIE!!", a.k.a. Discord, win , even if it means having to outfly Rainbow Dash (who from what we've seen so far is the fastest flyer in the country) while towing two other 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!
  • The Ditherer: She can have trouble making decisions due to her insecurity and unwillingness to offend. In "Best Gift Ever", she even says that she cannot decide on a favorite food because it might "hurt the other foods' feelings".
  • The Eeyore: When her self esteem is at its worst. Granted it sometimes laps over, to the point she's so insistent on how pathetic she is, she's outright gleefully nonchalant about it!
  • 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" she has a lot of female fans.
  • Evil Laugh: Surprisingly, she can produce a cackle that gives most of the villains a run for their money (it even comes with its own Dramatic Thunder). So far it's only happened in "The Best Night Ever", after a night of unsuccessful attempts to befriend the palace animals.
  • 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 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.
  • The Face: For non-ponies only. 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 until Rainbow Dash pulls off the stunt.
    Fluttershy: [breathes in heavily] Yayyy.
  • Fluffy Tamer: Forget Fluffy, Fluttershy has the original Cerberus, guardian of The Underworld itself, rolling over to have his tummy rubbed in a matter of seconds. In the episode "Trade Ya!" she tames his brother Orthrus. If there's a rule, it might be that she likes and can tame mammalian monsters but not reptilian ones.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to her freeloading slacker brother Zephyr Breeze's Foolish.
  • Forgot About Her Powers:
    • Fluttershy is shown walking on the ground far more than other pegasi in the show, especially compared to Rainbow Dash, who rarely touches the ground. It's 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 about her apparent lack of flying talent.
    • In "Putting Your Hoof Down", she kicks over a pair of carts 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 but this would defeat the "be assertive" point of the episode. Flying over them is supposedly something Old Fluttershy would do.
    • Lampshaded in "Wonderbolt Academy", when she, along with the other Mane cast, is rescued from a mid-air fall by the pegasus cadets. Fluttershy realizes she could have flown and sheepishly blushes to her rescuer.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic: peaceful, compassionate and docile.
  • Friendless Background: Her life in Cloudsdale wasn't a happy one. The only friend she had alongside her was Rainbow Dash, until the day when she met the animals.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: Inverted during "Green Is Not Your Color" as Fluttershy accepts becoming a famous model (which is a living hell for someone as shy as her) because she thinks that Rarity will feel sad if she refuses to do so.
  • The Friends Who Never Hang:
    • She only rarely interacts with Applejack. The first episode that features her and Applejack extensively is "Bats!", where they spend most of the story being antagonists, with Fluttershy acting as an environmentalist trying to change Applejack's pest control methods. They finally have a Cutie Map mission together in "Viva Las Pegasus", and then a second one in "Sounds of Silence".
    • Also isn't seen hanging out with Pinkie Pie much, though this might just be because of the personality clash between the extremely extraverted Pinkie and the extremely introverted Fluttershy. Being great at buckball really is one of the only things they really are on the same wavelength on.
  • Friend to All Children:
    • After foalsitting the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She earns their respect and awe by saving them from a Basilisk.
    • She becomes very popular with the students of the School of Friendship, regularly earning the "Teacher of the Month" award with ease.
  • Friend to All Living Things: She takes this trope to the extreme; she loves the ugly or mean creatures just as much as the nice cute little critters.
    • She's even a Friend to Bugs and perhaps especially the bugs; 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 even actual butterflies, which is about as close to having "friend to bugs" literally written all over her as a pony can get.
    • In "Keep Calm and Flutter On" she befriends and reforms Discord! Yes, the Master of Chaos and Disharmony is no match for the power of Fluttershy's kindness. Well played, Fluttershy. Well played.
    • The only exceptions are adult dragons, whom she's afraid of, but even then she'll comfort them when they stop acting hostile, sometimes to the point of tears.
    • Inverted in the episode "The Best Night Ever", when the animals she tries to interact with run away from her instead.

    Tropes G to L 
  • Girly Girl: Fluttershy is the most conventionally feminine of the Mane Six besides Rarity. She's kind, sweet, motherly, beautiful, loves cute little animals and tea parties, knows how to sew, and she's even worked as a fashion model.
  • Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Fluttershy is the most conventionally feminine of the Mane Six besides Rarity. She's kind, sweet, is very nurturing, motherly, beautiful, graceful, loves cute little animals and tea parties, usually averse to violence, but knows how to sew, and she's even worked as a fashion model. But she doesn't mind getting dirty with her animal friends and she proves to be a very skilled goalie when playing Buckball.
  • Gone Horribly Right:
    • Iron Will's assertiveness training seminar was unfortunately a little too effective on Fluttershy; she turns into a huge Jerkass. After driving her friends to tears, she tones down the aggression while keeping the confidence.
    • Fluttershy's long-developed assertiveness worked against her in "A Health of Information"; her determination to cure Zecora of an illness she accidentally caused her to get drives her to push herself to exhaustion, refusing to listen to others who tell her she needs to rest. This leads to Fluttershy contracting the illness herself, and eventually pushing herself so hard (combined with trying and failing to tame a hive of aggressive Flash Bees), that she ends up passing out for three days.
  • Good Wings, Evil Wings: She doesn't become evil, but she does have bat wings as a vampire pony.
  • Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Tends to draw these, either as the sender or recipient. In "Sonic Rainboom", for example, while trying to help Rainbow get over her Performance Anxiety, she manages to put her in a full-on breakdown, and in "Green Isn't Your Color," Photo Finish gives her a speech like this simply to draw out her moe side, not caring that she was making Fluttershy miserable.
  • Guile Hero:
    • In "Keep Calm and Flutter On", she manages to manipulate Discord into reforming.
    • In "The Cutie Map" she manages to be an effective Fake Defector for the Mane Six, uncover the information needed to defeat Starlight, and come up with an effective plan to arrange her Engineered Public Confession, all while separated from the rest of the Mane Six.
    • Even during group fight scenes, she never directly attacks sentient opponents, instead preferring to use tricks like Deadly Dodging to misdirect and mislead them.
    • In "Memnagerie", she pretends to be struggling with her misbehaving animals (who are also in on the act) when Twilight visits, inspiring Twilight to reminisce about her memories of Fluttershy so that Starlight and Spike can collect them for the scrapbook they're preparing.
  • The Heart: This is her Element of Harmony: Kindness.
  • 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. Furthermore, her animal connection means that while she is nonviolent by nature, she has befriended a whole menagerie of animals (including some very dangerous ones) who may have no such qualms.
    • Treating others kindly doesn't seem like a very flashy method of resolving conflicts compared to her friends' combat-based abilities, but it is her kindness that permanently removes Dr. Caballeron, Ahuizotl, and even Discord as threats to the heroes. Her friendly, innocent nature also makes her the only one of the Mane Six who can completely No-Sell Discord's mind games, forcing him to use brute force brainwashing on her instead.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Her self-esteem is so low that, despite her heroic deeds in Season 1, when Discord tries to break her by convincing her that her friends consider her weak and useless, she agrees with everything he says quite cheerfully!
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Fluttershy has quite the eye for sewing and fashion trends, which she demonstrates in "Suited for Success" to Rarity's shock.
    • Her micro comic also shows her to be very artistic, creating fabric sculptures with deep meaning behind them. Occasionally when talking about other technical subjects Fluttershy has a tendency to launch into very pretentious Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness-filled explanations, complete with snobbish expressions and a upturned nose. She displays no signs of this anywhere else.
    • Spends most of Season 1 having her flying capabilities made out to be of poor 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. While Rainbow Dash was carrying two dead weight ponies, she was towing two dead weight ponies and a hot air balloon... imagine her speed unladen. Though admittedly it may have been a lot easier to tow the balloon than Dash dragging ponies that were actively trying to stop her from moving.
    • "Rainbow Falls" has her joining a relay flying team, and manages to do well enough that her team qualifies for Olympic-level competition, and eventually go on to medal.
    • Season 5 offers evidence that Fluttershy enjoys reading. Since the first season it's been shown that a wall on her cottage has a bookshelf. Many of those books are probably about animals, as she uses one to explain to Rainbow Dash that Tank needs to hibernate in "Tank for the Memories". In "Scare Master", her plans for Nightmare Night involved lots of books. The "uninvited guests" shown in that same episode suggest she reads manga too. In "The Hooffields and McColts" she is shown having a book club with her animal friends, where they read a pony version of Wuthering Heights and discuss its plot. Back in season 1, she is shown reading a fashion magazine at the spa in "Green Isn't Your Color", which might be how she learned about sewing in the first place.
    • Season 7 episode "A Health of Information" builds up on the above. Motivated by Zecora catching an uncurable disease while helping her, Fluttershy comes to Twilight to try and find information on her library about a mysterious healer called Mystical Mask that could help find a cure. Twilight is shown being a bit intimidated at the prospect of going over her entire library in such short notice, and ends the day with no results and very tired after speed-reading so many books. Fluttershy is shown speed-reading many books too, and decides to forgo sleep and presses on through the night. Come next morning, she is already showing early signs of sleep depravation, but she eagerly reports to Twilight having found the identity of the Mystical Mask by cross-referencing several books on relevant subjects and translating texts from Olde Ponish. Twilight outright admits to being proud of Fluttershy's research skills, and both her and Zecora are impressed at her discovery.
    • "Flutter Brutter" reveals that she's always been assertive towards her family, despite her Extreme Doormat behavior to everypony else.
    • Several episodes have shown that she has a talent for acting despite her stage fright: her Flutterbat act in "Scare Master" is convincing enough to terrify her friends, she adopts several alternate personas to get herself in the mindset of a salespony in "Fake It 'Til You Make It" (which works until she gets too into her roles and starts discouraging customers instead), and she mentions having an easy time memorizing lines in "Horse Play", allowing her to perform admirably despite being cast in the lead role at the last minute.
  • Hiding Behind Your Bangs: When she was a filly, her bangs covered one of her eyes for the extra shyness.
  • Honor Before Reason: Averted in "Keep Calm and Flutter On", when Fluttershy refuses to use her Element of Harmony to stop Discord from ruining Sweet Apple Acres because she promised she wouldn't use it against him beforehand, even though she's genuinely mad at him for breaking his promise to fix everything. This action is a key point considering that it allows Discord to see that Fluttershy's friendship was something worth keeping and chooses to fix Sweet Apple Acres of his own accord.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Combined with elements of Death Glare. Yeah; you read that right. The only creatures that aren't terrified out of their mind by "The Stare" are Discord and the flash bees. From unruly chickens to rude dragons, no-one else can withstand it, and its victims are left in a very compliant state. There may be power behind this beyond just her stare and choice of words: in "Applebuck Season" she harvests all the apples from one tree just by staring at it and, when staring down the cockatrice, brought the rate of petrification (which is normally instantaneous, as shown when the chicken was petrified right before) to a crawl, before stopping it entirely.
  • Immune to Mind Control: In "The Return of Harmony Part 1", Discord hypnotizes the Mane characters into acting contrary to their Elements of Harmony by taking advantage of their weaknesses (e.g. showing Applejack, the Element of Honesty, a future she can't believe and claiming it's the truth, making Pinkie Pie (element of laughter) think her friends are laughing at her rather than with her). However, Fluttershy is the only one who doesn't fall for his tricks. It is then subverted in that she is hypnotized by brute force by Discord.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In the two-parter episode "The Return Of Harmony", she is the only one who doesn't fall to Discord's attempt to break her by talking. A frustrated Discord finally resorts to "brute force" Brainwashing.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes: The most kindhearted and caring and yes, innocent, of the Mane Six, and she does have blue eyes.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Similar to Pinkie, Fluttershy almost never means harm, but some of her polite remarks can come out cynical or belittling in a particular light, especially due to her occasionally poor social skills. Her everyone-will-be-watching speech to Rainbow Dash in "Sonic Rainboom" is partially what drives Rainbow Dash into a panic attack complete with Troubled Fetal Position.
  • 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: In "Putting Your Hoof Down", she took her assertiveness training too far and became a bully.
  • Karmic Protection: Like Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy's shyness tends to excuse her from her more Jerkass moments, although it doesn't always apply. Granted the fact she is a Butt-Monkey in almost every other area 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 certainly agree. Lampshaded by Rarity, to whom Opal has not taken a liking.
    Rarity: Well, you should have a picture of Opal as a cutie mark instead of those butterflies.
  • Kindly Vet: She is usually shown healing injured animals.
  • Knight Templar: A mild case when it comes to protecting her animal friends as she threatened and intimidated Twilight Sparkle during her routine with them in "Magic Duel".
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Several examples.
    • In "Dragonshy", we see her confrontation with the dragon, and in "The Stare Master" when she talks down the cockatrice.
    • In "The Return of Harmony - Part 2", we see the change from "I just can't go any faster (tears)" to "I won't let that big meanie win! (zoom)"
    • In "A Dog and Pony Show", she throws off the attacking Dig Dogs just as effectively as the others; in "Princess Twilight Sparkle", she pulls off some surprising aerial agility to outmaneuver some dangerous plants.
  • Like a Duck Takes to Water: In "Buckball Season", she proves to be a very talented goalie despite never playing the game before. It's implied that the strength and dexterity of her Prehensile Tail plays a big part in this. Zigzagged in that while she is a natural at the game itself, she does not take well to the pressure of representing her entire town.
  • Little Big Sister: Older than Zephyr Breeze, and also much shorter than him to boot.
  • The Load:
    • Seen as this in "Dragonshy". Awesomely defies it by being the one to convince the dragon to go away.
    • Discord tries to paint her this way in "The Return of Harmony". She frustrates him by politely agreeing.
  • Long Hair Is Feminine: Pretty, pink, and long enough to hide behind. From certain angles, her locks even appear to frame her face in a heart.
  • Logical Weakness: As "Yakity Sax" shows, her Speaks Fluent Animal abilities won't work if the animal she's trying to communicate with doesn't "speak" (as in, doesn't make any sounds that could be translated); her attempts to talk with Pinkie's pet alligator Gummy goes nowhere, as Gummy is The Voiceless among the Mane Six's pets.
  • Lovable Coward: She can get dangerous when the time calls for it but most of the time she is scared of her own shadow, and downright adorable because of it.
  • Love Hungry: Ends up providing the page quote during "The Best Night Ever", where she takes the animals' avoidance of her very personally.

    Tropes M to P 
  • Made of Iron: In "Rainbow Falls", she and Bulk Biceps crash into a mountainside Fluttershy-first with so much force that Bulk creates an indent. She is stuck on him when he flies out but looks not so much pained than surprised. She's perfectly fine in the following scenes.
  • Mama Bear: On two separate occasions, she defeats a fully-grown dragon to protect her friends and a cockatrice to protect the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Fluttershy may not be the most aggressive of ponies, but you do not mess with her loved ones!
  • The Matchmaker: Of a not-romantic type. One of the few things that will elicit an enthusiastic and energetic response from her is that you want a pet. When Rainbow Dash suggests she might eventually want a pet, Fluttershy proceeds to drag Dash off to her cottage so she can introduce her to the various and sundry animals she's caring for at the moment.
  • Maybe Ever After: Following several Ship Tease moments in previous seasons, "The Last Problem" leaves it as to whether or not she enters a relationship with Discord at some point. According to the crew it's left up to viewer interpretation.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • She's a very weak flier, and she's chronically shy.
    • She has a particular place in her heart for butterflies. They're her cutie mark after all.
  • Moe: In-Universe example. Photo Finish's entire campaign involves emphasizing this one aspect of Fluttershy. In the Japanese dub, Photo Finish calls her such at one point.
  • Morality Chain: The best way to describe her relationship with Discord. In "Princess Twilight," where she threatens to revoke her friendship with him if he doesn't help clean up, "Dungeons and Discords," where she simply raises her eyebrow to make him keep the train from going into an active volcano of his creation, and "Make New Friends but Keep Discord," where she sternly lectures him to keep from sending a pony to another dimension, are any indication, she's the ablest to reel him in and keep him on task when he threatens to go too far.
  • Morality Pet:
    • Ironically for her own pet Angel Bunny. This is averted in "Putting Your Hoof Down".
    • She acts as one for Rainbow Dash in Season 2, and for Discord in Season 3. She brings out the best in both of them.
    • In "Daring Doubt", she becomes one for Dr. Caballeron and his mooks.
  • The Millstone: 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.

  • Mundane Utility: At the end of "Putting Your Hoof Down", she uses The Stare — normally used against cockatrices, vampire fruit bats, dragons, and Discord — to make Angel eat his vegetables.
  • 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: Is just about the only pegasus on the show who isn't in some way boastful or arrogant.
  • Nature Hero: Being in tune with nature has saved the lives of her and her friends and the Cutie Mark Crusaders more times than countable.
  • Nervous Wreck: Much like Twilight, she's prone to over-worrying and tends to stress out under pressure.
  • Nice Girl: She bears the Element Of Kindness for a reason, people.
  • Non-Standard Character Design:
    • She is the only one of the Mane Six — and pretty much of all pony characters on the show — with a unique, Tareme Eyes design. When startled enough they widen into standard eyes, however.
    • In flashback episodes, we see Fluttershy as a filly and she's noticeably taller and ganglier than her peers with daintier hooves. While she is at least one year older than some such as Pinkie Pie, the height difference is still jarring for the small age gap, and we rarely see any young ponies of similar proportioning throughout the show. Her thinner legs and overall shape mimic the body style of the first generation's Flutter Ponies which had butterfly-style wings in a possible Mythology Gag.
    • Adult Fluttershy has two subtle design differences compared with her friends. First of all, she is the only character who flaps her wings while she's running and second of all, she might be the only left-handed character seen in the show (she's seen opening her bag with her left wing and wields a lance on her left).
  • Not Afraid to Die: She defeats a cockatrice as it's actively turning her to stone to save the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
  • Not So Above It All:
    • While she is the most incorruptibly nice pony of the lot, she can't be perfect and does have occasional moments of weakness that are neither excused from pressure or enforced acts against character (she shares the other ponies' initial hostility to Zecora for example, and also is one of the culprits in eating the Cakes' entry for the National Dessert Competition). In most cases she is apologetic afterwards.
    • She is usually humble to the point of Heroic Self-Deprecation and rarely talks about her own accomplishments, but after she stands up to a dragon in "Dragonshy", she teases Rainbow Dash by telling her that "not everypony can be as brave as me"... only to be spooked by a falling leaf immediately afterwards.
  • Not So Weak: Fluttershy is an adorable, cute little Pegasus who is literally afraid of her own shadow. However, despite what Discord and she herself think, Fluttershy is a lot tougher than she looks, especially if you hurt her friends. This is also the given reason why the Nightmare Force thinks she would make a terrible host. While she doesn't consider herself much of a flier and has terrible performance anxiety, if properly motivated, she's more than capable of keeping up with Rainbow Dash.
  • Obliviously Beautiful: In universe, she's implied to be one of the most beautiful ponies in Equestria (enough to become a top supermodel), but she seems only vaguely aware of it at best.
  • Odd Friendship:
    • She spends a lot of time with Rainbow Dash, with whom she has no interests in common. In fact, both of them dislike quite a lot of the other's interests, resulting in one them dragging the other along. Their closeness stems from the fact that they seem to have known each other since they were fillies at flight camp, though the show has been vague about how well they knew each other back then.
    • She establishes one with Discord in Season 3, despite his loud and forceful personality and the chaos he always brings with him normally being things that make Fluttershy highly uncomfortable, and the things Fluttershy likes, such as peace and quiet and tea parties, being normally things that Discord finds horribly boring. Their friendship is mostly based on Fluttershy enjoying Discord's more positive traits, such as his humor, creativity, inner sweetheart, and Discord knowing that Fluttershy, unlike other people, genuinely understands him and accepts for who he is. The oddness of their pairing is remarked upon in-universe from time to time — in "Discordant Harmony", a number of ponies' incredulity that the two of them are friends is what sets off the plot by making Discord doubt how well Fluttershy would react to a visit to his chaotic home dimension.
  • Older Than They Look: In the fifth episode, she reveals that she is a year older than Pinkie Pie. Not only are there no physical signs that of her being older than the rest of the cast, but her sweet and innocent nature can make her appear younger than most other ponies. See Non-Standard Character Design above for her filly appearance that coincides with this.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Fluttershy is one of the sweetest, nicest characters in the series. That said, even with character development and assertiveness/tough love, some actions involving her show an increasingly clear sign that something is off.
    • Fluttershy is so used to being with animals, that seeing them avoid her throughout "The Best Night Ever" takes a toll on her mental state. Soon after, she resorts to laying traps all over the Canterlot Castle garden.
    • When Fluttershy confuses meanness with assertiveness in "Putting Your Hoof Down", one of the first signs she's about to go off the rails (compared to previous cases of assertiveness/meanness where it was justified) is that she starts using her wings more often at ground level. Usually Fluttershy only flies either because she really needs to or because Rainbow Dash has conscripted her.
    • Played with in "Flutter Brutter". Fluttershy is surprisingly blunt and snarky with her brother Zephyr Breeze from the get-go and she doesn't accept any of his excuses to weasel out of work. She even tells Rainbow that she's "peeved" (considered a big swear word in Equestrian culture) with Zephyr. While this is surprising to the audience, the episode also reveals that Fluttershy has always been more-or-less the more assertive one in her family (or rather, her parents are even bigger Extreme Doormats than she was). So perhaps this side of her was always notable, but never explored until now (though her interactions with her animal friends do hint at this.)
    • Normally, Fluttershy rarely ever raises her voice unless she has to put her hoof down. Things can get really serious or crazy if she actually screams or yells at someone. For example, in "Buckball Season", when Rainbow Dash and Applejack take their Training from Hell too far, Fluttershy is the one that flips out and screams at them that she and Pinkie Pie refuse to play. Pinkie, meanwhile, Cannot Spit It Out.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: She turned into a fruit-vampire in "Bats!", and also she didn't become 100% pony again, so there's a little fruit-vampire in her.
  • Out of Focus: Mostly in the first half of the second season, although in general she appears less often than any of the other main 6 ponies. Still, her ratio of roles in the second season is notable less than the others, especially taking the finale into account where she doesn't even have any dialogue; the only time a season finale has ever not given one of the Mane Six speaking lines.
  • Pals with Jesus: Is the closest friend to Discord who is basically a nigh-omnipotent chaos god reality warper. They are implied to at least be living together in the finale.
  • Patchwork Kids: Has her mother's yellow coat and her father's pink hair.
  • 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. It has to do with her being bullied as a filly.
    • Best displayed in "The Return of Harmony - Part 2" wherein she manages to catch Rainbow Dash while towing a laden hot air balloon (Dash was going full speed while dragging Rarity and Pinkie Pie, for the record).
    • This also comes into play with many of her skills besides flight: while she is excellent at singing (as seen in "Filli Vanilli") and buckball (as seen in "Buckball Season"), she does not enjoy performing those talents in public. She eventually becomes more comfortable with representing Ponyville's buckball team when she regains the mindset of playing for fun rather than out of pressure to win.
  • Personality Powers: She bears the Element of Kindness, and she has a kind, gentle personality, which is sometimes to her detriment and sometimes to her advantage.
  • Pink Means Feminine: Her mane, tail, and the butterflies in her cutie mark are a pale shade of pink.
  • Plucky Girl: A stubborn kindness, this one has. While she may not be smiling, she'll keep her spirits up even when the chips are down.
  • The Power of Friendship: When she's alone and confronted by Gilda the Griffon, she's unable to defend herself and bullied into running away in tears but when her friends are in danger, she won't hesitate to risk herself to protect them.
  • Prehensile Tail:
    • During "May the Best Pet Win", it's shown that her tail is strong enough for Angel to ride on it.
    • In "Bats!", it's also shown to be strong enough for Fluttershy to wrap it around a tree branch and dangle from it.
    • The extra range also makes her an incredible goalie in "Buckball Season", as she easily handles and blocks the ball with her tail alone.
  • Prone to Tears: As a filly she was even more vulnerable than she is in the pilot. It didn't take much to hurt her feelings or make her cry. That's why Pinkie gave her prank immunity. In later seasons, she's growing out of it and then some.
  • Psychoactive Powers: Fluttershy's ability to fly depends on her level of confidence. Normally she cannot fly very well and even prefers walking on hoof, but when extremely determined to accomplish something, she can go really fast.
  • 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: As of (at least) season 4, she's not above using them to get her way. For example, during "Filli Vanilli", when convincing Big Mac to let her do his voice one last time she puts these on, as well as doing the same alongside Rainbow Dash when trying to convince a trader to go back to his stall during "Trade Ya", though this time it fails to get the intended effect.

    Tropes Q to Z 
  • Quaking with Fear: She tends to tremble when she's nervous.
  • The Quiet One: She rarely talks due to shyness and when she did it was so soft others had difficulty hearing her anyways. Even her cheers or screams are no more than squeaks at times. She grows in confidence and volume over the series.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has red irises as a vampire pony.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Fluttershy's quiet, timid personality makes her Blue Oni to all of her friends except Twilight, particularly to the brash, competitive, blunt and in-your-face Rainbow Dash and the loud, theatrical and mercurial Discord.
  • Reluctant Fanservice Girl: It's evident during the events of "Green Isn't Your Color", when she admits she is miserable about all the unwanted attention Photo Finish's attempt at making her a supermodel has brought upon her.
  • Remembered I Could Fly:
    • 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, she is so scared her wings totally lock up, rendering her unable to fly at all.
    • In "Wonderbolts Academy" she joins the others in panicking when they fall through the air after their hot air balloon is destroyed and they need to be rescued. Afterward she sheepishly remembers that she could've flown to safety.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: Of a less saturated variety than Pinkie, representing a less intense and more gentle personality.
  • Secret Test of Character: In "It Ain't Easy Bein' Breezies", she lets her kindness get the better of her and lets the Breezies take up residence of her cottage, despite Seabreeze's protests. She soon learns her lesson and shoos the Breezies out for her sake, and by guiding them home, Seabreeze learns to do the same and presents her with a flower as a gift, which turns out to be her key to the Chest of Harmony.
  • She Is All Grown Up: "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" shows Fluttershy to have been awkward and lanky as a young filly. As a grown mare, she is considered beautiful enough to be a supermodel, though she's not really aware of it.
  • Ship Tease: With Discord. In quite a few episodes they are shown to be very close and are said to spend a lot of time together offscreen. When Discord hugged her after saving her from the changelings and when he said that Fluttershy is his favorite, she blushes.
  • Shrinking Violet: She definitely lives up to the "Shy" in her name. In the pilot she is so shy she can't introduce herself to Twilight. Instead she looks downcast, steps backwards and whispers almost incoherently. Again, she's growing out of it.
  • Silk Hiding Steel: Definitely fits the character type; humble, loyal, wise, nurturing, etc. but with a clear touch of iron beneath it.
  • The So-Called Coward: She seems like a major scaredy pony right up until someone threatens her friends, at which point, she will become absolutely terrifying.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: 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. She can also understand them literally. She treats the ones that don't rely on charades as Intelligible Unintelligible and once exclaimed in shock at what was apparently colorful language in beaver.
  • Squee:
    • Done adorably in "The Stare Master".
    • Although not as memetic, she squees so hard she almost explodes in "May the Best Pet Win".
  • Staring Down Cthulhu: A dragon, and a cockatrice. You know, those things that turn you into stone via looking? There's a reason why she used to be the page image.
  • Stealth Expert: Due to how naturally quiet she is, there have been a few times where she is the one chosen on a stealth mission (to defeat Trixie with the Alicorn Amulet, and later to bring down Starlight Glimmer). Both time she succeeds with flying colors. She's less successful in "Sparkle's Seven" despite taking the precaution of gliding and not flapping, but then again the geese guarding the throne room make for a very efficient alarm system.
  • Super-Speed: Rarely exhibited, but Fluttershy has been shown to be capable of keeping up with Rainbow Dash, most notably in "The Return of Harmony, Part 2".
  • Talking the Monster to Death: She's done this on multiple occasions; a dragon, a cockatrice, Discord.
  • Tareme Eyes: Very noticeable when compared to the others and she is significantly sweeter and more gentle.
  • Tarot Motifs: Taming a manticore by pulling a thorn out of its paw brings to mind card 8 (or 11), Strength, representing inner courage, patience, and of course, kindness.
  • Team Mom: Mainly towards animals. She houses them and feeds them and nurtures them. Also a Mama Bear in "The Stare Master".
  • Technical Pacifist:
    • Even though she's very polite and kind, she still smashes Mane-iac's hairdryer weapon to bits in "Power Ponies", cementing her as this trope.
    • While she won't personally lift a hoof against an opponent, she has been known to send animals to attack in her stead, as she does against Cozy Glow in "The Ending of the End".
  • Tender Tears: As a nurturer and caregiver, this is practically a given. In "Tanks for the Memories", she's the first one to weep for her friend, Rainbow Dash, when the latter gets a second wind of Inelegant Blubbering, which causes Rarity and Pinkie Pie to start crying as well.
  • This Means War!: When she gets mad at someone, you know they've crossed the line and are in trouble now. Exaggerated in "Putting Your Hoof Down", when she makes a vendetta out of the smallest things, such as the mailman accidentally mixing up her mail with someone else's.
  • Token Good Teammate: In "Daring Doubt", she becomes this to Dr. Caballeron and his group when she joins him on a temple raid. Fortunately for all involved, she successfully becomes their Morality Pet.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to her old friend Rainbow Dash's Tomboy. This dynamic is best exemplified in "May the Best Pet Win" where Rainbow Dash explicitly states that she wants something that's cool and fast, but Fluttershy initially keeps suggesting creatures that are, as she herself puts it, "cutesy-wutesy."
  • Took a Level in Badass: She seems to take one with each episode she is featured in.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: She is known to have cucumber sandwiches at her tea parties.
  • Trans Nature: Downplayed. Fluttershy has never expressed that she wished she was another pony subspecies, but she has numerous traits that are atypical for a pegasus. Her cutie marks is related to nature (which Lauren Faust confirmed is more common with earth ponies), lives in a cottage on the ground rather than the clouds, and has been an extremely weak flier her entire life. In comparison to Rainbow Dash, who is about as traditional as a pegasus can get, Fluttershy is on the other end of the spectrum.
  • Twitchy Eye: Seen when she becomes increasingly unhinged in "The Best Night Ever".
  • Undying Loyalty:
    • To Rainbow Dash. She's been shown on occasion to do things she normally wouldn't even consider doing just for the sake of Rainbow Dash's happiness, like competing in a national athletics competition or even taking an extended stay away from Ponyville just so Rainbow Dash can complete her Daring Do collection.
    • Similarly she has taken the challenge of befriending Discord quite persistently. Despite Discord being an infamous Troll towards nearly every pony else, Fluttershy tries desperately to put him on the right track without ever turning her back on him, something he does seem to have taken to heart.
  • Un-Sorcerer: Unlike most Pegasi, she... can't fly very well (although how pronounced this flaw is tends to vary between episodes). She compensates by showing an affinity for nature and animals, more like an Earth Pony.
  • Unstoppable Rage:
    • In "The Best Night Ever", she throws temper tantrums when the animals refuse to talk to her and then comes the stampede in the palace as the animals run away from her. She then screams out for them love her.
    • In "Putting Your Hoof Down" she's had enough of her neighbors unfair treatment and goes to town on them.
    • While struggling to be in-character in "Power Ponies", she literally hulks out after the villain hurts a firefly.
  • Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: She's a pegasus.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: As kind and patient as she attempts to be, nearly every last one of her friends has a tendency to exasperate or terrify her by accident. Her bond with Rainbow Dash is arguably the most abrasive (though also the closest). Her friendship with Pinkie Pie is very much similar to Fluttershy's.
  • Vocal Dissonance: Like Pinkie (also voiced by Andrea Libman), her voice gets a lot deeper when she starts to cry, as heard in "Hurricane Fluttershy" and "Ponyville Confidential".
  • Vocal Evolution: Andrea Libman's voice for Fluttershy was initially much quieter and almost a perpetual whisper. In later seasons, the character has a lot more volume and enthusiasm, and even sounds a tad goofy.
  • The Voiceless: A small handful 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 is supposed to have lines, but where she says nothing.
  • Waif Prophet: Shows a bit of this in her conversion of Discord, when she reveals that she understood from the start that he was trying to trick her, but instead got the upper hand by employing her Element (Kindness) as a weapon.
  • Who Dares?: Right before her Talking the Monster to Death moment: "How DARE you!"
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Yandere: The episode "The Best Night Ever" has the gentle, soft-spoken Fluttershy of all ponies turns into a this trope for a bunch of shy and sheltered animals. She at first tried being nice and encouraging them to come out and see her, but then she snaps and sets up a few traps to capture them. Her frustration leads to her screaming a pretty yanderific line.
    Fluttershy: You're going to LOVE ME!
  • Your Answer to Everything: "Uh... panic?"
  • You Don't Look Like You: Almost all of her fully-molded toys and all of her collector cards depict her as a Palette Swap of Rainbow Dash.

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