My Little Pony

My Little Pony is an entertainment franchise developed by Hasbro which is marketed primarily to girls. It started as a line of plastic pony toys developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger and Steve D'Aguanno which have been produced since 1983. The ponies feature colorful bodies, manes and a unique symbol on one or both sides of their flanks. These are referred to in the two most recent incarnations as "cutie marks." My Little Pony has been revamped at least four times with new and more modern looks to appeal to a new market.

Following the original My Pretty Pony toy, introduced in 1981, My Little Pony was launched in 1983 and the line became popular during the 1980s. The original toy line ran from 1983 to 1995 (1992 in the US), and inspired animated specials, an animated feature-length film, and four animated television series.

The brand's sales increased many times over with the introduction of the fourth incarnation of the franchise, which started with the success of the 2010 animated television series. The brand grossed one billion USD in retail sales in 2014 and 650 million USD in retail sales in 2013.

List of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is an animated television series based on the My Little Pony toyline created by American toy and game manufacturer Hasbro. It features characters and settings developed by Lauren Faust, who sought to create more in-depth characters than the stereotypical "girly" icons used in previous iterations of the franchise. The series began airing on the United States Hub Network (currently Discovery Family) cable channel on October 10, 2010.

The show follows a studious unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle as her mentor Princess Celestia guides her to learn about friendship in the town of Ponyville. Twilight becomes close friends with five other ponies: earth ponies Applejack and Pinkie Pie, pegasus ponies Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and unicorn Rarity. Each represents a different facet of friendship, and Twilight discovers herself to be a key part of the magical artifacts, the Elements of Harmony. The six ponies—collectively known as the "Mane Six"—share adventures and help out other residents of Ponyville, while working out the troublesome moments in their own friendships, eventually leading to Twilight's ascension as a winged unicorn known as an alicorn.

Pony

A pony is a small horse (Equus ferus caballus). Depending on context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. There are many different breeds. Compared to other horses, ponies often exhibit thicker manes, tails and overall coat, as well as proportionally shorter legs, wider barrels, heavier bone, thicker necks, and shorter heads with broader foreheads. The word pony derives from the old French poulenet, meaning foal, a young, immature horse, but this is not the modern meaning; unlike a horse foal, a pony remains small when fully grown. However, on occasion, people who are unfamiliar with horses may confuse an adult pony with a foal.

The ancestors of most modern ponies developed small stature because they lived on the margins of livable horse habitat. These smaller animals were domesticated and bred for various purposes all over the Northern Hemisphere. Ponies were historically used for driving and freight transport, as children's mounts, for recreational riding, and later as competitors and performers in their own right. During the Industrial Revolution, particularly in Great Britain, a significant number were used as pit ponies, hauling loads of coal in the mines.

Little

Little is a surname in the English language. The name is ultimately derived from the Middle English littel, and the Old English lȳtel, which mean "little". In some cases the name was originally a nickname for a little man. In other cases, the name was used to distinguish the younger of two bearers of the same personal name. Early records of the name include: Litle, in 972; Litle, in about 1095; and le Lytle, in 1296. The surname has absorbed several non English-language surnames. For example, Little is sometimes a translation of the Irish Ó Beagáin, meaning "descendant of Beagán". Little can also be a translation of the French Petit and Lepetit, as well as other surnames in various languages with the same meaning ("little"), especially the German name Klein during World War II.

People

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a 2013 Canadian–American animated musical comedy film and a spin-off of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic animated television series. Written by Meghan McCarthy and directed by Jayson Thiessen, the film premiered across limited screens in the United States and Canada on June 16, 2013, with worldwide home media release that began on August 6, 2013, which was followed by broadcast on the Hub Network, a joint venture between Discovery Communications and Hasbro, on September 1, 2013.

The film re-envisions the main characters of the series, normally ponies, as teenage human characters in a high school setting. Set between the show's third and fourth seasons, the film's plot involves the pony Twilight Sparkle pursuing her stolen crown into an alternate world where she transforms into a human, teenage girl. While learning how to behave as a human, Twilight encounters human counterparts of her pony friends, who help her in her search for her crown. The film's release is tied in with the expansion of the My Little Pony toy line to include teenage human versions of the main characters, and also commemorates the 30th anniversary of the launch of the original My Little Pony toy line.