Characters / RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: Canterlot

Canterlot

Canterlot is the capital city of Equestria, situated on a plateau on the Canterhorn, a tall mountain near Equestria's center.

You can return to the main character list here.

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Night Court Royalty and Nobility

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General

• Corrupt Politician: A depressingly large number of them. Fragrant Posey is one of the few nobles who has the decency to admit their dishonesty.
• Engineered Public Confession: Gets this pulled on them en masse due to "Truth is a Scourge".
• Nobles Who Actually Do Something: For better or worse, they do frequently do "something". It's just that depressingly often, the Element Bearers wished they didn't.
• Underestimating Badassery: They tend to get this from ponies who think they're just paper-pushers. The junior-ranked nobles tend to get this even from other nobles. But most of the nobles we've seen, even the Barons, have proven themselves to be quite powerful when they need to be.
• Vicious Cycle: Luna has seen it become infested by greedy, selfish 'nobles' before. Several times, in fact. Since she's unwilling to risk Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, she purges it through entirely legal means every few generations, fully aware future members will give into temptation again.
• Villain with Good Publicity: They're all corrupt to one degree or another, a few good eggs aside, but to each of their provinces they couldn't possibly be as bad as the others.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After cutting a deal with Zizanie and realizing that the corruption is worse than she could have thought, Luna reminds the Night Court that the Mayors of the towns and cities of Equestria could easily form a new, better government than the one that currently exists.

Princess Luna Equestris

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Luna is a godlike Alicorn, much like her older sister Corona, in that she is immortal and incredibly powerful. She is the official ruling monarch of Equestria, with two of her roles being the shepherd of the moon, and caretaker of the sun. She is Trixie Lulamoon's teacher in the art of magic and politics.

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• Alternate Character Interpretation: In-universe, Lyra wonders during The Glass Kindgom if her sending the Elements on a good-will tour isn't also Luna getting back at them for what they did at the Grand Galloping Gala.
• Berserk Button: Whatever you do, don't screw up performing the 'Symphony for Moon and Sun'.
• Brutal Honesty: When she's pissed, Luna has a way with words. That is to say, utterly cutting and accurate.
• Colony Drop: Can call down the stars if she needs to utterly destroy something.
• Dark Is Not Evil: even if she has a bit dubious reputation.
• Despair Event Horizon/Heroic BSoD: Suffered one after she banished Corona to the Sun, spending the next twelve years in a drunk, depressed rampage neglecting her responsibilities for Equestria. It took years of her to pull herself together and start stabilizing the kingdom from its near collapse.
• Did Not Think This Through: Her plan to conceal Cadence's parentage, if it can be called that, had a few holes. Like, for example, trying to hide her feelings from someone who's special talent is recognizing those feelings. Turns out Cadence had noticed several hundred years ago.
• Dirty Old Woman: Not all the time, but when she needs to be, Luna can out-filth anyone, as happens at one point in Oaton.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Spent the first twelve years after Corona's banishment Wandering the Earth as a depressed drunkard.
• Fatal Flaw: Low self-confidence, primarily because she knows how close she was to becoming the villain if Celestia hadn't done so first. This is why she allows the Vicious Cycle of corruption in the Night Court to continue, because she is terrified that she isn't strong enough to avoid Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. She gets called out on it in At the Grand Galloping Gala:
  "You're not scared of being seen as a tyrant, you're scared of becoming one, even though you never would. You're so afraid — that you'd rather just let Equestria go through these cycles then risk taking any real action, using any of your power. You're afraid. All the time, you're afraid. You've become used to it. You're scared of yourself."
• The Fettered: Knows full well about the corruption in the Night Court, but steadfastly adheres to the law of the land instead of claiming autocratic power because that is how her sister fell.
• Friend to All Children: Trixie mentions that Luna likes children in Longest Night, Longest Day.
• God-Emperor: While Luna does not hold this view of herself, there are some ponies who do honestly believe she's all-powerful and all-knowing.
• Good Is Not Nice:
  • She can be amazingly harsh and direct when the need requires it. Not to mention destroying the lives of ponies who failed the play the Symphony of the Moon and Sun, regardless of their reasons for playing it.
  • Even aside from the Symphony, mention is frequently made of Luna being very easily angered or offended, even if only briefly.
  • Word of God is that between the two, Luna is actually far more capable of cruelty and malice than Celestia. The worst Celestia will ever (intentionally) do, no matter how much you piss her off, is kill you, and quickly at that. Luna's the one who comes up with creative punishments designed to make you suffer.
• Good Is Not Soft: Her immediate thought when Tirek appears on Tambelon? Try and destroy the entire island.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Her reaction to dealing with all the wannabe Celestia impostors a scant twenty years after her sister's banishment. Unfortunately, she previously used a pair of Royal Commands to ensure she never overindulges, meaning her own retainers are forced to deny her.
• I Should Have Been Better: She opens the Grand Galloping Gala by personally apologizing to the citizens of Ponyville for letting the Night Court get as out of control as it did.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: She refused to tell Cadence she was her mother, believing or justifying herself with the excuse that Cadence might lash out at her, and therefore spends a thousand years keeping her at arm's length. When Ditzy finally refuses to cave and makes her confess, it turns out Cadence already knew anyway.
• King Incognito: She's known to occasionally disguise herself as a mortal pony (or more than one, as in Longest Night, Longest Day) so that she can interact with her subjects as their equal rather than as their ruler.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: While she is saddened to see friends and acquaintances and even the occasional lover die, Luna accepts that she is immortal and does not regret it. Ponies die and she does not, and that's just how things are. Word of God is that this is in fact the default view of alicorns.
• Mama Bear: While not Trixie's actual mother, she's still got the attitude (in a "dealing with a teenager" sort-of-way). The non-canon Nightmares Yet to Come shows what happens when someone does try to hurt Trixie - they're interrupted by a very angry Luna crashing their party.
• Me's a Crowd: One of her abilities is to split herself into multiple. Very handy, as it allows her to not only handle multiple meetings or tasks simultaneously, but she can send one of herself out into the world disguised as a mortal pony in order to get a break from the stresses of ruling.
• My Greatest Failure: Has three, which occurred (from her point of view) within a relatively short time of one another.
  • Not being able to prevent Celestia going insane.
  • Giving up Cadenza.
  • As a result of the prior two Greatest Failures, trying to utterly give up and abandon Equestria, by teleporting to another reality, only returning because of a run in with that reality's Celestia.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Luna doesn't have the absolute greatest views on the griffons, seeing them as a threat to Equestria equivalent to dragons, to be watched and kept in check, rather than just another species.
• Praetorian Guard: Her Night Guard. Their signature appearance (bat wings, slitted eyes, tufted ears, and fangs) is stated to be the result of a glamour on their armor. It's also noted that their job is actually to protect those around Luna, as she is more than capable of defending herself, but anything that would meaningfully attack her is probably going to do so in such a way as to put innocent lives at risk in the process.
• Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Super-strong, super-tough, super-fast, magic enough to call down meteor strikes, and millennia of experience fighting off Equestria's enemies. She also appears like a graceful, benevolent Alicorn.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: She wears glasses while she works. She doesn't need them, but she finds they help as a focus.
• Really 700 Years Old: Like Corona, she's so old that even she's forgotten her exact age, yet physically she appears young enough that Shining Armor thought she looked cute in glasses (much to his own consternation).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Used to be the aggressive, belligerent red oni to Celestia's calm, reserved blue when they were much younger.
• Sinister Scythe: Nightbringer, her favored weapon. According to legend, the blade is forged of starmetal and moonlight.
• Technician Versus Performer: Given as the reason why she never just told anyone what the deal with the Symphony of the Moon and Sun is. Falling heavily on the "performer" side, she feels explaining how the song was meant to be would ruin it.
• Thicker Than Water: Continuously tries reaching out to Corona at every opportunity, to little avail.
• Trickster Mentor: She encouraged young Trixie impersonating her, or at least working on her illusions, which she used to impersonate Luna, even telling her guards to give Trixie pointers when she inevitably flubbed up.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Often gets introduced with several titles added to her name, like "mistress of the star beasts, and sovereign of the three tribes".
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Trixie tells her this in At the Grand Galloping Gala.

Viceroy Nightlight

A Unicorn stallion who is the current leader of House Starlight. He's the father of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor, and husband of Twilight Velvet.

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• Benevolent Boss: Is willing to trust his employees, within reason.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Thanks to what happened to Twilight Sparkle, he apparently wants all of Ponyville to suffer. Ditzy calls him out on it in At the Grand Galloping Gala, using her own motherhood to deflect his Thicker Than Water excuse.
• Innocently Insensitive: He tries shutting down Ditzy's attempt to play peace maker by saying she couldn't understand what it's like to be worried for her child, not knowing about Dinky. Ditzy realizes he's not trying to be rude, and is almost flattered.
• Irrational Hatred: Of Trixie. She wasn't entirely to blame for Twilight becoming a wanted fugitive, yet he despises her for it all the same.
  • By the end of At the Grand Galloping Gala, however, he's realized his mistake once it's shown that his hatred of Trixie is just a symptom of concern for Twilight. While he won't ever be friends with Trixie, he stops hating her.
• Obsessively Organized: He doesn't much like it when things are out of place, at all.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Briefly, and aimed directly at Trixie. Otherwise, he tried to be a Reasonable Authority Figure (or as close as could be managed inside the Court).
• Papa Wolf: Of the negative, but still mildly sympathetic version. His actions are born out of terror over what's become of his daughter, and having no other way to act on them.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: When Trixie tries to call him out for his Disproportionate Retribution, he just shrugs and makes a pithy comment about how she doesn't understand how the Night Court works.

Vicereine Twilight Velvet

A Unicorn mare who's heir of House Starlight. Mother of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor, wife of Night Light. By family tradition she looks after her house's province of Latigo.

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• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Before Twilight Sparkle went on her walkabout, Velvet told her to wear something nice, just in case she met a good-looking stallion. Twilight Velvet really wants her some grandkids.
• Mama Bear: Do not insult her family. Puissance does, and Velvet calls the older mare out on her own awful parenting styles.
• Modest Royalty: Attends a function held by another Vicereine in a remarkably simple-looking dress.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • When she figures out Sheriff Silverstar was with Twilight Sparkle, she manages to persuade Puissance into letting him get out, without breaking any rules.
  • Velvet is the only one of Twilight's family who doesn't try to get back at Trixie in one way or another.

Vicereine Puissance

A Pegasus mare who is the aging leader of House Optiebeurs-Golo. Despite her advanced age, she's an extremely powerful member of the Night Court, and is utterly ruthless in defending her position.

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• A Day in the Limelight: She gets her own episode in 'For the Mare Who Has Everything,' which details the start of her quest for immortality.
• Bad Boss: Will fire employees for minor slip-ups, or not adjusting a budget just the way she wants.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tries to act like a sweet, loving grandmother towards her great-grandson, Flicker, but the mask starts slipping the minute he questions her.
• Broken Pedestal: According to Elements of Insanity, she actually did respect something that wasn't money once - Twilight Velvet's grandmother. That no longer applies, and she finds the current heir of House Starlight a massive idiot.
• The Collector: The author describes her as someone who loves to collect rare and valuable things, which includes ponies of exotic breeds.
• Collector of the Strange: She's a pony collector who's especially fond of pegasus-unicorn hybrids, since they are very rare (only five or in existence at any given time) and they look kind of like alicorns.
  • Treasure City shows that she has at least two pegacorns (including one that looks almost exactly like Celestia), an earthicorn, a descendant of King Sombra (who has his shadow powers), a 4-winged pegasus, a null pony, and a pony-windigo hybrid.
  • She's had seven foals; Word of God is that this is a natural extension of her desire to collect.
  • At the Grand Galloping Gala even suggests that she collects provinces. She is the vicereine of both Califurlong and Palomino. For comparison, every other noble we've met has been in charge of only one province.
  • In Climbing the Mountain, Max gives her a birthday present: a rock from the top of a certain tor that is too steep for most ponies to climb, and surrounded by wind patterns that make flying unsafe. It's one of the few times she's actually shown as being impressed by something.
• Control Freak: She insists it's her right to name her great-grandson, as opposed to the kid's parents.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She doesn't believe unconditional love exists, nor does she understand why it'd be worth having, or even how it works.
• Evil Is Petty: She was totally prepared to ruin a pony's entire life just for talking out of turn at her.
• Evil Matriarch: Some of her kids tried to oppose or supplant her. They're all exiled far from Canterlot or worse.
• Evil Old Folks
• Greed
• Immortality Seeker: 'For the Mare Who Has Everything' shows her resolving to find a spell which can give her eternal life.
• It's All About Me: Puissance seems utterly incapable of understanding any viewpoint that isn't her own, or that anyone could be doing something that isn't about her. Case in point, she believes the Elements of Harmony will (not might) try and separate her from Ice Heart, before they've even met him. And at that point all of them, save Cheerilee, believe she's okay.
• Large and in Charge: She's mentioned as being very tall for a Pegasus, and she's a vicereine.
• Ma'am Shock: Hates being called or treated as old, even though she's a great-grandmother.
• Manipulative Bastard: Her special talent is authority, and she's really good at getting people to go along with her point of view. And then there's the ponies of The Vault.
  • She finds rare and unique ponies, gives them all they could want or need, all the possible comforts they could ask for, and all they have to do is love her unconditionally.
  • She also happens to be a member of several government committees and cabinets, and unofficially controls several more.
• Meaningful Name: In more ways than one.
  • Puissance is a kind of horse competition involving difficult (but limited) jumping stunts. Puissance is also an obscure word meaning 'power'.
  • In At the Grand Galloping Gala, her full name is revealed to be Puissance Noctilucent Optiebeurs-Golo. Optiebeurs Golo is the name of the horse that currently holds the world record for the puissance jump.
• Never My Fault: After Luna yells at the court for their behaviour, Puissance is noted to walk away acting like she doesn't deserve to be yelled at, even though Luna was yelling at her for falsifying evidence at her daughter's trial.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: Wants this of Luna in At the Grand Galloping Gala. Not out of modesty at all; in fact, she fears being made to look like a fool out of touch with the commoners.
• Rich Bitch: Insanely, ludicrously rich, and with all the empathy of a rock.
• Serious Business: When her great-grandcolt tells her he might be starting a little after-school business to teach his friends how to surf, her first thought is to teach him how to shut down competitors and get newspapers to only print good reviews about him so that his business can flourish.
• Spoiled Brat: As a foal, her parents told her she would want for nothing. Several decades later, and the only thing that's changed is her age.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: She has almost a hundred different titles which she's acquired (or just bought) over her life. And in a formal situation, she naturally requires them to be read out in full.
• Yes-Man: Surrounds herself with these. Anyone who expresses a different opinion from her is lucky if they just get cowed back into line.

Vicereine Wallflower

An Earth pony mare who, unlike most of her peers who are corrupt and dishonest, is a kind and just Courtier (or at least as kind and just as the Night Court gets). She is responsible for Canterlot province itself.

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• Motor Mouth
• Mundane Luxury: Since her family controlled the Canterlot region before it was the capitol, she's basically the only pony with enough Canterlot real estate to "waste" space on things like gardens.
• The Spymaster: 'Climbing the Mountain' verifies that she directs the spies of the Royal Diplomatic Corps.
• Token Good Teammate: One of the few Night Court nobles who's not corrupt, dishonest, and/or morally ambiguous, being genuinely compassionate and fair.

Archduke Bobbing Fisher

A Unicorn stallion, and another powerful member of the Court. His position is the Archduke of Rushia, with particular ties to the industrial city of Stalliongrad.

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• Even Evil Has Standards: One of the few ponies who after being called out on their crap by Luna after the Gala had the decency to be ashamed. Not that it stopped him continuing on trying to do heinous things for the "Greater Good".
• Evil Sounds Deep: His creator said that he thinks of Fisher sounding similar to Johan Schinkler, a bass singer with a very deep voice.
• Fantastic Racism: He's a diehard tribalist who is morally offended that non-unicorns have as much power on the Court that they do. In 'Climing the Mountain', he refers to Baron Mounty Max's goat secretary, Mrs. Grobnar, as his pet. He also assumes that the Eyrie (a griffon-majority settlement founded a century or so back in Nulpar by refugees from the Kingdoms) must secretly be a fifth column for the Griffin Kingdoms, despite the fact that every living inhabitant is an Equestrian citizen by birth.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: What he said at the Gala cost him a lot of respect from several members of the Night Court.
• Husky Russkie: Described as having a build more commonly found on earth ponies.
• Hypocrite: Condemns Posey for her treatment of Fluttershy, while he's on incredibly shaky grounds with his own wife.
• Irrational Hatred: For Trixie. He sees her as a lazy loafing layabout who squandered the opportunities Luna gave her and is recklessly endangering the nation by refusing to train for the battle with Corona everyone thinks is coming.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Was forced out of his Ministry of War for his abuse of power, and after an entire story (and more) of him excusing every horrible thing he did on the basis that it's for 'the greater good' and is the 'righteous' thing to do, is caught in the middle of a criminal scheme and exposed by an actual righteous pony.
• Meaningful Name: His name's a takeoff of Bobby Fischer; both being talented chess players, incredibly paranoid and fanatic racists.
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Spent four years in Stalliongrad, without any of his House's resources. This helped build him into the strong zealot he is now.
• The Paranoiac: He's completely paranoid that a single lapse on his part will result in the utter devastation of Equestria by Corona. The fact that she hasn't been going around the country burning everything in sight just doesn't register with him.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Or at least that's how he tries to justify his actions. In truth his morals are so skewed by his own twisted biases, that his sense of what's "right" has little to no resemble to anything of the sort. In Fisher's mind the prosperity and security of the nation is paramount, even at the expense of freedoms and safety of its citizenry.
• Smart People Play Chess: Word of God is that he's a fantastic player who hates to lose. He's also one of the more clever politicians in the Court.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Rather than face the consequences of what he did, he pulls a runner. The Night Court are concerned he'll go to Zaldia, where he'd fit right in with the paranoid tribalists.

Archduchess Svelte Lord-Fisher

Former representative of the Night Court to Stalliongrad. She assumed the archduchy after her husband, Bobbing Fisher, was disgraced and stripped of his title.

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• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Word of God has implied that she doesn't get along with her Fisher (who would sacrifice ponies for the greater good) or her brother (who is so obsessed with his alleged 'royal' ancestry that he cares little about anything else.)
• Handicapped Badass: Her horn is broken and she consequently cannot cast spells, but she is still extremely powerful and capable.
• Knight in Sour Armor: She works for the good of the common pony, but she is deeply cynical and doesn't really believe in goodness or friendship.
• Principles Zealot: She does not believe in mercy (largely because, in her experience, mercy is something reserved for the elite and not available to commoners) and so favors a strict, inflexible application of the law. Even when Luna asks for mercy for her sister, Svelte refuses; the law says that ponies must be punished very harshly for treason, and Svelte thus intends to do everything in her power to see Celestia so punished.

Archduchess Nobility

An archduchess of unknown tribe.

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• You Have Failed Me: Does this to Captain Lightning, once he gets her to vote a certain way for what turns out to be a bogus reason, having him sent off to the Griffon Embassy.

Duchess Fragrant Posey

A Pegasus mare who is a Duchess in the Night Court. She is Fluttershy's aunt.

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• Death Glare: Shoots one at Mounty when he says he likes the name "Fluttershy", though he's utterly oblivious to it.
• Mama Bear:
  • Wants to take Trixie to task for 'threatening' Fluttershy and temporarily abducting one of her chickens. The problem is that when Fragrant heard of this, she didn't understand that Trixie barely knew who Fluttershy was, and what she did know made her feel sorry for her.
  • During the Gala, Archduke Fisher comes clean with his opinion that Posey should be trying to force Fluttershy into a political position. Posey's good-will towards him disintegrates, and several months later, she's still angry at him.
• Old Shame: In-universe. She once accepted a bribe early in her career and, after Luna's asking if there is one honest pony in the Night Court, has the decency to say "No".
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Read Trixie the riot act for the incidents that flipped her Mama Bear switch, but was also willing to give her a little benefit of the doubt when Trixie gave her side of the story and swore that she bore Fluttershy no ill will.
• Sexy Mentor: Max certainly thinks so.
• Spotting the Thread: Catches on to Greengrass' attempted manipulations in "At the Grand Galloping Gala", simply by noting the sheer implausibility of events happening.
• Token Good Teammate: Or at least as close as can be managed with the Night Court.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: She looks pretty similar to an older Fluttershy.

Duke Greengrass

Profile

An Earth pony stallion and the son of (ex-)Count Greenmeadow. He's a politician, and a young and aggressive member of the Night Court.

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• Accentuate the Negative: His special talent of weeding makes him very good at finding ponies' weaknesses. He is lousy at noticing a pony's strengths. His inner monologue about Trixie in At the Grand Galloping Gala paints her as a seething mass of flaws and vices, completely ignoring all of the virtue she has displayed.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: His cutie mark talent makes him very good at breaking other ponies down. Not so much at building them back up.
• The Bus Came Back: After last being seen running into the night in "At the Grand Galloping Gala", he shows up again in "Just Us Little Ponies".
  • Bus Crash: Narrowly averted. We find out in JULP that he almost died a few months after the Gala while he was still offscreen, but Max and Greenmeadow were able to rescue him just in time.
• The Chessmaster: How he apparently works.
• Crazy Enough to Work
• Deadpan Snarker: Gets in his licks.
  If the court stopped getting rewards for things they didn't do, half of them would starve to death.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: (to Luna, as a result of Truth is a Scourge kicking in) "You useless cow."
• Engineered Public Confession: Offers to push Baron Max off the Court in exchange for Duke Fisher's help in regaining his influence, while he knows Baron Max is nearby and able to overhear the whole thing. The idea was to sacrifice his own position (which he couldn't really do anything with) in exchange for knocking Fisher out of the Court and giving Max a nice leg up. Max, however, makes it clear that he's not going to allow Greengrass to cheat him into power, and tells Luna not only what Greengrass did but why he did it.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His father was a pony who continuously placed the welfare of the nation before himself, and spent fifty years doing everything he could for Equestria, and virtually nothing for himself. Not only does Greengrass think he was a loser, but he doesn't understand that his dad was trying to help others, as opposed to simply amassing power for himself. Also, when Lyra confronts him At the Grand Galloping Gala, he expresses the view that he cannot imagine the Element-bearers not wanting to use their status for political gain. After Lyra and Bon-Bon are finished, he comes to the conclusion that their telling him they don't care about politics means Trixie is somehow working for Blueblood.
• Evil Is Petty: Briefly considered sending Octavia to the Mild West for being The Mole, before coming up with something much worse.
• Expy: His profile specifically states that in a lot of ways, he's essentially a pony version of Xanatos.
• I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Courtesy of Truth is a Scourge, he tells Luna how he plans to remove her from power, at length, against his will.
• Irrational Hatred: Not for his enemy Trixie, but for traitors in general. He'll fire incompetent employees, but he will obliterate ones that betray him, even if the betrayal wasn't successful or meaningful.
• Jerkass: Other moral failings aside, Greengrass is just generally a smug asshat.
• Make Way for the New Villains: The non-cannon Nightmares Yet to Come has a part where the not-cultists find his hidden mansion, beat him up and do... something to get rid of him, because they consider him a danger.
• Manchild: For all his manipulative scheming, he generally acts very much like one of these, seeing Equestria as a game to be won, and running off in a strop when he gets embarrassed in front of Luna.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Odd Friendship: With the honest and earnest Baron Mounty Max, after Max helped him with the Sun Cult.
• Persona Non Grata: Retains his title and seat on the Court after the Gala, but everypony knows that Luna despises him, causing him to lose all of his influence and alliances among the other nobles.
• Trickster Mentor: Likes to think of himself as being this for Baron Max.
• Undying Loyalty: His one virtue. While he'll obliterate traitors, he'll go to the ends of the world for his loyal employees.
  • When the Sun Cult captures Notary, he embarks on a plan that he thinks will cost him everything—his seat in the Court, his title, even his life—and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that annihilates the Canterlot chapter of the cult. By the end of it, their headquarters is in flames and the entire Canterlot chapter of the Sun Cult has been destroyed.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: At the end of 'At The Grand Galloping Gala'.
• Visionary Villain: He wants to control Equestria like his own garden, tending to it and helping it 'grow' into something far greater and more glorious than its current state.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Vanishes near the end of 'At the Grand Galloping Gala'. He shows up again in 'Just Us Little Ponies'.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: His special talent is weeding. As in, finding objects' weaknesses and exploiting them to his advantage, if not outright disposing them.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Actually gets a bit of this in Climbing the Mountain when Baron Max is trying to convince him to join the group of nobles who are working to find a way to improve the Night Court. Max finds out about his Visionary Villain status and argues that since his goal, self-serving as it is, involves Equestria being better for everypony else as well, he can't be all bad.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted. Trixie thinks this of him, but it turns out not to be true.
  • In fact, his reaction to Notary being captured by the Sun Cult is to launch a massive scheme which involves him letting himself be abducted by the Cult in order to infiltrate their organization, blow up their weapons stores, and utterly annihilate the Canterlot chapter.
  • However, he has a tendency to inflict this status on ponies he hires the minute they stop being immediately useful to him, utterly destroying their careers or lives.
  • Actually inflicts this on himself in Just Us Little Ponies. Having realized that Luna will never restore his influence, he deliberately does something very illegal in such a way that Mounty Max is bound to catch him, thus allowing Mounty to boost his career at the expense of the remnants of Greengrass's own political position.
    "I'm still walking around, but I can't grow in Equestria or even Caneighda now—Luna won't let me. Really, from a plant-based perspective, I'm more of a rotting tree that hasn't quite fallen over yet than anything else. But you, Max, you are another rare flower, the kind the Court hasn't seen in centuries. If my destruction fertilizes—"

Duke Sands

A Night Court noble of unknown tribe. He plays chess with Fragrant Posey.

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Marquis De Salade

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• Punny Name: All we know about him is that his name is a pun on the Marquis de Sade.

Count Greenmeadow

Greengrass's father and a Count, though he's now retired. He's not really thrilled about the direction his son took with his life.

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• Grumpy Old Man
• Percussive Maintenance: Is willing to give Max advice about issues in the Court, but if Max does something he thinks is stupid, his usual response is to bonk him on the head with a cane.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: His special talent is completing things.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: He can be this way towards those whom he thinks are being stupid or immoral.

Count Shiny Copper Coin

An Earth pony and a noble of the Court. His county includes the land inhabited by the tiny village of Oaton. His younger sister is Tarnished Copper Coin.

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• Anti-Villain: Type II. He wishes that he didn't have to engage in the activities that are harming Oaton, but can't see any other course of action for what he needs.
• Big Brother Instinct: One of the main reasons for his alliance with the Lumber Guild is to find his little sister Tarnished and bring her back home.
• Impoverished Patrician: His parents drove the family so deep into debt before he came to power that he's forced to work with criminals and smugglers just to try to slow the bleeding.
• Speech Impediment: Has a stutter that he can suppress with effort.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: With Cheerilee, a status that he actually shares with his sister, Tarnished.

Countess Tarnished Copper Coin

A Unicorn mare who is Shiny Copper Coin's sister, and an old friend of Cheerilee.

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• Determinator: Manages, with some effort, to overcome the dark magic corruption on herself.
• Friend to All Living Things: It's her special talent. Including at one point, a pair of basilisks.
• Identical Stranger: Not exactly identical, per se, but in low visibility conditions, she can look an awful lot like Trixie.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: She ran away from home after Cheerilee went back to Ponyville to become a teacher.
• Shrinking Violet: When she's not crazy, she's not very good with others.
• This Is Your Brain on Evil: As a result of living in a shrine to Tirek.
• Yandere: As a result of the shrine's corruption, her thoughts for Cheerille get amplified dangerously.

Viscount Prince Blueblood

A Unicorn stallion who is a Viscount in the Night Court, despite his name. He has a vendetta against Trixie for reasons unknown.

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• Demoted to Extra: In the earlier stories he was intended to become the primary political antagonist for Trixie, before Duke Greengrass took over and expanded the role to include the entire Lunaverse Six.
• Everyone Has Standards: A manipulative jerk he may be, but he still tries to avoid making grown mares cry in public.
• Evil Counterpart: To Trixie, in regard to her Element of Magic. Both are minor political figures, but while Trixie uses her talents to help others, Blueblood's only interests are himself and restoring his family line to prominence.
• Family Theme Naming: The Blueblood family make a habit of naming their children after ranks of nobility.
• Gut Feeling: His special talent is "direction", and expresses itself this way. As long as he follows his instincts and doesn't get too caught up in his own attempts at scheming, he tends to benefit.
  • A good example is at the Gala, when he accepts Pinkie Pie as his companion for the night. Since she keeps Zizanie and Raindrops from getting close enough to poison him with the Scourge, and she drinks his (spiked) punch before he can, he is spared from the effects of the Scourge. She even turns out to be a good influence on him in the long term when they officially become a couple.
• Hidden Depths: His "Longest Night" side story shows that he's highly devoted to restore his family's old status, and he was the first in line to gather the unicorn nobility to help the Royal Guard against Corona.
  • Trope's even mentioned by name by Zizanie.
  • He's in a loving, completely equal relationship with Pinkie Pie. No, really.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Played with. Prince is his real name, but not his actual title.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: His ancestor had (presumably) sided with Corona, which brought the whole family into unpopularity in the Night Court. The whole Blueblood line has ever since worked to earn back their Family Honor.
• Morality Chain: Pinkie Pie acts as his conscience in later works.
• Never My Fault: After Luna publicly calls out the Night Court for handling the Ponyville situation just before the Gala, Blueblood mutters how he doesn't think he deserved it.
• Old Shame: In-universe, Blueblood and his family regards his ancestor as a stain who irrevocably ruined their family name and status among the Canterlot nobility by siding with the insane Corona.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He's actually depicted as being reasonably politically savvy, if underinformed. He's simply outclassed by serious players like Greengrass.
• Pet the Dog: In "Pinkie and Blueie Twoie", gives his butler Hearthwarming Day off to spend with his family and convinces Pinkie's family to reconcile with her.
• Ship Tease: with Pinkie Pie, after the Grand Galloping Gala. It's even inspired a couple romance stories.

Viscount Silver Shackles

A noble of unknown tribe. Head of the Police and Jail Committees of the Night Court.

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Baroness Buttercup

The daughter and heiress of Baron Rolling Fields. She was once in a relationship with Baron Mounty Max, but he broke it off upon learning of her corruption.

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• Cast from Hit Points: How her (illegal) spell to help her father retain his mind works.
• Justified Criminal: She resorts to illegal magic to help her aging father retain his deteriorating mind at the cost of herself, but she thinks it's worth the cons.

Baron Mounty Max

An Earth pony stallion and "junior" member of the court. He's naive, and would rather be rock climbing.

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• Action Hero: Despite being a noble, he tends to wind up in situations where he gets into physical fights. He's disrupted at least two major crime sprees and fought the leader of a group of bandits, and those are just the ones we know of. He even finds himself wondering how other nobles manage to go months at a time without ending up in mortal danger.
• Determinator: He doesn't have much martial training, if any, so on the occasions when he gets into a fight with another pony like his duel with Fisher in Climbing the Mountain, his fighting style basically amounts to tanking whatever his opponent is hitting him with and stubbornly refusing to stay down.
• The Ditz: Max is a nice pony, undeniably, but he does have a bad habit of not necessarily thinking things through. Like that time he decided to wrestle an elk, elks being several times larger and stronger than almost every pony.
• Hunk: Somehow managed to win a prize in the Mr. Equestria competition. He was one of the judges.
• "Leave Your Quest" Test: Has twice been offered the chance to exchange his Barony for a Knight Erranthood. Has turned it down both times, because he knows that while he'd be a lot happier as a Knight Errant, he can do more good for more ponies as a Night Court noble.
• Naïve Newcomer: To the Night Court.
• Nice Guy: Even before getting his own stories, his few appearances had shown him to be very friendly and approachable.
• Odd Friendship: With Duke Greengrass, after the business with the Sun Cult.
• The Paladin: Turning into this. He almost gets himself killed to save Greengrass, a criminal whom Max detested, because it was the right thing to do. Then he risked his life saving a bunch of captured criminals from execution, even going hoof-to-hoof with some of the terrorists responsible, again because it was the right thing to do.

Baron Rolling Fields

The Baron of Houhynym. Despite the best efforts of his daughter, Baroness Buttercup, he's slowly slipping into senility. Friends with Baron Max.

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• Killed Off for Real

Baronetess Dawn Chorus

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• The Mole: Attempted to betray the nation to Corona, although ironically Corona had no idea she existed and wasn't involved with Chorus's plan in any way.
• No Name Given: For years, although she was finally named in Climbing The Mountain 2.

Businessponies

Creeping Ivy

An equine of ambiguous species who may be able to predict the future.

Wolfgang

A Diamond Dog who runs a teahouse which is largely patronized by elders of a variety of species.

Criminals

Don Arnaqueur

An extremely skilled forger

• Death Trap: By Volk's conspiracy

Duty Enpay

Smuggler with a heart of gold, and friend of Cheerilee

• Death Trap: By Volk's conspiracy

Fetlockson

Track star who is secretly the Cat-Eyed Colt, a famous cat burgler who retired twenty-five years before the Lunaverse begins.

• Death Trap: By Volk's conspiracy

Flim and Flam

Two con-artist unicorns.

• Con Man
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: They were utterly baffled that Carrot Top saved the Apples crops from the Farmslayers (which had the benefit of rendering their blackmail scheme useless).
• Laser-Guided Karma: They abducted Apple Bloom. This was the final straw for Greengrass, who was worried that he'd be blamed (since they were technically working for him at the time). He thus had them sent to jail and put in solitary confinement so they can't tell anyone he hired them.
• Put on a Bus: After they screw up in a major way, Greengrass frames them for treason and has them arrested.

Heavy Hitter

Leader of a team of mercenaries hired by Blueblood to waylay Octavia.

Moonlit Night

A charmer and seducer working for Greengrass.

• The Charmer
• Charm Pony
• The Mole

Stompina

Head of the Canterlot branch of the mafia

• The Don

Government Employees

Bellemane

A page working for Viceroy Night Light.

• False Friend: To Paperweight.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Night Light favors Paperweight, as she works harder and does better jobs than Bellemane. Bellemane feels that she works hard enough, and that this is unfair.

Bootheel

A unicorn working for Shiny Copper Coin obsessed with hitting on ponies

• …And That Little Girl Was Me: Tries telling Raindrops about his past, to make her feel better after sleeping with Kindle. He's not good at hiding the fact he's talking about himself.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Voice of the Sun has him explain that back home there was a girl he had a crush on, but she didn't return it. Since then, Bootheel's been doing whatever he can to fill the void. Mostly via sex, and plenty of it.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Strongly subscribes to this.
• Re Assigned To Antarctica: Eventually he hit on somepony he shouldn't have, and got reassigned to the Griffon Embassy. Not that it stopped him hitting on ponies in the slightest, though.
• Refuge in Audacity: He actually tries hitting on Princess Luna, in the middle of a party. She then manages to say something so hideously smutty he turns bright red and has to have a strong drink.

Cut'n'Dry

Unicorn. Shiny Copper Coin's head bodyguard.

• Butch Lesbian
• Covert Pervert: For all the grief she gives her co-worker, Bootheel, her inner monologues tend to focus heavily on how attractive she thinks Raindrops is.
• Hidden Depths: She loves flying, and knows how to cast a spell that can let her do so.
• Jerkass: She's first introduced being incredibly rude and condescending toward the villagers of Oaton.
• Saying Too Much: Lets slip she's noticed Raindrops' figure while talking about her. In front of Raindrops.
• Undying Loyalty: To Shiny.

Grobnar

Goat. Baron Max's secretary

• Never Mess with Granny: When Archduke Fisher's bodyguard, Volk, tries to taunt her, she responds by eating his magic.

Hangem Higher

Warden of Foalsome Prison

Lock'n'Key

Unicorn, one of Shiny Copper Coin's houseguard, Cut'n'Dry's brother.

• Nice Guy: He's much more easy-going than his sister.

Money Penny

Unicorn secretary at Canterlot castle

• Badass Bystander: During the events of "Through Fire and Flame", she's the one with a sensible head on her shoulders, telling a grumpy captain to assist the Element Bearers.

Moondancer

Unicorn, an archmage hired by Puissance

• Driven by Envy: She never forgave Twilight Sparkle for surpassing her in the magic school they attended together. She even allies with Puissance to have the chance to finally prove that she is a better mage than Twilight.
• Friendless Background: As in the show, a bad experience with Twilight caused her to abandon the entire concept of friendship.
• Insane Troll Logic: She's quite, quite nuts. Twilight Sparkle accidentally didn't come to her party? Clearly, a sinister plot by the egotistical Twilight to sabotage her attempt to become valedictorian! ... yeah.
• It's All About Me: She cares only about her own reputation and prestige, to the point that, when Puissance needs one more item for Moondancer to cast the spell which will make her, Puissance, immortal, and also make Moondancer famous for being a brilliant mage, Moondancer refuses. She figures that Puissance, who is terrified of her own mortality, will draw on her resources to find another way to get the last item that they need, and in the meantime she has her own research to conduct—and if Puissance is hurt or terrified in the meantime, she doesn't care.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: A very early Lunaverse story, 'File Under I for Impossible', said that Moondancer had died in a train accident. Years later, 'For the Mare Who Has Everything' revealed that Moondancer wasn't on the train, but when she learned people believed her to have been killed in the crash she just went with it because it would stop other ponies distracting her from her research.

Notary

Profile

Earth pony. Greengrass's secretary and assistant.

• Awesomeness by Analysis: A non-cannon story by TalonAndThorn has her work out Pokey Pierce is talking about Trixie when he declines to give her name simply by working from the various clues in his stories, and narrowing it down from there.
• Husky Russkie: Subverted.Despite being from Moscolt, she's not physically imposing in the slightest.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Subverted. Whatever she learned in Rushia was more about stealth and being sneaky than strength.
• The Nondescript: Ponies have a hard time remembering or focusing on Notary while she's present.
• Servile Snarker

Octavia Philharmonica

Profile

Earth pony, cellist and Lyra's mentor. Primarily performs for the Night Court and its members. A native of Chenneigh.

• The Atoner: After Musicians and Dreamers. However, she doesn't expect any forgiveness for betraying her friend.
• Badass Normal: She's an earth pony, and a musician, but carrying her cello around so much means she's surprisingly capable of dishing out the hurt when she needs to.
• Doing It for the Art:invoked A defining aspect of her character. When she is promoted to Princess Luna's Court Musician, it is the chance to perform for the most cultured and discerning audiences in Equestria and the access to rare manuscripts and lost works that she focuses on. This is given a particular focus in The Court Musician Of Equestria when she is contrasted with Thrash Metail (who sees music as nothing more than a vehicle to bring himself fame and fortune).
• Double Agent: Until she was spotted by Greengrass in Symphony for Moon and Sun.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: A musical version. Deconstructed during A Concert For Ponyville when the naturally reclusive Fluttershy clams up to Octavia's teaching style, leading to a fallout between the two. It's only when Trixie convinces Octavia to be more gentle with her that the two start making progress.
• Elegant Classical Musician: And how.
• Fighting from the Inside: She's been the victim of attempted brainwashing by two foes so far: a squad of mercenaries who try to immobilize her by flooding her mind with paralyzing, despairing thoughts, and a metal musician who uses magic music to try to force her to love his mediocre works. She fights them off both times. As one commentator noted, she has a mind like a steel trap.
• Intrinsic Vow: Nothing can make Octavia Philharmonica pass off bad music as good. Not even mind control.
• The Mentor: to Lyra.
  • Broken Pedestal: Is revealed to be Greengrass' agent who was supposed to bring Lyra under his influence.
  • Heel–Face Turn: And then she starts working for Trixie in order to protect Lyra.
• Odd Friendship: With the hyperactive, over-excited Paperweight.
• The Power of Friendship: What snaps her out of Emoter's Emotion Bomb. She may not be an Element, but Lyra is, and her friendship with Lyra is enough to invoke the Magic of Friendship.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Paperweight's red.
• Relationship Upgrade: By the time of "For The Mare Who Has Everything", she and Paperweight have become a couple.
• Silk Hiding Steel: A soft-spoken, elegant, refined artist. But make the mistake of pushing her too far, and she will wreck you.
• Super-Senses: Her hearing is very, very good. Even if render yourself invisible and inaudible, she can sense your presence via sensing the surrounding echoes, as Trixie learned.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She really dislikes Trixie.

Ox and Bear

Earth pony and unicorn, respectively. Greengrass's bodyguards.

Pageturner

Servant of Vicereine Puissance.

• Canon Immigrant: From The Cadanceverse.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When she abandons her cheerful personality and resigns in a huff, it's because she's been altered by a Discordian.

Paperweight

Page working for Viceroy Night Light

• Fangirl: Of Thrash Metail, at least until she realizes he's awful.
• Genki Girl
• Odd Friendship: With the reserved, serious Octavia.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Octavia's blue.

Perfect Precision and Precise Point

Puissance's personal secretary and political secretary, respectively

• The Mole: They are changelings and are really working for Chrysalis.

Quizzing

The ambassador at the Griffon Ambassy

• "Ass" in Ambassador: He's a pompous arrogant snob who almost certainly deserved getting his ass shipped off to nowhere. And that's before he turns out to be a mole.
• Everyone Has Standards: Pompous prig he may be, and traitor as well, but when Haymaker is determined to take hostages and take them all with him if need be, Quizzing turns on him in exchange for just getting out of the embassy alive.
• The Mole: He turns tail to Corona.

Regal Tomes

Pony working on translating a zebra spellbook

• "Blind Idiot" Translation: He is one of the idiots doing the translating. Consequently, the spells come out incredibly poorly, and Lyra's turned into a human for a day.
• The Bus Came Back: He returns in Through Fire and Flames, where he apologises for that whole mess with the zebra book.

Snowy Night/Rimewind the Frigid

Pegasus. A former apprentice of Luna from 300 years ago, still alive thanks to Windigo magic.

Born to a family of poor farmers on the Everfree border zone before the Everfree provinces were created, Snowy displayed a natural talent for weather manipulation. However the death of her little brother coupled with her parents' blaming her for leaving the farm and being at least partially responsible drove her to seek out the Windigos. While her initial goal was to find a way to control the Everfree's weather (though it's unclear if the Windigos can actually do this), her searching for them and being alone in her thoughts eventually drove her insane and instilled in her a desire to coat the world in snow and ice. The Windigos imparted to her immense power, transforming her into Rimewind the Frigid. Luna fought against her and defeated her, imprisoning the now-glacially-aging pony in Tartaros, where she has spent the last 300 years regaining her sanity. She is the only other living student of Luna besides Trixie.

• Ambiguous Innocence: Raindrops is convinced she's lying or insincere about something. Whether she actually is isn't clear, but odd things start happening when she shows up. When Raindrops calls her on it, she attacks the Element Bearers, but Trixie still thinks something's up with the situation.
• The Atoner: Recovered her sanity a century or so ago, but still felt bad enough about everything that happened that she insisted on remaining in Tartaros until the present day.
• Blessed with Suck: Snowy is still aging, it's just that physically aging one year is taking several hundred at a time. She's going to spend a long, long time in as a middle-aged or old-aged pony.
  • Her ice powers are far and away above what any other pegasus has...but she can't deal with more "normal" temperatures very well. It's unclear if this is a result of her powers, though, or if instead it's because she spend 300 years in a frozen river in Tartaros and simply needs to get used to warmer climes again.
• Callback: Not her directly, but while in Kokytos she built an ice palace for herself. That Trixie visited. Fortunately this one didn't melt, which means Trixie is 2-1 in that regard.
• Dark and Troubled Past: 300 years ago, she was a threat to Equestria that required Luna's intervention to stop.
• Deal with the Devil: With the Windigos, though according to her there wasn't exactly a lot of bargaining. They knew what she wanted, she knew what they wanted. There was no actual words involved.
• Despair Event Horizon: What pushed her over the edge 300 years ago. She got better.
• Expy: Of Sunset Shimmer in the show. Like Sunset, Snowy is a former student of the princess who turned to evil and became a monster as a result, but was later redeemed.
  • Of Corona to an extent, as well.
  • Later chapters add bits of Mr. Freeze into the mix.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Averted. 200 years in the River Kokytos in Tartaros helped her regain her sanity (along with regular visits from Luna), while the next 100 years were self-imposed at her own request as a form of personal atonement.
• An Ice Person: The Windigo gave her power over snow and ice that goes to practically Elsa levels.
• Innocently Insensitive: Her first action was to help the Ponyville weather patrol with an ice problem in their clouds...without permission, telling them what she was up to, or even introducing herself.
• Kill It with Ice: Her plan 300 years ago, for all of Equestria.
• My God, What Have I Done?: What prompted her to stay in Tartaros for an extra hundred years.
• Really 700 Years Old: 320 years old, but due to the glacial aging that the Windigos "gifted" to her, she only looks to be in her early 20s.
• Required Secondary Powers: She never gets cold.
• That Man Is Dead: Insists that Snowy Wind is dead when she drops her pretence of innocence.
• Trauma Conga Line: First, her parents basically disowned her when she left the farm to learn from Luna. Then a few years later, she learns that her youngest brother is extremely ill, after it's too late for Luna's magic to do anything to help him (and the medical knowledge of the time being insufficient to save him, either). He dies, sending her over the Despair Event Horizon. She sets out looking for Windigos, ostensibly to find out how to control the weather in the Everfree (as she blamed an unusually cold winter on her brother's death), but by the time she found them she had gone mad and instead used the powers they gave her to try and cover Equestria in rime and snow. In the end, she's defeated by Luna and locked in Tartaros.
• Vague Age: Averted (which is rare for the Lunaverse), she's explicitly 320 years old, give or take a few years, though she looks much younger.
• Wicked Cultured: Snowy's letters read like they could have been written by Ben Franklin or Lord Nelson. In person, however, she is much more casual, even using (admittedly antiquated) slang, like "gardyloo!" ("look out below", roughly...but generally referring to when one emptied a chamber-pot the window)
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Of a different sort than normally seen in the Lunaverse; Snowy speaks and writes like someone from the late-1700s or early 1800s. She doesn't use "thee" or "hast" or the like, but does use antiquated words or spellings ("donjon" instead of dungeon; "immurement" instead of imprisonment), and well as archaic sentence structure (such as "I trust not" rather than "I don't trust", or using "I/it be" instead of "I am/it is")

Solar Flare

Vicereine Puissance's chief of staff, and her bodyguard when Puissance is on her own territory. A pegasus-unicorn hybrid who looks almost exactly like Corona. Hated and feared by most who see her but 'loved' by Puissance, she will do anything for her master.

• Bodyguard Crush: Truly loves Puissance.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has some nasty ones on one side of her face.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: One of the reasons she's so devoted to Puissance is because she thinks the old mare is the only person in the world who can see past her Celestia-y exterior.
• In the Hood: She tends to hide her appearance with a cloak whenever she's out and about. Presumably, everyone's too polite to ask why the incredibly tall pony is doing such a thing.
• I Reject Your Reality: Honestly believes that everypony is jealous of Puissance because of her money, and how much the Vault ponies love her.
• Noodle Incident: She's had a run in with Sunset Shimmer and Lightning Dust before.
• Playing with Fire: Not helping the Corona comparison.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: You have to wonder what would drive a mother to name her filly "Solar Flare" in a world that fears the Sun as much as the Lunaverse.
• Would Hurt a Child: At the end of 'For the Mare Who Has Everything' she resolves to ensure that Puissance obtains immortal life even if she has to sacrifice Scepter, Puissance's great-grandcolt, to do it.

Vast Volumes

An incredibly stupid translator who worked in Canterlot, and one of the few ponies in Equestria who can read zebra. Unicorn.

• "Blind Idiot" Translation: She is the idiot doing the translating, along with two others, who divided up the task of translating between them in the most inefficient means possible. And because of that, Lyra's turned into a human.
  • Later, she leaves most of a Griffon document untranslated to preserve the original feel. She does include a guide to the language though... in the back of the book.
• Fantastic Racism: She's a tribalist, thinking all earth ponies are ignorant.
• Too Dumb to Live: Outside of the already mentioned idiocy with the translating, she bad-mouths earth ponies right in front of Lyra and BonBon, who'd be perfectly fine with getting rid of at least one of the three.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Trixie snarks about her name, and if there hadn't been more pressing matters admits she'd probably have gotten into a long conversation about it.

Volk

Archduke Fisher's personal bodyguard

• Actually a Doombot
• The Dragon: To Fisher
  • Dragon with an Agenda
• The Mole: The end of Just Us Little Ponies reveals that, not only was Volk the head of the conspiracy in that story, and not only was he behind the Sun Cult cell that almost killed Greengrass and Notary, but he's possibly a changeling as well.
• Never Found the Body: There's a reason for that.
• No One Could Survive That!: This is said about him after the column he is standing on collapses in 'Just Us Little Ponies'. Turns out, Volk could in fact survive that.
• Praetorian Guard
• The Starscream: It's revealed at the end of JULP that the real goal of the plan was to bring down Fisher, Equestria's Minister of War and one of the few ponies most capable of dealing with Volk's real employers—the changelings. And he succeeded handsomely.
• Unexplained Recovery: Averted. While he survives a great fall in 'Just Us Little Ponies', a reason is implied—that he's a changeling and can shapeshift into a form with wings. Also, while he's given a limp by Max earlier in that story, he doesn't actually recover from it.
• The Unfought: In his first appearance as the conspiracy leader in 'Just Us Little Ponies', he sends machines to attack the ponies in the train tunnels. He doesn't actually fight anypony himself until the airship docking bay showdown, and even then, he doesn't put up much of a fight. Possibly because he's a changeling and so isn't as good a fighter as the real Volk.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Slips away at the end of 'Just Us Little Ponies'.

Wandza Waving

Archivist of the Royal Library

• Child Hater: The non-canon story Nightmares Yet to Come mentions she doesn't like foals being in the library because they make a mess.
• Punny Name

Zephyr Wind

One of Luna's old apprentices

• Hot for Teacher: A set of published works released several hundred years ago suggested Zephyr was in a relationship with Princess Luna, which led to the birth of Cadence (utterly ignoring the implausibility of such a suggestion).
• Noodle Incident: Lent some form of assistance to Luna, but whatever it was, she refuses to say.

Zizanie

Discordian Unicorn. Spy, illusionist and a shape-shifter who worked for multiple members of the Night Court.

• Body Horror: Of all of the ponies freaked out by her using her power to the fullest (and thus making herself look like a draconequus), she was the most disturbed of the lot.
• Debt Detester: Helps Trixie during Secrets of Andalantis because she feels that she owes the mare after she and the Element Bearers thwarted Corona, and she hates that.
• Enemy Mine: Briefly, with Trixie, during Secrets of Andalantis. As soon as she feels she's done enough, she takes off.
• Humiliation Conga: Her time as Trixie's assistant. She thought Trixie treated her like that due to having seen through her disguise... only to learn that Trixie did it unintentionally, just being her usual self.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Gains draconequus traits when overusing her chaos magic.
• Master of Disguise
• Master of Illusion: She's really skilled at making her illusions subtle and hard to spot.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is a French word that was chosen on purpose. "Ill-feeling"
• The Mole: pretending to be an applicant for the job of Representative's assistant.
• One-Winged Angel: It's a moth's wing. She also has a moth's antenna, a gorilla's arm, a tiger's paw, a changeling's hind leg, a tiger's eyes, and an ankylosaur's tail.
• Power Degeneration: Using her chaos magic warps her body and, to a lesser extent, her mind.
• Reality Warper: In a limited fashion. She was able to break Trixie's illusions and temporarily take away her horn. She was even able to slip out of one of Shining Armor's containment spells.
  • In the Lunaverse, Chaos magic can be neither controlled nor contained, only directed. Fortunately discordians like Zizanie simply lack the raw power needed to become true Reality Warpers

Military & Espionage

Captain Lightning

• Only Sane Man: He is the only one of all the Griffon embassy staff with more than half a brain-cell. Unfortunately, this means he has to deal with the idiotic, pompous and incompetent ponies who got sent there, and Bootheel, so he's more than a little sour.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Thanks to one of Greengrass' schemes, he winds up pissing off a noble and gets sent to the Griffon embassy.
• Super-Speed: His special talent, but he can't use it for very long without getting seriously winded.

Fancy Pants

Unicorn. Advisor to Luna. Appears to be a fashion-obsessed nitwit, but is actually the head of the Shadowbolt spy operation.

• Adaptational Badass: In canon, he's just a celebrity, though a very nice one. In the Lunaverse, he's Luna's personal spy on the Night Court.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Utilises it when talking with Carrot Top and Applejack, pointing out how the former risked her farm on the promise of giving Ponyville farmers a new irrigation system, and Applejack... just offered to let Carrot Top stay at her house for a few days if she lost. It stops Applejack's attempted glad-handing in its tracks.
• Gone Horribly Right: His cover as a rich idiot is so good that he's fooled his own daughter, Vinyl Scratch, which has put some serious strain on their relationship.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Acts like a total nitwit. The Night Court being what it is, pretty much everyone figures he can't possibly be as stupid as he looks, they just don't know how right they are.

Fizzlepop

Unicorn, full name Fizzlepop Berrytwist. Member of the Night Guard. Has a broken horn.

• Adaptational Heroism: She's introduced as a member of Luna's Night Guard, rather than working as a henchpony for anyone evil. At most, she's just a grump, albeit for pretty justified reasons.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The one spell she can cast without strain is destructive, flashy, and not really useful in the position of a bodyguard.
• Handicapped Badass: Her horn is broken, making her incapable of casting almost any kind of magic. Deconstructed, in that she therefore pushes herself to her physical limits (and beyond) in an attempt to compensate.
• Non-Indicative Name: In fairness, she earned her Cutie Mark before the incident that cost her her horn, prompting a change in career. Doesn't stop Trixie commenting on it.
• Trauma Button:
  • Ponies looking at her horn. Which nearly all of them do.
  • Anything bear-related. Not a good mix with a pony whose speciality is illusions and whose aura is light blue.

Fleur de Lis

Unicorn. Fancy Pant's companion. Appears to be an airhead.

• The Conspiracy: In the non-canon "Nightmares Yet to Come", she's part of a group of Tirek cultists, and has been for at least four years before Trixie came to Ponyville.
• Gossipy Hens: Is avoided wherever possible by members of the Night Court wanting to actually keep something secret, because she's so ditzy she'll just tell all and sundry about it.
• Le Parkour: According to the non-cannon "Nightmares Yet to Come", Fleur's idea of morning exercise is going for a run across Canterlot's rooftops.
• Master of Disguise
• Mysterious Mentor: To Octavia.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Unlike Fancy Pants, no-one has seen through it, and truly do think Fleur is as stupid as she acts.
• Reformed Criminal: A former burglar. She still knows how to climb castle walls and disguise herself, however.
• Trophy Wife

Haymaker

Stuffy Shadowbolt agent

• Mauve Shirt: Reappears a few times, starting with Prelude to Crisis, until Voice of the Sun, wherein he turns out to be a spy for Celestia.
• The Mole: He and his family are die-hard Celestia loyalists, who infiltrated the government solely to undermine Luna. In that capacity, Haymaker led Lyra and Raindrops into a trap.

Meadowlark and Smiles

A pair of Night Guards who work together, and who don't like Trixie. Full names Frolicsome Meadowlark and Moonlight Smiles

• Jerkass: They tend to be rude and deliberately obstructive towards Trixie whenever they encounter her, which is usually when there's a situation where it's urgent she get past them.
• Non-Indicative Name: Yet another pair of guards with odd names.

Shining Armor

Unicorn. Captain of the Royal Guard, Twilight Sparkle's older brother.

• Barrier Warrior: Acts as a center-point in Canterlot's defense field against Corona, albeit with practically every unicorn in Canterlot helping to boost the spell. Even so, by himself his barriers are strong enough that even Twilight can't break through them without cracking the universe in the process.
• Big Brother Instinct: Cares very deeply for Twily, his LSBFF. A flashback story also shows him instinctively standing in front of a young Trixie when his boss yells at her for being childish.
• A Father to His Men: Is protective of any troop under his command.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • His taunting of Corona provoked her into nearly wiping Canterlot off the map as a show of force. In Shining's defense, Corona does have a Hair-Trigger Temper anyway, but before he'd done that she'd been perfectly willing to take Canterlot without bloodshed.
  • Helping to try and arrest Twilight in Latigo sends her into a Freak Out, prompting her to use a rare teleporting spell to get out of the universe, kick-starting the plot of "Crisis on Two Equestrias".
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Uses castle security measures to make things irritating for Trixie during "At the Grand Galloping Gala", as revenge for Twilight becoming a fugitive.
• Ship Tease: Him and Cadenza get along really well from their first meeting.
• Taking the Bullet: Leapt in the way of a rock Fizzlepop threw at Luna (not that it would've hurt her anyway, but protecting the Princess is his job).
• Troll: Waited till Corona was mid-sentence to interrupt her. That almost proved disastrous.

Sneak Attack

Shadowbolt. Formerly assigned to investigate Archduke Fisher. Went rogue and began abducting criminals with Volk and Goliath

• Expy: Shares a lot of features with Light Yagami of Death Note, including his 'kill all the criminals' plan and his intelligence.
• Kick the Dog: While some of his intended victims do probably deserve harsher punishment that they got, he also goes after ponies who've reformed, and Twilight Sparkle as well.
• Knight Templar
• Well-Intentioned Extremist

Spitfire

Pegasus. Head of the Wonderbolts.

General Quicksilver (retired)

Pegasus. Former general in the Equestrian military, and long-time friend of Baron Rolling Fields and Count Greenmeadow.

• Dirty Old Woman: Blatantly eyes up Mounty Max when they meet, and claims that she's like a ship. Not good for much unless she's full of... sailors.

Brigadier General Morning Star

Tribe unknown. Male.

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: The non-cannon Nightmares Yet to Come introduces his daughter, who implies he's frequently done many embarrassing things (beyond her childhood friends just finding him hot).
• Mr. Fanservice: At the time of Carrot Top Season he was voted most handsome officer in the Equestrian army.

Musicians

Concerti Brilliante

The first musician to try the Symphony for Moon and Sun, excluding the composer Maestro. His ending emphasized Luna's strength and raw power.

Crescendo

Pegasus metalhead who is good enough to impress even Octavia.

• Hidden Depths: Actually has good knowledge of classical music, having tried it before she got into metal.
• The Power of Rock

Fame Fortisi

The second musician to try the Symphony for Moon and Sun. Her ending emphasized Luna's cunning and intelligence.

• The Rival: to Concerti, who overshadowed her in fame.

Off Beat

Sweet Song's agent and brother, who wants only to see her fail.

• Always Someone Better: He's got some talent in music, but compared to his sister...
• Big Brother Bully: He exploited Sweet Song's musical talent by making her practice absurdly difficult musical pieces to the point of crying nightly. He also set her up to play the Symphony for Moon and Sun out of sheer spite, just so he could watch his sister blacklist herself and take the fall while he gets away scot-free. When Luna angrily has Sweet Song removed from the stage, Off Beat rejoices in his sister's potential fate and joyfully thinks about throwing out Sweet Song's belongings and throwing the biggest party ever. This bites him in the ass when Luna figures out he masterminded her fall, and has her guards take him in for questioning.
• The Caretaker: To his younger sister Sweet Song, and hates it, as he feels she's holding him back from the successful career he wished for himself. Many readers pointed out that he could've said "No" when his parents tasked him with caring for her, but still accepted it just to be a pure dick.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: His plan for Sweet Song's concert. If she succeeds, he'd get the credit as her primary caretaker while she'd embarrass herself by being mentally disabled. If she fails, it would be the end of her career and he'd be able to get rid of her. He didn't account that Luna might figure out he put her up to it.
• It's All About Me: He only cares about himself and his own life, and took up the task as Sweet Song's caretaker despite hating it immensely just so he could spite his mentally disabled sister. He also believed he was entitled for compensation for all the "sacrifices" he made for her.
• Jerkass: He briefly considered just leaving to have his own life, but instead agreed to become his sister's agent specifically to ruin her life, taking pleasure in the fact that his actions make her cry uncontrollably at night and ultimately ruining her love of music. He also believed that he was entitled to being compensated for all the "sacrifices" he made for his sister, which he assumed Luna would give. He just didn't anticipate that Luna was much smarter than that.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He manipulated Sweet Song into playing the Symphony for Moon and Sun out of sheer spite, getting off from the pleasure of seeing his sister humiliate herself in public as her potential music career and general future is ruined for good. However, Luna figures out that someone set her up, and has her guards take Off Beat in for questioning.

Piano Amour

The forty-ninth musician to try the Symphony for Moon and Sun, and the only such musician still alive when Octavia finally completed the work. Her ending emphasized Luna's despair and the sheer destruction of the battle.

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In-universe. Compared to the previous attempts, her rendition of the symphony is a lot darker and sadder, focusing on Luna's Despair Event Horizon. She went a bit too far, however, describing it in almost nihilistic light.
• Thicker Than Water: She played the symphony in order to help her family.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Out of all the failed performers of the symphony, Piano was probably most content with the outcome. She's also the only one alive to witness when Octavia stops the line of failed attempts by finishing the piece properly, gaining somewhat a closure for her own work too.
  • It's implied that Luna would have given her another shot at the Symphony, but she really didn't want to push her luck.
• Xanatos Gambit: She knows that if she plays the Symphony, it will get Luna's attention. Even if Luna castigates her for playing it wrongly, she'll still have to talk to Piano, and Piano will get a chance to plead her family's case.

Red Magician

Unicorn. The twenty-seventh musician to try the Symphony for Moon and Sun. His ending emphasized Luna's magical prowess and skill.

• A Day in the Limelight: "Red Magician's Last Adventure", a short story about Red Musician's last adventure.
• Break the Haughty: He figured he would be the one to finally figure out the Symphony. He was wrong, and it nuked his popularity.
• Dented Iron: He got a little irritated about how he was getting old.
• Indy Ploy: In his younger days, he didn't really plan things.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: His attempt at playing the Symphony means he's still considered a joke by musicians centuries later, so much so that even Zaldian musicians mock him.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Unlike most of the others who tried playing the Symphony, we do see a glimpse of his life afterward. While he was mocked about it, he still managed to regain some popularity, and continued on with heroing, and Luna spoke to him again after he thwarted another villainous plot.

Stringer

The twelfth musician to try the Symphony for Moon and Sun. A scam artist. Her ending was flashy and glitzy, with no further themes.

• Con Man: A con mare, but still applies. The fact that her interpretation of the Symphony for Moon and Sun's ending was flashy and glitzy with little else speaks volumes of her actual skill.
• Too Dumb to Live: Trying to scam the nobles was pretty stupid. Assuming Luna wouldn't show up was worse. Getting a pony to try and impersonate Luna to sell the scam...

Sweet Song

The thirty-ninth musician to try the Symphony for Moon and Sun. Mentally disabled, and can do little besides play the violin. Her ending mimicked the existing music as closely as possible.

• Friend to All Living Things: After her brother's mistreatment ruined music for her, she developed an interest in caring for animals in its place.
• Idiot Savant: More or less the only thing she can do is play violin. Her older brother, Off Beat, exploited this by making her play the Symphony for Moon and Sun so he could ruin her love for music and future out of sheer spite.

Thrash Metail

A mysterious musician who has recently skyrocketed to popularity in Canterlot.

• Artifact of Doom: The Guitar of the Sirens he used to control others has a tendency to corrupt the wielders.
• Heavy Metal: In a technical sense. He's not actually that good, as Crescendo and Octavia both discover.
• It's All About Me: Thrash feels entitled to success and glory, and feels everyone should love his music because he is the one who plays it.
• Magic Music
• Mind-Control Music: How he got so popular. His music is actually sub-par, but the guitar prevents them from noticing it when his music is played live. Octavia is able to fight through it because he still sucks as a musician, and that is enough for her to fight it.
• The Power of Rock: Can brainwash ponies with his metal music.
• The Rock Star
• Small Name, Big Ego: He acts like he's one of the greatest musicians to ever live, but rather than try and actually work on his sub-par performance, decided to try and just use magic to make everyone think he's good. He's utterly incapable of accepting the idea that someone couldn't love his work, leading Octavia to wonder if before she'd come along if he'd even had to deal with a negative opinion before. He later reveals that he had, destroying all his original songs because no-one ever listened to them.