My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Genre	Fantasy Comedy
Created by	Lauren Faust
Based on	My Little Pony by Bonnie Zacherle
Directed by	Jayson Thiessen (seasons 1–5) James Wootton (seasons 1–3) Jim Miller (seasons 4–5) Denny Lu (seasons 5–9) Tim Stuby (seasons 6–7) Mike Myhre (seasons 7–9)
Voices of	Tara Strong Ashleigh Ball Tabitha St. Germain Andrea Libman Cathy Weseluck
Composer(s)	William Anderson Daniel Ingram (seasons 3–6) Kelly Davidson Steffan Andrews (seasons 3–4)
Country of origin	Canada United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	221 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Lauren Faust (season 1, "The Return of Harmony") Beth Stevenson (season 1) Stephen Davis Kirsten Newlands Blair Peters (seasons 1–2) Chris Bartleman (seasons 1–3) Meghan McCarthy (seasons 3–5, 8) Jayson Thiessen (seasons 4–5) Sarah Wall (seasons 5–9) Asaph Fipke (seasons 6–7) Nicole Dubuc (seasons 8–9)
Producer(s)	Devon Cody (seasons 3–9) Sarah Wall (seasons 1–4)
Running time	22 minutes
Distributor	Allspark (Hasbro)
Release
Picture format	480i NTSC 1080i HDTV and 1080p (digital distribution)
Audio format	Dolby Digital
Original release	October 10, 2010 (2010-10-10) – October 12, 2019 (2019-10-12)
Chronology
Preceded by	My Little Pony (1986–1987) My Little Pony Tales (1992)
Related shows	My Little Pony: Pony Life (2020–present)
Other websites
Website

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a Canadian-American cartoon that was shown on The Hub/Discovery Family. It was made by Lauren Faust, who also worked on other cartoon shows which are The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It was put on TV on October 10, 2010. The show's idea comes from the My Little Pony toys, which are made by the big toy company Hasbro.

Main Characters

• Twilight Sparkle (voiced by Tara Strong, singing voice by Rebecca Shoichet) — A violet unicorn pony with an indigo, purple, and pink mane. She has a six-pointed star surrounded by 5 smaller stars as her cutie mark on her flank. She represents the Element of Magic. She became an alicorn princess in the third season finale, when she finished writing a spell that was started by Star Swirl the Bearded.
• Applejack (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) — An orange earth pony with a lemon yellow mane. She has three red apples as her cutie Mark. She represents the Element of Honesty. She lives on Sweet Apple Acres with the rest of the Apple family.
• Rainbow Dash (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) — A sky blue pegasus pony with a rainbow mane. She has a rainbow-colored lightning bolt for her cutie mark. She represents the Element of Loyalty. She loves to fly fast, and is a newer member of the Wonderbolts.
• Pinkie Pie (voiced by Andrea Libman, singing voice by Shannon Chan-Kent) — A pink pony with a magenta mane and tail. She has yellow and blue balloons as her cutie mark. She represents the Element of Laughter. She is very energetic and loves to throw parties.
• Fluttershy (voiced by Andrea Libman) — A lemon yellow pegasus pony with a pink mane and tail. She has three butterflies for her cutie mark. She represents the Element of Kindness. She loves spending time with animals and is very quiet.
• Rarity (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain, singing voice by Kazumi Evans) — A white unicorn pony with a purple mane and tail. She has three blue diamonds as a cutie mark. She represents the Element of Generousity. She loves making dresses at her shop, the carousel boutique.
• Spike (voiced by Cathy Weseluck) — A male purple and green baby dragon and Twilight Sparkle's best friend and number one assistant. He has been with Twilight since the very beginning.
• Sweetie Belle (voiced by Claire Corlett, singing voice by Michelle Creber only from seasons 1-3) - A white unicorn pony with a grayish raspberry mane and tail and a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She is Rarity's younger sister.
• Apple Bloom (voiced by Michelle Creber) — A pale yellow earth pony with a brilliant amaranth mane and tail and is the leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She is Applejack's younger sister.
• Scootaloo (voiced by Madeleine Peters) — A light brilliant amber Pegasus pony with moderate cerise mane and tail and one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She also looks up to Rainbow Dash.
• Princess Celestia (voiced by Nicole Oliver) - A white alicorn pony, a co-ruler of Equestria alongside her sister Princess Luna, and the adoptive aunt of Princess Cadence. She is also been a teacher/mentor of Twilight Sparkle at different periods of time.
• Discord (voiced by John de Lancie) - A draconequus (a dragon-like animal with body parts from different animals) and one of Fluttershy's best friends. He represents the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. He has been close friends with Fluttershy since she helped him learn to behave himself.

Popularity on the internet

Though the show was only going to be for young girls, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has become popular on the Internet with many fans of the show being males aged 15 to 35.

4chan

The My Little Pony fans from the Internet are from the cartoon and animation fans on the Internet board 4chan.

In October 2010, shortly after the show started, Web blog Cartoon Brew wrote a blog called "The End of the Creator-Driven Era in TV Animation", which had attacked the show for being supported by a big brand name, saying that "today networks clearly prefer established properties over original ideas, and dislike dealing with individual artists who have a clear creative vision". That means that the writer did not like that the people who put TV shows on TV would put shows on that had a brand name and told older boring stories instead of TV shows that had new or original stories. The people in "/co/", the place in 4chan for cartoons and animations, who hadn't seen the show yet, were interested by the alarmist words in the blog and began watching the show, and liked the show for the story, characters, and animation style. Their reaction soon spread to the general board, "/b/", of 4chan. The reaction from 4chan created many My Little Pony recurring jokes and memes on the site.

Fans

Fans of the shows call themselves a "brony", a combination of the words "bro" and "pony". At first it was only meant to be used by male fans but the word is now used to describe any older fan of the show without it describing only one gender. A parody of Katy Perry's "California Gurls" called Equestria Girls was used for an ad by The Hub for the show, which has lyrics that also say the word "brony". Its title was later made into a movie which has human versions of the ponies in the show. Websites like "Equestria Daily" and "Ponychan" have been created to share stories, artwork, and news about the show. The websites get more than 100,000 visits a day. A video made by a high school student named Stephen who was using science to dissect some of the physical impossibilities on My Little Pony as part of a class presentation appeared on many news stations and also appeared on Tosh.0. During a phone interview on NPR's comedy radio show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! in June 2011, past President Bill Clinton correctly answered three questions about the show which led one journalist to jokingly refer to him as a brony.

Creator's response

The creator and executive producer for the show, Lauren Faust, has shown that she likes the older fans of the show through her DeviantArt page. In the first episode, a pegasus pony in the background at one time had crossed eyes, which was a mistake by an animator. The boards on 4chan called the character "Derpy Hooves". Faust listened to the fans, having wanted the character to be named "Ditzy", but let the pony's name stay as Derpy, and the people working on the show have kept the Derpy character with the cross-eyed look, putting her in episodes as a silly background character.

To help people who were in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, Faust sold some original drawings from the show along with a new picture of Derpy Hooves. The Derpy Hooves picture sold for more than $2000 on eBay.

After season 1

At the end of Season 1, one of the show's animators said that Derpy would say some lines in Season 2. In the episode "The Last Roundup", which shows Applejack competing for the Equestria Rodeo, Derpy Hooves talked a few times. Rainbow Dash says Derpy's name and Derpy speaks with a young boy's voice. At first, people thought that her voice was done by Brian Drummond, but it was Tabitha St. Germain, who didn't know at first that Derpy was female. Parent groups complained that this was insensitive to people with disabilities, and Hasbro changed the episode by making the pony's voice more girly and making Rainbow Dash not say her name. Another pony character with neon colors in her hair, wearing sunglasses and using a DJ set in one episode, was given the stage name of "DJ P0N-3" in a poll with the other choices being "DJ Clip Clop", "Scratch", "Deadhor5" and "DJ Raverider". DJ P0N-3 was later in the Equestria Girls ad and has been a background character in some other episodes. Derpy and DJ-PON 3 eventually starred in the show's 100th episode, Slice of Life, which focused on the show's background characters as a tribute to the fans.

All episodes are 22 minutes long and the season comprises of 26 episodes, with the exception of the third season, which contains 13 episodes.

Season one

The first season and overall series has premiered on October 10, 2010 and last aired on May 15, 2011 on the Hub/Hub Network/Treehouse TV. It's also the first season of the series to air on the Hub/Hub Network/Treehouse TV.

1. Friendship is Magic (Part 1)
2. Friendship is Magic (Part 2)
3. The Ticket Master
4. Applebuck Season
5. Griffon the Brush-off
6. Boast Busters
7. Dragonshy
8. Look Before You Sleep
9. Bridle Gossip
10. Swarm of the Century
11. Winter Wrap Up
12. Call of the Cutie
13. Fall Weather Friends
14. Suited for Success
15. Feeling Pinkie Keen
16. Sonic Rainboom
17. Stare Master
18. Show Stoppers
19. A Dog and Pony Show
20. Green Isn't Your Color
21. Over a Barrel
22. A Bird in the Hoof
23. The Cutie Mark Chronicles
24. Owl's Well That Ends Well
25. Party of One
26. The Best Night Ever

Season two

The second season has premiered on September 12, 2011 and last aired on April 16, 2012 on the Hub/Hub Network/Treehouse TV.

1. The Return of Harmony (Part 1)
2. The Return of Harmony (Part 2)
3. Lesson Zero
4. Luna Eclipsed
5. Sisterhooves Social
6. The Cutie Pox
7. May the Best Pet Win!
8. The Mysterious Mare Do Well
9. Sweet and Elite
10. Secret of My Excess
11. Hearth's Warming Eve
12. Family Appreciation Day
13. Baby Cakes
14. The Last Roundup
15. The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
16. Read It and Weep
17. Hearts and Hooves Day
18. A Friend in Deed
19. Putting Your Hoof Down
20. It's About Time
21. Dragon Quest
22. Hurricane Fluttershy
23. Ponyville Confidential
24. MMMystery on the Friendship Express
25. A Canterlot Wedding (Part 1)
26. A Canterlot Wedding (Part 2)

Season three

The third season has premiered on November 5, 2012 and last aired on February 11, 2013 on the Hub/Hub Network/Treehouse TV.

1. The Crystal Empire (Part 1)
2. The Crystal Empire (Part 2)
3. Too Many Pinkie Pies
4. One Bad Apple
5. Magic Duel
6. Sleepless in Ponyville
7. Wonderbolts Academy
8. Apple Family Reunion
9. Spike at Your Service
10. Keep Calm and Flutter On
11. Just for Sidekicks
12. Games Ponies Play
13. Magical Mystery Cure

Season four

The fourth season has premiered on November 18, 2013 and last aired on May 5, 2014 on the Hub/Hub Network/Treehouse TV. It's also the last season of the series to air on the Hub/Hub Network.

1. Princess Twilight Sparkle (Part 1)
2. Princess Twilight Sparkle (Part 2)
3. Castle-Mania
4. Daring Don't
5. Flight to the Finish
6. Power Ponies
7. Bats!
8. Rarity Takes Manehattan
9. Pinkie Apple Pie
10. Rainbow Falls
11. Three's a Crowd
12. Pinkie Pride
13. Simple Ways
14. Filli Vanilli
15. Twilight Time
16. It Ain't Easy Being Breezies
17. Somepony to Watch Over Me
18. Maud Pie
19. For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils
20. Leap of Faith
21. Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
22. Trade Ya
23. Inspiration Manifestation
24. Equestria Games
25. Twilight's Kingdom (Part 1)
26. Twilight's Kingdom (Part 2)

Season five

The fifth season has premiered on March 30, 2015 and last aired on November 23, 2015 on Discovery Family/Treehouse TV. It is also the first season of the series to air on Discovery Family. This includes the 100th episode overall in the series.

1. The Cutie Map (Part 1)
2. The Cutie Map (Part 2)
3. Castle Sweet Castle
4. Bloom and Gloom
5. Tanks for the Memories
6. Appleoosa's Most Wanted
7. Make New Friends but Keep Discord
8. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
9. Slice of Life (100th episode overall)
10. Princess Spike
11. Party Pooped
12. Amending Fences
13. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
14. Canterlot Boutique
15. Rarity Investigates!
16. Made in Manehattan
17. Brotherhooves Social
18. Crusaders of the Lost Mark
19. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows
20. Hearthbreakers
21. Scare Master
22. What About Discord?
23. The Hooffields and McColts
24. The Mane Attraction
25. The Cutie Re-Mark (Part 1)
26. The Cutie Re-Mark (Part 2)

Season six

The sixth season has premiered on March 21, 2016 and last aired on October 17, 2016 on Discovery Family/Treehouse TV.

1. The Crystalling (Part 1)
2. The Crystalling (Part 2)
3. The Gift of the Maud Pie
4. On Your Marks
5. Gauntlet of Fire
6. No Second Prances
7. Newbie Dash
8. A Hearth's Warming Tail
9. The Saddle Row Review
10. Applejack's "Day" Off
11. Flutter Brutter
12. Spice Up Your Life
13. Stranger Than Fan Fiction
14. The Cart Before the Ponies
15. 28 Pranks Later
16. The Times They Are a Changeling
17. Dungeons and Discords
18. Buckball Season
19. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks
20. Viva Las Pegasus
21. Every Little Thing She Does
22. P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)
23. Where the Apple Lies
24. Top Bolt
25. To Where and Back Again (Part 1)
26. To Where and Back Again (Part 2)

Season seven

The seventh season has premiered on April 10, 2017 and last aired on October 23, 2017 on Discovery Family/Treehouse TV. This is the first season in the series with the first two episodes that is not a 2-part premiere.

1. Celestial Advice
2. All Bottled Up
3. A Flurry of Emotions
4. Rock Solid Friendship
5. Fluttershy Leans In
6. Forever Filly
7. Parental Glideance
8. Hard to Say Anything
9. Honest Apple
10. A Royal Problem
11. Not Asking for Trouble
12. Discordant Harmony
13. The Perfect Pear
14. Fame and Misfortune
15. Triple Threat
16. Campfire Tales
17. To Change a Changeling
18. Daring Done?
19. It Isn't the Mane Thing About You
20. A Health of Information
21. Marks and Recreation
22. Once Upon a Zeppelin
23. Secrets and Pies
24. Uncommon Bond
25. Shadow Play (Part 1)
26. Shadow Play (Part 2)

Season eight

The eighth season has premiered on March 19, 2018 and last aired on October 13, 2018 on Discovery Family.

1. School Daze (Part 1)
2. School Daze (Part 2)
3. The Maud Couple
4. Fake It Til You Make It
5. Grannies Gone Wild
6. Surf and/or Turf
7. Horse Play
8. The Parent Map
9. Non-Complete Clause
10. The Break Up Break Down
11. Molt Down
12. Marks for Effort
13. The Mean 6
14. A Matter of Principals
15. The Hearth's Warming Club
16. Friendship University
17. The End in Friend
18. Yakity-Sax
19. Road to Friendship
20. The Washouts
21. A Rockhoof and a Hard Place
22. What Lies Beneath
23. Sounds of Silence
24. Father Knows Beast
25. School Raze (Part 1)
26. School Raze (Part 2)

Holiday Special (2018)

Best Gift Ever counted as an episode throughout the series from their confirmation, the 196th episode overall.

1. My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever

Season nine

The ninth season was announced on February 17, 2018 at Hasbro's Entertainment Brand Preview Media Event at the New York Toy Fair. It premiered on April 6, 2019. This includes the 200th episode overall in the series. This is the final season in the series.

1. The Beginning of the End (Part 1)
2. The Beginning of the End (Part 2)
3. Uprooted
4. Sparkle's Seven (200th episode overall)
5. The Point of No Return
6. Common Ground
7. She's All Yak
8. Frenemies
9. Sweet and Smoky
10. Going to Seed
11. Student Counsel
12. The Last Crusade
13. Between Dark and Dawn
14. The Last Laugh
15. 2, 4, 6, Greaaat
16. A Trivial Pursuit
17. The Summer Sun Setback
18. She Talks to Angel
19. Dragon Dropped
20. A Horse Shoe-In
21. Daring Doubt
22. Growing Up is Hard to Do
23. The Big Mac Question
24. The Ending of the End (Part 1)
25. The Ending of the End (Part 2)
26. The Last Problem

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Media

• 

  Lauren Faust, developer and initial showrunner of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• 

  Jayson Thiessen (left), the series' supervising director

• 

  Daniel Ingram composed the series' songs.

References

Notes

Other websites

• Official website Archived 2011-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
• Equestria Daily
• Ponychan Archived 2013-12-07 at the Wayback Machine