My tips for how to accurately write the Mane 6 (and Spike)

After having written each of the main cast in this fanfic, and while I suffer through a period of writer's block in it, I've decided to write a blog post about how I capture each of their personalities and ways of talking through text. I've ordered them by their first appearance in my fic.

Rarity

Out of all the Mane 6, Rarity is the one I enjoy writing the most. She puts on an uptight exterior, which she expresses using complex vocabulary and statements about how a proper lady like herself does things. But she easily lets her excitable side slip, especially when places like Canterlot or Manehattan are brought up, or when she gets a burst of inspiration for a creative project. She holds visual design in high regard, and she gets a strong emotional reaction from buildings, clothes, or combinations of colors that either look gorgeous or hideous to her. If you want to write Rarity, you'd better have a versatile, colorful vocabulary. If you think a word doesn't sound fancy enough, don't hesitate to research synonyms!

The trick to making Rarity so lovable is to balance her uptight side with her awkward slip-ups and her incredibly goofy excitement. She should typically sound proud and confident, but when she's asked a question she can't answer, she gets hilariously incoherent. And when she's pushed over the edge, she can snap at others and give them a real piece of her mind.

Other tics of writing Rarity include:

• The word "darling" (obviously); also "dear"
• Lots of overdramatic emphasis, which I normally convey using italics—or if she's agitated, ALL CAPS
• Commands that start with "do" (like "Do be a dear and...)
• Obscure names for colors like chartreuse and aubergine
• Repeating words like "now, now"
• Occasional French words

Applejack

Most people when writing Applejack convey her accent to some degree, like by replacing "I" with "ah", "-ing" with "in' ", "your" with "yer", or "don't you" with "don'tcha". While it's a matter of personal choice how much you want to put those tics in text, some people rely entirely on them to write a good Applejack, which you shouldn't do.

As the element of honesty, Applejack will blurt out exactly what is on her mind, and won't easily back down from her views. If something doesn't make sense to her, she'll say exactly why it doesn't make sense. She alternates with Twilight Sparkle as the rational mind of the group, and she's often the one to give straightforward, logical advice while the others propose zany ideas. There's no denying it: Applejack does lie sometimes. When she's lying, she will stutter and make something up on the spot, while sweating and nervously laughing.

You can't write Applejack without at least some country-isms, and you should get creative with them! They can be elaborate metaphors related to apples and farming, or simple phrases you might hear in an old-timey cowboy movie. Admittedly, that's the part I find toughest about writing Applejack. When writing her, I focus more on how she reacts to a given situation than what sort of country-ism she would use to express it.

Fluttershy

I find Fluttershy the easiest Mane 6 member to write. She's all about being extremely polite and patient, with phrases ranging from "oh, goodness" to "um, sorry..." to "if it's okay with you", all tied together with strong use of ellipses. But there's more to Fluttershy's character than being soft-spoken and meek. Since she's so introverted, her mind is a little too focused on how she would solve a problem, which typically involves getting help from her animals. She gets confident and excited in these ideas, and that causes amusing friction with her friends, who don't always react quite as well to these little creatures' shenanigans.

If pushed over the edge, Fluttershy can absolutely tear into someone, sternly expressing how disappointed she is with their actions, and in situations like this, you don't want to mess with her. I think everyone knows that you should use this feature of her character wisely, only in the most extreme situations.

Pinkie Pie

Writing Pinkie Pie is the trickiest balancing game of all. You have to balance her logic-defying cartoon humor with her insecurities about how her friends see her, and if done right, these traits can complement each other beautifully. There is so much that goes into writing her that it could take up an entire post, and I don't know how to begin explaining how to write her. But I'll try anyway.

Pinkie Pie has a surrealistic ability to memorize insane amounts of information, and she demonstrates it all the time. When recounting a memory or experience, she says it all in one uninterrupted tirade, narrating every event and circumstance that led up to this action while going on frequent tangents. She's also very literal-minded, which doesn't just mean she interprets metaphors literally. It also means that she will take others' indirect statements at face value, and can't grasp the nuance of a situation unless it's spelled out. She can reach a breaking point and turn into a melancholy nihilist, but that's extremely rare, and in most situations her plucky attitude can't be kept down.

Another prominent trait of Pinkie Pie's dialogue is her love of wordplay. When writing her, it's always welcome to spice up her dialogue with alliteration, rhyming, puns, and portmanteaus—especially combinations of words that you have never once heard or read in real life.

Rainbow Dash

In some ways, writing Rainbow Dash is the opposite of writing Rarity. Rainbow Dash's way of talking is blunt and to the point, using simple vocabulary and so-called "buffy speak" to express how she feels about a topic. This is a point of difficulty for me, given my love of exotic vocabulary. When writing Rainbow Dash, I often go back and think, "wait, that's not a word Rainbow Dash would say", and replace it with a simpler word. She uses plenty of informal expressions like "I mean", "come on", and "like" or "look" as filler words.

Rainbow Dash's straightforward way of expressing her thoughts applies both when she's being her ordinary brash and confident self, and when she's expressing a side of her that she tries to downplay, like her cuddly affectionate side, or her conventionally girly side. Her nerdy side comes up when someone brings up a topic she's knowledgeable on, in which case she won't hesitate to correct them and explain it, with some scorn that anyone could possibly misunderstand this topic so badly. I'm not just referring to her obsession with Daring Do books. Nothing's stopping you from deciding in your fic that she's also familiar with a scientific topic, and explaining such a topic in her blunt style leads to hilarity.

The toughest part about writing Rainbow Dash, which the show itself can struggle with, is keeping her motives sympathetic. She gets angered when things don't go her way, and will do foolish and skeevy things to get what she wants, but there should always be an understandable inner motive for why she's doing that.

Twilight Sparkle

It's a little tricky for me to explain how to write Twilight Sparkle, because in many ways I am a lot like her. She's a walking encyclopedia who confidently and proudly explains any topic she's well-versed in, like me. She thinks of everything in logical, quantifiable terms and thus has trouble understanding others' emotions, like me. And she doesn't like when others think she's capable of more than she is, like me. In most situations, Twilight Sparkle should be reasonably grounded in reality. She can get carried away with wild ideas, but when she's with her friends, she keeps things rational and straightforward—most of the time, anyway. She responds to her friends' unhinged antics with sarcasm or snooty blunt remarks, which always makes for good humor.

To write Twilight Sparkle, you need to carefully balance her humble side with her haughty side. Her confident leaderly mindset means that when devising a plan to tackle a tough situation, she doesn't always take others' feelings into account, and instead sees them as game pieces who will perfectly follow her orders. Though she undeniably loves her friends, her insensitive side is not to be ignored, and if done right it makes her a very interesting character.

Spike

Though he's the oddball of the main cast in both gender and species, Spike is a very down-to-earth guy. He keeps it real when the others don't, and much of his screen time is spent being Twilight Sparkle's straight man—the one who keeps her from going too off the wall, or at least tries to. As a sidekick archetype, this role makes perfect sense. He'll provide others with simple, rational ideas that they wouldn't think of, and he stops his friends from doing anything too stupid.

I find Spike's way of talking the least quirky of any of the main cast. If there's anything in his speech that I'd call a tic, it would be his penchant for sarcasm—a trait he shares with Twilight Sparkle.