List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters

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.

[2] 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,[3] she hoped to prove that "cartoons for girls don't have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness".

[9][10] She is also prone to suffer from nervous breakdowns (dubbed "Twilighting" and "Twilyanas" by her friends and family) when confronted with difficult problems or things beyond her understanding, though she gradually overcomes this habit in the final season.

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.

Spike acts as a foil to Twilight and her friends in terms of personality, size, and shape which "provides plenty of opportunity for exploring this difference in storylines".

She lives with: her grandmother Granny Smith, her older brother Big McIntosh, her younger sister Apple Bloom and her pet Border Collie dog Winona.

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.

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.

In "Swarm of the Century", she devised a technical solution to Ponyville's infestation problems in a scenario where magic had failed and built a flying machine to keep up with Rainbow Dash in "Griffon the Brush Off".

As the creative team grew more comfortable with Pinkie's character and humor, she became "really over-the-top strange and bordering on crazy, with a wacky cartoonish magic all her own".

[14] Throughout the show, depending on the episode or scene, Pinkie's friends alternate between disliking and enjoying her company, both ignoring her when she tries to speak to them but doing things with her such as pulling pranks or playing buckball.

Rarity is a svelte, sophisticated, ladylike fashionista and businessperson who speaks with a mid-Atlantic accent and runs a franchise of brand name flagship stores throughout Equestria; she operates out of an haute couture salon in Ponyville called Carousel Boutique.

Despite her arrogant and melodramatic tendencies, she has a generous spirit who loves spoiling her friends and strives to create artistic dresses that capture their wearers' inner beauty.

Twilight and her friends use the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon and turn her back into Luna, who reconciles with her sister and resumes her royal duties.

Several episodes depict Luna's "difficulty living in her older sister's shadow", such as adapting to modern Equestrian customs and repairing her public image.

Cadance does not know who her real parents were, she was found as a foal by two elderly earth ponies and they raised her until Princess Celestia adopted her as her unofficial niece after gaining her cutie mark and ascending into princesshood.

In addition to the main trio, others are accepted into the Cutie Mark Crusaders across the series: Discord is a draconequus (a dragon-like creature with body parts from different animals) and the spirit of chaos and disharmony.

In "Keep Calm and Flutter On", Discord is released once again from his stone imprisonment by Twilight and her friends under Celestia's orders to reform him, which succeeds after Fluttershy befriends him.

[28] The creative team developed Discord as "the one character who could break all of the rules of the show", by making him put more modernized or contemporary pop culture references than usual in the series' "fantasy storybook" setting.

[26] Author Begin commented on the "chaotic" settings that accompany the character, such as his home dimension called Chaosville, likening them to "dream-inspired Salvador Dalí paintings".

Twilight and Spike follow after her, but they repeatedly fail to stop her from altering the past, which creates numerous alternate versions of Equestria falling into ruin.

They consist of: Most recurring characters established within the fictional universe of the television show are expanded and more prominent in the comics, presented with complex, multi-issue story arcs.

[36][37] Though the comic, like the show, is aimed at young children, the writers and artists have consistently taken creative risks, including expanding Sombra's backstory, introducing Scootaloo's aunts as a married LGBT couple and more.

[41] The show features an extensive cast of over 200 minor characters, also designated as "background ponies",[49] that are used to fill out crowd scenes and serve as visual gags in episodes.

[66] The city's design was influenced by Greek and Roman architecture, which author Begin states "harks back to the original Olympic Games, [...] a fitting reference for Rainbow Dash".

Dragons are a species of apex predators generally depicted as nomadic, selfish, and reclusive creatures; their level of greed determines their: physical size, power, lifespan, and territory.

As with Twilight and her friends, each Pillar represents one of six traits similar to the Elements of Harmony: strength (Rockhoof), healing (Mage Meadowbrook), hope (Somnambula), beauty (Mistmane), bravery (Flash Magnus), and sorcery (Star Swirl the Bearded).

In "What Lies Beneath", the Tree's roots have expanded well outside the Everfree Forest and its abilities have grown to the point of being able to project a physical form of its consciousness.