Warning: contains spoilers if you haven't read through the entire story yet.

Player 1: Daniel Holden - age 29
Starting Location: Everfree Forest
Translation type: No bonus; must learn Equestrian the hard way.
Near code for: Kindness (on the far side of the tree directly behind him at start, grown into the bark as lighter/darker patches)
Item: Fractal spider (1 nanospider to start). The nanospider is a nanomachine about the size of a human cell in the form of a single incredibly complex, magic-empowered molecule. The nanospider can self replicate, communicate with others of its kind, and perform simple logical/mathematical operations similar to a general purpose CPU. As more of them interconnect, the resulting network takes on an intelligence to rival or even exceed humans, but lacks self motivation and true creativity. On their own, these networks interconnect into the form of robotic spiders, but they can also connect to the mind of a living being from inside their blood stream. A nanospider infection kills off the host's natural immune system, taking over its function, meaning that once infected someone can never safely be freed of the spiders without becoming extremely vulnerable to illness.
Character notes: Daniel is prone to holding back too much, and being afraid to hurt even his enemies. His villainous fictional avatar, Istaran, is quite free of that problem and is always happy to take over when things need to get done.

Player 2: Rebecca Redcliff - age 32
Starting Location: Trixie's mobile stage
Translation type: starts near a unicorn capable of translation magic
Near code for: Magic (etched into the glass of an ancient potion flask)
Item: Video player preloaded with every episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
She chose this as a way to familiarize herself with the land and its people so she wouldn't be so blindsided. (She knew enough to recognize the name 'Equestria' but was otherwise basically unaware of the series' details.) What she didn't realize in advance was that she was thrust in between seasons 1 and 2, and thus had a device that told how a good chunk of the future would play out.
Character notes: She was riding on the bus with her 10 year old son. Forced with the prospect of only one winner, she planned to do her best to bring him to victory, even if it meant killing herself to get him over the finish line.

Player 3: Robert Redcliff - age: see below
Starting Location: Badlands deep desert
Translation type: No bonus; must learn Equestrian the hard way.
Near code for: Laughter (in the form of blocks of rock in the desert buried under sand; intended to be revealed by playing the Song of Storms on the Ocarina of Time to wash away the sand)
Item: Ocarina of Time. The musical instrument can be used to reset time to the beginning of the game (only the person playing it remains as they were when they played it, along with their inventory. The Ocarina itself will always reset to Robert's possession though if someone else plays that song). Alternatively, it can achieve many other results from the games it was in, such as disappearing until Dusk/Dawn, speeding the flow of distant events, or teleporting. The teleportation songs are not the songs from the games, but instead suitable themes for each of the locations highlighted in the show.
Character notes: Started out 10 years old, but grew to 25 over the course of many loops through the games, including a few instances where he abandoned the game for a while to go live in another country for a time. Tries to live up to the legacy of Link, largely as a matter of pragmatism: Equestria can be a dangerous place, and being proficient in sword and bow is a good idea.

Player 4: Scott Jones - age 57
Starting Location: Lower Canterlot
Translation type: starts near a unicorn capable of translation magic
Near code for: Loyalty (on the cornerstone of the courthouse a block or so away)
Item: Can of infinite soup. It is a generic metal soup can with no label, and one side already opened. If turned sideways or upside down, it pours out hot, ready to eat soup of the type envisioned by the person holding it until it is righted.
Character notes: Was a bum on Earth, skilled at navigating the welfare state to provide his humble needs without actually doing anything for pay. Happy to help anyone who asked for a personal favor within his ability without need for compensation. Anything he can offer he is happy too, just don't expect him to conform to your capitalist notions of responsibility.

Player 5: Frank Cobbler - age 35
Starting Location: Golden Oak Library
Translation type: starts near a unicorn capable of translation magic
Near code for: Magic (on a page on an ancient tome on magic, particularly related to theoretical applications of teleportation magic, in a chapter about theories regarding the existence of other inhabited worlds)
Item: Swiss Army Knife. Can magically fix anything that can be physically manipulated with its tools, even if the problem is magical in nature.
Character notes: All around handyman and loyal family man, Frank just wants to go home.

Player 6: Monique Ashland - age 17
Starting Location: Appleoosa
Translation type: free; the Text replaced her knowledge of English with Equestrian
Near code for: Honesty (on the wall behind a rack of clothes at a local tailor shop)
Item: Infinite Wardrobe, a large suitcase that contains whatever articles of clothing you are looking for.
Character notes: Believes that you should always look your best, especially on an alien world! Always happy to lend a dress, and some clearly much needed fashion advise, you tasteless cretin. Means well, no matter how obnoxious she can come off. Good friend to Angelica.

Player 7: Angelica Ericson - age 17
Starting Location: Vanhoover
Translation type: free; the Text replaced her knowledge of English with Equestrian
Near code for:
Item: Working Internet connection. In the form of a wifi router that doesn't need to be plugged in, it has a high speed connection to Earth's internet from anywhere in the multiverse.

Player 8: Joshua Swift - age 39
Starting Location: Manehattan
Translation type: starts near a unicorn capable of translation magic
Near code for: Generosity (on a briefcase sitting abandoned in the middle of the stock exchange floor for who knows how long)
Item: Skull totem. Any injury that would befall his daughter is instead visited on the bearer of the skull totem. His request was "I just want to be able to protect my daughter".
Character notes: a ruthless and cunning wheeler and dealer. Despite his apparent love of money, he loves his daughter more than anything else.

Player 9: Relena Swift - age 8
Starting Location: Gryphonia wilds
Translation type: free; the Text replaced her knowledge of English with Equestrian
Near code for: Loyalty (on the inside of the top of the treasure chest in the basement of her abandoned fort)
Item: Toodles (tm), from the Mickey Mouse Club. Every day, it picks 2-3 'mouskatools', plus 1 'mystery mouskatool'. These items are fairly normal mundane items, or cartoonish variations, which Toodles manifests when requested. The items last until no one is paying attention to them. Toodles powers include a form of precognition: it just knows what items you will happen to need that day to solve whatever problems arise.
Character notes: Relena is an 8 year old girl, but much more intelligent and capable than most expect from her, having learned a lot from her father, both from his presence and absences. Relena can be brutally honest, often lacking a filter. Mickey Mouse Club isn't her favorite show (anymore) but she recognized the insane usefulness of Toodles as a utility, and didn't know what problems she would face in Equestria.

Player 10: Benjamin Coleman - age 21
Starting Location: Dragon's lair in the Smokey Mountains
Translation type: free; the Text replaced his knowledge of English with Equestrian
Near code for: Kindness (on a coin in the dragon's horde, carefully put up for display since it's an interesting oddity)
Item: The Omnitrix (tm) from Ben 10. While Ben is a bit old for the show, he enjoys it as a bit of a 'guilty pleasure', since the protagonist shares his first name. The Omnitrix vaguely resembles a wrist watch, though it permanently affixes itself to its user's wrist until death, and doesn't actually tell the time. Instead it allows the user to assume the form of any of a wide variety of alien races. Ben's version includes all of the abilities of the later versions from the show, including not only a stupidly large cast of aliens but also the ability to acquire more from exposure to live specimens: for example, it could allow Ben to turn into a dragon, or with a little travel in Equestria proper, any of the pony tribes. It grants all of the forms' natural abilities, but not the knowledge of what those abilities are or how to use them, making it difficult to use effectively without practice.
Character notes: Ben can be as brash as his namesake from the cartoon, and easily overestimates the Omnitrix' abilities. This typically results in an early death by dragon, when he could have survived by talking humbly to the dragon or using a speedster form to run away very fast (without taking anything, as that would have caused the dragon to hunt him down).

Player 11: Zeke Goldstein - age 20
Starting Location: Dodge Junction
Translation type: starts near a unicorn capable of translation magic
Near code for: Honesty (on the bottom of a floorboard in his room at the inn)
Item: Working Magic: the Gathering cards. Whatever deck is in his deck holster will begin functioning when drawn. It must be a legal M:tG deck between 60 and 100 cards. His cards work until he either voluntarily returns them to the holster or loses by drawing out his deck, or dies. While his cards are active, 19 concentric forcefields protect him from harm, representing his 'life'. (The 20th point of life is his physical body.) These forcefields can be replenished by use of certain cards (even exceeding the original 19), or in some cases spent to activate powerful abilities from cards. The cards translate the game concepts into reality, including a translation of time to turns (each turn takes 10 seconds of real time), the mana cards filling him with real magical energy (a unicorn using the cards could use it to power their natural spellcasting, or use their natural magic to pay the costs of cards), and the summon cards summoning simulated creatures into reality. Some cards can end up translated in surprising ways, like Unsummon returning a creature to the place it calls 'home', rather than a non-existant hand.
Character notes: Zeke is a gamer, through and through. While Magic is his passion, he has a broad familiarity with many genre and will happily talk your ear off about anything gaming related.

Player 12: Ryan Smith - age 16
Starting location: Badlands, near changeling hive
Translation type: free, but not applicable. He never exchanged words with a single Equestrian.
Near code for: Laughter (carved into the rock of one of the tunnels leading into the changeling hive)
Item: Magic MCV. Capable of building any structure or (indirectly) unit from any Command & Conquer videogame, including all three branches of the series. The MCV can shift between different variations from different games, including everything from the GLA worker (a fake human that acts by voice control) to the massive Crawlers from C&C4. The standard varieties which unpack into a Construction Yard retain the ability to repack even when emulating games that lacked that option. Except for the Worker variety, there is always a keyboard and mouse setup inside controlling all of the forces (including the MCV) in accordance with the source games' control scheme. A button panel allows switching to different forms.
Any building the MCV can make in its current form is free, but three resource accounts (one for each game series) are maintained, and any units or buildings from other games or factions (if a suitable builder has been built) cost resources. These mostly come from 'selling' buildings, but can also come from harvesting tiberium (nonexistent), gold or gems (hard to find in sufficient quantities where a harvester can reach them), or boxes of supplies (highly available in civilian areas, as anything in a box is magically converted). Selling buildings generally releases a few free basic soldiers, in addition to some cash, making those soldiers more prevalent than Ryan would normally prefer.
Character notes: Ryan was intended to be modelled after the Digimon Emperor from Digimon season 2, but this didn't really come across with the lack of interaction. His playstyle would naturally preclude much dialogue ever occurring. Still, the underlying aspect remains: Ryan views the world he is in as unreal. The Equestrians are as fake to him as the fake human soldiers he sends against them, and the other humans are merely VR projections of themselves into this game, the same as himself. In short, he doesn't believe any of the death in this world to be real. This is all just a game, and he intends to win. With a Conquest victory.