Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle is a unicorn pony and the lead character of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Her hometown is Canterlot, where she formerly studied under Princess Celestia. She represents the element of magic.

Development
Lauren Faust's early design of Twilight Sparkle shared a similar color scheme and cutie mark to the G1 pony named Twilight, who appeared in the pilot episode Rescue at Midnight Castle, Twilight Sparkle's color scheme was later changed to that of the G3 earth pony Twilight Twinkle, with slightly different mane and tail. G1 Twilight teleports by wishing, and Twilight Twinkle likes to watch fireflies; Twilight Sparkle shares both aspects of both of these ponies, with her ability to teleport and her occasional stargazing, though she is much more studious and possesses more powerful magical abilities.

Personality
Before the time Twilight Sparkle is introduced to the citizens of Ponyville, she devoted all of her time and breaks to studying rather than making friends, and thought to herself that her studies and duties are more important than nearly everything else. In fact, she deliberately tried to avoid contact with anyone who tried to be friends with her, as she states that "the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends" and that Nightmare Moon's return is a more important business to attend to.

When she is ordered by Princess Celestia to see to the arrangements of the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville and to try and make friends, she still tries to avoid the latter request and focuses more on her studies. When Nightmare Moon appears, she tells her new friends that she's going to face her alone, but even so they all insist on aiding her with the task. After seeing how much her new friends would do for her, she begins to open up and realize that she needs her friends to defeat Nightmare Moon, and together they save Equestria from eternal night. After these events, Twilight's personality undergoes some changes. She is much more social, spends more time outside her usual routine, but still spends much of her time studying.

Twilight is rich of book-knowledge and she is rather scholarly, although this tends to be off-set by her relative lack of social skills and actual experience. She can appear both worldly and naive because of this, as demonstrated by her first slumber party during which she employed an instructional book on such topic; when a tree toppled through her bedroom window, she was at a loss for ideas because this detail was not in her book albeit because she was new to the idea of slumber parties and did not want to remove the tree from her premises only to discover it was a regular part of the slumber party experience. On the other hand, she took part in her first long-distance running event after having only read about the sport, and used the results of her studies to come in fifth place out of a large field of more athletic competitors.

Twilight Sparkle is the most educated of all her friends and tends to take a more practical approach to solving problems. She is straightforward, but prone to sarcasm when her friends are being unreasonable. She also quickly reacts negatively in things she does not believe in and usually either tries to find scientific proof or completely ignores such details when others doubt about her own doubts. Despite being highly intelligent and having extraordinary magical power, she remains very humble, not wanting to outshine her friends or make a big deal out of her talents, although she is willing to admit that she is the most talented unicorn in all of Ponyville by the end of Boast Busters. Despite her initial aversion to the concept of friendship, she treasures her friends more than anything and always does her best to be a good friend in return.

She is also very tidy and organized, and is seen on many occasions cleaning up her house, sorting her library, and helping with the cleaning and preparations of different events in Ponyville, such as Winter Wrap Up.

During The Return of Harmony, part 1 where Discord tricks them manages to brainwash all of her friends, Twilight tries to find the best in trying to let them cooperate, in the end finds it impossible to work it out. She becomes completely depressed at the thought and decides to leave Ponyville.

"With friends like you...who needs enemies?"

- Twilight Sparkle

However, just as she tells Spike the news, she finds all of the friendship reports she had sent to Celestia returned to her, which reminded her of the things her friends has done for her and what she has done for them. This gave her hope, and decides to stay in Ponyville and set off to find the others so she can save them.

Hasbro.com description
''Dutiful and intelligent, Twilight Sparkle is obsessed with one thing: studying magic! She once studied so much, she made no time for anypony else. That is until her mentor, Princess Celestia charged her with a special kind of magic--- friendship! Newly converted to the joys of friends, she uses her knowledge and unusually powerful gift for magical spells to help her companions in Ponyville. Though sometimes she gets on her "high horse" about what's right or wrong, her eagerness to learn and lend a helpful hoof endear her to her new friends in Ponyville, and when the going gets tough, her big brain and love for her friends transform into a natural born leader!''

Hubworld description
''For a unicorn who's new to the magic of friendship, Twilight Sparkle gets an "A+." She uses her magical powers to help her friends, and she's always ready to lend a helping hoof. Sometimes she gets on her high horse, but her love for her pals makes her a natural leader.''

Teacher for a Day description
''Meet Twilight Sparkle! She loves to read and study. The Royal Princess Celestia of Equestria has charged Twilight with learning something new: the meaning of friendship! She has a powerful gift for magical spells and uses it to lead her new friends through adventures in ponyville.''

There's no problem Twilight Sparkle can't solve, especially with the help of other ponies, a little bit of magic and guidance from Princess Celestia.

History
Twilight Sparkle tells the Cutie Mark Crusaders in The Cutie Mark Chronicles how, as a young filly in Canterlot, she always wanted to go to the Summer Sun Celebration. There, she witnessed Princess Celestia raising the sun, and it inspired her to read a great deal and learn everything she could about magic. Her parents decided to enroll her in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. However, there was one catch before she could enter: she had to pass an entrance exam. Under the supervision of four teacher ponies, she had to use her magic to hatch a dragon's egg. Despite her best initial efforts, the egg did not hatch, and it looked unlikely that she would be accepted into the school. Just then, Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom startled her and caused her horn to fire off a powerful beam, hatching the egg into the infant Spike.

Twilight was unable to control her raw magical power, causing it to overload and fire off a flurry of troublesome, random spells. Princess Celestia took notice of this and quickly arrived to control Twilight's magic. Twilight apologized, but Princess Celestia was not upset; instead, she recognized Twilight's power. She recommended that Twilight learn to tame her abilities through focused study, and offered to take Twilight Sparkle as her own personal protegé at the school, which explains her particularly affectionate attitude towards her. Twilight excitedly accepted the offer, and at that moment, her cutie mark appeared.

Skills
"True, for ponies whose talents are for things like cooking or singing or math. But what if a unicorn's special talent is magic?"

- Twilight discussing her talent to Spike

Twilight Sparkle, being a unicorn, has shown to be exceptionally skilled with her magic. Unicorns tend to only possess a small amount of magic that suits whatever talent they have, but Twilight, who wields the element of magic and whose special talent is magic, has proven herself to be a very powerful magician. While not as quick with her powers as some other unicorns, sometimes not using her magic at all when things are happening fast or making errors with a spell, when given a moment to think Twilight can come up with a spell for just about any situation. Twilight has shown strong ability with telekinesis, being able to simultaneously move dozens of apples at a time in Applebuck Season, and hold an Ursa Minor while moving a water tower and milking a barnful of cows in Boast Busters. She can also cast spells that control animals' behavior as in Swarm of the Century, and she ignites into flames both in Friendship is Magic, part 1 and Feeling Pinkie Keen, though these instances are more likely cartoon stylization. During Winter Wrap Up, she uses a "come-to-life" spell to get a heavy snowplow moving after she is unable to push it herself; the plow soon goes out of control, triggering an avalanche that buries the fields in snow. The Return of Harmony Part 1 shows her casting a "failsafe" spell, but it has no effect on the bizarre occurrences plaguing Ponyville. In The Return of Harmony Part 2, she uses a memory-restoring spell to break Discord's hold on her friends' minds. Twilight also has an ability to copy and improve on other unicorns' spells, as demonstrated in A Dog and Pony Show.

Twilight Sparkle's ability level of ability is unusual as Celestia stated in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, noting she's never seen her level of raw ability in a unicorn before. However, it can occasionally go out of control, as seen in Winter Wrap Up and Swarm of the Century. Twilight's control over her magic is not yet perfected and she does occasionally mess up with her spells.

Twilight can also teleport short distances (generally no more than a few feet), and has been shown doing this several times in Applebuck Season. She does so again in The Ticket Master without intending it to happen (perhaps implying this is her "personal" spell). It was also done when she charged Nightmare Moon in Friendship is Magic, part 2. She can also create light and mustaches on others' faces, and transform apples into carriages, mice into horses, and rocks into formal attire. Spike boasts about Twilight's magical powers quite frequently and notes that she can do at least 25 different kinds of magic. Later in the episode in which this is stated, she learns another one while attempting to tame the Ursa Minor.

Her organizational skills are quite impressive as well; in Winter Wrap Up, she is able to coordinate the actions of several different pony groups and make them more efficient as a whole, allowing them to finish the Winter Wrap Up on schedule for the first time in years. The mayor of Ponyville is so impressed with her, she makes Twilight the official organizer of the pony teams for all future Winter Wrap Ups.

Twilight owns a purple hot-air balloon which she uses frequently. It has also been used on several occasions by other characters, often to reach Rainbow Dash's home or Cloudsdale.

As for areas in which she lacks, while she was shown to be extremely quick at organizing the raw materials for the bird's nests in Winter Wrap Up into neat little piles, the result of her work was shown to be so inept that Rarity spent most of the day trying to fix it. The same episode depicts her dearth in physical strength, with her being unable to even move the snowploughs that many stallions had pulled the entire day, partially uphill. In Fall Weather Friends, it is shown that even her close friends place no confidence whatsoever in her athletic abilities, and they are surprised that she would even think about entering the Running of the Leaves without any previous experience in the sport. Based only on her book learning, she places fifth and considers this a good result for someone of her level of experience.

On the other hand, her ability to research quickly and efficiently and remember pieces of knowledge she has picked up "just in case" may be uncanny enough to be listed as a skill of its own.

Relationships
Princess Celestia – Twilight Sparkle is Celestia's own student, and Celestia is responsible for her relocation to Ponyville in order to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in Friendship is Magic, part 1. They seem to share a familial bond which is amplified by Twilight Sparkle's great respect for the princess. She feels a need to please Celestia that at times borders on obsession, as seen in Swarm_of_the_Century when she panics about the state of Ponyville before the Princess' arrival. She is afraid to be embarrassed in front of her or get her angry, even though the Princess has not yet been shown to retaliate to any of her or her friends' mischief, and in fact has more often than not proven to be a very understanding and good-humored friend/mentor to Twilight. Twilight regularly writes a "friendship report" to the Princess, chronicling the lessons she has learned through her adventures with the other ponies. Princess Celestia, on the other hand, shows great respect and trust on Twilight's abilities, even to the extent of letting her and her companions handle the problem of Discord by themselves.

Rarity – Twilight Sparkle has been on the receiving end of Rarity's makeovers multiple times, in fact their first meeting involves Rarity giving Twilight a makeover. Rarity is one of three participants in Twilight's first sleepover. Twilight admires Rarity for her generosity; Rarity, in turn, admires Twilight's intellect and magical prowess. Both being unicorns, they share their magical skills with one another, as shown in the events of A Dog and Pony Show.

Fluttershy – Twilight is extremely confident in Fluttershy's natural empathy with animals, even more so than Fluttershy herself, as shown in Dragonshy, when Twilight expressed that they needed Fluttershy to go with them to tame the dragon. Fluttershy in turn admires Twilight's magic and wisdom, and has more than once personally confided her problems to Twilight in her times of need, such as when needing to express her feelings about her career as a fashion model in Green Isn't Your Color.

Rainbow Dash – Twilight has been shown to be impressed by Rainbow Dash's cloud-clearing abilities, and considers Rainbow to be a brave pony. When it comes to solving problems, Twilight relies on her brains while Rainbow Dash relies on her brawn.

Applejack – Applejack is the first pony to give Twilight a more formal introduction during her arrival in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle has been seen to appreciate Applejack's hard work, offering to help her with farmwork on at least one occasion. In Applebuck Season, Twilight spends most of the episode trying to help Applejack with the apple harvest when she learns that Applejack was doing it all by herself. The two have a few things in common such as being hardworking, stubborn and thinking they can take care of things on their own without accepting help when needed, and are the most practical and level-headed of the other ponies.

Pinkie Pie – Twilight seems to enjoy being around Pinkie Pie most of the time, but is quick to show her disinterest in Pinkie Pie's antics when focused on studying. At the beginning of Griffon the Brush Off she reads a book and pretends to agree with everything Pinkie Pie says in a deadpan tone; likewise, in The Best Night Ever, Pinkie Pie talks to Twilight enthusiastically while Twilight tries to concentrate on her studying. Twilight occasionally gets frustrated with Pinkie Pie's randomness when she does things Twilight can't figure out, but Pinkie Pie takes her outbursts when that happens in stride.

Spike – Spike is Twilight Sparkle's assistant and closest companion, having been hatched when a filly Twilight was in the process of taking an entrance exam to get into Canterlot's School for Gifted Unicorns. Although Twilight tends to not show gratitude to Spike on several occasions, she seems to be genuinely appreciative of Spike as both an assistant and friend; they share a lot of friendly banter and spend a good deal of time together, often with Spike riding on Twilight's back. Spike also serves as a channel of communication between Twilight and Princess Celestia via scrolls, which he often reads as well. Twilight often treats him like she would a younger brother, and gets deeply concerned when she can't find him.

Zecora – While everyone in Ponyville is convinced that Zecora is "an evil enchantress", she and Apple Bloom simply wish to understand her. Later, when the "evidence" shows Zecora is going to eat Apple Bloom, Twilight begins to share their beliefs briefly prior to Zecora and Apple Bloom setting things straight. Twilight and the other ponies then apologize to her and help her reputation as a respectable visitor of Ponyville. Twilight visits Zecora every now and again in her home at the Everfree Forest.

Owlowiscious – Twilight's pet horned owl. His first and only appearance was in Owl's Well That Ends Well. Twilight values his efficiency in helping her with her nighttime studies, as it takes pressure off of Spike, who often grows tired as a result of his exhaustive services through the day.

Twilight Sparkle's Parents – Delighted at their daughter's magical talent, they approved of her abilities and decided to enroll her into Canterlot's School for Gifted Unicorns.

Appearances

 * See also character appearances

Twilight Sparkle has appeared in every episode so far. She is the only character to hold this distinction.

Gallery



 * Twilight Sparkle image gallery

Trivia

 * Twilight dresses for the Grand Galloping Gala in a cyan and indigo caped dress with stars, light blue slippers to match, and has a star hairclip on her ear.
 * Twilight runs away from some bats and snakes in Winter Wrap Up, and gets startled by Pinkie Pie's toothless alligator Gummy in Feeling Pinkie Keen.
 * When Twilight becomes enraged in Feeling Pinkie Keen and when she drinks some hot sauce in Friendship is Magic, part 1, she bursts into flames.
 * Despite her intelligence, Twilight apparently has difficulty finding books, even when they are well organized.
 * Twilight's original cutie mark was originally planned to resemble Moondancer's from the 1980s, but the idea was changed to her current cutie mark.
 * In some episodes, such as Look Before You Sleep and The Best Night Ever, Twilight often jynxes things by saying things such as "Could things get any worse?!"