Characters / Triptych Continuum

The ponies (and others) of the Continuum's semi-Alternate Universe are generally recognizable as their show counterparts — at first glance. But for some, there are significant differences in backstory, personality, overall lives... along with a few new residents who've worked their way into the story.

• Click here for the Original Characters of this verse.
• Click here for OCs who act as Walking Spoilers for the verse. Warning! Unmarked spoilers!

• For characters who exist in the Continuum's own Alternate Universe:

• Click here for Anchor Foal
• Click here for Daily Equestria Life with Monster Girl,

Applejack

The Lady Applejack Malus of House Rosaceae. Keeper of the Path. Discovery of the Unknown and Bloom of the New Seed. The Truth of Harmony. Our Reassurance of Honesty.

Heir to the Sweet Apple Acres farm and Bearer of Honesty, Applejack is the most mature and level-headed member of the Bearers. In contrast to her canon self, the Continuum version of Applejack has some darker aspects to her personality.

---

• Amazonian Beauty: The tallest and most muscular among the Bearers. She's also described as having the thickest mane and tail: the rope loops serve to keep them under control.
• Black Sheep: When she finally appears the morning after betraying, she is missing both her hat and her accent. In the clearest possible way, she is showing that she no longer considers herself part of the Apple Clan.
• Category Traitor: Betrays the Secret of earth pony magic to the rest of the Bearers in Triptych. And by the current point in the story, she's become convinced that the Secret has to break — on a national scale — within the next few years. If this ever got out...
• Celibate Hero: Zigzagged. She is looking for a lover, but she has very specific tastes — must be male, an earth pony, a hard worker, not too many years difference in age to her, capable of going with comparatively little sleep, strong and durable — and this combined with her aggressive efforts in searching for Mr. Right and her usual tendency to look in winter and then "try them out" by having them work alongside her in the spring (on the Acres, for multiple shifts, at least twelve hours at a stretch) means she's had absolutely no luck in finding somepony just yet, or at least in finding somepony who won't gallop away from her on every subsequent meeting. The locals she's tried dating have formed the opinion that what she's looking for isn't so much a coltfriend or even a husband as it is a source of free live-in farm-labor added to complimentary stud service; this opinion is described as "unfair, and unkind, but not entirely inaccurate." Applejack isn't exactly looking to just find a decently healthy earth pony stallion to stud her and then raise the foals on her own — but romance would pretty much have to fall on her head if it was going to get her attention, and with Apple Bloom seemingly on track for a non-farming mark and Big Mac impossible to herd into dating, her current top priority is to make sure the farm has a next generation.
• Deconstruction: Of Number Two. While she's good at what she does, when she tries to be the leader... she fails. She doesn't have the extra bit of 'something' for it... And not only fails to use Rainbow Dash properly... but in Goosed!, her failure to consider the energy required for magical effort makes Fluttershy collapse and, under different circumstances, could have gotten her friend killed.
• Die or Fly: Her breaking the boulder on Dragon Mountain. She doesn't actually know the tool for rockbreaking, and has never been able to use it before or since. But that once, when it was either break the boulder or let her friends break their backs on it, she was able to find the tool.
• Fantastic Racism: Possibly the most prominently displayed (and controversial) unique aspect of the Continuum's Applejack. Throughout the primary story alone we learn:
  • Being an earth pony is necessary for her to even begin considering someone as possible relationship material/breeding stock. However, this has a touch of logic behind it: she sees Apple Bloom as being on track for a non-farming mark, doesn't believe she has any chance to get Big Mac hooked up, and wants to keep the farm in the family line. To her, this means she needs to make sure she'll have earth pony foals, so the necessary magic will manifest in the next generation.
  • She keeps secrets from her non-earth pony friends regarding the true nature of earth pony magic
  • She looks for any means possible to avoid having to discuss earth pony secrets with outsiders, even to the point of lying — by omission. She hasn't actually told a falsehood yet, but she's very good at deciding what not to say.
  • She's unhappy with how strong Apple Bloom's friendship is with the non-earth pony Cutie Mark Crusaders, and has considered breaking up their group on multiple occasions. Some of this is due to fears that Apple Bloom might tell her friends about The Secret, but there's also a portion focused on a simple belief: the Crusade seems increasingly likely to produce fatalities. (Most of this is internally blamed on Scootaloo.)
  • She's driven to contemplating (even if never truly considering) the thought of lynching Pinkie Pie in order to keep her from telling earth pony secrets. This is heavily implied to be associating Pinkie with an image from a story told to all earth ponies during childhood.
  • And outright attacks Twilight in a rage after the alicorn mockingly suggests (and wrongly so) that "She" would be nearly helpless to fight against Twilight and company after shifting into earth pony form.
• Genius Bonus: Her surname is the genus label for apples, and the House name is the species family.
• Heel Realization: As of chapter 44 in Triptych. She finally admits that Twilight has a point about the Secret doing more harm to the earth pony's place in society than good, and declares that it needs to be torn down.
• Hypocrite: Applejack has... difficulties in recognizing when some of her beliefs don't quite reflect well on herself or the reality. Some of these are explicitly called out in Triptych, others are left to the reader — for example, when she complains about how uneasy she feels in the earth pony-free town of Trotter's Falls, she gets very defensive when Twilight and Rarity bring up that they felt similarly uneasy and even unwelcome in the exclusively earth pony town of Appleloosa — which happens about twenty seconds after she mentioned her feelings. Word Of Fanfic Author outright says that Applejack, throughout the series, is openly walking one path, privately believing another, and refusing to reconcile the differences because that would mean facing a mirror and seeing if she would be the one looking back.
  • Somewhere between hypocrisy and Irony is when she finally comes clean about the long-hidden secrets of earth pony magic to the other Bearers. Under the one hoof, yes, Twilight was being racist by believing that She would be harmless in earth pony form... but, under one of the other hooves? That belief was born out of ignorance — ignorance fueled and possibly deliberately fostered by the earth ponies through the traditions that Applejack was so fired up to preserve and maintain. It's perhaps telling that, in chapter 26 of Triptych, when Twilight Sparkle calls her on the Fridge Logic of keeping The Secret, Applejack's first reaction is to passive-aggressively accuse Twilight of blaming other ponies for her own mistakes.
  • There's also the fact she's so disdainful about Equestria's aristocracy despite herself being a member of what is technically the landed gentry, as a member of House Rosaceae. That said, she points out that her title really doesn't mean anything in the long run, and she's not exactly wrong in that we've seen plenty of Jerkass nobles both in-canon and in-verse.
• Internalized Categorism: She believes that she is a traitor, and has no more mercy for herself than she would have for any other pony. In particular, her subsequent absence of hat and accent makes it clear that she believes her actions have forever cast her out of her own family.
• Irony: In chapters 40 and 41 of Triptych, she's confronted full-bore with the fact that the "Great Work" Conspiracy got off the ground as much as it did in no small part because pegasi and unicorns genuinely believe earth ponies have no "real" magic, as a result of the Earth Pony Secret. To her credit, she realizes this immediately, and openly admits it to Pinkie in the privacy of their cell.
• King Incognito: Triptych eventually reveals her as a noble. (Well, when your family was directly granted land rights by the nation's leader...) Downplayed in that she may only have a title and generally doesn't even care about that: the Apples don't exactly seem to exert any political influence in Ponyville, and the other Bearers only hear her full name for the first time at Quiet's party.
• Number Two: Played with. Mayor Mare tells Applejack that she's the Bearer's backup leader when Twilight isn't present, but it turns out to be a motivational lie. However, it's also said that the group tends to shift off the leadership position based on the needs of the moment and Applejack does take over on occasion, typically when practical and pragmatic solutions are required. She doesn't exactly enjoy being in charge, comparing the situation to having several additional siblings who don't listen to her either.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All throughout the Continuum it is repeated again and again how Applejack's hat never leaves her head except under the oddest of circumstances. As her shiva token, it essentially represents her connection to her family. After betraying the Secret, she takes it off and refuses to put it back on.
  • Also, the mere fact that Applejack, the Bearer of Honesty, will lie (even if only by omission) to keep the Secret helps hammer in just how zealously earth ponies believe in the Secret.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Managed to defeat Igneous Pie in a fosse despite having less field strength than the rock farmer, but we don't know how. (She's implied that it was at least partially due to his lack of creativity.) As Igneous originally came to the Acres in an attempt to recruit that family into his efforts to recover his property, that victory is what kept him from trying to take Pinkie out of Ponyville and has prevented him from ever returning: Applejack promised that on the next sighting, she would kill him — and it's safe to assume she wasn't lying. Pinkie has never been told about the meeting.
• Parental Abandonment: Has some lingering issues in the wake of her parents' deaths, including a subconscious fear of separating the group because bad things are more likely to happen when ponies go off on their own. In Goosed!, she recognizes it as one of the reasons she hasn't just ordered Apple Bloom out of the Crusaders, because part of her believes that things would be that more much dangerous if her little sister was off on her own.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Applejack may be wrapped up in her traditional mindset and display some prejudices against non-earth ponies, but it can't be doubted that Applejack is loyal to her friends or that she wants to do what is right. She just has a very hard time when traditional views conflict with that.
• Promotion to Parent: Is fully aware that this is her role with Apple Bloom, along with being convinced that she's personally screwing it up, especially given the existence of the Crusade — something she believes wouldn't be taking place at all if her parents were still alive.
• Secret-Keeper: About four major things. However, ultimately zigzagged in that she partially averts them all, revealing the first secret to all of the bearers and the last three to Twilight Sparkle, whilst still intending to keep them a secret from everypony else.
  • Like all earth ponies, she keeps the true extent of their magical powers a secret from the others tribes.
  • She's the only pony who knows about Pinkie Pie's childhood abuse, and about Pinkie Pie being a "deaf-mute" in terms of earth pony magic.
  • She's the only pony who knows that Igneous Pie came to try and take Pinkie Pie back, and that she fought a fosse — a traditional earth pony duel — to make him leave Pinkie alone.
• Snobs Vs Slobs: Applejack really doesn't like the aristocracy of Equestria, to an extent that almost borders on Fantastic Racism. The topic comes up in both Triptych and Auk-ward, and it essentially boils down to a profound distaste for the way aristocrats not only don't have to work for a living, but are so eager to use their title as a club to beat on other ponies. This is why she started mucking around in the gardens at a certain upper-class garden party, as she admits both times. That said, her commentary in Triptych does overlap with a certain amount of anti-Unicorn sentiment. Of course, there's also the irony that Applejack herself is technically landed gentry.
  Auk-Ward: "(Fancypants works) At keepin' the other nobles from turnin' their little fights into things which hurt ponies. An' that's a full-time job if ever Ah heard one. It's one thing t' have a title, Fluttershy. Lots of ponies have titles. But...if that's all you have — if that's the only thing in your life, a title which you kick in ponies' faces 'cause y'don't have skill or smarts or care enough about anythin' which ain't the title, if you jus' enjoy seeing the kicks hurt... Fluttershy, most of the time, 'noble' is a joke. They call it on themselves without acting like it. Fancypants? He's an exception. Twilight? She don't care. An' most of the rest? Ponies who ain't worth the soil they'll be buried under. Ponies who need t' be reminded that the rest of us even exist, ponies who need some shaking up..."
  Triptych: "The thing a title's good for which I didn't mention? Some ponies need apples kicked in their faces before they get some sense. Others gotta get hit by words. Every pony here tonight got a little reminder, Twilight. That earth ponies can be nobles. Maybe some of 'em are gonna decide their own titles mean less because of that. Others? They're just gonna be mad. Hardly anypony here knows how to deal with me. Can't trot up, can't talk. Because they'd have to at least pretend to treat me as an equal until nopony was looking any more. Maybe even a superior, depending on their own House. And every last one of those ponies who can't talk to me is trotting past with the bruises from words on their snouts. Because for some of them, their titles are all they are, all they can be, and now I've got one..."
• Super-Strength: Downplayed: Applejack is within the normal earth pony range, but it's also a lot more physical strength than just about everypony else possesses. We know Big Mac can outmuscle her (and quite possibly Snowflake): just about everypony else in town is going to come in second. It makes her a devastating direct combatant — as long as she can land her kicks. She's also fairly accurate with hoof-launched missiles, and when apples aren't available, she's willing to use rocks.
• Tragic Keepsake: AJ's hat is established as not only being her father's, but it's also her shiva token — which she's still wearing. After she reveals the true nature of earth pony magic to the other Bearers, she takes it off.

Big Mac

• Armored Closet Gay: Big Mac is only sexually attracted to stallions, but has bottled up this secret for his entire life, trusting only Zecora and, ultimately, Snowflake with the truth. The reason is because he fears being an outcast in his family, who are very pro-lineage continuation; there is no stallion analogue to the Most Special Spell, after all.
• Character Development: Somewhat more verbose than in canon, although this seems limited to interactions with family and friends.
• Cure Your Gays: Implied. In chapter 11 of A Duet For Land and Sky, he says he went to see Zecora to see if zebra alchemy could help him with his sexuality and the problems it causes. It's left ambiguous if he was looking for a potion that would let him have a child with a coltfriend or if he wanted a potion to make him heterosexual.
• Freudian Slip: Whilst drunk and angry in A Duet For Land and Sky, he lets slip a comment that implies he perceives Applejack as the favored sibling, and resents it, especially since it led to his Tragic Dropout status.
  Big Mac: "— her!" came the shout. "Always HER! Always what SHE needs, never —"
• It Runs in the Family: It hasn't gone unnoticed that he can match Applejack for emotional break tactics: namely, charging down whatever he's unhappy with. From behind.
• I Want Grandkids: Well, to be fair, it's "I Want Neices & Nephews", but the spirit remains the same; in chapter 11 of A Duet For Land and Sky, Big Mac explains to Snowflake that he's been hoping desperately that Applejack would find a nice stallion or mare and start having foals, for two reasons. Firstly, once he knows there will be a heir to Sweet Apple Acres, he can finally go to college after having had to drop out in order to look after the farm and his sisters in the wake of his parents' death. Secondly, once Applejack has provided heirs for the farm, he feels he'd finally be safe to come out about his homosexuality to his family.
• Mighty Glacier: Downplayed. He's capable of extended gallops, but he's not built for sprints. An extended high-speed effort can drop him, and that vulnerability kept him from advancing beyond amateur athletics.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Is absolutely horrified when he accidentally kicks Scootaloo during a brawl with Snowflake in A Duet For Land and Sky.
• Odd Friendship: May have the best relationship with Zecora of any Ponyville resident: following her aiding Apple Bloom, he started coming to the hut for long talks on zebra philosophy. She considers him to be her friend, and he tried inviting her to spend the winter sheltering in the Apples' house: the species isn't used to dealing with Equestrian levels of cold.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Inverted. He normally has a lighter accent than the rest of the family, but it strengthens when he's dealing with high levels of emotion.
• Straight Gay: If it weren't for his coming out in A Duet For Land and Sky, it'd be impossible to tell that he hasn't found a marefriend because he doesn't like mares in that way.
• Tragic Dropout: Lazy River establishes that he decided not to attend college after their parents died, electing to work on the Acres instead. It's unclear if he dropped out because of his parents' death, or because Applejack's breakdown suggested that she couldn't handle things herself, or if it was a mixture of the two. Triptych suggests his potential major might have been philosophy.

Bon-Bon

• Angry Chef: Her default state is "pissed off".
• Badass Adorable: The two strongest ponies in Ponyville are widely agreed to be Big Mac and Snowflake. Number Three? Bon-Bon.
• Cute Bruiser: Is know to express her displeasure hooves first.
• Food as Bribe: Regularly sends baskets of treats to the Ponyville Police Station.
  Bon-Bon (while dealing with an Unsatisfiable Customer) smiled. It was the warm, contented smile of a mare who sent the police station a very large, totally-not-a-bribe free gift basket on every holiday.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set her off.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Is absolutely terrified of losing her temper and hurting someone she loves.
  • Had the patience to help bring Lyra out of her mark, starting at a stage where Lyra rarely used language and tried to communicate all concepts through music. She learned to listen...
• Inopportune Voice Cracking: Has allergies and her voice can change register in the space of a sentence.
• Reformed Bully: Got her mark when she stopped beating up kids for their candy and started making her own.

Cadance

Adoptive niece of Princess Celestia and, in this universe, former Princess of the Crystal Empire. After learning that the Crystal Ponies honestly fear her as Sombra's "heir", and having never enjoyed the position, she voluntarily abdicates, though she is subsequently talked into becoming their elected leader.

---

• More than Mind Control: Her love magic allows her to manipulate minds in ways Sombra could only dream.
• Must Have Caffeine: She absolutely loves coffee, to the point where Celestia suspects she only learnt truespeech so she could grow her own coffee beans.
• The Power of Love: After her ascension, Cadance becomes the one pony who can directly manipulate the resonance of love. And unlike in most portrayals of the character, she is not limited to reinforcing existing love. She can create love, destroy it, transfer it, all with a thought — and therefore never does so.
  • It's worth noting that this power can be countered (although whoever's trying to do so is going up against alicorn strength) and to date, none of the effects have been permanent. Whether they could be is unknown: Cadance categorically refuses to experiment.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Wants to be this so very badly that she chooses to abdicate after the events of her failed attempt to encourage assertiveness.
• Sole Survivor: Whatever happened during her ascension took the lives of the five ponies whose essence is fused with hers — and the process having been fatal is all we know about it.
• What You Are in the Dark: She's absolutely terrified of the possibility of misusing her powers.
• Willfully Weak: Believes that The Lie -that her power is limited to reinforcing existing love- is the only thing that allows any relationship to be trusted as long as she's alive, and will go to almost any extreme to avoid using her true powers.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Deconstructed. The fact she destroyed Sombra and then took his place is explicitly called out as one of the reasons why the Crystal Ponies don't want her to be their leader.

Celestia

• A God I Am Not: One of the major sources of anguish in her life is her perpetual inability to convince others of this when the need is truly there, leading to a great amount of Stop Worshipping Me, Unwanted False Faith, and emotional agony. Not everypony sees the sisters as incarnate deities — but when a crisis hits, far too many look to prayer as their last resort. This is especially justified because of something revealed in chapter 9 of A Mark Of Appeal: in this universe, Celestia and Luna ascended to their Alicorn state, just like Cadance and Twilight.
• Afraid of Needles: Has talked herself into something approaching a mild phobia, partially due to fears of having her body tested against her will.
• Celibate Hero: Doesn't enter relationships and appears to consider even having fantasies about doing so to be crossing a personal line. She also seems to try and discourage Luna from any kind of activity, and both siblings appear to have pleaded with Cadance not to go ahead with the wedding. This at the very least likely stems from her immortality causing her to outlive lovers, but whether or not she also suffers from a case of The First Cut Is the Deepest like Luna is unknown.
• The Chessmaster: Not quite on the same level as other continuities. Celestia is noted as planning, expecting, and countering — but she's nowhere near omniscient, and anypony who believes it has fallen for a partially-unintentional illusion. (This occasionally includes Luna.) When she's on her game, she can work three moves ahead of everypony else — but it doesn't protect her against those who just flip the board. She also has an extremely hard time with the idea of sacrifice.
• Dark Shepherd: If Anchor Foal is taken as canon, Celestia isn't above blackmail to solve problems.
• Doesn't Know Their Own Birthday: Justified: the Discordian Era made exact timekeeping impossible. Both sisters know their rough age in years, but the days on which their birthdays are celebrated were collectively assigned by the herd.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Sunbutt, which has been used to her face by generations of minotaur ambassadors, who mean it as a term of casual respect. She allows them to get away with it. Anypony else... not so much. Whether or not this has to do with the minotaur who traveled with the original Bearers of Harmony has yet to be revealed.
• Good Is Not Soft: Many beings see how Luna is much blunter and more willing to be openly violent and presume the more diplomatic Celestia is "the soft one" or "the pushover" of the two. As it turns out, though she is legitimately The Fettered, she is still very much a pragmatist, as shown by her dealing with Choke Hold in A Mark of Appeal.
• Heal It With Fire: Celestia doesn't really have any "healing magic" (in so far as that exists in the Continuum), but she can generate heat and use it to literally burn out infections. Her primary use for this that we know of is cleansing Luna's fungal infections.
• Height Angst: Hates being so much larger than the majority.
• Hero Must Survive: She and Princess Luna are the only beings on the planet (except for the imprisoned Discord) who can interface with SUN and MOON. If they both die, the world dies with them. Celestia is very aware of, and occasionally chafes at, the restrictions this puts her under.
• Immortality Begins at Twenty: She appears to have been in the late stages of adolescence when she left her barricade point. Depending on just when she ascended, she may have wound up qualifying for this trope.
• Insult of Endearment: The reason why the Minotaurs call her "Sunbutt", and thusly why she puts up with it.
  • When Luna decides to adopt it, she responds by nicknaming her little sister "Crater-Ass".
• Lethal Chef: A downplayed, more realistic version. Over more than a thousand years of life, Celestia has managed to pick up no cooking skills whatsoever. She's trying to fix that.
• Logical Weakness: Celestia values the protection of her ponies above all else. Unfortunately, this can sometimes impede her from doing what's necessary; she really has trouble with the concept of "necessary sacrifice", and this can lead to everything from her wasting valuable time looking to Take a Third Option to simply surrendering to the villain to avert immediate threats to her ponies' safety.
• Nobody Touches the Hair: More a case of Nopony Sees the Hair. Celestia has no issue with the flowing locks everypony knows, but she utterly despises her real mane. She'll only reveal it if there's no other choice, and most times she does, it goes undescribed beyond being personally embarrassing. When it's finally described, it's a massive, manure-brown tangle that eats combs and does unspeakable things to brushes.
• Playing with Fire: Appears to be an aspect of her link to Sun. However, with the exception of setting one of Discord's conjured signs ablaze, she hasn't really created flames. In general, she seems to radiate heat, with the local temperature increasing if she's particularly upset, (And unlike the pegasus technique of heat-shifting, there's no indication that the energy is being relocated from anywhere else in the area. Though she could be drawing it from Sun itself) She's also suggested to be more or less immune to the effects of high temperatures, and A Mark Of Appeal has her directly say that her normal mane and tail hair won't burn.
• Power Incontinence: On occasion. Celestia generally keeps herself under tight control, but when she's upset enough, she can set off a little thunder herself, or begin to radiate discomforting amounts of heat.
• Precursor Heroes: One of the few living examples, although Equestria isn't in possession of the true details. Instead of wielding half to all of the Elements, she was simply the original Bearer of Loyalty.
• Really 700 Years Old: As of The Small Hours, she's twelve hundred and ninety-four.
• Trauma Button: Her 'trigger' for remembering Discord's reign? Standing on an open pasture.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Scripted Rainbow's press conference speech in Sonic Raingbigot with a very good idea of how the other party would respond at all times — although she did include some memorize-this variations in case things went off the initial course.
• Undying Loyalty: In the original Bearers of Harmony, Celestia was the Bearer of Loyalty, which is hinted at in The Night Before Nightmare.
• Winged Unicorn: Like all Alicorns. She wasn't born that way, though. In fact, she was born an earth pony, which makes for an intriguing trifecta with Cadance (pegasus) and Twilight Sparkle (unicorn).
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Used brilliantly in A Mark of Appeal: to ensure that Choke Hold cannot legally wriggle out of responsibility for being a druglord and creating the lethal Fantastic Drug red-tinge, she uses the rare unicorn trick of hiding her corona to telekinetically manipulate him into striking her in the holding chamber, claiming he attacked her when the guards rush in to subdue him. This gives one charge he cannot be found innocent of, because the guards were watching him through the one-way mirror as it happened and, of course, he can't hope to intimidate her into dropping the charges.

Cutie Mark Crusaders

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle: three little fillies who just want to earn their cutie marks, even if it means becoming Ponyville's own Terrible Trio in the process.

---

• Ascended Fanon: Every sign is suggesting that, when the Crusaders do get their marks, it'll be for their fan-developed/early seasons teased skills — engineering for Apple Bloom, singing for Sweetie Belle, and probably something related to speed or stuntwork for Scootaloo. Following the breakup of the Crusade, Apple Bloom has successfully apprenticed herself to Ratchette, finally putting her on track for her mark.
• Breaking the Fellowship: At the end of Unstable Sale, Apple Bloom has finally had enough of the Crusade. Scootaloo's immediate reaction is to declare that this means they can no longer be friends.
• Character Exaggeration: The canonical Crusaders could be obsessive about searching for their cutie marks, but they very rarely put other ponies in danger through it. Mostly they just tended to end up embarrassing themselves at worst. In fact, the worst disasters in canon stemmed from causes unrelated to the Crusade. Here in the Continuum, they cause so much chaos and havoc that they've become Ponyville's Public Enemy #1-3, with even Celestia being aware of them and, at one point, chiding Luna for a dumb idea by comparing her to Scootaloo.
• Deconstructed Trope: Three young fillies who keep ignoring the advice of their adults that they're doing things wrong and stubbornly stick to their own plans, despite causing havoc in the process, aren't going to be seen as cute. They're going to be seen as pests.
• Determinator: Come Tartarus or high water, they will get their cutie marks! Deconstructed in that this has basically led to them sabotaging themselves; in no small part because of Scootaloo's leadership role, they refuse to be swayed from their current methodology, simply redoubling their efforts in the face of failure. They've essentially become fanatics in the name of their cause.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: The ultimate reason behind their bad reputation is three years worth of doing this. Incessantly. The Crusaders have never once allowed themselves to doubt their mission, or even to really care about what they were doing on, coasting on the conviction that once they have their cutie marks, all of the trouble they caused in getting them will be automatically forgiven, because, hey, cutie marks are supposed to be one of the most important things in a young pony's life, right?
• Doom Magnet: You can be sure, if something can go wrong for them in a way that will get them into trouble, it will go wrong. The more spectacular, the better.
• Hate Sink: In-Universe, the Crusaders' reputation starts at "abysmal" and goes down from there. Scootaloo gets the worst of it, to the point her name has practically become a curse word, but none of the Crusaders are exactly liked, especially in Ponyville proper.
• Idiot Ball: Their stunning tendency to grasp this and run with it is why their reputation is so awful.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: It truly is amazing just how self-confident that the Crusaders can be, despite how their ideas invariably turn out to be wrong.
• Never My Fault: They never do admit that they bring their bad reputation or their punishments on themselves.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: As of the finale for Unstable Sales, Apple Bloom has quit the Crusade as a fool's effort. Likewise, the trio are clearly not going to get their matching Cutie Mark Counselor marks from the canon.
• Only Sane Man: Only Apple Bloom has the courage to accept her doubts about the Crusade, study her feelings, and reason that the Crusade is ultimately harming them more than helping them.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In Chapter 12 of A Duet For Land and Sky, Miranda finally openly admits what had long been speculated (in- and out-of-universe): That the Ponyville police department is under direct Celestial order to bend the law as far as it can be bent without actually breaking it in order to keep the Bearers out of jail and them and their families in Ponyville, and that without the protective penumbra that gives the Trio, they would have been facing criminal charges years ago.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Word of God states that this is why the Crusade continues, despite its utter futility:
  Estee: The CMC is engaged in self-delusion, hiding from themselves at all times. They refuse to admit their actual talents and let their marks come out because to do so would invalidate all which had come before — something they can't face. They won't admit they're wrong. They can't, even though it would be the first step in freeing their marks. Instead, they keep doubling down and eventually, they're going to run out of squares on the chessboard.
• Too Dumb to Live: The general attitude Ponyville has about them, and it's frankly justified.
• Walking Disaster Area: The reason for their awful reputation in a nutshell; when these three fillies get together, chaos will ensue. Not "might'. Will.

Scootaloo

The unofficial leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and thusly the filly that has attracted the near-unanimous scorn and dislike of adults around her. Essentially has all of Rainbow Dash's worst traits, such as pride, love of action/danger, headstrong nature, impulsiveness and stubbornness, and none of Rainbow Dash's restraint.

---

• Comically Missing the Point: In addition to the general ignorance about cutie marks the Crusaders as a whole evidence, Scootaloo has formed the belief that a "special talent" will make itself immediately and obviously felt by allowing a pony to master something without any effort on their parts.
• Determinator: She will get her mark — but only using her own methods. All other proposals will be ignored. Forever.
  • Word Of Fanfic Author has the Crusaders as effectively sabotaging themselves: the main thing keeping them from their marks is their own efforts. They've reached the point of fanaticism regarding their tactics — and since they can't lose sight of the goal, they just keep redoubling their efforts.
  • Zigzagged; as is called out in Scootalift, Scootaloo may be determined... but she's also impatient. She just won't stick with something that isn't giving out near-instant dividends.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: The entire plot of Monsoon Season is about her resentment over the town's reaction to her home life.
  "We're just trying to help —"
  "— pity isn't help!"
• Fatal Flaw: A one-two punch of Stubbornness and Impatience, as Fluttershy comments on in Scootalift. Once she makes her mind up about an overall goal, she sticks to it with a fanatic's zeal, but she's so eager to achieve it that she won't stick with a single method for doing so for very long.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: She sincerely believes this is the case, at least when it comes to cutie marks. After all, it's your special talent; wouldn't that mean it comes to you effortlessly and naturally?
• Hidden Depths: Is in many ways the most responsible and disciplined of the Crusaders because of having to care for herself and her house on an essentially fixed income.
• Minor Living Alone: Has been living on her own, supported by the checks her parents send from wherever they happen to be each moon, since before the Crusade started. Now lives with Applejack as of Monsoon Season, and views it as a horrible and unjustified punishment given that she had an exemplary record of responsibility.
  Apple Bloom was in her own bed. Scootaloo wasn't.
  She tried to tell herself that it had been a choice. The stupid adults had decided that just because she'd been living on her own for — a while — she'd been abandoned. And that was a lie. Her parents mailed her a voucher every moon, and Scootaloo was utterly faithful in how she managed them. They'd never missed a mailing and in turn, she'd never been late on any payment. She was willing to wager that she'd been more careful about such things than some of the adults in town, especially since she was vaguely aware that Caramel existed and had occasionally overheard Rainbow's mutters after the weather coordinator had once again kicked the stallion's romantic advances to the curb, usually followed by the stallion. Caramel missed payments all the time and nopony was forcing him to live in the wrong house.
  ...
  Applejack thought Scootaloo's stay was about responsibility.
  And that was the greatest insult of all.
• Parental Neglect: In Goosed!, it's mentioned that Scootaloo's parents never seem to be around, especially when angry ponies come along to demand to know why they aren't trying to straighten the "little terror" out. It's implied that they never really take an interest in Scootaloo's life, leaving her with pretty much only Rainbow Dash as any sort of "authority figure"... which doesn't work out well, since Rainbow Dash is hardly the most introspective or responsible of mares herself.
  • Scootalift expands the mystery: Snowflake makes multiple attempts to contact Scootaloo's parents to let them know he's (temporarily) training her, but never finds anypony at home: all he can do is leave notes — and Scootaloo's reaction to finding out he's been making any tries is a rather nervous one. Additionally, the one neighbor Snowflake can find claims to have never seen them (although that pony is less disturbed by that than the fact that Snowflake is talking to him). About the only thing we know for sure about Scootaloo's living situation is that she does have an actual home, albeit one with a rather damaged backyard: it's a frequent staging area for Crusader activities.
  • In chapter 10 of A Duet For Land and Sky, Miranda Rights openly speculates if Scootaloo's family has ever been present in Ponyville, raising the specter that she may have been abandoned.
  Miranda Rights: "— while somepony gets her to a doctor. And somepony else finds her parents, if they're actually in town tonight." With fast-building fury, "If they've ever been —"
  • Chapter 12 finally confirms it: her parents send money every moon, but that's all they do. Scootaloo has been living on her own for years.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Had a moment where she was an instigator of it. There's a scene in Season's Bleatings where Sweetie Belle seems to have been on the verge of gaining her mark while singing in public without fear or shame — and Scootaloo crossly pulls her back because she's not matching the non-tones of the other two caroling Crusaders. ^note However, it's unlikely Scootaloo saw the apparent flare of light building on Sweetie's flanks.
• Walking Disaster Area: Seen this way by most of Ponyville, with restraining orders to suit. All of the Crusaders get it to some degree, but Scootaloo is perceived as the one who most often pushes their activities towards the dangerous. It's reached the point where Celestia (who hasn't met her, but signs off on the disaster relief forms) uses "And thank you, Scootaloo!" as a scathing metaphor of rebuke (to Luna) against taking shortcuts, and Pinkie thinks of a certain level of disaster as And Then Scootaloo. Anypony outside the Crusaders who has regular contact with her may be avoided by those waiting for something to go wrong...
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Her belief in Hard Work Hardly Works is emphatically not the way cutie mark-related special talents work.

Diamond Tiara

• Becoming the Mask: Debatable. She at least develops some level of understanding with Snips and Snails over the course of Confederacy, but it's hard to say if she actually winds up meeting the claim she made to Cheerilee about having become friends with them. Notably, the end of the story has her not committing to seeing the colts again after her parent/teacher conference, only answering the query with "Maybe," which Snips immediately realizes could be a 'maybe later' or 'maybe never'. However, Diamond was also facing the possibility of grounding, summer school, or both: it's possible that she didn't give another answer because she didn't know. In the end, the question is left open.
• Blessed with Suck: Diamond Tiara actually doesn't think very highly of the earth pony talent for geokinesis; this is because their talent requires "asking" the earth to respond, which means it has a chance to fail, and she can't tilt the odds in her favor like she can with a pony because the earth doesn't care about her tantrums, bribes, blackmail or threats.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Downplayed, but she tends to see things in business terms: for every bit of giving, there's inevitably somepony profiting on the other end. (The central reason she winds up dedicating herself to Cameo's care may be because, through Snails, the scarab said something nice about her tiara without expecting anything in return.) Her ability to form emotional bonds keeps her from being The Sociopath, but she just doesn't seem to perceive the world in the same way as anypony else.
• The Bully: Scootalift demonstrates that Diamond has quite the capacity for emotional abuse.
• Child Prodigy: Diamond Tiara evidently came into her magic quite a bit before the norm for earth pony foals, as she's capable of what is implied to be a rather advanced maneuver.
  • Word Of Fanfic Author is that her field dexterity score is rather high: in essence, she's very good at micromanaging.
• Comically Missing the Point: At several points in A Confederacy Of Dunce Caps, Diamond Tiara refers to or receives lessons from her father that are clearly intended to teach her practical business lessons, mostly relating to humility, empathy and ethics. She invariably twists these to support her own selfish, lazy, manipulative creed.
• Complexity Addiction: Her plan to cheat off of Snips and Snails involves tutoring them, convincing them to actually pass instead of failing on purpose to go to summer school by befriending them, and running interference so that their parents don't find out they are hanging out together. Simply studying for the exams seems like it would take less effort — and tutoring them means she's effectively studying anyway.
• Daddy's Girl: She's very attached to her father and is worried to the point of tears when she realizes her past behavior is alienating her from him. She also feels threatened when her father mentions that he finds Dulci attractive.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: If she put in half as much effort into actually studying that she is putting into tutoring Snips and Snails so that she can cheat off of them and pass, she'd probably have no problem passing her exams.
• Friend to Bugs: Ironically, despite thinking that most bugs are "icky", she becomes enamored with a rare Saddle Arabian Jeweled Scarab from Snails' collection. Snails promptly gives her to Diamond Tiara, who adopts her as a pet and names her "Cameo".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's buried pretty damn deeply, but there are some hints that she's not entirely a bad filly.
• Missing Mom: Confederacy makes it clear that Spoiled Rich doesn't exist in the Continuum and the final chapter, added to Mr. Rich's previous thought that his daughter has but one parent remaining, heavily implies that Diamond's mother is dead. This is confirmed in the story "A Dirge in Fugue Major."
• Morality Pet: May have a literal one in Cameo. It's implied that the scarab is Diamond's first experience in receiving unconditional love, and she will do anything to make sure her pet is kept safe and happy. In that sense, Cameo's presence might be teaching Diamond about a few kinds of morality.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives an epic chewing out to Snips and Snails' parents in the final chapter of A Confederacy of Dunce Caps.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Deconstructed. Diamond responds to most of her problems by threatening to throw her father's weight around in the form of lawyers and petty suits, and feels free to be openly insulting and hurtful while protected by that shield. Which works — but the families of those she's hurt no longer shop at Barnyard Bargains, and her father has both noticed and isolated the source of the downturn.
• Spoiled Brat: Deconstructed. Nopony in town likes her, and Confederacy has her own father beginning to realize what his daughter is truly like — which puts Diamond into an internal panic, because one of the few things she's truly terrified of is losing the love of her daddy. (And in this continuity, Mr. Rich is a single parent: Diamond has nowhere else to go.) And when his realization seems to send him (as she sees it) into spending a little more time away from her...

Dulcinea, aka "Derpy"

A notorious cross-eyed pegasus mare and single mother who acts as a delivery mare in Ponyville. Cruelly understimated by her peers, only Spike knows her deep secrets.

---

• Absurdly Youthful Mother: As confirmed by Word of God, she's a lot younger than ponies expect the mother of a filly like Dinky to be. She was just a young, dumb, lovestruck teenager when she fell pregnant.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: As per Word of God, because of the callous way she was seduced, used and abandoned by her boyfriend, she's been seriously turned off of romance. It's hard for her to even think about dating because once burned, just about forever after shy. If you told her anypony was interested, she'd first assume they were looking to use her, then openly laugh it off while having a few background fantasies of how she could turn it on the user.
• Madden Into Misanthropy: Dulcinea's smoldering, passive-aggressive contempt for the majority of ponies is because of how quick they are to wave her off as a fool for being cross-eyed, a little clumsy, and a single mother.
• Not Helping Your Case: As the author points out, Dulcinea's insistence on playing the fool only makes ponies more close-minded towards her; she acts like an idiot, so, of course, they see her as an idiot. All she's doing is driving away ponies who might genuinely befriend her because she's sick of the few who made false assumptions about her.
  • Word of God has explicitly stated that Dulcinea's Obfuscating Stupidity is sending her spiraling towards a collision course with child protection services, because someone so well-accepted as being a bungling idiot must obviously be incapable of safely providing and caring for a child.
  • In "A Duet for Land and Sky," Miranda Rights makes it clear that Dulci and Dinky are on Foal Protective Services' radar, and the collision may be imminent.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Deconstructed. Dulcinea's decision to consciously play up to her reputation as a bungling idiot is actively causing ponies to continue pigeonholing her as a fool, to say nothing of the repercussions it may eventually have on her life.
• The One Who Made It Out: Her talent in the Continuum can be most succinctly summed up as the ability to rise despite everything that is trying to hold her down.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Everypony refers to her as "Derpy", and she's given up on correcting them because she knows they'll all just keep laughing at her behind her back.
• Shout-Out: Word of God describes Dulcinea's situation as a "dark reflection" of that of the title character of "What the Deaf Man Heard": she acts stupid because ponies presume she already is.

Flash Sentry

A pegasus guardspony, widely considered the absolute worst Guard in the history of Equestria. He's been all over the known world, shuffled from one commander to another due to an endless string of disasters. Ultimately, he comes to join the Crystal Guard under Shining Armor, which becomes his final position.

---

• Badass Family: Zigzagged with Flash's family. Played straight in that his parents, Bulwark and Tower, are legends amongst the Guards and still receive awestruck visitors to this day. Subverted in that Flash Sentry is an awful excuse for a Guard. Double Subverted in that it turns out Flash Sentry is actually a great Guard, as his Talent is the ability to subconsciously sense incoming disasters and avert them without anypony getting hurt — with the exception of Flash.
• Blessed with Suck: Flash's Cutie Mark is revealed to be pushing him into the various disasters he undergoes, to the point Shining Armor speculates that it's the only-theorized "Bad Luck Talent", counterpart to the near-mythical Good Luck Talent. Making matters worse, his mark talks to him, and if he ever said this where another pony could hear, he'd be thrown into a mental hospital. Because marks aren't supposed to do that.
• The Cameo: He initially only appears as a one-paragraph wonder in Post Negative Comments Only, and is subsequently promoted to protagonist in The Bounce Test.
• Destructive Savior: As The Reveal makes clear, a side-effect of his talent is that he'll always prevent anyone from getting hurt by setting off a disaster when he encounters one about to take place. The side-effect is that this talent is very much of the "can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs" mentality, so if he's got to smash stuff to do so, he'll end up doing so. Better to collapse the barracks now than wait for it to cave in on itself in a week.
  • Word Of Fanfic Author claims it helps to think of Flash's talent as being similar to Bink's in that both magics prefer to work through what seems like coincidence and neither cares about their bearer's dignity.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He earned his Cutie Mark through this, diving in front of a filly at flight camp and Taking the Bullet in the form of a lightning bolt created by an irresponsible sociopath of a filly there (implied to be a young Lightning Dust). It ultimately turns out that making and surviving Heroic Sacrifices is literally his talent.
• Interspecies Friendship: The only real friendship he's ever had is with the minotaur Iron Will, who takes a quick liking to him over the events of "The Bounce Test". Pays off in ultimate dividends when Iron Will realizes the true nature of Flash's Mark and finally clears everypony of their false conception.
• The Jinx: Flash's most notorious trait, which has seen him bounced from outpost to outpost and commander to commander: everywhere he goes, disaster follows, generally about two hoofwidths behind. It seems as if his mark-given talent is to cause a mess wherever he goes. Until it turns out that they should have paid more attention to the fact that nopony ever got hurt in those disasters.
• Morton's Fork: It's the reason Flash doesn't just quit the Guards, despite not really enjoying being there: as much suffering as it brings him, and the shame his ineptitude causes his family, he knows his parents would take it so much harder if he quit.
• Nepotism: Downplayed, but, a place was reserved for him in the Guards because his parents were both legendary guardsponies themselves. Interestingly, Flash Sentry himself is less than thrilled about this being the case.
• The Reveal: Two-fold over the course of The Bounce Test: His mark can directly communicate with him using words, and the true nature of his talent: intercession. One comment from Shining about Flash having been born rather late in his parents' marriage has made a few readers believe he's one of Doctor Gentle's deliveries, but this is unconfirmed.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: The Bounce Test ends with his talent finally revealed for what it really is, earning him the respect of his fellows and letting him feel good about who he is.

Flitter

One of Ponyville's most obnoxious ponies, an extremely rude and abrasive pegasus who goes out of her way to insult those around her.

---

• Alpha Bitch: On purpose, with careful intent. She believes ponies are too complacent, along with being self-blinding to the realities of their world. Being carefully rude, insulting, and cutting just seems like the perfect way to jolt them into perceiving things as they are. The fact that her quest appears to have gotten her thrown out of multiple settled zones hasn't stopped the cause, and she's surprised she's lasted in Ponyville this long.
• Arch-Enemy: Could be seen this way for most of Ponyville. However, she has a particularly bad relationship with the Flower Trio and isn't too fond of most of the Bearers (with the exception of Pinkie Pie, whom she can almost tolerate). Following the events of Five Hundred Little Murders, though, she truly comes to hate Fluttershy.
• Hidden Depths: Fairly adept at wild zone survival. Also knows how to catch, clean, and prepare fish, which is a truly rare skill set in Equestria.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: But only to her cat: everypony else is fair game.
• Parental Abandonment: It's implied that this is only the start of her issues.
  Everypony leaves me and I leave everypony.
• Pet the Dog: Besides her relationship with her pets, she's also one of the ponies who brought work to Rarity's door during a particularly bad returns season. In her own abrasive way.

Fleur Dis Lee

A former escort (of the sexual variety) and blackmailer reluctantly taken under Fancypants' wing in order to try and redeem her to using her formidable information gathering skills for the good of Equestria instead of just her own self-aggrandizement. It's a... slow process. In the Alternate Continuity of the story Anchor Foal: A Romantic Cringe Comedy, Fancy Pants never took her on as a student and instead she wound up becoming even worse. Because it's unclear how much the details of Anchor Foal match up to the canon continuum (although almost all tropes from canon appear in Anchor Foal), her tropes are separated accordingly.

---

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Fleur may look sweet and beautiful, but she's a truly heartless, selfish bitch of a mare.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Very, very much subverted. She is a professional escort, but she's manipulative, cruel and power-hungry, practically the worst sort of pony one could see in the role. One of her few, and possibly only, redeeming qualities is how protective she is of children and the innocent.

The Flower Trio

Perhaps the craziest of Ponyville's collection of eccentrics, Daisy, Roseluck and Lily Valley are a trio of mares who run Ponyville's local flowershops and who are best known for being fear-mongering paranoid wrecks.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: Zigzagged; Sick Little Ponies (And One Dragon) reveals (with additional clarification from the author) that Daisy's actual name is Flower Whispers, in accordance with the toyline. 'Daisy' is simply a nickname.
• Arch-Enemy: Beyond their own fears about the government, there are three particular beings that either oppose them or whom the Flower Trio focuses its disdain towards. Flitter absolutely hates the Trio, seeing them as an embodiment of everything she disdains in other ponies. Miranda Rights, Ponyville's chief of police, detests them for constantly sparking riots. And between his race and his unfortunate greed-based growth spurt, the Trio are terrified of Spike, whom they see as a timebomb just waiting to go off.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Sick Little Ponies establishes them as big believers in conspiracy theories. They even subscribe to a conspiracy theory magazine (in part because it gives them more things to be afraid of) and are fully capable of believing every story in it simultaneously, including the ones which contradict each other.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Averted. Even though one can kind of see the argument in being a little cautious about Spike, they take it to the extent that they completely invalidate their rare legitimate complaints. For the most part, they come off as paranoid idiots — once you've gotten to know them. Ponies who've just arrived in the settled zone tend to take them a little more seriously, and that makes them into Ground Zero for too many of Ponyville's herd instinct flareups.
• Flanderization: They're pretty one-dimensional and mostly based on certain memetically famous incidents from the first few seasons.
• Hate Sink: A downplayed, In-Universe example: nopony in Ponyville honestly likes them. For the most part, they're considered annoying at best, and they're basically just below Mr. Flankington as "local ponies you need to learn to avoid" newcomers eventually get told about after they move to Ponyville.
• Insane Troll Logic: If there is something to be afraid of, they will find a way to justify it, no matter how badly they have to twist the facts or embrace utter idiocy to do so. They're capable of believing six contradictory things at the same time, as long as the grand total adds up to panic.
• Only Sane Man: How they see themselves in relation to the rest of Ponyville. The truth is, of course, quite the opposite.
• The Paranoiac: Each member of the Flower Trio is absolutely terrified of — well, practically everything, to the point that Miranda Rights comments In-Universe that she suspects they're all addicted to being scared.
  • Word Of Fanfic Author says the big issue is their having found one another: each of the three is a timid thing alone, but with two other like-minded scaredy-mares, they act as an echo chamber, reinforcing their paranoid delusions. In essence, they're a trotting Internet bubble-site comments section.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The Flower Trio mostly avoids going to jail for inciting riots and similar disasters because one of them is the daughter of a very skilled lawyer who, despite his daughter's idiocy, deeply loves her and wants to keep her out of jail.
• Seemingly Profound Fool: A variant: the Trio have a particular knack for sounding convincing about whatever their latest panic-cause is, which combines with the natural herd instincts of ponies to give them a particular talent for sparking riots. Experienced Ponyvillians know to brush them off as idiots, but newcomers who either haven't been warned or haven't yet managed to fully grasp just what kinds of idiocy they're capable of justifying in pursuit of fear — well, there's a reason why the riots actually get started, and the continuous just-moved-here supply of fresh victims isn't helping.

Fluttershy

Miss Fluttershy Phylia.  The Comfort of Harmony.  Our Mercy of Kindness.

Bearer of the Element of Kindness and Ponyville's unofficial wilderness expert, an aspiring veterinarian and nurse.

---

• Blessed with Suck: It turns out that, in the Continuum, there are certain rather severe drawbacks to Speaks Fluent Animal. For one, if Fluttershy gets sick, unless she can arrange to take shelter at somepony else's house, she's subjected to a barrage of Comically Inept Healing. More disturbingly, the same phenomena that makes them able to communicate with her... means that, during breeding season, all of the males see her as literally the most desirable mate they can imagine. Although fortunately it also establishes her as the dominant one, so at least she just has to put up with incessant propositions from animals instead of needing to worry about them trying to claim her by force...
  • Compared to that, the fact Fluttershy can't enjoy bird song, as her talent automatically kicks in and turns it from a sweet melody to birds screaming variations of "I want sex!" and "Stay away!" at the top of their lungs, is kind of minor.
• Celibate Hero: For rather obvious reasons; she's not necessarily opposed to the idea of finding a special somepony, it's just that her crippling shyness prevents her from even responding to the overtures of other ponies.
  • Exaggerated in the Anchor Foal splinter continuity. In the fourth chapter, Fleur turns her talent (the ability to sense every aspect of what any given pony desires romantically/sexually) on Fluttershy, and gets absolutely no reading.
• Character Development: The true requirements of being an animal caretaker have been explored for the Continuum's Fluttershy, including the emotional ones. In some ways, she's arguably the strongest of the Bearers: she confronts death just about every week and keeps coming back — but there's a price to pay for that, and she's been paying it for a long time.
• Comically Inept Healing: Directed at her: when Fluttershy gets sick, all her animal friends will try to treat her — in whatever way they'd treat a member of their own species — all at the same time. Thankfully, whatever it is that lets Fluttershy get by on about three hours of sleep a night also seems to shield her from minor illnesses — but when she does need to seek bed rest, her best hope is to do so at some distance from the cottage.
• Friend to All Living Things: Mildly deconstructed; part of the reason why ponies feel free to skip out on paying Fluttershy for her medical assistance is because they know she'll never refuse to treat their pets on subsequent visits In Goosed, Fluttershy is the only pony besides the obliviously out-of-touch paeleo-ornithologist who feels some sympathy for the Crystal Geese and their potential ultimate fate, even though she admits that they don't have a place in the world anymore.
• Good Parents: In distinct contrast to Pinkie Pie family and Rarity's mother. While her parents don't understand her talent or how she could have manifested it, they do love her — and because they love her they accept her talent and do what they can to support her. The money used to purchase the cottage was originally supposed to be Fluttershy's weather college tuition: when they realized her path led to ground, they willingly turned it over for a different purpose.
• Hidden Depths: Following the poison joke incident, took care to study wild zone botany in order to be better prepared for future group ventures. She's also the Bearers' authority on the non-sapient animal species which might be found within, including those which will never be kept at the cottage — and as Griffonant is the traditional language of taxonomy, she can partially decipher the occasional non-scientific passage, albeit with a horrible accent.
• Mandatory Motherhood: In Anchor Foal, the entire plot boils down to "Celestia believes Fluttershy needs to have foals as a safety-measure against Discord going rogue again once Fluttershy dies", and her sending Fleur to Ponyville to make it happen.
• The Medic: Recognized that the Bearers are likely to suffer injuries during any mission, and has been studying pony medicine accordingly. She's nowhere near the level of a full doctor, but she's more than capable for first aid and can extrapolate from some of her veterinary knowledge.
• Morality Chain: To Discord. At least in Anchor Foal and possibly in the main continuum.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite her slender build and nonconfrontational nature, Fluttershy can do an impressive amount of damage in full charge, generally without her total awareness.
• Perpetual Poverty: Property tax. Feed bills. Medical supplies. Texts to study. And the sure and certain knowledge that when somepony skips out on their payment, she has neither the courage nor the time for small claims court. The other Bearers are forever giving her little loans which they pretend to promptly forget about (while Fluttershy never can), and Rarity provides all of her clothing as gifts. Her only financial advantage is outright owning the cottage and surrounding land. Apparently Photo Finish used a contract clause to keep pretty much all of the modeling salary, as Fluttershy left before the full term was up. Anchor Foal: A Romantic Cringe Comedy reveals that this is actually standard practice for her, so she never has to pay any of her models anything.
• The Reveal: Chapter 40 of Triptych finally reveals why Fluttershy's gifts are so...different from the standard pegasus array: when she was dying in the womb, Gentle Arrival saved her life by infusing her with the harvested essence of an earth pony. This vastly diminished her innate pegasus magic, but gave her a Talent that allowed her to tap into her infused earth pony magic; this is why she's able to communicate with animals, and Dr. Gentle also mentions she unconsciously creates her own (small) field of the Cornucopia Effect. The Stare is said to be less earth pony magic and more a side effect of the raw chaos residing within her.
• Shrinking Violet: Deconstructed; Fluttershy's inability to stand up for herself leads to ponies callously taking advantage of her kindness. The most notable example is how many of them will have her care for her pets and then refuse to pay her, knowing that she'll never muster the courage to get it back — and the duties of the cottage also mean she really doesn't have the time for small claims court.
• Wrong Context Magic: It's not gone unnoticed in the Continuum that her talents are basically unheard of for a pegasus, and have more in common with an earth pony. It's revealed that this is because she has the essence of an earth pony, giving her access to that tribe's magic in place of her own.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She's a lot tougher emotionally than her Shrinking Violet demeanor may imply. As revealed in Five Hundred Little Murders, the town's official veterinarian (the unseen and much-despised Sweetbark) effectively forces her to take on the role of euthanizing all animals in Ponyville that require it by passing along any case which promises to be even slightly risky, in order to preserve her own "infallible" reputation. Despite her love of all animals, Fluttershy quietly goes about doing just this.

Iron Will

Following the events of Post Negative Comments Only, the minotaur has become a temporary resident of the Crystal Empire and one of the two newest members of its Cabinet: the head of Assertiveness Training & Emotional Recovery, responsible for giving the crystal ponies a true chance to recover from the traumas of Sombra's reign.

---

• Brutal Honesty: Just about exclusively reserved for Cadance — on her request: part of his job as her seneschal is to directly tell her when she's being stupid. He doesn't use it as part of his training approach and he's far too cautious to try such tactics on the traumatized crystal ponies.
• Genius Bruiser: Describes himself as a psychologist and appears to have the college credentials to back it up.
• Gentle Giant: He does his best, but his size gives him real logistical problems in a pony society (and crystals are a little smaller than the Equestrian standard to begin with). It's implied that he managed to take out most of the cordial shop just by going in to pick up an order.
• Interspecies Friendship: By definition, any friendship he forms in the Empire is going to be this. He's close to Cadance, regularly goes drinking with several of the Guards, and is the first individual who truly reaches out to Flash.
• Logical Weakness: As a minotaur, his magic is mostly tied to and manifests in his physical efforts. This means he has no direct defenses against workings, techniques, or tools: if his body and willpower can't fight something off, he's in trouble.
• Mundane Solution: Occasionally overly reliant on it. As the only individual in the Empire with functional hands, he can do things which everypony else would need a unicorn field to even consider attempting — but at the same time, he'll spend several minutes creating a rope ladder when Shining could have just lowered him into the tunnel. Part of it is minotaur self-sufficiency, but there's also a minor element of The Rival at work.
• The Rival: There's no romantic element in play, but the Guards have heard rumors about Shining not being particularly happy over having any male competition for Cadance's time. Direct discussions between stallion and bull often have the latter playing The Lancer — something which frustrates Shining immensely: as a citizen of Mazein, Iron is outside all possible Equestrian chains of command, and so can't even be ordered to stand down.
• Single Specimen Species: His current status within the Empire. It's been mentioned that Sombra managed to keep all minotaurs out during his reign, and none of the living crystal ponies have ever seen anything like Iron. When dealing with the locals, it's a doubled-edged sword: more than a few are shaky about anyone that different — but the youngest, upon realizing he's not a threat, start to realize that other things might not be scary either.

Luna

• A God I Am Not: Downplayed compared to her sister and to Twilight, but Luna also dislikes the way that ponies have deified her, making a rather sardonic quip about Sound Bite stealing one of her things as a "holy relic" in Horsefeathers.
• An Ice Person: Treated as an aspect of her link to Moon. Unlike some in this category, she has yet to seen creating ice sculptures and shapes. ^note It's unclear whether she's using the pegasus technique of heat-shifting. While there's no indication that the energy is being placed somewhere else, it's possible that she's using her link to the Moon to send it there. Typically, she's coated surfaces she's touching in ice layers of varying thickness, and the temperature in her vicinity tends to drop when she's stressed. She's also treated as being almost immune to normal cold, although the magical variety — particularly her own — can get around that.
• Appropriated Appelation: A variant. At the end of A Mark of Appeal, she decides to adopt Celestia's Minotaur-given nickname of "Sunbutt" as an Insult of Endearment, considering it a perfect tool for reminding Celestia she isn't the infallible goddess which a few other ponies tend to see her as.
• Blessed with Suck: Despite being locked into a nocturnal existence by her connection to the Moon and all the power that gives her, Luna's body still isn't entirely adapted to existence within that part of the cycle Her limited exposure to sunlight means she frequently gets incredibly aggravating fungal skin infections, and the only real option she has for treating them^note because that self-same connection means she can't simply do some sunbathing to kill them off, and the selenium-based cream used to cure it stinks so badly that nopony can tolerate her if she wears it is to have Celestia literally burn the fungus off of her skin, which is incredibly painful.
• Bookworm: To the point where before, she would regularly bring a book when she was supposed to be watching the skies for wandering monsters or pegasus flocks.
• Celibate Hero: Justified: after the Return, there's been too much to adjust to for even thinking about relationships, and Celestia's perpetual discouragement doesn't help either.
• The Chessmaster: Possibly not on the same level of her sister, but it does come out every so often. However, one of Luna's problems is that, unlike Celestia, she can have very few reservations about openly signing her work.
• Classical Music Is Boring: Luna absolutely hates opera and regards it as a waste of time, stage space, music, and existence. Horsefeathers declares that Luna pioneered the "ideal way to be brought into attendance of an opera"... which is to say kicking, screaming and clinging to any handy obstruction to delay the inevitable.
• Conspicuous Consumption: A variant; it's noted that one can usually directly gauge Luna's level of interest in a potential romantic/sexual partner by the speed at which gifts flow.
• Dark Shepherd: The more openly pragmatic of the sisters and the first to openly suggest the need for harsher solutions, including risks to herself.^note Celestia has said that in some ways, Luna is the superior ruler: this is an aspect of that. She also tends to have a low opinion of the pony majority, at least outside direct meetings with them: individuals can fascinate her, but she's not exactly impressed by the behavior of the masses, she has a strong critical streak, and she does have an instinctive disdain for "weakness."
• Deadpan Snarker: Surprisingly often, especially around and with Celestia: she's just about the only pony who feels she has the right and duty to take the elder down a few pegs — which can make some ponies who witness it very nervous, as there are many who feel any level of sibling squabble is a preview of Nightmare. It doesn't help that said feelings of right and duty also go the other way...
• Doesn't Know Their Own Birthday: She knows she's roughly two years younger than Celestia (and that she's the fifth child), but the Discordian Era's tendency to squeeze five days-night cycles into an hour made exact timekeeping impossible.
• The Dreaded: For the other nations during any level of negotiations. The most terrifying line in Celestia's diplomatic arsenal has become "Let me go see what my sister thinks." Most of the planet has recognized that Luna doesn't make threats. Threats are what happen when you may not intend to follow through.
• Elemental Rivalry: Downplayed, but she's noted that she and Celestia are so good at hurting each other that there's been times when Luna has wondered if they were designed for it.
• The First Cut Is the Deepest: Luna is noted as having never really gotten over her first crush: mares who might attract her attention are inevitably compared to that long-dead mare and usually come off badly, which is part of why her past relationships usually didn't work.
• First Love: While not confirmed as her first love altogether, her first homosexual love interest was a pegasus mare — a fellow member of the Bearers of Harmony no less; Zephyra, Bearer of Honesty. We don't know if anything ever came of it — but Celestia has mentally noted that during their childhood, racially-mixed unions and families were close to impossible.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: A minor version with Celestia which has Luna firmly established as the Smart Sister.
• Good is Not Nice: Luna serves as the lashing tail behind Celestia's smile, because she is a lot more openly pragmatic, ruthless — and, in all honesty, blunt — than her big sister is. Ironically, she was the original Bearer of Generosity, which is hinted at in A Mark Of Appeal. Horsefeathers has her openly admit that she can't help but openly regard many ponies of the modern era with a certain contempt, whilst Celestia herself observes that Luna has always had an inherently critical personality.
• Good with Numbers: Very much unlike Celestia in this. When, in Luna's Lottery Lunacy, she asks somepony to check her math, the royal accountants nearly suffer a collective coronary. Trav(ap)est(r)y indicates that she was responsible for at least some of Equestria's original tax code.
• Grand Theft Me: This version was a thousand-year victim of it: the Nightmare has been described as a possessing entity which used Luna's personality as a base template, and then tried to pretend it was the real thing all along.
• Grin of Audacity: It's the last thing some dragons see before they die.
• Has a Type: When it comes to mares, she's definitely got a type, based on her long-ago crush on a pegasus mare.
• Hero Must Survive: She and Celestia are the only beings on the planet (except for the imprisoned Discord) who can interface with SUN and MOON. If they both die, the world dies with them. Princess Luna is very aware of, and occasionally chafes at, the restrictions this puts her under.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Per Word Of Fanfic Author, Luna cares far less about appearing to hold the moral high-ground than her sister does, and is also the greater risk-taker. This can pay off, but it can also backfire severely.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: It's heavily implied that giving in to a sincere moment of this wish is what opened the door to Nightmare in the first place. A Mark Of Appeal shows she was initially against putting Twilight on the path to alicorn ascension, which may partially be from worries about having Twilight go through this trope — and in Triptych, she says she's afraid for Twilight.
  • Confirmed in Belle Epoque. She was trying to find some way of becoming an earth pony again. The Nightmare offered an exchange of destinies...
• Immortality Begins at Twenty: She's roughly two years younger than Celestia and left the barricade point with her. If the sisters changed at the same time, it's possible that Luna is a little under the line for this.
• Lethal Chef: Like Celestia, only with a tendency towards taking shortcuts.
• Logical Weakness: In a minor case, her body isn't completely adapted to a generally-nocturnal existence. A short piece shows that she's prone to medical conditions which stem from a lack of sunlight exposure.
• No Social Skills: She's generally not bad with ponies when it's one-on-one, but she's no good at putting on the social masks often required for living in the modern age — which probably isn't helped by the fact that she's a pragmatist and risk-taker who doesn't always care about the moral high ground.
• Power Incontinence: Frequently sets off lightning when upset, along with tending to coat whatever she's touching with ice. A Total Eclipse Of The Fun has her saying she's always had some trouble with keeping her pegasus aspect under control, and implies that Celestia had equal trouble in the deep past.
• Precursor Heroes: A rare living example, and the original Bearer of Generosity — not that Equestria knows about that part.
• The Proud Elite: Downplayed. While Luna can find individual ponies fascinating, her opinion of the herd tends to be less than positive. However, this applies to all ponies, both commoners and aristocracy alike — and it's implied that part of this has to do with culture shock. She's had three years to catch up with a millennium of changes, and that means a lot of things are still going to kick her for a loop. Another part of it, as she admits in Horsefeathers, is a certain instinctive disdain for the "softness" of modern ponies, as explained under The Social Darwinist.
• Really 700 Years Old: In The Small Hours, she tells Spike she's twelve hundred and ninety-two. However, she implies that the time spent in abeyance may not have been normal, because she's just counting the years since her birth.
• The Runt at the End: A special flashback to the original Bearers shows her pre-ascension self as being exceptionally small and having real trouble keeping up with the others.
• Shout-Out: Has been seen using an abacus.
• The Social Darwinist: Downplayed, but Horsefeathers has her admit that she often instinctively contemplates how well a given pony would have survived during the harsher world of her youth, and that part of her frequent generalized disdain for ponies is due to how poorly she ultimately judges them; it's hard to be impressed by ponies you can honestly evaluate as having a Discordian Era life expectancy measured in seconds. Interestingly, this trait is presented as one of her character flaws, a part of her natural inclination to criticize, and she herself admits that she knows it's a good thing Equestria is no longer a Death World. They won the right for ponies to exist in a softer state — but there are times when that softness is just annoying.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Luna's attempts to learn to use the Equestrian typewriter in Horsefeathers is an example that is both downplayed — she does ultimately get quite proficient at it, and very little focus is placed on her struggles with mastering it — and justified. Ultimately, Luna's problem with the typewriter is not so much that the technology is new, but that it requires the pony adopt some very non-intuitive bodily positions to use, not helped by the fact that Luna is outside of the standardized range of sizes it's intended to be used for.
• Trademark Favorite Food: When it comes to both ice cream flavors and the actual fruit? Black cherry.
• Trauma Button: Downplayed, but Horsefeathers establishes that she really doesn't like screwball/slapstick comedy, because "chaos isn't funny." The obvious implications has this as a lingering trauma from her childhood during the Discordian Era. After all, Discord himself is a big fan of screwball & slapstick comedy... but his gags weren't always ones you lived through...
• Winged Unicorn: Like all Alicorns. She wasn't born that way, though: like Celestia, she was originally an earth pony mare.

Lyra

• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Double-jointed over pretty much her entire body, to the point where she effectively possesses this. Most ponies can't replicate her more extreme postures, attempting to duplicate the less complex ones quickly leads to muscle cramps or worse, and it's genuinely hard to even look at her when she's doing stretches. Anchor Foal has Fleur quickly both recognizing the possibilities for the bedroom and mourning that she'll never personally get to experience any of them, as her talent tells her Lyra's strictly monogamous.
• Abusive Parents: Her parents tried to direct her into developing a business-related mark so that she could take up the family trade. When she ended up with a musical mark, the abuse began, ultimately ending with the palace legally divorcing Lyra from her parents. It's been speculated that this is why her trick is a silencing spell: she was that desperate to have a way to make her parents shut up.
• Blessed with Suck: Among other things, her talent grants her perfect pitch — which means she has to spend about fifteen minutes tuning her lyre to get it just right (or as close as the limits of the instrument will allow), and musical disharmony is about ten times worse for her than for anypony else. Meeting Pinkie during any one-pony band phase will generally lead to the composer chasing the baker out of the market.
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: One of the nastiest things about falling. Lyra can never be truly free of her addiction, not when the thing to which she is addicted is etched into her very soul.
• Functional Addict: As lampshaded by Bon Bon in Half!. Lyra can never truly be free of her addiction without denying her talent (which is possibly even worse for pony psychology than falling), the best she can manage is to keep it at a level where it won't completely ruin her life.
• Homosexual Reproduction: As of Half!, she and Bon-Bon are planning on having a daughter with the aid of the Most Special Spell.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Bon-Bon was the one who pulled her out of her mark, and the one who keeps her from falling back into it.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Inverted. Lyra's personal spell cancels all sound-associated vibrations within a radius of several body lengths: no sound can enter, leave, or exist inside the extended field.
• Recovered Addict: From falling: she retreated into her mark in her first years of formally studying music, losing all capacity for any social interaction which didn't involve performance. It's part of why she doesn't tour: Lyra makes her living through selling compositions to other artists, and uses her Ponyville market day performances as a testing arena for whatever she comes up with. This lets her indulge her talent partially, but without the risk of succumbing again, which she would face if she actually tried performing herself.
• You're Not My Mother: More accurately, "You're Not My Mother and Father". Lyra is legally divorced from her parents and quite vocally considers Bon-Bon the only family that she has.

Photo Finish

A unicorn fashion modelling agent who seems to have some rather disreputable business practices.

---

• Adaptational Villainy: The canon Photo Finish is at worst something of an overbearing Prima Donna. In the Continuum, she cheated Fluttershy out of any of the money she earned for her stint as a model by claiming legal right through a clause in their contract. Anchor Foal, if taken as canon, reveals that a combination of fraudulent clauses to wriggle out of paying her models and bribery to secure legal support is her standard operating procedure.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: According to Anchor Foal: A Romantic Cringe Comedy, Photo Finish is actually a stage name, and her real name is Lens Cap — but she's done her best to cover this up.
• Supermodel Strut: She teaches all her models a very distinctive way of this that involves a distinctive hip-hitch, which allows someone familiar with her to recognize one of her trainees (or, perhaps more accurately, victims) by sight.

Pinkie Pie

Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie.  The Healing of Harmony.  Our Bringer of Laughter.

Bearer of the Element of Laughter and an apprentice baker at Ponyville's Sugar Cube Corner. A lot more serious than her canonical counterpart, in part because she comes from a far darker version of her canon self's background.

---

• Abusive Parents: Her family was... distinctly less than understanding of Pinkie Pie's talent. Her father was physically, verbally and emotionally abusive to her (along with being an incredibly vehement tribalist bigot), her mother apathetically let her father abuse Pinkie as he liked, and her sisters mimicked their father to better win his approval.
• The Apprentice: Until the events of Pinkie Pie vs. The Souffle, Pinkie was decidedly an apprentice baker.
• Blessed with Suck: While Pinkie seems to retain many of her unique abilities (Pinkie Sense included), she appears to have no capabilities for normal earth pony magic — and rock farming, which depends on that magic, is synonymous with the strongest and purest of earth ponies. From all appearances, her inability to contribute to the rock farm's operations is what triggered child abuse in the first place. And even in Ponyville, her lack of earth pony feel means she never completely feels in tune with her own race. This is brought home in Lazy River, where she tells Applejack that she can't fully participate in shiva because she can't sense the last echoes of magic left behind by the deceased: Applejack had six days where she could listen to the final remnants of her parents, but the day the Cakes die is the day Pinkie loses them forever.
  • "It ends when it ends."
  • In chapter 26 of Triptych, Applejack outright calls Pinkie a "deaf-mute" when it comes to earth pony magic.
• Break the Cutie: In chapter 40 of Triptych. Firstly, the fact she's a victim of parental abuse is revealed to all of her friends, when before it was just Applejack and Twilight who knew. Secondly, she finds out that she really is "a freak", to the point that Twilight Sparkle actually screams when she touches her. Finally, she finds out that the reason she is so different, the reason she endured a childhood full of abuse, is because her "first friend" callously experimented on her and then left her to her own devices, keeping her ignorant of who - or what - she truly is for years.
• Category Traitor: Was fully prepared to betray the Secret of earth pony magic if necessary. In the end, Applejack betrayed it first.
• Celibate Hero: Zigzagged; she has had sex (and may in fact be the only Bearer who has), but she's not after it for herself or really looking for a sexual partner, more so seeing it as a tool for Intimate Psychotherapy more than an aspect of an actual relationship.
• Character Development: The Continuum's Pinkie is frequently more calm and rational than her series counterpart. She's capable of working towards long-term goals, and the supposed randomness has been ramped down a few notches. In general, she just tends to approach the world from a slightly askew angle when compared to the rest of the group, and she's the most empathic personality in the set. But at the same time, she's making up for a missed early childhood by still having it as a young adult...
• Hammerspace: Pinkie always has the right supplies available to pull together a gag or throw an impromptu party. Always. It doesn't even occur to most ponies to ask where she got the supplies...Which turns out to be a secondary aspect of her powers.
• Happily Adopted: As far as both she and the Cakes are concerned.
• Intimate Psychotherapy: Doesn't see sex as part of a relationship, but a last-ditch tool to pull somepony out of deep depression. (This has never visibly happened in-story — and likely won't, as the Continuum tends to stay around a Teen rating.) She saves this for a final resort, and it's only used with those she already has strong friendships with: Pinkie believes you can't make or keep friends through sex.
• The McCoy: As the Bearer of Laughter, Pinkie Pie's specialty is being a source of emotional strength, and it makes her most adept when the Bearers need comfort or to think about things emotionally.
  "There were times when they had to trust Pinkie. When parasprites invaded. When laughter was desperately needed. When ponies were hurting — that was when Pinkie took over. When pain that was more than physical needed to be stopped."
• Meaningful Rename: Averted: Despite being the Cakes' daughter in all but the blood, she still keeps her birth family's name. Even Applejack has never dared to ask why.
• The Prankster: Pinkie loves to play practical jokes, but she's more restrained about it than Rainbow Dash; Pinkie would never pull off a prank unless she knew that both she and the target could share a laugh over it afterwards, while Rainbow Dash tends to focus more on if the prank will be funny for herself.
• The Reveal: Chapter 40 of Triptych finally provides an explanation for Pinkie Pie's unique abilities: [like other "special" foals delivered by Gentle Arrival, the doctor used a chaos pearl infused with the essence of a dead unicorn - then, in fear for her life, used a second pearl, meaning that Pinkie Pie has traded what may be all of her earth pony magic for a combination of unicorn magic and greater chaos than any other of "the infused".
• Sad Clown: Unlike her canon counterpart, Continuum Pinkie is hiding some very real emotional scars under her joviality.
• Super-Strength: Downplayed. Pinkie's physical strength seems to be firmly within the normal earth pony range, but it's also made clear that it's a lot more strength than unicorns and pegasi typically possess. If she kicks or charges you, it's going to hurt.
• Un-Sorcerer: Is quite possibly the only earth pony in Equestria with no ability whatsoever to hear or speak truespeech. However, she can pick up resonance, the unique "feel" of unicorn auras and their underlying magic.
• Weirdness Censor: Revealed to be an aspect of her powers in Triptych; only the strongest minds can resist the compulsion her powers give off to make ponies simply not think about them.
• Wrong Context Magic: Pinkie's powers and talents defy conventional explanation, leaving other ponies baffled. It's ultimately revealed that she was "infused" with not only unicorn essence, but a greater quantity of raw chaos than any other hybrid: it means her magic starts with a unicorn base and then gets weirder.
• You're Not My Mother: More precisely, "You're Not My Mother and Father". In stark contrast to her canon self, this Pinkie wants absolutely nothing to do with her father or mother. It's not explicitly stated that she despises them for their abuse, but it's a basic fact that she considers the Cakes to be her "real" family.

Rainbow Dash

Miss Rainbow Dash. The Linchpin of Harmony. Our Exemplar of Loyalty.

Bearer of the Element of Loyalty and Ponyville's weather manager.

---

• Achievements in Ignorance: In a way. Rainbow winds up performing a lot of her greatest stunts on instinct, then spends hours trying to work out exactly what she did. She generally operates on the dangerous combination of fairly high field strength, decent field dexterity, and a tendency to do most of the actual analysis post-crash.
• Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Word Of Fanfic Author is that as in canon, Rainbow actually has a lot of insecurities — but she can't usually admit them, as doing so might break the world's view of her — shattering the pony in the process.
• Celibate Hero: Zigzagged; she's not averse to the idea, but like all of the other Bearers, she has her reasons for staying celibate. In her case, it's trust issues; Rainbow needs to be convinced a partner can be loyal to her first before she's willing to let them into her bed. As a result, most attempts at picking her up tend to result in an almost Twilight-like lecture-stream on topics of interest to Rainbow Dash — mostly herself, the Wonderbolts, Daring Do and tortoise care. This is... well, alright, it's partly pure ego, but it's also a defensive mechanism, a "test" to see if anypony is willing to actually take an interest in her even despite her flaws. So far, nopony has bothered to stick around through the whole diatribe and thusly nopony has managed to secure her interest by doing so.
  • Her attitude is such that Fleur de Lis actually feels a momentary pang of pity for whoever actually does sleep with her, forming the opinion that Rainbow's It's All About Me attitude would make her a very lousy lover. Of course, Fleur is hardly an unbiased opinion.
• Character Development: This version of Rainbow is slowly learning to expand her horizons. She still believes thinking can be overrated (especially when compared to the react-and-go of instinct), but she's (very) gradually picking up on the art of listening. She's even reached the point where she can admit to personal failings once in a while — generally by accident, immediately followed by ten minutes of verbal scrambling so she can take it back.
• Claustrophobia: As with the vast majority of pegasi. She's capable of controlling it for short periods, but spending time in confined spaces takes a visible toll.
• Complexity Addiction: Believe it or not. It doesn't happen often, but on a few of the occasions when Rainbow does actively create a full-fledged plan of attack, she tends to go for the biggest stunt, favoring whatever would look the most awesome over the boring and actually workable. This includes using the energy-draining properties of a Sonic Rainboom as her personal insomnia cure and coming up with a ridiculous plan to repeatedly use Poison Joke on herself in order to fly in a way which would effectively allow her to act as a pony screwdriver, instead of simply going out and finding an actual screwdriver.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Her duties as a Bearer require her to be relatively close to the rest of the Mane Six most of the time. This means she can't spend as much time with her family in Cloudsdale as she would like, particularly on Hearth's Warming Eve.
• Didn't Think This Through: It's almost her signature flaw, especially as she tends to favor instinct over thought. Rainbow reacts first and foremost, because she believes there are occasions when thinking just wastes time. And there are situations, particularly combat ones, where she can be right — but when applied to daily life, the philosophy tends to produce problems.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Because Rainbow acts on impulse rather than thinking things through, when she gets irritated, she tends to go a little overboard. It's one of the reasons that, despite the fact she and Pinkie Pie are both pranksters, ponies are generally more annoyed at Rainbow's efforts: Pinkie hasn't stranded anypony in a tree.
• Don't Think, Feel: Her basic philosophy is that thinking slows you down and it's better to act on instinct. Deconstructed in that this may work in some situations, such as combat, but in many others it just gets her into trouble. Especially social situations.
• Dumb Muscle: Rainbow may be one of the least educated members of the Mane Cast (despite having that number include two dropouts and a minor), practices a Don't Think, Feel philosophy, and tends to get caught up in her own ego, making her prone to particularly silly mistakes while still being one of the Bearers' most athletic and skilled fighters. It's also lampshaded in that she knows this — and that knowledge is part of her personal insecurities, finally calling herself out on it during Twilight Sparkle vs. the ECMCR.
• Hidden Depths: She's picked up a surprising amount of information from the other Bearers, generally through osmosis. Nopony's more surprised than her when it actually comes out. Thanks to summers spent with Gilda at the ranch, she's fairly fluent in Griffonant.
• Indy Ploy: They don't always work, but every so often Rainbow actually manages to come up with a plan-on-the-fly which proves a startling success.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Make no mistake, Rainbow can be a real Jerkass, especially because she has a big ego covering emotional vulnerabilities underneath — but at the heart of it she's a good mare and a loyal friend. Arguably best showcased in Pony Up A Tree, where she first responds to Rarity explaining that Rainbow Dash has absolutely no poker face by stranding Rarity high in a tree and leaving her there all night, but then carefully sits and watches her all night to make sure nothing bad actually happens to her.
• Men Can't Keep House: A rare mare example: her kitchen is one bolt of lightning away from starting off a new round of evolution, and she only washes dishes after the very last clean one is used.
• Money Dumb: Downplayed for Rainbow. She's horrible at budgeting, prone to impulse purchases, and has been known to fly around borrowing money from friends because she didn't remember the need to pick up groceries until after sending the payment for that original Wonderbolts advertising broadside. (She also eats many of her meals while visiting, which incidentally saves her from having to cook.) Everypony knows she can't save any money — but she's been proven as equally incapable of going into long-term debt: as soon as the next pay voucher comes in, the first flight circuit is used to repay everypony. Which leaves her short on cash — and the cycle starts all over again.
• Mortality Phobia: Invoked; Rainbow is very much aware that the Bearers live dangerous lives and could potentially die any day. She "deals with it" by sublimating that fear and refusing to think about it consciously — however, it's called out that Rainbow ultimately does a lot of the showboating and other grandiose actions she does out of a desperate attempt to secure a legacy. Ultimately, it's not so much the idea of being dead as nopony remembering she existed that bothers her.
• Never My Fault: Downplayed, but Rainbow has a serious difficult with admitting when she's at fault for something, to the point of qualifying for The Unapologetic because she just about never says openly she's sorry when she does realize she's wrong, preferring to verbally backtrack instead. Lampshaded in Haunted Hayride, where Applejack's first reaction to hearing Rainbow Dash apologize for what she inadvertently implied about Applejack's father is to splash her and see if this reveals her as a changeling.
• No Poker Face: She's a capable liar, but when she gets a card grouping, all bets are on — because everypony else at the table can work out exactly what she has.
• Otaku: For the Daring Do series as a whole and Wonderbolts history. With the former, she can lecture anypony else on fanfic: switch to the latter and she'll tell you about surprising camp dropouts through history. With any subject Rainbow's actually interested in, she tends to become this in the name of beating everypony else at it. A few more moons may have her as the continent's foremost expert on tortoise care.
• The Prankster: As in canon, Rainbow Dash loves to prank, but she doesn't quite have Pinkie's restraint when it comes to the scale of the prank, the style of the prank, who isn't a viable target for the prank...
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: On the receiving end of an extended one from Spitfire in Sick Little Ponies (And One Dragon), which includes a not-particularly-subtle warning that even if she hasn't gotten herself blacklisted for trying to fly while suffering from Manière's, Spitfire won't be forgetting what the mere attempt says about Rainbow's intelligence:
  Spitfire: "The second (thing I've learned about you) is that you're an idiot." Spitfire took a deep breath. "I'm going to remember that. The fact that you're stubborn, and determined, and stupid. Stupid in a way I don't think it's possible to measure, stupid in a way you can't teach and maybe stupid in a way you can't unlearn."
• Too Dumb to Live: In her chapter of Sick Little Ponies (And One Dragon), she attempts to fly while suffering from a pegasus illness called Manière's: an affliction produced by spending too much time in the upper atmosphere. The condition attacks the semicircular canals, affecting balance to the point where it takes full concentration to ''trot', with actual flight rendered impossible. However, the disease hits Rainbow on the day of the Wonderbolts open auditions, and so rather than wait fourteen moons for another attempt, she decides to try anyway. The results are predictable — for Rainbow, which means she pushes herself too far, nearly wipes out into a full crash, and finds a way to save herself which, to two of the three judges, looks like a stunt. However, Spitfire immediately spots the desperation recovery as having been exactly that...
• Toxic Friend Influence:
  • A very downplayed example used for laughs: although she's Scootaloo's chosen Cool Big Sis, unlike Rarity and Applejack, she's more likely to share in Scootaloo's "that was awesome!" reactions and encourage her than chastise her for doing stupid stuff.
  • Also, while it's never been discussed in the Continuum proper — perhaps because nopony's figured it out — the entire Cutie Mark Crusade is her fault. As in canon, she was the one who assured Apple Bloom that she could get a mark by just trying random things and seeing what stuck. Given how Scootaloo both idolizes her and is the primary late-stage instigator of the Crusade's disastrous methods, this makes Rainbow ultimately responsible for it all. Especially since, as stated above, Rainbow is more likely to encourage Scootaloo's pursuit of "cool stunts" than scold her for breaking things.
• Wisdom from the Gutter: In chapter 44 of Triptych, she manages to guide Fluttershy out of her borderline-suicidal depression, as well as point out what a hypocrite Gentle Arrival was — by starting to talk and chasing the topic wherever it seems to be heading.

Rarity

Miss Rarity Belle. The Gift of Harmony. Our Offering of Generosity

Bearer of the Element of Generosity and frequently frustrated artist/small business owner.

---

• Adaptational Badass: Rarity is something of a Girly Bruiser in canon anyway, but the Continuum Rarity is a lot nastier in a fight. The short story Goosed! elaborates a little on how Rarity has recognized her limitations when applied to the dangerous lifestyle she's involved in — and has compensated by mastering the art of fighting dirty.
• Broken Pedestal: Triptych reveals that Rarity is actually a pretty devout worshipper of Celestia and Luna. Thus, the revelation that the two are not goddesses, but are actually just two once-ordinary ponies who were turned into Alicorns leaves her faith utterly shattered. Not helping is The Reveal that Celestia and Luna were actually two of six Harmony Bearers, and history has forgotten their compansions, which makes her fearful for her own tale in generations to come. She's so devastated that Twilight wonders if this whole affair was Discord's scheme to render the Bearers incapable of using their Elements.
• Can't Catch Up: In the Continuum, a pony's field strength is entirely a function of the genetics, and Rarity happens to have been born with just about exactly average field strength. She occasionally chafes at the limits of her magic, especially since she also happens to be friends with Twilight.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: The lightweight of the Mane Cast (and unfortunately, everypony in Ponyville knows it): has an absolute four-drink limit, and the first slip of intellect comes in on #2.
• Celibate Hero: Zigzagged; she's outright looking for her special somepony, but she's got such high standards that she's failed to find one yet.
• Character Development: The Continuum's Rarity tends to be the most mature and worldly of the Mane Cast: most of the group will find themselves confiding in her and seeking advice for their problems — something which makes things a little bit worse when she gets it wrong. She's also stated as being the second most intelligent (behind Twilight) and is a surprisingly effective combatant. She doesn't have a lot of strength or power — which means she's had to learn how to use what she does have more efficiently.
• Combat Pragmatist: Average field strength. No particular spells for direct offense or defense. Has sewing needles with her. Is going directly for your eyes.
  • As one of the more detail-oriented ponies in the group, she can be quick to spot weaknesses. Rainbow's experimentation with water balloon pranks ends after Rarity points out that the average unicorn, if attacked in the more conventional pegasus instant-soaking manner, would have difficulty in grasping a cloud. The dye-filled water balloons, however, can be rather easily turned against their owner.
• Cool Big Sis: To the Bearers as a whole, and more specifically to Twilight — something which the latter finally realizes in Triptych itself.
  • Oddly, this is also how she at least partially perceives her relationship with Spike: she winds up admitting unawares that she's always been envious of Twilight for having brothers.
• Drama Queen: Several stories make it very clear that Rarity is... well, a bit of a ham. Exaggerated when she's sick.
• Fatal Flaw: Per Word of God, Rarity's big issue is that while she's got great insight, when she gets it wrong, she keeps insisting the world should run the way she wants it to, well into the point of digging herself deeper in the process.
• Foil: Author comments on Pony Up A Tree establishes her as this to Rainbow Dash. Both have, honestly, something of an ego problem. Rainbow Dash, however, lets her ego control her, acts on pure impulse and hates thinking too much, is frankly rather socially awkward, and is a very physically adept member of the team. Rarity, on the other hoof, has far greater control over her emotions, is very thoughtful and introspective, but is one of the least physically adept Bearers. It's downplayed in that they don't usually clash over their differences: Rarity does sometimes wish she was more fit so she could be more of a help to the Bearers, and Rainbow is a little jealous of Rarity's ability to easily talk her way out of stuff, but it's not a huge impact in their relationship.
• Hidden Depths: Has been back to the local warren enough times to become an authority on Diamond Dog culture: she knows many of their traditions and can read their pictograms. It's part of an unwritten truce between town and warren: she helps them find gems (whilst keeping her best picks for herself), they don't kidnap any ponies, and no angry Princesses appear in the tunnels. Her father's legacy means she's also an expert on hoofball: history, strategy, and the best way to dominate a fantasy league — but she tends to keep that under wraps. Typically, she only identifies her family with ponies she trusts, wishing others to judge her for herself instead of being influenced by her dad's reputation. As a retired long-time player and current coach, he has fans all over the continent — and several times that number of loyal enemies.
• In Love with Love: Recognizes this as one of her potential weaknesses: in If I Gave You Diamond And Pearls, she admits that the only thing she's ever truly been in love with is love itself.
• Neat Freak: Downplayed but justified; she actually has a minor fear (rubophobia) of dirt. It's been known to get her in trouble.
• Tragic Dropout: Averted. Tricks Of The Trade Show finally establishes why she left her secondary school at the end of fifth year: it was due to tragic attendance. She was being forced to live at a boarding school with no fashion or art programs, apparently due to a combination of her mother's insistence that the daughter do better than the parent and a deliberate (and truly insulting) parental misinterpretation of mark. Rarity dropped out as soon as her age allowed it, then dedicated herself to a career in design. She has a few lingering social regrets (no school dances), but on the whole, she considers herself to have made the right decision.
• Weak, but Skilled: While her field strength is strictly average (and will never improve), Rarity's field dexterity rating on the Luna Meter (Adjusted) is at the far right side of the chart. She can't get that much power into a working, but she can manipulate her field more finely than just about any unicorn on the continent — which means that low-strength, high-control spells are easier for her than they are for Twilight. It doesn't mean Rarity can necessarily learn those workings — but Twilight is trying to teach her.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Has mild rupophobia (fear of dirt/uncleanliness). As she sees it, she can deal with dirt, she just generally chooses not to.

Snowflake

In the Continuum, Snowflake runs a one-pony business: Day And Night Labor: No Job Too Big Or Too Heavy, hiring himself out as part-time employee for anypony who needs the assist. And on several levels, he's a little more than he seems...

---

• Becoming the Mask: Despite initially starting out as reluctantly teaching Scootaloo in Scootalift, he becomes more and more emotionally invested in it. In the finale, though the terms have changed slightly to something he can accept, he's happy to keep teaching her.
• Body Horror: Snowflake's wings aren't small: they've been partially amputated.
• Centipede's Dilemma: After learning that his flight is actually an invocation of his talent, Snowflake temporarily loses his ability to fly, because now he doesn't know how he achieved flight at all.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: It's how he flies at all; he bulked up his body through massive regimes of strength training, until he was able to substitute raw muscle power to compensate for how little wing surface he has left. Until The Reveal that this actually isn't how he flies at all.
• Determinator: Has this as his special talent, although it generally only applies to physical endeavors and is still subject to the ultimate limitations of his body. Still, when he sets his mind to a goal, everypony else is well-advised to get out of the way... And then it turns out that his talent has broader applications than he realized.
• Genius Bruiser: Seems to be fairly well-read, to the point where Twilight recommends books for him so he can pass the time in his market tent waiting for new clients. Additionally, he's the continent's foremost expert in strength training — which in Equestria, means he has a self-taught degree in useless.
• Gentle Giant: Despite being incredibly strong and powerful, Snowflake is actually a shy, almost timid, thoughtful, gentle pony at heart — somepony who really lives up to an alternate meaning of his name. In chapter 19 of "Anchor Foal", Fleur notes that he could never make it as a real vet; he's too gentle, and can't deal with the ugly truth that vetwork involves a lot of... permanent ends to pain.
• Gonk: On the border. He's at least generally considered to be unattractive, not possessing features so much as facial geography: the hyper-exaggerated build and stunted wings don't help. Fleur feels his best feature is his voice — which, in public, mostly intones variations on "Yeah."
• Handicapped Badass: A capless birth who not only survived, but found a way to fly using a fraction of the wing surface available to everypony else.
• Heroic Mime: Averted. He can speak: he's just more than a little shy and doesn't consider himself to be an effective talker. Most of his exclamations are bluster used to keep anypony from making him say anything else.
• The Hopeless Replacement: Averted. He's Fluttershy's first choice for substitute caretaker when she's away on missions, and she's been training him for nearly two years. Given that, he's up to the general requirements of the job — but he lacks her mark and talent. He can't communicate with animals in the same way, his diagnosis and treatment skills are limited, and Angel isn't particularly happy with having him in charge. It all means he can typically keep control unless a major crisis comes — or the rabbit creates one.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Fluttershy. They were both delivered by Doctor Gentle, who recommended the two meet when Snowflake moved to Ponyville. Since then, the relationship has blossomed. They just have a lot in common. Like the fact that not only are they both hybrids of the same type (pegasi infused with earth pony essence), but the essence used to change them came from siblings.
• Master of One Magic: As a hybrid, his capacity for earth magic is limited to the single tool of vibration manipulation. But with that tool, he's powerful enough to debate Akane Mutsu (who's implied to be well above the earth pony average) to silence while already exhausted nearly to the point of collapse.
• Meaningful Name: He wasn't expected to survive a full day after his birth. Beautiful. Delicate. Destined to vanish under the next touch of Sun as if he had never been.
• Reality Warper: Severely downplayed, but as A Duet For Land and Sky reveals, his mark allows him to use determination to achieve things which are just barely within the realm of his potential physical capabilities: in a sense, if he wants it enough, it will happen — but only for those matters which could theoretically performed by a pony's body. For starters, it's how he's able to fly at all; his amputated wings would never be able to physically manipulate air enough in order to achieve flight, no matter how much muscle he puts behind it. During a brawl with Big Mac, he manages to physically overpower the Earth Pony stallion when he decides he wants to beat him. (However, the result of the concluding body slam into soil, where the earth failed to cushion the impact and instead had the vibrations ricochet back into Mac, because Snowflake wanted him to hurt, is an expression of the one tool we know Snowflake to possess: vibration conduction and control.) Likewise, when he is held prisoner inside one of Miranda Rights' bubble-shields, he intuitively senses that if he wanted to break out, he could. It's just a question of finding the physical power to push through the field.
• The Reveal: Forms the core of his early story in A Duet For Land and Sky: he learns he's a hybrid, with an artificial infusion of earth pony essence into a pegasus body at birth. Also, he can't fly because of his training; there's just not enough wing left to let any amount of muscle propel him into the air. Instead, he flies because his talent lets him mildly warp reality based on his drive to achieve something.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: In a way. In the Continuum, field strength is set at birth and never improves — but the fact is that Snowflake's below average with pegasus magic, which is why he didn't make the Wonderbolts cut (and knew he wouldn't going in: he just wanted to prove he could fly with them). And what he can manage isn't particularly refined: he only has a few low-level techniques and when he uses them, they're decidedly inefficient. About the only thing we've seen him attempt outside a team effort is wind gust creation, and he notes he has to put more strength into it than others, generally getting less in the way of results.
  • Takes on a darker cast in A Duet For Land and Sky: He learns that since his ability to fly at all actually stems from the power of his talent, bulking up to the extent he did was pointless, and just made him even more of an outcast than his mangled wings and limited flying skills would have already done.
• Wrong Context Magic: As one of Gentle Arrival's high-risk deliveries, Snowflake was changed into a hybrid at birth: a foal imbued with the essence of a dead pony from a different tribe. In his case, the earth pony essence grants him strength, durability, and unclarified other abilities.
• Younger Than They Look: He was born a few moons after Fluttershy.

Spike

Master Spike of House Twinkle. The Protector of Harmony.  Our Bulwark of Guidance.

Twilight's adoptive little brother, who's often considerably more mature than his canonical self. He actively tries to keep a handle on things, especially for Twilight's mishaps. His success rate is — dubious.

---

• Brother–Sister Team: With Twilight, on a good day.
• Future Me Scares Me: Following the potential sneak preview of his temporary greed-powered growth spurt, he's become terrified of losing his rationality as he grows up.
• Godzilla Threshold: Has theorized that it might be possible to deliberately trigger the greed transformation (and has not told Twilight about that idea), but doesn't really count it as part of his arsenal. He hasn't come across a situation that bad yet — and doesn't ever want to.
• Hidden Depths: He's picked up a lot of esoteric magical lore and history just from having spent so much time around Twilight, to the point where Applejack is willing to use him as a backup Element of Magic: he can't cast, but he has a better chance to figure out what kind of working the group is dealing with than most. He's even acquired some rather specific medical training: as shown in Goosed!, he knows how to take care of ponies who have reached the state of magical exhaustion, and can take charge in that kind of emergency. (Unfortunately, the reason he knows how to do that is because Twilight spends far too much research time pushing herself to the brink.)
• Like Brother and Sister: The Twilight-Spike relationship is directly defined as a sibling one, and he's been legally adopted by her family. He also has full Equestrian citizenship.
• Never Gets Drunk: Type 3: his metabolism basically (and possibly literally) burns off any consumed alcohol before it reaches his brain. There are things which can produce drunkenness effects in him, but actual liquor will never do the trick. He seems to have won at least one drinking contest because of this, and the competing pony didn't wake up for several days...
• Only Sane Man: Since he isn't subject to herd mentality, much less the triggers which set it off, he has a good chance to be the last rational voice in a stampede of madness.
  • On a more common level, one of his jobs is keeping Twilight focused and grounded, especially when her OCD and other factors start to take over. It's not a battle he always wins, especially as she feels she has the right to ignore such attempts because they're coming from her little brother. (She's gotten better at listening over the years since moving to Ponyville, but the process still isn't perfect.)
  • By Goosed!, Rarity has pretty much directly said that part of Spike's role in the group is to take over when the Bearers need to be saved from themselves.
• Power Source: As per the main page: dragon flame is fueled by gems, and Spike can run out. Different gem types can also have side effects on his body, from coffee-level stimulants to inducing a scale-shedding cycle against his will.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives Applejack an epic chewing out in Goosed! after she tries to get Fluttershy to use The Stare to scare off the Crystal Geese, unwittingly triggering a serious drain because the caretaker doesn't want to let anypony down.
• Stealth Pun: Spike's having been adopted by Twilight's parents means he's also been brought under the protection of the family's House — making him into a literal noble dragon.
• Token Nonhuman: Well, non-equine, anyway. This means that Spike's subject to quite a bit of de-equinization, from frightful glances to ponies talking about it in front of its face, because it's not like it can understand them. He's also accrued quite a few Twilight-disapproved snappy comebacks to ponies saying "You're a dragon."
  "Yes. There's no cure."

Starlight Glimmer

See Triptych Continuum Spoilers

Sweetbark

Ponyville's official vet, Sweetbark has a special "arrangement" with Fluttershy that allows the latter to continue serving animals in the community despite lacking any official license. A pity that her "arrangement" is so one-sided and abusive.

---

• A Degree in Useless: Sweetbark clings desperately to the fact she has a formal veterinary license and Fluttershy doesn't to maintain her authority. Except that, as Fleur cuttingly points out, Sweetbark refuses to perform the most ugly, yet necessary, part of being a vet, meaning that her license may as well be tissue paper.
• Ambition Is Evil: Zigzagged. It was long speculated that Sweetbark sends all of the "risky" cases to Fluttershy because she's desperate to promote and protect her reputation as a "miracle worker". In Anchor Foal, it's alternatively suggested that she does the things she does because she doesn't have the strength to face euthanizing animals.
• Believing Their Own Lies: All evidence so far is that she really believes her claims of doing Fluttershy a favor by "passing on" the riskier cases to Fluttershy
• Condescending Compassion:
  • When she first meets Fleur in Anchor Foal, she immediately reacts with a torrent of sweetly-phrased condescension, so overtly so that Fleur decides she mustn't even be aware of how condescending she really is.
  • When she defends sending all of the genuinely injured or dying animals to Fluttershy, she phrases it as if she's doing Fluttershy a favor.
• The Ghost: For most of the Continuum, she was only ever mentioned. She makes her first on-screen appearance in chapter 19 of Anchor Foal: A Romantic Cringe Comedy.
• Glurge Addict: She's incessantly speaking in the most saccharinely sweet way possible — more like an overblown kindergarten teacher than a vet, and she decorates her clinic with paint in the pastel tones of an overly sweet nursery, pictures of healthy animals, happy ponies with pets, and foal-drawn pictures of pets. Even her cutie mark — the heads of a cat, a dog and a duck — is described as looking more like some foal's animal mobile.
• Hate Sink: In-Universe, Fluttershy's friends despise her, and it's even implied that Fluttershy might hate her (as much as Fluttershy can be said to hate anyone). The readers certainly loathe her for forcing Fluttershy to take on all of the "risky" cases in Ponyville, which means that, more often than not, Fluttershy alone has to go through the trauma of euthanizing animals.
• Life Meter: Her talent is for determining the health of animals, something that could be a real asset to a veterinarian... if she didn't use it to screen out any high-risk patients. For instance, she refuses to see Caramel's ferret Shimmy, because to her senses Shimmy will always be a week away from dying. Shimmy lives a perfectly comfortable, active life on her medicine regimen, but if she misses a dose...
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: When Fleur uses her Talent to scan her, and is informed that Sweetbark is extremely sexually inactive and uninventive, making her an awful lover, which Fleur treats as more evidence of what a bad pony she is.
  It would have been unfair to describe Sweetbark as 'frigid,' and it wasn't because the more enticing term of 'arctic' was just within reach. The mare (currently single, and strictly heterosexual) had some interest in sex, in that said interest level was higher than zero. It was just that...
  In a related sense, it was sometimes unfair to describe sex as 'vanilla,' because the actual flavor was a pleasurable one. Fleur wasn't sure what vanilla had done to anypony in order to become associated with plain, boring, unimaginative, repetitive interaction. But in looking at Sweetbark's puzzle, Fleur was seeing a mare for whom vanilla was a risky proposition. The intensity of Prance vanilla would have put her into full retreat at the mere possibility of such scandalous activity. This was a mare for whom, if sex could be regarded as baking a cake, felt the act of creation consisted of pouring bleached flour into a mold, leaving it on the counter, and expecting something interesting to happen. Any lack of flavor was clearly the fault of the other party, because flour was where all cakes came from and so if you couldn't make flour interesting...
• Sugary Malice: She acts in the most teeth-achingly saccharine "nice vet" you can imagine. Scratch the surface, and you have a selfish, self-righteous little bitch who is more than willing to force others to go through trauma she herself refuses to undergo.

Trixie Lulamoon

On the surface, "the Great and Powerful Trixie" is the same boastful braggart that we know from canon. But just keep in mind that that is a stage persona. Offstage, there's somepony considerably more interesting to meet...

---

• Blessed with Suck: Her talent provides her with a unending (and unstoppable) series of ideas for new spells. What it doesn't provide is the field strength to actually cast them.
• Can't Catch Up: In the Continuum, field strength is fixed from birth and cannot be improved by exercise or practice. As such, Trixie will never have the field strength of somepony like Twilight. This is particularly hard on Trixie because her talent fills her mind with the knowledge of countless wonderful spells that she could cast if she did have Twilight's field strength.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: The core source of Trixie's problems. In the Continuum, field strength is fixed, and no amount of work, practice, or exercise can ever improve it. The only ways to increase field strength are dangerous and illegal booster drugs, or even more dangerous and much more illegal Black Magic.
• Karma Houdini: Played With. Under the one hoof, she was arrested just a few days out of Ponyville and is currently on probation, with Guards checking in every so often to make sure she doesn't get up to anything illegal. Under another hoof, she's pretty sure that she actually deserves much harsher punishments for the stunts she pulled.
• Large Ham: Only partially a stage persona.
• Mark of the Beast: The Alicorn Amulet left a noticeable dark and twisted spot on the fur of her barrel.
• Odd Friendship: With Twilight. After her arrest, Celestia suggested that Twilight start writing Trixie, just to share thoughts on magic. From there, they gradually got to know each other better and better. However, it's the connection of a written correspondence: they haven't seen each other since the Amulet incident.
• Weak, but Skilled: Trixie possesses a level of theoretical knowledge about magic rivalling that of Twilight herself, and her field dexterity scores are quite good and steadily improving. Unfortunately, her field strength, though still well above average, is too weak to cast many of the spells she creates.
  • One of her favorite tricks, as depicted in "Pony Go Boom," involves sealing herself in a box rigged with explosives, blowing it up, and emerging unscathed. There's almost no magic involved at all. The explosives are shaped to direct most of their force outward, the box is made of very thin wood and heavily padded inside, and Trixie wears earplugs to protect her hearing. She only uses magic to levitate a bunch of matches for lighting the fuses and to project a countdown into the sky.

Twilight Sparkle

The Fair Princess Twilight Sparkle of House Twinkle. Our Lady of the Dusk and Dawn, Incarnate of the Future, and Most Gracious Blessing of Hope Upon the Land and Sky. The Enchantment of Harmony. Our Incarnation of Magic.

Bearer of the Element of Magic and Princess Celestia's personal student. Continuum Twilight's alienation from social norms and her implied mental issues are played much more seriously than in canon.

---

• A God I Am Not: When she is asked to bless two newly born foals in Triptych and realizes that ponies will now worship her, she's practically horrified.
• Abdicate the Throne: The final chapter of Triptych sees Twilight kick her 'Princess' title away: she may be an alicorn, but that doesn't have to make her royalty. As far as she's concerned, she's a librarian with an extra, intermittent part-time job — and she feels she'll be happier that way.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: To the point where just about everything she's done since her manifest has been in the name of not finding out what she's truly capable of.
  Discord "Well, I imagine that believing one had turned their parents into decorative plant life would leave something of a scar..."
• Ambiguous Disorder: Averted: she's fully aware that she has some degree of OCD. She just can't always figure out how to stop herself.
• Berserk Button: According to The Remainders of the Day and, in hindsight, Orange is The New Blue, she has a pretty strong territorial streak. Impeding on what she sees as hers is a very good way to trigger her raging side.
• Born Winner: In the Continuum, field strength is entirely dictated by genetics, and Twilight happens to have been born with a field strength nearly off the charts. Multiple other unicorns have expressed varying levels of envy at Twilight's sheer power.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Described as being the shortest and smallest of the Bearers, with an exceptionally slender build. The majority of adult ponies are taller than her, which makes Quiet's just-under-her-height stand out all the more.
• Celibate Hero: As the only Bearer whose social skills are arguably worse than Fluttershy's, it's no surprise that she's pretty much off the dating market due to sheer cluelessness and a little shyness.
• Centipede's Dilemma: Half her problem with flight (the other half being that she has no idea how to use her Pegasus feel, and hence has no clue what the air's doing at any given moment).
• Character Development: This iteration of Twilight has become gradually aware of just how damaged she truly is, and has more awareness of when that damage comes out to play — crucial seconds after the fact. She also has no idea of how to fix it.
• Fantastic Racism: Zigzagged. Twilight is not consciously racist, and is deeply ashamed when she thinks she's been acting in that fashion — but she does have a strongly "ordered" view of how the world fits together, and doesn't tend to react well when that outline is rendered null. In chapter 40 of Triptych, learning that Pinkie Pie is actually an earth pony infused with the essence of unicorns and raw chaos magic results in her screaming when she notices Pinkie is touching her. In chapter 41, she's deeply regretful of how she reacted.
• Foil: Upon spending time with Starlight Glimmer, Twilight immediately notices the similarities, to the point of mentally pleading for somebody to assure her that she wasn't as absurdly inept at socializing as Starlight. But whereas Twilight embraced friendship and emotion, Starlight has rejected both and dedicated her life to a cold, almost mechanical, pursuit of knowledge above all else. To say nothing of the things Starlight is willing to do in pursuit of that knowledge, which Twilight would have found unthinkable even before Ponyville...
• Fusion Dance: Her alicornization is eventually revealed to be this. She’s a little bit of all of her friends and the power she uses in regards to her friends is a small piece of their soul that went into her. Its more like her calling for them and they help her.
• I Hate Past Me: After learning from Celestia that a) Starswirl became a power-hungry necromancer obsessed with turning himself into an alicorn, forcing Celestia and Luna to defeat and imprison him after he was consumed by his own creation — the Alicorn Amulet; b) Celestia visited Starswirl on his death bed and performed a working intended to force him to reincarnate, and finally c) Celestia believes Twilight to be Starswirl's reincarnation, Twilight comes to hate Starswirl — and by extension, herself. Even after she and Celestia reconcile, Twilight no longer idolizes Starswirl the way she did.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Downplayed somewhat: while Twilight's obsessive-compulsive disorder does have its role in her inability to figure out social norms, another part of the problem is that she's unaware that most other ponies are not as educated on classical or esoteric subjects as she is. The most obvious example of this is in Twilight's Escort Service; she means "escort" as in "licensed to transport other ponies through teleportation", but what other ponies see is "escort" as in "prostitute".
• Mistaken for Prostitute: The central plot point of Twilight's Escort Service: Twilight attempts to open a business where she will teleport ponies where they want to go for money.^note She's trying to raise money for a book after spending all her spare bits on the official government license which allows her to teleport with passengers. But the advertising flyers she creates use ambiguous wording, with so many Innocent Innuendos present as to make many ponies conclude she's advertising her freshly-acquired license to serve as another kind of escort.
• Not That Kindof Doctor: Has a doctorate, and mentions that the jokes have never been funny.
• Obliviously Beautiful: Believes herself to be strictly average in appearance, and also thinks that just about anypony expressing attraction is either using her to reach the Princess or has an extremely specific type.
• Power Copying: An aspect of her talent, which in the Continuum is defined as an increased capacity to learn, understand, invent, and duplicate unicorn workings. However, in most cases, it's hardly instant: her teleport duplication may be her all-time speed record, but it still took her six hours of hard instruction before she found the key to Rarity's gem detector. Triptych reveals that for any working she's duplicated, she'll never have the same degree of refinement as the original caster — in essence, her copies are somewhat blurry.
• Serious Business: Books. Do not threaten or imply disrespect for books or reading where Twilight can hear you. Especially not in relation to her books.
• Uneven Hybrid: Due to having two hybrids involved in her acension. The loss of earth pony essence from Pinkie's contribution is balanced off by what she received from Fluttershy, but she's a little more unicorn than she should be and somewhat less pegasus. No one is sure what this means regarding her alicorn state.
• Unwanted False Faith: Is less than happy to realize that other ponies are going to be deifying her the same way they have already done to Celestia and Luna.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In both Triptych and Glimmer, Twilight is reassured several times that her social skills and empathy have improved immensely since she arrived in Ponyville.

---