Character
Second row: Lyra Heartstrings, Derpy, Dr. Hooves
Third row: Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, Golden Harvest
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.[citation needed] 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.
