Characters / Friendship Is Magic: School of Friendship

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Main Index The Main Cast: Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, the Cutie Mark Crusaders Supporting Cast: The Princesses (Princess Celestia, Princess Luna), Mane Family Members, the School of Friendship, Ponyville, Other Locations, Animal Companions Antagonists: Major Villains (Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow), Dangerous Creatures, Jerks and Bullies, Redeemed Antagonists (Discord) World of Equestria: Races, Historical Figures, The 2017 Movie, Expanded Universe, Toyline Exclusive, Miscellaneous Minor Characters: One-Shots, Other Characters, Background Ponies (Common Background Ponies, Special Background Ponies, Other Background Ponies) Equestria Girls: Heroines (Sunset Shimmer), Villains, Supporting Cast

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Starting in Season 8, Twilight Sparkle and her friends open a school to learn about friendship in Ponyville.

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The Young Six

General

The Young Six^note Left to right: Gallus, Silverstream, Smolder, Yona, Sandbar, and Ocellus

• Achievements in Ignorance: In the final issue of the Feats of Friendship miniseries: In reconciling their friendships, the Young Six unknowingly reform Swift Foot by proving to her how strong friendship really is.
• Comically Missing the Point: They miss the fact that their professors are winging it a lot of the time. In "Non-Compete Clause", they all assume Applejack and Rainbow Dash are pulling a Failure Gambit to make their students work together better, when they were actually just needlessly bickering about the same goal.
• Corrupt the Cutie: In the My Little Pony Generations miniseries, the school gains three new new teachers: Black Belle, Shadow Storm and Violet Shiver. Unbeknownst to anyone, the trio are actually formed from the Generation One version of the Smooze, with the ability to spread hostility between others. A combination of this latent ability and their teaching intentionally mean-spirited "lessons" causes the Young Six to turn into disrepectful troublemakers. By the third issue, Ocellus and Silverstream (usually the sweetest of the group) openly mock and insult Fluttershy during her class.
• Face Your Fears: They all go through this in "What Lies Beneath". Gallus has to confront his fear of small spaces, Ocellus confronts the past of her race as Queen Chrysalis, Sandbar's loyalty to his friends is tested by telling him to go on without them, Silverstream has to stare down a shadow of the Storm King, Smolder has to admit she has a girly side, and Yona confronts her fear of spiders.
• Fantastic Racism: Some of them (Gallus, Smolder, and Yona) started out this way, believing their species was the best and didn't see the point of learning about friendship from ponies or the other creatures. Though this was mainly because they were stressed out from their boring classes. Once they skip class and just hang out together they all begin to bond quickly to the point of becoming True Companions despite all being different creatures.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The core six students became friends after sneaking out of school, accidentally destroying part of it, and later running away so they could stay together and having to fend off an attacking pack of puckwudgies.
• Flight: Of the Young Six, four of them have wings and can fly (being a dragon, a changeling, a hippogriff and a griffon). They carry Yona and Sandbar when they want them to share the experience; Yona is scared at first, but soon enjoys it.
• Generation Xerox: A variation; they're not the kids of the Mane Six, but they're clearly younger and each take after certain traits. The Tree of Harmony apparently associates each with an Element, too; after the rescue in "School Raze", Gallus is glowing purple (magic), Ocellus is white (generosity), Sandbar is yellow (kindness), Yona is orange (honesty), Silverstream is pink (laughter), and Smolder is light-blue (loyalty).^note They're associated with the color of the element holder, not the element itself The same correlation is featured in "The Last Problem"; During the song "The Magic of Friendship Grows", a series of character groupings is shown for each of the Mane Six, with each of the Young Six appearing in the group of the pony whose Element they take after (Gallus = Twilight, Yona = Applejack, etc.).
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Invoked in "The Ending of the End" by the six of them. They call on ordinary citizens of Equestria and beyond to help the Mane Six fight Chrysalis, Cozy Glow and Tirek. It results in The Cavalry coming to help when all seems lost.
• Hero of Another Story: "The Last Problem" shows a stained glass window in the Canterlot throne room, the kind reserved for commemorating great victories achieved by Equestria's heroes, depicting the six defeating a rhinoceros-like creature.
• Hidden Depths: Several of them have these.
  • While Gallus generally seems to be one of the least studious of the Young Six, both "A Matter of Principals" and "School Raze – Part 2" have him quoting subjects from both class and school books, showing that he can be an attentive student when he needs to be. And In "Uprooted", he shows off a level of showmanship, as seen in his attempts to honor the Tree of Harmony's memory by creating a museum, and enthusiastically calling on passers-by to "step right up" like it's a tourist attraction.
  • In "Uprooted", Ocellus is shown to have an interest and knowledge in meditation, wanting to turn the Cave of Harmony into a place where "only positive energy can bloom".
  • In "A Matter of Principals", Sandbar shows some knowledge and enjoyment of poetry, using the lyrics of one such poem to locate one of the hidden artifacts.
  • In "Uprooted", Silverstream dreams of being the first non-pegasus Wonderbolt. She also proves herself to be a talented artist.
  • Also in "Uprooted", Smolder shows her to be a good sculpter, carving a memorial for the Tree of Harmony with her bare hands.
  • In "Student Counsel", Silverstream displays that she has a way with animals, being able to tame a cockatrice.
  • In "A Horse Shoe-In", Silverstream plays the saxophone as part of the school orchestra.
  • During her parent-teacher conference in "A Horse Shoe-In", Doctor Whooves claims that Yona excels in science, saying "she takes to it like a yak takes to smashing" and could potentially expand the very understanding of science itself.
• Interspecies Friendship: A pony, a dragon, a hippogriff, a changeling, a griffon, and a yak, all of whom become close-knit friends with each other.
• Irony: They all came to the School of Friendship to learn about friendship from their classes, but they didn't become close friends with each other until they all skipped class together due to how boring they had gotten.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: The six of them learn lessons on friendship from the Mane Six (and Starlight). At some point after Twilight's coronation, Smolder, Silverstream, and Ocellus become teachers at the school, with a new generation of students.
• Multinational Team: Each one originates from a different nation in the MLP:FIM world, brought together by the School of Friendship — Equestria (Sandbar), Yakyakistan (Yona), Griffonstone (Gallus), the Dragon Lands (Smolder), Mount Aris/Seaquestria (Silverstream) and the Changeling Kingdom (Ocellus).
• Out of Focus:
  • Compared to season 8, they have less of a presence in season 9. Though they do show up for the Grand Finale and are instrumental in saving the day by giving a Rousing Speech to their races to join the fight.
  • Zig-zagged in the comics; their appearances are even more scarse, with only a handful of issues even including them in the story. Though they did get their own miniseries in the form of Feats of Friendship.
• Party of Representatives: They are all from different species/nations, as noted above.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: After their introduction in the two-part premiere, they are included in the new intro beginning with the third episode of Season 8, "The Maud Couple".
• Ship Tease:
  • Between Gallus and Silverstream in the second half of season 8.
    • In "A Matter of Principals", Silverstream is practically beaming with pride when she realizes Gallus actually paid attention in class.
    • In "The Hearth's Warming Club", Silverstream is the first of the Young Six to offer to stay with Gallus over the winter break.
    • In "What Lies Beneath", Gallus helps Silverstream overcome her fear of the Storm King by admitting to her his own fear of enclosed spaces. After Silverstream successfully passes her test, she gives Gallus a tight hug, which he awkwardly escapes from.
  • In "She's All Yak", Sandbar invites Yona to be his partner for the school's upcoming Amity Ball (blushing and acting nervous as he does so), with Yona doing everything she can to try and impress him. After her efforts fail, and Sandbar assures her that he invited her for who she is, Yona hugs him, and they both blush right after.
  • In the same episode, Smolder nonchalantly asks Gallus to the ball, and he accepts.
    Smolder: You wanna go? I don't have anything better to do.
    Gallus: You had me at "dinner".
  • In "The Ending of the End - Part 2", Sandbar and Yona briefly hold hooves when it is revealed that the Young Six brought in The Cavalry.
  • In "The Last Problem", Yona and Sandbar are living together and running the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville together in the Distant Finale. It's unclear if their relationship is platonic or romantic, however.
• True Companions: In the short time they spend together, they become close enough that they actually run away from home after the school is closed because they can't bear to say goodbye to each other.
• Two Girls to a Team: Inverted. Unlike the Mane Six whose group consists of mares with the occasional male Sixth Ranger, the students are made up of four girls and two boys: Sandbar and Gallus.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: They nearly cause a war between the races when they run away without telling anyone where they were going.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • Gallus has claustrophobia, the fear of small spaces. When placed in a puzzle room in "What Lies Beneath", where breaking a purple beam causes the room to shrink, he starts panicking as the room gets smaller until he finds out breaking blue beams makes the room grow.
  • In the same episode, Yona is revealed to be afraid of spiders, although she overcomes this fear after befriending a spider named Spindle.
  • Played for Laughs in "Uprooted"; Sandbar's nightmare involves him being unable to choose between a large number of desserts.

Gallus

"Guess our friendship is pretty magical after all."

Debut: "School Daze – Part 1"

Voiced by: Gavin Langelo

A snarky blue griffon from Griffonstone who still hasn't quite shaken off his kind's standoffish attitude.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: While hanging out with the other students by the lake, he laughs with the others when Yona jokes that griffons are "just full of hot air" after he just told them all why griffons breathe fire when they get mad.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Gallus' bright blue color scheme stands out in comparison to other griffons' more subdued hues, though it's not without precedent.
• Blatant Lies: When talking to the other students at the lake, he claims that griffons breathe fire when they get mad. Silverstream doesn't know if he's lying or being truthful, but no-one else buys it.
• Claustrophobia: In "What Lies Beneath", it's revealed that he has a fear of enclosed spaces, and his test forces him to overcome it.
• Crash-Into Hello: This is how he and Sandbar meet each other at the School's opening: Sandbar, who wasn't looking at where he was going, runs right into Gallus' backside.
  Sandbar: Whoa, sorry! I'm Sandbar! Are you a student here too?
  Gallus: No, I just figured I'd stand here and see how many ponies just walk into me.
• Crazy-Prepared: In "Uprooted", Twilight tells the Young Six they can stay in Ponyville to pay their respects to the Tree of Harmony as long as they get their parents/guardians to sign permission slips. Gallus asks her if she wants the form in triplicate, holding up three of them.
  Gallus: What? I like to be prepared.
• Deadpan Snarker: His opening line of dialogue is a snarky comeback to Sandbar. In general, Gallus seems to get annoyed rather quickly, and has little patience for things that annoy him.
• Dramatic Irony: Early in "What Lies Beneath", he pokes fun at how, in Equestria, a tree is considered to be a source of wisdom. Come the end of the episode, he has indeed been taught a friendship lesson by the very tree he was mocking. And he knows perfectly well it happened.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Despite hearing stories about Rainbow Dash from Gilda and Sandbar, Gallus is not very impressed with her, and that sentiment only grows when Dash is forced to teach according to EEA standards. He changes his mind when she (along with the rest of the Mane Six) save him and his friends from pukwudgies.
• Feather Fingers: Although he also has hand-like talons, Gallus sometimes gestures with his wingtips too.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: After the students rescue their teachers in "Non-Compete Clause", he confidently claims that the bite-acudas "weren't even a thing", then gets scared by Ocellus, who is still in her giant bite-acuda form.
• Irony: In "The Last Problem", it is revealed that the formerly rebellious, rule-bending young griffon ends up becoming part of the Canterlot Royal Guard in the future.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He starts out as standoffish, confrontational and rude, but after a while he quickly warms up to the other students, becoming close friends with them in short order. He regularly teases and plays pranks on them, but he truly does care about them a lot. Examined in "The Hearth's Warming Club": he's the one who caused the mess in the common room and tried to prevent the Young Six from leaving. It wasn't out of any genuine malice, but because he didn't want to go back to Griffonstone, hating having to spend the Blue Moon Festival alone. Gallus was hoping the students could all stay behind and be True Companions over the holidays instead. In "School Raze", his glow is similar in color to the element of Magic when rescued by the Tree of Harmony.
• "Just Joking" Justification: In "Non-Compete Clause", he invokes this after suggesting the students leave the trapped Applejack and Rainbow Dash hanging.
  Gallus: I'm kidding! ...Kinda.
• The Leader: Zig-zagged during the Feats of Friendship series. After Swift Foot's false flattery, Gallus tries to take charge of the team, but Swift Foot's other machinations means they barely listen to him. After the Young Six reconcile in the final issue, he does a much better job of leading them to complete the final event. Also zigzagged in the main series, where while he never necessarily "leads" the group, he does take the initiative on many things and the others follow his lead. Him apparently being the next Element of Magic (going by his purple glow in "School Raze") also helps with this, considering that's the element that brings all of the others together. He also becomes the Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard in the end of the series, further enforcing it.
• Meaningful Name: "Gallus" is the Latin genus name for "chicken", fitting with his race's avian qualities, as well as the tradition of griffon names all starting with "g".
• Non-Standard Character Design: Gallus is not only unusually colorful, but the colored feathers of his head match the color as his lion's lower half, while all other griffons are usually separate colors below their neck, to separate the lion and bird parts. He's also the only griffon to be shown with "ears" of some kind. Though whether they're ears or just tufts on his head isn't clear.
• Not Bad: In "Non-Compete Clause", this is his opinion of the apple shed Rainbow Dash builds.
  Gallus: Impressive... if you can call an apple shed impressive.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Gallus is all but stated to be an orphan. And it's shown to be a very painful subject for him. While he does have Grandpa Gruff as his guardian, their relationship is strained at best. "A Horse-Shoe In" points out Gruff isn't a very good guardian and Gallus is clearly upset at how he acts.
• Our Gryphons Are Different: He's a griffon, with the head and forequarters of a bird and the tail and hindquarters of a cat. He's also much more colorful than most griffons in the show. While most other griffons have the coloring of real-life felines and birds of prey, Gallus has bright blue fur and feathers. ^note While a lot of real birds have blue feathers similar in color, such as parrots, it's still unusual his lion half is also that color.
• Parental Abandonment: He states in "The Hearth's Warming Club" that he doesn't have any family of his own. When asked about Grandpa Gruff, Gallus remarks that it's just his name, and that he's not any griffon's actual grandpa. Word of God has confirmed Gruff is his official guardian, but Gallus's relationship with him is strained at best.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Blue Boy to Silverstream's Pink Girl. Most obvious when they're shown together.
• Prehensile Tail: A trait of griffons we've already seen with Gilda. Gallus once shows that his tail is strong enough to support his own weight by dangling from it in the Castle of the Two Sisters.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: He uses these to convince Grandpa Gruff to let him stay at the school.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Is the Manly Man to Sandbar's Sensitive Guy. Sandbar is laid back, straightforward, and a Nice Guy. Gallus is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, standoffish, and snarky.
• Stating the Simple Solution: In "Non-Compete Clause", when the teachers and students come to a chasm, he points out that they have enough flyers there that they can simply fly everyone over the gap.
• Stepford Snarker: Underneath his sarcastic attitude, he suffers from some pretty bad abandonment issues, to the point where he couldn't stand the thought of being separated from his friends for 2 weeks.
• Verbal Backspace: In Issue #71 of the comics. When Twilight assumes the Young Six must have been scared by being caught in a fire in the castle of the Two Sisters, Gallus claims otherwise... only to admit the truth after the others glare at him.
• The Walls Are Closing In:
  • In "What Lies Beneath", Gallus is stuck in a small chamber will thin beams of light shining through. Every time he touches a wrong one, the chamber compresses. Every time he touches a right one, a gap widens bit by bit, allowing him to escape once he figures out the pattern.
  • Happens again in "Uprooted", this time he is trapped sideways in a closing box during a Dream Sequence.

Ocellus

"Pillows! How nice! The castle is gonna be so much more comfy."

Debut: "School Daze – Part 1"

Voiced by: Devyn Dalton
Singing by: Shannon Chan-Kent

A reformed changeling who initially prefers being seen in other forms than her own, but gradually opens up to the other students.

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• The Atoner: In Issue #84 of the comics. Part of the reason Ocellus pushes herself so hard in making her end of term project perfect is because she wants to prove that changelings can use their powers for something good and beautiful.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Besides being an insectoid equine in her default appearance, she can transform into a gigantic, armored insect-like monster.
• Big "NO!": In "What Lies Beneath", she screams "NO!" when she looks at her reflection, and sees she has become Chrysalis.
• Bookworm: By far, she's the most likely of the six to remember what's been taught in class. She knew about the Castle of the Two Sisters from Twilight's class. When the pukwudgies appear, she cites Fluttershy's lesson. She also reads ahead in books about magical artifacts to know what things are for the spell-venger hunt.
• Brief Accent Imitation: When she disguises herself as Rarity, she greatly exaggerates the fashionista pony's "darling" habit, among other things. Fluttershy falls for it, but Angel Bunny is suspicious. She also does this when she impersonates Twilight and Applejack as a joke, and she's apparently gotten better at it.
• Flight: Quite capable of it with her insect wings, and does so a lot, though not as much as Silverstream.
• Heroic RRoD: In Issue #84 of the comics. Ocellus puts so much effort into her project (a dance where she shapeshifts into multiple historical figures) that she exhausts herself, leading to her falling asleep in class and stumbling during her practice.
• Invisible Introvert: Introduced as a shy changeling who turns into other creatures in order to hide. She grows out of this once she bonds with her classmates.
• Literal-Minded: When she and the other Changelings were first introduced to the traditions of Hearth's Warming Eve, Ocellus took them at face value. For instance, when told to "put a tree up," she and her family hang a tree upside-down from the ceiling of their hive with a pulley, and they "exchange gifts" by passing them around to each other but not opening them.
• Monochromatic Eyes: Like all changelings, in her default form, her eyes are all one color. Light blue in her case. The only way to tell where she's looking is to watch the white reflections in her eyes which move to where she focuses.
• Morphic Resonance: Her bugbear, pukwudgie, seapony, and bite-acuda forms have the same light blue and pink coloring as her standard changeling form.
• Mundane Utility: Ocellus briefly uses her shapeshifting abilities to impersonate Twilight and Applejack as a joke in "What Lies Beneath".
• Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: According to Gallus anyway. In "The Hearth's Warming Club", he snarks about how she'll survive two weeks without studying over the holidays.
• Nice Girl: Despite her shyness, she is very kind and polite. In "School Raze", her glow is similar in color to the element of Generosity when rescued by the Tree of Harmony.
• Non-Standard Character Design: She's smaller, thinner, and has different eye design and more rounded features than other changelings. She also has a unique translucent mane-like frill on the back of her head and lack a diligently colored torso.
• Oblivious Transformation: In "What Lies Beneath". She doesn't realize that she's been transformed into Chrysalis until she sees herself in a nearby mirror.
• Old Shame: In-Universe. She's well aware of the dark history of changelings in Equestria, and is working to overcome it. The Tree of Harmony plays on this fear in "What Lies Beneath", making Ocellus appear as Queen Chrysalis, along with the changelings appearing in the Always Chaotic Evil forms from the past.
• Out of Focus: Out of all the Young Six, she is in the spotlight the least, and never got a focus episode of her own. The comics ultimately amended this, with Issue #84 revolving around her.
• Shapeshifter Baggage: She can transform into things far larger than herself, apparently with all the mass they would normally have. Where she gets the extra mass is not explained (though the changelings' shapeshifting process seems to be magical in nature, so the mass may just literally appear from out of nowhere).
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Naturally for a changeling, her true form is an insectoid equine.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: In "What Lies Beneath", Ocellus is trapped in the form of Queen Chrysalis, which she can only dispel once Smolder helps convince her that the evil past of the changelings is behind them.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Is the shortest of the young six, and seems to be the smartest, most academically inclined of the group.
• Shrinking Violet:
  • Very quiet and very shy, she often assumes new forms just to avoid meeting people in her normal form. Her Establishing Character Moment is getting scolded by Thorax for changing into a dragon on the first day.
  • In "2, 4, 6 Greaaat", her shyness makes it hard for her to make herself heard during cheer squad practice. Rainbow Dash manages to get around this by giving Ocellus a megaphone to speak through during the actual performance.
• Smart Girl: The most academically inclined of the group.
• Summon Bigger Fish: In "Non-Compete Clause", the students deal with the bite-acudas by having her transform into a much bigger bite-acuda and chase them away.
• Tareme Eyes: Unique amongst changeling to have them, fitting her shy personality.
• Theme Naming: "Ocellus" is the word for the simplistic eyes sported by some insects, fitting with the insect motif that many changeling names have.
• Vocal Dissonance: Her voice sounds kind of odd coming from some of the forms she takes.
• Voices Are Mental: She zig-zags this; sometimes she uses her own voice when shapeshifting (mostly when changing into things that don't talk), at other times she doesn't (mimicking the voice as well as the appearance).
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Standard for a changeling. She can even turn into things several times her size, including a giant bug monster, a bite-acuda, and a bugbear. She can also change into a seapony to breathe underwater.
• Winged Unicorn: Technically, she is one, having insect wings and a horn. However, it doesn't seem to confer her any special powers or additional respect, unlike the ponies with wings and horns, and she doesn't seem to use her horn for anything, though she does fly a lot.

Sandbar

"Make sure you don't get into... trouble."

Debut: "School Daze – Part 1"

Voiced by: Vincent Tong

A laid-back earth pony stallion, and the most sensible member of his group of friends.

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• Amazon Chaser: Crushes on and eventually gets with Yona, a Brawn Hilda twice his size who grows even larger as an adult.
• Bad Liar: When asked why he needs so many cupcakes when he and the rest of the students are supposed to be hiding, he nervously replies that he's really hungry. On his way out the door, he walks very slowly, and even nervously drops a box of cupcakes. He's better at tricking Neighsay into thinking he's thrown the other five under a bus when Neighsay takes over the school.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • In "The Hearth's Warming Club", while the Young Six are all arguing over who pulled the prank, Sandbar actively blames Ocellus, and earlier in the episode is unwilling to take the blame for whoever did it.
  • He plays a major part in foiling the Evil Plan of Cozy Glow in "School Raze", and, like everyone else, doesn't protest against her being imprisoned in Tartarus for her crimes.
• Crash-Into Hello: This is how he and Gallus meet each other at the School's opening: Sandbar, who wasn't looking at where he was going, runs right into Gallus' backside.
  Sandbar: Whoa, sorry! I'm Sandbar! Are you a student here too?
  Gallus: No, I just figured I'd stand here and see how many ponies just walk into me.
• Curtains Match the Window: He has green eyes to match his green mane.
• Disappointed in You: In "What Lies Beneath", when he refuses to go any further without finding his friends first the illusions of Rarity and Rainbow say he is a disappointment for choosing a small group of friends over all of Equestria. He fires back that they disappoint him for trying to make him abandon his friends and go against everything they stand for, but soon realizes they are not the real Rarity and Rainbow after all.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He made a brief appearance in the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship special, during the establishing shot of Canterlot.
• Fake Defector: Sandbar pretends to betray the Young Six in "School Raze", but that's only so neither Neighsay nor Cozy Glow would prevent him from getting the CMC as reinforcements, finding out what was going on, and freeing his friends from the student quarters.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: For a different meaning of "idol". Sandbar's test in "What Lies Beneath" has illusions of Rarity and Rainbow Dash show up insisting they need his help for a friendship problem, but the task will require him to leave his friends behind. He goes along with it, at first, but as they get more insistent that he abandon his friends, he eventually stands up to them and passes the test.
• Hero-Worshipper: In "What Lies Beneath" he says that he's always looked up to the Mane Six.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • In "The Hearth's Warming Club", he tries to get Ocellus to sing, not noticing that Ocellus is uncomfortable with doing so.
  • In "Uprooted", he unintentionally upsets the Young Six by putting away the Tree of Harmony's remains and planting a sapling in its place.
• Irony: In "Horse Play", the students are asked to play the unicorns who raised the sun every day before Celestia took up the responsibility. Sandbar, who comparatively is the "normal" one of the group without any special abilities, is the one playing Star Swirl the Bearded, one of the most powerful unicorns of all time and the only one whose magic was able to withstand raising the sun.
• Love at First Sight: In the Feats of Friendship comic arc, he gains a crush on the new student Swift Foot once she enters the classroom.
• Muggle: While all of his friends have varying levels of abilities or feats of strength, Sandbar is the most relatively normal character of the group. This is made even more apparent by the fact that he's an earth pony instead of a magic-wielding unicorn or an airborne pegasus.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In "The Hearth's Warming Club", in contrast to the other student's stories, Sandbar's tale of his Hearth's Warming doll falling off a hearth and nearly getting caught in the fire is rather boring, but he acts as if it's as amazing as the other stories. He later offers to tell another story of how he almost spilled grape juice on a white couch.
• Nice Guy: Sandbar is a very affable pony and overall the most laid back of the students. In "School Raze", he's got the color of the element of Kindness when rescued by the Tree of Harmony.
• Only Sane Man: He points out how much trouble the students could get in for skipping school in "School Daze", but no-one else listens to him.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Is the Sensitive Guy to Gallus' Manly Man.
• Surfer Dude: His voice and laid-back demeanor give off this impression. Considering his cutie mark is three turtles, he probably spends a lot of time near the water.
• Team Dad: He serves as this for the group, trying to defuse their arguments, and going with them when they cut class in order to make sure they don't get into trouble.
• Token Human: On a pony-majority show, he's the only pony in the Young Six.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: While he has no relation to the Mane Six, "What Lies Beneath" has him desperate to impress Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

Silverstream

"You guys! I just found... STAIRS!"

Debut: "School Daze – Part 1"

Voiced by: Lauren Jackson

A very excitable hippogriff and the niece of Queen Novo. Having spent much of her life underwater as a seapony, she is quite curious to experience life above the surface.

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• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Is always seen wearing her necklace, which doubles as a Transformation Trinket.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Having spent most of her life underwater, Silverstream is easily captivated by every new thing she sees on the surface.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "What Lies Beneath", she mentions that because the Storm King has returned, she'll never see another sunset, fly through another cloud, or study plumbing.
• Cool Big Sis: Word of God states that between her and Terramar, she's the older sibling. invoked
• Cute, but Cacophonic: She tends to yell a lot when she's excited. Which is, to say, often.
• Double Take: In "Non-Compete Clause", she does this when Applejack and Rainbow Dash give the canoe team contradictory directions.
  Ocellus: Which way do we go?
  Rainbow Dash: Left!
  Applejack: Right!
  Silverstream: Aye-aye, captains! ...Wait, what?
• Feather Fingers: Like Gallus, she makes gestures with her wings as well as her talons.
• Fish out of Water: Almost quite literally. Being a young hippogriff, she has spent most of her life underwater as a seapony, as her nation was hiding from the Storm King's armies. As such, she's not just unfamiliar with the pony lands, but with the surface world altogether. All the novelties she discovers solely inspire her excitement, however, rather than any fear.
• Flight: Off all the winged students, Silverstream is the one flying the most often, being in the air more frequently than walking. Probably also linked to her past as a seapony: it must feel more natural for her, as it's closer to swimming, than actually moving on the ground.
• Fluffy Tamer: Figured out how to tame a cockatrice, a creature that even Fluttershy had to Stare into submission.
• Genki Girl: She's quite excitable, especially about things she's never seen outside of home. In "School Raze", she's got the color of the element of Laughter when rescued by the Tree of Harmony.
• The Glomp: In "What Lies Beneath". After shouting down the (fake) Storm King, Silverstream glomps Gallus, causing him to awkwardly push her away and say "Okay, hug time later."
• Innocently Insensitive: At the end of "Student Counsel", she offhandedly mentions that Starlight wasn't much help with her attempts to explain dry land concepts to her Seapony cousins.
• Literal-Minded: In "Non-Compete Clause", she thinks that a "field trip" means tripping while on a field instead of going somewhere.
• Motor Mouth: Silverstream has a tendency to talk rather fast when she's excited. Which is often.
• Mundane Object Amazement:
  • At one point, she gets excited by stairs. She justifies it by explaining that while living underwater, she and the other seaponies had no way to climb stairs and thus never built any.
  • In "What Lies Beneath", she's amazed by a book on plumbing.
  • In "She's All Yak," she becomes fascinated by the posters Twilight is putting up to advertise a school dance.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Her attempt to speak yak in Feats of Friendship Issue #3:
  Silverstream: I was trying to say "we do care and we're trying" in yak.
  Yona: Haw! You are saying "we need more mayo for the trout bike!"
• Nice Girl: She is very sociable and friendly to everyone.
• No Indoor Voice: Since she's always so excited, she tends to shout almost everything she says.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: Gives off this vibe during a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in "What Lies Beneath". Silverstream says that the Storm King is nothing but a bully, but now that he's gone, the hippogriffs are better for it, and they're never going to think about him ever again.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: In Feats of Friendship Issue #3; When Swift Foot questions how the Young Six can still want her on their team after everything she's done, Silverstream responds by saying she showed nothing but compassion and concern for them and their cultures. Swift Foot of course knows she did the exact opposite.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Pointed out by Gallus in comics Issue #84 when Silverstream rallies the rest of the Young Six to check on Ocellus.
  Silverstream: It's time for an intervention.
  Smolder: Can't it wait until morning?
  Gallus: I wouldn't argue. Have you ever seen Silverstream this serious?
  Smolder: You make a good point.
• Our Gryphons Are Different: She's a hippogriff, a creature described as half-pony and half-eagle. Her equine and avian traits are fairly well blended together, including feathered fetlocks, a mane of colorful feathers, and mammalian ears on her avian head. This helps distinguish her from griffons, which strictly have the heads, wings, and talons of birds, and the legs and tails of lions.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: On top of being a hippogriff, she's also able to transform into a seapony, or a hippocampus to use the more technical term, which is a horse with the hindquarters of a fish. She retains the same general features as a hippogriff, but loses her beak and gains fins in place of feathers.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Pink Girl to Gallus' Blue Boy. At least when shown together.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In "What Lies Beneath", Silverstream gives one to the shadow of the Storm King when she finally faces her fear and stands up to him.
  Silverstream: Uh, hey! Storm King! You're nothing but a big, old bully with a silly name and a goofy crown! You thought you could scare us into doing whatever you wanted! But we learned that together, we're stronger than you! And now that we're rid of you, we're gonna soar through the sky and go on adventures and NEVER GIVE YOU ANOTHER THOUGHT EVER!!
• Royal Blood: Her mother Ocean Flow is Queen Novo's sister, which is how she's Princess Skystar's cousin. When she is considered missing during "Student Counsel", the entirety of Mount Aris is mobilized to look for her.
• Rummage Sale Reject: In Issue #71 of the comics ("Happy Haunts"), Silverstream, being unable to decide which costume to wear for Nightmare Night, chooses to wear all of them at once.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Not completely, but she's not used to hearing sarcasm, so it becomes a Discussed Trope with her.
  Gallus: Aw, are we not being sweet and friendly enough for you, pony?
  Silverstream: That was sarcasm, right? 'Cause you weren't being sweet or nice?
• Skewed Priorities: In "What Lies Beneath", when she finds herself at what appears to be Mount Aris, she initially wonders if she's been suspended.
• Squee: She tends to squee just as often as Pinkie Pie.
• Stealth Pun: Silverstream having lived underwater as a seapony for as long as she can remember before coming to the School of Friendship makes her a Fish out of Water in more ways than one.
• Stepford Smiler: It seems Silverstream, for all her happy-go-lucky nature, was deeply traumatized by the Storm King's invasion of Mount Aris. Just the sight of him and his Storm Guard in "What Lies Beneath" is enough to make her afraid that she'll never be able to return to the surface ever again, showing how deeply she was psychologically scarred by the experience.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To her cousin, Princess Skystar. She shares Skystar's race, excitability, and awkwardness.
• Transformation Trinket: Her necklace contains a fragment from the Pearl of Transformation, which enables her to shift between her hippogriff and seapony forms at will. Other episodes past her introduction show that every hippogriff wears such a necklace.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like the rest of her kind after the events of the movie, she uses a fragment of Queen Novo's Pearl of Transformation to shift between her hippogriff and seapony forms at will.
• What Is This Feeling?: As the classes grow dull and uninteresting, Silverstream finds herself experiencing what seems to be an unfamiliar feeling for her: boredom.
  Silverstream: Is this what boring is? Am I bored?

Smolder

"The dragons are better than this!"

Debut: "School Daze – Part 1"

Voiced by: Shannon Chan-Kent

A proud and impish teenage dragon from the Dragon Lands.

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• Big Sister Instinct:
  • In "Father Knows Beast", when it's revealed that Sludge was exploiting Spike all along, Smolder tells Sludge who's boss.
  • In "Sweet and Smoky", she sticks up for Spike when Garble's gang mock him, and is not happy when she learns Garble has been picking on Spike behind her back.
• Class Clown: If the official class photo from Discovery Family Channel's website is anything to go by. When Sandbar brings everycreature pillows for the Castle of the Two Sisters, she promptly turns it into a pillow fight.
• Cool Big Sis: She appears to have taken this role towards Spike.
  • In "Molt Down", she tracks down Spike after realizing that he is going through "The Molt" and explains what it is to him when she realizes he doesn't know anything about it, congratulating him for growing up.
  • In "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place", they have a fire-breathing contest, which according to Twilight is something they do "all the time".
  • In "Father Knows Beast", she gives Spike flying lessons and the two become quite close in the subsequent scenes too. Towards the end of the episode she realizes that Sludge is taking advantage of Spike and asks Spike to explain everything Sludge has "taught" him about being a dragon, calls Sludge out when they find out he was only pretending to be Spike's dad, and comforts Spike after Sludge leaves.
• Competition Freak: When asked what dragons are good at, she replies "competition" and challenges all of her new friends to a race.
• Cute Little Fangs: She has a pair of small fangs peeking out the side of her lips, even when her mouth is shut.
• Deadpan Snarker: In "Non-Compete Clause", she plays this role when Applejack and Rainbow Dash argue over who'll be the next Teacher of the Month in front of the students.
  Smolder: Yeah... This isn't awkward at all...
• Eat Dirt, Cheap: Like all dragons, she has a taste for gems. While the students are hiding out at the Castle of the Two Sisters, Smolder can be seen plucking jewels off the helmet from an old suit of armor and eating them.
• Failed a Spot Check: After Smolder manages to pass her test in "What Lies Beneath", she doesn't realize that she is still wearing the dress and makeup until Gallus asks her about it.
• Guilty Pleasures: "What Lies Beneath" establishes that she secretly likes "cute, silly stuff".
• Innocently Insensitive: In "Molt Down", she tells Spike all about the molt that dragons go through, such as how the molting dragon's family kick them out of their home, and that the smell makes them a magnet for predators. Smolder fails to realize that she is only making Spike feel worse about his molting process. She only sees it as a good thing, to the point where she congratulates him for it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At first, she's dismissive of the other students' species and cultures and makes it quite clear she does not want to be there. Once she has spent some time with the others, however, she reveals herself to be willing to be much friendlier and agreeable than she first let on.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: In "What Lies Beneath", she warns Gallus never to speak of seeing her in a dress and girly make-up.
• Morality Pet: Smolder is this to her older brother Garble. Note that while throughout Garble's past appearances in the series he was at best a brute and a bully, and at worst a murderous, sadistic sociopath, Smolder's appearance with him in the episode "Sweet and Smoky" was the first time in the series that Garble is shown being capable of feeling empathy for another living being. Garble genuinely cares for Smolder, and according to her he was a good brother to her in the past. And when Smolder calls Garble out on his actions, he listens to her. She was one of the reasons he reforms at the end of the episode.
• Mr. Exposition: Essentially her role in "Molt Down". She notices Spike is molting, explains him what it is and then leaves, not appearing again for the rest of the episode.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: In "What Lies Beneath", this is her response to the Stepford ponies' first invitation to join them at their tea party.
  Smolder: No. On so many levels. No.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She seems to have this in "Molt Down", where she follows Spike into a custodian's closet and ignores his request to be left alone.
• Not Bad: She says a variation of this after spending time with the other students and after being rescued by the Mane Six.
• One Degree of Separation: In "Molt Down", she mentions having an older brother. In "Sweet and Smoky", her brother is revealed to be Garble.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Being a young dragon, she's small. She's also bipedal and has wings.
• Passionate Sports Girl: She's the most athletic out of all the girls.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: She starts out that way, clearly being chauvinistic about her own people. She mostly grows out of it after spending time around both Spike and the Student Six, to the point that by "School Raze", she gets colored by the element of Loyalty when rescued by the Tree of Harmony.
• Remembered I Could Fly: In Issue #71 of the comics. Smolder is afraid of the Castle of the Two Sisters burning down around the Young Six until Yona reminds her that she is immune to fire.
• Remember the New Guy?: In a roundabout way. In "Sweet and Smoky", we learn that she is actually Garble's sister, but she never ever appeared alongside him before, even on occasions where it would be expected of her, like all those gatherings of dragons on special occasions (dragon migration in "Dragon Quest", competition for Bloodstone Scepter in "Gauntlet of Fire", et cetera).
• She Cleans Up Nicely: "What Lies Beneath" shows that Smolder looks quite adorable when she dresses up for tea.
• Technicolor Fire: The episode "A Matter of Principals" shows us that Smolder's Breath Weapon is multicolored, with a blue core, yellow edge, and pink in-between.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: "What Lies Beneath" reveals she has a liking for cute things, which she's afraid of admitting. Only by admitting it does the Tree of Harmony break the illusion, even though she tells Gallus to never mention it again. She also later joins the cheer squad.
• Tomboyish Voice: She has a very androgynous, raspy voice, and she's also aggressive and competitive.
• Tsundere: Smolder, much like Ember before her, has a hard time embracing affection and "silly cute things." It's only when she admits it in "What Lies Beneath" that she passes her test.
• Undying Loyalty: While she doesn't get sappy about it, she is very devoted to her friends. In "What Lies Beneath", she is willing to admit to her secret love of "cute, silly stuff" in order to get to them, and again to help Ocellus realize she could grow beyond her dark past. In "School Raze", she is the first to go after Gallus as he gets pulled into the magic-draining sphere, and is colored with the element of Loyalty when rescued by the Tree of Harmony.
• Unmanly Secret: Smolder does like cute things, like tea parties and dresses, but it takes a life-or-death situation to get her to admit it.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In Issue #84 of the comics. Smolder was the one who unknowingly inspired Ocellus to use her changeling abilities for her project.
• Vocal Dissonance: When she finally accepts the Stepford ponies' request to join their tea party in "What Lies Beneath", she briefly speaks in a much softer, more feminine tone than her usual scratchy voice.

Yona

"Yak can't wait to meet ponies and tell all about Yakyakistan!"

Debut: "School Daze – Part 1"

Voiced by: Katrina Salisbury

A clumsy yak from Yakyakistan who is happy to be in Ponyville.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: In "What Lies Beneath", Gallus startles her awake when she falls asleep in their study group, and she jolts awake thinking there is a spider on her. She quickly calms down and grins sheepishly while her friends all laugh at the joke.
• All Animals Are Dogs: When she stops rolling in front of a cart full of cupcakes that Sandbar brought the students, Yona starts panting like a dog and wagging her tail.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Yona is the most accident-prone of the Young Six, but she has quite the temper and isn't afraid to show it for the most part.
• Be Yourself: An Aesop she learns in "She's All Yak", with Sandbar explaining that he invited her to the pony dance because he likes her as herself and not "as a pony", prompting her to go back to the dance.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the comics storyline "The Fast and the Furriest": While watching the Draytona Breach 500 race via airship, she observes that Dr. Sacks Roamer is about to cross the finish line into Yakyakistan with his stolen dragon artifact (as he knows the dragons will be unable to follow him due to the cold). Yona dons an emergency parachute and jumps out of the airship, landing on top of him and stopping him in his tracks.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Easily the biggest, strongest, and most physical of the Young Six, with a big, friendly, and excitable personality to match.
• Brawn Hilda: Huge, strong, and foreign, easily the largest of the Student Six, with a Brutish manner of speech and a penchant for smashing things. Unusually for the trope, though, she ends up being Sandbar's choice of partner for the dance in "She's All Yak" in part because of these traits.
• Brutal Honesty: She can usually be counted on to provide her unabashed opinion on matters. In "School Raze", she gets colored with the element of Honesty when rescued by the Tree of Harmony.
• Butt-Monkey: Out of the whole group she is the one physically harmed and put in danger the most.
  • In the two-part opener, she is constantly tripping on her braids and falling over herself, which causes her to smash into things around her and others.
  • In "Non-Compete Clause", she has her lifejacket torn off and almost drowns before Ocellus and Silverstream save her.
  • When Discord has a bugbear chase the students in "A Matter of Principals", she can't keep up with the other students and trips, nearly getting caught by the bugbear until Starlight arrives.
  • In "School Raze – Part 1", she and several others fall from a cloud when magic begins disappearing. She is caught only a few inches from the ground, and is the last one of the falling group to be saved.
  • "Uprooted" has her live a nightmare of falling from the sky.
• Cute Bruiser: Easily the most adorable yak seen in the show so far, but like the rest of her species, she prefers to use force to solve a problem.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: She has long braids that she keeps tripping over, often resulting in her crashing into things. Rarity solves this problem by looping them so she's somewhat less accident-prone.
• Gasshole: In "She's All Yak". After swallowing the brussel sprouts Rarity had her hold in her mouth to help her be articulate, Yona belches loudly.
• Gonky Femme: A cutesy, energetic girl who's also a huge, hairy yak.
• Hero-Worshipper: In "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place", Yona quickly becomes enraptured by Rockhoof, since he isn't so different from Yaks. She's the most devastated of the class when she learns that he plans to turn himself into stone. She also writes her friendship essay about him and is the one who convinces him to abandon his plan.
• Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: In the Feats of Friendship miniseries. After Swift Foot convinces Yona that the rest of the Young Six don't respect her culture enough to even learn her language, she starts speaking in yak, just to spite them.
• Huge Schoolgirl: While it's common for yaks to be bigger and stronger than the average pony, Yona still sets herself apart from all of her classmates by being almost ridiculously more powerful than them.
• Hulk Speak: As is standard for the yaks, she doesn't conjugate verbs or use articles like the word "the" when she speaks.
• I Got Bigger: She was already the biggest of her group of friends thanks to being a yak, but in the Distant Finale she's grown even bigger, towering over both Rarity and Sandbar.
• The Klutz: Besides just tripping, she's prone to breaking things, smashing into stuff and knocking people over, causing a lot of trouble for everyone else. Applejack even offers to give her a tour before she "destroys the place". Gallus outright calls Yona a "klutz" during the students' brief argument.
• Lessons in Sophistication: She takes some from Rarity in "She's All Yak", as part of her desire to be the best "pony pal" for Sandbar.
• Literal-Minded: In "Non-Compete Clause", she thinks that a "field trip" means tripping while on a field instead of going somewhere.
• Nice Girl: She's quite a friendly yak who's more than willing to help out her friends and others without any question.
• Not Bad: In "School Daze – Part 2", she says this after the Mane Six, Starlight and Spike save her and the rest of the Young Six from some pukwudgies (though she hastily adds "for ponies").
• Only Sane Man: In "Uprooted". She is the only member of the Young Six to suggest that they work together to honor the Tree of Harmony. After their individual projects sabotage each other, she gets them on the same page by saying they shouldn't be honoring the Tree for what it was, but instead honoring its place in their hearts.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: No matter the activity, Yona will proclaim that yaks are the best at it. Except for flying and swimming.
• Spiders Are Scary: To Yona, an arachnophobe, they certainly are. Subverted by "What Lies Beneath", as the spiders Yona encounters in that episode are friendly and harmless creatures who help her find her friends.
• Super Drowning Skills: In "Non-Compete Clause", she sinks like a stone when she gets into water and her lifejacket rips off, since she can't swim. Luckily, Ocellus and Silverstream both transform into seaponies to save her.
• Third-Person Person: As is the case for the rest of the yaks, she rarely uses first person, referring to herself as "Yona" or "Yak". However, she does refer to Gallus and Sandbar by their names in later episodes.
• Use Your Head: In "Non-Compete Clause", when Applejack and Rainbow Dash end up stuck in the gap between two trees, Yona (with a little prompting from Gallus) frees them with a headbutt.
• Wheel o' Feet: Briefly has these when she rushes outside to meet Sandbar and get some cupcakes he brought for the students.

Other Students

Cozy Glow

See Cozy Glow

Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof

Lighthoof on the left, Shimmy Shake on the right.

Debut: "2, 4, 6, Greaaat"

Voiced by: Diana Kaarina (Shimmy Shake) and Kelli Ogmundson (Lighthoof)

A pair of pony dancers at the School of Friendship who join Rainbow Dash's cheerleading squad.

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• Alliterative Name: Shimmy Shake.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Their eyes are the same color as their owner's manes — orange for Shimmy Shake, aquamarine for Lighthoof.
• The Dividual: They're always seen together, both during practice and during their free time, and they speak and act in sync to the point of having essentially the same personality. While distinct individuals in-universe, they're effectively a single character from a narrative point of view.
• Remember the New Guy?: Rainbow Dash mentions "seeing [them] around the school", despite them never actually appearing before "2, 4, 6, Greaaat".
• Orange/Blue Contrast: Shimmy Shake's eyes, mane and coat are bright orange and her cutie mark magenta, while Lighthoof has a cyan coat, aquamarine mane and eyes, and a purple and dark blue cutie mark.

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