Character

A character is a fictional depiction of an entity, typically of a pony, human or supernatural/mythological creature that may or may not have a toy attached to their image.

Unlike many other toyetic franchises, including other Hasbro franchises, is that My Little Pony does not have a 'core' or 'canonical' group of characters it uses. Whereas Transformers will always feature Optimus Prime, Megatron, and usually Bumblebee, Grimlock and so on, comparatively few My Little Pony characters are recurring -- and the ones that are often share little more than a name and maybe a color scheme.

Real people
A fairly complicated gray area is when real-people portray themselves in a fictional context. Generally, these are considered characters (see: Ota Aika) but also as real-people too. Luckilly, this hasn't happened to much, but has on a small handful of occasions, such as when the Idol group Amakuchi HKT48 appeared in the Japanese exclusive TV series, Little Pony TV. Various online specials with real girls interacting with the ponies have also surfaced. Generally speaking, historical figures such as Picasso and Cleopatra are purely treated as characters.

Fan characters made canon
A few fan characters have become canon, such as Roku-chan and Poniko, who were both mascots for a Japanese My Little Pony convention and appeared in the comics. Sappho and Marina are also examples of fan characters who became canon.

Characters and the wiki
Unlike other fantasy franchises, sitcoms, slice-of-life shows or whatever you would classify My Little Pony as, the franchise is not a singular universe or overarching plotline. Instead, the series is made up of a handful of smaller series and continuities, with the most notable ones being My Little Pony, Tales, Friendship is Magic and Equestria Girls, though a small handful of other continuities exist. Each of these series are quite different in their own ways and tend to flip-flop from a high-fantasy universe to a sitcom, with newer series being a mix of the two.

Because of this, there exist numerous incarnations of each character. Spike and Megan seemingly being the most recurring characters, appearing in nearly every series in some way or another.

For example, we have articles for Spike in Friendship is Magic and but also for Dragonfire and the manga one-shot. We're working on articles for Generation 1 and 3 Spike, so don't worry there either.