My Little Pony

My Little Pony or MLP is a popular girls' toy line produced by Hasbro, Inc. It consists mainly of small, plastic ponies and mythical equines that come in a variety of colors and have unique symbols stamped on their bodies. Started in the 1980s, the line has gone through four different incarnations, and has a larger following than most people would think, among them PPC Boarder Anjilly. Currently undergoing a fanfic explosion due to the sheer unexpected popularity of the fourth generation (see below).

Collectors
The majority of My Little Pony fans care little for fandom and instead express their love of the toy line by buying every single pony they possibly can. This can be extremely hard, not to mention extremely costly, as there are a few hundred ponies to collect, some of which are much rarer or more sought after than others. Still, this does not deter collectors, who eagerly dole out more money for MLPs than the infidels portion of the populace who don't collect ponies deem sane safe appropriate.

In Canon
My Little Pony does indeed have a canon, albeit a rather disjointed one. Fortunately, it's nowhere near as confusing as other toy line canons, such as Transformers.

Generations
There are four incarnations of the My Little Pony toy line, referred to as generations. Each generation has its own canon.

Generation 1 (G1) ran from 1982-1992. It is known for its wide variety of Ponies and imaginative ideas. The G1 cartoon series depicted Ponyland as a magical place filled with both good and evil forces. The Ponies oftentimes found themselves in danger of being enslaved, turned into creatures of darkness, or kicked out of the land, and thus often fought back against the forces of evil. Naturally, they always won.

Generation 2 (G2) was extremely short-lived, lasting only from 1997-1999 in the United States and a few years after that in Europe. They had no cartoons or movies and little canon. Only a few people actually collect them, and hardly anyone actually writes fanfiction about them.

Generation 3 (G3) started in 2003 and went until 2009. Unlike the G1s, G3 cartoons depicted the My Little Ponyville as a peachy-keen, happy-go-lucky place where the crisis of the day was no worse than burning the cookies you made for your slumber party or not coming up with a special dance in time for the Friendship Ball. This irked a number of collectors, particularly those who grew up watching Ponies in G1 cartoons kicking evil's behind.

Generation 4 (G4) started in 2010, and continues on to the present. G4 cartoons are somewhat of a mix between G1 and G3, with there being definite elements of peril, but oftentimes episodes will concentrate on more innocuous things. The toy line features seven ponies tied in to the TV show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic airing on The Hub: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Princess Celestia.

Ponies
In the race of Ponies, there are several unique species.

Earth Ponies: These ponies appear to be, well, normal. No horns, no wings, just your stereotypical equine shape. Unlike actual equines from Earth, however, they come in a rainbow of colors. It is generally accepted by fans that, while Earth Ponies have no control of magic nor the ability to fly, they are the strongest and sturdiest of their race.

Unicorns: These Ponies have a single spiraled horn protruding from their foreheads. Unicorns have control of magic and are able to teleport (though the action is referred to as winking). Each Unicorn also has its own unique power, from telepathy to control of the wind to the ability to create gigantic bubbles.

Pegasi: These Ponies have feathered wings. It is generally accepted by fans that they also have hollow bones, to help with flying.

Sea Ponies: These Ponies have the appearance of seahorses. Despite their name, MLP canon portrays them in rivers and ponds more so than in the sea. Sea Ponies enjoy swimming, singing musical numbers and acting as dei ex machinis. Sea Ponies only exist in G1 canon.

Flutter Ponies: Slender in frame, Flutter Ponies have glittery, translucent wings. They're extremely quick in flight, and they have the power of Utter Flutter, which is when they beat their wings really really fast to dispel enemies. Flutter Ponies only exist in G1 canon.

Summerwings and Windywings, aka Wingers: Smaller than the other species, these Ponies have large butterfly wings. There is no physical difference between the two species aside from their markings&mdash;Summerwings tend to have nature-related symbols, while Windywings have weather-related symbols. Wingers exist only in G1 canon.

Non-Ponies
All of these, except for dragons, appear only in G1 canon. There is one dragon in G3 canon, and several in G4 canon.

Humans

Elves: They only appeared briefly. Basically all we know about them is that they exist.

Bushwoolies: These funny little creatures look like little balls of fur with arms and faces. They have a habit of agreeing with everything.

Furbobs: Cousins of the Bushwoolies, these little balls of fur have the habit of disagreeing with everything.

Dragons: Available in both small and adorable, or large and mean. No wings, but they can breathe fire. Jossed in G4 canon, where the adult dragons, at least, have wings that are capable of flight.

Stratodons: Kinda like dragons, only probably not sentient, and with wings but no fiery breath.

Characters
Because of the many toys created for the My Little Pony line, there are many, many, many more characters than those listed here. These are the ones most commonly used in canon.

Generation 1

 * Megan
 * Danny
 * Molly
 * Firefly
 * Gusty
 * Windwhistler
 * Shady
 * Fizzy
 * Cupcake
 * Rosedust
 * Morning Glory
 * Baby Lickety-Split
 * Heart Throb
 * Hydia
 * Reeka
 * Draggle
 * Catrina
 * Tirak
 * Scorpan
 * Spike the baby dragon

Generation 3

 * Pinkie Pie
 * Rainbow Dash
 * Rarity
 * Cotton Candy
 * Minty
 * Star Catcher
 * Thistle Whistle
 * Wysteria
 * Sparkleworks
 * Sunny Daze
 * Tra-La-La
 * Tiddly-Wink
 * Zipzee
 * Spike the dragon

Generation 4

 * Twilight Sparkle
 * Pinkie Pie
 * Rainbow Dash
 * Rarity
 * Fluttershy
 * Applejack
 * Spike the Dragon
 * Princess Celestia
 * Scootaloo
 * Apple Bloom
 * Sweetie Belle

Trends
Because creativity, imagination, and uniqueness are at the heart of the MLP fandom, OCs are easy to create. Most collectors have a pony persona, and many who actually write fanfiction will write exclusively about their persona.

Another trend of MLP fanfic is the winged Unicorn. There are many fanfics centered around winged Unicorn OCs, despite the fact winged Unicorns do not exist in MLP canon outside of G4's royal family.

My Little Ponies are also often put through anthropomorphism in fanfic, usually because the writer can't reconcile the idea of hooved creatures being able to write, stir bowls of cake batter, and pick things up without having fingers. And yet they find it easy to reconcile the idea of flying pink ponies. How ironic.

Badfic
Much MLP fanfiction is riddled with poor spelling, grammar, and characterization. There are also some Mary-Sues, and some bad slash. The amount of actual badfic is very small, though&mdash;most likely because few people actually write MLP fanfiction in the first place.

Caution
A word of warning to anyone who chooses to PPC an MLP fic: Tread carefully. The MLP community is very tight-knit and can be extremely sensitive to criticism of their beloved obsession. Given that the obsession in question is collecting pink plastic horses aimed at five-year-old girls, and that the rest of the world finds this odd, this is understandable. Many collectors understand and live with the fact that they will always be viewed as strange by society at large, provided they even let society know they collect MLPs. However, a PPC mission dealing with a well-known story or a story written by a beloved member of the MLP community may be taken as an attack against the community at large, and that's a nest of wasps no one wants to deal with.

Missions in the My Little Pony Continuum

 * Agents Florestan and Eusabius
 * Mission 5: Playing Pointless Games (Crossover with Saw) (FiM canon)
 * Agents Fritz Sorgebrunnen and Silas
 * Mission 6: Snapback (FiM canon)