My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Characters/Background Ponies



""Lyra, Heartstrings or Incidental Unicorn #2...When I first started working on the show, I never expected people to latch on to the background ponies like they have. It's nice to see.""

- Nayuki, one of the show's layout artists on The Allspark Forums

The most popular characters in the show. Seriously these mostly nameless extras are pretty much why My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has its own Ensemble Darkhorse page. Perhaps it's the unique art style that gives them a little more personality, or the memorable gag scenes they feature in. Whatever the reason, the fans can't get enough of them. Below are listed the most popular background ponies.

"Background pony" is a somewhat misleading term (they're called incidental characters by the show's staff), its more of a catch-all term used by the fanbase to refer to all the show's Recurring Extras and One-Scene Wonder ponies that aren't really a part of the Supporting Cast (like Big Macintosh and Zecora). You'll notice most of the characters listed here have been front and center of the camera at least once.

We should note that not many of the ponies on this page have been named within the show (and even those that have been named have mostly only been named once in conversation, so it's unknown if their in-show names are their full and/or real names). A mostly European toyline has produced ponies of similar appearance (see the main Analysis page for details), so some more names are taken from there. Almost all of the others only have Fan Nicknames, and a small number of them don't even have that.

For fanon trivia go to the Background Ponies Analysis page.

Return to the character index here

Tropes shared by many of them
"A pack of bunnies races towards town? Run and hide.
 * All There in the Manual:
 * Amethyst Star's collector card reveals that she "loves to dance!"
 * Blossomforth's brushable toy's box and her collector card reveal that she "loves the sunshine! It's her job to push the clouds out of the sky whenever they hide the sun for too long." The Friendship Celebration Collection's box reveals that she and Daisy/Flower Wishes "have a tea party for two!"
 * Caramel/Chance-a-lot's collector card reveals that he "is always cheerful!"
 * Cherry Berry's collector card reveals that she "is so cheerful."
 * Daisy/Flower Wishes's collector card reveals that she "has a beautiful garden. She grows flowers in every color of the rainbow!" The Friendship Celebration Collection's box reveals that she and Blossomforth "have a tea party for two!"
 * Two Ascended Fanon things about Derpy Hooves/Ditzy Doo:
 * Her toy's box and several pieces of licensed merchandise have both referenced muffins being her Trademark Favorite Food. In the show, she's merely one of several ponies who gathered at the free muffin sample spectacular during "Applebuck Season" (others of whom were licking their lips or even drooling) and may or may not have said "muffin" while at said gathering (see Beam Me Up, Scotty below). However, in the second opening and "Hearth's Warming Eve" she appears riding in the Friendship Express Train's Ice Cream Train Car (which in the show looks more a cupcake or a muffin), and she wore a saddlebag with a muffin-shaped clip during "Putting Your Hoof Down".
 * Licensed merchandise has also referenced her being a mailmare. In "Feeling Pinkie Keen" she's part of a team of pegasi unloading packages from a truck, but neither she nor the other members of the team are wearing any of the mailpony uniforms that would later be shown in "Family Appreciation Day", "The Last Roundup", and "Putting Your Hoof Down", and Word of God has called the team a moving company.
 * Golden Harvest's collector card reveals that she "loves sharing treats!"
 * Goldengrape's collector card reveals that he "loves jokes."
 * Junebug's molded toy and collector card reveal her cutie mark and (in the card's case) the fact that she "loves holidays!"
 * Lemon Hearts's collector card reveals that she "is loving and kind! She always takes time to show her friends how much she cares." The Friendship Celebration Collection's box reveals that she and Pepperdance "play together in a band!"
 * Lyra Heartstrings's collector cards reveal that she "sings all day!" and "loves to play!"
 * Meadow Song's collector card reveals that he "is so musical!"
 * Merry May's collector card reveals that she "loves all flowers!"
 * Minuette's collector card reveals that she "is always on time!"
 * Noteworthy's collector card reveals that he "is so helpful."
 * Octavia's instrument being a cello has only been mentioned by Word of God and the tags of WeLoveFine's pages for Mighty Fine's merchandise.
 * Peachy Pie's collector card reveals that she "loves baking sweet treats for her friends! She's always testing out new recipes for them to try."
 * Rainbowshine's collector card reveals that she "loves to leap."
 * Rose/Roseluck's collector card reveals that she "loves to pick pretty flowers and wear them in her hair!"
 * Royal Riff's collector card reveals that he "makes up songs!"
 * Sassaflash's collector card reveals that she "loves watching clouds!"
 * Sea Swirl's collector card reveals that she "loves the sea!"
 * Shoeshine's collector card reveals that she "is so understanding!"
 * Sunny Daze's So Soft toy's box reveals that as a newborn, she "love[d] to laugh and play all day!" (It's unknown if she still does.)
 * Sunny Rays's collector card reveals that she "is very bright!"
 * Ace the Tennis Pony's cutie mark is always hidden under his shorts, but Word of God says that it's "Balls," "TENNNIS [sic balls."]
 * Twilight Sky's collector card reveals that he "loves guessing games!"
 * Twinkleshine's brushable toy's box and her collector card reveal that she "dreams about being a famous movie star. Drama. Comedy. Action. She loves it all!" and "loves playing games!"
 * The iOS app Ruckus Reader's storybook Rarity Loves Fashion reveals that South Pole (one of the large Canterlot unicorn stallions from "The Best Night Ever") is a movie star who Rarity made clothes for.
 * All There in the Script: Out-of-show media have used the following names: Amethyst Star, Berry Punch, Bon Bon, Chance-a-lot (Caramel), Cherry Berry, Derpy Hooves/Ditzy Doo (Derpy), DJ Pon-3/Vinyl Scratch, Doctor Whooves X, Doctor Whooves XI, Golden Harvest, Goldengrape, Lemon Hearts, Lyra Heartstrings, Meadow Song, Merry May, Minuette, Noteworthy, Octavia, Rainbowshine, Royal Riff, Sassaflash, Sea Swirl, Shoeshine, Sunny Rays, Twilight Sky, and Twinkleshine.
 * Ascended Fanon: The Merch from WeLoveFine, while officially licensed, has a lot fan-designed content and thus more likely to use Fan Nicknames (see All There in the Script above for a complete list) and reference Fanon concepts like Derpy being a mailmare and Vinyl having bright red eyes. Only Derpy has had any Ascended Fanon in the show itself; see her entry for details.
 * Crazy Prepared and Properly Paranoid: Varies between the extremes but pretty much the whole of Ponyville plus the Mane Six at times:

A non-pony creature enters town, acting strange? Run and hide.

A swarm of cute cuddly creatures starts eating the entire town? Run and hide.

A once-malevolent near-god attempts to makes friends with everypony? Run and hide.

A filly gets a case of a strange, long-gone disease right in the middle of town? Run and hide, and don oddly-adorable Hazmat Suits.

Resident baby dragon gets growth spurt and starts grabbing everything in sight? Sound the sirens! It's time to run and hide!"


 * A few ponies have apparently picked up on this. In one episode, Apple Bloom imagines all the Ponyville citizens descending into out right panic all because an Elementary teacher can't teach and an Apple farmer can't harvest apples. A few episodes later, Pinkie Pie practically considers it a regular routine and tells everypony nonchalantly to follow her lead when a Cerebus suddenly shows up.
 * Depending on the Animator:
 * Some of them have shown up as a different pony race then they normally are such as in "Sonic Rainboom" which took several male earth ponies and tacked wings on them for a scene.
 * Some background ponies have appeared with inconsistent cutie marks.
 * Most background fillies usually have no cutie marks, but they switch between several different marks in "Call of the Cutie", occasionally regaining them for later episodes.
 * Pokey Pierce has a safety pin cutie mark in "Call of the Cutie" and an hourglass cutie mark in "Sweet and Elite". Both versions appear at different points in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000".
 * In "Winter Wrap Up", Caramel has a different mark at the beginning of the scene where he's referred to by name but later in the scene it's replaced with his usual mark. In "The Best Night Ever", he temporarily switches to having Coconut's eye color, tail, and cutie mark when he's first shown pulling the carriage. And in "Read It and Weep", a unicorn Caramel appears as a doctor with yet another mark.
 * In "Read It and Weep", Shoeshine appears as a mental patient with a screw cutie mark.
 * Some of them have shown up with different eye and/or mane colors than usual (in these cases, the cutie mark helps to tell if it's the same pony or not).
 * Shoeshine's mane and tail are sometimes a different color than usual in "The Best Night Ever", "Sweet and Elite" and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", usually when she's wearing a certain outfit. (In the latter two episodes, she also appears with her usual mane and tail color while wearing a different outfit, and in the last episode both versions appear alongside each other.)
 * Lemon Hearts's eyes even change shape; normally they're red and shaped like most ponies' eyes but when she's seen running during "Friendship is Magic, part 2", "The Ticket Master", "Applebuck Season", "Boast Busters", "Swarm of the Century", "Fall Weather Friends" and "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", they're blue and shaped like Rarity and the Spa Ponies' eyes. And for at least one shot in "Lesson Zero", she's an Earth pony with eyes that are blue but normal-shaped.
 * Pokey Pierce has a longer and sharper horn than usual during his balloon popping scene in "Call of the Cutie" and at one point during "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" as well as in the Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background.
 * A stallion with Berry Punch's color scheme appears as a Bandage Mummy at Ponyville Hospital during "Read It and Weep".
 * Ponies that usually bear the same cutie mark and coloring as Doctor Whooves X have appeared throughout the series with slightly varied physical appearances. This is often used to support the theory of his being a Doctor Who shout-out since these could easily be explained as different regenerations. The most common one is a brown adult Earth Pony but variants include:
 * A brown Pegasus
 * A younger-looking brown Earth pony
 * A blue blond-maned Earth pony (on at least one occasion, a unicorn) with a bowtie
 * Doctor Whooves XI, a black and gray Earth pony with a bowtie and top hat
 * A blue unicorn with a white mane and fancy red jacket
 * Caramel has several different versions: there's the regular Earth stallion, an Earth pony mare (seen in "Over a Barrel") a Big Macintosh Palette Swap Earth stallion with green eyes (seen in the first opening and in the show proper during "Green Isn't Your Color", "Lesson Zero" and "Putting Your Hoof Down"), and a unicorn stallion who's a doctor (seen in "Read It and Weep"). Additionally, regular Caramel has a different cutie mark at the beginning of the scene in "Winter Wrap Up" where he's named.
 * Another pony has at least three different versions:
 * "Bruce Mane," an Earth pony with a darker mane color and a lighter tail color who appears in "The Best Night Ever", "Sweet and Elite", "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" (sometimes with a different cutie mark), and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", as well as in the Web Games DJ Pinkie Pie, on three of The Hub's wallpapers and on the licensed shirt Rarity Prefers Diamonds.
 * "Neon Lights," a unicorn with a lighter mane and tail color who appears in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", "Sweet and Elite", "Hearth's Warming Eve", "The Last Roundup", "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", "A Friend in Deed", "It's About Time", and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", as well as on one of The Hub's wallpapers.
 * A unicorn with a darker mane and tail color who appears in "Sweet and Elite".
 * "Lesson Zero" and following episodes give each unicorn's magic aura a specific color, but at least two background unicorns (Lemon Hearts and Sea Swirl) have had different aura colors between episodes or even between shots in the same episode. These instances could be explained as being different types of magic, but this explanation is unlikely given that non-background unicorns' magic auras have consistent colors.
 * Expy:
 * A number of them look like previous generation ponies, leading them to be Fan Nicknamed as such. Some examples:
 * Derpy has been compared to G1 Applejack, and has also been compared to Minty, G3's resident Cute Clumsy Girl who was also voiced by Tabitha St. Germain. Appearance-wise, Derpy's a lot like G3 Earth pony Bubblecup.
 * Bon Bon is believed to be one of G1 Bon Bon from My Little Pony Tales.
 * Daisy's toy name, Flower Wishes, was also the name of a G3 pony.
 * Rose looks similar to a G3 pony who was named Desert Rose.
 * Design-wise, without the hat and redcross Nurse Redheart looks a lot like G1 Sundance.
 * Blossomforth was previously a G3/G3.5 Earth pony.
 * The brown Doctor Whooves isn't the only one who resembles the Doctor due to the fact that the Doctor has regenerated a number of times now thus having more than just one appearance.
 * The first Doctor Whooves to appear bears a resemblance to 10th Doctor David Tennant mainly due to his brown coloring, hairdo and the hourglass cutie mark . He was the most well known due to the fact that he appeared in the same year the 10th Doctor regenerated.
 * In "The Best Night Ever", "Sweet and Elite", "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" there's a yellow haired blue pony with (usually) the same cutie mark who looks like the 5th Doctor Peter Davison.
 * In "Sweet and Elite", there's a black and grey pony (also with an hourglass cutie mark) that appeared that (most likely coincidentally) resembles either the 11th Doctor Matt Smith or the 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton (who fans have ponified his name into "Patrick Trotton"). He was the first Doctor look-a-like to be spotted more prominently by fans after a long time since the end of season one and got a lot of attention from it, spawning a new speculation that the brown Doctor Whooves has regenerated into him. This was later referenced by the licensed shirt 9 10 11, giving the black and grey pony the All There in the Script name Doctor Whooves XI and specifying that the brown pony is Doctor Whooves X (as well as introducing a Canon Foreigner Doctor Whooves IX).
 * Also in Sweet and Elite, a different Pokey Pierce was spotted by fans at the garden party. His safety pin cutie mark was replaced with the hourglass cutie mark and he now wears a red jacket which makes him resemble the 3rd doctor Jon Pertwee.
 * Fandom Nod: The animation staff, The Hub and Hasbro are all too aware of the fandom's fondness of background ponies so Fandom Nods can be seen from time to time from the show itself to other branches of the MLP franchise such as advertisements, official websites and merchandise.
 * Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon were placed next to each other on the Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background for a reason. They're even looking at each other gleefully.
 * The Funny Background Event that happened in the episode "Secret of My Excess" between Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon could be considered as this.
 * In "Putting Your Hoof Down", Bon Bon appears walking through the market wearing saddlebags with lyre-shaped buckles. She then joins a bored-looking Lyra Heartstrings at a table at the cafe.
 * Fanpony: In "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" several of them are shown to be members of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club (or at least fans of her) and some later become fans of Mare Do Well, including Bon Bon, Daisy, Ruby Pinch, and Dinky.
 * Funny Background Event: Many of the background ponies are used for Funny Background Events, most prominently Derpy Hooves, Lyra Heartstrings, and Bon Bon. In one shot in the episode "Secret of My Excess", Spike is walking in Ponyville with Lyra and Bon Bon talking in the background, then Derpy pops up between them. From the inside of a well.
 * Derpy has been used for background gags starting with "Feeling Pinkie Keen," such as popping out of a well as described above, waving from behind the curtain on a stage in "Hearth's Warming Eve", etc.
 * Lyra and Bon Bon often have these moments together. For example, fighting under the influence of the "Want It, Need It" spell while Rarity and Fluttershy are talking to each other in "Lesson Zero". However, Lyra sometimes appears by herself doing some outrageous stuff. In "Sonic Rainboom", she appears in Cloudsdale, bouncing up and down on a cloud. Keep in mind, she's a unicorn, and even if she did use a cloudwalking spell, there's no indication how she managed to get up there.
 * Hive Mind: When they appear multiple times in the same scene, you'll sometimes see things like all the copies of a certain pony blinking at the exact same time.
 * Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Ponies looking just like them appear in flashbacks to different times, making them either this, Older Than They Look, or Uncanny Family Resemblance.
 * Multicolored Hair:
 * The "too silly" stallion from "Hearts and Hooves Day" has a multicolored mane and tail.
 * Holly Dash from "Swarm of the Century" has tri-colored hair.
 * Quite a few background ponies have two-tone manes and tails--mostly different shades of the same or similar colors, but there are ponies with truly Multicolored Hair, such as Minuette, Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon, Screwball, and Blossomforth.
 * Bruce Mane's mane and tail are both solid colors, but they're different shades of dark gray. Similar effects using completely different colors happen with a few other background ponies for individual shots in "Winter Wrap Up" and "The Best Night Ever".
 * Nice Hat:
 * Most of the Appleloosa and Dodge Junction ponies are either Applejack's relatives from the pilot or regular Ponyville ponies with cowboy hats, top hats, or bonnets.
 * Some high society ponies also have nice hats.
 * Most of the Ponyville ponies have a Nice Hat to go with their Nightmare Night costumes in "Luna Eclipsed".
 * No Name Given: Leading to plenty of Fan Nicknames. The ones that do have in-show names (excluding the Mane Cast's relatives and the Wonderbolts) are Rose, Daisy , Caramel , Mr. Breezy, Sunny Daze, Peachy Pie, Hayseed Turnip Truck, Lickety Split, Junebug, Stinkin' Rich, Derpy , Mr. Waddle, Mr. Greenhooves, Thunderlane, Flitter, Cloudchaser, Silverspeed, Blossomforth, and Rumble; some more have All There in the Script names (listed under that trope above). Moondancer, Bumpkin , Ditzy Doo , Pete, Mr. Kingpin, Wild Bull Hickok, Calamity Mane, Thornhoof, and Namby-Pamby have been mentioned but not shown.
 * Non Standard Character Design:
 * This goes for any elderly pony who appears in the show (a couple of elderly mares have the same build as Granny Smith). Besides Mr. Greenhooves and Mr. Waddle, we've seen an elderly pegasus mare working at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory during "Sonic Rainboom" and more elderly ponies appear during the second opening in the Friendship Express Train's Ice Cream Train Car and during the show proper in "The Cutie Pox", "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", "Putting Your Hoof Down", "Ponyville Confidential", "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1", and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2".
 * Several of the "high society" ponies seen in Manehattan, Canterlot and Fluttershy's model shows have unique designs and fewer Palette Swaps.
 * This is true for just about any pony that appears for a brief visual gag like the restaurant pony and store owners and even DJ Pon-3 mentioned below.
 * Most fillies have circular eyes but there are a few (most of them unicorns) who have ovoid eyes like adult ponies do.
 * Pokey Pierce sometimes has an unusually long and sharp horn.
 * Candy Mane/Bacon n' Eggs, the only recurring background pony with a mohawk and very few Palette Swaps. She's also so far not been shown with a cutie mark, making her one of the few adult blank flanks.
 * Archer, an earth pony Palette Swap of Scootaloo seen in Apple Bloom's class at the beginning of "Call of the Cutie" and playing an arcade game in "Hearts and Hooves Day", has a blue tongue. (It's most likely just an animation error but unlike other tongue discoloration animation errors, her tongue is blue every time we see it.)
 * Several ponies with unique hairstyles can be glimpsed at the beginning of Rarity's first fashion show in "Suited For Success" (most of them behind Spike's silhouette).
 * Boxy Brown, the huge, gruffy and bulky stallion who appears as a Pegasus during "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "Putting Your Hoof Down" and as an Earth pony during "The Mysterious Mare Do Well". (He's bigger than Big Macintosh, probably bigger than Celestia herself and even had beard stubble!)
 * Ace, the super manly tennis player stallion who appears during "Call of the Cutie" and "Luna Eclipsed". Besides his 70s hair, beard and Porn Stache, his fur coat is drawn to look like a hairy chest.
 * The spa masseuse from "Green Isn't Your Color" and "Ponyville Confidential".
 * Some ponies are tall and thin (a few having the same build as Mr. Cake), including the saloon keeper pony from "Over a Barrel", Allie Way, Jesus and Donny from "The Cutie Pox", the doctor from "Secret of My Excess", and the mailpony from "The Last Roundup" and "Putting Your Hoof Down".
 * Screwball has swirls instead of pupils (might just be Wingding Eyes though).
 * Some ponies have the same chubby build as Rarity's mom and Mrs. Cake, including Big Wig from "The Cutie Pox", the two tourist mares from "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", and Nurse Sweetheart from "Read It and Weep".
 * The young earth pony who gets a bowling cutie mark at the beginning of "The Cutie Pox" and Lickety Split from "Secret of My Excess" are either the only female ponies with heads shaped like male ponies' or the only male ponies with (visible) eyelashes.
 * Those are far from the only possible explanations- these two ponies could be the only two intersex ponies in the show. Either that, or they're transgender- or maybe one is intersex and the other is transgender. Or maybe they could have some other sort of non-binary gender identity- whatever it is, their appearance seems to indicate some cross between male and female.
 * The two mares in the out-of-control carriage during "The Mysterious Mare Do Well".
 * Hayseed Turnip Truck is one of the few ponies to have such large, messed up teeth.
 * Fleur de Lis's model is a modified version of Luna's. She is the first regular pony to appear that resembles the Princesses in build.
 * Truffle Shuffle from "Family Appreciation Day", "Hearts and Hooves Day", and "Ponyville Confidential" has the same build as Snips.
 * The short stallion and tall stallion from "Hearts and Hooves Day".
 * The nerdy pony from "Putting Your Hoof Down".
 * The buff muscular white stallion in "Hurricane Fluttershy". He screams out "YEAH!!" at various points and his design is more akin to John Kricfalusi than the rest of the show.
 * Rumble from "Hurricane Fluttershy" is a colt, but his head is shaped like a filly's.
 * So far, only Junebug possess the mane style that she sports.
 * OC Stand In: Every single one of them. Most of the things that you've heard about them were probably conceived by the fans themselves. The common background ponies are more susceptible to this trope than the special background ponies as they have little to no canon personality trait to speak of thus giving the fandom Blank Slates to expand and speculate upon.
 * Off-Model: Since they have a lower priority than other, more important characters, some interesting animation errors have occurred with them.
 * Older Than They Look: Ponies looking just like them appear in flashbacks to different times, making them either this, Inexplicably Identical Individuals or Uncanny Family Resemblance.
 * Only Six Faces: Animators would often reuse parts (or create new ones) and swap them in different combinations a la Character Customization to create new characters. This is often utilized in creating background extras. Here are just some of the background ponies who share character models:
 * Common mare model designs:
 * Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, etc. (who also have the same tail style as Golden Harvest, Daisy, etc.) A more simplistic design compared to the other swirly haired ponies.
 * Minuette, Sea Swirl, etc. Hair is solid and basic.
 * Lyra Heartstrings, Amethyst Star, Rose, Silverspeed, etc.
 * Berry Punch, Cherry Berry, etc. An interesting characteristic of this model is its hair style, which "ends" in small bulby clumps of hair which makes it resemble bunches of grapes.
 * Bon Bon, Shoeshine, etc. Each of the model's streaks of hair terminate in a single swirl of hair.
 * Golden Harvest, Daisy, etc. (who also have the same tail style as Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, etc.) The edges of their hair contain smaller swirls and are clumped closely together.
 * Lightning Bolt, Medley, etc. Their hair uses a simplified hair design for curly haired folks that's commonly used in western animation since its early days (i.e. the "looping" outlines).
 * Cloud Kicker, Merry May, Lily, etc. A basic and simplistic design, neat and clean looking with the bangs sweeping inwards.
 * Derpy Hooves, Raindrops, etc. Another basic and simplistic design.
 * Rainbowshine, Dizzy Twister, etc.
 * Sassaflash, Parasol/Showers, etc.
 * Common stallion model designs:
 * Ponet, Pokey, etc.
 * Doctor Whooves, Meadow Song, Lucky, etc. Messy brush upped mane, short but similarly messy hair.
 * Coconut, Goldengrape, Noteworthy, etc. Messy mane, short but similarly messy hair.
 * Cherry Cola, Caramel, Ace the Tennis Pony, Royal Riff, etc. Smooth and neatly groomed mane and tail.
 * Common foal model designs:
 * Piña Colada, Half Note, Noi/Sweet Wheat, Sunny Daze, etc. (who also have the same tail style as Shady Daze, etc.) Almost all background Earth pony fillies use this character design.
 * Ruby Pinch, Dinky, Tootsie Flute, etc. Almost all background unicorn fillies use this character design.
 * Tornado Bolt, Cotton Cloudy, Alula, etc. Almost all background Pegasus fillies use this character design.
 * Shady Daze, etc. Almost all background Earth pony colts use this character design.
 * Uncommon model designs:
 * The nurses Redheart and Tenderheart.
 * The spa ponies Aloe and Lotus. There's also a third "spa pony" who appears in "The Show Stoppers" and gets a rainbow afro courtesy of the CMC--whether she's related to the other two remains to be seen.
 * The scarecrow-costumed band from "Luna Eclipsed" consists of recolors of Octavia, Harpo, and the two bandmates they had in "The Best Night Ever". Notably, Harpo's banjo playing counterpart looks like Doctor Whooves.
 * Palette Swap: Often in conjunction with Only Six Faces, the show's animators would also reuse the same combination of parts and recolor them to make another background pony.
 * One of the major examples of this are the background ponies themselves. See the Only Six Faces trope above to see the various palette swaps.
 * Various other extra animals and creatures are also palette swapped.
 * The various rabbit extras are all palette swaps of each other. They usually come in brown, yellow, white and grey.
 * The different colors and patterns of cows though some of them have different hairdos which also makes them Only Six Faces.
 * Some groups of birds which come in almost as many different colors as the ponies do.
 * The different shades of brown tribe buffaloes as seen from Over the Barrel.
 * Some groups of dragons from Dragon Quest.
 * The parasprites.
 * Grey and brown bats.
 * Sometimes they even recolor non-background ponies to make new background ponies.
 * One of Caramel's variations, seen in the first opening and in the show proper during "Green Isn't Your Color", "Lesson Zero" and "Putting Your Hoof Down", is a Big Macintosh recolor.
 * Two Trixie recolors are seen in a shot near the end of "Bridle Gossip". One of them is seen again when part of the shot is reused at the beginning of "The Return of Harmony Part 1", and makes a few appearances during "A Friend in Deed" using two different generic background pony designs.
 * Holly Dash from "Swarm of the Century" is a freckled unicorn recolor of Rainbow Dash, though she has only been seen in a pony galloping animation loop so far so we don't know what her mane and tail normally looks like in an idle stance. Ponies with the Lyra Heartstrings/Amethyst Star model tend to use Rainbow Dash's running animation when they gallop, specifically how the mane and tail are drawn, so it's possible that she would most likely look like them when she's not running.
 * An Earth Pony recolor of Scootaloo has appeared twice: sitting in the front row of Cheerilee's class during "Call of the Cutie" and playing an arcade game during "Hearts and Hooves Day".
 * "Call of the Cutie" also includes one recolor each of Sweetie Belle, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The Sweetie Belle recolor appears in the front row of Cheerilee's class and due to an animation error is replaced by Sweetie Belle herself during two different shots. The Diamond Tiara recolor appears at the cuteceañera, walking alongside Twist during one shot. The Silver Spoon recolor also appears at the cuteceañera, wearing a Nice Hat which Apple Bloom tries to hide behind during one shot.
 * In "Green Isn't Your Color", Tootsie Flute becomes a Scootaloo recolor for one shot, losing her horn as a result.
 * "Over a Barrel" has a half-example: a strange variation of Cherry Berry can be seen bucking trees when the citizens of Appleloosa are frantically harvesting apples before the buffalo attack. Her back half has her usual design, but her front half is a recolor of Applejack's, minus the tied-up bit of hair at the end of her mane. She also wears a duplicate of Applejack's hat at one point and reuses one of Applejack's tree bucking animation sequences from "Applebuck Season".
 * The cast of the play in Rarity's Flash Back during "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" includes a pair of fillies who are recolors of Pinkie Pie and Applejack. The Pinkie Pie recolor is dressed as a piece of cake and the Applejack recolor is dressed as a bunch of fruit with a hat made to look like a bowl of fruit.
 * The crowd during the final shot of "The Return of Harmony Part 2" includes a few recolors, including a Fluttershy recolor who appears a couple of times and at least one Twilight Sparkle recolor.
 * The bellhop from "Sweet and Elite" is a recolor of Snails.
 * The nurse filly from "Read It and Weep" is a recolor of Twist, only differing in mane color and cutie mark (and with a nurse cap instead of glasses).
 * The pegasus colt from "A Friend in Deed" is a recolor of Dumb-Bell.
 * Promotion to Opening Titles: The second opening includes more of them than the first opening does though not all of the ponies from the first opening return.
 * Recurring Extra: They show up everywhere! Lyra Heartstrings holds the unique distinction of appearing in nearly every town that's been shown so far, only absent from Manehattan and Dodge Junction. They tend to be dressed up while in Appleloosa, Dodge Junction or some parts of Canterlot which may indicate that they're actually Identical Strangers.
 * Running Gag: Background ponies often have completely different voices between episodes. It might be unintentional as voice actors aren't normally shown any art, much less for unnamed incidental characters . Intentional or not, the fact remains that their voices keep changing, and it's hilarious in Bon Bon's case.
 * She's a Man In Japan: All of the background stallions who appear in the Blind Bags. Apparently some of the foreign language translations on their collector cards call them female. But seeing as Big Macintosh's and the Canon Foreigner stallions' cards apparently do the same thing, it almost certainly wasn't intentional and most likely isn't indicative of those languages' dubs of the show.
 * Ship Tease: While "Hearts and Hooves Day" does show at least one background pony Official Couple (Caramel with Sassaflash, plus a few more heavily implied couples), the episode has many more pairs of background ponies simply standing beside other in aerial shots of Ponyville, including Derpy Hooves with Doctor Whooves X and Mr. Waddle with the light purple elderly earth pony mare. One of these aerial shots is reused a couple of times in "Ponyville Confidential", strengthening the Ship Teases in said shot.
 * Stock Costume Traits: All the ponies with defined careers are dressed like this to make them stand out from the rest of the herd.
 * Toyless Toyline Character: Most of them started off this way as most of the toyline characters outside of the main cast are God-Created Canon Foreigners, which is sort of odd as you would think Hasbro would want them to be the show's background ponies, though this is slowly being remedied as more background ponies are getting toys and one of the toy ponies (Blossomforth) has made the jump to the show.
 * Within the flower trio, Daisy and Rose have had mini-figure toys (Flower Wishes and Roseluck) since the first wave of Blind Bags and Daisy's even getting a re-release of her mini-figure (in the upcoming Friendship Celebration Collection) as well as a brand-new brushable toy, yet Lily has no toys whatsoever.
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance: Ponies looking just like them appear in flashbacks to different times, making them either this, Inexplicably Identical Individuals or Older Than They Look.
 * Vague Age: Like the mane characters, the exact age of background ponies are unknown beyond "child", "teen/adult" and "elderly".
 * You All Look Familiar:
 * They often appear multiple times in the same scene.
 * Cutie marks aside, Goldengrape and Golden Harvest look exactly the same as Apple family members Red Delicious and Caramel Apple respectively.
 * You Are Number Six: Not in-universe but since the majority of them are unnamed, the animation studio gives them this treatment. Lyra Heartstrings for example is called "Incidental Unicorn #2" (as neither half of her All There in the Script name is used by the animation studio). Not all of them necessarily have numbers, though, particularly the ones with Non Standard Character Design such as Mr. Greenhooves (who was known only as "Hayseed Pony" prior to "Putting Your Hoof Down") and Ace (who is known only as "Tennis Pony").
 * You Don't Look Like You: In the toys and their art, nearly all of the background ponies who appear in the toy line are reduced to Palette Swaps of other ponies, and a few of them have color differences of various degrees. The only known exceptions are Cherry Berry and Sunny Rays' Pony Wedding brushable toys as well as the Ponyville Schoolhouse toy (which has a picture that uses the original designs of Sunny Daze and the filly who was dressed as a flower for the play in Rarity's Flash Back during "The Cutie Mark Chronicles").
 * Earth ponies Sunny Daze, Peachy Pie, and Junebug look very different. On top of all three of them having different coat and mane/tail colors to various degrees, Sunny Daze becomes a Pegasus, Peachy Pie becomes a young adult with a different-looking cutie mark (an updated version of her G3 cutie mark; her in-show cutie mark is similar to Applejack's but with peaches and the "point" of the triangle formed by the fruit facing the opposite direction), and Junebug becomes a unicorn.
 * A few ponies have different-looking cutie marks: Golden Harvest (two carrots instead of three), Noteworthy (three eighth notes instead of two beamed notes), Merry May (sun-colored flowers instead of suns, but still in the same pattern), Peachy Pie (detailed above), Rainbowshine (the Rainbow Lite's top arc being purple instead of blue), and Royal Riff (only slightly).
 * The Blind Bag toys and collector cards' colors don't always match each other. This has happened in different ways to Lyra Heartstrings, Royal Riff, and Sassaflash. Judging by the Wave 3 Blind Bags' packaging, that wave's artwork for Lyra Heartstrings was colored to match a prototype toy rather than the final toy.

Derpy


""I just don't know what went wrong!""

"First Appearance (Background): "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "The Last Roundup""

"Voiced by Tabitha St. Germain (original version)"

Derpy Hooves is a grey Pegasus with a cluster of bubbles as her cutie mark. She is, quite simply, the ultimate darkhorse pony in a series overflowing with them. Derpy was "born" when she was drawn making a face in the background of the first episode. Her unusual expression proved phenomenally popular with the brony fans who nicknamed her "Derpy Hooves" and quickly turned her into a meme. The animators started giving her own scripted scenes in Season 2, and the episode "The Last Roundup" gave her lines and (in the original version) referred to her on-screen as "Derpy."

She's also known as "Ditzy Doo" by a lot of fans (and, very rarely, by Mighty Fine's online store WeLoveFine), after a character mentioned in "Winter Wrap Up", who Lauren Faust had considered using Derpy's design for. In fact, according to Amy Keating Rogers, the first draft of "The Last Roundup" did in fact use the name "Ditzy Doo" until she was asked to change it to "Derpy" as a Fandom Nod.

Regardless of her name or how she's depicted by fans, for better or worse she's become the mascot of the brony community.

More analysis on Derpy is available on the analysis page.


 * Aderpable
 * Alliterative Name: Ditzy Doo.
 * Ascended Extra: Went from being just another background pony to getting her own scripted scenes and having her Fan Nickname become Ascended Fanon (in the original version of "The Last Roundup"). She's also included in the Castle Creator game on Hasbro and The Hub's websites, and was included in the Christmas version of the Card Creator game on Hasbro's website (but was Dummied Out along with the game's other Christmas assets once the game was switched to the Valentine version). She'll even be getting a Fashion Style size toy as the 2012 special edition pony, making her the only background pony to receive that size of toy (the only others are the Mane Six, the three Princesses, and Shining Armor) as well as the first and so far only special edition pony to be part of G4 (the special editions had previously stuck to being G3 ponies).
 * Ascended Fanon: The episode "The Last Roundup" pretty much sealed the deal by making her fan-made shape and behavior and (in the original version) part of her Fan Nickname fully canon. And the Fandom Rejoiced, exploding with delight! (So naturally, when the edited version of the episode removed any mention of her name and re-recorded her voice, there was much backlash to be had. It's calmed down for the most part, thankfully, though there are still a handful that refuse to let bygones be bygones.) She's had more Ascended Fanon in the licensed merchandise.
 * Ass Kicks You: She knocks down one of the Town Hall's support beams and later breaks the Hall's floor, just with her butt.
 * And let it be known that the latter happened when she merely sat down. Clearly Derpy has a plot of steel. The fandom's word for "butt," which originated from an image poking fun at people who watch it for the plot.
 * Badass Adorable: Implied because she was able to break through solid wood just by sitting on it.
 * Beam Me Up, Scotty: Possibly; she's only one of three ponies whose lip flaps match the famous "muffin" line in "Applebuck Season" (the other two being Sea Swirl and Minuette). It isn't clear which of them are actually saying the line (or if it's meant to represent all three). And since background ponies generally don't have consistent voices, that can't be used to narrow it down.
 * Cast Herd: In Season 1 she's often seen alongside fellow pegasi Parasol/Showers and Raindrops, both sharing her famous "Feeling Pinkie Keen" scene with her. In Season 2 she's usually, if seen with somepony else, with Golden Harvest or Doctor Whooves in various Fandom Nods.
 * Curtains Match the Window: To a degree.
 * Cute Clumsy Girl: Big time.
 * Delayed Reaction:
 * During a collective GASP in "Green Isn't Your Color", hers is a bit later than the rest of the crowd's.
 * In Putting Your Hoof Down, Iron Will's odd money-back guarantee initially confuses ponies, but then causes them to laugh. When he gives the crowd a stern glare, most of them immediately stop laughing. Guess who doesn't.
 * The Ditz: Pretty much a walking (or flying) disaster area. First implied from the annoyed look on her supervisor's face when she accidentally pummels Twilight with everything but the kitchen sink in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and when she accidentally drains the barrel of water and apples in "Luna Eclipsed". Confirmed in "The Last Roundup" as she pretty much demolishes Ponyville's city hall while she was helping Rainbow Dash to hang some banners on it. She even manages to break the floor and drag Rainbow Dash to the hall's basement with her, literally by sitting there and doing nothing as ordered.
 * Does Not Know Her Own Strength: A subtle example can be found in her appearance in "The Last Roundup". She was strong enough to inadvertently knock over a wooden support beam, drag Rainbow Dash down a hole and break through a solid floor by sitting on it too hard.
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him: Tabitha St. Germain apparently thought Derpy was a boy on the day she came in to record her lines for the original version of "The Last Roundup", and wasn't told otherwise, though the voice was probably adjusted a bit in post production to be just a little higher than what was in the original recording. This resulted in Derpy sounding androgynous or young-boyish, but still female. (The edited version of the episode gives her a different, much more feminine-sounding voice.)
 * Dumb Blonde: Sometimes. Apparently confirmed by "The Last Roundup".
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Fandom Nod: Derpy is this trope ponified.
 * Fish Eyes: Surprisingly enough Inverted most of the time (her eyes face inward more often than outward), but played straight for brief moments in "The Show Stoppers", "Green Isn't Your Color", and "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000".
 * Funny Background Event: Her very expression in the first episode and in later episodes following "Feeling Pinkie Keen". Spotting her is a Where's Waldo-esque game for fans.
 * Heroine of Another Story/Noodle Incident: Derpy must have a very interesting life. Among other things, she has her own private suite in the Friendship Express Train's Ice Cream Train Car, she's entered flying competitions, hung out in Fluttershy's chicken coop, is somehow able to freely converse with the Canterlot elite wearing only a pearl necklace and her paper bag wizard getup from Nightmare Night, got turned into a filly for a day, and was shrunken and imprisoned in a snowglobe owned by someone who just moved into Ponyville as of that episode.
 * The Klutz: During "Feeling Pinkie Keen" she drops several items of furniture from a delivery truck in comical fashion on Twilight Sparkle's head, while during "The Last Roundup" she partially destroys Ponyville's city hall, which later becomes an important part of the plot.
 * Larynx Dissonance: Her Delayed Reaction GASP in "Green Isn't Your Color" is either this or Vocal Dissonance (it's unknown whether she was voiced by a woman or a man in that episode).
 * Meaningful Name: Both of her names (which are also Unfortunate Names).
 * Her name "Derpy", as well as being a reference to her googly eyes, deals with being idiotic, since she is canonically a ditz.
 * Her other name "Ditzy Doo" also references her ditziness (and by its original definition, unlike the name "Derpy").
 * Mind Screw: When Apple Bloom is demonstrating her hoop talent in "The Cutie Pox", one of the blank-flanked school background fillies appears to be Derpy Hooves, down to her wings, hair color and style and her crossed eyes of gold. Your guess is as good as ours.
 * Noodle Incident: How she destroyed the town hall roof. According to a Deleted Scene, it was hit by lightning due to a weather control mistake.
 * No Sense of Direction: In "Winter Wrap Up" it's mentioned that Ditzy Doo tried going north to fetch the southern birds (after going west the previous year).
 * Off-Model: What she started out as . Now the animators draw her with her eyes facing the wrong directions intentionally.
 * Running Gag/Once Per Episode: Starting in the second season, Derpy has appeared in some sort of wacky scene or random cameo.
 * Shock and Awe: She made lighting from a storm cloud strike town hall by bouncing up and down on it.
 * Simpleton Voice: In the original version, although apparently not intentionally.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Mighty Fine's online store WeLoveFine has very rarely misspelled her names in the tags of their merchandise's pages:
 * "Derpy Whooves" (My Bad BUTTON shirt and button, Misunderstood shirt)
 * "Ditsy Doo" (What Went Wrong shirt)
 * Stop Helping Me!: Except that she continues breaking things even after she stops helping out and sits perfectly still.
 * Suddenly Voiced: Has actual lines in "The Last Roundup".
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Muffins. More prominent outside the show than within it, though--see All There in the Manual in the "Tropes shared by many of them" folder above for details.
 * During "Putting Your Hoof Down", she is seen with a muffin-shaped clasp on her saddlebag. Most ponies have clasps shaped like their own cutie marks.
 * Unfortunate Names: Both of her names (which are also Meaningful Names).
 * Her name "Derpy", as well as being a reference to her googly eyes, deals with being idiotic, silly, or klutzy, since she is canonically a ditz. (Hence why any mention of it was removed from the edited version. This apparently owes to an increasing use of "Derpy" to mean "retarded", which Amy Rogers acknowledged.)
 * Her other name "Ditzy Doo" also references her ditziness (and by its original definition, unlike the name "Derpy").
 * Vague Age: She's been an adult in the past (like other background ponies) and a filly in the present. Your guess is as good as ours.
 * Valley Girl: Sounds like this in the edited version.
 * Vocal Dissonance:
 * Her Delayed Reaction GASP in "Green Isn't Your Color" is either this or Larynx Dissonance (it's unknown whether she was voiced by a woman or a man in that episode).
 * In the original version of "The Last Roundup", she sounds very tomboy-ish, almost like a young boy. According to this, the voice actress wasn't aware that Derpy was a girl (though according to this, the voice was probably adjusted a bit in post production to be just a little higher than what was in the original recording). Considering Derpy's original googly-eyed expression and resultant popularity came into being due to an accident (while the expression was intentional, she wasn't meant to be visible in that scene), it seems fitting that other aspects of her would come about due to accidents.
 * Walking Disaster Area

Common Mares
The most common and popular Recurring Extras in the show. They make up the majority of the population in a crowd scene more than foals and stallions and are often pulled into gag scenes and other background character roles. You will often see them jumping from one scene to the next as if they are teleporting or two (or more) of the same pony in the same scene sometimes appearing with slight variations in design such as being of a different race or a different cutie mark that they usually possess.

Berry Punch


"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

AKA the Overly Protective Parent Pony. An Earth Pony famous for her scene in "Call of the Cutie" as the pony who drank directly from the punch bowl and for whisking a unicorn filly (who is presumed to be her daughter named "Ruby Pinch") into her house as Zecora wanders around Ponyville in "Bridle Gossip". She's a popular pick for gag scenes and Funny Background Events for the show's crew...especially storyboard artist Sabrina "Sibsy" Alberghetti, who's responsible for her "Call of the Cutie" scene.

An analysis on Berry Punch is available on the analysis page.


 * Butt Monkey: As of season 2, she seems to be on the receiving end of a lot of bad luck; Discord spends a ton of time sprinkling pepper on her in "The Return of Harmony, Part 2", she loses out on cider season in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" and Apple Bloom ends up getting a lovestruck (long story) Big Macintosh to drag her house around in "Hearts and Hooves Day".
 * Cool Big Sis: She enters the Sisterhooves Social with Piña Colada, the pink earth pony that dressed as a ladybug in "Luna Eclipsed".
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Motifs: Her character design is based on grapes.
 * Rose Haired Mare
 * Sneeze of Doom: In "The Return of Harmony, Part 2" Discord sprinkles her with pepper, making her sneeze, which causes every tree and house around her to topple.
 * Weirdness Magnet: See above, as well as what happens to her house in "Hearts and Hooves Day". No wonder she drinks.

Cherry Berry

 * Cherry_Berry_by_Kooner01_8130.png

""Showpony business is tough...""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "Luna Eclipsed", "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", and "Putting Your Hoof Down""

A pink Earth pony with a yellow mane, purple eyes, and a cutie mark of a pair of cherries. According to her collector card, she "is so cheerful."


 * Adventurer Outfit: Wears aviator goggles while in the Twinkling Balloon during "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" as well as on the Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background.
 * Ascended Extra: The Pony Wedding line includes a brushable toy of her, with art that's actually show-accurate!
 * Valley Girl: Her voice in "Putting Your Hoof Down".

Golden Harvest


""We couldn't fit it all in...""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "Boast Busters", "Swarm of the Century", "Green Isn't Your Color", and "A Friend in Deed""

An Earth Pony with (usually) an orange mane and carrot cutie mark. Fans may recognize her from several pieces of fan art featuring her as Derpy's roommate/best friend, usually with her fridge being emptied. While the two have been seen alongside each other in the show a few times, it's unknown if they really are friends or emptied fridges are involved. According to her collector card, she "loves sharing treats!" Before Golden Harvest's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Carrot Top (by the fandom as well as by one of the show's animators, as coincidence would have it).

An analysis on Golden "Carrot Top" Harvest is available on the analysis page.

"Rarity: No! Green hair? Not green hair! Such an awful color! Golden Harvest: ...Well...I never!"
 * Action Mare: In "Over a Barrel" she jumps out of the second story of a building, lands on a buffalo and rides him rodeo style all with a big grin on her face!
 * Cool Big Sis: She's shown to be sisters with Noi in "Sisterhooves Social" and they enter the competition together. They're shown together again in "Putting Your Hoof Down".
 * Dye Hard: Her hair is briefly green in "Boast Busters" as part of a gag and goes back to orange right afterwards.


 * Fandom Nod: She's together with Derpy Hooves for a gag scene in "Luna Eclipsed" which could be a reference to fan depiction of them being Heterosexual Life Partners (especially since an early storyboard had a unicorn dressed as a vampire in the place of Golden Harvest).
 * Adding to this, her annoyed expression implies that she's used to Derpy's quirks.
 * Flower In Her Mane: On a few occasions
 * Green Eyes
 * Official Couple: Heavily implied to be with Strawberry Cream in "Hearts and Hooves Day", though the shot before that shows her with Caramel instead (however, an even earlier shot shows Caramel with Sassaflash).

Bon Bon


""Go ahead, try one of your jokes out on me. I laugh at everything.""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "Call of the Cutie", "Green Isn't Your Color", "Lesson Zero" , "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" , and "Putting Your Hoof Down""

An earth pony with a cream coat, mixed purple/pink mane and tail with three pieces of candy as her cutie mark. Has become a bit infamous for her several speaking apperances and as with other background ponies, her voice does not stay the same in any of these appearances. Is often seen alongside Lyra Heartstrings.


 * Alliterative Name
 * Blue Eyes
 * Cast Herd: With Lyra Heartstrings, in the show as well as on the Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background and the There's A Pony For That shirt and art print.
 * Jerkass: Vaguely implied in Bon Bon's first spoken scene. Apple Bloom dumps some apples into her bag in an attempt to sell them. As an apology for Apple Bloom's rudeness, Applejack is forced to satisfy the one customer by giving her the baskets full of apples on and under the cart, free of charge. Bon Bon leaves with what may be a smug look or a nervous smile due to the uncomfortable situation.
 * Also implied in her second spoken appearance. She comes into Rarity's store right after the then-famous Fluttershy busts in and bluntly tells Rarity she's never heard of her in a rather smug voice. What drives this home even more is that she must know of Rarity, so she's just being pretentious.
 * "Putting Your Hoof Down" shows her jerkass nature again. Granted, everyone was being one in that episode,.
 * Large Ham: Her five voices so far have been over the top in cartoonishness: French, Valley Girl and Jewish Mother, among others.
 * Those Two Girls: Almost always seen alongside Lyra.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: In "Over a Barrel", she wears a masculine top hat while Lyra Heartstrings (as a red-eyed earth pony) wears a feminine bonnet (also seen briefly in "Luna Eclipsed"). However in "Green Isn't Your Color", Bon Bon is the one that becomes a fangirl of a fashion model.
 * Vocal Dissonance: Her voice is surprisingly deep in "Call of the Cutie" but it's a lot higher (and sounds more like a Valley Girl) in "Green Isn't Your Color". It changes once again in "Lesson Zero", this time sounding kinda like Olive Oyl. As of "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", it's even deeper than her first appearance. "Putting Your Hoof Down" goes back to her Valley Girl voice from "Green Isn't Your Color".

Shoeshine

 * Shoeshine_by_Ambassad0r_2205.png

""We get it! Move on!""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "The Ticket Master", "Green Isn't Your Color", "Hearth's Warming Eve", and "Putting Your Hoof Down""

A blue Earth pony with a periwinkle mane, magenta eyes, and a cutie mark of a pair of horseshoes. According to her collector card, she "is so understanding!" Before Shoeshine's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Linky.


 * Jerkass: A little in "Hearth's Warming Eve", and a lot in "Putting Your Hoof Down".
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Seems to have a thing for carrots--in "The Ticket Master" she offers Twilight a few and claims to have a cartload of extra ones, and in "Winter Wrap Up" she's seen munching on one.

The Flower Trio
[[File:The_flower_trio_1771.png|frame|That scroll bar is horrifying! ""The horror! The horror!""

"Daisy's Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Lily and Rose's Debut: "Applebuck Season"

Speaking Appearance: (All Three) "Applebuck Season", "Bridle Gossip", "The Cutie Pox", and "A Friend in Deed"; (Daisy) "The Ticket Master", "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", and ""Family Appreciation Day""

"Voiced by Andrea Libman (Daisy in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well")"

Daisy, Rose, and "Lily", a trio of flower-themed earth ponies who tend to overreact to tragedies such as Zecora coming into town and a stampede of bunnies. The toy line gives Daisy the name Flower Wishes and Rose the name Roseluck. According to their collector cards, Daisy "has a beautiful garden. She grows flowers in every color of the rainbow!" and Rose "loves to pick pretty flowers and wear them in her hair!" According to the Friendship Celebration Collection's box, Daisy and Blossomforth "have a tea party for two!"


 * Adaptation Name Change:
 * The toy line refers to Daisy as Flower Wishes; the show has only referred to her as Daisy once while the toys have continued to refer to her as Flower Wishes, and Flower Wishes is also the name of a G3 pony, so it's very possible that Daisy's correct name is Flower Wishes.
 * The Blind Bags refer to Rose as Roseluck; while the show has continued to refer to her as Rose, this could easily be short for Roseluck, or Roseluck could be an In-Series Nickname for Rose.
 * Ascended Extra: Daisy will be getting a Toys "R" Us exclusive brushable toy.
 * Cast Herd: One of the more common ones in the show. Daisy also shows up alongside male earth pony Goldengrape ala Lyra Heartstrings & Bon Bon. They even go to the Grand Galloping Gala together!
 * Catch Phrase: "The Horror! THE HORROR!", shouted out thus far by Lily & Rose but not Daisy.
 * Subverted in their appearance in "The Cutie Pox". They get all worked up and panic but none of them say the line.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Lily.
 * Eyes of Gold: Lily
 * Green Eyes: Daisy and Rose have different shades of these.
 * Floral Theme Naming
 * Flower in her Mane:
 * Lily always has one.
 * Rose "loves to pick pretty flowers and wear them in her hair!"
 * Flower Motifs: Each of them are themed after a specific kind of flower.
 * No Name Given: Lily is the only pony of the three who doesn't have an official name yet.
 * Only Six Faces: Their models are generic ones that are also used for background ponies.
 * Running Gag: They will each say something about the unfolding tragedy one by one then start panicking which causes everypony around them to gallop away and hide inside their houses as well.
 * Rose Haired Pony: Rose unsurprisingly has a pink and red mane.
 * Theme Naming: Named for their flower cutie marks. They even lament the loss of their flower gardens in "Applebuck Season"
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: This trope is their Running Gag. Subverted in the Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background, where they look quite concerned by the fact that there's a cockatrice right there in front of them.

Lemon Hearts

 * Lemon_Hearts_by_AliceHumanSacrifice1_9017.png

""I'll give you two bits for that cherry.""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "Green Isn't Your Color" and "Putting Your Hoof Down""

A yellow unicorn with a blue mane, raspberry-colored eyes, and a cutie mark of three hearts. She's notably the very first background pony to appear in the series (outside of the opening). According to her collector card, she "is loving and kind! She always takes time to show her friends how much she cares." According to the Friendship Celebration Collection's box, she and Pepperdance "play together in a band!"


 * Ascended Extra: She's had a toy since Blind Bag Wave 1 (long before toys of background ponies became the norm) despite being nowhere near as prominent as Daisy or Rose (the other two background ponies in Wave 1). It's unknown whether this has anything to do with her being the first background pony to appear in the show proper.
 * Color-Coded Wizardry: Her magic aura is shown as light green in "Hearth's Warming Eve" and as light blue in "Putting Your Hoof Down".

Twinkleshine

 * Twinkle_by_Norcinu_195.png

""Moondancer is having a little get-together in the west castle courtyard. You wanna come?""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "Friendship is Magic, part 1", "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1", and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2""

An off-white unicorn with a pink mane, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of three five-pointed stars. She's notably the first background pony to speak in the series, inviting Twilight to a get-together in the pilot episode. According to her brushable toy's box and her collector card, she "dreams about being a famous movie star. Drama. Comedy. Action. She loves it all!" and "loves playing games!" Before Twinkleshine's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Twinkle.


 * Ascended Extra: The first background pony to appear in both the brushable toy line and the Blind Bags, though it came at the cost of being turned very pink like Celestia was (technically even more so, since Celestia's pink toys at least use stock art where she isn't very pink).
 * Cool Pet: Has a toy-exclusive koala friend.
 * Rose Haired Pony

Minuette


""Me too!""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1" and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2""

A blue unicorn with a half-white/half-dark blue mane and an hourglass cutie mark. She was part of the trio of ponies that invited Twilight to a party in the pilot, making her one of the first background ponies to appear in the series and the Ensemble Darkhorse of that little group. While she didn't speak then, she eventually got a few lines in the Season 2 finale. According to her collector card, she "is always on time!" Before Minuette's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given multiple Fan Nicknames, including Colgate (due to her mane's resemblance to striped toothpaste) and Romana (due to her cutie mark sparking speculation that she might be a Time Lord like Doctor Whooves or possibly one of his companions ).


 * Blue Eyes
 * Color-Coded Wizardry: In the play in "Hearth's Warming Eve", her magic aura is shown to be blue.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Her eyes match half of her Multicolored Hair.
 * Fandom Nod:
 * In Hasbro's Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background, she is seen showing an unique "dentist's smile" not shared by any of the other characters.
 * In "Luna Eclipsed" she wore a pink surgeon's uniform (complete with a head mirror, a stethoscope and a medical mask). It's unknown what type of surgeon she was supposed to be but it's possible that she was dressed as a dental surgeon.
 * Suddenly Voiced: in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1"

Lyra Heartstrings


""I love them!""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1" and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2""

A mint-green unicorn with a lyre cutie mark, and arguably the second most famous background mare, next to Derpy. She seems to have been made with Funny Background Events in mind. She's been spotted happily waving hi to Twilight early in the pilot episode, jumping up and down excitedly, mugging for the camera, and sitting on a bench like a human being among other things. Is often seen alongside Bon Bon. According to her collector cards, she "sings all day!" and "loves to play!"

An analysis on Lyra Heartstrings is available on the analysis page.


 * Adaptation Name Change: At one point, the two parts of her name seemed to be separate names, as the toy line only referred to her as Heartstrings while WeLoveFine only referred to her by her Fan Nickname Lyra. Hasbro rectified this by having subsequent toys refer to her as Lyra Heartstrings.
 * Anthropomorphic Zig-Zag: Used for a couple of Funny Background Events in the show. The most famous incident is when she was sitting on a bench like a person and she was also seen holding a fast food drink cup with her hoof when she could have been using her unicorn magic to levitate it. Other than those two times she's usually on all fours or jumping like all the other ponies. "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" shows her, her Palette Swap Amethyst Star, and Minuette standing up on their hind legs to cheer for Mare Do Well (and since the shot Minuette appears in shows her as a Lyra Heartstrings/Amethyst Star Palette Swap, it's likely that the pose was designed for one or both of them).
 * Ascended Extra: The Pony Wedding line includes a brushable toy of her.
 * Ascended Fanon: After her All There in the Script name was revealed to be "Heartstrings", most fans opted to compromise by making "Heartstrings" her surname, i.e. "Lyra Heartstrings". This was incorporated into her Wave 5 Blind Bag version. This is also one of the first times Hasbro has used a Fan Nickname for an official pony toy.
 * Cast Herd: With Bon Bon; in the show as well as on the Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background and the There's A Pony For That shirt and art print.
 * Color-Coded Wizardry: In the play in "Hearth's Warming Eve", her magic aura is shown to be gold.
 * Exorcist Head: At the beginning of Rainbow Dash's Imagine Spot during "The Ticket Master", one Lyra Heartstrings in the back turns to face the camera for a split second then immediately turns her head back the other way, and it keeps spinning as an error box indicating the animation error flashes on and off.
 * Eyes of Gold: Usually.
 * Flower in Her Hair: Very briefly in "The Ticket Master", with grayish indigo eyes.
 * Funny Background Event: Even more than Derpy. The most common gag is an animation that has her jumping up and down grinning at the camera, usually from behind a group of other ponies. This is probably why she cameos in the otherwise Pegasus-only city of Cloudsdale in "Sonic Rainboom" as it makes for a good cheering animation.
 * Genki Girl: Judging by her tendency to jump up and down and the manic grin she often has while doing so.
 * Harp of Femininity: Her cutie mark is a golden lyre which implies that she is good at playing one. How feminine she actually is debatable.
 * Hero of Another Story: It hasn't escaped many fans' notice that she shows up almost everywhere Twilight goes even when Twilight's nowhere near Ponyville. Her very first appearance is in Canterlot with Twilight's classmates and she even shows up in Cloudsdale in "Sonic Rainboom", making her the only non-pegasus outside the main cast to appear in that episode (not counting the Earth Ponies-turned-Pegasi like Doctor Whooves X and Caramel). The one exception so far is "The Last Roundup" where she didn't appear in Dodge Junction but was back in Ponyville before Twilight and friends set off.
 * Informed Ability: Her cutie mark would suggest she's a musician but she has yet to be seen playing a musical instrument in show (though the harp player in Octavia's band has the same cutie mark). Her Wave 3 collector card says she "sings all day" (and she does indeed sing in the show) but mentions nothing about playing a lyre or harp!
 * Off-Model: She occasionally appears without her horn and/or with different eye colors (red being her most common alternate eye color).
 * Skunk Stripe
 * Suddenly Voiced: A couple of the foreign dubs give her clear lines earlier than "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1":
 * In the Italian dub of "Friendship is Magic, part 1", she shouts out "Ciao!...oh?" when she waves to Twilight in the first episode.
 * In the Polish dub of "Call of the Cutie", she says "Naprawde?" ("Really?") to a background filly (Tornado Bolt).
 * Those Two Girls: Almost always seen alongside Bon Bon.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: In "Over a Barrel", she (as a red-eyed earth pony) wears a feminine bonnet (also seen briefly in "Luna Eclipsed") while Bon Bon wears a masculine top hat. However, in "Green Isn't Your Color", Bon Bon is the one that becomes a fangirl of a fashion model.
 * You Are Incidental Unicorn #2: Nayuki, one of the show's layout artists, sometimes calls her this. It was probably the ID number for her pony template, or they're just making a joke on how unimportant she is in the grand scheme of the show.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: She starts crying when a parasprite eats her pie while Bon Bon just looks surprised.

Amethyst Star
 ""Aren't you milking this a bit?""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "The Mysterious Mare Do Well""

"Voiced by Cathy Weseluck"

A purple unicorn with a tri-diamond cutie mark, she made her first appearance alongside Lyra Heartstrings in the pilot episode. She had a notable appearance as captain of the animal team in "Winter Wrap Up" but other than that fans didn't really notice her much until "Sisterhooves Social" which showed her as the sister of popular background unicorn filly Dinky. (This means several fans consider her Derpy Hooves' other daughter, usually adopted to explain their narrow age difference.) She even gets her own scene in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" in which she has a picnic with background unicorn filly Tootsie Flute and Rainbow Dash attempts to help her open a peanut butter jar but ends up needing her assistance to open it. According to her collector card, she "loves to dance!" Before Amethyst Star's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Sparkler (after the similar-looking G1 pony who was the basis for an early design of Rarity).


 * Color-Coded Wizardry: Her magic aura is the same as Twilight Sparkle's, a red-violet.
 * Cool Big Sis: To Dinky; they win a pie-eating contest together at the Sisterhooves Social.
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Deadpan Snarker: When dealing with Rainbow Dash at least.
 * Flower in Her Hair: On a few occasions.
 * Friend to All Living Things: Implied in "Winter Wrap Up". It is she and not Fluttershy who is captain of the animal team.
 * Purple Eyes
 * Red Herring: Her purple magic glow seen during the peanut butter scene on "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" was put there to mislead people into believing she may have been Mare Do Well, who also had a purple magic glow.
 * You Gotta Have a Purple Mane: Purple! Purple everywhere!

Sea Swirl


""Cool! A bowling cutie mark!""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "The Cutie Pox""

A pale pink unicorn with a blue mane, rose-colored eyes, and a cutie mark of a pair of dolphins. According to her collector card, she "loves the sea!" Before Sea Swirl's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Seafoam.


 * Alliterative Name
 * Color-Coded Wizardry: In the play in "Hearth's Warming Eve", her magic aura is shown first as red-violet and then as pink.

Lightning Bolt

 * lightning_bolt_6365.png

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

A white Pegasus with a blue mane, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of a dark cloud with a lightning bolt.


 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Official Couple: Heavily implied to be with Ponet in "Hearts and Hooves Day".
 * Trademark Favorite Food: In "Applebuck Season", she and Cloud Kicker are shown drooling at the sight of the free muffins.

Cloud Kicker

 * cloud_kicker_8615.png

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

A lavender Pegasus with a blonde mane, pink eyes, and a cutie mark of a sun with a white cloud.


 * Fish Eyes: For brief moments in "Griffon the Brush Off" and "Hurricane Fluttershy".
 * Trademark Favorite Food: In "Applebuck Season", she and Lightning Bolt are shown drooling at the sight of the free muffins.

Raindrops
raindrops_oops_1883.png.''

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

Derpy's most common Palette Swap. A yellow pegasus with green hair and a raindrops cutie mark, she's known for sharing quite a few scenes with Derpy in Season 1, including the famous "Feeling Pinkie Keen" scene. She also had a viking costume in "Luna Eclipsed".


 * Badass Adorable: She doesn't necessarily do anything badass, but of all the things she could have dressed up for on Nightmare Night, she chose a viking. Awesome.
 * Blue Eyes
 * Cast Herd: In Season 1, she's often seen flying alongside Derpy, though Season 2 seems to have separated them a little bit.
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * The Klutz: The scene in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" never actually showed who exactly dropped all that stuff on Twilight Sparkle, and it's implied to be both her fault and and Derpy's.
 * She's also responsible for the first tornado failing in "Hurricane Fluttershy"
 * You Gotta Have a Green Mane

Rainbowshine

 * rainbowshine_978.png

""Ditzy Doo accidentally went north to get the southern birds!""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "Winter Wrap Up" and "Sonic Rainboom""

A purple Pegasus with a pink mane, pink eyes, and a cutie mark of a three-colored rainbow. She's best known as the pony who gave us the name Ditzy Doo (Derpy's alternate name). According to her collector card, she "loves to leap." Before Rainbowshine's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Rainbow Day.


 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Rainbow Lite: Her cutie mark is a Type 2, its three colors being blue (purple in the Blind Bags), orange, and yellow.

Sassaflash
""His girlfriend sure thinks so.""

- Scootaloo, in response to Sweetie Belle pointing out that Caramel "seems alright" during their search for a special somepony for Cheerilee in "Hearts and Hooves Day"

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

A turquoise Pegasus with a cream-colored mane, orange eyes, and a cutie mark of a pair of lightning bolts. According to her collector card, she "loves watching clouds!" Before Sassaflash's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Wind Whistler (after the similar-looking G1 pony).


 * Official Couple: With Caramel in "Hearts and Hooves Day", though a later shot shows him with Golden Harvest instead (however, the shot after that shows Golden Harvest with Strawberry Cream).

Parasol/Showers
"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

A yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, orange eyes, and a cutie mark of a trio of umbrellas.


 * Cast Herd: She's often seen alongside fellow pegasi Derpy Hooves and Raindrops, sharing their famous "Feeling Pinkie Keen" scene with them.
 * Official Couple: Heavily implied to be with Silver Script in "Hearts and Hooves Day".

Dizzy Twister

 * dizzy_twister_8212.png

""They're fighting over that doll!""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: "Lesson Zero""

A yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, rose-colored eyes, and a cutie mark of a trio of tornadoes.


 * Curtains Match the Window

Medley

 * medley_even_smaller_9403.png

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

A greenish-blue Pegasus with a teal mane, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of a white cloud with rain. She is Fan Nicknamed after a G1 pony of the same name due to their similarities in color scheme and race.

Merry May

 * merry_may_7640.png

"Debut: "The Ticket Master""

A green Pegasus with a pink mane, pink eyes, and a cutie mark of a trio of suns. According to her collector card, she "loves all flowers!" Before Merry May's official All There in the Script name was revealed, she was given the Fan Nickname Flora.


 * Alliterative Name
 * Curtains Match the Window

Common Stallions
Being a show catering to young girls, a larger population of female characters is to be expected. However, unlike previous incarnation of My Little Pony, there is a much larger stable of stallions in the show compared to previous cartoons. They function the same way as the mares and foals, filling crowd scenes and playing background character roles. They are often used in more masculine roles such as cart pullers, sports, and construction workers among other things. The second season saw an increase in the number of stallions.

Doctor Whooves


""If I buy some apples, will you leave me alone?!?""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")

Speaking Appearance: (Normal Version) "Call of the Cutie"; (Pegasus Version) "Sonic Rainboom""

A brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark and one of the few recurring male background ponies to appear as early as the first season. He helped out at Sweet Apple Acres during Winter Wrap Up, bought an apple from Apple Bloom in "Call of the Cutie" (then promptly ran away in fear), may or may not have a Pegasus relative, and may or may not play the banjo and/or the violin. However fans swear up and down he is in fact the Doctor regenerated as a pony, leading to countless crossover fan creations. In "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", he gets a very noticeable scene in which he seems to be a time keeper for the apple competition of the Flim Flam Brothers and Apple family. While wearing a tie. This was later confirmed as a nod purposely included by one of the cartoon's directors, and the team actually use the name "Doctor Whooves" internally.

An analysis on Doctor Whooves is available on the analysis page.

"Scootaloo: He might do [as Cheerilee's boyfriend]! AB & SB: If he weren't so splashy"
 * Amazing Technicolor Population: He averts this. In a world filled with brightly colored ponies, his coat and mane colors are plain brown, like a perfectly normal horse. It makes him stand out a little bit actually.
 * Blue Eyes
 * Fandom Nod: In "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", the brown coat version is seen wearing a tie like the 10th version is known to wear.
 * In Hasbro's Comic-Con 2011 poster/desktop background, he was purposely included on the front row, in a way that his hourglass cutie mark were completely visible.
 * Running around with reckless abandon in "Hearts and Hooves Day" may also be a reference.
 * Hypocritical Humor: Doctor Whooves is going to laugh at the concept of time travel? Really?!
 * He probably knew everything would be fine.
 * Roadside Wave: He accidentally splashes mud on Apple Bloom & Sweetie Belle when running by during the song in "Hearts and Hooves Day".

Pokey Pierce / Perry Pierce


"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 1" ("Mare in the Moon")"

A blue, white-maned unicorn with varying attributes: his eyes have been gold, amber, and blue; his cutie mark has been a safety pin and an hourglass; and his horn has been normal-sized and unusually long and sharp. His most memorable appearances have been in "Call of the Cutie" (where he happily pokes out a set of balloons Apple Bloom was hiding behind) and "Sweet and Elite" (where he wears a red jacket that gives him a resemblance to the Third Doctor, which coupled with his hourglass cutie mark has led some to believe he too is a Time Lord).


 * One-Scene Wonder: Named for his 3-second balloon popping scene in "Call of the Cutie", which was the first time he had a visible cutie mark and the first time he was shown with his unusually long and sharp horn.
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: His safety pin cutie mark (when he has it) together with his balloon-popping scene in "Call of the Cutie" imply that his special talent is popping balloons with an appendage the other unicorns use to do magic. And he still seems happy about it.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy

Goldengrape
"Debut: "Dragonshy""

A yellow Earth pony with a blue mane and grapes cutie mark. He's mostly known for appearing several times with Daisy whenever she's not hanging out with the other flower ponies, sort of like a hetero version of Lyra & Bon Bon, though their relationship isn't entirely clear it's assumed they're a couple. While he doesn't have any speaking lines, he does growl at Twilight Sparkle during "Over a Barrel". Before Goldengrape's official All There in the Script name was revealed, he was given a couple of Fan Nicknames, Sir Colton Vines III and Green Grapes.


 * Blue Eyes
 * Cast Herd: With Daisy. They even go to the Grand Galloping Gala together!
 * Curtains Match the Window: In the show.
 * Off-Model: At one point in "Over a Barrel", his head is shaped like a mare's.
 * You Gotta Have a Blue Mane: Blue in the show, purple in the Blind Bags.

Noteworthy
""Aww, we just switched!""

"Debut: "Winter Wrap Up"

Speaking Appearance: "Over a Barrel""

A blue Earth pony with a navy blue mane and music notes for a cutie mark. He appears in a few scenes such as clearing the snow during "Winter Wrap Up", and has a somewhat noteworthy animation glitch in "The Best Night Ever" that gave rise to the "Donny Cyclops" meme. According to his collector card, he "is so helpful." Before Noteworthy's official All There in the Script name was revealed, he was given the Fan Nickname Blues.


 * Eyes of Gold: In the show; a bit darker compared to the other gold-eyed ponies, though.
 * Curtains Match the Window: In the Blind Bags.
 * Cyclops: In "The Best Night Ever" his side-view facing head model briefly fused with his front-view facing head model creating a hideously misshapen one-eyed face. This version of him been nicknamed Psy Clops or Donny Swineclop.
 * Off-Model: One of the most infamous examples in the whole show. See Cyclops above.
 * You Gotta Have a Blue Mane: He's an all blue pony!

Lucky
"Debut: "Winter Wrap Up"

Speaking Appearance: "The Best Night Ever" and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1""

A gray Earth pony with a black mane and clover cutie mark. Like Caramel he's apparently a neighbor of Rarity and helped pull the carriage in "The Best Night Ever". He also shares a scene with Wild Fire in one of Twilight Sparkle's flashbacks in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1".


 * Blue Eyes
 * Official Couple: With Wild Fire.

Caramel / Chance-a-lot


""Oh good gravy, Caramel lost the grass seeds again didn't he?""

- Applejack, presented with yet another delay in "Winter Wrap Up"

"Debut: "Winter Wrap Up"

Speaking Appearance: "The Best Night Ever" and "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000""

A tan Earth Pony with (usually) a trio of horseshoes cutie mark and (possibly) one of the few to have an actual canon name. In "Winter Wrap Up" he loses the grass seeds (according to Applejack, this is a regular occurrence) and looks quite embarrassed by this. "The Best Night Ever" reveals he's a neighbor of Rarity's and he helps pull the girls' carriage to Canterlot. One of the more amusing things about him is that his color scheme and (usually) cutie mark have been used for at least four different ponies which has lead to a lot of jokes and speculation. The Blind Bags give him the name Chance-a-lot. According to his collector card, he "is always cheerful!"

For the unicorn pony doctor version of Caramel see the minor characters page.

An analysis on Caramel and the various versions of him is available in the analysis page.


 * Adaptation Name Change: The Blind Bags refer to him as Chance-a-lot; given that he has a caramel apple cutie mark at the beginning of the show's scene in which he's referred to as Caramel, that appearance may have been intended to be a different character, which would make Chance-a-lot this character's only name.
 * Official Couple: With Sassaflash in "Hearts and Hooves Day", though a later shot shows him with Golden Harvest instead (however, the shot after that shows Golden Harvest with Strawberry Cream).
 * The Pollyanna: According to his collector card at least.
 * Vocal Dissonance: From both ends of the spectrum! In "Winter Wrap Up" he manages to make a soft squeak similar to the one Fluttershy makes in Friendship is Magic, part 1 and A Bird in the Hoof, while in The Best Night Ever he says "EXCUSE me?" in a very deep voice. After that, in The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, he sounds very similar to the Scout.

The Master Pony
"Debut: "The Best Night Ever""

A blue Earth pony with a blonde mane and (usually) hourglass cutie mark. One of the recurring high society ponies and thus appears in most episodes featuring Canterlot or high society events. Was a judge in "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" for the dessert competition with a cupcake cutie mark for a brief moment. Like every other pony with an hourglass cutie mark, fans usually tie him to Doctor Who, seeing him as either yet another incarnation of the Doctor or the Master. To avoid confusion on this page, we're gonna go with the latter since this pony doesn't have any other widely used Fan Nicknames or an official name.


 * Bow Ties Are Cool: Is always sporting a red one, even in The Merch.
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Eyes of Gold

Bruce Mane / Neon Lights


"Debut: "The Best Night Ever""

A light blue stallion with dark gray hair, blue eyes, and (usually) a cutie mark of three five-pointed stars. While his only appearance in the first season was as an Earth pony ("Bruce Mane"), the second season introduced at least two unicorn versions of him, one of whom ("Neon Lights") is a common background pony. In the fandom, "Bruce Mane" is best remembered for his vague resemblance to Bruce Wayne and "Neon Lights" is best remembered for his "high society" Canterlot outfit that he wore in "Sweet and Elite".


 * Cool Shades: Part of the "high society" outfit that "Neon Lights" wears in Canterlot during Sweet and Elite.

Orion / Star Hunter
"Debut: "The Best Night Ever""

A stallion with light blue mane/tail and eye colors and a cutie mark of the Orion constellation. He first appears as an Earth pony with a white coat and dark blue cutie mark in "The Best Night Ever", and is larger than usual for one scene where he gives Twilight Sparkle a very strong hoofshake. He makes a second appearance in "Sweet and Elite", which is also the first appearance of two unicorn versions of him: one with the same neat mane style as the original Earth pony version, and one with a spiky mane style matching every version's tail style. Both of these unicorns, in turn, make their second appearances in "Hearth's Warming Eve", and the spiky-maned one makes a third appearance in "The Last Roundup". "Hearts and Hooves Day" is the first appearance of one of his two hornless spiky-maned versions with a dark blue coat and white cutie mark, these two versions being a Pegasus who appears in "Hurricane Fluttershy" and an Earth pony who appears in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", which is also the fourth appearance of his neat-maned Earth pony version (following "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1") and the third appearance of his neat-maned unicorn version. As for his Fan Nicknames, "Orion" has been used for all versions (but mainly the ones with a white coat and dark blue cutie mark) and "Star Hunter" has been used for the versions with a dark blue coat and white cutie mark.


 * Color-Coded Wizardry: In the play in "Hearth's Warming Eve", the spiky-maned unicorn version's magic aura is shown to be blue.
 * Curtains Match the Window: One of his few consistent attributes.

Common Foals
There are also children within the background pony crowd. Almost all of them are fillies; background colts weren't introduced until Season 2, and are nowhere near as common as background fillies. Generally, they (the fillies, at least) don't have set cutie marks--most of their appearances are as blank flanks, and when they do have marks (mostly in "Call of the Cutie") they're often inconsistent. They usually appear in classrooms or any school related scenes, Cutie Mark Crusader episodes or any episode that focuses on one or two of its members. In any other scenes they are almost always seen being accompanied by an adult pony. They usually fulfill younger background roles along with being crowd fillers like their older counterparts.

Ruby Pinch (and variations)
]

""But Namby-Pamby was a great editor!""

"Debut: "Friendship Is Magic, Part 2" ("Elements of Harmony")

Speaking Appearance: "Ponyville Confidential""

Also known by other Fan Nicknames, including Overly Protected Little Filly (OPLF), Berry Blast, Beery Pinch, and Cherry Daiquiri. A pink unicorn and the supposed daughter of Berry Punch. Similar to Dinky in that a lot of her popularity comes from her "mother" (only they've actually been seen together in the show).


 * Green Eyes
 * Off-Model: This is why she's an earth pony for one shot in Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's flashbacks during "The Cutie Mark Chronicles".
 * Rose Haired Filly
 * Tongue on the Flagpole: Becomes the unfortunate victim of this alongside Scootaloo in "Hearth's Warming Eve".

Dinky


"Debut: "Winter Wrap Up""

A purple unicorn with blonde hair, little Dinky made her debut in "Winter Wrap Up" cheerfully hopping along during the song. She appears again in "Call of the Cutie" as one of Apple Bloom's classmates who attended the party. Some speculation and a short fanfic later she was dubbed the daughter of Derpy Hooves due to their similar color schemes and since then she's become almost as popular as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. While she and Derpy have never been seen together, she's shown to be the sister of unicorn Amethyst Star in "Sisterhooves Social".


 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Hair of Gold
 * Little Miss Badass: In "Call of the Cutie", her cutie mark most of the time is a bow and arrow, which would imply her special talent is archery.
 * Ridiculously Cute Fillies: She and her Palette Swap Tootsie Flute should get special mention for their scene in "Winter Wrap Up" where they both sing and dance with little bunnies during the musical segment.

Tootsie Flute


""Lame...""

"Debut: "Winter Wrap Up"

Speaking Appearance: "The Mysterious Mare Do Well""

Yet another Dinky Palette Swap. A teal unicorn filly with a purple mane. She's the only background pony who's been present in Cheerilee's classroom every time that we've seen it, and always has a flower cutie mark on these occasions. Notable scenes include calling Rainbow Dash lame in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" and finding out her crush likes somepony else in "Hearts and Hooves Day".


 * All Love Is Unrequited: Seems to be her reaction to Truffle Shuffle giving Twist a big hug in "Hearts and Hooves Day".
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Purple Eyes
 * Ridiculously Cute Fillies: Again, singing and dancing with bunnies. With Dinky.
 * You Gotta Have a Purple Mane

Special Ponies
These ponies are a little bit more special than the other background ponies. They are created by the animators for a specific role and usually possess a unique character design rarely or not seen in other background ponies. They rarely appear in other episodes other than scenes that require their presence such as their designated career or role, most so far only appearing only once in the show. Unlike minor characters though they still generally lack actual in-show characterization beyond their distinctive appearance. Which hasn't stopped the fans one bit of course.

The Nurse Ponies
""Oh thank you Twilight! We need all the help we can get!""

- Redheart, during the food poisoning incident caused by the "baked bads" in "Applebuck Season"

"Debut: "Applebuck Season""

"Voiced by Ashleigh Ball (one or more nurses)"

Multiple nurses have appeared throughout the series, all of them female earth ponies with cross-and-hearts cutie marks of various colors. Two nurses, one with a white coat and pink mane ("Nurse Redheart") and another with a blue coat and green mane ("Nurse Tenderheart") are introduced in "Applebuck Season" after everypony gets sick from Applejack's muffins. "Redheart" is later seen working at Ponyville Hospital's nursery in "Baby Cakes", telling Pinkie to quiet down while the newborns are trying to sleep. Three more nurses ("Nurse Sweetheart", "Nurse Coldheart", and "Nursery Rhyme") are introduced in "Read It and Weep", where we also see other areas of Ponyville Hospital.


 * Blue Eyes: Nurse Redheart.
 * Rose-Haired Pony: Nurse Redheart.

Mr. Greenhooves
""Let the professional handle it.""

"Debut: "Boast Busters"

Speaking Appearance: "The Best Night Ever" and "Putting Your Hoof Down""

An elderly Earth pony who has a goatee and wears a funny looking hat. Mr. Greenhooves has non-speaking appearances in "Boast Busters", "Bridle Gossip", "Feeling Pinkie Keen", and "The Return of Harmony Part 1".


 * Badass Grandpa: He's old and he has seen better days. That doesn't stop him from pulling from a heavy cart at galloping speed.
 * Friend to All Living Things: "The Best Night Ever" suggests he is this on an even higher level than Fluttershy.
 * Roadside Wave: He accidentally splashes mud on Twilight Sparkle when running by with his cart in "Feeling Pinkie Keen".
 * Shout-Out: His hat is a shout out to one of Craig McCracken's works called Wander Over Yonder.
 * What Could Have Been: His original design included a corncob pipe to chew and smoke. Of course Hasbro wasn't fine with the idea of a smoking pony so the pipe was axed and replaced by a hay straw. (The corncob pipe was meant to explode and shoot popcorn at random as Mr. Greenhooves casually smoked around.)

The Spa Ponies


""Miss Zecora, I would love to get the recipe for this bath. It's simply luxurious!""

- Lotus, after Zecora is welcomed to Ponyville in "Bridle Gossip"

"Lotus's Debut: "Bridle Gossip"

Aloe's Debut: "Green Isn't Your Color"

Speaking Appearance: (Lotus) "Bridle Gossip""

Two baby-blue-and-pink ponies who work at the local spa in Ponyville. The first one ("Lotus") debuted at the end of "Bridle Gossip" asking Zecora for the bath recipe. She returns in "Green Isn't Your Color" with a twin ("Aloe"), where we also see other areas of the spa. They return once more for another spa scene in "A Friend in Deed", and Lotus appears for another spa scene in "Ponyville Confidential".


 * Always Identical Twins
 * Accessory Wearing Cartoon Animals
 * Curtains Match the Window: Aloe.
 * Flower Motif: Their cutie mark is a white lotus, a flower commonly associated with spas.
 * Hair Decorations: Matching hairbands.
 * Mythology Gag: They're supposedly based on Europe-exclusive G1 pony twins, which also explains the accent.
 * Rose-Haired Pony/You Gotta Have a Blue Mane: In one package!
 * They Are All Grown Up: Considering they were based on newborn pony twins...
 * Unexplained Accent: The show didn't really reveal or explain much about why Lotus has that accent.
 * What The Hay Is That Accent?: Lotus's accent seems to be an odd mix of Indian and German. Slavic perhaps?

Holly Dash


"Debut: "Swarm of the Century""

A freckled unicorn mare with tri-colored hair and a strawberry cutie mark seen running through Ponyville once during the parasprite infestation in "Swarm of the Century". She's based on a drawing by crew member Holly Giesbrecht of herself as a pony, and has been unofficially named Holly Dash after said Original Character (though fans who weren't aware of Holly Dash's origins initially called her by other Fan Nicknames, such as Tutti Frutti). On a side note, the Original Character she's based on has since been redesigned, eventually looking much more like the character in the show.


 * Creator Cameo: Indirectly, as Holly Giesbrecht based Holly Dash on her Original Character who was in turn based on herself.
 * One-Scene Wonder: She only appeared in the epsiode "Swarm of the Century" and was never seen again ever since. This was probably due to her existence as being a case of Throw It In.
 * Youthful Freckles

DJ Pon-3/Vinyl Scratch


"''"Break it down, DJ Pon-3!""

- Spike, in Equestria Girls

"Debut: "Suited For Success""

An off-white unicorn with a two-tone electric blue mane, magenta eyes, and a pair of eighth notes as her cutie mark. Her two appearances to date are in "Suited For Success" and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", both of which have her, well, act as a DJ. She's very popular for a character with less than a minute (in the first season, only a few seconds) of screentime. She shows up a lot in advertisements and official merchandise, and will even be getting a brushable toy.

An analysis on Vinyl "DJ Pon-3" Scratch is available on the analysis page.


 * Ascended Extra: Hasbro has revealed there will be a toy of her for Fall 2012 release (as part of a Toys "R" Us exclusive set), and has implied that she will go by the name "DJ Pon-3."
 * Awesome McCoolname: Both of her names.
 * Cool Shades
 * Leet Lingo: The name "DJ Pon-3."
 * One-Scene Wonder: Her original appearance was only for a few seconds in "Suited For Success" doing nothing but turning on the music and bobbing her head happily. Her cool design alone was enough to turn her into a massive Ensemble Darkhorse, and eventually led to her having another cameo in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", this time showing her eye color.
 * Purple Eyes: Moderate cerise, actually, but you can just call it magenta. This eye color of hers was first discovered Dummied Out from the Web Games DJ Pinkie Pie and was shown to be canon in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", with Word of God confirming that it's the same as Rainbow Dash's.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: In licensed merchandise that fans designed before "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" gave her a canon eye color.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Hasbro has only used "DJ Pon-3," while The Hub has only used "DJ Pon3;" both spellings have been used by Mighty Fine. Additionally, Hot Topic once used the spelling "DJ P0N-3."
 * Shout-Out: The name "DJ Pon-3" is a reference to how DJs often use Awesome McCoolnames and Xtreme Kool Letterz as their Stage Names.
 * Stage Name: The name "DJ Pon-3" is presumably one of these.
 * You Gotta Have a Blue Mane: And it's one of the coolest manes in the show.

Octavia


"Debut: "The Best Night Ever""

A classy gray earth pony with a pink treble clef cutie mark. She plays the cello as part of quartet performances at Canterlot's Grand Galloping Gala and garden party, respectively during "The Best Night Ever" and "Sweet and Elite". After her debut, fans loved her classy look and initial deadpan reaction to Pinkie Pie on stage so much that she's become one of the most popular musician ponies.

An analysis on Octavia is available on the analysis page.


 * Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: She's just not Octavia without that bowtie and white collar.
 * Ascended Extra: She's included in the Card Creator game on Hasbro and The Hub's websites.
 * Bow Ties Are Cool: She wears a pink one.
 * Elegant Classical Musician
 * Impractical Musical Instrument Skills: How does she even play her cello instruments with her hooves anyway?
 * Lead Bassist: She's the most popular member of the band. She even takes the lead (with the camera focused on her) on their second appearance in "Sweet and Elite".
 * Nopony Loves The Bassist: Inverted. So much so that the fandom pays little to no attention to the rest of her band, which has led to her appearing in out-of-show media without any of her bandmates.
 * Purple Eyes: Well, pink/light purple.
 * One-Scene Wonder: She might count as a Two Scene Wonder, but her only Season 1 appearance was "The Best Night Ever" doing her job with pretty equal screentime with her bandmates and she's quickly become one of the most popular background ponies yet. Her brief return in the Season 2 episode "Sweet and Elite" was met with rejoicing.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: She's really no taller than most ponies but she is shown standing on her hind legs for most of her screentime.

Octavia's bandmates


"Debut: "The Best Night Ever""

Just because Octavia's the most well known doesn't mean the fans have forgotten her bandmates. In her first appearance, Octavia is seen playing with a male piano player (Frederic Horseshoepin), a female sousaphone player (Beauty Brass, Sousie Tuba or Bluenote) and a male harp player (Harpo Parish Nadermane or Strings McGee). Harpo returns with Octavia in "Sweet and Elite" alongside new bandmates: two violin players (one male and one female) though there aren't any widely accepted nicknames for them yet. The Gala band also has a country music counterpart that played in "Luna Eclipsed".


 * Accessory Wearing Cartoon Animals: All of them, Octavia included, wear white collars and bowties. This seems to be their standard "attire" of sorts.
 * Bow Ties Are Cool: All of them wear these. The stallions wear red bowties while the mares wear pink ones.
 * Custom Uniform: The sole exception would be Symphony (the female violin player) who for some reason is wearing a purple one instead.
 * Elegant Classical Musician: All of them.
 * Determinator: Frederic is the only one that continues playing despite Pinkie's antics onstage. Now that's dedication!
 * Impractical Musical Instrument Skills: How can they even play those instruments with their hooves anyway?
 * Revolving Door Band: Frederic and Beauty Brass were replaced by two new bandmates on their second appearance. Whatever happened to the two is up for interpretation.

Screwball / Topsy Turvy


"Debut: "The Return of Harmony, Part 2""

A pink earth pony who briefly appears in "The Return of Harmony Part 2" floating across the screen during Discord's reign of chaos. She appeared to be more of a silly pony than dear Derpy and that's saying quite a bit. Her cutie mark is a machine screw and a baseball, leading naturally to the Fan Nickname "Screwball". Given that she showed up as a visual gag it's unknown if she'll ever show up again but a pony that makes a goofy face doesn't get away in this fandom.


 * Exotic Eye Designs: She has swirls instead of pupils. Might just be Wingding Eyes though.
 * Nice Hat: Wears a propeller beanie. The propeller on it spins as she floats across the screen.
 * One-Scene Wonder

Allie Way & Big Wig
"Debut: "The Cutie Pox""

A tall slender pale yellow unicorn with a two-tone blue mane ("Allie Way") and a darker yellow earth pony with red hair ("Big Wig") seen in the bowling alley at the beginning of "The Cutie Pox". Their cutie marks are trios of 50s starburst patterns so bowling doesn't necessarily have to do with their special talent(s).


 * Blue Eyes: Allie Way.
 * Cool Shades: Big Wig though she doesn't actually wear them over her eyes.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Allie Way.
 * Eyes of Gold: Big Wig.
 * Fat and Skinny
 * She's Got Legs: Allie Way. Well...it certainly makes her stand out.
 * You Gotta Have a Blue Mane: Allie Way. It's actually a little reminiscent of DJ Pon-3's mane.

My Little Lebowski
"Debut: "The Cutie Pox""

A set of four earth ponies ("The Dude," "Walter," "Donny" and "Jesus") seen in the bowling alley at the beginning of "The Cutie Pox".


 * Badass Beard: Walter and Jesus.
 * Captain Ersatz: They're clearly modeled after Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, Walter Sobchak, Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos and Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski.
 * Cool Shades: Walter.
 * Mythology Gag: Meta-Example, Donny is clearly out of his element as his model lacks a cutie mark.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Since the characters they're modeled after were played by live-action actors, they're also partly modeled after Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and John Turturro.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Jesus more so than the others, as he only appears in one shot.
 * Parental Bonus: Blatantly referencing a movie that little girls should certainly not be watching!
 * Shout-Out: To The Big Lebowski.

Mr. Waddle


""Aww, shucks, Miss Pinkie, you flatterer you!""

"Debut: "The Mysterious Mare Do Well"

Speaking Appearance: "Hearts and Hooves Day""

An elderly, glasses-wearing Earth pony with a Bubble Pipe cutie mark. He was first seen in the second opening and first appeared in the show proper in "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" (as one of four elderly ponies Rainbow Dash saves from a collapsing balcony). He's since appeared in "Hearts and Hooves Day" (twice, first at a funeral which Sweetie Belle interrupts and later standing beside an elderly Earth pony mare), "A Friend in Deed" (in which his name is revealed when Pinkie Pie compliments him), and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" (attending the wedding beside the same elderly Earth pony from before).


 * Bubble Pipe: His cutie mark.
 * Miniature Senior Citizens
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: His neckwear is a minor example.

Hayseed Turnip Truck
""It's me, Hayseed Turnip Truck! We met at the big hoedown in Ponyville last month?""

"Debut & Speaking Appearance: "Sweet and Elite""

An Earth Pony with buck teeth who wears a baseball cap with a turnip on it and a dirty white T-shirt. His cutie mark is three turnips. Hayseed is an Earth Pony who works as a window washer in Canterlot in "Sweet And Elite". It seems he was born in Ponyville and either has moved or works in Canterlot now. While not the brightest, he appears to be nice, greeting and complimenting Rarity when he sees her.


 * Adorkable: His entrance.
 * Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Does a cross between a hair-tousle and a noogie to Rarity's hat while proudly talking up what a big-deal dressmaker she is in Ponyville.
 * Alliterative Name
 * Brown Eyes: A very light brown pair.
 * Curtains Match the Window
 * Good Ol' Boy: A positive version of this from what we see.
 * Horrible Judge of Character: After Jet Set and Uppercrust insult Rarity's fashion and walk off with their noses in the air, Hayseed waves good bye to them, saying to Rarity, "Well...they seemed real nice!"
 * Meaningful Name: Hayseed Turnip Truck is a stereotypical country bumpkin (a "hayseed") who seems rather slow and oblivious (as if he "just fell off the turnip truck").
 * One-Scene Wonder: Has only appeared in one scene of the entire series.

Fleur de Lis / Elizabeth
""Hmm, a pony with expensive tastes, I see!""

"Debut & Speaking Appearance: "Sweet and Elite""

A uniquely slender and statuesque unicorn with a white coat and light pink mane that appeared as Fancypants's companion in "Sweet and Elite". Her cutie mark is three fleur-de-lis, two purple and one golden. This pony quickly captured the viewers' attention both because of her unusual design (with coloring resembling Princess Celestia in her youth) and attention-grabbing behavior. The fandom has been unable to decide on a backstory for her and even her nickname is a point of contention with Fleur de Lis seeming the most popular choice so far. The script described her as a "lovely unicorn" and one of the show's layout artists has speculated that she was intended to look like a supermodel.


 * Attention Horse: She spends half her screen time striking poses and acting vaguely clingy towards Fancypants.
 * Fleur-de-Lis
 * Rose-Haired Girl
 * Spoiled Sweet: She spends the other half of her thirty seconds of screen time helping Fancypants up after his collision with Rarity, and picking up Rarity's dropped bags.
 * Trophy Wife: Seems to be this to Fancypants (in "Sweet and Elite", at least).

Junebug
"Debut & Speaking Appearance: "Secret of My Excess""

An earth pony with yellow-orange coat and an orange mane. Spike demanded that she should give her some of her flowers in her basket because it was his birthday, but Twilight stopped him. Her cutie mark is obscured by her flower baskets, but appears on her molded toy and collector card (though given that these also change everything but her eye color and gender, this may not be her in-show cutie mark). According to her collector card, she "loves holidays!"


 * Innocent Flower Girl
 * Naive Everygirl

Truffle Shuffle


""Yay!""

"Debut: "Family Appreciation Day"

Speaking Appearance: "Ponyville Confidential""

A chubby gray earth pony colt introduced in Season 2, he's become something of a recurring background character in CMC episodes. Most likely introduced to show that Cheerilee's school does in fact have colts beyond Snips & Snails. Truffle Shuffle is probably his most common Fan Nickname, but others include Butterball and Chowder.


 * Big Eater: His cutie mark is a fork and knife. Either eating is his special talent, or cooking is.
 * Nice Hat: He owns a fez, apparently.
 * Ship Tease: Gets one with Twist in "Hearts & Hooves Day"

The Imperfect Stallions
""I say!""

- Persnickety, after Apple Bloom calls him "way too uptight" in "Hearts and Hooves Day"

"Debut: "Hearts and Hooves Day""

A series of nine stallions who the Cutie Mark Crusaders passed over in their search for the perfect stallion to be Cheerilee's special somepony on Hearts and Hooves Day. Their Fan Nicknames (and their descriptions) are Hay Fever ("clearly has a terrible cold"), Clip Clop ("too silly"), Persnickety ("way too uptight"), Hairy Tipper ("much too flashy"), Shortround ("too short"), G. Raff ("too tall"), Squeaky Clean ("too clean"), Pigpen ("too smelly"), and Hugh Jelly ("strangely obsessed with tubs of jelly"). Other ponies were also considered: Mr. Waddle, Caramel and Doctor Whooves (who've all appeared elsewhere and have their own entries on this page), as well as an unnamed colt (who later appeared in "Ponyville Confidential" and doesn't fit the same mold as these nine).


 * Blinding Bangs: Pigpen.
 * Carpet of Virility: Hairy Tipper.
 * Cool Shades: Hairy Tipper.
 * Disco Dan: Hairy Tipper.
 * Fetish: Hugh Jelly.
 * High-Class Glass: Persnickety.
 * Nice Hat: Persnickety.
 * Non-Ironic Clown: Clip Clop.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Each one of them is only shown for a few seconds or less.
 * The Pig Pen: Pigpen.

Flitter & Cloudchaser


""What exactly does this machine do?""

"Debut & Speaking Appearance: "Hurricane Fluttershy""

A pair of Pegasus mares with very similar color schemes.


 * Early-Bird Cameo: Flitter first appeared in Hasbro's Web Games My Little Pony Friendship Express Train™ Puzzle Adventure (in screenshot #51, which is from "Hurricane Fluttershy").
 * Elemental Hair: Cloudchaser's hair looks like a cool breeze of wind within the clouds.
 * Hair Decorations: Flitter wears a pink bow.
 * Identical Twin ID Tag: Besides Flitter's hair bow and Cloudchaser having thicker eye outlines, they have different mane styles and their color schemes are slightly different.
 * Motif: Both their names and character design are themed after the breezy sky which alludes to their talent of flying and weather control.
 * Spiky Hair: Cloudchaser
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Flitter's pink bow and Cloudchaser's spiky, punky mane suggest they could be this.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Both of them.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Cloudchaser has a shade of this.

Thunderlane & Rumble


""It wasn't me! It was Blossomforth!""

- Thunderlane, blaming Blossomforth for his coughing in "Hurricane Fluttershy"

""He's got the feather flu. He's down at Ponyville Hospital.""

- Rumble, explaining Thunderlane's absence in "Hurricane Fluttershy"

"Debut & Speaking Appearance: "Hurricane Fluttershy""

Two Pegasus brothers, Thunderlane a stallion and Rumble a colt. Thunderlane is a slate gray, silver-maned pony who was suffering from a cold during Ponyville's turn at providing water for Cloudsdale. Said cold eventually lands eight pegasi in the hospital. Thunderlane later attended the wedding during "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2".


 * Eyes of Gold: Thunderlane
 * Foreshadowing: Thunderlane's coughing on "Hurricane Fluttershy". Rainbow Dash thought it was an attempt at skipping the event. It was a disastrous mistake as we later learn that his coughing was real. He was infected with a contagious decease known as the feather flu and it had managed to infect a large number of participants to get sick and get sent to the hospital which cost Ponyville the record they wished to attain and almost causing the cancellation of the event itself if it weren't for Rainbow Dash's determination and Fluttershy's timely assistance.
 * Motif: His character design (black coat and a thunder cloud cutie mark) pretty much tells you that something bad's going to happen.
 * Purple Eyes: Rumble

Roid Rage / Mr. McLargehuge / Horse Power


""YEAH!!!""

"Debut & Speaking Appearance: "Hurricane Fluttershy""

An enthusiastic and overly muscular Pegasus stallion with tiny wings. His cutie mark is a dumbell.


 * Big YEAH!!!: His Catch Phrase.
 * Catch Phrase: YEAH!!!
 * In fact, it's the only thing he says.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: His wings are stunted and tiny. It's said that steroids have a similar effect on another part of the male anatomy...
 * Bonus Points: Fans had already been comparing pegasus wings with the aforementioned body part since season 1.
 * Gonk: He's one of a kind.
 * Hot-Blooded: He's pretty enthusiastic and pumped up to everything he does.
 * Incoming Ham: YEAH!!!
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: He seems to be the very first pony we've seen in the show with bright red eyes.
 * Testosterone Poisoning: His muscles could give Iron Will a run for his money.

Blossomforth


""A little too'' much flexibility, Blossomforth. Uh, somepony give Blossomforth a hoof.""

- Rainbow Dash, seeing Blossomforth all tangled up in "Hurricane Fluttershy"

"Debut: "Hurricane Fluttershy""

A freckled Pegasus mare. According to her brushable toy's box and her collector card, she "loves the sunshine! It's her job to push the clouds out of the sky whenever they hide the sun for too long." According to the Friendship Celebration Collection's box, she and Daisy "have a tea party for two!"


 * Blue Eyes
 * Canon Immigrant: Appeared in the third wave of brushable toys and the second wave of Blind Bags the year before her show debut.
 * Cool Pet: Has a pet hedgehog who's still toy-exclusive.
 * Multicolored Hair: Rose-Haired Girl/You Gotta Have Green Hair
 * Youthful Freckles

Wild Fire
""I am going for a hooficure and that is that!""

"Debut & Speaking Appearance: "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1""

A cream Pegasus mare with a brown mane who appears in one of Twilight Sparkle's flashbacks during "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1", she's seen in Canterlot arguing with Lucky until Cadance gets them to stop arguing. She is in fact the Original Character of storyboard artist Sabrina "Sibsy" Alberghetti who is based on herself.

First appeared on Sibsy's Deviant ART account and blog as a then-unnamed pony in response to the trending Internet phenomenon of making "ponysonas" or pony personas that's been occuring throughout the fandom and even within the crew themselves. Fans later dubbed her as "Wild Fire" and Sibsy called her by that name from then on.

After a pony drawn in the storyboard coincidentally looked similar, Sibsy got permission from art director Ridd Sorensen for that pony to be hers, and thus, Wild Fire made her official debut within the show itself as a background pony. While the show's pairing of Wild Fire with Lucky was chosen at random, Sibsy later sketched the two ponies together.


 * Author Avatar: Wild Fire was created as a pony version of Sibsy.
 * Creator Cameo: Though Sibsy didn't voice her.
 * Official Couple: With Lucky.
 * One-Scene Wonder

Other Ponies
There is a whole stable of other background ponies who recur throughout the series and have made their marks on the fanbase, if not to the extent of the above. These ponies aren't quite as "tropable" or popular as the above ponies, or we simply haven't gotten around to giving them their own entries.

To see comprehensive lists of known ponies (background and otherwise), go here or here.


 * Alliterative Name: Peachy Pie and Royal Riff.
 * Ascended Extra:
 * Chocolate Sun (one of the large Canterlot unicorn stallions from "The Best Night Ever" and "Sweet and Elite") is included in the Card Creator game on Hasbro and The Hub's websites.
 * Sunny Daze and Peachy Pie, schoolmates of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Despite (at the time) only appearing for two scenes in one episode and having no lines aside from small gasps, they each have a toy version of some sort (with radically different appearances, but still): Sunny Daze has a So Soft Newborn toy while Peachy Pie has a molded toy and a collector card. They are two of the few background ponies to have in-show names and share them with G3 ponies, so that might have helped.
 * Sunny Rays is included in the Pony Wedding brushables (with art that's show-accurate in design if not in color) as well as the Wave 5 Blind Bags. Not bad for a pony who only appears at the beginning of one episode!
 * Lemon Tart appears to be getting a Toys "R" Us exclusive brushable toy.
 * Twilight Sky is included as an Earth pony in the Wave 4 Blind Bags despite only appearing in three episodes ("Green Isn't Your Color", "Hearth's Warming Eve", and "Hurricane Fluttershy") and only being an Earth pony in some shots during the first of those episodes (in the rest of his appearances, he's a Pegasus).
 * Badass Adorable: During one shot in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", one earth pony mare (who makes multiple other appearances, but without her cutie mark visible and/or without any cutie mark) is shown with a hammer & lightning cutie mark, though it's replaced with a sandwich cutie mark in the very next shot.
 * Cool Helmet: The mares depicted in this Hub commercial.
 * Cool Shades:
 * Madden, the Best Young Flyer Competition announcer from "Sonic Rainboom".
 * Three of the four ponies in the out-of-control carriage during "The Mysterious Mare Do Well".
 * One of the two Valley Girl ponies from "Putting Your Hoof Down".
 * Creator Cameo: Ponyville Hospital's security guard from "Read It and Weep" is voiced by director Jayson Thiessen.
 * Fish Eyes: The filly (Berry Punch's little sister) who dresses up as a ladybug for Nightmare Night does this at one point in "Luna Eclipsed". Ironically, she's standing next to Dinky, Fanon daughter of Derpy, when it happens.
 * High-Class Glass: Caesar, one of the recurring "high society" ponies, sports a monocle and top hat.
 * Large Ham Announcer:
 * Madden, the announcer of the Best Young Flyer Competition from "Sonic Rainboom".
 * The unseen announcer of the Wonderbolts Derby from "Sweet and Elite".
 * Little Miss Badass: Archer's cutie mark is a bow and arrow which would imply her special talent is archery. Moreso when you consider that they don't even have fingers with which to pull back the strong (or even nock the arrow). And unlike Dinky, she's an Earth Pony so no magic for this little filly!
 * Nice Hat:
 * Caesar, one of the recurring "high society" ponies, sports a top hat and monocle.
 * Lily Dache, a Palette Swap of Silver Spoon who appears once at Diamond Tiara's cuteceañera in "Call of the Cutie".
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed:
 * Madden, the announcer pegasus from "Sonic Rainboom", resembles John Madden.
 * Lucy, the stage manager pegasus from "Sonic Rainboom" who later appears as a unicorn with a different cutie mark in "Putting Your Hoof Down", resembles Lucille Ball.
 * Official Couple:
 * Ponet is heavily implied to be with Lightning Bolt in "Hearts and Hooves Day".
 * Strawberry Cream is heavily implied to be with Golden Harvest in "Hearts and Hooves Day", though the shot before that shows her with Caramel instead (however, an even earlier shot shows Caramel with Sassaflash).
 * Silver Script is heavily implied to be with Parasol in "Hearts and Hooves Day".
 * One-Scene Wonder: Some of them are the result of this.
 * Ace the Tennis Pony only appears briefly in "Call of the Cutie" and "Luna Eclipsed".
 * Davenport, the owner of the "Quills and Sofas" shop.
 * Ponet the Painter Pony, a Palette Swap of Pokey, appears for a gag in "Call of the Cutie" but is otherwise a recurring extra.
 * Paparazzi: Appear in "Green Isn't Your Color", "The Best Night Ever", and "The Mysterious Mare Do Well".
 * Rainbow Lite: Roy G. Bow/Spectrum, a stallion who's usually a Pegasus, has a Type 2 as his cutie mark, its three colors being purple, orange, and yellow. A couple of other Pegasi have rainbow cutie marks of Type 2 too: the mare Q. T. Prism (blue/orange/yellow) from "Winter Wrap Up" and the stallion Prism Strider (purple/orange/yellow) from "Hurricane Fluttershy".
 * Spell My Name with an "S":
 * Closed captions spell Sunny Daze's name as "Sunny Days."
 * An Italian sticker activity booklet spells Peachy Pie's name as "Peachie Pie."
 * Valley Girl: Two earth pony mares from "Putting Your Hoof Down".
 * The Voice: The Wonderbolts Derby announcer from "Sweet and Elite".
 * Winged Unicorn: Alula, a filly who's usually a pegasus, appears in Twilight's Imagine Spot of Magic Kindergarten during "Lesson Zero" with a horn added on but wings left on by mistake. Fans dubbed the "alicorn" version Pluto.
 * Wrench Wench: During one shot in "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", one unicorn mare (who makes multiple other appearances, but without her cutie mark visible) is shown with a wrench cutie mark.
 * Youthful Freckles: The Blossomforth Palette Swap from "Hurricane Fluttershy".

Non-Ponies
These characters act and are used just like background ponies except for the simple fact that they're not ponies. Most of the species on this list currently fall into Furry Confusion territory seeing as many of them are seemingly treated as any other domesticated animal yet at the same time can talk with the ponies or act in a rather civilized manner.

The Cattle
""Oh my! Begging your pardon, Applejack, but Mooriella here saw one of those nasty snakes. And it just gave us all the willies, dontcha know.""

- Daisy Jo, explaining what caused their stampede in "Applebuck Season"

"Debut: "Applebuck Season""

The cows from "Applebuck Season", "Boast Busters", and "A Friend in Deed" produces Ponyville's daily supply of fresh milk, but they get spooked by snakes easily. The oxen from "Hearts and Hooves Day" are shown pulling a cart containing anvils and a length of rope.


 * American Accents: Daisy Jo sounds like she's from Wisconsin.
 * No Name Given: With the exception of Mooriella and Daisy Jo.

The Mule
""None taken.""

"Debut: "Applebuck Season""

"Voiced by James "Wootie" Wootton"

A polite and friendly fellow who isn't easily offended. He appears in "Applebuck Season" and "Hurricane Fluttershy".


 * Creator Cameo: His one line (used in both of his appearances) was provided by one of the show's co-directors.
 * No Name Given
 * Stubborn Mule: Defied.

The Buffalo Tribe
""If you say so, Spike. Catch ya later, bro.""

"Debut: "Over a Barrel""

"Voiced by Ashleigh Ball"

A Buffalo tribe led by Chief Thunderhooves appears in "Over a Barrel". In "The Return of Harmony Part 2", Discord's reign of chaos includes a trio of buffalo ballet dancers who appear in and around Ponyville. The tribe is also shown on the licensed shirt Daring Do.

For their chieftain and Little Strongheart see the minor characters page.


 * Braids, Beads, and Buckskins: Purposely invoked and even commented on by Rarity who found their accessories intriguing.
 * No Name Given

The Sheep
""You coulda just asked.""

"Debut: "Sisterhooves Social""

Woolly animals that come in black and white. "Sisterhooves Social" shows a flock of sheep presumably kept at Sweet Apple Acres for their wool. "Dragon Quest" shows a few wild sheep up in the snowy mountains, one of whom lets Spike hitch a ride on him.


 * Blinding Bangs: The black sheep have these.
 * Happiness in Slavery: Granted; fans who believe the ponies "enslaved" the sheep are mostly having a knee-jerk reaction but when Applejack and Apple Bloom corral them, the sheep complain about being chased in and of itself rather than being chased into a pen.
 * No Name Given

The Goats
"Debut: "May the Best Pet Win!""

One shows up as a pet at Fluttershy's cottage in "May the Best Pet Win!", but more appear later on as Iron Will's assistants in "Putting Your Hoof Down". They invoke Furry Confusion the most since they don't talk but are able to operate electric devices and wear ties.


 * No Name Given
 * Shown Their Work: Goats have horizontal pupils, a rarity among most animals, and a fact carried into the design of MLP's goat characters.
 * The Unintelligible: They can only bleat, but they're understood by Iron Will anyway.
 * Intelligible Unintelligible
 * The Voiceless