"Well, I'm about as opposite a princess as you can get.

Cassiopeia
Nickname: Cassie, Cass
Parents: Princess Twilight Sparkle, Commander Tempest Shadow
Special Talent: Drawing and painting, all sorts of art
Occupation: Former heir to the friendship/magic throne, current traveler


Background/Personality

Cassie was born into a very privileged family, and was the second pony in Equestrian history to have been born an alicorn (the first being her older cousin, Flurry Heart). She always tried her best to follow Twilight's footsteps, to be the perfect princess everyone wanted, but Cassie wasn't perfect at all.

She's hotheaded and impulsive, and often makes irrational decisions without thinking. She loves to speak up when she probably shouldn't, and sometimes she comes off as just blatantly rude. She gets a lot of public backlash because of it. Even so, her heart was always in the right place. She really did try her best, but royal life just wasn't for her. Maybe not because of her, but because everyone else told her so.

Cass's magic is extremely powerful, given she's the daughter of the princess of magic. But where her magic is strong, her ability of flight is incredibly weak. Her wings are more for show than anything else, and the very least she can do with them is glide. This is because although she's technically an alicorn, she's not a true alicorn like Celestia, meaning she doesn't actually carry the flight magic a pegasus would have, despite having a set of wings.

The public backlash she got started from her childhood, and initially it was just cruel. She was often ridiculed for her appearance, which didn't fit the pretty pink princess stereotype many ponies had idolized. She grew up incredibly insecure because of this, but she hides it with feigned confidence.


Relationships

Cass mostly keeps to herself, afraid of making friends for fear of being left behind because she's not pretty enough, or good enough. Her truest friend is Damon, the draconequus who she grew up with, and he really feels like "home" for her. He's one of the only people she's not defensive around.

She's not very close to her mother Twilight Sparkle. This stems from her childhood, where she constantly craved the support and approval of her mother, and any criticism from Twilight left her feeling genuinely broken and useless. Looking back on her childhood, Cassie wishes Twilight had treated her more like a daughter, not a student. (Twilight did try her best though).

She's very close to Tempest Shadow, or at least she was before her accident with Flurry Heart. Tempest taught her how to fight, and how to take the world as it was: hard. Tempest never tried to sugarcoat anything, which helped Cassie grow more than Tempest could ever know. After Cassie breaks Flurry's horn, she is cast out of Equestria and cuts contact with both of her mothers out of shame. She hasn't spoken to either of them in years, and is particularly hesitant about ever talking to Tempest again. She doesn't want to see Tempest look at her in disappointment.

Cassie and Flurry Heart had an extremely competitive, toxic relationship growing up. Flurry verbally abused her throughout her entire childhood, bringing Cassie down to bring herself up. Flurry is the main reason Cassie's insecurities start to spiral out of control. Besides Tempest, Cassie never wants to see Flurry again either, also out of shame. Flurry may have taunted her and bullied her for years, but the guilt she felt after the accident was an unparalleled amount of pain. Secretly, she's even angrier at Flurry for letting it get that far, because if it hadn't, neither of them would be in so much pain, and Cassie wouldn't have to deal with the nightmares. She wouldn't have to relive what she did to Flurry every night when she tries to sleep.

Cookie Butter is the first friend Cassie makes, other than Damon. She has a wild crush on the earth pony, who probably doesn't even remember that Cassie exists. Even in her years of solitude off the Equestrian map, she finds herself thinking about Cookie sometimes. Maybe one day they'll meet again.


Special

- Cassie's mane and tail are very reactive to her emotion. When she's sad, angry, or anything negative, the color usually begins to dull. On happier days her mane is vibrantly colored. This happens during the phenomenon known as Grey Zone, but it's very uncommon for a pony's internal magic to react to emotion as much as Cassie's does. She's just dealing with too much, and her body doesn't exactly know how to process it or handle it, so it goes a bit out of control.

- Her hair is naturally straight and choppy at the ends. After she's banished from Equestria, she chops it off so that it's just above her shoulders. Before, it was nearly down to her knees.

- Her magic is incredibly powerful. It's not every day a pony can knock off another pony's horn with a spell they didn't even intend to cast. Such a spell would require years of practice, and would probably only be performable by the most talented wizards. Not that a spell like that should be learned, though.

- Since Tempest can't rely on her horn to protect herself, she taught Cassie how to use a variety of weapons if she ever needed to defend herself. Cassie is particularly good with a sword.

- She has a bracelet (not pictured here) on her front leg that was placed on her after her trial. It's enchanted so that if she comes too close to the Equestrian border, it'll shock her. If she were to teleport inside, it would force her back out in somewhat of an explosion. Only the unicorn (or alicorn) who cast the spell is able to reverse it, and she was never told who it was so that she can't bargain with them or threaten them. Since Cassie is immortal, the spell is temporary, and lasts about a decade, because even Equestrian officials recognizes how immoral it would be to cast her out forever. She's been a traveler for about 4 years, and doesn't intend on ever returning.