Bradel Brainstorming – Character, Motivation and Conflict (2 of 3) · 3:18pm Jun 2nd, 2013
So with Part One out of the way, let's get to the juicy meat of this blog set: my laundry list of major MLP characters and their motivations! Feel free to give your own views in the comments, but this list pretty much constitutes my starting point for building stories about the Mane Six and Spike. Also, NB that in the MLP:FiM setting, nearly every character has "friendship" as a significant motivator, and that usually provides a reasonable excuse for involving just about anypony in any story.
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Twilight Sparkle: More than anything else, Twilight strikes me as somepony who wants to not disappoint other ponies she cares about. She has a lot of positive traits as a character, but the motivation that shows up time and time again in the show is largely negative, this fear of failure. "Swarm of the Century" (S1E10), "A Bird in the Hoof" (S1E22), "Lesson Zero" (S2E03) and "The Crystal Empire Pt. 1" (S3E01) are all episodes where Twilight's Celestia-neuroticism is on full display; and "The Ticket Master" (S1E03), "Boast Busters" (S1E06), and "Winter Wrap-up" (S1E11) all carry heavy threads of Twilight not wanting to disappoint her friends.
Not wanting to disappoint others isn't Twilight's sole character motivation, of course. The two other primary motivators I'd pick out, based on canon, would be (1) a desire to research, as seen in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" (S1E15) and appearing for character moments throughout the series; and (2) a desire to learn and try new things, as seen in "Look Before You Sleep" (S1E08) and "Fall Weather Friends" (S1E13).
If this list seems very front-loaded into Season 1, it is. When I built my reference list of episodes, to help me figure out where to go back and watch if I needed help with particular characters, I wound up listing Twilight in a major role for a good chunk of Season 1, almost none of Season 2, and a lot of Season 3. But between "The Crystal Empire", "Magic Duel", and "Magical Mystery Cure", Twilight's big episodes in Season 3 are less about Twilight and more about the world of MLP:FiM.
Applejack: One of the hardest things about writing Applejack, for me anyway, is that she just doesn't seem to show a lot of canon motivation. She's a very well-realized character, but she doesn't have the ambition of Rarity or Rainbow Dash. Applejack knows what she's going to do with her life, and she's perfectly happy to be doing it. That's not to say there's nothing to dig into, of course—just that I don't find it as meaty as what many of the other characters offer. Which is a shame, because AJ is one of my favorite ponies.
So what do we have? Well, Applejack's big motivator is obviously her family. Of the AJ-starring series episodes, all but three involve the Apple family in some way. Whether it's looking after Sweet Apple Acres while Big Mac is out of commission ("Applebuck Season" – S1E04), helping out her relatives in Appleoosa ("Over a Barrel" – S1E21), being a good big sister (most of the CMC episodes), or putting together a bang-up family get-together ("Apple Family Reunion" – S3E08), we're given a lot of fodder for the idea that Applejack sees it as her duty to look out for her kin and carry on her family's traditions.
Outside of that? The other big drive on Applejack is her competitive nature. Nowhere is that seen more clearly than in "Fall Weather Friends" (S1E13, a.k.a. "The Episode that Launched a Thousand Ships"), but it's also on display in "The Last Roundup" (S2E14) and "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" (S2E15). But it seems like even the show writers have a bit of a hard time pinning down good motivations for AJ. Two of her episodes—"Look Before You Sleep" (S1E08) and "Spike at Your Service" (S3E09)—really revolve around behavioral conflicts more than motivational conflicts. "Look Before You Sleep" manages to tie things back to the characters well, and is one of my favorite episodes. "Spike at Your Service", not so much (though the imitation timber wolf sounds like exactly the sort of thing I might come up with).
ETA: Bookplayer makes some very good points in the comments about Applejack being motivated by a sense of responsibility toward not just her family but the whole of Ponyville, and she cites some good evidence from the show. Go read her comment. I think she's dead-on; I absolutely missed this bit.
Rarity: You might not think so, but Rarity's motivations are actually a bit of a muddle. On the one hand, she has an overwhelming desire to create things of beauty. More than that, really—she wants to make her world a more beautiful place. The "Generosity" scene with Stephen Magnet doesn't involve Rarity using her artistic abilities, even though the end goal remains the creation (or restoration) of something beautiful. We don't actually get a whole lot of plot associated with Rarity's creative / beautifying side, either. Beyond "Suited for Success" (S1E14) and perhaps "Games Ponies Play" (S3E12), it's more a background element than a central point for story conflict.
And her other primary motivation is... what exactly? Does she want her creativity to be recognized by the Equestrian elite, or does she want to become one of the Equestrian elite? The two goals aren't mutually exclusive, obviously, but I don't feel like we ever get a particularly good idea of which one is more important to Rarity. The secondary stories in "Suited for Success" and "A Dog and Pony Show" (S1E19) both involve Rarity's desire for recognition, but "The Best Night Ever" (S1E26) and "Sweet and Elite" (S2E09) both show a Rarity more concerned with hobnobbing than with being recognized for her skill. And this is clearly highlighted when, in "Sweet and Elite", Twilight compliments Rarity on being sensible about how to sell more dresses. Rarity runs with the excuse, but seems to show no awareness of the connection between her two ostensible motivations before that point.
That said, if I had to rank-order those two priorities, I'd say Rarity is more motivated to get recognition than to join the elite. When things with Equestrian VIPs go south, Rarity always comes back to her friends. And while Rarity hits existential crisis mode in "Suited for Success" and is clearly upset over failing to be recognized in "Green Isn't Your Color" (S1E20), we never really see her react that way to events in Canterlot.
Rainbow Dash: Rainbow Dash wants to join the Wonderbolts (cf. Every Episode Ever).
Oh, fine. You want more than that? Rainbow scores higher on self-monitoring than any other character in the show. Even beyond Twilight, Rainbow is driven by what other ponies think of her. She wants them to recognize that she's awesome... but she wants companionship too. Where I think the motivational split in Rarity's character is a bit of a canon weakness, with Rainbow Dash it's clearly intentional and a canon strength. The difference, for me, comes in the fact that the show openly confronts the conflict between Rainbow's motivations. She thinks she wants everypony to see her as cool and radical. She's wrong. All she wants is acceptance and approval. Basically every episode that involves her preening in some way ("Fall Weather Friends" – S1E13, "Sonic Rainboom" – S1E16, "May the Best Pet Win" – S2E07, "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" – S2E08) resolves with Rainbow confronting her insecurities and growing closer to her friends. In "Read It and Weep" (S2E16), we start to see Rainbow realizing that she doesn't need to live up to the idealized image of "Rainbow Dash" for her friends to like her. And by the time Season 3 rolls around, we have Rainbow actively choosing to put more value in her relationships than in her image ("Sleepless in Ponyville" – S3E06) and renouncing her long-held dream when it threatens to hurt her friends ("Wonderbolt Academy" – S3E07). Rainbow Dash very nearly has a well-defined character arc through the first three seasons. Other characters grow over the course of the show so far, but nopony does it as linearly and thoroughly as Rainbow.
That's not all there is to Rainbow Dash, of course, but it's the biggest chunk of her motivation. Her desire to prove she's the best is a big part of her competitiveness, but it's not the whole of that competitiveness. She's also just plain fun-loving, like Pinkie Pie, and the opportunity for endorphins or a laugh are usually motivation enough to get Rainbow Dash involved in something.
Fluttershy: Fluttershy is often actively unmotivated, which can make for some great gags in "Dragonshy" (S1E07), "Dragon Quest" (S2E21), and "Magic Duel" (S3E05) where she subverts the heroic action plan (or even the day's activities) by being unwilling to participate. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for very good character development.
But there is one thing that really gets Fluttershy worked up: helping her friends or anyone she sees as being in her care, notably her critter pals. I said I wouldn't refer to the "friendship motivator" up at the top, since everypony has it, but it plays into Fluttershy's storylines more than those of the other main characters. She wants to make others happy and help them succeed. That's why she takes the CMC off of Rarity's hands in "Stare Master" (S1E17) and why she agrees to become a model at Rarity's behest in "Green Isn't Your Color" (S1E20). It's why she's so insistent that Rainbow give Tank a shot in "May the Best Pet Win" (S2E07) and why she saves the day in "Hurricane Fluttershy" (S2E22). And it's why she's such a great choice for reforming Discord in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" (S3E10)—because of all the Mane Six ponies, Fluttershy is the only one who actively wants Discord to succeed at reforming.
Fluttershy also shows a great deal of naturalistic curiosity, which is apparent both from her intereactions with her animals and her initial response to meeting Spike. There's a lot of overlap between Fluttershy's mothering motivation and her desire to look after the animals in her care, but it should be recognized that she has a real sense of wonder for the creatures of the earth that goes beyond her simple ability to care for them. Fluttershy isn't a researcher like Twilight, but she is still motivated to increase her knowledge of the natural world.
Pinkie Pie: There's a story on Fimfiction called "Pinkie Pie is an Eldritch Abomination"[1]. Yeah, pretty much.
For Pinkie, even more than for Fluttershy, friendship is unfortunately one of the best motivations we can pin down. But for Pinkie, we also have an entire episode ("A Friend in Deed" – S2E18) dedicated to the sole premise of Pinkie's almost pathological need to be friends with everyone—this on top of "Griffon the Brush-Off" (S1E05) which explores nearly the same conflict, but a bit less exclusively. Unfortunately, unless you're writing about an OC, Pinkie wanting to make new friends doesn't do much for story-writing since she's already friends with everypony she knows. So what else motivates Pinkie?
Um. Throwing parties? That's what her cutie mark is telling her, after all. Making desserts? Well, actually, we have two episodes which really do provide some characterization for Pinkie Pie: "Baby Cakes" (S2E13) and "Too Many Pinkie Pies" (S3E03). And they do have a common Pinkie motivation: she wants to help others. Pinkie couches it in terms of having fun, but she's legitimately annoyed in "Baby Cakes" when other ponies treat her like she's not responsible or up to the task of helping out like she wants. And in "Too Many Pinkie Pies", the episode's crisis stems from Pinkie's inability to decide with whom she wants to have fun. On one level, that can sound like the shallow "Pinkie's only in it for the fun" motivation, but I think it goes a bit deeper. Some of the things that come up as opportunities for fun in the episode include: helping Applejack raise a barn, helping Rarity make haute-couture fashions, and helping Rainbow Dash... do weather pony things. For Pinkie, everything is fun, so fun isn't really much of a motivation. And Pinkie is very rarely interested in having fun by herself. What Pinkie Pie really wants, much like Sweetie Belle, is to feel useful. If she doesn't feel useful, that's when she starts to get depressed or upset (cf. "Party of One" – S1E25, "Baby Cakes", "A Friend in Deed" and "Too Many Pinkie Pies").
Spike: I hate to say this, because I do kind of like Spike, but the little guy really doesn't have much in the way of motivation. This is probably why so many of his episodes fall flat. His crush on Rarity, his desire for treasure, and his love of food don't really make for deep character motivations. They're all pretty shallow, surface things. I don't have the same aversion to Sparity a lot of people seem to have—largely because Spike shows that his personality is a good match for Rarity's throughout the series—but I've never been able to take it seriously as anything but an aged-up prospect. In the timeline of the show, Spike simply lacks the depth and maturity for Sparity to make any sense.
And why is that? Because Spike does have one key motivation that shows up every once in a while: his need to understand himself. That's the entire point of "Dragon Quest" (S2E21) and "Spike at Your Service" (S3E09), although the latter is a bit ham-handed about handling it. Uncertainty about who he is and his role in Ponyville is also at the heart of "Owl's Well That Ends Well" (S1E24). Spike's key conflicts, and his key motivations, revolve around understanding himself. And as long as Spike doesn't understand himself, Sparity is a non-issue. He's fundamentally incapable of understanding Rarity on anything more than a surface level until he has a better sense of who he is. His feelings for Rarity can't progress beyond the crush stage until he's capable of engaging with Rarity herself rather than his idealized image of Rarity. Until then, she's inextricably a part of his search for identity, and his feelings are less a reflection on her and more a reflection on him.
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So what's the takeaway here? Well, in a series about the magic of friendship, it shouldn't be too surprising that most of our primary character motivations are interpersonal. But if the above profiles sounded repetitive, I'd encourage you to take a step back for a moment and look at them together. The characters in MLP:FiM largely want different things in their interpersonal relationships. Twilight and Rarity are both looking for the approval of others. Rainbow Dash acts like she's looking for approval, but all she really wants is to feel connected. Pinkie wants more than a connection—she wants to feel useful. And while Fluttershy may occasionally seem like that's her motivation as well, what's really driving her is a desire to see her friends succeed. She doesn't have to get any social reinforcement out of that. Among the Mane Six, Applejack is the odd one out. She's already pretty well-adjusted, and so most of her motivations deal less with personal psychology and more with doing well by her family.
And Spike is on a journey of self-discovery, so for all intents and purposes he's living in a different series. 
[1] I went and read this story, actually, just to see if it was worth mentioning on the blog. It's a short little 2000 words, tagged [Dark] and [Random], and one of the best Lovecraft pastiches I've read. It's not actually all that dark, but you do feel bad for Twilight by the end of it. Definitely something I'd recommend.
Nicely put.
I think that the muddl-y part of Rarity's motivation is actually a great hook for writing about her. She's obsessed with hobnobbing, yes, but why? Obviously, you could make her shallow and snobby and solve it all by making her into Hyacinth Bucket, but that's diminishing Rarity for one, and second Hyacinth never kicked a manticore in the face, now did she?
So why is Rarity focused on hobnobbing beyond and, arguably, in opposition to her presumed goal of finding a wider audience for her artistic skills? I think that Rarity is, hah, a perfection seeker. She wants to make things, all things, better. It fits with the generosity theme -- she works hard to make other look beautiful, to increase, in fact, the general beauty of the world. And, since the connection to the elements is always one of conflict[1] she is as focused on herself as she is on others.
So Rarity wants to be beautiful? Well that's obvious. Ah, but it's not just about being beautiful, it's about being better. Improved. Greater than you were. Perfected. And this drive towards perfection, within and without, drives Rarity, I think. Even her aspirations towards the elite -- if she believes that the upper crust is truly better, finer, more subtle, more perfect, joining them is a key part of her drive towards self-perfection. In essence, she seeks the aristocracy because she wants to be a True Lady[2].
I'm going to try to make this characterization work in a fic I'm tentatively working on. Whether I'll succeed...
It doesn't bear thinking about.
As for Spike, poor dear Spike, he really lacks well defined motivations. Even his quest for identity is...ugh. That, I suspect, is why I haven't written anything with him yet. I just don't know what to do with the tyke.
[1] Which is so pronounced in the show I've elected to believe that it is a feature of the elements themselves.
[2] And to elevate those closest to her to the same status, too. She does seem to pester her friends about appearance and behavior a lot, doesn't she? She's usually quite socially savvy, so why do it? Because she is, honestly, trying to help, trying to perfect them, just as she tries to perfect herself.
1119983 I was intentionally trying to avoid going too much past simple canon analysis in the body of the blog post, but I absolutely agree that the muddlyness of Rarity's motivations is a great hook for either Rarity stories or Rarity character arcs in non-Rarity stories. It's exactly the sort of thing I was talking about in the first post about motivations coming into conflict internally and providing some good pony vs. self action.[1]
Dash and Twilight are also great characters for internal conflict, but that's been explored some within the series for both of them (with the aforementioned complete Dash character arc, and with Twilight actively choosing her empiricism over her desire to not disappoint in "A Canterlot Wedding Pt. 1" (S2E25). I suspect I could dream some up for the other characters here, too, but Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash are the three for whom it comes most easily for me.
[1] Not that type of action. Get your mind out of the gutter.
There. Right there. That's why Applejack is so damn boring. Not because of any cultural devaluation of her lifestyle or values, but because she's really got nothing going on for her. She's really the most mature of the mane cast, and this leaves a narrower window to use her personality for creating conflict. It can still be done, but I think this is why a lot of Applejack stories tend toward similar tropes: hiding her sexuality, running out of money, etc.
Great journal post. I'm glad I started following you. :)
1120068 I've never understood the idea of Applejack stories where hiding her sexuality is a major point of plot or conflict. I kind of get that you could throw together a whole "Element of Honesty" thing, but... it's just so far divorced from canon that I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. First of all, Applejack has to have a sexuality, which canon doesn't really comment on. Then she has to have a reason to hide it, and canon never gives any clues that sexuality-based prejudices exist in Equestria. Nor that they don't, particularly—but either way, the conflict has to be rendered out of whole cloth. I kind of get why it might arise in fanfiction, but it's a story type that feels almost as AU as Fallout: Equestria to me.
The money thing I find a little more reasonable, but at the same time I think it's better subverted than used straight because, as 1119983 once pointed out to me, the Apple family got a land grant from Celestia herself. Unless they mortgaged the property to the hilt after the fact, they're awfully well set-up and don't really need to worry about money.
Which is precisely why I have a story idea for Big Macintosh, with his fancy mathematics, telling Applejack she needs to go out and earn some money to keep the farm afloat; and Applejack, being essentially innumerate, going along with it and raking in the money, never realizing that Big Mac is building himself a financial empire and that the farm has been perfectly fine all along. (That's not the conflict of the story idea, incidentally, just the frame for it)
But yes, I agree that without adding a little non-canonical spice, Applejack can be a hard character to use. Happy ponies make for bad drama.
1120068>>1120398
I'm not sure I agree re: Applejack. At least one source of conflict is easily enough found. The way you two see her -- dull, on the end of her character arc, staid, boring, stable, and dependable might well be how others see her. Indeed, it probably is, since she tries to cultivate this image. And at one point she may look at her friends who are, by and large, busy becoming -- Pinkie's, well, Pinkie, Twilight's not only changed species recently, but is always in the process of learning something and hoping it transforms her, Rarity wants (as mentioned) to be a True Lady, Rainbow (as everyone knows) wants to be a Wonderbolt, Spike is on a quest to find an identity to call his own, and even timid old Fluttershy has flirted with being New Fluttershy.
And Applejack? Well she's who she's always been. Dependable. Boring.
You could (and some authors have, of course) get a lot of mileage out of Applejack feeling trapped in the perfect but static role that she plays[1]. You could even complicate things by having her both dissatisfied and angry (at herself? others?) that she is dissatisfied. She has her family! She has soil she tills with her own hooves! She has friends! To want more is surely selfishness? To want more is surely something a good pony wouldn't do. And she wants to be a good pony, a dependable pony! Doesn't she?
And so on. Or you could give her a non-Applejackian interest. Something that doesn't quite fit. Fr'instance, here's an interesting question (for me): We know Rainbow was the only of the Mane Seven who didn't read for pleasure[2], right? So. What does Applejack read? Everyone else has a stereotype in fanon, at least. Twilight reads everything, twice, with a dictionary chaser. Rarity is popularly assumed to read romance novels. Rainbow, we know, is a devotee of adventure fiction. Pinkie Pie reads either comic novels, cosmic horror, or advanced mathematics depending on the author. Fluttershy, depending on how naughty the author is feeling, reads either fairy tales or the more, ah, explicit sort of romance novel. How about Applejack? And what does the answer tell us?[3]
[1]
There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best,
for my talents are renowned far and wide!
When it comes to apples, trees, and bark
I excel without ever even trying.
With the slightest little effort of my powerful hooves,
I have seen tall trees give all they have!
With the wave of my hat, and a well placed kick
I have swept whole bushelfulls at once!
Yet year after year, it's the same by-and-by
And I grow so weary of the taste of pie!
And I, Applejack, the Apple Queen
have grown so tired of this whole routine!
With apologies to Tim Burton and humanity in general.
[2] Well we only have the words of the Mane Six, but it is beyond human imagining that someone would live with Twilight Sparkle and not read.
[3] In my head she's a massive Fetlock Holmes fangirl. I may yet write a story where this is a plot point.
Though I've never so much as mentioned it in a story or anything, ever since this piece of fanart (and the possibly-derived song), A.J. is head-canonically extremely fond of pirate fiction. Maybe it's just that I see her with a mercantile and gold-loving streak, but I think she gets sort of a naughty thrill in her head about a giant chest full of gold that she didn't have to work to obtain.
1120472
Er, that last one was meant to be a reply to you rather than to the topic at large. Sorry for muddying the thread.
1120779>>1120783
Well she does have a thing for hats.
There's any number of ways you could spin it...you could go all serious and make it about implied freedom of the high seas and the futility (possibly a pleasant futility -- it's always easier to want things which are impossibly far way, it's the stuff that seems close but not quite that really smarts) of an Earth Pony from the most landlocked place in all of Equestria dreaming about it.
Or you could go for the mercantile and gold-loving aspect of it -- the notion of building a piratical empire where hard work brings piles of gold and mountains of jewels -- she could be a fan of someone like Ching Shih, though obviously ponified. Or qilin-fied, as the case may be.
Or you could just set phasers to 'silly' and have irresponsible fun with the notion.
1120472
That song. I think someone just won the thread.
1120779 This is actually a topic that's kind of near and dear to my heart (as 1120472 well knows), since I have a long-standing interest in doing a cycle of stories in the same continuity as "The Amazingly Awesome Adventures of Tank the Tortoise (by R. Dash)"[1], with ponies writing fiction of their own. Pinkie Pie's House of Leaves / At the Mountains of Madness story is first on the agenda, followed by Fluttershy's romantic journey into the realm of foal's lit. Twilight I know what I want to do, but I always have a bit harder time pinning down writing inclinations for Rarity and Applejack.
To me, the most sensible thing would be for Applejack to read cowpony stories, of course. The works of Louis La'Mare and Mane Grey. But pirates could definitely work. Cowboys are basically a half-step between your "honorable warrior" stories (samurai and medieval knights) and your "gallant rogue" stories (pirates and other assorted ne'er-do-wells), so shifting Applejack into any of those neighboring interests as a form of fairly minor escapism seems reasonable.
Yes, I think I'm very much liking this idea...
Also, that fanart is wonderful. (And the song no less so.)
[1] My first fanfic after like four years off from writing! See, now I can get away with saying stuff like that, since it's already well-received and this comment isn't going to make people beat down my door running away from supposed badfic.
dedicated to the sole premise of Pinkie's almost pathological need to be friends with everyone
Almost pathological?
Yeah, if they tried to make the show follow real-world rules, the whole thing would be taking place inside an asylum anyway :)
Pinkie is fairly straightforward. (well, you know what I mean). She wants others to be happy, which makes her happy. The best line I ever wrote for her (regarding my favorite two broken Night Pegasi) was this:
“When I first saw you and Laminia, it made me so sad inside. I mean, you both were so miserable, and looked like you were happy being sad. But after awhile, I saw you were both sad that you were sad, but when you were together, you were happy, but you were unhappy that you weren’t sad, which made you sad that you were happy but I think that if you both learned to be happy being happy you wouldn’t want to be sad any more and then we could have a PARTY!”
1121416 I quite like your roleplaying framing, though I've never messed with the White Wolf system so I don't have much of a feel for it.
If you'll permit me a totally irrelevant tangent, however...
Did anyone else ever find it weird how much Joss Whedon's Firefly played like a particularly well-GM'ed game of GURPS with Space Cowboys? You can almost read the character advantages and disadvantages straight out of a GURPS manual. And going character-to-character, it feels like everyone's been built to the same base point specification and the more powerful characters are just the ones who took more disadvantages. As much as I like Firefly, I've always found this a bit unnerving.
Very good points about Spike & Applejack.
1120783 Have you been routinely sending people PMs and depriving your faithful flock of your wit for fear of "muddying up" threads? BAD writing deity!
That's what threads are for!
Just for that, I'm going to pray to someone else tonight.
1126972
Eh, don't worry. I'm much too fond of the sound of my own virtual voice to keep my unquestionably keen and brilliant[1] observations about My Little Pony to myself for long. Resume praying.
[1] Keen and brilliant LIKE A KNIFE WITH A FLASHLIGHT TAPED TO IT. That's just how I roll, baby.
Ahem. Just got around to reading this.
You left out one major canon motivation for Applejack, one that's a part of a few episodes, fits in nicely with everything else, and I think is a possible hook for some very good Applejack stories: In addition to her family, Applejack seems to be the only one with a sense of responsibility towards Ponyville itself. This plays a part in Applebuck Season, Look Before You Sleep, Winter Wrap-Up, and is the impetus in The Last Roundup. She's also the only one of the mane six who's helping to run the Nightmare Night festivities in Luna Eclipsed. This probably comes from her family history, but neither Apple Bloom nor Big Mac seem to be as involved in the town. Applejack seems to have become the representative of the Apple family in their role of founders of Ponyville.
This presents a lot of potential conflict not addressed by the show yet. She's dedicated to serving the concept of a town that she has no real control over, except as a respected citizen. She might consider someday playing a part in controlling it, as mayor or in some other official capacity. She might not like some decision and need to decide between Ponyville and some other value, or even Ponyville and Equestria.
Anyway, otherwise I think you're spot on.
Also, re 1120472 and Applejack's reading habits, I've always seen her as a reader of biographies and a bit of a history buff (especially earth pony history). I think it fits well with the element of honesty (in preferring non-fiction to fiction) and with her respect for tradition. It could someday make for a good story about Applejack dealing with a conflicting perspectives of an event, and just wanting to know which one is right when there is no good answer.
1129619 Oh, I suppose I should reply to your comment too.
This is a great observation, and I absolutely missed it in my run-through. I've edited the original blog post to take care of that (and I'll need to edit the third one similarly I think, for what Scramblers and Shadows had to say about Scootaloo). And I think you're absolutely right—this is one of the most story-useful motivations Applejack has. This has already got me thinking.
The reason Rarity's motivations seem muddled is because of Rarity herself. Rarity loves to be useful and helpful. She loves to be creative and make dresses. She loves to be appreciated, whatever form that might take. Ultimately everything is a means to three ends - her love of being generous (it makes her happy), her love of being appreciated (related to the former, but also an independent motivation), and her desire to succeed in fashion.
In truth, I suspect in the long term, she'll find that the appreciation of the Canterlot elite isn't actually what she wanted. More or less, it seems really awesome, but when it comes right down to it, she really has nothing in common with the hangers-on, and they really have nothing to give her but attention. Vain as Rarity is, she isn't actually shallow.
As far as Rainbow Dash goes, I think that it is more than just joining the Wonderbolts. She LIKES being a hero, and being a Wonderbolt automatically makes you a hero. But she also really strongly believes in not letting others down in general, which is why she takes on responsibility, such as providing water for rain in Hurricane Fluttershy. She also is all about self-improvement - even IF no one else appreciated her flying, she would STILL love it and would want to get better, because it makes her happy.
Fluttershy's primary motivator is caring for others, but she lacks ambition. Of all the characters she has the least motivation to get out of her comfort zone.
Pinkie's motivation isn't just to make friends and throw parties, it is actually part of a deeper desire, to make people HAPPY. It isn't JUST about friends, or parties, or any of that stuff, but making people smile. That is Pinkie's ultimate reward.