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Introduced in Nyx's Family
Bright Eyes
A young Crystal pony unicorn, which makes him victim of bullying. Nyx befriends him early in the fic. He's quite the nerd and a very shy kid, but Nyx and Spike manage to get him to open up. At the end of the story, he moves to Ponyville.
- Badass Adorable: He becomes one in the climax.
- Fantastic Racism: A victim of it, since he's a Crystal Unicorn (who have quite the history of being tyrants).
- Invisibility with Drawbacks: Crystal ponies appear sparkly because light bends around their coats in odd ways. By deliberately manipulating the effect, they can vanish altogether. Bright Eyes happens to be particularly good at it, but it leaves him unable to do much of anything without being noticed.
- Last of Their Kind: Because of Sombra's violent ascent to the throne, along with his time spent as the ruler over the Crystal Empire, Bright Eyes is the very last of the Crystal Unicorns.
- Target Spotter: When Spike was rendered blind during his fight against the Dragons, he still had the two-way crystal radio in his ear that was tied in to the receiver Bright Eyes was carrying, allowing for Spike to continue the fight.
- Took a Level in Badass: Like whoa. For one, during the attack of the dragons, he amazingly rises to the occasion, defends Nyx from the Diamond Dogs, helps Spike by guiding him when he's blinded, and becomes like him - a Crystal Champion.
- Walking Spoiler: Judging by the fact that 90% of this entry is spoilers... it's not so much him as his role in the final parts of the story.
Roller Reel
A late-blooming adolescent Crystal Pony with respiratory issues from his time in the mines under Sombra. His family tries to press him into the imperial military, for which he is thoroughly unqualified, but Shining Armor correctly figures that Twilight could use his camerawork for documentation. Near the end of Nyx's Family, he identifies Bright Eyes as his cousin.
- Basement-Dweller: Was this before meeting Shining Armor.
- Distracted by the Sexy: As a teen, he gets this easily, especially when he first sees the Mane Six right in front of him.
- Fantastic Racism: His own annoyance at unicorns and pegasi is mild enough that he can tell it is racism, but he has a lot to say about it to Twilight. Even if he is a bit hot for her.
- Meaningful Name: Roller Reel is a budding filmmaker.
- My New Gift Is Lame: Feels this way about his film cutie mark, though it gets a lot better once he works out that he's got a talent for making movies, not watching them.
- Serious Business: Filmmaking, once he gets his mark. He gets pretty pissed when he misses big events or is barred from filming them, and heaven help you if you mess up his reels or tapes. Despite his respiratory issues, he can run backwards at 15 miles an hour with his camera loaded and running.
Ignatius Mendicant Dubious
A unicorn professor who got famous for debunking many claims — and infamous for getting carried away with that calling.
- Agent Scully: Only worse.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: When he demands proof that Rainbow Dash really did pull off her Sonic Rainboom, she performs it again, but drags him along for the ride, leaving him unable to speak for a while.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Averted - he tries one when he stands directly under boulders and shoots them down in order to separate his party from the assailing dragons. But Rainbow Dash, who has good reason to hate him, saves him.
- Punny Name: He's introduced as "Professor I. M. Dubious".
- Skeptic No Longer: He disproves the Sonic Rainboom by claiming that no one watched it happen directly - they were just in the general area. Rainbow responds by dragging him along for a ride.... while she does the Sonic Rainboom herself. Let's just say he didn't doubt it anymore.
- Took a Level in Kindness: By the end of the story, he turns out to be a decent fellow after all.
Rock Steady
An unusually large stallion whose time under Sombra left him with very little education. Nevertheless, Shining Armor sees him as one of the few qualified military applicants, and he is accepted once he passes the Crystal Empire's equivalent of a GED exam. Shining Armor promotes him from Private to Lieutenant for his actions during the battle against the dragons.
- Mistaken Identity: When he first walks into Shining Armor's office, Spike momentarily mistakes him for Big Macintosh, but quickly realizes the error even before being corrected.
- Took a Level in Badass: Happens in each of his two later appearances — first put in charge of a platoon (Alicornundrum), then promoted and assigned to head up the defense at Ghastly Gorge (Tirek Gets a Righteous Beatdown).
Soft Soap
A reporter for the The Trans Equestria Chronicle who interviews Nyx for the full details of her story as both Nightmare Moon and Nyx the filly.
- Nice Guy: Certainly comes off as one, considering he brought a gift basket for Nyx to make her feel better even if he didn't get his interview. He also puts a very positive and sympathetic spin on her time as Nightmare Moon, without actually lying.
- The Rival: To Roller Reel in Alicornundrum with both of them trying to one-up each other in getting the perfect vantage point in photographing/filming Twilight and Ink Spot's wedding at the end of the story.
Introduced in Nightmare Night and Nyx
Lightning Blitz and Sundiver
A pair of pegasus Royal Guards who were assigned to discreetly watch over Twilight and Nyx. As of Alicornundrum, they work directly for Twilight due to her ascending.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Lightning Blitz knows full well that the second half of his name is Germane for "Lightning", making him "Lightning Lightning". The author admits to the redundancy.
- Manly Tears: Sundiver cries like a baby during Twilight's wedding, to Lightning's disgust.
- Those Two Guys: They're rarely seen apart.
Pomp and Circumstance
A pair of twin brothers who serve as Luna's personal assistants and are absolutely identical, down to the Cutie Marks, save for one being a unicorn and the other a pegasus. Even Luna herself can't always remember who's which.
Flitter
A sweets-loving new youth in Ponyville who appears as a Changeling for Nightmare Night.
- Chekhov's Gun: Her preference for Twist's candy canes over other forms of candy turns out to be due to the fact that Twist discovered how to infuse love into the candy, the same way Changelings store food for later.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Flitter came to Ponyville dressed like a Changeling on Nightmare Night to get candy, and she IS a Changeling.
- Glamour Failure: Anti-changeling lanterns, designed specifically to expose disguised changelings, completely neutralize their illusion magic. Flitter experiences this whenever she's in the proximity of one.
- Loophole Abuse: Ponyville along with most other places in Equestria and the Crystal Empire have armed themselves with Changeling Lanterns and Flashbulbs designed to strip away a Changelings disguise. Flitter decides to just simply go to Ponyville on Nightmare Night without using a disguise, in order to gather Love, other Ponies that see her just thought she was wearing a very realistic costume.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: She is a changeling after all.
Buzz and Trill
Flitter's loving parents.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: They don't hesitate for a moment to beg Celestia not to hurt Flitter, even going so far as to offer forfeiting their lives in exchange for sparing her.
- Good Is Bad And Bad Is Good: Due to being changelings, they're only a little bit nervous about dealing with Nightmare Moon, but they're flat-out terrified when they realize they were speaking to Celestia.
- Mundane Solution: They manage to sneak past the Changeling lanterns just by wearing cheap masks and robes.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The pair of them (along with most Changelings in-general) feel this way about the self-proclaimed "Queen" Chrysalis and her band of hoodlum Changelings attacking the Ponies, and making it hard for the rest of them to gather Love secretly in order to survive.
- Oh, Crap!: They're both horrified when Celestia drops her Nightmare Moon disguise, and all but grovel for her to spare Flitter.
- Papa Wolf: Buzz. At one point he attacks one of the conspirators, and disguises himself as Nyx to distract them while the real Nyx runs away!
Ink Spot
A unicorn stallion who works as an editor for a company that publishes assorted guides and reference books. He quickly becomes Twilight's Love Interest.
- Birds of a Feather: With Twilight obviously, as shown in how the two of them have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and tend to work in professions relating to books (Ink Spot working in Publishing, while Twilight was a Librarian).
- Improbable Weapon User: In Tirek Gets a Righteous Beatdown, Ink Spot uses a surfboard-sized novelty quill made from a roc feather as a BFS and jabs it into Tirek's eye.
- Knighting: Following Chapter 8 of Alicornundrum, Ink Spot was formally knighted by Celestia as the "Baron of Red Rock Island": an uninhabited island in the middle of an undisclosed river.note
- Love at First Sight: Quickly falls in love with Twilight upon seeing her for the first time.
- The Magnificent: Chapter 9 reveals that his new title as: "Sir Ink Spot of Red Rock Island".
- Mayfly–December Romance: With Twilight after her ascension. Averted, as his own ascension at the end of Alicornundrum makes this no longer the case.
- Omniglot: He can understand and decipher any form of written language.
- Papa Wolf: Becomes one for Nyx. Following his marriage to Twilight Sparkle, he truly becomes this completely.
Bruce Mane
A rich businessman who accompanies Applejack while dressed as Bat-Stallion.
- Expy: Is one for Batman — his name and alter ego are thinly veiled references to Bruce Wayne and Batman respectively, and he's a wealthy Honest Corporate Executive much like Batman is.
- Fantastic Racism: On the receiving end due to being a batpony.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Is just as rich as the character he costumes. Who he technically is.
- Love Interest: To Applejack.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gives one to Applejack concerning Mare Do Well.
Alphabet Conspirators
A group of ponies, led by "Agent Alpha" (real name Sundae Sprinkles, the former assistant of Spell Nexus), who sought to destroy Nyx due to their misguided belief that she was just a malignant blob of animated magic rather than an actual pony, and was also secretly manipulating others while awaiting a chance to take over the throne again.
- Crazy-Prepared: It was revealed near the end of their part in the story that the Conspirators had in their possession a Magical Dagger that they would use on Nyx (Blades made of Magic are the only thing that can actually kill immortal Alicorns like herself and the Royal Sisters) if the initial plan to dispel her body didn't work as intended.
- Foil: To the Children of Nightmare from Past Sins, with the Children of Nightmare plotting to bring back Nightmare Moon, the Alphabet Conspirators want to get rid of Nightmare Moon.
- Irony: After their conspiracy fell through when it was revealed that Nyx wasn't an amalgam of Magic like they thought she was and really was a living Alicorn, Nyx asked for the Alphabet Conspirators to be spared from any death penalties in the actions committed by their conspiracy. Luna summed it up best:Princess Luna: "Remember this always, Sundae Sprinkles, You owe your life to the very one you would have destroyed."
- Rage Against the Mentor: Sundae Sprinkles holds deep resentment for his mentor Spell Nexus for his part in creating the Children of Nightmare and in bringing Nightmare Moon back to life.
And possibly feeling guilty that he should have done something to stop Spell Nexus from researching the shreds of Nightmare Moon in the first place. - Well-Intentioned Extremist: They as a group wouldn't hesitate to kill Nyx because they genuinely thought she's a threat that's waiting to take over Equestria. Even willing to go as far as to temporarily imprison everyone attending the Lunar Ball at Nightstone Castle (including The Mane Six and the Royal Sisters) on the premise that they were all being mind-controlled by Nightmare Moon, and that the only way to free them is to dispel the Magic holding Nightmare Moons' body together.
- Would Hurt a Child: The conspirators want to kill Nyx: an Alicorn Filly, in order to remove a potential threat to the safety of Equestria.
Introduced in Alicornundrum
Cherry Blossom, Sea Foam, White Dove and Snowcap
Four of Princess Celestia's hoofmaidens who were reassigned to Twilight as a "starter set" for her own staff. They seem identical (white, blue-eyed Earth ponies with blond manes/tails and sun cutie marks), but they all have a unique secret. They all have chokers that hold a transformation charm so they all can look alike, because Sea Foam is a Sea Pony that Celestia hired away from King Triton. Cherry Blossom is a Unicorn, White Dove is a Pegasus, and Snowcap is an Earth pony.
- Transformation Trinket: They all wear enchanted chokers so they can keep up the illusion of being lookalike Earth ponies. (They actually look similar to the description in "real life" but for a few differences). The chokers also keep Prince Blueblood off of Sea Foam's flank, because of his seapony fetish.
Lord Blueblood/Duke Blueblood
Prince Blueblood's father, who tries to con Twilight into a marriage contract with his son.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Definitely this due to his behavior and actions. His co-conspirators in his plans for unicorn supremacy are this as well.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Thinks himself as The Chessmaster, but the fact that just about everypony he's tried to ruin has come out better due to strange coincidences makes it so clear that Princess Celestia is toying with him that even his son can see it.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Nyx even lampshades it!
- The Chessmaster: Subverted. He likes to think of himself as this, but Celestia outwits him at every turn.
- Didn't Think This Through: His marriage contract is this in spades. Also, his intention to take back the throne of Equestria for unicorns, and ultimately rule the world. Apparently, he never considered that the other Celestial Stewards would have quickly stepped in to stop him.
- Fate Worse than Death: His Villainous Breakdown results in one.
- Genre Blind: Even his son can tell that Celestia has him Out-Gambitted at every turn.
- Groin Attack: Suffers a particularly nasty one from Twilight.
- Jerkass: Makes Prince Blueblood look sweet by comparison.
- Malicious Slander: One of his preferred tactics. Notable examples include:
- Running a smear campaign against Sapphire Shores, which backfired when she used it to jump start her pop star career.
- Sending doctored photos to the papers that make Nyx's sleeepover look more scandalous than it actually was.
- Starting a whisper campaing in the other kingdoms that results in the princesses being Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee.
- Obviously Evil: Lampshaded by Nyx.
- Out-Gambitted: So much it's almost a Running Gag. Every time he tried to ruin someone's life, he gets his own flank handed back to him.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Didn't do it himself, and luckily didn't succeed, but what he was trying to do qualifies.
- Small Name, Big Ego:
- Did he really think he could push Celestia around?
- Did he think threatening Twilight into signing a marriage contract was a good idea?
- Did he think he could intimidate basically an entire pantheon?
- Take Over the World: His ultimate ambition, along with getting rid of the Princesses and putting a unicorn king or queen on the throne of Equestria for the House of Nobles to manipulate.
- Sanity Slippage: Realizing too late that he is severely outclassed by several magnitudes by countless beings, his mind, unable to bear the stress, snaps.
- Villainous Breakdown: After his plans are revealed and foiled, he suffers a stroke that reduces him to the mental state of a foal and leaves him unable to care for himself.
- Would Hurt a Child: Didn't do it physically, but had no problem with the idea of shipping Nyx off to a boarding school in a different country just to further his own ambitions.
Killdeer-Adder
A young royal representative of the Gryphon Empire, grandson of their reigning Emperor. He sort of liked what Nyx did during her reign as Nightmare Moon, in a somewhat cool, teenager way, but not in the bad implications of what she did.
- Calling the Old Man Out: In Chapter 25, he calls his grandfather out for using him as a political pawn and defects to Equestria.
- Gilded Cage: He sees his life in Gryphonia as this, being used as a political pawn by his grandfather, the High Emperor, to cement his political control over Gryphonia, as well as a whipping boy for when things go wrong. This is why he seeks sanctuary in Equestria.
- A Head at Each End: Like all Royal Gryphons, he has a snake for a tail rather than the tufted tails regular Gryphons have. Said snake, Adder, has a mind and name of his own.
- Hidden Depths: He's a pretty laidback Surfer Dude. Deep down, he's tired of his emperor grandfather's emotional abuse, and being treated as his political pawn.
- Our Gryphons Are Different: Royal Gryphons are larger than regular Gryphons and have snake tails rather than regular tufted tails. The snake tails are sentient in their own way. Gryphon tradition states that Royals have two names: one bird name (in this case, Killdeer) and one snake name (in this case, Adder). He has a cousin named Asp. Royal Gryphons are also immortal, which Killdeer-Adder is.
- Spare to the Throne: He's one of the Gryphonian Emperor's twenty-five grandchildren. Killdeer-Adder knows he's a sore disappointment for his grandfather for being an ideal prince, but at least someone else could garner his grandfather's attention.
- Surfer Dude: Killdeer has the personality of a surfer, only as a sky surfer. He also loved the impromptu water slide ride that happened with Doubloon and the other kids. Near the end of the story, Princess Luna hires him as her personal sky-surfing instructor.
- The Unfavorite: Treated like this by his grandfather Eagle-Cobra, for not being the intelligent, princely heir to the throne he wanted. The only use he had was being a political pawn for merging the two governments of the Gryphon Kingdom together. This is why Killdeer-Adder sought amnesty in Equestria.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Emperor Eagle-Cobra is sorely disappointed that his Surfer Dude grandson isn't intelligent or princely as he wanted him to be.
Gossamer
A young Flutterpony.
- Big Eater: Despite her small size, she can easily polish off an entire deep-fried blooming onion or a jumbo tub of popcorn by herself.
- Embarrassing First Name: Prefers "Gossamer" to her given name, Lycaenida.note
- Genki Girl: To the point that Nyx wonders if she and Pinkie are related.
- Irony: She can eat huge portions of food at a time, despite being a small Flutterpony.
Doubloon
A Sea Pony, the second to appear in this set of fics. Due to Anachronic Order, she debuts in Cheerilee's Class, but her first meeting with Nyx is in Alicornundrum. Her father is the Sea Pony Ambassador for Equestria after Celestia and King Triton finally get together.
- Making a Splash: Her Sea Pony magic lets her control water.
- Ship Tease: With Snails.
Songhili
A selkie pup from Formosa.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: He's the Selkie King and heir to the throne, but he's about as young as Nyx and her friends.
- King Incognito: Hid his true identity as the Selkie King for much of the story so he wouldn't be treated differently.
- Really Royalty Reveal: He's really the Selkie King.
- Walking Spoiler: A given, with most of his tropes spoilered out.
Po
A young ki-rin and servant to Zheng He.
- Like a Son to Me: Zheng He feels this way about him even before his ascension.
King Triton, King of the Sea Ponies
A Hippocampus (the Sea Pony equivalent of an Alicorn) who rules over the Sea Ponies in the western seas of Equestria. He was the one who had Sea Foam before Celestia hired her on and before Twilight became an Alicorn. He has an attachment of love to Princess Celestia but did not know if she had the same for him.
- Cannot Spit It Out: As of Chapter 24, he finally told Celestia what he felt about her, and one chapter later, Celestia and Triton are officially dating, with a further Relationship Upgrade possible.
- Oblivious to Love: It took Luna smashing his head with a potted plant and shouting it out loud for him to realize that Celestia did really have feelings for him. To be fair, they're both Twice Shy for each other.
- Physical God: He's a Hippocampus, the Sea Pony equivalent to an Alicorn like the Royal Sisters.
The Council of Celestial Stewards
A group of beings responsible for maintaining the various aspects of the world. Appropriately, all members are powerful immortals. Their numbers include the Princesses Celestia and Luna (Alicorns), King Triton (Hippocampus), High Emperor Eagle-Cobra (Royal Gryphon), Emperor Zheng He (Ki-rin), Jormungandr (northern serpent), the Firebird (archetypical bird), Pelé (dragon), the Treant, a "creature that seemed like a cross between a squid and a party balloon", a "thing of snow crystals and frost" with glittering wings, and at least fourteen more.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Their collective presence is what partially led to Duke Blueblood's Villainous Breakdown; the thought of taking on a whole pantheon of divine creatures that's on par with Celestia and Luna all at once in order for his plans for unicorn supremacy to succeed, combined with the humiliation of being exposed by his own son, caused his mind to implode and rendering him vegetative.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Each member, in addition to some of them being rulers of their own kingdoms, is a Physical God that represents the element they're responsible for.
- Princesses Celestia and Luna are co-rulers of the Equestrian diarchy. They each control the sun and moon, respectively (a duty once held by the unicorns).
- King Triton is the ruler of Atlantis. He controls the ocean currents and tides (though he follows the moon's lead for the latter).
- High Emperor Eagle-Cobra is the leader of the immortals of the Gryphon Kingdom, or Gryphonia (not to be confused with the elected High King rules that the mortal clans). He controls the high winds and jet streams (the air currents of the upper atmosphere).
- Emperor Zheng He is the ruler of Neighpon. He controls the magnetosphere (the electromagnetic field that surrounds the planet), including the auroras.
- Iormungand, or Jormungandr, is the ruler of the frozen north. He controls the North Star and guards Niflheim (a prison realm much like Tartarus). Doesn't show up in person, because he has to stay at his post and is too big to fit inside the palace. The serpent Svellnadr attends as his emissary, wearing a magic jewel that enables two-way communication.
- The Firebird is in charge of bird migrations. For the gathering that took place in Alicornundrum, he serves as Chair-being.
- Pelé oversees the movement of the tectonic plates (and by extension earthquakes and volcanos).
- The Treant is a tree-like creature that speaks for the forests.
- There's a "creature that seemed like a cross between a squid and a party balloon" that speaks for the ozone layer, and a "thing of snow crystals and frost" with glittering wings that speaks of the icepack on the mountains. Both of them are unnamed.
- There's also least fourteen more yet to be named, but are included to match the twenty-four Cosmic Synchronizers that were to be built).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: One of the many problems faced by the Council, and often done by themselves due to a lack of coordination between Council members getting in the way of other Council members.Twilight Sparkle: "Most natural disasters in the world are just that— natural. A consequence of chance. Others, like Pele's eruptions or earthquakes, are necessary ventings of imbalances... the Custodians releasing built up forces, or inevitable synchronicities like eclipses. But others... Epic tidal waves. Hurricanes. Major earthquakes. Ice Ages... there's a file here that indicates the great freeze that the Hearthswarming pageant commemorates may have been initially triggered by a screw-up on the part of Jormungandr."
- Physical God: All members of the Council are very powerful deities in terms of political affluence and firepower, and represent the element they're responsible for, hence their position as "Celestial Stewards". This includes the Alicorn Sisters, Celestia and Luna.
Introduced in Cheerilee's Class
Willow Wisp
A thestral/batpony whose rare, sometimes frightful appearance has given him no luck with peers at school... until joining Cheerilee's motley class.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being a thestral, which can frighten people, he's just a lonely kid who wants friends. He quickly makes plenty of them upon enrolling in the Ponyville school.
- Light 'em Up: He always carries a small fairy light with him, given by his father. When Silver Spoon has a panic attack in an unlit classroom, triggered by her fear of the dark, he's the first to pull it out as a way to comfort her. The other students follow suit in their own ways, and Willow gets his cutie mark.
- Shout-Out: The name "thestral" comes from the Harry Potter creature, which is rather different.
Ziggy
A zebra and Zecora's nephew.
- Rhymes on a Dime: His failed attempt to introduce himself this way shows that he still has a few things to learn. On the other hand, he acquits himself decently in a few rhyme schemes that Zecora's never tried, and he even offers up a haiku at one point.
Frosty
A new student as of the fourth chapter.
- An Ice Person: It comes with being part Windigo.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Half pony, half Windigo.
