Characters / The Other Side of The Spectrum - PHL/UN Taskforce

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Ponies for Human Life

The PHL began as a peaceful pro-human group started by Ambassador Lyra Heartstrings, but gained military backing after USMC Colonel Marcus Renee was assigned as her bodyguard, catapulting him into a position of unprecedented power. Since then, the "Ponies for Human Life" title has become something of a misnomer due to the inclusion of humans and other sapient beings from Equus. Currently, the PHL are also working in tandem with a United Nations taskforce led by Colonel Renee.

In General

• Category Traitor: The ponies in the PHL are labeled as "Betrayers" and often treated as humans-in-all-but-race by the Solar Empire. Human members are also hated by the HLF for their cooperation with the ponies, being considered an "affront to all humanity" and "halfway to becoming Newfoals".
• Child Soldiers: The PHL has taken many war orphans, both human and pony, under its wing. While their leaders are unhappy about sending children out onto the front lines, the Empire's merciless nature and constant loss of manpower has made it a heart-breaking necessity.
  • Youngsters known to be fighting for the PHL include Dinky, Pipsqueak, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and a boy named Jean Kirchstein, the last of whom is burnt to death by Queen Celestia.
• Defector from Decadence: All of the ponies in the group. TCB Spitfire in particular resigned from the Wonderbolts in disgust over her country's policies.
• Dirty Business: Whether it's using children as soldiers, torturing their enemies for information or employing lethal force, they will do it to save mankind from Celestia's madness. But that doesn't mean they enjoy resorting to such methods.
• Future Badass: Since TCB Equestria is four years ahead of its prime counterpart, most of the ponies count.
  • Before the war, Lyra was flighty, lazy and eccentric. During the war, she became the most respected pony on Earth and the leader of a multinational resistance group. She remains a revered figure even in death.
  • Cheerilee is one of the few members to be endowed with some powerful, yet volatile magic runes which heighten her physical endurance.
  • Trixie makes use of her talents as an illusionist (with a helpful dose of Changeling magic) to go undercover behind enemy lines.
• Heroic Bystander: The majority of the pony members are civilians who chose to make a stand against Queen Celestia's regime.
• Hero-Worshipper: According to Marcus, many of the ponies (and some humans) revere TCB Lyra in the same way as the in-show ponies do with Celestia.
  • This is further explored and deconstructed in Last Train From Oblivion, where it is shown to not necessarily be a good thing.
  • It's deconstructed again in the chapter "Training Days: First Month". Marcus worries that people will project TCB Lyra onto Prime Lyra, which could put severe mental strain on the innocent little unicorn.
• Humans Are Warriors: Pretty much true of every human member.
• Icon of Rebellion: The PHL's symbol is a white-on-blue representation of a lyre within a laurel wreath.
  • Two other notable examples are a graffito of Lyra calling on people to resist the Empire, and a poster of a PHL pony defending a human child from TCB Rainbow Dash.
• It's Personal: Nearly everyone involved has lost someone they've loved. More broadly, the humans want to take back their planet, and the ponies feel betrayed by Queen Celestia.
• La Résistance: Fighting against The Empire to save two (and later, all) worlds from sure destruction.
• Lowered Recruiting Standards: Like many human military forces, they have Child Soldiers (one of which is apparently not even old enough to vote) and have accepted at least one ex-HLF soldier into their ranks (Kraber) who really should have been institutionalized by this point.
• Mildly Military: Not true of most human combatants, and certainly not "mild" in the sense that everyone involved is desperately fighting for survival, but applies in that its highest-ranking members include civilians such as a musician-turned-ambassador, a schoolteacher and a physicist.
• Multinational Team: Alien ponies cooperating with a United Nations taskforce, which includes soldiers from all over the world.
• Oh, My Gods!: A closer reading of the text shows that the ponies now swear in Luna's name rather than Celestia's. It's not exactly hard to see why...
  • Some of the more zealous PHL ponies use terms such as "for Lyra's sake" or "by the Golden Lyre".
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Albeit a rather well-organized bunch, thanks to having career soldiers on board.

PHL High Command

Amb. Lyra Heartstrings (TCB)

Lyra Heartstrings

The PHL's founder and original leader, Ambassador Lyra Heartstrings is still a symbol of true harmony between humans and ponies after her execution by Queen Celestia.

• 100% Heroism Rating: Is adored the world over for her unwavering and outspoken rebellion against the Solar Tyrant.
• All-Loving Hero: Judging from her last words. Though it's worth noting her attitude to Queen Celestia was like Kal-El's towards Darkseid in that she would have accepted her arch-enemy's death as the lesser evil.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome
• Ambadassador: Was the Equestrian ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the leader of the PHL.
• The Atoner: Albeit, a more unaware version of this. See For Want Of A Nail.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: While not much has been seen of her in combat, it's clear she was no slouch judging by her assault arms.
• Being Good Sucks: Defying Queen Celestia (whom she was almost certainly on good terms with, to be made an ambassador) and denouncing her beloved home country were not the easiest decisions for her to make, especially given the fear and mistrust she faced from many of the same humans she vowed to protect. Not to mention, dying a martyr's death is inspiring only when it isn't happening to you.
• Big Good: To the PHL, and she still is even after her death. Even some members of the HLF mourned her death despite their anti-pony sentiments.
• Defiant to the End: Refused to give in even as she was being painfully petrified.
• Dramatic Irony: She found the Bag of Tirek, kick-starting the whole mess in the first place.
• Face Death with Dignity: Used her last moments to give a rousing speech to humanity and ponykind rather than cry for her life.
• Final Speech: Made one before her death at Queen Celestia's hooves that heavily references The Great Dictator.
• For Want Of A Nail: Everything that happened in the story can be traced back to TCB Lyra deciding to go on a scuba-diving trip with some friends, where she uncovered a wrecked ship that held the Bag of Tirek onboard. She wasn't aware of this though, as evidenced by her journal entries. Prime Lyra on the other hand rejected going on that trip in order to practice for the Canterlot Royal Orchestra tryouts.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Well, a nightmare to the Solar Empire, anyway. Who would have guessed that a fringe historian would go on to lead an uprising?
• Hidden Depths: Went from being the equivalent of Ponyville's resident UFO-logist to a respected leader of the human and pony resistance.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Averted in a significant way. She wasn't immune to the power of Tirek's Bag.
• Inspirational Martyr: To the point where people are petitioning for the Pope to canonize her as a saint.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Queen Celestia executed her by turning her to stone and having her crushed by a mob.
• Messianic Archetype: This Lyra almost single-hoofedly gave humanity and ponykind a reason to keep trusting each other after the war began.
  • At one point, Marcus outright says that she is a messiah-like figure to the PHL, which is why he decides against taking Prime Lyra with him back to Earth, since she could never live up to their expectations, though he does agree to let her train alongside the Mane Six.
  • Taken one step further after it is revealed that she presented Marcus with a uniquely powerful "redeemer" rune to tattoo on his body, the implication being that this rune could purge Queen Celestia of Tirek's influence, and Lyra got it from the Scribe in person.
• Nay-Theist: While the Solar Tyrant is far from omnipotent, she's still very powerful. By contrast, Lyra is merely an ordinary little green unicorn. She was also the one whose defiance led to the creation of the most effective military force battling against the Solar Empire.
• No Place for Me There: Saving mankind and making up for her mistake required setting in motion a chain of events (i.e. Marcus taking command of the PHL's troops, his arrival in Prime Equestria alerting Princess Celestia to the situation, Discord reconciling with his sisters, etc.) that she wouldn't live to see.
• Odd Friendship: Implied - she's familiar with the Umbrella Man, enough to drop everything she was doing to answer his request.
• The Paragon: While members of the PHL can fall anywhere on the moral spectrum, Lyra was and is still regarded as one of the most noble and selfless people in the group. Shame about being indirectly responsible for all the war and destruction.
• Posthumous Character: Naturally, as the main story takes place over a year after she was executed.
• Prim and Proper Bun: The Asia Side-Story describes Ambassador Lyra as keeping her mane tied into a bun, in contrast to Prime Lyra's distinctive unkempt hairstyle.
• A Pupil of Mine Until She Turned to Evil: Inverted in that she was one of the unicorns studying at Celestia's School (though she was never a personal student like Twilight) and rebelled against her former teacher after Celestia went to the dark side. Which is then further complicated after factoring in that Lyra discovered the very Artifact of Doom which caused Celestia's corruption. Oops.
• Rebel Leader: And her death ended up making her a martyr.
• Reluctant Warrior: Preferred persuading people over to her side than fighting them, including the HLF. If the King of England is to be believed, she would have been a Martial Pacifist in a more idealistic setting.
  King William V: "We can say all we like about her prowess in battle. But I hope to God that becomes a footnote in history because Lyra was never about battle. If there was a peaceful solution, she'd try for it."
• Renaissance Woman: The Case Files side-story reveals that when she applied herself, Lyra was close to being Twilight 2.0. Amongst other things, she personally oversaw the design of Artificial Limbs, and various Magitek weapons and devices for the PHL to use.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: She publicly defected from Equestria, revealed the truth about the potion to humanity, and founded the PHL. Her defiance of the Queen in fact helped spur many ponies (like Firebrand, Blizzard Flurry and Aegis) to reject the conversion of humanity and join the fight.
• Shadow Archetype: A heroic example to TCB Twilight. Went to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns? Check. Was one of Princess Cadance's charges? Check. Had an obsessive interest for unusual subjects (in this case, humans)? Check. Proved unexpectedly well-suited for leading people into fighting the good fight? Check.
  • During one of her visions, Prime Lightning Dust sees Lyra as an alicorn.
• Sincerity Mode: According to Charles, Lyra's key advantage is the fact that she is completely and utterly sincere in her words. Enough to convince Prince Harry to personally fund the PHL with his account.
• Sympathy for the Devil: She expresses pity for the PER's founder Jacqueline Reitman for her inability to understand humans and ponies are really Mirroring Factions, calling her a "sad, strange little woman".
• Take Our Word for It: Similarly to John Connor, TCB Lyra is a resistance leader whom we rarely see in action (for obvious reasons) but is treated with awe and respect by the people who believe in her cause.
• The Unchosen One: She died before she could bring about the Big Bad's defeat, yet the way she stayed loyal to the principles of old Equestria inspired many humans and ponies to hold back from falling into mutual hatred and slaughter.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She was famous in the TCB-verse for finding the sunken ship of the KV-62 archaeological party headed by Dr. Waggoner on a scuba-diving trip. Unfortunately, said ship also carried a certain Artifact of Doom...
• Unwitting Pawn: It's also very likely that the Bag of Tirek did subtly influence her to carry it over to TCB Celestia.

Col. Marcus Renee

Marcus Renee

He's a colonel, not a commander. Art by Kare Valgon.

The main protagonist of the original iteration of the story, Colonel Marcus Renee is a leading member of the PHL and the UN Taskforce, as well as a very capable human combatant augmented with magic runes that greatly enhance his strength. Nevertheless, the war has not been kind to him.

• Action Bomb: If he gets doused with the potion, he has about five minutes to get it off of him before the runes blow him up.
• Adapted Out: He's nowhere to be found in SPECTRUM, as the authors figured it would be in poor taste to use him without Redskin's involvement. He's replaced with Alexander Reiner.
• And This Is for...: Broke one of Prime Applejack's legs because he mistook her for her TCB counterpart, who had taken his family from him.
• Anti-Magic: His Power Tattoos protect him from more lethal kinds of magic.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: In "War March and Past Sins", he initially refused to believe that his mother, Megan, is the same one King Spykoran met over a thousand years ago, and that her legacy of dealing with ponies has now been passed to him, but then reconsiders when he thinks about his home world's own situation.
• As the Good Book Says...: Quotes Revelation 21:6 in Chapter 11, "Sanguine Meetings and Bloodied Past".
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He became vital to the PHL because he was very good at his job, and once he had authority he ended up getting all the cool new toys for better asskicking. Managed to make Princess Celestia bleed for the first time in centuries.
• Battle Aura: His runes send out a blast of telekinetic force whenever he releases the magic built up in them. They're accompanied with a slight blue glow.
• Berserk Button: The TCB ponies in general. And upon meeting Prince Blueblood for the first time, we get this gem.
  Marcus: "Oh... dear... God. I have the sudden urge to throttle something... violently."
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Attempted to slit his throat when he thought he was about to be ponified by the Prime Mane Six, only for the knife to be taken from him. In desperation, he tried to faceplant on the knife, but wound up knocking himself out.
• Big Brother Instinct: One of his major sources of Mangst is the fact that he was forced to kill his own ponified little brother.
• Blessed with Suck: The Runes. They are capable of extreme power, but need to be embedded into the body of the user, and even if said user has had them for over two years, they can still be very difficult to control (though he does get a better handling of them with some tutelage from Princess Celestia).
  • Even more in "Sons of Legacies, Part 3" once it's discovered that after getting purged of Sombra, Marcus's runes basically fused with him, making his tissues alicorn-like. His body actually needs magic to survive. Expel too much, and he could die.
• Break the Badass: Marcus breaks down to Manly Tears four times during the story. First is after he kills his ponified brother. Second when he meets Prime Lyra for the first time, after confusing her for her TCB counterpart. Third is when he explains the state of his world to the Prime Mane Six. Lastly is when he reflects on his mother's death and that she did want to tell him about her adventures in Dream Valley but couldn't spit it out.
• Childhood Friends: Somewhat with Porter Stanley, owing to Marcus's father having saved the life of Porter's father in the Gulf War.
• The Chosen One: After a fashion, considering he is the son of Megan Williams.
• Colonel Badass: A literal example, as he's one of the most feared fighters on earth and commands earth's greatest fighting force.
• Colonel Kilgore: Although he's not happy about it, Marcus thinks of himself as one.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: The reason why Marcus handles his experiences in the war better than Celestia.
• Crisis of Faith: In "War March and Past Sins", it's revealed that Marcus lost faith in the idea of a loving and just God after 9/11, and his subsequent experiences where God never did a thing against the evils of the world. He ends up discussing it with Discord.
• Defiant to the End: Intended to go down like this, mouthing off at Prime Twilight due to thinking he was about to be ponified.
• Determinator: During his fight with the Prime Mane Six, he keeps on fighting even after being blasted through a glass window (and it's not Soft Glass either) courtesy of the party cannon and being thrown into a wall. He also is able to resist both TCB and Prime Fluttershy's signature Stare.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: After being exposed to Sombra's powers, his own magical powers increased to such an absurd degree that he now possesses alicornal tissue, causing him to be ridiculously magically and physically powerful.
• The Dreaded: To HLF members.
• Driven to Madness: The war has been one long Trauma Conga Line for Marcus, who is barely holding onto his sanity by the time the main story rolls around.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: It's Dwayne. He even admits outright he hates it.
• Empowered Badass Normal: His Runes turn him from a scarily competent Marine into something on a whole new level.
• Expy: Doctor Fluffy states that he based Marcus' facial features on BJ Blazkowicz, specifically how he looks in Wolfenstein: The New Order.
  • On the other hand, Kizuna Tallis goes for the Comic-Book Fantasy Casting route, stating that she envisions Philip Winchester as Marcus.
• Generation Xerox: A Marine like his father, and like his mother, he's dealing with ponies and mystical evil forces.
• Genius Bruiser: According to Cheerilee, he has a degree in physics. However, he's not good with biology.
• Hand Cannon: Marcus' Colt (*snicker*) M1911 has been magically modified into one.
  • Unfortunately, he later ends up accidentally destroying the grip (offscreen) and rendering it useless. Thankfully, Discord managed to procure a set of pistols that were made by Claire and Laura from Last Train, which were then (apparently, they're In-Universe Hellsing fans) alchemically remade with adamantium and vibranium.
• Happily Failed Suicide: Marcus tried to kill himself in Prime Equestria, only to find out that he was Wrong Genre Savvy, and he now has allies that can actually turn the tide of the war.
• The Hero: For the PHL, though from a narrative perspective he is more of a Supporting Protagonist.
• Interspecies Romance: With TCB Cheerilee.
• It's Personal: His reasons for wanting the TCB versions of the Mane Six dead, ranging from TCB Twilight ponifiying (and marrying) his younger brother Jacob, TCB Applejack for "taking his family away from him", TCB Rainbow Dash for converting his soldiers, and TCB Fluttershy for coming close to converting him with her Stare.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Very square-jawed.
• Messianic Archetype: While not to quite the same extent as TCB Lyra, Marcus is the leader of the PHL's fighting forces and a source of inspiration to humanity. Discord even goes so far as to state that if he were ever killed or ponified, it could very well be the last straw to make humanity and the rebellious ponies lose all remaining hope.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": He lets out a string of these in "War March and Past Sins" when Dragon King Spykoran identifies his heirloom heart-shaped locket as the Rainbow of Light.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Appropriately enough for a male action hero in a My Little Pony fanfic, he's a Marine who's unafraid to wear the aforementioned heart-shaped locket.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Even when he's mad or disappointed with his subordinates, he tries to be understanding towards their plights as he knows he had been in their shoes many times before. Hence, why he doesn't raise his voice at Ana for her part in the Ponyville Hostage Crisis disaster.
• Semper Fi: Being a US Marine.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Despite his runes granting him magical abilities, he has a lot of trouble using them for more than enhancing his strength and stamina, releasing a Battle Aura and basic telekinesis such as lifting and pushing, due to not having a horn to focus it through. However, the things Marcus can do, he does with an incredible amount of force. He does learn to get better control of them through Princess Celestia's tutelage, but Sombra thinks it's still pretty sloppy.
• Unstoppable Rage: The runes seem to give him a huge boost of aggression when active.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He was initially convinced he ended up in a past version of Equestria before they met with Earth, and tries to kill Celestia to prevent the war.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Want to live longer? Don't mess with Marcus.

Lt. Col. Cheerilee (TCB)

Cheerilee Cherry

Formerly Ponyville's school teacher, now a high-ranking member of the PHL.

• Alliterative Name
• Badass Teacher: She still teaches children on the side during the war.
• Berserk Button: Harming kids in any way. Just ask Queen Celestia's Mirror Pool clone.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Is a sweet and loving mare, but cross her in any way (like hurt a child in front of her) and you better hope she goes easy on you.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Apparently, Cheerilee delivered a diplomatic one to the Taliban. Marcus was sick, so he sent her in his place. The meeting was over in an hour, with them fully backing the PHL and the UN.
• Defector from Decadence: Left the Empire very early on.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Yes, Cheerilee DID just punch the shit out of Celestia. Unfortunately, it was only an avatar created by the Mirror Pool.
• Friend to All Children: To both human children and foals.
• Interspecies Romance: With Marcus.
• In-Universe Nickname: Affectionately called "the Teacher" by some.
• Mama Bear: Not even an alicorn is safe from her when she goes into this mode.
• Nice Girl: As in canon.
• Parental Substitute: Regards all the war orphans adopted by the PHL as her own children.
• Rebel Leader: Gets promoted to Commander of the PHL Forces on Marcus' recommendation.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Has somehow managed to hold onto her sweet nature despite all the horrors she's surrounded by.
• Taking Up the Mantle: She's well on the way to taking over Lyra's role as the Big Good.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Thanks to having runic enhancement. The magic boost she receives is enough to hurt a clone of Queen Celestia!
• Unstoppable Rage: Falls into this when Queen Celestia kills a teenage boy soldier.
• We Could Have Avoided All This: She honestly believes that ponykind would have been better off if the alicorns never came to power in the first place.
  Cheerilee: And everyone would be better off if we'd never become the undisputed hegemon of the world. If we had no powerful alicorn to guide us along a set path, then maybe we would be better off. The biggest change in Equestrian history came when the three tribes came together on their own, but all it took was one generation of Discord's rule to scare us cowering into the benevolent tyranny of the immortals, too terrified to every attempt another paradigm shift! Maybe we would be worse off governing ourselves, but at least we would have the freedom to choose our mistakes. Maybe we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!
• Worth Living For: How Marcus sees her.
• You Are in Command Now: After Marcus goes missing. When he comes back to Earth, he officially promotes her.

Maj. Stephan Bauer

Stephan Bauer

The Knight of Germania. Art by Proudtobe.

A Bundeswehr major notable for going into battle wearing power armor and wielding a claymore, hence his nickname, "the Knight of Germania".

• Action Bomb: He keeps enough C4 on him to level a two-story building if he is ever hit by potion.
• And This Is for...: He pulls this on Queen Celestia when he thinks she killed his soldiers.
• Badass in Distress: He gets captured by Short Fuse's gang of renegade Loyalists in "Love and Hate".
• Badass Normal: Does a pretty good job at keeping up with Marcus despite lacking the Runes.
• Battle Couple: With TCB Trixie.
• Berserk Button: Anything related to Queen Celestia.
• BFS: Has a machete that turns into a claymore (think like Cloud Strife's sword) that is very light for its size, courtesy of changeling magic.
• Break the Badass: Facing the Dark Door and being forced to witness his worst fears actually caused him to break down into Broken Tears.
• Chivalrous Pervert: As of "Training Days: First Days, Part 1". He's a little too happy to take advantage of Trixie's Voluntary Shapeshifting.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Europe Side-Story is this for him, as well as the "Training Days" arc.
• Distressed Dude: A cell of the Loyalists led by Short Fuse manages to capture him in Ponyville.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: He's very tough on his new recruits and certainly won't be going easy on the Prime Mane Six while training them.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: You can't afford to show too much softness as a soldier, but he's surprisingly soft and personable. It's just best not to provoke him.
• Interspecies Romance: With TCB Trixie.
• The Lancer: To Marcus.
• My Greatest Failure: He was once forced to Mercy Kill a classroom full of ponified children during an evacuation gone wrong in France.
• Not So Stoic: Aside from breaking down sobbing after being in the hold of the Dark Door, he also spends much of "Training Days: First Days, Part 1" inwardly geeking out over fighting alongside dragons.
• Only Sane Man: While he's as worn down by the war as one would expect, Stephan seems to have fewer PTSD issues than Marcus or Kraber.
• Red Baron: He gained his nickname, "The Knight of Germania", due to being German and using Powered Armor and a sword.
• Seen It All:
  "I am talking with you, the God of Chaos, or whatever you call yourself now. I saved the Crystal Empire, fighting alongside two alicorns, one whom I wanted to see dead, and now I am in a different Equestria, facing the challenge of training an army of griffons, dragons, Diamond Dogs and other mystical creatures from to fight in our war! I've had tea with Princess Celestia, and found that she is actually rather nice! At this point, dear darling Discord, there isn't much that can surprise me anymore."
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Though his PTSD is not nearly as bad as Marcus' or Kraber's, he does have his respective issues. For one thing, he did lose his home and was forced to kill a classroom full of children who became Newfoals to prevent them from attacking his men.
• Unstoppable Rage: Falls into this in Strike when he thinks Queen Celestia killed his soldiers.

Doctor Whooves (TCB)

Doctor Whooves (Alias: Time Turner)

A brilliant earth pony and a former Time Lord physicist and one of the PHL's most resourceful strategists.

• Animorphism: He is the Doctor, and turned into a pony at one point.
• Badass Pacifist: Hates violence in general.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a quirky, fast talking, mad pony, and one of the most competent PHL members.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Well, given who he is...
• Does Not Like Guns: Or weapons of any kind.
• Happily Married: To Derpy Hooves.
• Martial Pacifist: He knows that some enemies can't be negotiated with, using violence as the very last resort.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: Sorta. Being a Time Lord, he was never human to begin with, but he's also the only non-pony (other than Verity Carter) to turn into a pony without any ill side-effects.
• The Smart Guy: A scientist knowledgable in all things relating to time, space and history. Justified, as he is the Doctor.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Stephan.
• You Can't Fight Fate: TCB Lyra's death was an immutable fixed point in history, and Doctor Whooves couldn't save her life because of this.

PHL Rank & File

Major Bauer's Regiment

Spec. Trixie Lulamoon (TCB)

Trixie Lulamoon (Code Name: The Blue Spy)

A clever shape-shifting unicorn spy, assassin and possibly the rebel ponies' greatest war asset.

• Anti-Hero: Can and will do whatever it takes to ensure the PHL's victory. She's not very proud of herself though.
• Battle Couple: With Stephan.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: She fell in love with Stephan because he was the only person who treated her with genuine respect and care.
• Becoming the Mask: What Trixie fears is happening to her, due to the alternate personalities she uses to do her spying starting to become fully sapient personalities.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In the Ponyville Hostage Crisis Arc, Weaver awakens one of the hostile split personalities within her in Ponyville, sending her to wreak havoc onto the town.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: She uses psychological torture on a Royal Guard by threatening to cut up his (absent) family. It should be noted that she hates herself for it, and when she discovers Spike alone and tortured, she breaks down in tears.
• Heroic BSoD: Gets a brief but powerful one after finding a tortured Spike in a prison cell.
• Interspecies Romance: With Stephan.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is an arrogant and loudmouthed jerk, but puts her life on the line for the PHL's cause.
• Knight in Sour Armour: Between the atrocities she's seen and the morally grey actions she's committed, Trixie doesn't have a very bright view of things. But she fights for the good of all beings, and for love.
• Large Ham: Trixie shows that she's still got it in her when she can't help but compare her crimes to those of "some vampiric tyrant of old".
• Manchurian Agent: "Woven Within Details" reveals that Weaver seeded Trixie's mind with a trigger phrase allowing her to awaken and manipulate the Blue Spy personality for her own ends, which is precisely what happens when Trixie goes out to save an abducted Stephan from the Loyalists, only to be Mind Raped into turning against her friends and comrades.
• Power Perversion Potential: She may end up going along with Stephan's plans involving her shapeshifting. "Love and Hate" shows that this is taking a toll on her mind and leading to some relationship problems for the two of them.
• Red Baron: Her alias, "the Blue Spy".
• Rescue Romance: The other reason why she fell in love with Stephan.
• She Who Fights Monsters: Fears she's becoming just as ruthless as the people she fights against.
• Split Personality: It's lucky that Trixie is such an egomaniac, or she'd have lost herself a long time ago. Also, she does make a big point of defying Gollum Made Me Do It.
• Took a Level in Badass: With training from Stephan and TCB Chrysalis, she goes from an egotistical magician to a skilled shape-shifting spy with a vast array of bombs and considerable skill with a blade.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Has this power as the Blue Spy. TCB Chrysalis taught her as a last gift against the Solar Tyrant.
• Would Hurt a Child: In her brainwashed state, she was all too willing to outright kill fillies and colts.

Sgt. Viktor Kraber

Viktor Kraber (Alias: Francis 'Frank' Strang)

:Kraber, in his element Art by Doctor Fluffy.

A bitter and violent half-South African/half-German ex-HLF soldier, currently holding the rank of Stabsunteroffizier in the Bundeswehr. Kraber takes Shell-Shocked Veteran to an extreme beyond any other protagonist in the story. His life since the barrier's appearance has been rather depressing – ever since finding his children were ponified at their own birthday party, he's gradually taken leave of his sanity.

He's probably the most ubiquitous character in the 'verse, having appeared in the main story, cameoed in the Asia story, being mentioned in Adrift, Last Train, Case Files, and Calm Before The Storm, as well as the central role in The Light Despondent, even appearing in The Avatar of Albion for a not-so-quick cameo.

• The Alcoholic: He can down a lot of whiskey. It crosses over into Drowning My Sorrows and I Need a Freaking Drink territory quite frequently.
• Amoral Afrikaner: Well, at least part Afrikaner, and it isn't clear which side of his family is from there. And the "amoral" part is subverted, since being around Aegis has changed him for the better. It's revealed in Light Despondent that Kraber partially invokes this to terrify people. On top of that, Kraber is a Sharlto Copley fan.
• Anti-Hero: Somewhere between a ruthless Pay Evil unto Evil version and an Unscrupulous Hero. To his credit, he does make an effort to kill the right ponies and people. But it's also made clear he's not a nice person.
• Ascended Fanboy: Deconstructed. As Vox has put it, Kraber can also be read as the end result of what would happen if a geek's I Just Want to Be Badass fantasies became a reality.
• The Atoner: He was in the HLF, who are Right Wing Militia Fanatics with a murderous mindset with regards to all ponies (both PHL and PER members) in this universe. Still, he does hold plenty of guilt over the crimes committed during his time with them, insisting in his interview in Case Files that he's no hero. His friendship with Aegis and desire to redirect his murderous impulses solely towards the Imperial Equestrians are evidence of this.
• Author Avatar: Sort of. While Fluffy is probably not at all similar to him, he has referred to Kraber as a good match for how he plays video games: well-intentioned, but seeing violence the way some people see hammers.
• Ax-Crazy: His sanity is all but dangling by a thread, which can be both a help and hindrance (it nearly gets Luna killed, twice). However, he's a bit more self-aware about it than other examples, freely admitting that he's crazy and very, very traumatized. It's also implied on some occasions that he was a bit unhinged before the Barrier came.
• Badass Normal: Falls three stories after being Blown Across the Room by a party cannon, gets in a shotgun fight with a Teleport Spamming knife user Pinkie Pie, and takes a display case to the chest, all with apparently no ill effects.
• Berserk Button:
  • TCB Pinkie Pie's very existence as well as being reminded of what happened to his kids.
  • Being called a rapist is yet another. And rapists in general. It's implied this stems from the statutory rape allegations he faced while he was in college. However, he and Kate did love each other, and he didn't know Kate was underage at the time.
• BFG: His MG2019 light machine gun, which is .338 caliber, likely a .338 Norma Magnum. He later upgrades to an 'MG2023' with an underbarrel Lightning Gun... with lightning that tracks toward the bullets he's fired.
• Black Gal on White Guy Drama: Downplayed; he's a white German/South African man and his wife Kate was a black American woman, but the only problem they faced in their relationship was that she was underage when they first got together (although he didn't know it at the time).
• Blood Knight: Before his recruitment into the Bundeswehr, anyway. He's gotten better, though his trigger finger remains very itchy.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: States in his interview that he used to "wake and bake" a lot back in med school.
• Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He prefers high-capacity shotguns, light machine guns, and revolvers that happen to be Hand Cannons. All his appearances so far have him using some revolver with a bore almost half an inch in diameter, and an LMG.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For all his faults, he does work as a doctor for the PHL.
• Breakout Character: He initially appeared in only a few chapters in the main story, but quickly grew to become one of the most ubiquitous characters in the verse, appearing by mention or physically in several chapters as well as getting his own side story.
• Casanova Wannabe: Ironically, considering his previous allegiances, he's evidently hit on a lot ponies.
• Celebrity Paradox: Averted. While he is modeled after Sharlto Copley, it's made clear in Calm Before The Storm that Sharlto Copley does exist in the Spectrumverse, meaning Kraber is just a celebrity lookalike. However, Kraber is certainly aware of the resemblance, judging by his desire to be played by Sharlto Copley in a movie, (preferably while playing Copley himself in a cameo) and claiming that he's "Like what'd happen if Sharlto Copley was cast [in a film] of Marabou Stork Nightmares."
• Closet Geek: He likes Welcome to Night Vale. And, oddly enough, he appears to like a lot of first-person shooters, such as Borderlands and the Syndicate remake.
• The Cloud Cuckoo Lander Was Right: Never believed magic was harmful to human tissue. Turns out he was right!
• Cluster F-Bomb: 'Fok!' is easily the most common word in his dialogue, though it's often used alongside various... interesting... phrases in Afrikaans. According to Fluffy, as of chapter 10, Kraber has said it 491 times. The number is still growing.
• Combat Pragmatist: He doesn't fight to win. He follows his father's advice, and fights to make sure nobody fights him again. As a result, he has a penchant for headshots, inflicting Cruel And Unusual Deaths, Groin Attacks, and kneecapping people then kicking them till they stop moving.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: He's modeled off Kruger and Wikus, both of whom are played by Sharlto Copley.
• Composite Character: See the entry for Expy. Though considering his frequent bouts of murderous insanity, there's probably a lot more of Kruger in him than Wikus.
• Cosplay: Apparently was into this before the war, and managed to cosplay Sweet JP.
• Crazy-Prepared: He's well aware that a stealth-op with him is likely to fail, so he brings lots of guns.
• Crusading Widower: Kraber's whole crusade against TCB Equestria boils down to his desire to avenge his wife and children.
• Cultured Badass: Reads classic literature such as Heart Of Darkness, but he's also a fan of the New Weird, such as China Miéville and Jeff Vandermeer, and he likes Trainspotting.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Lost his mind after finding his children were ponified, and joined a German HLF faction. It's telling that in Case Files, he has the longest list of criminal charges against him.
• Deadly Doctor: Kraber seems to take as much pleasure in healing people as hurting them.
• Death Seeker: Word of God states that he's suicidal due to his sheer guilt over what he did as an HLF member. He's taken on many suicide missions as well.
• Despair Event Horizon: He first crossed it at the birthday party, and then again during his fight with Sylvia/Reaper, a "prototype Pretty Private" in Light, with part of his reasoning for getting the unicorn Caduceus to heal him with magic (which, as far as anyone knows, could kill him) is because he believes nobody will miss him.
• Determinator: He simply doesn't give up, and the fact that he hasn't successfully killed himself probably qualifies him as one.
• The Dreaded: He was feared by some ponies during his HLF days. The Imperials also regard him as one of the most frightening fighters humanity has to offer.
• Driven to Suicide: Several times, none of which really seem to stick. His fight through the hospital in Portland could be read as an attempt at Suicide by Cop.
• Everyone Has Standards: He may have plenty of loose screws, but even he is sickened by what the Bag of Tirek has done to the TCB Mane Six and the experiments conducted to make the potion work.
  • And despite being The Atoner, he never admits any guilt to what he did to the PER. Indeed, his need for redemption stems more from making up for his crimes towards innocent ponies and people than any pro-Bureau collaborators.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: His current portrait by Doctor Fluffy has them. Word of Fluffy is that he's afraid to go to sleep, thanks to the nightmares he gets, and Kraber later outright states this in chapter 11 of Light. Considering the last two that he's gotten in Light, this is understandable.
• Expy: Of two characters from movies Doctor Fluffy likes, both of whom are played by Sharlto Copely.
  • Wikus van der Merwe in that he's a morally ambiguous and foulmouthed family man who lost his comfortable life, underwent unspeakable ordeals and Sanity Slippage, gets revenge on those that hurt him through the use of a BFG, and eventually discards his Fantastic Racism.
  • And Kruger by virtue of being (half) South African, taking an unhealthy interest in killing, being utterly insane, plus looking almost exactly like him except with different armor. What makes this weird, however, is that Kraber is explicitly a fan of District 9, and his status as the Amoral Afrikaner is at least partly an act. Lampshaded by Verity, who considers him a "pretentious, Sharlto Copley-obsessed bliksem^note bastard."
• Fatal Flaw: Besides his Unstoppable Rage, Hair-Trigger Temper, and tendency to see violence the way most people see hammers... he also has a tendency to distract himself with more work or run away from problems, either burying himself in work or simply leaving when things are too tough. He even lampshades it:
  Kraber: ‘It is amazing that I haven’t thought more about this glaring character flaw.’
• Fed to the Beast: Well, he was the one doing the feeding - it's revealed in Convergence that he once cut up some PER he had captured and fed the pieces to critically endangered red wolves, and thought the hiccuping noises the puppies made were adorable.
• Feel No Pain: Judging by the gap between Stephan consigning him to the hospital and the actual battle, he must have been walking around with several cracked ribs, cracked scapula, and torn muscles for about an hour without noticing. Either Kraber has great pain tolerance, or he's just too crazy to care. Though, judging by Light, he can feel pain, he's just really good at ignoring it.
• Friend to All Children: Due to losing his own. Aegis claims that his two foals love Kraber and consider him an Honorary Uncle. He also lends Dancing Day his stuffed wolf Ambassador Nikai the Second as a reward for her work in keeping the 501 running. To clarify, the toy is a Tragic Keepsake that belonged to one of his kids.
  • But it's also rather nastily averted in a flashback from the same chapter of Light Despondent, where he murders a family of PHL-affiliated ponies taken prisoner by the PER, laughing manically as he does so.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Case Files explains he was a Brilliant, but Lazy medical school student who accidentally got his (underage) girlfriend pregnant. He stepped up to the plate, got his degree and lived a happy life as a dedicated family man. Then along came a certain ill-fated birthday party...
• Future Me Scares Me: Played with - they're alternate versions of him, the horror of one alternate comes from the world around him rather than his personal qualities, and he actually sees a brave (yet, strangely enough, female) version of himself in another universe, but he's mostly fixated on the horror of an alternate him being reminiscent of a chaos space marine.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: He frequently uses South African slang, owing to having lived there.
• Gun Nut: The man loves huge weaponry.
• The Gunslinger: Has elements of the Vaporizer, but he's a very good shot with a revolver on the occasions that he uses it.
• Hearing Voices: Continuously in Light Despondent, from a time when he was even less sane.
• Heel Realization: In a flashback from Calm Before the Storm, Kraber saw a pair of pony refugees cower from him in fear and imagined his wife and children looking at him with disappointment.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Overlaps with Pet the Dog, as he bonds instantly with a fellow HLF member's fluffy Samoyed.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: His regret and low self-worth over his actions in the HLF are major parts of his character, but it's made clear in Light that he deeply hates himself, considering himself a mass-murdering psychopath and a terrible person. He does react with almost childlike joy when he finds out that he isn't, in fact, a sociopath.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Aegis. Though considering that they share a bed, that should be called into question...
• Hidden Depths: Claims in Chapter 4 of Calm that he wanted to be a writer, and make radio dramas. Knowing him, he was probably inspired by Welcome to Night Vale.
  • Once played Francis Begbie in a play of Trainspotting, and can still pull off a decent Scottish accent as of the time of the fic.
• Hollywood Action Hero: He's survived being in the HLF up until 2022, managed to blow up no fewer than three Conversion Bureaus, got in a fight with the TCB Elements and fell three stories with minor injuries, shot out TCB Celestia's spine, slaughtered untold numbers of PER...
• I Call It "Vera": Owns a 13mm shotgun revolver that he calls "Margaret". Later upgrades to a 28-gauge (14mm) shotgun revolver... which shoots ammunition that explodes, and is also contained within wax slugs, making it a miniature cluster bomb launcher. He calls it a 'Fragnum'.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • In "Trust" and Case Files, he frequently asks for bourbon.
  • After Prime Luna shows him the potion tests, he says that he really needs some Kentucky Bourbon.
    Kraber: "I'm not gesuip (drunk) enough to tell you that."
• Informed Judaism: Is unexpectedly revealed to be Jewish in Chapter 3 of Calm Before The Storm. The irony of having been part of a borderline-fascist organization is not lost on him.
• I Owe You My Life: Kraber and Aegis became friends because Aegis saved his life during a raid on an HLF compound.
• It's All My Fault: He blames himself for his wife and children's ponification, due to having hired TCB Pinkie Pie to throw their birthday party in the first place.
• It's Personal: Towards TCB Pinkie Pie, who ponified his family at his twin kids' birthday (which hired her to plan out).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Abrasive, alcoholic, lecherous, hard to deal with... but his heart's usually in the right place, unless it involves the PER.
• Long List: While in the HLF, he committed crimes such as:
  Murder, mass murder, conspiracy to commit murder, illegal possession of firearms, assault, impersonating a police officer, illegally crossing borders between countries, impersonating a child protective services officer, torture, smuggling firearms, practicing medicine without a license, arson, forgery, vandalism, kidnapping, robbery, theft of military property...
• Kick the Dog: Has more than a few moments of this in Light Despondent prior to his Heel–Face Turn.
• Mad Bomber: According to the Timeline and Adrift, he's managed to blow up at least three conversion bureaus.
• The Medic: Although he's had his medical license revoked, he does some work as a field doctor for PHL soldiers.
• Military Brat: According to Fluffy, he's the son of an ex-32 Battalion man.
• More Dakka: Evidently a favorite tactic of his; the MG2019 he carries is frequently described as having a fire rate "like a buzzsaw".
• Mr. Exposition: Of The Light Despondent.
• Noodle Incident: Did something so terrible to his former commanding officer in the HLF that even he considered to be going too far. And then there's the "corpses in a vineyard" thing...
• Omniglot: He's fluent in English, German and Afrikaans, can hold a conversation in Swahili, is shown in chapter 3 of Light speaking Hebrew, and he also reads Heart of Darkness in the original Polish.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Speaks in a Scottish accent inspired by the works of Irvine Welsh in chapters 4, 5, and 6 to keep people from realizing his identity. However, bits of his South African lilt routinely creep through, but somehow, it works...
• Parents as People: It's shown that Kraber, while not a perfect parent, made plenty of decisions as a father that he's not entirely happy with - a Teen Pregnancy, being irresponsible before they were born, having to shunt his children to his friends while he was busy in class, and moving to Germany - but it's made clear that he loved his family more than anything.
  • The same goes for his father as well. Kraber implies his father's military upbringing never really left him, recalling that as a child he and his family would hike through the mountain with weights, and practice shooting on the beach. However, in a wonderful subversion of Abusive Parents immediately afterwards, Kraber also points out his dad took them out for surfing and milkshakes afterwards. So it wasn't all bad.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He would know as an ex-HLF man.
• Pet the Dog: During his days in the HLF, he let two ponies named Astral Nectar and Dancing Day through a security checkpoint, and, more literally, was shown to love a fluffy Samoyed in the next chapter. The former event was the first step towards his Heel–Face Turn from the HLF.
• Sanity Ball: Claims that he ended up holding it later in the HLF. Having grown very aware of his fractured mental state, he hated it.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Tries to save civilians instead of securing the factory early in Chapter 4 of Calm. He eventually has to, but it's impressive Character Development to show that he's so focused on saving people.
• Shadow Archetype: Doctor Fluffy suspects this is true of him and Verity.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Prime Luna can see his nightmares hang over him even when he's awake.
• Shown Their Work: Everything he says in Afrikaans (and the various bits of slang that do not originate in Afrikaans) is completely accurate.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Even when compared to characters like Marcus, he has a very colorful vocabulary.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Want to know why his character folder is so big despite him appearing for only a handful of chapters in the main story? Well, there are actually a good many reasons out of universe, but narrative-wise, Kraber serves to provide a human face to the members of the HLF and other people who wouldn't respond with nobility and heroism to a Crapsack World such as that of The Conversion Bureau.
  • He also lands a killing blow to the Tyrant's clone, saving Stephan at a crucial moment.
• Sociopathic Hero: Though it's made clear by Lunar Phase that he's not a clinical sociopath.
• Take That!: He is basically one giant middle finger aimed specifically at Chatoyance's story The PER: Michelson and Morely - The Speed of Right, in which the eponymous PER agents at one point ponified a bunch of children at a birthday party with a pinata full of potion. Specifically, he's what happens when the father comes home and does not like what he finds.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Every weapon Kraber gets his hands on seems to be somewhat over the top in terms of firepower. There's few other labels one can ascribe to a man that modified a 14mm shotgun revolver to shoot miniature cluster bombs, anyway.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Befriends, and later has Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex with Yael Ze'ev in Chapters 4 and 5 of Calm Before The Storm.
• Took a Level in Kindness: As of Chapter 3 of Calm Before The Storm, he doesn't really see a point in torture anymore, saying he's sick and tired of it.
  • And in the PHL chapter of Case Files, he stays out of Aegis' interview, as an apology for being drunk, angry, and barely remembering to mention him in his own interview.
• Tragic Keepsake: He still keeps the stuffed animals that belonged to his children, and sleeps with them.
• Trauma Conga Line: Light Despondent is that trope incarnate for him.
• Unstoppable Rage: When he's anywhere near TCB Pinkie Pie, or the Element Bearers in general. This is evidently so common for him that Stephan outright expects him to disobey orders.
• Villainous Breakdown: The first nine chapters of Light, culminating in him going up to kill off all the PER in what could be read as Suicide by Cop, completely losing his mind, and eventually being forced to suplex an equine personification of his self-loathing into a wall and beat the shit out of it.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Early on in Light, while an HLF member, Kraber believes he's a heroic partisan striking against a corrupt government.
• You Killed My Father: Inverted; his vendetta against TCB Pinkie Pie stems from how she ponified his children at their own birthday party.

Major Bauer's Regiment - Other

Alicia, Daniel, Peter, Mueller

• Cold Sniper: Sharpshooter Alicia.
• Flat Character: They don't get much development in Europe or the main story.
• Nice Guy: Daniel.
• Old Soldier: Peter and Mueller.
• Tank Goodness: Mueller drives one.

New York City - Military

Lt. Vinyl Scratch (TCB)

Vinyl Scratch (Alias: DJ-Pon3)

One half of the inseparable duo of Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch, this DJ has endured a lot since her best friend died on the first day of war.

• Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite the numerous unlikely things she's seen, Vinyl expresses doubt towards Marcus that Daring Do is real, or that the Tyrant could have planted a convincing mole in the PHL.
• Anti-Hero: Of the Pay Evil unto Evil variety.
• Author Avatar: Somewhat for Kizuna Tallis, as Doctor Fluffy and TheIdiot sometimes call her "the real life Vinyl" due to her love of Electronic Music. It also helps that she cosplayed Vinyl for the 2015 Las Vegas Electric Daisy Carnival.
• Ax-Crazy: This Vinyl doesn't seem to be... quite all there. It's less apparent than certain other characters like TCB Trixie or Kraber, but the years have made her more bloodthirsty.
• Bash Brothers: Together with Allie Way.
• Broken Tears: Upon seeing Octavia (from Prime Equus) again for the first time.
• Celebrity Survivor: Went from a hard partying DJ to a hardened resistance fighter.
• Cool Shades: But of course!
• Cynicism Catalyst: If one bad day can send you over the edge, hers was witnessing TCB Octavia get murdered by the Royal Guards.
• Eye Scream: After Icewind and several other Guards resign in protest of Equestria helping humanity, she comments that she vaguely remembers gouging out his TCB counterpart's eyes in Paris. No one around her bats an eye at this remark.
• Future Badass: As Kizuna Tallis pointed out in a blog post, Vinyl is a deconstruction of this character archetype, as it's clear she only became this way by a mixture of trauma, loss and hardship that has left her more than a little mentally unstable. Prime Octavia even mentally notes to herself in Calm Before the Storm that she really doesn't want her own Vinyl to become anything like this.
• Hero-Worshipper: Regards Lyra as the best of ponykind. And she doesn't undergo Broken Pedestal after learning what caused the war. Her attitude towards Marcus is somewhat frostier, though.
• Insult Backfire: She's been called "no better than the humans" by the Imperials, but is so disgusted with what the Empire has done to mankind that she'd almost rather be human.
  • I Resemble That Remark!: Unfortunately, her brutality suggests that Villain Has a Point is in effect here. Still, it's not like she was unprovoked in her attack.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Her crude exterior belies a loyal friend.
  • When Marcus warns her and Acevedo against spreading the truth behind TCB Lyra and the Bag of Tirek, Vinyl argues that Ambassador Heartstrings did more to save mankind in three years than anyone else could in their lifetime.
• Magic Music: A weaponized bass cannon, to be exact. She can also use music as a hypnotic distraction.
• Odd Friendship: Hits it off quite quickly with Ascended Fanboy Isaac Acevedo.
  • And she and Kraber are also friends, thanks to washing the dishes together... using Vinyl's dubstep dishwasher.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In an Off Screen Moment Of Awesome (topped off with some Nightmare Fuel), Octavia's murder sent her into a blood-soaked rage to rival Raul Menendez's.
• She Who Fights Monsters: She has no qualms with using brutal methods to put her enemies down.

Spec. Derpy Whooves (TCB)

Derpy Whooves (Née: Doo)

Ponyville's pegasus mailmare, who now serves as a field nurse to ponies and humans alike.

• Action Mom: Not shown fighting, but does spend a lot of time risking her life out in the field to assist the injured.
• Anger Born of Worry: Does not like it when Doctor Whooves overexerts himself in his work.
• The Cameo: Plays a brief yet essential part in "The Answer".
• Happily Married: To Doctor Whooves.
• Holy Backlight: Makes her appearance "gliding like an angel".
• The Medic: She's become a field nurse for the PHL.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: To Amethyst Star. It's because Amethyst is adopted from one of her time-travel adventures.

Spec. Amethyst Star

Amethyst Star (Alias: Sparkler)

An amethyst unicorn and the older daughter of the Whooves clan. She currently serves as an expert on runic magic in the PHL.

• Cool Big Sis: To her adopted sister Dinky.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: She's the daughter of Dr. Whooves, and she's beautiful.
• Mysterious Past: To start things off, she's adopted from one of the Whooves couple's time travel adventures.
• Odd Friendship: As it turns out, with Ana Bjorgman. Sparkler isn't the only one hiding who she really is.
• Older Than They Look: She was at one point older than Celestia and Luna ever were.
• The Reveal: She's revealed to be a natural-born alicorn from a time before Celestia and Luna.
• Teen Genius: Called one by Marcus.
• That Man Is Dead: Sparkler isn't her birth name. She told Ana that Amethyst Star died an old and bitter mare when Celestia and Luna were just foals.
• Walking Spoiler: The Beatification of Lyra Heartstrings especially turned her into this thanks to various reveals in-story.
• Wrench Wench: She's a trained mechanic, and it shows with a newly created TARDIS she affectionately nicknamed "Baby".

Pvt. Scootaloo (TCB)

Scootaloo

A pegasus filly, one third of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She left the empire and lives under the care of Cheerilee and the PHL.

• An Arm and a Leg: Her wings actually. They're removed by amputation.
• Body Horror: Her wings are discovered to be decaying away due to a disease called "Disharmony Necrosis". She needs surgery to have them removed.
• Broken Pedestal: For TCB Rainbow Dash. It really isn't her fault.
• Child Soldier: It's only implied, but she does express excitement over the possibility of learning how to fly a jet.

New York City - Civilian Consultants

Princess Cadance (TCB)

HRH Mi Amore Cadenza (Alias: Cadance)

One of the minor princesses, Cadance in the TCB-verse is a pegacorn who never ascended to alicornhood.

• All-Loving Hero: She is the Princess of Love, after all.
• Broken Bird: A far less cynical example than the norm, but she qualifies, as TCB Shining Armor (who was placed under Mind Control into obeying every one of Queen Celestia's orders) did leave her and at one point, according to Marcus, he tried to drag her back to Equestria to the Tyrant. Also applies literally in that this version of Cadance isn't an alicorn, rendering her vestigial wings useless.
• The Exile: Princess Luna's last act before getting petrified was to help her escape to Earth.
• The Heart: A sweet kind mare who can harness the power of love.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Though unable to access her full potential, Cadance can use The Power of Love to override Celestia's brainwashing.
• The Idealist: Of the various members of the PHL, she's the closest.
• Magical Nanny: To TCB Twilight, as in canon, but it's shown she was also Lyra's foalsitter. They even share the same little song and dance.
• The Power of Love: It's her special talent after all.
• Rebellious Princess: In that she's a princess and one of many rebels against her tyrannical aunt.

Spec. Bon-Bon (TCB)

Bon-Bon Sugarbean

Lyra Heartstrings' earth pony girlfriend, who was forced to watch her get executed.

• Blessed with Suck: She can see into the future, but is an insane and completely broken mess.
• Bystander Syndrome: Bon-Bon probably wouldn't have cared much about helping mankind if her girlfriend wasn't so fond of them.
• Despair Event Horizon: Almost crosses into this during a fit of madness, but Doctor Whooves succeeds in snapping her out of it.
• Driven to Madness: Played painfully straight.
• Forced to Watch: With regards to Lyra's execution, which completely shattered her sanity.
• Heel–Face Turn: She was actually on board with the conversion bureaus, but changed her tune quickly after seeing a Newfoal try to kill Lyra.
• Jerkass: Before her Heel–Face Turn.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The fact that her initial lack of sympathy for the humans' plight didn't cause Lyra to break up with her implies it can't have ran all that deep. It's also possible that Bon-Bon was just bitter at seeing her girlfriend wear herself out leading a seemingly hopeless cause.
• Mad Oracle: The trauma of Lyra's death caused her to have a "temporal stroke" which makes her able to view the past, present and future at the same time. It does come in useful sometimes.
• Sanity Slippage: Implied in TCB Lyra's journal entries, in which she claims that Bon-Bon hadn't taken life on the run well.
• Satellite Love Interest: Notice how a lot of her character is defined by her relationship with Lyra, even after the latter's death?
• Trauma Conga Line: Bon-Bon followed Lyra into exile on Earth, presumably out of love, even though she initially supported Conversion, and was disowned by her parents for that. She stayed with her girlfriend through thick and thin, countless assassination attempts befalling them both. In the end, she saw the mare she loved get turned to stone and smashed by an angry mob. And this was before the "temporal stroke" cracked her mind like an egg.
• When She Smiles: Other characters note that whenever she looks happy again, chances are things may just get better.

Spec. Elsa Erklass (TCB)

Elsa Erklass (Alias: Julie Lawrin)

The granddaughter of the late TCB Sint Erklass, former Arch-Mage of Adlaborn. Like her prime universe counterpart, her soul is bound to a magical cloak which seizes control of the body of whomever wears it. Her current host is a mysterious young woman known only as Lawrin.

• Early-Bird Cameo: It's stated that she was around during the Last Train affair and knows things that happened that the audience (as of now) doesn't.
• Humanity Ensues: After centuries of having taken on reindeer does as host bodies, she's now having to use a human host to move around.
• Meet Cute: With Private Adrian Shepard. The young man is instantly smitten with her, and it's implied she feels the same about him.

U.S. Eastern Seaboard - Military

Sgt. Aegis

Aegis (Real Name: Claw Hammer)

"And now you have to show common sense?!"Art by Doctor Fluffy.

Kraber's ever-present, enormous, and long-suffering earth pony friend, whose function as a pony liaison to the Bundeswehr really boils down to "keep Kraber from doing anything stupid". He has two foals that he dotes on.

• Action Dad: Has two foals (a son named Rivet and a daughter named Amber Maple), who are currently living in South Africa with Kraber's relatives, by virtue of neither him nor Kraber being in a good enough situation to serve as parents.
• Alcoholic Parent: Downplayed. Though he's most definitely not abusive, he has an alcohol intake that could rival Kraber's.
• Bash Brothers: No matter what, he has Kraber's back, and Kraber has his.
• BFG: Carries a 25mm automatic grenade launcher in "Knell".
• The Big Guy: He's larger than the average pony. Word of God is that this was an accident because, when drawing Kraber, he wasn't sure how big Aegis was supposed to be.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He makes a mention of having a brush with a re-education camp with Verdant Tract (another PHL pony) back in Equestria, and he doesn't "feel like pressing his luck" on the subject.
  • Case Files and Light expand on his backstory, revealing he was a normal family stallion whose well-meaning wife went off the deep end when the Crystal War went on, becoming a paranoid and broken mess. Later on, she adopted a pair of Newfoal orphans, while ignoring her own children. She eventually left Aegis for a Newfoal, forcing him to escape to Earth with his children.
• Deadpan Snarker: He even mouths off to TCB Celestia.
• Drowning My Sorrows: According to Case Files, he spent a lot of his time in Britain drunk.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Punches Kraber in the knee to keep him from going up against TCB Pinkie Pie by himself.
• Gun Nut: To a lesser degree than Kraber - he doesn't Squee at the thought of new weapons, but he's just as excited by big weaponry as Kraber is.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Kraber.
• Hidden Depths: Implied to like superheroes, considering that he says his current alias reminds him of a superhero name.
• Morality Pet: Though he wouldn't like to be referred to as a pet, it's shown that Aegis is one of the very few things during the war that's actually kept Kraber sane. Relatively speaking, that is.
• Nerves of Steel: Very little can scare him, save for Princess Luna becoming Nightmare Moon. This makes him a good counterpoint to Kraber.
• Not So Above It All: Still, he has fairly goofy moments in Chapter 4 of Calm.
• Only Known by Their Nickname
• Only Sane Man: Forced to play this role to Kraber, who, as it turns out, is very grateful for it.
• Pink Elephants: Somehow managed to see Faust, or a manifestation of her while drunk off his flank.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: A calming, more relaxed counterpoint to Kraber's boisterousness.

Claire and Laura

Claire Lawgrave, Laura Hedd

A rather mentally disturbed pair of PHL women based in Truro.

• Gun Nut: Their primary sidearms are both taken directly from the Hellsing mythos: Claire wields Alucard's 13mm Jackal, while Laura carries his .454 Casul.
• Psycho Lesbian: Well, Laura's psychotic, and she does go for the ladies, but she's not a stalker or madly in love with anyone. She also smacked a big wet one on Tess.
• Sociopathic Hero: Laura fights only for the thrill of it and for what she believes will be the winning side.
• Those Two Girls: Are seldom seen without each other.
• Token Evil Teammate: The PHL aren't a spotlessly "heroic" organization, but very few of them are as willfully depraved as Laura.
• Übermensch: Laura believes she is one, enough to seek to mold other people into becoming amoral sociopaths. She seems to have succeeded with Claire, and has quickly planted a few ideas in Tess Jones too.
  • Although her intention to get a kick out of the world ending makes her closer to a Nietzsche Wannabe.

Firelock (TCB)

Firelock

An orphan filly affiliated with the PHL.

• Ascended Extra: Based on a canon background filly commonly called "Firelock".
• Child Soldier: Just one of many. She's better at handling guns than Tess for starters.
• The Fundamentalist: Maybe. She swears in Lyra's name quite a bit, though Lyra never claimed to be a goddess or messiah.
• Gun Nut: Uses her knowledge of firearms to teach Tess Jones how to use one properly.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies right after she's introduced.

The Reclaimers

A more radical wing of the PHL who wish to preemptively purge the United States' Eastern Seaboard of all PER and HLF presence before Barrierfall.

Lt. Yael Ze'ev

Yael Ze'Ev

"So... we couldn't not help them."

A female Israeli soldier, evidently quite high-ranked in the IDF that accompanies Kraber and Aegis in their raid on a Dead End in Detroit. Other facts about her can only be found on Fluffy's deviantart. She's Famed In-Story for having fought the HLF on numerous occasions.

• Badass Israeli: According to Many Faces, she's from Tel Aviv.
• Been There, Shaped History: She was at Reykjavik and found the camera with footage of Queen Celestia, and was also a friend of Sutra Cross.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Played with. Despite having been lit on fire at least once, there's still some facial scarring from the burns. Still, she looks pretty good for someone that was lit on fire.
• The Cassandra: As revealed in an interview in Last Train, she was of the opinion that the HLF was too dangerous to simply leave lying around in favor of entirely prioritizing the invasion. She apparently went to great lengths to prove her point, doing things that are implied to have gotten her demoted.
• Closer to Earth: She's certainly more professional than Kraber, anyway. Not like that's hard...
• The Cynic: Crosses over with Properly Paranoid in regards to her fears about the HLF and barrierfall.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Becomes more trusting of Kraber over the course of her story.
• Famed In-Story: For killing lots of HLF.
• Fantastic Racism: Claims to have very nearly avoided this, saying that the ponies that made their way to Israel were so miserable she had to help.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: She compares the Conversion War to The Holocaust.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Has this with Kraber at the end of Chapter 5 of Calm.
• Hypocrite: Played for Drama - while it's been indicated before that Yael hates thinking that the ends justify the means, she's forced to think that way more often than she'd like.
• Not a Morning Person: If her interview with True Quill is anything to judge by.
• Only Sane Woman: Serves as this to Kraber's squad, questioning his bizarre sense of humor and bloodlust.
  • Not So Above It All: She's just as prone to bloodlust and ultraviolence as the rest of Kraber's squad. And it falls to Aegis to keep her from arguing with Kraber and bringing down the PER on them.
• I Owe You My Life: She and Kraber have this going on - he saved her from a PER member by kicking him in the groin so hard his balls fell off, and she shot a pegasus that was going to ponify him.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: She likes Borderlands just as much as Kraber and Aegis.
• Satellite Love Interest: To Viktor Kraber.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Admits in an interview with True Quill that she and her country are somewhat paranoid. Though, In-Universe, both were Properly Paranoid.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's "somewhere between 5'11 and 6 foot 3."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Seems to develop into this with Kraber and Aegis.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: It's implied that she is this, judging by the fears she had of being seen as a fascist for the measures she wanted to take against the HLF.
• Would Not Hurt A Child: Her standard response to foals in the PER is to take them to different parents to get adopted, instead of shooting them.

Heliotrope

Heliotrope

Have you seen my...

Yael Ze'ev's best friend, a somewhat sarcastic pegasus mare with a flight suit that lets her turn invisible.

• Ax-Crazy: A mild case. She seems to enjoy flying without being noticed, and the fact that she went along with Kraber's plan to reference Dead Leaves while kicking a Newfoal in the face shows a somewhat immature side to her.
• Been There, Shaped History: Served in the Crystal War repairing skyliners, but never touched the Royal Guard charter, had the bad luck to be caught on the Great Equestrian when Kith and Kin exploded, and Kraber also shot her once. He did say he was sorry, though.
• Expy: Word of Fluffy is that her suit (and by extension, at least some of her cocky attitude) is inspired by Tracer and Black Hand operatives. He also claims that during official artwork, while there was definitely inspiration from Tracer, he didn't trace.....r.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She made the flight-suit herself.
• Invisibility: Thanks to her suit.
• Visual Pun: Was only introduced into Calm so Doctor Fluffy could get away with saying "Have you seen my heliotrope?"
• Walking Armory: By pony standards. She wears wing blades, carries a big knife, and favors silenced rifles in her assault yoke.

Johnny C. Heald

Johnny C. Heald (Alias: Nny)

A PHL member first seen in Case Files, shooting a man's hand off with a 7.62x39mm kalashnikov. He's a friend of Kraber and Aegis at the time of Calm and plays a minor role in Light Despondent.

• Author Avatar: He's essentially Doctor Fluffy with a different name. Right down to the area they call home.
• Berserk Button: Apparently, New Englanders who fly the Confederate Flag, as he volunteered to join Yael's "Reclaimers" simply for the chance to throw molotov cocktails at them.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: His first appearance in Snowbound has him forgetting to wear a jacket in Alaska, he makes strange leaps in logic, and the fact that his reaction to Yael accepting him into her anti-HLF taskforce was to randomly and inexplicably start referencing Rick and Morty, forever and forever, Rick and Morty and some things!
• Cultured Badass: He has knowledge of philosophy, and does sketches when not on duty with the PHL.
• Gun Nut: He can manage to identify PHL and HLF hardware by watching footage from a helicopter, while also probably drunk.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Wolfdogs in particular, thanks to a little thing called Author Appeal.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Apparently, his first name is actually "Johnny C".
• Honorary Uncle: Appears to have taken up this role for Dancing Day.
• Nice Jewish Boy: One with a lot of firepower.
• Noodle Incident: He was apparently involved in some incident in Alaska where he recovered a totem-prole.
• Pop-Cultured Badass: He's a fan of The Venture Bros..
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Appears to own a revolver of the same type as Acevedo.
• Shout-Out: His nickname is a reference to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
• Unfazed Everyman: A generally regular guy surrounded by and completely accepting of (if not completely enthralled) by the weird things going on around him.
• Warrior Poet: He thinks he could be one... and promptly dismisses the notion.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Dresses like a girl whenever he appears in a civilian setting. It usually isn't commented on.

Fiddlesticks Apple

Fiddlesticks Apple

A member of the now fractured Apple Clan and Johnny C's almost-constant companion. The two of them are borderline-inseparable.

• The Atoner: She did benefit concerts for the PER at one point. She is deeply ashamed of it.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: An odd case in that while she serves as the Cloud Cuckoo Landers Minder to Nny, she's about as crazy as he is.
• Farm Girl: Was one before the war.
• The Gadfly: It's suggested that some of her and Nny's antics and shared Cloud Cuckoo Lander moments are just to screw with people for their own enjoyment.
• Instrument of Murder: More like instrument-case of murder - she uses her violin case as a bludgeon at least once.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Serves as the comic relief with Nny for the second third of Light.
• Satellite Character: Much of her characterization is dependent on what Nny's doing or where he is at the time.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Nny and Fiddlesticks are often on the same wavelength when it comes to doing something silly:
  Kraber: "..Are ya daein a gothic cowgirl look?
  Fiddlesticks: Sort of? It's, uh, for the act we're doing. Most of this is live music, but Nny wanted to do some other act and tried to do rock-paper-scissors...
  Nny: No I didn't. We were drunk, and you don't have hands! How does that even work?
  Fiddlesticks: Maybe it was a coin-flip?
  Nny: Yeah, that would make much more sense.
• You Can't Go Home Again: She is deeply ashamed of how some of her family support the Empire and what her once beloved home country has turned into.

Bureau Raid Team

An advanced squad sent to raid the Sleepy Hollow Conversion Bureau and retrieve its dimensional portal, which the PHL hope to reverse-engineer.

Princess Gilda (TCB)

Gilda Grimfeathers

The former friend of Rainbow Dash, turned resistance fighter for the PHL.

• Combat Pragmatist: Certainly isn't afraid to get her claws dirty to fight. She's even used her enemies' dead bodies as meat shields.
• The Gadfly: Towards Trevor.
• Jerkass: Fighting for a good cause hasn't made her a nicer person.
• Last of Her Kind: Not of her species (though the TCB griffons aren't doing well), but she's the last living member of the griffon royal family.
• Really Royalty Reveal: She's revealed to be royalty.

Iron Will (TCB)

Iron Will

The sole minotaur living in the TCB-verse, fighting alongside the PHL to avenge his race.

• It's Personal: Wants revenge on the Empire for exterminating his race.
• Last of His Kind: For the minotaurs.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: Naturally, being a minotaur.
• Team Dad: Somewhat towards the raiding team in "The Bigger Score" since he usually has to diffuse fights and scolds Gilda and Trevor for their bickering.

GTA V Crew

Michael De Santa, Franklin Williams, Trevor Philips, Lester Crest

The crew from Grand Theft Auto V who've (inexplicably) joined the resistance.

• Adapted Out: Word of God has comfirmed that none of the GTA V crew will appear in the reboot, due to the mixed reception of their inclusion.
  Doctor Fluffy: They were retconned out with extreme prejudice.
• Anti-Hero: The nominal type, all of them. Although they are definitely opposed to Queen Celestia, they are still not going to fight her unless they are paid handsomely.
• Ascended Fanon: The reason why they're here. One fan wrote a Downer Ending recursive fanfic centered around a ponified Trevor Philips, and so he and the rest of the Grand Theft Auto V crew appeared in the main story.
• Ax-Crazy: Trevor, naturally, mixed with Hair-Trigger Temper.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Michael helps keep Trevor in line.
• Even Evil Has Standards: They may be ruthless criminals, but even they're downright frightened of Queen Celestia.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: See Only in It for the Money.
• Only in It for the Money: While they, like every other human not aligned with the PER, want to survive above all else, that doesn't mean they'll risk their lives for free.
• Ship Tease: Between Franklin and a PHL mare named Shimmering Sigil.
• Token Evil Teammate: All four serve as this to the PHL, though Trevor is the most obvious example, even amongst the crew themselves.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: If there's one thing they share with the true-hearted ponies, it's the value they place on friendship.

---

Alliance Army Trainers

Vanhoover Company

A trio of PHL soldiers assigned to train the native Vanhoover Company unit in Equus Prime, each with their own skillset and assignments.

Sgt. Jaka

See The Other Side of The Spectrum - Equus Prime

Corp. Thomas Harwood

See The Other Side of The Spectrum - Equus Prime

Corp. Ana Bjorgman

See The Other Side of The Spectrum - Equus Prime

---

PHL R&D

The team that makes sure PHL soldiers get their fantastic futuretech weaponry. Their creativity is so boundless that trying to limit is compared to bottling a waterfall.

Col. Ambrose Hex

Ambrose Hex

The head of R&D, who briefly travels aboard CPX-9872 while it flees Halifax.

• Colonel Badass: To some extent.
• Deadpan Snarker: Particularly in regards to Tess.
• Jerkass: Admittedly, it's hard to blame him under the circumstances.
• The Leader: Of the PHL Research and Development.
• Only Sane Man: Acts the part, but the truth of the matter is debatable.
• Secret-Keeper
• Took a Level in Cynic

Col. Harrison Munro

Harrison Munro

The head of F.E.A.R and a PHL R&D officer, seemingly kept on PHL payroll to help on more esoteric projects. He's also involved in several backroom deals with Armacham Technology Corporation.

• The Chessmaster: He's working on a behind-the-scenes plan involving the Reavers, though the details have yet to be revealed.
• The Corruptible: He seems willing to listen to Genevieve Aristide's ideas even after she basically admits to considering high treason.
• Crossover: Not directly, but he works for/runs F.E.A.R. Unlike Bowman, he's not a true example of the Canon Immigrant, as he's not an existing character in any other media.
• Desk Jockey: He stays behind a desk, working in a division that's been mostly folded into PHL R&D. Just the way he likes it.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: What with his apparently planning something with the Reavers, his deal with Aristide, but him still being set on helping the war effort, God knows what his real goals are.
• The Generic Guy: It's suggested he actually plays up this image to keep himself below notice from the higher-ups in the PHL.
• The Nicknamer: He has a tendency to nickname his colleagues, referring to Ambrose Hex as "Amber".

Dr. Ernst Kasparek

Ernst Kasparek

An ex-PER member who grew disillusioned with the methods his allies were using. He defected to the PHL, bringing enchanted equipment that helped them to make leaps and bounds in magic enhancements. The good doctor suffered for his change of heart, though – thanks to the beatings he received while trying to deliver the gear, his body is a wreck.

• The Atoner: For once having worked with the PER.
• Defector from Decadence: Eventually realized the PER and the Solar Empire was rotten to the core, and left after a crisis of conscience.
• The Determinator: Need to get to America? Steal a plane and land in New York, with only a shotgun for defense. Legs broken by PER? Use cruise control to drive instead.
• Genius Cripple: Granted, the "cripple" part is a new development thanks to the PER.
• Herr Doktor: Subverted, he's Latvian.
• I Have No Son!: Inverted. He states his daughter has cut off all ties with him due to his association with the PER, and won't ever speak to him, even after he changed sides.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Holds a lot of guilt and self-hatred for his previous alignment with the PER.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Justified. He is very, very displeased about his previous faction, at one point saying that the PHL should do this to the PER's founder:
  "Reitman? Whack that evil whore for all the crap she put the world through, you've got to rip off her head and piss in her skull!"
• Vague Age: It's never made entirely clear how old he is. He refers to himself as an old man, but it's hinted his aged appearance was caused by the physical torture he underwent for his defection from the PER.
• You No Take Candle: Speaks in an odd and somewhat broken fashion, similar to Anya's grandfather from Wolfenstein: The New Order. Justified as English likely isn't his first language.

Dr. Pekka Salonen

Pekka Salonen

A leading figure in the PHL's R&D division, partner of Pineapple Cutter. It's stated that the two of them are working on something outside of the PHL's approval.

• Ambiguously Evil: As the description above states, Salonen and Pina are working on something that the PHL wouldn't ever approve of. What it is currently is unknown.
• The Ghost: Hasn't made any physical appearances.
• Mad Scientist: Whatever he and Pina are working on is apparently horrible enough to qualify him as one.
• The Mentor: To some extent towards Pina. He was the one who helped her establish her rules.
• The Smart Guy: Being a scientist and all.

Opt. Pineapple Cutter

Pineapple Cutter (Alias: Pina)

An earthmare with a rather twisted worldview, who works as the "lab assistant" and bodyguard to Dr. Salonen, one of the leading members of PHL R&D.

• Anti-Hero: To the point of being a Nominal Hero. Pina makes no pretense at fighting in the name of a morally righteous cause.
• Artificial Limbs: Her left front hoof is made of porcelain as noted by Prime Comet. Word of God states how she got it will be explained.
• Ax-Crazy: She's a bit more restrained than most, but don't let whatever charm her snark lends her fool you - she really is a straight up sociopath.
• Been There, Shaped History: "The Board is Set" is peppered with mentions of her being in Jakarta for a while (and crossing paths with Ana), and being at the Great Wall alongside the Dragons of the East.
• Blood Knight: Craves excitement so much that her inner monologue during "Love and Hate" has her describe Newfoals as boring due to posing little sustainable threat other than attrition.
• Combat Sadomasochist: As befitting her being a Blood Knight.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Kizuna Tallis explicitly compares Pina to April Ludgate, and thus has cast Aubrey Plaza as her voice actress.
• The Cynic: Possibly the most cynical character in the entire Spectrumverse, given that she seems to regard existence in general as a sort of Cosmic Horror Story, and all sides in the war as being Mirroring Factions to one another. Note that this doesn't make her a Nietzsche Wannabe, however.
• Emotionless Girl: When she's not on something exciting, she's this. She even freaks out the usually stoic Winter Truce, and even Weaver can't stand to look very long into her thoughts.
• Expy: She's a twisted version of Cupcakes Pinkie Pie that is not played for any kinds of laughs.
• The Fettered: Surprisingly enough, yes, since she has rules (which she thinks of as capital-r Rules), presumably to keep her from going off the deep end.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Invoked. Word of God reveals in the comments that Pina's changed her name from "Pineapple Nectar" to Cutter.
• Nature Is Not Nice: In-universe, Pina reflects on how life in the Everfree Forest is nasty, brutish and short. As it happens, she likes the idea very much.
• Nightmare Fetishist: She is not a very stable mare, and she even manages to unnerve Weaver. Lampshaded by Weaver in "The Board is Set".
  Truth be told, if Renee ever got the faintest idea of precisely what Cutter and her partner were planning for after the war in case humanity was victorious, he may very well strangle her with his bare hands.
  And she would die relishing the sensation.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Everyone, including the narration, refers to her as "Pina".
• Pet the Dog: A very mild example, as far as someone like her could invoke this trope. Both Kizuna and Vox agree that Pina has enough of a heart in her to at least feel that a child's innocence shouldn't be destroyed (plus, as Vox notes, Pina only picks on opponents that can provide her a challenge), and in some respects, her speech to Prime Comet in Other Side of the Mirror below could be read as her trying to dissuade the filly from getting any funny ideas about her counterpart's life.
• Punch-Clock Hero: She's with the PHL because they have the best weaponry, and they happen to share a goal of keeping the Solar Tyrant from enslaving them.
• Sarcastic Clapping: How she makes her presence known to Prime Comet and her family. Aquamarine is clearly not amused, but Pina doesn't let that deter her.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She leaves the universe with the Dragons of the East in the Asia Side Story's Gainax Ending.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: In The Other Side of the Mirror, having overheard Prime Comet's enthusiasm about human pop-culture and disgust at the Solar Empire, Pina emerges from the background and responds with this gem:
  Pina: Disney movies. Wolf Children Ame and Yuki. Very pretty. Very nice. You see what they want you to see. There is much they do not want you to see. They want you to feel sorry for them. They will lie. Have you stopped to think? Think of the Solar Empire. Perhaps right now they are showing ponies their own exhibition. An exhibition like this one. About humans, yes. Humans and what they can do. Humans and awesome things. But reflected in a dark mirror. Yes, they have a lot to work with. You will see.
• The Snark Knight: A very dark example. Doesn't help that she's a sociopath with Blood Knight tendencies.
• Sociopathic Hero: This mare is a bit too fond of stalking the Loyalists while hidden in the foliage of the Everfree Forest...
• Stalker without a Crush: Marcus orders her to covertly survey Stephan and Trixie's vacation in Ponyville. It reminds her that she hasn't done something like this for a while now...
  • And of course, later on, she does the same to Fuse's group of Loyalists.
• Token Evil Teammate: Granted, the PHL has its fair share of Ax-Crazy members here and there, but few of them take quite as much delight in their madness as Pina does.
• Verbal Tic: Two of them, as seen above. For one, she rarely expresses herself other than in brief, curt phrases with very few commas. And secondly, she occasionally adds "yes" at the end of her sentences.

Dr. Richard Bowman

'''Richard Bowman (Real Name: The Doctor)

A mysterious "consultant" brought onto PHL R&D's payroll, Bowman is a Sarcastic Devotee par excellence, prone to criticizing PHL methodology, who comes and goes as he pleases. And yet he remains allied with them, for as yet unclear reasons. Basically all but outright stated to be The Doctor from a universe parallel to the Spectrumverse. It's probably The Avatar of Albion, judging by the fact that he's also appeared in Bittersweet Victory, one of that story's sequels.

• Absent-Minded Professor: Has this in spades.
• Actual Pacifist: Drawing from more recent, more definitively pacifistic interpretations of the Doctor.
  I do not kill!

• Aloof Ally: He works for the PHL. This does not necessarily mean he has guaranteed job satisfaction.
• Author Appeal: If it wasn't clear that Jed R is a Doctor Who fan yet, it damn well should be.
  • Word of God has it that he's actually Jed R's own fan-Doctor.
• Badass Longcoat: Not only does he wear them, he has more hung up, according to the description of his office in Snowbound.
• Badass Pacifist: Appears to be this, by all accounts.
• Canon Immigrant: From The Avatar of Albion.
• Character Filibuster: Delivers one in Snowbound to Johnny C, Fiddlesticks and Colonel Hex on the subject of their distrust for the Reavers. To be fair, this sort of thing is not out of character for the Doctor.
• Chessmaster: Colonel Hex in Snowbound, and Bowman himself in Once More Unto The Breach, imply that he has been altering history for some so-far unknown purpose.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Seems to be something of this in his appearances in Once More Unto The Breach.
• Continuity Cavalcade: His office in Snowbound has pictures of him with the Reavers, pictures of the War Doctor Hooves' successor and his companion Trixie, Grey Squadron and the AOA Kraber. Bizarrely, the latter is undergoing marriage counselling with his now-ponified wife. We'd say it Makes Sense In Context, but not quite.
• Crossover: He's technically this in both The Avatar of Albion and Spectrum, since he's actually the Doctor as well.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Is incredibly reluctant to make weapons.
  "Get the other me to make this, because I won't!"
• Mysterious Stranger: Not many people know much about his past, even the authors.
• The Prankster: Leaves a prank in an interview room for the Interviewer in The Light Despondent.

Chalcedony

Chalcedony

An R&D research mare who often works with Bowman on his projects.

• Badass Bookworm: Her first appearance has her fighting PER to defend civilian refugees in Britain.
• Boomerang Bigot: She doesn't have a high opinion of her kind.
• The Cynic: It's a rare occasion she believes the best of anyone or anything.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has a barbed quip for every situation.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: She's a very gray mare in general. As this is meant to be emblematic of her depressive tendencies, they also count as
• The Eeyore: She's not a happy mare.
• Take That!: Chalcedony is meant to be a mirror to Chatoyance, in design and personality. Where Chatoyance's ponysona is brightly colored, Chalcedony is often shown to be grayish. Where Chatoyance is a misanthrope, Chalcedony displays mishippic tendencies, likely thanks to her poor experiences during both the Conversion and Crystal wars.
  "None of [Equestria and ponykind] is worth saving. Not anymore."
  • Her name is also reflective of this. "Chalcedony" is a somewhat dull silica-quartz while "chatoyance" means the reflective line of light on a gem (which looks like a cat's eye).
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Shades of this with Bowman.

"The New Researcher"

Gestalt (Alias: The New Researcher)

A... you know, good question. "The New Researcher" is just that, a new PHL employee referred to through purposely gender-neutral pronouns, all variations on "ae", who is evidently making waves in PHL R&D. Aer first "appearance" was in Chapter 13 of Light Despondent, It's Another Day.

• Ambiguous Gender: Preferred pronouns seem to be variations on "Ae." Word of Fluffy is that "the New Researcher just chose those pronouns because finding a specific gender was too much work."
• Body Horror: Any physical description of aer, with mentions of how ae's spreading living crystal through the body, is a Sense Freak, and a sentient, ambulatory totem-prole.
• Brown Note: Seems to be able to cause these?
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Chalcedony refuses to refer to it as anything other than "it". The unseen Interviewer takes offense at this one.
• Morality Pet: Ae seems to be this to the unseen Interviewer.

---

Equus Operatives

Ponies for Human Life members covertly operating back in Imperial Equestria.

Canterlot

Sir Fancy Pants (TCB)

Fancy Pants (Aliases: Five Blade Fancy; Trade Secret)

A aristocratic unicorn from Canterlot who aids the PHL from behind the scenes despite the risk it will put him through.

• BFS: His magic allows him to wield five at the same time, to be exact.
• Defiant to the End: After Queen Celestia discovers he's a PHL spy, she goes into his home to dispose of him personally. He refuses to go down without a fight, to say the least.
• Double Agent: In a way. He has ties to both the PHL and the Equestrian Resistance, two groups with aligned goals but opposing ideologies. It's downplayed in that both sides know this and regard him as more of a middleman.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: He knows what's going to happen to him when Queen Celestia finds him. His response? Go out in the most badass way possible.
• Gentleman Adventurer: Was an adventurer in his youth, and the spark hasn't gone out of him yet. Sure enough, he goes down facing the most fierce beast he ever encountered, Queen Celestia herself.
• Happily Married: With Fleur de Lis.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After the Newfoals and authorities discover he's a PHL spy, he sends Fleur away to safety and then kills several Newfoals and Royal Guards before mouthing off to Queen Celestia and detonating a bomb to distract her long enough to buy his wife more time to escape.
• Lampshade Hanging: Notes that he's not in the old Equestria where "problems could be solved within thirty minutes and capped off with a speech."
• The Mole: Uses his social position, wealth, and connections to gain inside information to the Empire's secrets.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: On the outside, he's a foppish Idle Rich aristocrat. In truth, he's a spy for the human/pony resistance.
• Oh, Crap!: Has a massive one when he sees the Solar Empire's newest weapon against the human resistance.
• Red Baron: Far more badass than his real name is his nickname, "Five Blade Fancy". He also carries the code name of Trade Secret.
• Retired Badass: He explored distant lands far beyond Equestria's borders, collected weapons from those places and even learned their fighting styles. He picks up the swords one last time to fight off the Newfoals and ensure Fleur escaped safely.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Went against the Empire, putting his life and family at risk to help humanity and Equestria.
• Uncle Pennybags: Is always willing to help those less fortunate than himself, either through charity or through direct involvement.
• Unstoppable Rage: Flies into this when a Newfoal attempts to hurt a pregnant Fleur.

Dame Moondancer (TCB)

Moondancer

Another former student of Celestia's School, well-read and kind-hearted, Moondancer is a great believer in the potential of ponykind and humanity's shared future.

• The Anti-Nihilist: Moondancer shows shades of adhering to this philosophy of life.
• Badass Bookworm: Still as bookish as ever, now with extra fighting skills.
  • Took a Level in Badass: She's a lot more self-confident than the shy mare who was left in a funk due to her best friend's failure to turn up at her party.
• Blue Blood: Took on the title of "Dame" after her older sister, Morning Roast, fell in the Crystal War.
• Broad Strokes: The idea of Moondancer appearing as a character in the Spectrumverse predates her featured episode on the show. After that happened, the writers took the idea and ran with it.
• Childhood Friends: With Twilight Sparkle, of course, but also with Lyra. Moondancer's reminiscence on their friendship opens up The Beatification of Lyra Heartstrings.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Well, her past falling-out with Twilight, for starters, followed by the death of her sister.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic. She isn't prone to anger, and is a lot more concerned with learning about humanity than seeking revenge on the Empire.
• The Philosopher: Reflections on the nature of war and the meaning of existence are never far off when she's around.

Ponyville

Big Macintosh (TCB)

Big Macintosh

Applejack's big brother remained in Equestria to manage the farm, but secretly hates the slave plantation it has become.

• Big Brother Instinct: Wants desperately to snap Applejack back to normal and worries a lot for Applebloom too. He also mentions giving Diamond Tiara food poisoning once for bullying Applebloom.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Has just barely avoided this, claiming that "thoughts I know weren't mine" frequently appeared in his head while he was in TCB Equestria.
• Despair Event Horizon: In his own words, his grandmother's death, sister's radical personality changes, the propaganda, and TCB Equestria in general has "hollowed [him] out like an old Nightmare Night pumpkin." On top of that, he's aware that things will never be the same again thanks to the End of an Age.
• The Mole: Being the brother of a Bad Liar who is honest to a fault puts him in a great place to funnel vital information to the PHL.
• My Greatest Failure: He hates himself for letting Applejack allow the Newfoals to work on the farm and letting Sweet Apple Acres turn into what's essentially a slave plantation.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The entire point of his segment of the "Empire" chapter of Calm Before The Storm.
• Ship Tease: With TCB Carrot Top.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Joined the PHL because of what TCB Applejack became.

Carrot Top (TCB)

Carrot Top

One of the Apple clan's neighbors, a carrot farmer and Big Mac's partner-in-crime.

• Beware the Nice Ones: She supplies the Blue Spy with home-made grenades, created using ingredients from her farm. Truth in Television, too!
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: When Fleur de Lis has to flee the Empire, before dying, Fancy directs her to Golden Harvest Ranch as her means of escape.
• Nice Girl: Though with a bit of Cynicism Catalyst thrown in. Carrot isn't at all happy at what Equestria has become.
• Ship Tease: With TCB Big Mac.

Applebloom (TCB)

Applebloom

Not quite as lucky as her friends, Applebloom was stuck in the Solar Empire as the war raged on, getting a front row seat to all that has happened.

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Has just barely avoided this herself, as her head was often and randomly filled with irrational feelings of hatred for humanity right before she snapped herself out of it.
• Broken Pedestal: For Applejack. To be fair, it really isn't AJ's fault.
• Despair Event Horizon: Like with Big Mac, Granny Smith's death, the newfoals, being separated from her friends and seeing what her sister became have driven her to the edge of sadness. Thankfully she does get better.
• Miss Fixit: Her special talent.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In "The Writes of passage", she finally follows her late grandmother's advice and gets right out of Equestria.

Everfree Forest

Sweetie Belle (TCB)

Sweetie Belle

Before getting indoctrinated, Rarity had the presence of mind to send her little sister away. Sweetie Belle now lives in Zecora's old hut within the Everfree Forest, but don't worry, she's more than capable of fending for herself.

• Come with Me If You Want to Live: Extends this offer to TCB Applebloom. Bloom takes her up on it.
• Magic Music: Her special talent.
• She's All Grown Up: Applebloom notes that Sweetie's grown up to be quite the beauty like her older sister when they're reunited.
• We Used to Be Friends: Upon meeting TCB Applebloom again, it's clear their relationship has soured. They reconcile and escape the Empire together.