The Element of Kindness. My top-favorite altogether. Shy, timid, not very good at breaking through that shell, but is extraordinary when she is. Like the other Mane Six characters, she is very relatable and extremely well-rounded. She's a character with an extremely wounded psyche and is still doing whatever she can to mend it. Putting Your Hoof Down is a strong limited third-person piece of her cloudy vision of the Equestrian strangers and how she took Iron Will's advice WAY too literally. And even Dragonshy, where she grew timid of dragons, but battled her fear to get the dragon to fly away. Keep Calm and Flutter On twists Fluttershy around by writing her strengths and playing mind games with Discord to foil his scheme. Despite her shortcomings, she has come a really long way and is a really great character and still has some development to go to be an even better character.
Rainbow Dash.
Of the Mane Six, she's the most complex character of them all. Brash, confident, loyal, a fragile ego, overconfident, reserved, brave, lazy, aggressive yet cautious now, etc. By far the most developed of the six in character. While bad writing plagued her during a nine-episode stretch during the first half of season two (episodes five to thirteen, one of them the factually terrible Mysterious Mare-Do-Well), when written great, she is so believable. She has a façade to keep herself from looking weak, but will lay back when she needs to (e.g., Rainbow Dash consoling Scootaloo and telling her bouts of fright as a filly, too). Her loyalty to her friends through thick and thin is something else, too. To her, they're not merely friends. The Mane Six is basically her family. Despite having a bit of a rough, commanding attitude, she is incredibly supportive, evident by Hurricane Fluttershy and her sympathy for Fluttershy despite her lack of confidence.
Twilight Sparkle.
Twilicorn or not, she is one thorough cookie. A magician with the ability to dabble and perform very powerful magic if she puts all her thought into it. At first, learned magic in the form of power, now understands the Magic of Friendship. Despite becoming the symbol of Hasbro Mismanagement in the form of an alicorn in what was originally the series finale of FIM, she has evolved into a leader despite having the inability to keep herself composed (Games Ponies Play notwithstanding). She's grown a lot since the pilot and still has room for development and has shown one huge strength: to utilize her lack of magical strength to create an illusion and use her intellect to her advantage. Even with her as an alicorn, she has the potential to be a better character than ever. Hopefully, great writing evolves her into a stronger, more dependable magician and leader.
Spike.
The little kid dragon. Previously debuted as a baby dragon, he's shown development since the pilot via a very strong intellect. While his development is still rather slow, Season 2's Secret of My Excess and Dragon Quest showed how thorough he is as a character. In the first half of season three, he was developed even further, becoming an integrated part of the plot: helped retrieve the Crystal Heart and return it to its temple, found the book that told the legend of the Mirror Pool, kept the team together while Twilight was exiled, blurted how he was left behind for the Equestrian Games inspection, and stayed by Twilight's side as she felt hopeless in Magical Mystery Cure. Unfortunately, he's great via mostly concept and the patches of great execution as a secondary character, for three of his five episodes (Owl's Well that Ends Well, Spike at Your Service, and Just for Sidekicks) had him written abominably.
Rarity.
Normally, a character with a haughty accent would have such a stereotypical holier-than-thou, snooty, unlikeable personality to the point where you'd grow so irritated that you'd want to bash the character in a fanfic. For Rarity, she takes this role and is written in a way that makes her lovable, caring, and thorough. Elegant in appearance and personality, but really takes her passion of designing the finest dresses extremely seriously; and as a graphic designer, I can relate to this self-pressure of doing things right. She's such a great character and one who can be really difficult to write correctly.
Pinkie Pie.
The sugar-high Earth pony, but not as big an airhead as One Bad Apple, Games Ponies Play, and the pre-commercial segment of Spike at Your Service's second act depicted. Random, playful, but caring of her friends. Determined at her core to deliver as much joy as possible to both her friends and herself in order to live her life to the fullest. But her attachment to her friends is also a great flaw, evident by Too Many Pinkie Pies and her wish to be by them during any exciting activities and her severe change in attitude (grayer fur, straight mane instead of curly, and continually angry) in Party of One, but that's very great for her as a character.
Applejack.
Yee-haw, background pony! She's the most complete character of the seven: hard-working, strong, intelligent, and stubborn. The other six still have a lot to learn, but Applejack learned a lot of hardships already: her parents passing away, managing the farm, and traveling to Manehattan before returning to Sweet Apple Acres to commit herself to the farm. Her drive and pride are the heart for both herself and the rest of the Apple family, guaranteed in Apple Family Reunion. But her pride and stubbornness also reveal a significant flaw. Because she's driven to do her best, her fear of failure clouds her judgment, and sometimes she tries way too hard when she wants to make things grander than they should. A complete character, but a great character. Unfortunately, because Applejack's so complete, and given the environment she lives in, there isn't much to write about her without stepping away from the root of the show: develop the characters by reverting the flaws into strengths via the magic of friendship.
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