>>/1444/
the /end/ approves your trips. 3 polls, three repeated digits...nice.
> during then the Elements of Harmony attributes of them were more emphasized too, hence my logic in thinking Pinkie Pie, though honestly you are right about today, it's just my oldfagness showing.
nah, even though you could be talking about from an old perspective, for Pinkie Pie, that doesn´t apply. She is still popular because her comical and core of happiness comes mostly from her, no wonder she causes a difference and still doesn´t age. She only comes as an annoying pony at times but that´s nothing new. She recognizes that she is too over the top but she keeps doing it anyway. Hell, she has been reference in Deadpool 2. Pinkie while not my favorite, delivers that funny or innocent part of the show. She had fans and she still has for mostly the same reasons she had. I haven´t been there but I can tell when a character has reasons to be liked or not. 

However, as for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, especially the latter, the reasons have changed a lot. 

> I found an old poll from 2011 that I barely remembered where Fluttershy did indeed win first place and pinkie second 
when you love a character at first, you look for the most appealing reasons, basically the most obvious ones. Fluttershy was considered cute and her development has caused critique like "This is not the Fluttershy I remember, she cannot be that bitchy". These arguments were shown in Fame and Misfortune and they nailed it on that part (because I saw some of them in season 5 and 6). 
> I did some further looking around from there and found a second poll from 2012 where Twily did win and Seth was surprised, and thought that RD especially would've done better (I guess a combination of vocal fans plus her being the mascot gave people that).
Well, Twilight had episodes like Lesson Zero, A Canterlot Wedding, It´s About Time and Luna Eclipsed. She had plenty of reasons to be a fan favorite. Rainbow Dash had less brilliant episodes than Twilight´s. I guess fans voted more by show standards than the first impressions or fan content. 

> I also know Fluttershy won the hubtv online vote but I'm not sure how much the fandom counted in that one.
well, that´s worth to consider.
> my memories of a fair bit of folks who thought the show was too focused on TS and my own memories of polls long gone in which she didn't always get number 1 or 2.
and then, they complained had too little content around season 4. I mean, I get that she was all over season 1 for some reason but while staying as the protagonist, she had her breaks from the TV spotlight as the rest of the crew. 

> But things where different then, and even then I suppose you are still pretty right for that time, and fully right on the present.
wow, I haven´t witnessed that part of the timeline. I just analyze with what I have and what I can think with my own experience, nothing else. 

> I'll try to do more digging around and see if there is any other little interesting things/trends I can find
it will be interesting to see at least. Good luck on that!

Also, Celestia had 1% of votes in 2011,back when there weren´t that many characters around. Not even a 7th fraction of her sister´s popularity......that should say something. 

> Keep the brdge crossed and it's gates golden, I'll reply to your other post later do to still having a fair bit on my plate.
Not golden....but celestial this time.