List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters


This is a list of characters from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, an animated television series based on the My Little Pony toyline created by American toy manufacturer and multimedia company Hasbro. The series features characters and settings developed by Lauren Faust, who sought to create more in-depth characters than the stereotypical "girly" icons used in previous iterations of the franchise. The series premiered on October 10, 2010, in the United States and concluded on October 12, 2019.
The characters have been generally well-received by television critics and parental groups and are cited as one of the reasons the series' older fans, called "bronies", became attracted to the show. Friendship is Magic characters appear in numerous spin-off franchise media, including a comic book series, a Gameloft My Little Pony video game, a children's book series, a theatrical feature film, and My Little Pony: Pony Life, a reboot focusing on more slice-of-life stories.

Creation and conception

Hasbro initially hired Faust to create a pitch bible for the show, allowing her to get additional help with conceptualization. Faust said she was "extremely skeptical" about taking the job at first because she had always found shows based on girls' toys to be boring and unrelatable. She was disappointed that what she thought of the toys at the time was nothing like the animated shows, in which the characters, according to her, "had endless tea parties, giggled over nothing and defeated villains by either sharing with them or crying". With the chance to work on My Little Pony, one of her favorite childhood toys, she hoped to prove that "cartoons for girls don't have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness". To do this, she incorporated many elements into the show that subverted stereotypes of girls, such as diverse personalities, character flaws and personality disorders, the message that friends can be different and can get into arguments but still be friends and the idea that girls should not be limited by what others say they can or cannot do. Elements of the characters' personalities and the show's settings were based on her childhood imagination of the ponies' adventures, in part inspired by the animated shows that her brothers would watch while growing up, such as Transformers and G.I. Joe. Faust still aimed for the characters to be "relatable" characters, using stereotypical "icons of girliness" to broaden the appeal of the characters for the young female audience.

Appearances

Main characters

The main characters of Friendship is Magic appears in numerous official "Generation 4" spin-off franchise media, including IDW Publishing comic book series, Gameloft My Little Pony video games, a children's book series, a theatrical feature film, and two spinoff television films/television series: My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, a canon within the FiM-universe reimaging of the main characters as humanized magical girl alternative universe versions of themselves; and My Little Pony: Pony Life, a non-canon reboot short, episodic short-form web comedy series featuring chibi versions of the main characters focusing on more slice-of-life stories.

Mane Six

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic focuses on six core pony characters, identified as the "Mane Six", a group of friends who are brought together by the "Elements of Harmony", a set of six mystical jewels and an "unstoppable force of good" used to defend Equestria against powerful threats. The seventh main character, Spike, acts as a foil to the Mane Six in terms of personality and he is the only male member of the team. Starlight is not a part of the Mane Six but redeems herself and becomes a special eighth member of the team.
Each pony character was designed to represent a different element and positive aspect of friendship: honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, and loyalty, which come together to form the sixth element of "magic".

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle is one of the main protagonists of the show. Her cutie mark, a six-pointed star, represents her talent for magic and her love for books and knowledge and the five smaller stars indicate that her destiny is intertwined with her friends. Twilight is depicted in the first three seasons as a light purple unicorn with purple eyes and a pink and purple streaked indigo-blue mane and tail and as an alicorn after "Magical Mystery Cure". Twilight is the most intellectual member of the group who leads them during their adventures and helps resolve her friends' differences.
Twilight's most defining character trait is her humility. She is a natural-born leader, an intelligent and dutiful scholar, wise beyond her years, with an avid love of learning and scientific discoveries. Her specialty is advanced unicorn-specific magic; her proficiency in magic is stated to have rivaled that of Star Swirl the Bearded, having already mastered various advanced spells before her ascension to princesshood. Often rational and calm, she has perfectionist tendencies with severe paranoia and never accepts failure. She is also prone to suffer from nervous breakdowns when confronted with difficult problems or things beyond her understanding, though she gradually overcomes this habit in the final season.
Twilight begins the story as the protégée of Princess Celestia, who tasks her with studying the magical properties of friendship and reporting her findings. Twilight detests her assignment in the two-part series premiere, owing to her reclusiveness to her obsession with books, but comes to form strong friendships with the rest of the group, which she realizes is key to harnessing the Elements of Harmony. She resides with her assistant Spike and pet owl Owlowiscious in Ponyville's Golden Oak Library, where she also serves as town librarian. At the end of season three, her apprenticeship to Princess Celestia ends when she finishes an old spell by creating new magic based on her studies of friendship, transforms into an alicorn and becomes a princess. At the end of season four, she becomes the Princess of Friendship, with the responsibility to spread friendship and harmony across Equestria with her friends. In season eight, she opens the School of Friendship to teach ponies and creatures from Equestria and beyond about the benefits of friendship with her friends serving as the teachers. In season nine, she prepares to become the new ruler of Equestria, which she succeeds in the end, while establishing the Council of Friendship to maintain her relationship with her friends over the years.

Applejack

Applejack is an orange Earth Pony with green eyes, a blonde mane and tail, and a cowboy hat which she rarely takes off. Her cutie mark, a trio of apples, represents her talent for agriculture and her love for her family. She is characterized as a "farm gal" who sports a cowboy hat and lasso and speaks with a Southern accent. She works as an apple farmer at the Sweet Apple Acres orchard in Ponyville, using her strength to "buck" apples out of trees. She lives with her grandmother Granny Smith, her older brother Big McIntosh, her younger sister Apple Bloom and her pet Border Collie dog Winona. Applejack's parents, Bright Mac and Pear Butter, first seen in "The Perfect Pear", are deceased. Applejack is honest, courageous, forthright and the most "down-to-earth" of the group, being a trustworthy friend who is optimistic and has good judgment. She is also "too eager to please" and has a stubborn persona, with several episodes focused on her interaction with the Flim-Flam Brothers who exploit her vulnerabilities or focus on her taking up a "herculean task".

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash is a light blue Pegasus with magenta eyes and a rainbow-colored mane and tail. Her cutie mark, a rainbow-colored lightning bolt with a cloud, represents her talent for speed and her obsession with adventure. Her goal at the beginning of the series is to join her "heroes", the elite Wonderbolts aerobatic team. She later joins the Wonderbolts as a trainee in "Wonderbolts Academy". She soon became a reservist in "Testing Testing 1, 2, 3" and then a full-time member in "Newbie Dash". She helps other pegasi manage the weather around Ponyville and spends her time practicing flight maneuvers such as the "Sonic Rainboom", a rainbow-colored sonic boom. In "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom as a filly caused a chain of events that produced the group's cutie marks. She lives with a propeller-fitted pet tortoise named Tank in a floating condominium of clouds called the Cloudominium, which is sparingly seen in the show because she "doesn't sit still for very long", according to the director Jim Miller.

Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie is a light pink Earth Pony with light blue eyes and a dark pink balloon-like mane and tail. Her cutie mark, a trio of balloons, one yellow and two blue, represents her talent for spreading hope and joy and her desire to entertain her friends. She is a party planner at Sugarcube Corner, a bakery and confectionery store that resembles a gingerbread house and owns a toothless pet alligator named Gummy. A comic relief character who was raised on a "dreary rock farm", Pinkie is defined as a "hard worker" motivated in seeing people she loves smiling and relieving them of stress, by randomly throwing parties and acting as outlandish as possible; but has a lack of confidence and a fear of being rejected by others. Pinkie is a source of much of the series' humor and several of the show's "wacky gags" are kept exclusive to her. While Pinkie appears to be the naive party animal of the group, she also displays admirable skills in science and engineering. In "Swarm of the Century", she devises a technical solution to Ponyville's infestation problems in a scenario where magic had failed and builds a flying machine to keep up with Rainbow Dash in "Griffon the Brush Off". In the future setting of the last episode "The Last Problem", Pinkie is shown to be married to Cheese Sandwich with a child named Li'l Cheese.