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{{quote|''"My Little Pony, My Little Pony, what will today's adventure be?''
''My Little Pony, My Little Pony, will there be exciting sights to see?"''|[[Ear Worm|Theme song]] for the ads and almost all incarnations.}}
[[Long Runner|Long-Running]] multimedia franchise that started humbly with a large horse doll with a brushable tail and mane made of doll hair.
Originally created by Bonnie Zacherle, ''My Little Pony'' officially started out as a toyline published and developed by Hasbro in 1982, following their 1981 ''My Pretty Pony'' toys. The first run of figures (called G1 by collectors) was eventually followed by two [[Television]] specials, one in 1984 and another in 1985, and a feature-length movie in 1986. A TV series, ''My Little Pony'n'Friends'', was released later the same year and ran for two seasons before being canceled in 1987. In 1992, a strange new series, ''[[My Little Pony Tales]]'', was aired. Other than being based on the same very general "[[Talking Animal|Talking Animals]] get into adventures" idea, the new series had nothing to do with the old series (even the tie-in toys were only released in Europe), and had a genre change to [[Slice of Life]] and the stories were significantly milder compared to the original series. In the mid-2000s, a few [[Direct to Video]] movies were produced alongside the revival and anniversary of the beloved toy line. Currently,{{when}} [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|a new animated series]] (subtitled "[[The Power of Friendship|Friendship is Magic]]") is airing, and, interestingly, it and its toy line follow an [[Alternate Continuity]] from the previous cartoons and toy line.
The early incarnations of the ''My Little Pony'' cartoon are set in the same world, with the same (''very'' loose) continuity: The ponies are magical creatures living idyllically in [[Sugar Bowl|Dream Valley]], part of Ponyland (or Ponyland, part of Dream Valley - no two writers agreed on this point). Originally, the ponies resided in Dream Castle, but after [[The Movie]] (and the creation of that playset) they moved into Paradise Estate. ''My Little Pony Tales'', the direct-to-video movies, and ''Friendship is Magic'' have their own [[Alternate Continuity|separate continuities]].
Ponyland is a [[Magical Land]] "on the other side of the rainbow" populated by [[Small Annoying Creature|Bushwoolies]], Sea and [[The Fair Folk|Flutter]] ponies, [[All Trolls Are Different|Grundles]], bee-people, talking pigs, giant terriers, and monster weeds, among other, weirder things. The ponies are assisted in their adventures by a teen named Megan; her siblings Molly and Danny; Spike the Baby Dragon; and the Moochick, a gnome wizard with a thing for mushrooms. Being a fantasy-esque weekday afternoon cartoon, the episode plots are adventures, normally focused on a [[Victim of the Week]] requiring the ponies' help to defeat some [[Big Bad]]. The weirdness -- and the [[Vile Villain Saccharine Show|overt scariness of some of the villains]] -- kept the show from being as [[Tastes Like Diabetes|dangerously cute]] as [[Better Than It Sounds|one might naturally assume]].
The later series, ''My Little Pony Tales'', does away with the fantasy universe and gives us a cast of Ponies who are little more than [[Anthropomorphic Shift|not-quite-anthropomorphic]] animals in a world like our own. ''Exactly'' like our own. These plots generally deal with such (ahem) exciting stuff like exams, sleepovers, football and baking cookies -- [[Recycled in Space|but with small horses!]] Suffice to say, the series only lasted for one season, however it has gained a cult following online.
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* ''[[My Little Pony Tales]]'': ''My Little Pony'' meets [[Slice of Life]]. Take 1. Different continuity from the previous four.
==== G2 ====
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Gardens]]'': A [[Raising Sim]] in which you get to raise a little pony. Surprisingly addictive and fun.
==== G3/G3.5 ====
* ''[[My Little Pony G 3]]'': ''My Little Pony'' meets Slice of Life. Take 2. Not very well received in general but it has its fans.
==== G4 ====
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': ''My Little Pony'' meets [[Slice of Life]], Take 3, with occasional adventure. This time, well accepted on levels ''far'' surpassing everyone's wildest imagination.
An extensive guide to the toy line and a detailed episode guide for all the pre-G3 series can be found at (naturally) [https://web.archive.org/web/20130927201554/http://www.kimsites.net/dreamvalley/index.html Dream Valley]. [http://www.etherella.com/scrapbook/ Etherella's Scrapbook] has info on the Ponies, along with info on them in the cartoon and comics.
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The cartoons and comics.
* [[Adult Child]]: Most of the Ponies are adults, but a majority act barely more mature than the Fillies.
* [[All Girls Like Ponies]] and [[Cool Horse|Cool Ponies]]: Well, duh.
* [[Alphabetical Theme Naming]]: The franchise's three (unrelated) zebras: Zeb<ref>from the G1 ''[[My Little Pony and Friends]]'' episode "Bright Lights"</ref>, Zig Zag<ref>from the G1 toy line</ref>, and Zecora<ref>from the G4 ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' series and toy line</ref>.
* [[Alternate Animal Affection]]: Mainly only used in the G1 series and pilot. The ponies would nuzzle and lick each other for comfort, as real horses do, which comes off as a [[Les Yay]] since most medias compare that to romantic kisses.
* [[Amazing Technicolor Wildlife]]: Traditionally, the only colors to ''not'' be used for ponies (odd variations aside) are black, brown and grey. ''Friendship is Magic'' is the first to truly incorporate these colors as well, though somewhat limits it to its male ponies, who aren't nearly as colorful as the females.
* [[American Kirby Is Hardcore]]: Inverted, when you compare the series to [http://img.ponibooru.org/_images/2f6bd546d88901abab54715cd37ebdd2/43724%20-%20Japan%20Japanese%20Osharena_Ponies%20why.jpg those issued by Takara in Japan in the 80s]{{Dead link}}.
* [[Animesque]] The redesign of the G3 series, which some fans disliked initially, since the series seemed like a return to form.
** The original two specials were this, especially the Catrina one (it showed with the humans, who looked [[Shojo]]), since they were made in Japan.
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* [[Chest Insignia]]: The franchise's trademark "cutie marks" are possibly the only example of ''hip'' <s> insignia</s> branding.
* [[The Dark Age of Animation]]
* [[Depending on the Writer]]: The UK comics/cardback stories and American cartoon/cardback stories contrasted each other most of the time, and so most personas were very different across the ocean. A noteworthy case was Wind Whistler. In the UK, she's a scatter-brained [[The Ditz|ditz]], in the cartoon she's [[The Spock]] and [[The Stoic]].
* [[Everything's Better with Princesses]]: In the eighties, we had the Princess Ponies. There was a grand total of twenty princesses released in the toyline, and that's excluding the queens Majesty and Rosedust. And excluding the many, many, many royal non-pony characters that showed up in the fiction. The early G3 line held off on Princesses for a few years. And then, according to the card backs, it turned out that ''every'' Pony is a Princess.
** For the curious, this was a case of [[Loophole Abuse]]. In the ending of ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20121109004346/http://www.hubworld.com/watch/610729116001 The Princess Promenade]'' it is declared in song "We're glad that everyone's a princess. That's you and you, and yes it's true, that you (the viewers) are a princess too!"
** ''[[Something
** ''Friendship Is Magic'' has Princess Celestia, whose title actually understates her role which in practical terms is [[God-Emperor|God-Empress]]. She was going to be a queen, but Hasbro didn't want that because Disney's use of "queen" has [[God Save Us From the Queen|made that title sound evil]].
*** The second episode brought us Princess Luna, who shares the same sort of powers and responsibilities as Celestia, and the second season finale gave us Princess Cadence, who... is a bit of a letdown in terms of power, when compared to the first two.
* [[Everything's Better with Rainbows]]: The Ponies' main weapon is a magical item called the Rainbow of Light. There's also a rainbow connecting Ponyland and Megan's home.
** The current series has a great visual shout-out to the Rainbow of Light in the pilot, when the {{spoiler|Elements of Harmony are activated.}}
** Also, Rainbows are actually manufactured in factories in G4 by the Pegasai that control the weather. In addition, Rainbow Dash's mane is rainbow colored, and leaves behind a streak of rainbow light when she travels from place to place.
* [[Expy]]: Characters are often brought over from previous generations (sometimes with slightly changed names), colors are reused often (especially in G2) and [[Name's the Same]] is very common.
* [[Flat Character]]: Varying characters to various degrees. The toyline bios don't help, ever since G2 they've been saying less and less about the characters.
* [[Generation Xerox]]: The "Baby" Ponies in general. They share their parents designs, a lot of their personality, and their names.
** Well, the original Baby Ponies were born from an adult pony's reflection on a magic mirror, therefore the "baby" was just a younger version of the same pony.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Happens with roughly half the villains.
* [[
* [[Merchandise-Driven]]: No. Kidding. The current series tones this down. But from the original series there an episode where Galaxy is dressed in a Cheerleader costume apropos of absolutely nothing at all—except making us aware that there are such costume sets available in the store.
* [[The Night That Never Ends]]: More than once, a villain has had eternal night as the goal. The first TV special, "Escape from Castle Midnight," is the Trope Namer.
* [[No Hugging, No Kissing]]: In other series than G3 there's the occasional romance, but other than that it fits this trope.
* [[Off-Model]]: In both the toys (endless regional variations) and the Marvel Animation Studios cartoon (endless animation mistakes; see [[Drinking Game]] below). Though to be fair, it occurs in every version of the franchise.
* [[Our Dragons Are Different]]: In-verse Spike finds this out in ''Spike's Search'', where he meets dragons that aren't like him; they're large, green, round, and mean. In the pilot special Tirek had dragons which were different from Spike. In the comics for G1, there were other baby dragons like Spike. Apparently dragons can also be pets in G1, and such as Spike is a pet to Majesty in most medias other than the cartoons. In G3 Spike is over 1000 years old but still looks like a baby.
* [[Pegasi]]
* [[Rule of Glamorous]]
* [[Shout-Out]]: The idea that unicorns can teleport was borrowed from [[Dungeons
* [[Sugar Bowl]]: The setting could not be more magical and happy -- normally. And then the [[Big Bad]] [[Monster of the Week|of the Week]] shows up...
* [[The Millennium Age of Animation]]
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Kiddie Ride]]
▲[[Category:The Nineties]]
▲[[Category:Franchise Index]]
[[Category:The Eighties]]
[[Category:The New Tens]]
[[Category:Toys]]
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[[Category:Fantasy Western Animation]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Western Animation of the 1990s]]
[[Category:
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▲[[Category:Franchise]]
▲[[Category:Hottip markup]]
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