Season 5 brought with it an awesome cast of new characters for all of us to play with while we trudge through another pony hiatus. In this desert of equine scarcity, we fortunately have the creative minds required to give them an extra story or two while waiting.
We asked for all of you to choose your favorite ponies (or monsters) of the past year, and you delivered. Some choices surprised me, some weren't surprising at all, and overall, I think a lot of people agreed on at least the top 9.
Below the break, get your TOP 10 best characters of the season!
(Update: This accidentally published a bit early without edits. Should be good now)
Note: These were chosen in a series of polls we ran, and not by any member of staff. You are going to get all sorts of opinions anyway though, so buckle up!
#10 - Sassy Saddles
When Sassy Saddles first appeared in teaser clip form, the quality was unfortunately pretty bad. This made her colors much darker, and scared people into thinking we were getting a pony creator level hyper-saturated pony. Luckily her actual show design dodged that bullet!
She may not be the cutest pony, and for some of us, was probably in that era of "frustrating corporate overlord" until her redemption at the end of Canterlot Botique, but she seems to be playing her part as Rarity's new manager. Her design and style fits that Canterlot-esque idea we have seen hinted at over the years, and in the end, I'd rather have her manning the retail battlestations than waste our favorite dressmaker on endless episodes about how terrible customers can be.
I probably would have put Sugar Belle here personally, but I'd only be doing that based on design than actual character qualities. The two characters probably would poll neck and neck under the top 9 if we did a poll with all the ponies at once.
Sassy Saddles gets the #10 slot!
#9 - Night Glider
Night Glider's popularity didn't surprise me in the poll, but it did surprise a few of the people I talk to regularly. She seems to be that hit or miss mare; either you saw her, loved her, and went online and talked about her, or you fell into the other camp that didn't really notice any of the following fan love at all. Turns out she was actually pretty well loved, with a fair amount of art and fanfiction expanding her.
Of course, this all could just be based on design. She jumps on that Luna bandwagon. Something about night, moons, stars resonates with this fandom
Will we ever see her, Sugar Belle, Double Diamond, and Party Favor in any other major role again? I wouldn't mind it. Their color schemes really worked well together.
#8 - The Smoooze
This revamped 80's villain was just a fraction of the actual episode he took part in. Joining Tree Hugger as one of the new major side characters, and Discord doing his thing, I feel like he may have been slightly overshadowed. It's hard to even see him as a character, but more as just a device to keep the plot going and bounce Discord's humor off of. I'm alright with this though. He played his role well, and drove Twilight nuts. These are pluses.
Our new G4 version of The Smooze is vastly different than the hungering monstrosity of old. It sometimes surprises me how dark that old show could get.
#7 - Tree Hugger
I actually thought people would like Tree Hugger more back when she first appeared in the teaser clip. When the episode rolled around, and fan art died within a week, I was surprised. Turns out not a whole lot of bronies are fans of hippies, woahdude culture, or any of the other things this glorious little nature horse represents.
Fortunately, she still made the cut for the top characters of the season. Maybe our new stoner mare will live on in a future episode with Fluttershy in some remote, exotic animal infested location? I could see them doing something fun with her in the comics at the very least.
#6 - Limestone Pie
This one surprised me more than any. I didn't expect limestone to be anywhere near as well loved as she was. Hell, usually I'm the only one that likes the douchy characters. Maybe that's the wrong word to describe her though? She's definitely straightforward, and living in the middle of nowhere on a rock farm would probably equal a lack of interaction with other ponies. Considering her sisters are the epitomee of introversion, it's not too surprising to see her follow a different, anti-social extreme.
Usually this show uses side characters twice, then takes a break. Will we see the pie family again in the upcoming seasons? Or will they pull a Trixie and disappear?
#5 - Minuette
While technically a background pony for the prior 4 seasons, Minuette didn't get nearly as much love and characterization by the fandom, or the show as any of the ones found in Slice of Life. This is why she was included in the poll. Outside of Dentistry and a gaming project due to her coat colors resembling a certain tooth paste brand, her fanon was pretty small.
I don't think anyone expected the Minuette that we ended up getting. She's like a super giggly, but slightly muted Pinkie Pie in a way.
If you are like me, and can only take so much of party horse before losing your mind, Minuette was the absolutely perfect blend of incredible happiness and endearing personality. #5 is a well deserved slot.
#4 - Marble Pie
I get it. The majority of you love shy introverts that make tiny cute noises. Have the literal embodiment of that.
With Fluttershy slowly "growing" as a character, and shedding a lot of that hyper-introversion she had in the early seasons, I suppose we needed a new target for people to cling on to. Marble Pie came in, said nothing, gazed longingly at Big Mac, mined adorably, and captured the #4 slot.
Considering the return of both Maud Pie and Coco Pommel seemed to be facilitated by fandom reaction, I'm going to guess that we will, in fact, see more Marble Pie. How they will flesh her out is the mystery though. The comic seems to want her to hook up with Big Mac, which is totally not weird since they are only slightly related.
The top 3 characters were so beyond close. I may just run a poll with only them in it to see where the votes for other ponies would file in a head to head matchup.
You could probably interchange them comfortably.
#3 - Coloratura
I AM JUST A POOONAYYY.
If you were in Skype chats with me since August, you probably would have seen that daily. I loved me some Coloratura before I even knew who she was or what her name was. That SDCC panel footage got us HYPED for the introduction of this season's guest star, and boy did Lena Hall deliver! I still can't decide if I like her dressed up as The Countess, or butt veiled and basic like the image above more, but I love her design regardless.
We haven't seen any hint of Cheese Sandwich returning other than Wierd Al being open to it, so I don't know if we will ever see her again, but if we do, I will be more than happy to celebrate another glorious music episode.
(And we still need a longer version of The Spectacle.)
#2 - Starlight Glimmer
This pony right here proves that unicorns are dangerous. Can you imagine for a moment, if 33% of the population here on earth could literally start an apocalypse at will? They might need a little bit of study time to build up that magical energy, but Starlight's past proves that you don't need to be "gifted" to be a world-ending, overpowered unicorn. What if one was fired from her job on bad terms? Those videos on Youtube of people kicking computers over would quickly turn into city blocks being leveled.
I feel bad for Glimglim... but she may have over-reacted a tiny bit. Something as simple as losing her best buddie as a kid, (which I'm sure most of us have gone through as people move to different countries and states, or schools assign different districts to different neighborhoods) caused her to trainwreck into mind controlling a city of ponies, then shattering the space time continuum out of spite.
Regardless of all of that, her voice work is top notch and character design super appealing. Welcome to the reformed Star Pony club! Or the mane 6. I have no idea. It's going to be an interesting season in a few months.
#1 - Moon Dancer
Fortunately, not all unicorns decide to take their frustrations out on society like Starry up there. Moon Dancer went the complete opposite route when Twilight ditched her for greener pastures, and became the ultimate anti-social shut-in. If you could see me on any day that I have no plans to leave the house, I'd pretty much be that right up there, sweater and all (with boxers on of course).
Moony resonated well with the introverts of the fandom. She's the real deal. A lot of bronies have the same reservations as she does about getting themselves out there. Unlike Fluttershy or Marble Pie, she was much more relate-able to your typical nerd. As someone who stopped birthday parties in my early teens out of fear of no one showing up (I didn't even get to experience it actually happening), this pony struck home.
Similar to Night Glider, the love of Moon Dancer was pretty polarizing. If you don't fall into that specific introverted category, you probably couldn't relate to her at all. My post-episode discussions were a mix of people that either loved her or thought she was boring.
I want to see more of her in the future, but I could understand them not wanting to bring her back. Her role in Twilight's story has been played, and if anyone was ever going to be Twi's #2, it would probably be Starlight based on that season finale. Fingers crossed anyway.
As noted above, these were chosen by you, so don't hate the messenger!
Feel free to suggest top 10's you'd like to see us run. Or me and Vicodin run at least. We tend to be the ones that do them.
