The show stars, as the fans like to say, the 'mane 6' and some recurring characters of various importance. Without further ado...
Twilight Sparkle
Ponyville's answer to a question no pony asked. The de facto leader of the mane 6, Twilight is the magical apprentice to Princess Celestia, a position which should have high honor. By Celestia's orders, she was forced to leave her home in Canterlot and travel to Ponyville to learn about friendship. She apparently didn't have many, if any, friends back in Canterlot, except her big brother, Shining Armor, her 'foalsitter' Cadence, and her dragonling slave, Spike. In Mare in the Moon, it is revealed lots of unicorns wanted to be her friend, but she was too aloof to reciprocate.
I call her the Ponyverse's Mary Worth, as she is prone to meddling in ponies' lives, especially her friends'. She is also prone to anger, going off at the drop of a hat. Spike is usually the only one who suffers from her wrath, getting magically thrown into walls. In Feeling Pinkie Keen, it is revealed that Twilight can burst into a fiery nightmare if she is angered enough. This fiery form also manifests in Griffon the Brushoff, caused by her drinking hot sauce.
She cares deeply about her friends, and usually goes above and beyond to try and help them or make them happy.
She is a Unicorn, a Unicorn in training to be a wizard to boot, and has many magical spells at her disposal. Her signature spell is a Nightcrawler-esque teleport, which can move herself and others. She is also into science, and has her own laboratory in the basement of the library.
Twilight represents the Element of Magic. Twilight is one of my favorite characters: smart, brave, caring, and wields magic.
She seems to perhaps be Twilight's closest friend, as the two usually agree with each other. She is an Earth Pony, and is rarely seen without her trademark cowgirl hat. She doesn't really like Rainbow Dash, and has feuded with both her and Rarity in the past.
She is an award winning rodeo star, athletic and strong. She seems to be a role model, not only for her little sister, but for her friends as well, especially Rarity. (Sometimes, anyway)
Her best friend is Rainbow Dash, who has known her since they were fillies, and the two spend a lot of time together. She is also close friends with Rarity, and the two have weekly get-togethers at the spa. Because of her traumatic experience with other pegasi teasing her at such a young age, Fluttershy is very shy around stranger ponies, is prone to psychotic episodes, and harbors a dark side deep within, which we have seen manifest on a few occasions. (Putting Your Hoof Down, The Best Night Ever, and The Return of Harmony Pt. 1 and 2)
Fluttershy will occasionally overcome her fears when the situation demands it, especially if her friends' lives are at stake or animals are in trouble. Sadly, the villagers of Ponyville generally treat her as a door mat, cutting in front of her in lines like she didn't even exist. It remains to be seen if they treat her differently post-Putting Your Hoof Down, where the self-empowered Fluttershy vented her frustrations on all the ponies that disrespected her.
Rarity enjoys making garments for her friends and often gives them as gifts. She has quite the eye for fashion. Her designs made a splash during a visit to Canterlot, and she was selected to make the dresses for the Royal Wedding. She also supplied her friends with their Gala gowns, and they all pitched in to make hers for her, after they almost ruined her life.
Despite her upper-class leanings, she still cares for her friends, even
if they, with the exception of Twilight, are more Ponyville than
Canterlot. Spike, Twilight's dragonling servant, has a crush on her, and Rarity uses that to her advantage, sometimes making him do chores for her. She also isn't afraid to use her beauty and charms to convince others to bend to her will.
Like Twilight, Rarity is a Unicorn, but isn't nearly as skilled with magic as Twilight. Rarity generally uses her magical abilities for more mundane tasks like opening doors or moving objects. Magic is also a key part of her dress making business, as she is able to manipulate many objects at once, helping her construct her garments with ease. She also has a semi-unique ability to find gems with her magic, however Twilight is shown to be able not only to replicate that, but has a far improved and more powerful version. Rarity did show she has pretty impressive powers in Suited For Success, as she was able to use them to produce an amazing fashion show.
Rarity represents the Element of Generosity.
Applejack
Applejack runs Sweet Apple Acres with her family: Big Macintosh, her older brother, Applebloom, her younger sister, and Granny Smith, her grandmother. She still manages to find time to spend with her friends, despite all the work she must do on the farm. Applejack is in charge of the Plants team for Winter Wrap Up Day.
Applejack is also a skilled baker, and can whip up all manner of apple related dishes. She was personally selected to cater the Royal Wedding seen in the Season 2 finale. She was considered the best baker in Ponyville, but may have tarnished that reputation after Pinkie Pie let her make muffins with ingredients such as potato chips and earth worms.
Applejack represents the Element of Honesty.
Fluttershy
Fluttershy is one of the nicest, sweetest, kindest ponies in all of Equestria. She loves animals, and runs a pet shelter out of her home. She possesses the unique(?) trait of being able to talk with animals. Fluttershy is considered beautiful and graceful, and had a brief stint as a world-famous model. She also has 'the stare', an ability where victim's of her gaze are forced to obey her will.
Despite being a Pegasus, Fluttershy dislikes flying. If she really needs to, she will, though, especially if her friends are depending on her flight capabilities. Her dislike of flying is not only because she is possibly physically weaker than normal pegasi (all the pegasi in Ponyville were able to get 10.0+ Wing Power except her) but also because she was mercilessly teased when she was a filly at flight school.
Fluttershy represents the Element of Kindness.
Rarity
Rarity is the owner of Carousel Boutique, Ponyville's dress shop. Rarity may have been born in Ponyville, but she is a Canterlot pony at heart. She dreams of becoming famous and wants to marry a Prince. She is the big sister of Sweetie Belle.
Pinkie Pie
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza
The Cake Family
For some reason, she dislikes Applebloom and does anything she can to discredit her. The newspaper episode would be the exception, where she was able to put aside her dislike for Applebloom and worked hard to make the paper successful, expanding the readership of a grade school paper to Ponyville and possibly Canterlot.
Daring Do
The Ponyverse's Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck, Pinkie Pie is a force of cheerfulness and gluttony. Her Bugs Bunny abilities along with her innate strength and endurance from being an Earth Pony allow her to reach frightening levels at whatever her attention is currently focused on. Pinkie appears to live with the Cake family, the local bakers, and works as their babysitter and at the bakery, Sugar Cube Corner. I actually never even thought of it until now, but I'm guessing the Cakes are her aunt and uncle or something, since her family name is Pie.
When Pinkie sets her mind to it, she can usually achieve anything, especially with her Bugs Bunny powers. She is friends with practically every pony in Ponyville, and making other ponies happy is what makes her happy. She'll do whatever it takes to make a pony smile, from dumping a bag of flour on herself to reuniting lost lovers.
Pinkie is the resident party planner, and hosts all manner of parties for her friends. She was also selected to plan the reception for the Royal Wedding.She is also prone to singing songs she makes up on the spot.
Pinkie loves parties, making friends, and eating food, especially sweets. Her hair is tied to her heart, and when she becomes depressed, it loses its curl. Personally, I like the straight hair look better, although it does come with a huge dose of crazy, even more than usual for Pinkie. The straight hair is also her natural hair style, as seen in The Cutie Mark Chronicles.
Pinkie represents the Element of Laughter. She also has Pinkie Sense, which lets her detect danger and have premonitions.
Rainbow Dash
Rainbow Dash is one of the fastest Pegasi in Ponyville. In fact, she is so fast, she is able to perform a 'sonic rainboom,' which she was personally chosen to perform at the Royal Wedding. Rainbow is all about being cool, and is the opposite of Rarity, being far, far, less dainty and girly. She also has a reputation for doing stupid things. Some of those things may include cheating, as seen in Fall Weather Friends, where she was constantly cheating and playing dirty to win. Despite her shortcomings, she is usually in leadership roles, leading the pegasi tornado in Hurricane Fluttershy, was put in charge of clearing the weather for the Summer Sun Celebration, and is in charge of the Weather team in Winter Wrap Up, for examples.
Rainbow's biggest desire is to join the Wonderbolts, which are possibly the Ponyverse version of the Blue Angels and the like. Rainbow saved the lives of the Wonderbolts' officers (Spitfire, Soarin, and Unknown) at the Best Flyer Competition, winning their thanks and the title of best flyer. She was offered the role of captain of the Shadowbolts, a likely fictitious 'evil' Wonderbolts, but turned it down, refusing to abandon her friends.
Rainbow is best friends with Fluttershy, going way back. She always wants to help Fluttershy improve herself. She's almost always ready and willing to help her friends if they need her.
Rainbow is proud, brash, and hot-headed, eager to prove herself by throwing her hat in the ring if need be. She also has a 'mean' side and likes to play pranks. For a time, she was acting as a super hero, until Twilight and Applejack got annoyed at Rainbow's resulting ego and conspired to stop her.
Rainbow represents the Element of Loyalty. Rainbow is one of my favorite characters: cool character design, fiery, determined, an awesome flyer, and a fellow Daring Do fan.
Supporting Cast:
Princess Celestia
It isn't fully clear how the world in the Ponyverse is set up. We know there is a region called Equestria, and that Princess Celestia and her sister, Luna, are the rulers over it. Celestia lives in Canterlot Castle, and guards the realm during the daytime.
Celestia is what I call a 'royalty' breed pony. They have the horn of a Unicorn, the wings of a Pegasi, and the strength and endurance of Earth Ponies. They are also potentially immortal, as it is revealed Luna had been imprisoned for 1,000 years.
Celestia is Twilight's mentor, and almost every episode results in Twilight or one of their friends writing a letter to Celestia to tell her what they learned about friendship.
Celestia generally doesn't do much on the show, leaving the dirty work to Twilight and her friends. She is seen to have great mastery over magic the few times she does actively get involved.
Since Celestia has lived for centuries, she seems to like to use her subjects for her own amusement. At the last Grand Galloping Gala, she intentionally invited Twilight and her friends in the hope that they would cause chaos. She owns a pet phoenix, Philomena, who is also a prankster like her owner.
Princess Luna
Sister to Celestia, Princess Luna is the, unfortunately, seldom seen ruler of the night. Like Celestia, she is a 'royalty' breed pony. She lives in/on the moon apparently, and has her own royal guardsmen: bat-winged ponies.
Luna has immense magical power, able to easily control the weather, summoning lightning and storm clouds to accentuate her speech. She can also animate inanimate objects.
Luna has a dark past, formerly being known as an evil entity called Nightmare Moon. She was imprisoned for 1,000 years and was only recently purged of evil thanks to the Elements of Harmony. The citizens of Equestria created the holiday Nightmare Night based on legends/history of her evil deeds, it is the Ponyverse Halloween where they dress in costumes, play games, get candy, and make candy offerings to a Nightmare Moon statue so she doesn't eat them.
Because of her imprisonment, Luna was antiquated in mannerisms,using the traditional royal Canterlot voice (a loud, booming voice) and using terms such as 'thou' and 'thee.' Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack helped her change her behavior to fit in better. Luna wants to leave her past as Nightmare Moon behind her, and
just wants to be loved and respected like her sister. She tried to
change Nightmare Night to a night of joy, but that did not go well
thanks to her archaic mannerisms and the fact she was Nightmare
Moon. She banned Nightmare Night for being an insult to her, then had a
change of heart thanks to Twilight and some children.
Luna is one of my favorite characters. She's got incredible magical prowess, cool character design, cute mannerisms, and rules the night, when I usually work on this project.
Spike
Dragons in the Ponyverse are fearsome, fire-breathing, mean spirited creatures. Spike is...not. In addition to being Twilight's (and sometimes Rarity's) dogsbody, Spike's official role is to receive letters from Princess Celestia (she magically teleports them into his gullet, where he then belches them up) and scribe letters to send to her.
We learned in Dragon Quest I think that Spike was given to Twilight as an egg. In The Cutie Mark Chronicles, it is revealed he was part of Twilight's entrance exam to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Twilight had to use magic to hatch him, and failed, until Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom sent her magical abilities into overdrive and she not only hatched him, but made him massive in size, along with polymorphing her parents and levitating the examiners. He has been her friend/servant ever since.
Spike has the potential to become a being of great power, and great evil, as seen when he gets greedy and eventually becomes a full-grown dragon, rampaging through Ponyville.
Spike is almost as gluttonous as Pinkie Pie, and his ravenous appetite has drawn Twilight's ire more than once. Dragons also eat and hoard gems, but Spike will gladly eat ice cream and other sweets instead.
Spike has a crush on Rarity, and tries to spend as much time with her as he can. Even though he is usually the laughingstock of the mane 6, he still likes spending time with them, even considering them his family.
In a dream sequence, Spike is shown as the above, a humanoid dragon-knight. This may be what he really is, which is why he doesn't have wings.
Shining Armor
Shining Armor is Twilight's brother, a surprise revealed in the season finale of Season 2. He is Twilight's Big Brother Best Friend Forever, and achieved his goal of joining the royal guard, achieving the rank of Captain. He is responsible for bolstering the forceshield around Canterlot.
The season finale revolves around his wedding to his childhood sweetheart, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, aka Cadence. Unfortunately for him, the Queen of the Changelings sent the real Cadence to an abandoned mine under Canterlot, and took her place, feeding off Shining Armor's love for Cadence. Twilight is the only one that sees something is wrong, and ends up saving the day, reuniting her brother with the real Cadence and being his Best Mare for the wedding.
In Season 3, Shining Armor returns, acting out his military, and husband-y, duties by accompanying Cadence to the Crystal Empire, which has returned and is under threat by King Sombra. He leads one-pony patrols out into the frozen wastes while also supporting his new wife, who is exhausted trying to keep Sombra at bay. His sister arrives and he sacrifices himself to protect them, getting his horn, and this his magic, disabled by Sombra.
He later helps guide Twilight and her friends, and helps save the day by throwing the weakened Cadence so she can get to the Crystal Heart before Sombra.
Princess Mi Amore Cadenza
Also known as Cadence, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is Shining Armor's wife, and in the past was Twilight's foal sitter.
Her wedding is the subject of the Season 2 finale, and in a surprise to everyone but Twilight, she was really the evil Changeling Queen, with the real Cadence trapped in an abandoned mine under Canterlot.
She is a 'royalty' breed pony, and her specialty is love magic, able to quell arguments, and, with Shining Armor, evoke a powerful magical blast that saves the day and expels all the Changelings from Canterlot.
The Evil Cadence, and to a lesser extent, normal Cadence, are one of my favorite characters, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be writing this right now. Cadence returns in Season 3, revealed to be the Crystal Princess (although no explanation is given for that). presumably making her the last living heir to the throne of the Crystal Empire. She sacrifices her well-being to protect the Crystal Empire with her magic. Almost completely drained after days of keeping up her barrier spell, at the end she gets a burst of energy upon seeing the Crystal Heart and retrieves it from Sombra, saving herself and the Empire.
The Cake Family
I believe they might be Pinkie Pie's aunt and uncle, the Cakes own Ponyville's bakery. They are some of the more frequently seen support characters, and in the episode Baby Cakes, their twins Pound and Pumpkin were introduced.
The Cakes let Pinkie live with them and work at the bakery, but don't trust her as far as they could throw her, probably due to her erratic behavior. They warm up to her a little after she successfully foal sits for the twins and hire her as their permanent foal sitter.
The Cakes are quite skilled at what they do, even entering dessert contests, which their cake won, sort of.
The Apple Family
Owners and operators of the Sweet Apple Acres farm, the Apple family are the founding family of Ponyville.They are the sisters and brother: Applejack, Applebloom, and Big Macintosh, and their grandmother, Granny Smith. It is unknown where Applejack etc. parents are. The farm depends on cider sales to get through the winter.
In the past, Princess Celestia gave them land to farm, but the farm wasn't doing so hot. Granny Smith ended up finding these magical fruit called Zap Apples, which saved the farm, and led to the creation of Ponyville.
Big Mac, as he is known, may be interested in Cherilee, Applebloom's teacher. Applebloom herself is part of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, which will be covered below. They also have relatives all across Equestria. Aunt and Uncle Orange live in Manehattan. Braeburn and other kin live in Appleloosa. Uncle Apple Streudel lives in an unknown, distant locale.
The Wonderbolts
These guys are like the Blue Angels of the Ponyverse and may function as Equestria's Air Force. Stunt flying may be all they are good at, because they tend to fail or just be incompetent whenever we see them in action. They seem to be exclusively Pegasi, although one would suspect a 'royalty' breed could join.
Their flight suits are filled with gadgets, allowing them to make smoke trails and set off fireworks.
Spitfire is their mostly incompetent leader, and Rainbow Dash looks up to her.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders
A trio of fillies who don't have their cutie marks yet, much to their chagrin. They are Scootaloo, a pegasus, Applebloom, an Earth pony, Sweetie Belle, a unicorn, and newest member - Babs Seed, an Earth pony from Manehattan. The Crusaders were formed at Diamond Tiara's cutecieniera party, after Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo defended Applebloom from Diamond Tiara's and Silver Spoon's jibes at Applebloom's 'blank flank.' Babs Seed, Apple Bloom's cousin and fellow blank flank, later joins.
Sweetie Belle - Usually acting as the 'brains' of the Crusaders, she is far more 'rough and tumble' than her sister, Rarity. Her talent is most likely her sweet singing voice. She really wants to be like her big sister, Rarity, but usually just ends up annoying her sister.
Applebloom - She really looks up to her sister, Applejack, and after Family Appreciation Day, her grandmother. Rarity would call her 'uncouth' for her ill manners. Her talent may be construction/home improvement related.
Scootaloo - Family unknown, Scootaloo behaves similar to Rainbow Dash, from what I remember. She is rarely seen flying, and instead uses her wings to propel herself on her scooter, capable of performing amazing tricks, which is likely her talent. She does idolize Rainbow Dash, even going so far as to volunteer to be her dogsbody. Scootaloo was put in charge of making the Crusaders' initiation rights, which ended up being extremely long winded as she busted out a thesaurus for every alternate word for 'friend' or 'comrade.'
Babs Seed - The Apple's cousin from Manehattan, Babs has been a victim of bullying because of her lack of a cutie mark. She comes to Ponyville for a few weeks respite, and the Crusaders want her to join. Instead, she ends up siding with the Crusaders' own bullies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and proceeds to make life hell for the Crusaders. Eventually, their actions to save her (from a trap they had designed themselves) makes her have a change of heart, and the four become friends and Babs gets inducted into the Crusaders. She also vows to start up a branch in Manehattan.
Cherilee
Ponyville's teacher, Cherilee is seen fairly often, usually whenever the Crusaders are involved. The parents must not pay much attention, as she should probably be fired due to negligence, like leaving Diamond Tiara in charge of the school paper, resulting in a sensational gossip tabloid being produced.
Diamond Tiara
The daughter of Filthy Rich, she is heiress to some 'old money' in Ponyville. Their family got their start by selling the Apple family's Zap Apple jam. She is best friends with Silver Spoon, a fellow privileged pony of apparent wealth.
Flim and Flam
It's unknown if these guys will be back, but they are 'traveling sales ponies non pareil' and confidence unicorns. They tried, and succeeded, in stealing the cider business, and Sweet Apple Acres, somehow, from the Apple family, but stupidly end up doing something boneheaded (serving the junky cider they made towards the end) and give up and drive away when no one wants to buy it. Even though they would have had several barrels of the good stuff, plus could probably sell the Apple's since they owned the farm, or could reset their machine to do quality control again and just normally produce cider.
Zecora
A shaman that lives in the nearby forest, Zecora the Zebra speaks in rhymes. The residents of Ponyville used to be scared of her, until Twilight Sparkle and co. helped them to see that Zecora is just a kooky zebra shaman, and not an evil enchantress that eats ponies. She tells the legend of Nightmare Night, and is the go-to gal for curing ailments.
An Indiana Jones/Lara Croft parody, Daring Do is the star of 16 books in the Ponyverse. It is unknown if she is a completely fictional character or an actual pony.
Daring is a Pegasus, and is a skilled explorer and adventurer. Her nemesis in the first book is some cat thing that has various feline minions ranging from a tiger to a kitten.
We have only seen her in two episodes, Read it and Weep, our introduction to her, and A Friend in Deed, where she was briefly seen on the cover of a Daring Do book Rainbow was reading.
Daring Do is one of my favorite characters. Bold, badass, clever, and adventurous, not to mention based on Indiana Jones/Lara Croft, which would make pretty much any character awesome.
Rarity's dream come true..not. A prima donna that cares mostly for himself, he ended up ruining Rarity's Grand Galloping Gala dreams by turning out to be a fop.
Prince Blueblood
He made Rarity use her shawl to cover a puddle so he could cross (instead of just walking around), was outraged when she wouldn't open a door for him, made her pay for food (Applejack gave it to her for free though), took a rose for himself instead of giving it to her, only brought one cushion (for himself), but Rarity put up with it all, for he is a prince.
Rarity's impressive restraint was finally ended after Blueblood used her as a 'human' shield after a series of mishaps led to a cake going airborne and headed towards them. There were apparently no hard feelings though, for he can be seen by her side in Sweet and Elite.
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