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Characters / Pony POV Series - The Princesses

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The Pantheon of the POV Series is huge, but these are the only 3 really significant ones in the present timeline.
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    General 
  • Nerf: Celestia used Applebloom's "End of the World" Special Cosmic Retcon to strip the Princesses of the ability to use their observational abilities to see everything in order to prevent them from becoming a Spotlight-Stealing Squad, which will effectively defeat the purpose of incarnating as a mortal. Celestia, Luna and Cadence cannot use sunlight, moonlight and songbirds respectively. If they have to use the ability again, it will be on a much more limited scale.

    Princess Celestia 

Princess Celestia Amaterasu Solaris Equestria/Sunny Day/Star Catcher

Voiced by: Mewsel

The Alicorn goddess of the Sun and Day, and one of two ruling diarchs. She is Luna's twin sister.


  • Action Girl: When she actually fights, she fights, and is dang good at it.
  • Afraid of Their Own Strength: It turns out she is afraid of her own strength and is said by Dark World! Nightmare Mirror and Luna. Given that her power being that of the sun (or rather, all suns), and of all the times in the series we seen her using her powers (ie the fight with Makaraov's army) this is very justified. She manages to get past it.
  • A God I Am Not: Is very opposed to being treated like a deity and would much rather be treated like a normal pony than the goddess she is. This apparently has something to do with the fact she decided to become an Amnesiac Goddess in the G3 universe and actually became a Goddess In Pony Form as Star Catcher.
  • Amnesiac God: As Star Catcher during the G3 universe, which she did willingly.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Manages to deliver a series of them that leaves Discord speechless after the Crusaders manage to erase Goatcord and by extension his insanity, given his stated motivation was having a big finale.
    Celestia: Well, Discord? Are you satisfied?... I ask again, Discord. Was this to your satisfaction? These brave foals have struck you a terrible blow indeed. Now that you can see it all clearly, was this a satisfying grand performance for you? Are you ready to finally move on from this miserable nonsense? Tell me, Dissy, how does it feel to be able to remember our good times without the taint of your madness?
  • The Atoner: For releasing the Windigos on Equestria and causing an Endless Winter, she accepted her punishment from Her Parents, to live forever with the memories of what she had done. She also chose to live out the life of a mortal pony who suffered and died during the winter, in part to fully understand the consequences of her actions and the suffering they brought.
  • Because You Can Cope: The reason why she went to help Cadence (actually Chrysalis in disguise) instead of staying with the emotionally hurt Twilight: Cadence was her niece and thus needed Celestia more.
  • Berserk Button: Calling Celestia's family indifferent to mortal suffering... considering they fought a war where she believed many of them DIED just to protect ponykind when the Draconequi made a reasonable argument for the greater good for why their continued existence would result in the death of the multiverse... Celestia is kinda justified. When Twilight pressed this button after learning about the suffering the Windigos inflicted, and that the Alicorns didn't do anything to stop it (although it's more likely that they couldn't have), Celestia was so pissed that she momentarily lost control of her magic and set a nearby vase of flowers on fire.
  • Big Eater: Admits to liking cake more than she should, and considered commissioning one of the Cakes' Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness cakes for herself, but normally remains quite thin (possibly due to being a Goddess and thus having a higher metabolic requirement than normal). However, apparently, there was a hundred year period during her solo reign where she went overboard (possibly out of guilt over having to seal away Luna/Nightmare Moon). It became known as 'The Century of Chubby Celly' and involved a 'Royal Wheelbarrow'.
  • Big "WHAT?!": Gave one in reaction to the announcement of Cadence's birth in a flashback Loose Canon, as she'd believed it was impossible. She used the Royal Canterlot Voice as well.
  • Big Good: Of Equestria, natch.
  • Cassandra Gambit: Tends to do this at times, knowing that certain people will automatically distrust her and trust the tabloids. She uses this to try and help Luna and Fluttershy have an easier time post purification.
  • Cruel Mercy: As a young Alicorn, her punishment from Her Parents for unleashing the Windigos on Equestria was to never be able to forget the memory of what she had done.
  • Death or Glory Attack: Subverted. As the Anthropomorphic Personification of the sun, she can literally become the sun with complete control over the amount of light and heat emitted as revealed in Sunset's origin chapter where she resorted to this tactic against the Shadow Queen, effectively recreating a supernova that erased her. The downside to such a powerful attack? While this move doesn't kill her it completely empties her mana reserves instead, leaving her unable to raise the sun or even stand, reducing her to a sitting duck for the immediate future.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: After she realized that the Windigos she had sent to Equestria to "end hatred among ponies" were causing an unstoppable, lethal Endless Winter, she blasted her way into Entropy's realm and accused her of making the Windigos cause the winter. The only reason Celestia wasn't erased on the spot was because she made Entropy laugh by not realizing it was her own fault for bringing the Windigos to Earth in the first place.
  • Fallen Angel: "Fallen Alicorn" in her case; she briefly became this after defying her family and bringing the Windigo to Earth, openly stating to Twilight (who she's telling the story) that she was a Fallen Alicorn. However, unlike her brother Morning Star, she not only begs Her Parents' forgiveness and accepts her punishment, but is forgiven and welcomed back into her family.
  • God in Human Form: Can assume the form of a mortal pony to disguise herself. Spent some time as this, and Amnesiac Goddess, in the G3 universe. Apparently, this isn't at all uncommon and Luna is the only Alicorn that didn't do it at some point.
  • Hero Antagonist: In "Luna's Nightmare" after Luna's Face–Heel Turn, but it was All Just a Dream.
  • Last-Second Chance: Offered one to Discord in Origins before the Final Battle, telling him to just leave Equestria in peace and it can all be over. Naturally, he laughs in her face and refuses. She offers him another one before the actual Final Battle with him of the series, but again he refuses.
  • Light Is Good: Is the Goddess of the Sun and the Day, and one of the most benevolent beings you could know, even if she's not perfect.
  • Like a Son to Me: She loves Twilight like a daughter. But in the Loose Canon side story "Discorded Celestia: Not Loved", the realization that even Twilight is afraid of her hits her very hard.
  • Memetic Molester: In-Universe and Deconstructed. Celestia gets a lot of crap from the tabloids, most of it she just laughs off and in some cases exploits. The rumor they spread about her being a molester is the only one that truly seems to hurt her.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Has the "I've created a monster" version after realizing her actions indirectly lead to Discord discovering he was a sadist.
    • Happens again when she realizes that she was the only one to blame for the Windigos rampage. She even apologizes to Discord for blaming him for it at first.
  • My Greatest Failure: She has several, all of which seemed to have shaped her personality for better or worse: Discord, Nightmare Moon, Sunset Shimmer. And especially the Windigos.
  • Never My Fault: When she unleashed the Windigos unto Equestria in an attempt to end hatred and saw what they did, she refused to take responsibility for her actions. Entropy set her straight with some mirrors and a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Celestia kept those mirrors ever since.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Remember the Windigos? They were pieces of Entropy, Discord's mother and an even bigger Eldritch Abomination, Celestia ordered to end hatred in the pony world. They listened. Made worse because her siblings outright told her something like this would happen and she refused to listen.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Her reign seems to have been full of these, ranging from a century where she let her love of cake get the best of her to one of her personal assistants going mad with power realizing she could effect what Celestia could or could not see.
    • Princesses are not allowed on the bridges of ships without an escort anymore due to someone who is a princess crashing a boat into a lighthouse that came out of nowhere thanks to old inaccurate charts.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: She could fry a planet with a solar flare if she wanted to, of course she obviously doesn't want to.
  • Physical Goddess: Actually referred to in-universe as such.
  • Playing with Fire: She's the Anthropomorphic Personification of the sun, comes with the territory. She's capable of creating solar flares of world destroying levels if she feels like it. Thanks to her Element of Magic based Power Copying, she has light and fire based versions of many of their powers.
  • Power Copying: She's a former Element of Magic, and thus is capable of this like all of them. In her case, she can create fire and light based variants, and have copied spells from all major villains, and uses them to beat Quetzalcord. This includes using a light based version of the spell Chrysalis beat her with to cripple him.
  • The Power of the Sun: As per canon, she's the Alicorn of the Sun. Naturally, it comes with Playing with Fire.
  • Precursor Heroes: With Luna until the Nightmare Moon incident. When wielding the Elements of Harmony, she was Magic, Kindness and Laughter.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Shows up not only when interacting with the mane cast, but with her Royal Guards.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Luna's red, though it is inverted by their color schemes and powers. Justified, as they're meant to counterbalance one another.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: She defies her family to intervene in the conflict on Earth.
  • Secret Identity: Sunny Days, an Earth Pony who works as a tabloid writer.
  • Shout-Out: Her full name and title is Nineteenth Celestia Amaterasu Solaris Equestria.
  • So Proud of You: Towards Twilight of course, but also to Sunset Shimmer, whom she loved as a daughter and never stopped believing in. Even after Sunset left through the mirror, Celestia always referred to her as 'Equestria's Second Sun' and never once stopped waiting for her to come home. She even cried Tears of Joy when she learned that Sunset and Twilight joined forces to stop the Dazzlings, happy her little sun had found herself again.
  • Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot: As a young Concept, she saw the three pony tribes of Equus warring with each other over food and territory. She wanted to stop them from destroying each other, and asked Entropy for help, who gave her the Windigos. Despite her family's warnings that it would end badly and their attempts to stop her, Celestia made it past them to the mortal world with Discord's and Luna's help, released them on Equus, and commanded them to "end hatred among ponies and make it as if hatred never existed on this world." They responded by creating an unstoppable Endless Winter to wipe out the biggest sources of hatred on the planet...the pony tribes themselves.
  • Spit Take: From Loose Canon in a flashback in reaction to being informed another Alicorn (Cadence) had been born.
    Celestia: Of course, I had chosen that moment to take a drink of my coffee, which I promptly spat in a random direction.
  • Super Mode: Orion, though this may or may not actually exist. It's revealed in the final battle that yes, it does exist. It doesn't do anything against Nightmare Nihilis due to having the Spirits of Dark Magic inside her...so Celestia uses it as a feint to score a hit with a different attack that does work.
  • Superpowered Evil Side:
    • Nightmare Genesis, a form she assumed briefly to try and stop the end of the G3 world when she was Star Catcher.
    • Her current one is now Nightmare Daybreaker as revealed from her fight with Quetzalcord.
  • Tarot Motifs: 19, the Concept of the Sun.
  • There Is Another: According to a Loose Canon story, she's G3 Star Catcher (or at least her reincarnation), making her the only other known survivor of that gen alongside Pinkie Pie, or at least one of the only ponies who can remember that "lost age".
  • Time Abyss: Her true age isn't stated (though her physical form is around 3000-4000 years old), but she at one point offhandedly mentions being able to remember the Big Bang.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Her self-inflicted punishment for unleashing an Endless Winter on Equestria was to live the life of a mortal pony who suffered/would suffer the most because of her actions. She was reborn as an Amnesiac God, an earth pony filly who lived a hard life in a poor farming town, her people looked down upon and mistreated by the pegasi and unicorns. Forced to watch her family freeze to death one by one, she buried them alone because she was the last one left. As her body froze, her last words were spent screaming at the sky, cursing whatever was responsible for destroying everything she loved. When she returned to her true self as an Alicorn, the most painful thing was realizing that the unseen entity she had cursed and profaned her entire life for causing her family and her people so much pain...was her.
  • Trickster Mentor: As in canon, she isn't always straight forwards with her lessons, but always means well.
  • Troll: Is referred to as such rather frequently inuniverse. Upon finding a religion with some rather trollish hymns, Cadence's first response is to assume Celestia is responsible. Shining Armor also wishes he was as eloquent a counter-troll as she is when dealing with Makarov's cleverly disguised insults.
  • Twin Telepathy: With Luna, her twin sister.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her command to the Windigos, "Eliminate all hatred", just happens to be interpreted as "Kill all the haters", i.e. everyone.
  • War Is Hell: At least in her opinion, which is why ponies know next to nothing about it. This stems from the horrors she experienced in the Alicorn/Draconequi War.
  • Weird Sun: Besides the fact that the Sun is technically Celestia's domain and concept? It has flora and fauna in it!
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Gives one to Fluttershy, though hers is considerably less brutal than her sister's and has a good intention.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?:
    • Knows just how much being immortal can suck, and tries to instruct Luna on this so she understands what will happen to Pip.
    • It gets worse with the reveal that due to her immortality (which in the G3.5 verse was a universal fact about ponies) caused her to watch her mother grow old and die while she stayed young due to her birth breaking the spell on her mother.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame:
    • When Discord thanks her for helping him discover his sadistic nature, she's genuinely horrified.
    • While nothing is said, Discord approving of her plan to release what would become known as the Windigos on Equestria is a pretty clear sign that its going to end badly for all involved.
    • Happens again when Discord congratulates her on accidentally sparking the Alicorn and Draconequi war. Celestia is so stunned and devastated that she nearly allows Strife to kill her in the fight.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Shining Armor finds out about the very nature of his existence, he thinks he is like Nameless, a blatant self-insert given how he is practically an Escapist Character due his circumstances. Celestia immediately snaps him out of it with this, effectively pointing out why he is nothing like him.
    Celestia: Every choice you have made, has been yours, every accomplishment you have achieved has been your own, you've made mistakes, you've been selfish and kind, you've been wrong in ways you didn't want to be proven wrong, those who think differently than you haven't groveled at your hooves or been smashed under them for thinking differently than you. There are meaningful things you stink at. Your friends have SAVED YOU from danger, not just the other way around. You could not overpower me with self-righteous anger and give a damning judgmental tirade that serves no purpose other than to vent the anger some forces-that-create feel towards me. The world hasn't twisted back upon itself to prove you always right, ponies don't suddenly act wrong so you can always be the center of attention. You have not blindly jumped to the right conclusion when a wrong answer was more logical. You were born privileged, but no more than other ponies who fate was kind to. And before you ask, the light within you . . . is not . . . is not Althena's. Or any mortal pony's who could have lived.
  • You Are Not Alone: Reveals the fact she's G3 Star Catcher to Pinkie Pie, letting her know there's at least one other pony out there who knows just how she feels.
  • Zero-Approval Gambit: Princess Celestia manipulates the media into redirecting most of the public's anger over Princess Gaia to herself, allowing Fluttershy to move on after her recovery. Twilight and Applejack don't like this move, but Celestia explains that it's not much of a risk, as it will have no measurable effect on her image in the long-run.

    Princess Luna 

Princess Luna Nyx Selena Equestria/Moonlight

Voiced by: Pocket-Sized Kitsune, Rayne Beaux (7 Dreams/Nightmares Gaiden Story adaptation)

The Alicorn of the Moon and Night, and one of two ruling diarchs. She is Celestia's twin sister.


  • Action Pet: She keeps a Windigo for a pet, which she got at the same time as Celestia got Philomena. That particular Windigo was used in the showdown she and Celestia had with Discord. Then it was revealed in the Last Battle Arc that Applebloom's "End of the World" Special Cosmic Retcon had to stabilise it's very existence by making so that it got destroyed in the battle with Discord while incarnating as a possum named Tiberus.
  • A God Am I: Unlike Celestia, she is much less opposed to announcing their status as deities. She used to be quite a bit worse before Strife arranged for Pinkie Pie and Minty to take her down a few pegs back in the G3 timeline.
  • Anti-Hero: Is no less heroic than her sister, but is much more pragmatic and far more willing to kill than her or her subjects. This is part of her and Celestia's balance between them.
  • Armor-Piercing Response: To a question not directed to her, but still. She helps Celestia break through to Discord by responding to Celestia's Armor-Piercing Question with a detailed praise of the battle Discord had presented to make it clear he did indeed get the final battle he desired and without his insanity can no longer justify what he's doing.
    Luna: So Discord, we shall say as both a fellow artist and a patron of the arts, we give thy stage performance our royal approval. Certainly one worthy of the history books.
  • Break the Haughty: Got one thanks to Strife, Pinkie Pie, and Minty back in the G3 timeline. She ends up being humiliated by the latter two after the former removes the majority of her powers to make the fight fair. In the end, they defeat her ultimate attack with a musical number (which she just deemed pointless), causing her to breakdown. Pinkie, future Element of Laughter, helps her learn from the experience. Its somewhat implied by her words that Strife wanted to happen.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Naturally, despite being the Alicorn of the Night and Moon and capable of Dark Magic, she rules Equestria alongside Celestia.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally.
  • Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: In the past, to punish her for helping Celestia get the Windigos to Equus, her Father invoked this trope by turning her back into a baby Alicorn after judging that she had acted rashly and immaturely.
  • Exact Words: These are the exact words Luna had regarding whether she was going to punish Fluttershy.
    Luna: “And please, do not worry about Fluttershy, I will try my best to help her with the consequences of her actions. I most certainly do not intend to banish her, or imprison her, or imprison her in the place I banish her to. I'm merely curious."
  • Face–Heel Turn: When she became Nightmare Moon. In her vision of a Bad Future, she does this and tries to kill Celestia when denied the right to make Pip immortal. Thankfully, it was All Just a Dream.
  • Fighting a Shadow: Is capable of making Avatars. According to Celestia, she's particularly adapt at it compared to her sister. Moonlight, the filly form she uses to spend time with Pip, turns out to be one of these.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Implied with Fluttershy. She was initially quite cross with Fluttershy from her time as Nightmare Whisper when she nearly took Pip away from her. There wasn't any clear showing on how she felt towards Fluttershy afterwards, particularly after her Bad Future nightmare of being too possessive with Pip, as we didn't see any particular interactions Save for training her . Some of their interactions in the final story arc of the series does seem to lead to suggest that Luna and Fluttershy (and maybe Fluttercruel) are on better terms with each other.
  • From a Single Cell: In the Last Battle Arc, Luna found out the hard way that channelling the hypothetical power of numerous characters' worth of potential element bearers through the Well of Truth isn't something that even mortal Alicorns can handle. The result was the total destruction of the Well of Truth while her physical body gets destroyed right down to the molecular level. She estimates that she will have to spend at least a whole year reconstituting her physical body while doing her duties from the dream realm as a spirit.
  • Good Is Not Nice: On occasion. She's far more pragmatic and willing to kill than her sister, but doesn't like killing unless it's the best way to deal with a situation.
  • The Greatest Story Never Told:
    • One of her Loose Canon side stories reveals she was left sane from Discord's reign, barely stopping herself from going Nightmare Moon again to stop him. She was also the one who sent back the letters Twilight wrote to Celestia to Spike in a gamble to save her from her own depression. When all was said and done, Twilight thanked Celestia for the letters, unaware she was a age and mentally regressed frilly at the time. She knows herself of what she did (as well as Celestia) so she is content not to take the spotlight for once.
    • In the Rumors Arc, she tells Golden Tiara, Flash Sentry, and Sunny Days that while she will remember all of their actions and help to her and the world, they themselves might not be able to. All three of them are okay with this.
    • Her stunt with the Well of Truth which was pivotal in turning the tide of the Final Battle with Paxphobia which caused the destruction of her physical body. Only Celestia knows about it.
  • Heel Realization: Has this after seeing where her obsession with Pip could lead, realizing she's been acting very selfishly, not considering what he wants.
  • Imaginary Friend:
    • Had one named Olo the Owlbear. He is very dear to her, as evidence by him appearing as a moon carving in Button Mash's side-story.He would make his "real" appearance in the Rumors arc as a crew-member of Pipsqueak and his friends. He and all the other imaginary friends were brought to life by the Rumor parasites.
    • Once the world was going back to normal (and changes made for the better), Olo returns back to Luna's mind. However, she commends him for assisting the heroes, and gifts him with becoming her knight in the dream world.
  • Immortal Immaturity: In the past, she was extremely prideful, had shades of being a Royal Brat, and thoughtlessly helped Celestia unleash the Windigos on Equestria without thinking of the consequences it would have for the ponies on Equus, for which she was punished by being turned into an infant by her Father. In the present, she has matured more, but still has shades of it. Her yelling at Fluttershy for the Princess Gaia incident was meant to scare her away from using her new power recklessly, but was also motivated by Fluttershy trying to take Pipsqueak from her.
  • Jedi Mind Trick: Is capable of this, but mainly just uses it for light hearted playing as Moonlight.
  • Jerkass:
    • Was this in G3, willingly unleashing the Windigos with no regard for the mortal ponies' safety, and actually getting offended that her father actually cares about mortals.
    • And then in the Bad Future chapters, remember Tirek and his Rainbow of Darkness? He got it from Luna so he could prove himself worthy of her! Thank her Parents that she mellowed out eventually and decidedly feels guilt for that.
  • Loophole Abuse: The reason she told Applejack specifically Majesty's story is because Majesty's Dying Curse can't effect her. So while Luna can't tell anyone else, Applejack can, effectively breaking the curse, since its purpose is now long served.
  • Lunacy: Is the Goddess of the Moon, so naturally she has the moon both as a symbol and the basis for her powers.
  • Mama Bear: Towards Pip.
  • Mind Rape: Does this to Fluttershy at the end of the Gaia arc. Though Word of God doesn't consider this to be the case.
  • Morality Chain: Pip is this for Luna. Him dying in a vision of a Bad Future ultimately leads to her attempting to kill Celestia and take over.
  • Motive Decay: Is accused of this by Applejack when it comes to telling her what she came to heard about her ancestor, and instead received Tirek's life story. Luna admits she might have gotten caught up in the epic. It's because by telling Tirek's life story, she will reach the section where it mentions Majesty and the events concerning the Midnight Castle. She wants to use this as an opportunity to break Majesty's self-imposed Dying Curse of being Unpersoned as it is no longer needed and the second reason is that Majesty being Mimic's mother effectively makes her Luna's mortal grandmother as well and Luna wanted her to be remembered in the present day by telling the story to Applejack, whose Living Lie Detector powers will break the curse.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Expresses guilt over her past as Nightmare Moon, and like her canon self created the Tantabus.
    • Has this reaction to realizing Applejack assumes she doesn't care about Applejack the First due to her telling her about Majesty's story: Applejack the First was her honorary aunt and she loved her like any of the Paradise Ponies.
    • This is why she tells Applejack Majesty's story in the first place: Majesty was her mortal grandmother and her giving Tirek the Rainbow of Darkness directly caused her death. Had she done the right thing and given it to Majesty, who truly deserved it, Majesty would've destroyed Tirek and lived to see her birth. By telling Applejack the story, she breaks Majesty's spell and allows her story to finally be told as recompense.
  • My Greatest Failure: Fully admits her giving Tirek the Rainbow of Darkness was a horrible mistake on her part and still feels guilt over it.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Has this trait such as her main timeline counterpart. Shining Armor sees her room in chapter 19.2. He has to actively will himself to not think about how frightening it is.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Helping Celestia get to Earth with the Windigos, knowing it would probably end badly but caring too much about her twin to fight her. Her Father calls her out on it.
  • The Omniscient:
    Princess Luna: There is nothing my moon's light touches that I cannot see. Nothing.
    • Subverted as of the climax of the Rumors Arc which has her lose the power to do so on a large scale.
  • Only Sane Man: "Mare" in her case, and she acts like this on occasion. It's played seriously in the Discord Arc, where she's one of the few to remain sane during Discord's reign.
  • Physical Goddess: And not afraid to announce it.
  • Precursor Heroes: With Celestia until she became Nightmare Moon. When wielding the Elements of Harmony, she was Honesty, Loyalty and Generosity.
  • Put on a Bus: Estimates that she would need at least a whole year to reconstitute her physical body in the epilogue of the Last Battle Arc due to her stunt in the Well of Truth. While it is subverted as this is revealed in the penultimate chapter, it also means that you won't exactly be counting on her to show up for any potential sequels anytime soon. At least, not physically...
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Celestia's Blue. Justified, as they were intentionally made this way to balance each other out. They're meant to work together.
  • Secret Identity: Moonlight, a filly. She uses this to be able to be friends with Pip without anypony knowing.
  • Shout-Out: Her full name and title is Eighteenth Luna Nyx Selena Equestria.
  • Super Mode: Has her own version of Orion based off of Orochi.
  • Tarot Motifs: 18, Concept of the Moon.
  • Time Abyss: She's about Celestia's age, so she also qualifies.
  • Twin Telepathy: With Celestia, her twin sister.
  • Villain Protagonist: In "Luna's Nightmare" after her Face–Heel Turn. But it was All Just a Dream in the end.
  • Weird Moon: The main weird thing about the moon is that it has a castle with the Moon Tribe, a race of shadowy bunny like creatures (both of which comes from the IDW arc Nightmare Rarity). Then their are the carved rock formations Luna made during her time as Nightmare Moon.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • Gives a rather brutal one to Fluttershy in "Pearl Necklace", which was partly driven by her Mama Bear protectiveness of Pip.
    • Some of the Fluttershy's friends gives Luna an implied reply with hostile expressions when they saw that Luna told a misdirected truth about her punishing Fluttershy.
    • Applejack gave a massive one to her in Tirek's Origin story, when Luna reveals that back in her first life when she was a young, arrogant concept with no regard of anything except her own domain, she gave Tirek the Rainbow of Darkness thinking that he would actually do something honorable of the night. AJ, trying to remain, she then kicks Luna with her hooves, give her the Truth Stare, and in seething anger asking her if she was sorry. After Luna made it clear that she was sorry and ashamed by her actions and what it cost to the world, to her family, and her night, AJ was still peeved, though with not quite the same anger as before.

    Princess Cadence 

Princess Cadence/Mi Amore Cadenza Equestria/Brightglow/Queen Cadence

Voiced by: Jaime Hathaway

  • A God I Am Not:
    • Shows up in Shining Armor 7, as she has a great degree of insecurity about being considered important and friendly only because she's an Alicorn. Considering she's an Amnesiac Goddess at the time, this might or might not have been the case in the past.
    • She was considerably less nice at the dawn of time, when she was an anti-magic Knight Templar.
  • Adaptational Badass: While the present one can't remember it, Cadence, at full power, managed to take out Havoc's Avatar in a one-on-one fight. How she did it, not even she knows.
  • Affectionate Nickname: "Evening Star", due to being rather close to her brother, Morning Star. This isn't the case anymore after she recognized her brother's growing evil for the first time.
  • Ambadassador: Is one of Equestria's chief diplomats, but she's still an Alicorn who can kick ass if she needs to. 16 Part 2 also shows that she's more than capable of handing difficult situations in a nonviolent but still kick ass way.
  • Amnesiac God:
    • She's aware she's a god, just not how much of one. According to Loose Canon, Cadence is actually Celestia's biological (at least in so far as that applies to spirits and Concepts) sister instead of her "niece" as she believes, but can't remember it. She also can't remember how she survived her climatic battle with Havoc.
    • She was also G2 Brightglow, just like Celestia was Star Catcher.
  • Animal Eye Spy: Is capable of using Songbirds for this, but Celestia didn't tell her until she needed it. Apparently out of fear of what a teenaged mare would do with that kind of ability...or that she'd sneak into hoofball games with it.
    • Subverted as of the climax of the Rumors Arc which has her lose the power to do so on a large scale.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Of Temperance, Harmony, and Music.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Took over the Changelings by challenging Chrysalis for the throne and defeating her.
  • Barrier Maiden: Downplayed example. Her presence keeps the Wolf at bay, protecting Shining Armor from it so long as she's close to him or at least knows where he is at the moment.
  • Battle Couple: Just as she and Shining admit their feelings for each other, they end up fighting together against the Blank Wolf.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
    • She's still a kindhearted pony, just as in canon... but don't make her mad. Makarov did, resulting in her drawing power from the bonds of Misfit Actual and the Rebels to kick his flank.
    • There's also what she did to Professor Kabuto to punish the psychopath for his crimes: imprison him in the sun for centuries. The guy had it coming though.
  • Big Sister Mentor: After Twilight came to live at the castle as Celestia's apprentice, Celestia arranged for her to train Twilight in some spells. It turns out she's the one who taught her the Memory Spell, as it's related to her signature spell.
  • Big "WHAT?!": Her reaction to hearing that Twilight led the defeat of Nightmare Moon. She uses the Royal Canterlot Voice, too.
  • Break the Cutie: Ranger and Sunset's deaths followed by discovering she's immortal does this to her.
  • Cain and Abel: She has been both. She became the Abel when her brother Morning Star fell to evil, becoming the Cain, and turned against the rest of the Alicorns, including her. But she was also the Cain to Amicitia's Abel when she tried to kill her at the Dawn of Time, in order to prevent magic from entering the mortal universe so it couldn't be used to hurt innocent ponies.
  • Challenging the Chief: Ultimately challenges Chrysalis to a duel for control of the changeling swarm and wins.
  • The Chosen One: Turns out to be the goddess of Maasailand foretold in their prophecies.
  • Cool Big Sis:
    • To Twilight, who she was the beloved foalsitter of.
    • She was also one to Morning Star, her younger brother. They never quarreled and were always seen together, which resulted in Cadence being called "Evening Star". Sadly, her love for Morning Star caused her to enable his increasingly narcissistic behavior, believing it was their other siblings' fault for not following his wishes. By the time she saw her brother for who he really was, it was too late, and she deeply regrets it.
  • Don't Call Me "Sir": Like in canon, Mi Amore Cadenza prefers to be called Cadence.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: Gains Voluntary Shapeshifting during the Final Battle with Chrysalis/Cadenza. Towards the end of it she regains some of her true memories and turns into a Crystal Pony to block an attack.
  • Enemy Without: Chrysalis turns out to be her Shadow of Existence, expelled by her defeat by Amicitia at the dawn of time, which somehow maintained a sense of self and was given its own Light and life by Pandora.
  • Fighting a Shadow: Being an Alicorn, she can presumably do this like her aunts but doesn't know how. She learns in the Wedding, but is left vulnerable while doing so, unlike her Aunt Luna.
  • The Ghost:
    • Despite being mentioned several times, has never appeared in person, only in flashbacks (both of the distant and "near" past) at first. Loose Canon reveals she's a dignitary who travels to other nations. This is because Celestia was protecting her from threats who would take advantage of her young age to do her harm.
    • Makes her first present appearance at the tail end of Mind Games 8, trapped underground just like in A Canterlot Wedding. Fortunately, Blueblood and a fillyfriend saved her.
    • She's a main character in Shining Armor's story arc and the Wedding Arc, however.
  • Good Hurts Evil: While not demonstrated in the present, the blood of her Bad Future self is capable of turning parts of creatures born of Disharmony to stone on contact. Presumably, the main Cadence is no different.
  • Hero Antagonist: In the backstory of Dark World. Also, when she was younger, she tried to kill Amicitia at the dawn of time because she was convinced magic was inherently evil.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Pulled a You Shall Not Pass! against Havoc's Avatar to let Celestia, Luna, and Galaxia escape. Subverted in that she survived it, but can't remember.
  • The High Queen: After taking over the Changelings and becoming their Queen.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: As Cadenza, she knew that the consequences for killing Amiticia and preventing magic from entering the universe would be catastrophic, and that her family would never love her again, but she felt she had to do it in order to save mortals from being harmed by the evil side of magic. Fortunately, she did not succeed.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: With Trixie's help, she does this to Twilight to free her from Chrysalis' control.
  • Knight Templar: Back at the dawn of time, she became convinced that magic was inherently evil and tried to kill Amicitia to prevent magic from entering the universe. Fortunately, she got better.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!:
    • She's normally a kindhearted Princess who just wants to spread peace and love to other nations. Then in #15 she has to take part in actual combat and manages to be quite helpful with her Magic Music. And that's before Makarov clopped her off. She proceeds to power up using the bonds of Misfit Actual and the Rebels to kick his flank.
    • Shows it again during the Wedding especially when fighting Chrysalis.
  • Love Goddess: Sort of. She can't make ponies fall in love, only repair the bonds between them, which isn't limited to love. The real Love Goddess among the Alicorns is Venus.
  • Magic Music:
    • Like her Dark World self, due to being the Goddess of Music. However, she either doesn't know or hasn't had the reason to use it offensively, just to raise other's spirits. Or just make everyone else in the room a better singer.
    • During the battle with the Hooviets, she uses her singing to jam the enemy's communications, allowing the Rebels to take out a helicopter.
    • Singing a "The Villain Sucks" Song during the same fight allows her to tap into the harmony of Misfit Actual and the Rebels, powering her up enough to kick Makarov's flank.
  • Magikarp Power: Is presently, by Alicorn standards, rather young, thus why she doesn't have her aunts level of power. While she can't remember it, at full power she's managed to mortally wound Havoc, though it was only an Avatar with a faction of his power.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: If her singing doesn't work, she can fire sonic waves from her mouth.
  • Man of Kryptonite: If her Dark World self is any indication, she's this to anything born of Chaos or Disharmony due to being the Anthropomorphic Personification of Harmony. This is also likely why Makarov got his flank kicked when she powered up; he was created by Pandora, the draconequus of Imagination and thus a creature of chaos.
  • My Own Grampa: A gender-inverted example that's far less squicky than most examples. She's the sister of her mortal parents' ancestor, Galaxia, making her her own many times great aunt.
  • My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Being the concept of Harmony, she felt the Elements of Harmony being used on Nightmare Moon (despite not knowing that's what it was at the time), while halfway around the world when it happened.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Celestia tells Twilight an incident from Cadence's foalhood where she spiked punch at a royal event with Love Poison in a misguided attempt to spread love. She was punished for it and seems to have learned her lesson.
  • Nice to the Waiter: She's kind to her hoofmaidens and crew members, even arranging for crew members' birthdays to be celebrated by a weekly birthday party for everyone's who was close to it.
  • Nothing Personal: When she was young, she saw the evil that magic could do, and decided that the only way to prevent all of that evil was to kill Amicitia, the Concept of Magic. She never hated her personally, she just felt it was necessary to save all mortals from what she saw as a destructive evil.
  • Official Couple: Who do you think with?
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Imprisons Kabuto in the sun for what's likely to be centuries. But the psychopathic monster was a Mad Scientist and mass murderer who'd killed countless innocent people in sadistic medical experiments, so it's hard to blame her.
  • Physical Goddess: Not as strong as her aunts, but still up there.
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Gives one just before she kicks Makarov's flank, after the latter asks her if she's going to sing a song.
    Cadence: Maybe I will sing.
  • Put on a Bus: She and her husband Shining Armor were on their honeymoon during the events of the Finale Arc, only briefly appearing for the events surrounding the birth of Half-Light Midnight. Considering who comes next chronologically, they need it to avert Happy Ending Override, which will go against the theme of the POV series. The couple returns from their honeymoon in the epilogue...only to receive a direct order from Celestia that IT has returned in the Frozen North and were sent to investigate.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica:
    • What the tabloids thought Celestia, who they paint as a tyrant, was going to do to her. While Cadence did end up a traveling dignitary, she seems to genuinely enjoy it and Celestia mainly did it to protect her from threats who would take advantage of her young age (by Alicorn standards) to harm her.
    • Further, it appears she also played an essential role to maintain harmony between Equestria and other nations, meaning she did do good for her nation even while away from it.
  • Redeeming Replacement: To Chrysalis as Changeling Queen.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: After Makarov's demise, she remembers the timeline where he and the Hooviets still existed.
  • Shapeshifter Showdown: Her battle with Chrysalis/Cadenza becomes this after Cadenza lets slip that Alicorns have the powers of all the types of pony, including Changeling Voluntary Shapeshifting.
  • Shipper on Deck: Seems to be trying to set up Running Gag with Garnet.
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Well, at least speaks Songbird, as she's capable of understanding them... they also follow her around.
  • Stranger in a Familiar Land: After Makarov meets his end, she remains unchanged from the Makarov timeline and has to adapt to the new timeline. Downplayed as she also gains a new set of memories for the new timeline.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: Like Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, she hasn't turned into one in the main timeline, but the Truth shows Liarjack that in the Harmony Queens timeline, she transforms into Nightmare Polyphony in order to stop the corrupt Mane 6.
  • Take a Third Option: When Celestia tried to bring what would become known as the Windigos to Equestria, instead of fighting her like her siblings or aiding her like Luna, she simply left altogether because she couldn't bare to harm her own family.
  • Taking the Bullet: Jumps between the Blank Wolf and Shining, injuring herself in the process (and causing it to be rendered mortal for injuring a member of the pantheon).
  • Tarot Motifs: 14, Temperance.
  • Tomboy Princess:
    • Despite being the pink Princess personifying Harmony and Music, she's actually somewhat of a tomcolt, enjoying hoofball (both watching and playing) with a passion rivaling Shining Armor's and being far from afraid to get dirty, even taking part in a race with Spitfire and several members of the guard.
    • She even participated in roller derbies under the alias "Shining Harmer" before her duties called.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: Defeated Havoc, but somehow ended up in Equestria afterwards, being born through a mortal mother, which leaves her incapable of remembering her past life either. Interestingly, this is played as a good thing, since she also forgot the war that wiped out her family, and is permitted to live a normal life on Earth.
  • "The Villain Sucks" Song: Aims one at Makarov during the fight in Zebrica.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Discovers she has this power when fighting Cadenza.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Discovers from Celestia that she's immortal like all Alicorns. She doesn't take this well.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: Pulls this against Havoc's War Avatar. Loose Canon reveals she survived it, and won, but no one, even she, knows what really happened.

Cadenza

Cadence's younger self, who tried and failed to kill Princess Amicitia in a duel to the death at the Dawn of Time to prevent magic from entering the mortal universe, due to Amicitia's predecessor potentially being a certain psychotic clown.

  • Big Sister Instinct: Her attempt to kill Amicitia was a misguided effort to protect the unborn Liberalis, Concept of the Mortal World, and all the mortals inside her from being harmed by magic. As she "dies", her last thoughts are an apology to Libra and every mortal in existence for failing the duel.
  • Does Not Like Magic: Enough that she would try to kill her own sister to prevent the concept of magic from ever coming into existence, having seen the evil that it can do.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Well, not permanent death since she has Complete Immortality, but the way she checks out is pretty painful. She accidentally rockets straight through a fully formed sun, horribly burning herself in the process, before getting impaled with dozens of black rods, the same ones that killed her Dark World counterpart, and knocked back into the burning sun, finishing her off for good.
  • Foregone Conclusion: We already know she's going to lose the duel and grow up to become a better pony, since she's a long past version of Cadence.
  • Hypocrite: Despite Amicitia calling her out on using magic to defeat the concept of magic, Cadenza explicitly states that she is not one, as she is using Amicitia's own power against her to (as far as she knows) prevent a greater evil from entering the mortal universe.
  • We Will Meet Again: Her final words to Amicitia as her spirit departs for the mortal world to be reborn.


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