Half of the series’ subtitle may be magic, but you know the show just isn’t magic without friendship. In Ponyville, there are plenty of friends and familiar faces around.

Here are a few things that are of interest for each of the Ponies, such as what type of pony they are (Pegasus, Unicorn, or Earth pony), what their Cutie Mark is and how it came to be, what Element of Harmony they represent (Honesty, Magic, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, and Kindness), what their markings and characteristics are, and some of their personality traits.

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle (usually just referred to as Twilight) is a Unicorn pony originally from Canterlot who was discovered to have powerful magic, the Element she represents. The story centers around her journey to find out about the importance of friendship as she interacts with the ponies she meets in Ponyville. She’s very intelligent and has always taken her studies very seriously, so much so that she would often avoid contact with other ponies just to be able to study more. Knowing how much learning all about magic meant to Twilight, her parent’s enrolled her into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

As part of her test to get into the School, she had to hatch a dragon egg using her magic, which proved to be harder than she thought it would be. But just as she gave it one final try, she heard a big boom outside (which was Rainbow Dash accomplishing a Sonic Rainboom). This startled her and unleashed a burst of her rather remarkable power, which in turn caused a bunch of crazy things to happen in the classroom, including Spike hatching from his egg, and growing into a huge full-sized dragon by mistake. After a time, Princess Celestia was able to get everything back to normal, including Spike. Shortly thereafter, Twilight got her Cutie Mark when Princess Celestia recognized her keen magic abilities and took her under her wing as her star, trusted pupil, something that absolutely thrilled Twilight.

Twilight is a very neat and tidy pony, likes to keep things organized, and is very well known in the area for her efficiency. She can be very straightforward and honest with her friends, and often they confide in her, knowing that she’s a pony of her word and will keep their secret. But she can also be very skeptical. For example, she’s not superstitious and doesn’t believe in coincidences, because that would go against her more scientific, fact based beliefs. And although she possesses unusually strong magic, (something even Princess Celestia had noticed) she’s still quite humble and modest about it. In addition to the typical unicorn magic, she can also teleport herself, occasionally others too, and sometimes she can even copy other ponies’ magic. Once in a while even she makes mistakes and her spells go awry, but she always learns a good lesson in the end.

She has a lavender coat with a dark blue, purple, and pink mane. She also has violet eyes and her cutie mark is a 6 pointed, purple-pink star that’s surrounded by 5 white stars. Spike, the little dragon she hatched, became her loyal assistant and, among other things, helps Twilight write letters to Princess Celestia about what she’s learned from her adventures with her new friends. She always learns new lessons about the importance of friendship.

Applejack

Applejack (sometimes referred to as AJ) is an Earth pony. She is very dependable – everypony knows they can always count on her to help if they need it. They all know she’s a very honest and loyal friend, so they often come to her for advice. She tries her best to help them see the right path if they’re headed to trouble.

Her family runs Sweet Apple Acres and she also works there. Her Grandmother is Granny Smith, who is sort of the matriarch of the family. She has a brother named Big Macintosh, and a little sister named Apple Bloom, and a dog named Winona.

She is a very hard worker, and is also very proud, but always manages to get a job done. She is particularly good at ‘apple bucking’, where she kicks the the trunks of the apple trees so hard that the apples fall right out into the buckets below.

She’s also a good baker, particularly of apple desserts, and has been known to make a nice little business selling her goods to help raise money for the family.

She’s strong and athletic, and has quite a competitive side. She’s often challenging Rainbow Dash as to who’s the better athlete.

Her Element is Honesty, which would explain why she’s not very good at all at lying, but also assures her friends that they can trust her. If she realizes she’s made a mistake, she’s the first to apologize. Sometimes she can be a bit irritable and doesn’t take well to ponies who are rude to others. She is actually very patient and understanding, but get on her wrong side and and she might even make a bad situation worse.

Her Cutie Mark is 3 red apples and it came to her shortly after an attempt at big city life. When things didn’t quite go as she thought they would there, she realized that all she really wanted was to be a part of the family apple business, that her heart was at home on the farm.

Applejack has an orange coat with a light yellow amber mane, green eyes, and she’s the only one of the ponies to wear her mane in a ‘pony tail’. She also can be seen wearing a tan hat almost all of the time.

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash (sometimes referred to as Dash, or as RD by fellow Bronies) is a Pegasus pony who claims to be one of the fastest in the land, and very well may be! Her signature move is the Sonic Rainboom, a move so fast and rare that it was previously only thought of as a myth.

She helps control the weather at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory and wants to someday be a member of the Wonder Bolts, the Equestrian Arial Flight Team.

Rainbow Dash has the Element of Loyalty, and sure enough always comes through for her friends when they need her. She is very brave and bold but can often be a bit too proud of herself. She tends to brag about her talents and accomplishments, and is very competitive, although she really hates losing. She also loves danger and adventure but has been known to be a bit of a prankster.

Her Cutie Mark is a blue, yellow and red lightning bolt shooting from a cloud. It came to her when she performed her first Sonic Rainboom.

Rainbow Dash has a cyan blue coat, with a rainbow colored mane and deep rose colored eyes.

Rarity

Rarity is one of the Unicorn ponies, and is a rare gem indeed. She takes great pride in her appearance and manners, and considers herself to be elegant, refined and sophisticated.

She’s very fashion oriented, is a designer and seamstress at Carousel Boutique, and someday she would love to design for Princess Celestia. She takes great pride in her work and tries really hard to make her designs perfect for her clients.

Her Element is Generosity and while she’s always there to help others and her friends, particularly with her specialty makeovers, she often tries to be the center of attention, much like a Hollywood actress diva.

Her little sister, Sweetie Belle, is one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and often gets on Rarity’s nerves for getting into her expensive fabrics.

She has an instinctive magic ability to find gems hidden underground, which she uses in her fashion designs, much to the delight of a lot of her clients. Discovering her special power for the first time to find these gems is also how she got her Cutie Mark, which is 3 blue diamond shapes.

Rarity has a white coat which is accented by her beautifully coiffed mane in shades of purple and indigo and her deep blue eyes.

Pinkie Pie

Pinkie Pie (usually just referred to as Pinkie) is a very hyperactive Earth pony who’s always prancing and skipping around, full of energy! She is very outgoing and silly, is very much a free spirit, and absolutely loves to throw parties. She writes and performs many ridiculous songs and sings for almost any reason at all.

Since she takes such joy in making others happy, she has the Element of Laughter.

She can be very resourceful when she needs to be and she actually plays many instruments. Sometimes she can get on the nerves of the other ponies because of her constant chattering, but overall she’s very well loved for having the ability to make everypony smile and laugh.

Pinkie also has the ability to sense when certain things are going to happen, by an odd series of twitches and movements that overcome her, but the other ponies have learned over time to trust her instincts, as they’re usually right on.

She helps out Mr. and Mrs. Cake at Sugarcube Corner, even though she’s not necessarily the best of bakers. She has 2 sisters and a cute little toothless baby alligator named Gummy.

Her Cutie Mark is two blue and a single yellow balloon, which she got after she first saw Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom… it made her so happy and filled with joy that she wanted to be able to make others have that same ‘party happy’ feeling.

Pinkie Pie is a light pink pony with a bright pink mane and light blue eyes.

Fluttershy

Fluttershy is an extremely shy, timid and quiet Pegasus pony who has had a lot of fears to overcome (like being afraid of full grown dragons), but she always manages to conquer her fears, especially if it involves needing to help save her friends for some reason.

She represents the Element of Kindness because she’s so sweet and caring with all the animals of Ponyville. She’d be totally happy to spend all her time taking good care of every one of them, which is rather unusual for a Pegasus pony who would normally be tending to the skies. And even though she’s very soft-spoken and peaceful, she can occasionally have a loud outburst or be deceptively strong and determined if she needs to be. She’s even been known to give ‘the stare’ to tame unruly animals.

She has an adorable pet bunny named Angel who helps keep her on track if she gets distracted. Her Cutie Mark is three blue butterflies with pink wings and blue antennae, and it appeared to her shortly after the first time she fell to the Earth and was saved by the butterflies. It was then that she discovered how wonderful all the little creatures of the Earth were and how much she wanted to stay with them all and take care of them.

Fluttershy’s coat is a pale yellow, her mane is a pretty soft pink, and her eyes are cyan blue.

Spike

Spike is the loveable little purple dragon with green spikes who is Twilight Sparkle’s faithful assistant. They’ve known each other his whole life, in fact, he was hatched during a test Twilight had to do for Princess Celestia. Her sudden burst of magic caused him to hatch, grow huge, and cause some problems around the town, but after Celestia restored things to normal, Spike became Twilight’s helper and companion, accompanying her on her journey to Ponyville.

He helps her with all kinds of things – organizing her books, writing letters, delivering her scroll messages to Princess Celestia by blowing his magical fire breath… pretty much anything Twilight needs help with. He generally sees himself as pretty strong and tough, and fancies himself as pretty good looking.

He’s had a crush on Rarity, ever since he first met her. He thinks it’s a big secret, but actually everypony pretty much knows about it. One time, in the episode “Secret of my Excess”, he was about to eat this beautiful fire ruby that he’d been saving for a treat for himself, when he realized Rarity really wanted it. He ended up giving it to her and getting a kiss on the cheek for it, then swore he’d never wash that cheek again. Later that episode, he almost admitted his love to her when it looked like they were doomed to die, but she doesn’t let him say it, keeping the ‘secret’ alive.

Also in that episode, he learned a lot about the evils of greed. On his birthday he kept wanting more and more presents. As he kept demanding more stuff, he grew to an enormous size, and acted like a monster. Later he even kidnaps Rarity, but then sees the gemstone that he gave her around her neck, and remembered how good that made him feel to give it to her. Ultimately that makes him return to normal. He finally realizes greed is a bad thing and it’s much better to think of others rather than be selfish.

Sometimes he can be a bit of a joker with the others, even teasing them, but he doesn’t mean any harm by it.  Generally he’s very helpful, sweet, and loyal, a good friend. Give him a pile of gems to eat, and he’ll be a very happy fella!

Princess Celestia

Princess Celestia is the beloved ruler over all of Equestria, along with her little sister, Luna. She’s a Pegasus Unicorn rumored to be over 1000 years old, and as one might guess from her name, holds an almost ‘heavenly’ stature. She is beautiful, kind, patient, and all the other ponies look up to her. Since she is the older of the two, she is responsible for the raising of the sun at dawn, and her sister for the moon and the stars at night. Once a year on the longest day, there’s a very special event called the Summer Sun Celebration. On that day there is an extra special celebration where Celestia raises the sun in a spectacular and memorable event.

Princess Celestia is very well loved and admired by everyone. She is thought of as very fair and good spirited, is caring and understanding, and even has been known to have a little bit of fun with her subjects to keep things a little light hearted. She’s not generally one to get angry, but she definitely takes a firm hand when necessary.

When she realized what potential Twilight Sparkle had with her exceptional magic talent, she takes her under her wing as her special student. She sends Twilight to Ponyville to help make sure everything goes well for the Summer Sun Celebration festivities, and also to stay and learn all about the value and importance of having friends. She has Twilight send her letters about what she’s learned every week.

Princess Celestia is white, taller than the other ponies, looking quite regal with wings as well as a horn. Her mane an tail are long and flowing, in shades of soft blue, sea foam green, lavender, and orchid. She wears a golden tiara and wide golden necklace, and both have a purple gem in the center. She has lavender eyes and her cutie mark is a celestial symbol of the sun. She also has a pet phoenix named Philomeena.