Characters / The Rise of Darth Vulcan

The story has gathered quite a cast of characters, both original and native to the series. Currently under construction... Beware of Unmarked Spoilers.

Darth Vulcan's Forces

The cause of the primary conflict in the story. Led by Darth Vulcan, one of the things that make them so frightening is how quickly he has managed to gather the amount of members and resources he has so quickly, let alone their sheer potential for mass destruction which has already caused a dual township to be wiped from the map.

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Ted / Darth Vulcan

The Villain Protagonist of the story. A nigh unrepentant bully that found the Alicorn Amulet on Earth and integrated it into a Halloween costume that was basically "Darth Vader gone medieval", his actions in Equestria have made the world just a little bit worse with each successful scheme. His real name is Ted, and he's not ENTIRELY as he appears...

• Ambiguous Situation: The details of his true mental state, complete backstory, and how much of an effect the Alicorn amulet has given rise to a LOT of speculation that has gone nowhere...
• Ax-Crazy: His desire to cause pain and suffering for no real reason other than that it greatly amuses him is a real red flag when it comes to his mental state.
• Artifact of Doom: The Alicorn Amulet, which gives him all of the powers that have allowed him to do as he pleases.
• Asshole Victim: He decided to terrorize the inhabitants of Ponyville to force them to comply with his demands.... which at first amounted to "let me use your library", instead of taking off the scary costume and asking for help. The beat-down the Elements of Harmony gave him was totally earned.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: He was a nice, geeky kid into tabletop role-playing games, old school video games, pc strategy games, making cosplay costumes, and used to have friends that shared in those interests. He abandoned all of that in order to be accepted by the cool kids in his high school and became a bully that derided anyone that openly held those very interests instead.
• Becoming the Mask: By Word of God, He cosplayed being a "cool kid" (read: High School Jerk Bully) in order to gain acceptance from the cliques at his High School... and ended up wiping out his old personality in the process. And now he's essentially cosplaying a new character: The sorcerous Evil Overlord.
• Believing Their Own Lies: He all but forgot he WASN'T a jerk like he was pretending.
• Being Evil Sucks: A lot of his internal narration is filled not with how awesome being a bad guy with super magical powers is... but instead, on how much of a chore always putting up the act of a fearsome villain is to control his minions not in the know of his real personality, and all the hassles that come with leading such a huge group of criminal malcontents.
• Big Bad: He serves as this for the Equestrians.
• The Bully: A victim blaming jerk that looks down on those that don't live up to his standards. Before he got to Equestria, most of those standards amounted to "don't do things that would get the popular kids to pick on you."
• Complexity Addiction: Presented with the choice to perform a quick and clean plan with fewer chances of failure, and a convoluted one where lots of things could go wrong, but that allows him to make his enemies look like idiots, he will ALWAYS pick the latter, as befitting a self aggrandizing bully like him.
• Cosplay: He seems to have been rather renowned for this before he gave up being a geek. A lot of his actions and speeches are actually him just cosplaying as an Evil Sorcerer rather than really being like that for dramatic effect.
• Draco in Leather Pants: The character got a LOT more sympathy than what was intended, to the point of disturbing the author with their unconditional support.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Seemingly intended as a Deconstruction of this trope. While he has a set of moral rules that he has been conditioned to follow, he has no coherent ethical or moral framework holding them together and therefore no ability to extrapolate those rules to cover other circumstances. It's compared to training a dog.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • He thinks everyone is out for themselves, or pretending they aren't, and even believes his own lieutenants are only pretending to care for him because it's convenient instead of genuinely caring about him.
  • This is, in fact, the reason he's stuck with his problems in the first place. The Princesses offered to remove the Amulet and send him home, but he believes that as soon as they removed the Amulet they'd brainwash him.
  • He doesn't care that his entire situation is his own fault for deciding to be a Jerkass for no real reason other than to be a jerkass, instead blaming everyone else for attacking him in self defense.
• Evil Is Cool: This is the sort of image he tries to invoke as a villain and the reason he went with a modified Darth Vader costume to a Halloween party. It's all an act, though; his narration is filled with moments where he's frightened and having to keep himself from screaming like a girl.
• Evil Is Petty: He will lash out at the flimsiest excuse he can use to justify his actions. And he usually takes it personally.
• Evil Overlord: What he is to Equestria.
• Expy: Of the Overlord.
• Fatal Flaw: He has a TRIFECTA of fatal flaws.
  • Determinator: He won't give up what he has and the power given to him by the Alicorn Amulet.
  • Pride: His ego won't let him see the fault in his actions against the Equestrians, nor how he's just making things worse for himself and others.
  • Too Clever by Half: His brilliant schemes are done more to show how much more intelligent he is than his enemies to enforce his view of them and boost his own ego, at the expense of pragmatism.
• Freudian Excuse: The Author has hinted at him having this, but it hasn't been shown yet.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He was originally just a kid who was a jerk. Then he put on the Alicorn Amulet, and managed to do far more damage to Equestria than any of its previous villains.
• Hypocrite: Is very much this. Quite of few of the things he accuses the Equestrians of either of trying or wanting to do to him he only believes because it's what he'd do. His Breaking Lecture to Luna also relies on the thought Celestia uses her as just a pawn and doesn't trust her with anything legitimately important...when that's more or less exactly how he treats his minions, to the point of not even trusting his most loyal minions with the details of his real plan.
• It's All About Me: He's a very egotistical jerkass suffering from tunnel vision regarding his actions; what he does is justified and everyone else deserves what he does to make them suffer.
• Jerkass: Hoo boy, is he EVER. His callous cruelty towards ANYONE that happens to annoy him even the slightest bit is possibly his most defining attribute.
• Knight of Cerebus:
  Diamond Tiara:This guy isn't like you think. He's not clowny like Discord or loud and noisy like Nightmare Moon or wacky crazy like the Mane-iac or Ahuizotl. He's smart. and cold. and hard. He's always thinking, always making plans. And he's scarier than anything I've ever seen.
• Man of Kryptonite: The Amulet gives him a Yin-Yang Clash defense against certain magics. It's a double-edged sword, though: It lets him be a threat to even Discord, but it also causes him to be seriously hurt by Pinkie's otherwise-harmless Party Cannon.
• Mirror Character: From Princess Celestia of all people/ponies. While they contrast in most aspects, their love for clever, convoluted plans all but make them counterparts to one another.
• Moral Myopia:
  • He gets angry at anything the Equestrians do to him or his minions...despite the fact he started this entire conflict just because he felt like being a major league jerk to a bunch of innocent people who'd done absolutely nothing to him.
  • 'Calls hax' on Leo's armor and how badly he's kicking his butt...then outright admits he cheats when it benefits him.
• Nerd in Evil's Helmet: While he might pretend otherwise, it's because he's such a nerd that he's been so effective in his schemes.
• Never My Fault: None of the negative things that have happened to him in the entire story would have happened if he'd not decided to be a jerk and try to terrorize the ponies when it wasn't needed. Ted refuses to believe that, instead blaming the ponies for all his misfortunes.
• Noble Demon: He avoids unjustified collateral damage and outright murder and keeps his deals. Very few, however, have his genuine sympathy.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: He's way more competent and focused than the villains faced thus far: He's not a giggling psychopath like Discord, a snarling, rage-fueled force of mindless hatred like Sombra, willing to gloat over his victories like Chrysalis, nor a megalomaniac like Nightmare Moon.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: When Cadence calls Ted a monster for just leaving Canterlot to slide down the side of the mountain instead of staying to help out, Ted responds with an earful of how many rotten, terrible, and despicable people actually live in his world which makes his actions in Equestria seem saintly by-comparison.
  Ted: "...I'm a monster? There's a thousand monsters, from least to greatest, where I come from. I'M NOT EVEN ON THE LIST!"
• The Paranoiac: Ted is a baseline Paranoid Personality Disorder sufferer. He escalated so much BECAUSE of how insanely paranoid he is. To wit, he's easily triggered, always guarded, keeping even his lieutenants at arm's length regarding his end goal, always expects the worst of others, and his bad sense of humor IS what started the whole fiasco.
• Pet the Dog: Almost literal example. Caring for the Diamond Dogs has been his most morally upright action in the whole story. Unfortunately, the means he uses to do so has been less than legal, and he has done no effort to civilize them and teach them why trying to enslave others is wrong beyond because he says so.
• Sinister Surveillance: Ted is able to create Eyes of Vulcan which allows him to stealthily observe and remotely communicate with others as a Comlink, a concept that both Celestia and Luna never at all considered due to their preference for Scrolls. During the Battle of the Castle of Two Sisters, Ted uses his Eyes of Vulcan as a ploy to lure the Royal Sisters to stop both Chrysalis and Sombra from taking the Tree of Harmony, along with providing A Voice With An Internet Connection to his own forces to better coordinate their defense against the two tyrants.
  Celestia: "Comlink?"
  Darth Vulcan: "Yeah. You know. Two-way intel?" Beat "Communication? Instant battlefield intelligence?" Beat "Being able to talk to my troops wherever they are? Instantly?"
  Luna: "That's... that's ingenious! And imagine the peacetime applications, sister... talking with ponies all over Equestria as if they were face to face...Twilight wouldn't even have to write out a scroll..."
  Darth Vulcan: "You mean you ponies don't have radios or telephones or telegraph or--- All this magic and you still communicate by scrolls?"
  Celestia: "It works well enough..."
  Darth Vulcan: Beat "I could take over this country with three minions and a butter knife."
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of the few moral instincts he possesses is a revulsion at the very idea of slavery. This seriously confuses the ponies, who have a hard time understanding why someone would do so many other horrible things without turning a hair but categorically reject keeping slaves.
• Stupid Evil: The entire reason he's in the situation he's in is because he decided to be a Jerkass and play the evil villain when he had absolutely no reason to and the Equestrians reacted as anyone could anticipate.
• That's What I Would Do: Quite a few of the things he believes the Equestrians would do to him... are because they are what he would do if he was them.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Oh, sure, use your Halloween Costume to terrorize the ponies for fun, demanding to see their leader, when all you want to do is use THEIR LIBRARY, that will go SPLENDIDLY, Ted!
• Teens Are Monsters: He was a high school senior when he was taken to Equestria. Barely one year has passed since he was first stuck there.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Subverted. His reasoning for being so openly hostile to the Equestrians was because he hated the show and his prank backfired on him. He did not consider asking for help like a normal person. He also never considered giving himself up to the proper authorities to clear away the misunderstanding.
• Trapped in Another World: Most of the basis of the story happened because the Amulet brought him to Equestria against his will, and he decided to pretend to be a villain instead of just walking up to the library and getting the information he needed to get home. Even when outright offered a way to be rid of the Amulet and just sent home, he refuses because Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. Ultimately, the only one keeping Ted trapped in Equestria is Ted.
• Unequal Rites: Vulcan calls himself a Warlock because of the Amulet's Powers as Programs nature (a wizard learns, a sorcerer is a natural, and a warlock's power is external).
• Unreliable Narrator: Most of the story is through his point of view, which suffice to say is incredibly biased in his own favor and against the Equestrians, jumping to wrong conclusions and making plenty of false assumptions about them, guided by his paranoia rather than whatever conscience he might have.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Admits while fighting Sombra that despite his strength and BFS, he really has no idea what he's doing with it and the situation just ended up being awkward due to neither of them being very proficient in it. This utterly blows up in his face when fighting Leo, as since his magic is effectively useless against his armor, it's down to fighting skill, and Leo completely outclasses him in that department and beats the tar out of him. If it wasn't for one mistake on Leo's part, it would've been game over for Vulcan.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: He has SOMETHING big planned out... neither the readers nor his forces know what it is, just that it exists... and that it might involve flying.
• Unwitting Pawn: To the Alicorn Amulet, as he has no clue it's subtly manipulating him via More than Mind Control and memory alterations.

• Xanatos Speed Chess: While most of his plans are slap-dash and improvised, there is a level of complexity to them that allows him to manipulate and outwit his opponents in large-scale skirmishes without taking many casualties. Though he does point out that almost all of his opponents in Equestria have barely any tactical ability whatsoever when it comes to this.
  I wasn't exactly up against strategic masterminds. Sombra was a thug who relied on brute force, Chrysalis was a showoff who threw away her best advantages just so she could strut and preen. Discord was clever, but he was so busy being clever he outsmarted himself. And the rulers of Equestria didn't exactly cover themselves in glory either; a thousand years of relative peace had made them soft and sloppy. It's really not very hard to be a chessmaster when all your competitors are playing Candyland.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: He's essentially one to all of Equestria. He's been been kicking for months, whereas all Equestria's previous villains never took more than a day to defeat. Twilight herself notes how easy they had it until he showed up.
• You Can't Go Home Again: overlaps with The Ship of Theseus Paradox. Due to Ted having lived in Equestria for a while, his cellular structure had inadvertently changed that there is no way he would be able to find a way back to his original homeworld again.

The Alicorn Amulet

The very artifact that drove Trixie Lulamoon to become an insane tyrant, Twilight Sparkle disposed of it through a dimensional fissure because she couldn't find a way to destroy it safely any other way. It made its way to Earth, where it was found by an arrogant teen bully that hated Equestria already, and brought him there.

• Amulet of Dependency: It's the source of all of Vulcan's power and without it he'd be powerless. At first that wouldn't be an issue, but considering the gigantic mess he's gotten himself into, he's stuck having to use it.
• Artifact of Doom: As it always is. At first appears Vulcan is completely immune to its effects, but it eventually turns out it's subtly manipulating him without him even knowing it.
• Clingy MacGuffin: As in canon. Unlike in canon, the Amulet can only be removed by an outside party only if Ted gives them permission to do so.
• The Corrupter: It doesn't have to do much to make Ted do what it wants, but it is shown to slowly be making him worse over time.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: While it was known to be a corrupting Artifact of Doom, at first it appeared it wasn't even affecting Vulcan let alone be more than his power source. As the story continues, it becomes apparent that not only is it affecting him, but it's sapient and manipulating him via More than Mind Control and tampering with his memories.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Chapter 50 showed that it could in fact tamper with Ted's memories without him even noticing, in order to prevent him from learning anything about the Amulet from ancient spellbooks.
• More than Mind Control: While it does affect Ted's mind, it doesn't outright control him. Rather it gives him just enough of a nudge to get him to do the rest on his own. This was before the amulet was shown tampering with his memories.
• Powers as Programs: it's got a huge ammount of pre-baked spells inside of it, and follows the commands of whoever's wearing it.
• Sentient Phlebotinum: It is definitely intelligent, but what it's end goals are, no one can say yet.

Vulcan's Diamond Dog Horde

The first group of minions he acquired, three of them tried to mug Ted, which lead to him discovering he had magical powers through the amulet, and then events happened which ended up with him ruling over their pack. They compose the most loyal and numerous of his forces.

• Because You Were Nice to Me: It should tell you how bad their lives were that tossing their lot with Darth Vulcan after he saved them from Big Boss was actually AN IMPROVEMENT.
• Dumb Muscle: Let's just say they are rather uneducated and leave it at that.
• Made a Slave: Their pack was enslaved by a tyrannical dragon that would eat them if they failed to pay tribute in gold and jewels. Vulcan liberating them is the biggest reason why they serve him.
• Tastes Like Friendship: The reason they're so loyal is that Vulcan understands that an army travels on its belly. They go to bed full under him, and hungry under anyone else.
• Undying Loyalty: They owe Vulcan their freedom from the dragon, Big Boss, and will face off against the Equestrian Princesses themselves if they have to.

Artful Dodger

An orphaned street rat thief from Canterlot, Dodger threw in his lot with Ted after a jailbreak because he wanted to be on what he thought was the winning side.

• The Artful Dodger: Duh.
• Casanova Wannabe: Certainly acted all confident about the ladies... when in reality his experience with the opposite sex was a big fat zero.
• Impossible Thief: He is skilled enough to steal underwear even while it's being worn... like he did to currently humanoid Chrysalis.
• Justified Criminal: He had to steal to survive, no one bothered trying to help him out of the situation he was in.
• Missing Mom: He has no clue what happened to his mother. All we know is that she might have been... an escort, for rich stallions, and that he's been on the streets for years now.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The Canterlot Guards' usual Modus Operandi to dealing with him was to cut off his horn after catching him so he couldn't use magic to commit crimes for a while, leaving him as prey to the meaner, rowdier criminals in Canterlot while it grew back.
• Number Two: He's essentially become this to Ted, being the pony he trusts the most among his forces. Not that it means much when his boss is The Paranoiac.
• Street Urchin: The fact that he's an orphan thief IN THE VERY CAPITOL is the very first hint that even in Equestria, children are still falling through the cracks.

Queen Chrysalis

• Abhorrent Admirer: Wants to invoke Interspecies Romance with Vulcan after he beats her in battle — to his dismay.
• Noble Demon: More genuinely than Vulcan, at least.

The Broken Birds

A group of young adult ponies barely at their late teenage years, they where shafted by the corruption in the government of their hometown of Cirrus and Hilltop, and came to Vulcan out of desperation, ending up becoming more minions at his service. Inspired by the fanfic story, A Minor Variation.

• Deconstruction: Of Fluttershy's Alternate Origin in the story, A Minor Variation. All of the ways their town government screwed them over were... were highly illegal by modern law standards, violating due process seven ways to sunday, minimum, and even violated how plea bargains were supposed to work just to screw over the kids, and made no sense for such things to happen in a place like Equestria at all.
• Handicapped Badass: They were in the remedial class due to being crippled in some way that made flying difficult for them in one way or another. They destroyed a tornado with a jury rigged funnel depth charge to destroy it, saving their town.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Their lives were ruined by their town government so thoroughly that they no longer believed the rightful authorities would help them anymore. So they went to a certain self appointed evil Warlock to help one of their own get their baby back...
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Instead of being celebrated like heroes for saving their town from a tornado, they were all but criminalized for their deeds, when all the fallout from their efforts amounted to.... lots of windows being broken.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: After just how badly Cirrus and Hilltop screwed them over, you really can't blame them for indirectly invoking Roaring Rampage of Revenge via Vulcan ^note And even then, they initially just ask for simple justice until Chrysalis, sensing their Suppressed Rage and sympathizing with them, spurs them on..

Vulcan's Thestrals

• Mistaken for Junkie: Played for Drama. Thestrals literally require blood to survive, and being told that the blood hunger was a mental disorder and forced to use a woefully inadequate alchemical substitute has driven their race to the point of extinction.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Upon discovering that the "blood hunger" was about as much an addiction as the need for water, fifteen of them turned against Princess Luna.
• Super-Soldier: A properly fed thestral is stronger than an earth pony and has better reflexes than a Pegasus. But on the flip side, there's no sign that they possess the growth-enhancing aspects of earth magic or the weather-control portion of Pegasus magic.

Heart Root

An old unicorn that got shafted by the corruption in the Equestrian Revenue Service, he got drafted for his earth moving/digging talents with the promise of getting back all that was taken from him, with interest, and getting revenge against the Equestrian Crown for his suffering.

• All for Nothing: Ten years of having to spend his familys' hard-earned Bits on frivolous taxes, giving up parts of their land for nature preserves, and then being told that the crown was going to take their farmland for mineral rights and that it wasn't even owned by them to begin with. Then when his wife ended up getting sick, Heart Root spent two months in Canterlot trying to get help or leniency from Celestia or Luna, only to keep getting pushed back in line by the nobility before he even got a chance to talk with the Princesses. Heart Root decided to call it quits and return home to spend with Arrow Root on her deathbed.
  Heart Root: "A twenty year mortgage, a lifetime of taxes, and fines, and fees, and regulations, and we didn't even own the dirt we'd been payin' for."
• Dishing Out Dirt: Heart Roots' special talent lies in his ability to excavate the earth using his magic.
• Let Them Die Happy: Heart Root couldn't bring himself to tell his wife that he couldn't save their farm after returning from Canterlot after spending two months trying to petition the crown for some leniency.
  Heart Root: "I lied, told her I'd found a way to save our dream home. She died thinkin' I'd saved the day."
• The Lost Lenore: Heart Root's wife, Arrow Root.

• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Delivers a scathing one to Princess Celestia for everything that happened to him and his wife.
  Heart Root: (After tossing the Eviction Notice that was nailed to his front door before the throne) "You wanted my farm so bad? Well, y'bitch, here it is!" (Proceeds to throw his entire house at Celestia.)
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Heart Root is a 90-year old Stallion, and doesn't hold back on openly calling Celestia a "Sun-arsed Bitch" to her face when he meets her in the throne room.
• The Strength of Ten Men: Effortlessly carried his entire farmhouse in his magic (including the picket fence and cobblestone path) all the way to Canterlot in a single day. It speaks volumes that the narration says that Twilight Sparkle herself would strain trying to even hold up the house, let alone expect to carry it.

Flim and Flam

The huckster ponies we all know and love to hate, they ended up getting conscripted by Vulcan when he took notice of their Magitechnology capabilities and their talent at being able to get ponies to trust them even after conning them before. The brothers are less than happy with that last one, as much as they might enjoy the new funding they are getting.

• Adaptational Sympathy: In this fic, they became con artists in spite of being gifted inventors (See: Super Cider Squeezy's different functions), because their work wasn't appreciated enough even when they wanted to change Equestria with their products for the better at one time while making a steady profit, rather than their original incarnation as a pair of hucksters out to make a quick buck at the expense of the Apples in spite of having a Gold Mine in the form of their machine.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: They tried to be legitimate invetors and business ponies in the beggining, but no matter what they did the semi Medieval Stasis Equestria has means that their world changing inventions would only ever be seen as junk and themselves as snake oil salesman. So they eventually decided that if that was all the world would ever see them as then thats what they would be.

Wolftooth Clan

The Wolftooth Clan are a clan of Tooth Breezies living inside of the Everfree Forest that have aligned themselves with Artful Dodger and by-extension work for Darth Vulcan. Unlike their Pollen-gathering cousins, the Wolftooth Clans' source of magic comes from Teeth.

• Because You Were Nice to Me: After saving the Wolftooth Clan from the threat of the Nope Spiders and for knowing of their plight, Artful Dodger gives the Tooth Breezies safety by offering to work for him and Darth Vulcan. The Clan promptly agrees.
• Black Magic: The Wolftooth Clan's practice and usage of Tooth Magic is treated this way by the other Breezies; who prefer to use the weaker Seed and Pollen-based Magic instead.
• The Fair Folk: Unlike their Pollen-powered cousins, the Wolftooth Clan draws their magic from Teeth; and they are not too picky about what kind of teeth they are or how they get them.
  Chrysalis: "In the really, really old stories, they didn't always wait until the teeth fell out."
• Fantastic Racism: They were discriminated against by the other Breezies for practicing Tooth Magic, leading to them getting banished from their Realm.
• Hidden Breezy Village: Their small village is located behind a runic barrier and a glamour field powered by their Tooth Magic that is meant to hide and keep them safe from predators that live in the Everfree Forest. By the time they are introduced in Chapter 38, the barrier is slowly failing allowing a swarm of Nope Spiders to slip inside, and gives out altogether when Chief Wolftooth used up the last of their teeth collection to force all of the Spiders out, the Wolftooth Clan choose to abandon their village and move in with Darth Vulcan afterwards.
• Horrifying the Horror: After being introduced in the throne room as 'Tooth Breezies'; Chrysalis immediately backs away in fear and covers her mouth.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Dear lord, what had happened to the Thestrals is almost NOTHING compared to how the Wolftooth Clan suffered: Banished by the other Breezies for practicing Tooth Magic, they found a new home around the Castle of the Royal Sisters and were employed by Celestia and Luna to gather teeth from fillies and colts and give them coins and sweet dreams in return, only for Celestia to quickly abandon her castle and the nearby village following Nightmare Moons' banishment as the Everfree Forest quickly overgrew; leaving the Wolftooth Clan trapped and having to scrape by on animal teeth in order to survive. Not once in 1000 years did Princess Celestia ever bother to return or to figure out where the Wolftooth Clan were at while they slowly became old pony tales in modern times. Surrounded on all sides by predators that hunted them as they scavenged for teeth to try and replenish their slowly dwindling tooth supplies that they used to keep their runic protection barriers active: is it ANY wonder why they decided to gladly pledge themselves to Artful Dodger and Darth Vulcan?
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The Wolftooth Clan feels this way about the other Breezies, believing them to be 'vussies' for choosing to use weaker Pollen-based Magic instead of the stronger Tooth-Magic.
  Chief Wolftooth: "Dey use plant mehjeek, seed mehjeek, and look vere it gets dem. Most mehjeekal pollen frum all ovar Ekvestria, und it's barely enough to keep dere little pocket realm vorking. Und dey're so weak und frail a stray leaf or a puoff of vind can knock them oot. Thees, thees is old mehjeek, bone mehjeek. Strongker den any pollen. Makes us ten, tventy times strongker den any flower breezy. Dose veenies run us off t'ousands of years ago. Baneesh us. If it veren't for tooth mehjeek, ve couldn't survive."
  Artful Dodger: "Why'd they run you off, then?"
  Chief Wolftooth: "They said usink teeth vas too creepy."
• Super-Soldier: The Wolftooth Clans' use of Tooth Magic makes them ten or twenty times stronger than other Pollen Magic Breezies.
• Token Good Teammate: Unlike the rest of Darth Vulcans' horde who joined for Riches, Recognition, Respect, and Revenge against the Reagent Ruler of the Rising Sun Celestia and the Equestrian Government; The Wolftooth Clan only joined out of loyalty to Artful Dodger and for safety from the predators of the Everfree Forest that preyed upon them.
• Tooth Fairy: The Wolftooth Clan were once seen as this 1000 years ago, tasked by Celestia and Luna to go out into the villages to gather the baby teeth of Fillies and Colts and leave behind Coins and sweet dreams with their magics.

• Un-person: Due to being trapped inside of the Everfree Forest, they haven't been able to do their job of collecting teeth that the Clan itself has been regulated to being a myth by other ponies; not even Celestia seemingly bothered to try and evacuate them when she chose to abandon her castle in the Everfree Forest 1000 years ago, or even to try coming back to find them afterwards. Not even Cadence believes that they exist.

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Equestria

The magical land of Equestria has seen better days. Facing against an opponent that doesn't play by the usual rules, and has managed to not be defeated in one stroke like previous enemies, the fallout of his actions has caused total unrest, and forms a schism among the heroes.

The Elements Of Harmony

Our six beloved pony heroes, they've been at the forefront of the struggle against Darth Vulcan, with limited success.

Twilight Sparkle

The faithful student of Princess Celestia and leader of the Elements.

• Dangerous Device Disposal Debacle: After having limited success in trying to destroy The Alicorn Amulet, she just decides to toss it into a portal to send it to a location where no Magic exists. Unfortunately, due to hurling it through the portal; it caused the Magic within the Amulet to be altered significantly that the original limitations to the Amulet are nullified.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The entire plot of the story is the result of Twilight trying to dispose of The Alicorn Amulet and have it unknowingly wind up in the hands of Ted.

Applejack

Rainbow Dash

Rarity

Fluttershy

Pinkie Pie

Other Allies

Prince Blueblood

the nephew of Princesses Celestia and Luna, who has command over Equestria's Naval Forces.

• Hero of Another Story: While Darth Vulcan was keeping most of the Equestrian army occupied, Prince Blueblood was able to convince Celestia to increase funds for the Equestrian Navy along with acquiring assistance from the Air Force and from Sea Ponies in order to deal with Pirate groups that have been harassing their trade routes. By the time Darth Vulcan gets to Port Royale, most of the Pirate Crews that frequent there have been stationary due to Equestrias' increased naval presence preventing them from leaving the safety of their hidden cove.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Serves as the unofficial Admiral of the Equestrian Navy.

Discord

• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: He got out of Equestria when his powers were proven to be useless against the Alicorn Amulet and hasn't been seen since. It was either that, or risking killing himself and/or THE PLANET if he attempted to face of Vulcan again.
• The Worf Effect: His only purpose here is to put Vulcan + the Amulet over as a significant threat.

Princess Ember

The Dragon Princess.

• Bearer of Bad News: When she is introduced into the story, she is flying to Canterlot; her left arm and the Bloodstone Scepter both broken as she collapses to the ground in front of both Celestia and Luna in tears.
  Ember: "The Dragon Lord Torch is dead!!"
• Broken Bird: The last we see of her is in Chapter 53 where she was in a hospital room in Canterlot openly mourning the death of her father.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Embers' emotional range seen in the show proper usually falls somewhere between amusement, anger, or indifference. The fact that when we first see her in the story is flying to Canterlot crying her heart out over the death of her father is really jarring and unimaginable to most readers.
• You Killed My Father: her father Dragon Lord Torch was one of the latest casualties of Darth Vulcans' campaign in Equestria.

Leo

A seemingly stereotypically fat brony summoned to Equestria to fight Ted/Vulcan.

• Abhorrent Admirer: Downplayed, but noticeable. When Leo is having his Nerdgasm over the Mane 6 and talking about how much he loved seeing their adventures, Twilight mentions to Luna how unsettling it feels for him to be so exited about their private lives.
• Armor of Invincibility: Celestia and Luna build him such a suit of armor. Vulcan realizes that it only makes him invulnerable if all the parts are together and sealed, and zaps him with an unlocking spell when he opens his visor. Then one of his thestral minions drops the helmet in the ocean so he can't reseal it.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: In the fight against Ted, he very nearly beats Ted to death without realizing it, due to Ted's armor hiding the full extent of his injuries and Leo assuming Ted has the same Super-Toughness he does. He assumes Ted is cringing and whimpering by the end of the fight because he's a coward who can't stand getting hurt, not realizing that Ted is on the brink of death due to Leo's beatdown.
• Exact Words: Part of the ritual required to summon him involves everyone saying one trait they want him to have. Rainbow's wish for a warrior versed in medieval weaponry narrowed it down to someone in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Twilight's wish for someone well-edjucated narrowed it down to someone in a western democracy. Applejack's wish for a "big feller" got them someone who does caber-toss (shotput, but with a telephone pole instead of a cannonball), and a man due to some careless wording. Celestia's wish for an explorer got them a nerd. Rarity's wish for someone well versed in strategy and tactics got them a Wargamer, and finally, Luna's wish for a veteran of many campaigns got them someone who's played D&D way too much. The only one of immediate obvious value was Pinkie's wish for someone with a perfect immune system, since it would suck if their champion got sick or died from eating something they're allergic to. The guy (and no, that's not sexism, the hero had to be male due to AJ using the word "feller") who fit this criteria was Leo Hart.
  • Discord exploits this when his summoning runs out. The ritual is designed to return him to "where he belongs", and as discussed below, "where he belongs" is a Discount Marvel earth where he can put his new Super-Strength and Power Armor to good use as a superhero.
• Heavyworlder: Subverted. He thinks he gets Super-Strength because Equestria's smaller (or at least, less dense) then Earth. It turns out, this is what happens when a human is exposed to magic.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Zig-zagged, while he survives his battle Leo wasn't meant to actually defeat Darth Vulcan, he was to be used as a diversion to lure Ted away so Celestia can launch her real attack on the Everfree Forest to find and destroy his base of operations. Leo revealed in his last moments in Equestria that knew this, which surprised Celestia.
• Stout Strength: He lifts weights to increase strength, not build muscle mass (there's a difference). The result is he looks like a couch potato but its all muscle.
• Strong and Skilled: The big difference between him and Vulcan: he gets powered up by magic and armor, but he actually knows what he's doing in a fight. If not for one mistake, he would've curbstomped Vulcan.
• Summon Everyman Hero: How he ends up in Equestria.
• And This Is for...: In his fight, Leo begins to pummel Darth Vulcan for all the damage he has done to Canterlot, to Ponyville, to Hilltop-Cirrus, and for killing Dragon Lord Torch.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Discord sends him to Discount Marvel earth instead of regular earth because a big-hearted man who can use magic to conjure invulnerable armor is cherished in a superhero setting, and a labrat here.