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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is an American-Canadian television series and media franchise that served as the primary incarnation of the My Little Pony brand from 2010 to 2019. Created by Lauren Faust with contributions from hundreds of talented individuals, Friendship is Magic was one of the most successful western animated series and toylines in all of history, easily securing the series as Hasbro's second biggest toyline. With its distinctive animation style and highly defined cast of characters, Friendship is Magic follows the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her many friends, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Spike and more as they navigate their lives in the fantastical world of Equestria, a land full of beauty and danger.

Episodes, seasons and films

Main article: List of Friendship is Magic episodes

Season Episodes First aired Last aired Network Season 1 26 October 10, 2010 May 6, 2011 The Hub Season 2 26 September 17, 2011 April 21, 2012 The Hub Season 3 13 November 10, 2012 February 16, 2013 The Hub Season 4 26 November 23, 2013 May 10, 2014 The Hub Season 5 26 April 4, 2015 November 28, 2015 Discovery Family Season 6 26 March 26, 2016 October 22, 2016 Discovery Family Season 7 26 April 15, 2017 October 28, 2017 Discovery Family The Movie October 6, 2017 Season 8 26 March 24, 2018 October 13, 2018 Discovery Family Best Gift Ever October 27, 2018 Discovery Family Season 9 26 April 6, 2019 October 12, 2019 Discovery Family Rainbow Roadtrip June 29, 2019 Discovery Family

Development

Friendship is Magic began development sometime around 2008, with the production bible being completed in 2009.

Cast and characters

Main cast

Main articles: List of Generation 4 voice actors, Category:Friendship is Magic characters, List of live-actions § Friendship is Magic, and Category:Friendship is Magic dub voice actors

• Twilight Sparkle: (voiced by Tara Strong) A naïve, socially awkward bookish unicorn (later an alicorn) with a brave, adventurous and compassionate personality. She is sweet and highly intelligent, but often over-extends herself by trying to help too much and is sometimes insecure about her abilities and status. She is the sole daughter of the Sparkle family. She represents the Element of Magic.
  • Singers: Rebecca Shoichet
  • Alternative actors: Kira Buckland, Miyuki Sawashiro
• Rarity: (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) A unicorn. Rarity works as a fashion designer and lives at her business, Carousel Boutique. A caring artist, Rarity is the most mature of her friends but also sometimes the most naïve, often expecting strangers to be as compassionate as herself. Though exceptionally caring and hard-working, Rarity can also be aggressive, dramatic defeatist and self-centered. She represents the Element of Generosity
• Rainbow Dash: (voiced by Ashleigh Ball) A pegasus. Rainbow Dash is a pony with many contradicting qualities, both being hard-working and lazy, confidant and insecure, loyal yet sometimes focusing on herself above others. Though she is perhaps the most aggressive, judgmental and brash of the Mane Six, she is none-the-less heroic. For a time, it was shown that Rainbow Dash not only holds grudges against those who wronged her, but take out her frustrations with their entire species, though has since learned that this was wrong. She represents the Element of Loyalty.
• Fluttershy: (voiced by Andrea Libman) A pegasus. Fluttershy is gentle and loving but also timid and meek. Throughout the early portions of the series, she suffered greatly from a crippling social awkwardness that made it difficult for her to leave her home, though thanks to her friends, she eventually learned how to not only socialize but stand up for herself. She has an extreme fondness for animals and eventually runs an animal shelter. She represents the Element of Kindness.
• Pinkie Pie: (voiced by Andrea Libman)
• Applejack: (voiced by Ashleigh Ball)
• Spike: (voiced by Cathy Weseluck) A dragon. He is Twilight Sparkle's assistant, sometimes depicted as being something to her surrogate younger brother or even son. Spike is helpful and kind, but sometimes selfish, vain, insecure or lazy. Spike is often characterized as a nerd with interests in comics and role-playing games. He has a crush on Rarity and is good friends with Big McIntosh, Discord and Ember, among others.

Setting

Kingdoms and species

Main article: Equestria

The primary setting of Friendship is Magic is the land of Equestria, which has been varyingly referred to as a kingdom^{[citation needed]}, continent^{[citation needed]} or even entire the entire planet. The dominant species throughout Equestria and indeed, much of the franchise are ponies, who come in three main varieties, such as the Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns. Earth Ponies are hardy individuals with strong bodies and equally strong hearts. Likely due to their lack of special powers, they're often depicted as being innovators and inventors of technology. Pegasi are winged-ponies with the power to fly and control the weather itself. Notably, pegasi are responsible for creating or diverting storms and the changing of seasons. Unicorns are typically mountain-dwelling ponies who have the power of magic. Usually depicted as more 'refined' and educated, unicorns have spread out across Equestria to aid communities with their gifts. Throughout the franchise, many lesser-populated 'kinds' of ponies have appeared, such as the Alicorns, Thracians and Bat Ponies.

Of course, other countries exist, often populated by different species. Most notably are the Dragon Lands, populated by Dragons, Griffonstone, populated by Griffons, Changeling Hive, populated by Changelings, Yakyakistan, populated by the Yaks and the Hippogriff Kingdom/Seaquestria nations, populated by the Hippogriffs. There are also smaller, less explored kingdoms such as Abyssinia, populated by the cats and the two Diamond Dog kingdoms of Diamondia and Caninia. Equestria itself also houses a number of minority groups or even minor kingdoms within its borders, such as the Buffalo Village, Dragon Town and the deer kingdom of Thicket. Beyond even those, there appear to be kingdoms for apes, giraffes, minotaurs and a variety of other creatures who have only been briefly alluded to.

Other equines such as Zebra and Arabian Ponies have their own lands.

Politics, settlements and organization

Equestria as the nation is a monarchy primarily ruled by the Equestrian royal family, which itself primarily consists of the 'four princesses', Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance and Princess Twilight, who each represent the sun, moon, love and friendship respectively. It's unclear if Equestria is split into sub-domains, though a few regions have been alluded to such as Coltifornia, which appears to indicate some sort of provincial system. Each settlement, is lead by a mayor and represented by a delegate. Though the government is typically functional and transparent, corruption exists. Wealthy ponies such as Fancy Pants have been known to buy favors among governmental organizations and the infamous Equestrian Educational Association was at lead by a xenophobe by the name of Chancellor Neighsay, though he ultimately did learn the error of his ways. Corruption is known to occur among the police too.

Culture and science

According to Jayson Thiessen, the level of technology of Equestria is 'strictly' depicted from roughly the Edwardian era to the early 20th century. This of course has influenced many of the shows' internal culture, with much of the entertainment the ponies enjoy are stage-theaters, concerts and literature. Trains and sometimes ships are used as the primary form of transit in long distances, with all major land vehicles often being pulled by other ponies, or sometimes other creatures. At times, it can even be argued that the show has a retro-futuristic, even steampunk aesthetic with airships and the machinery Twilight Sparkle developed, especially in the shows' early days. Despite this 'strict' consistency, slip ups have been made, usually in the tie-in material. Comics for example have alluded to or depicted concepts such as the internet, automobiles and even time machines.

Literature appears to be one of Equestria's most thriving industries, with a number of libraries and bookshops located throughout the country. The most popular book series appears to be the Daring Do franchise, written by A.K. Yearling, which has a number of notable fans.

References

Bibliography

Citations