Family and relatives

This article details the family and relatives of characters in the show.

In early April 2013, Meghan McCarthy was asked, "Will we get to see any more members of the mane 6's families?" She then simply answered "Yes".

Applejack



 * See also Apple Bloom, Big McIntosh, Granny Smith

Applejack has relatives in Appleloosa, at least one of whom, Braeburn, is her cousin. She also has relatives in Manehattan, the Orange couple. The Oranges are high-society ponies who try to introduce Applejack to their friends in a flashback in The Cutie Mark Chronicles. Babs Seed, being a cousin of Apple Bloom, is another one of Applejack's cousins. She has an unnamed sister. Another relative of Applejack's is Goldie Delicious, who lives in a cabin not far from Ponyville. She's mentioned and appears in the episode Pinkie Apple Pie.

Uncle Orange appears with the name Mosely Orange in the fourth, sixth, and eighth waves of mystery pack toys; according to the mystery pack collector cards, Mosely Orange "loves to have fancy parties!"

In issue three of the comic book, Applejack says her great uncle Honeycrisp was a lumberjack. In issue 10, Big McIntosh mentions a great uncle Needle.

Parents
The whereabouts of Applejack's parents are touched on in the episode Apple Family Reunion. At the end of the episode, the shot fades to a view of Sweet Apple Acres as two shooting stars fly through the sky. The shooting stars are meant to represent Applejack's parents according to storyboard artist Sabrina Alberghetti. Lauren Faust had previously mentioned that the whereabouts of Applejack's parents has not been planned, and that the show is unlikely to mention that they've passed away. Faust stated she wanted that to be the case.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake
Carrot Cake and Cup Cake are husband and wife, respectively.

Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake
Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake are introduced in the episode Baby Cakes. The main six are shocked to learn that Pound Cake is a Pegasus, while Pumpkin Cake is a unicorn, though Mr. Cake explains it away as due to distant familial relations in both his and Mrs. Cake's lineages. They appear again in A Friend in Deed, where Pinkie fails to make them laugh with her routine, until the very end, when she sits on some jacks. Their third appearance comes in Ponyville Confidential, where they throw a tantrum, and are featured for it in one of Gabby Gums' articles. Pumpkin Cake appears briefly without her brother in Magic Duel, and in Magical Mystery Cure, Pound Cake can be seen in Pinkie's flashback. Both twins appear in Pinkie Pride as their names were mentioned during a musical number.

Relatives
In Baby Cakes, Mr. Cake mentions his great-great-great-great grandfather, a unicorn, and Cup Cake's great aunt's second cousin twice removed, a Pegasus.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna
Four of the mentioned members of the royal family are Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Prince Blueblood and Princess Cadance. Multiple episodes state that Luna is Celestia's younger sister; The Ticket Master states that Blueblood is Celestia's nephew, though his trading card lists his family link to Luna and Celestia as being "far removed"; various promotional materials state that Cadance is Celestia's niece, and the chapter book My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell specifies that Celestia adopted her as a niece.

On My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic book issue #5 page 16, after Luna says that something she had hoped would never come to pass is happening, Pinkie Pie attempts to guess what it is, with one guess being "Realize your mom was right about everything?!"; Luna responds to each guess with "No." The picture book My Little Pony: Under the Sparkling Sea shows a sea lion called King Leo, who rules the underwater city of Aquastria and its seaponies and mermares; the book's dust jacket states that King Leo "sits on the Cosmic Council alongside his cousin, Princess Celestia." One of the illustrated stories in the official My Little Pony magazine in France shows Celestia having a four-year-old cousin called Léon, an Alicorn who shares Blueblood's color scheme and cutie mark and Rainbow Dash's base character model. The magazine story's narrative does not fit into the animated series.

Lauren Faust, the show's creator, stated that Celestia does not have parents that outrank her, that Luna and Celestia have no siblings and no children, and that Blueblood is "the great great great great great great great great great great great (and probably even more greats) nephew on Celestia's and Luna's mother's side, about 52 times removed, roughly speaking."

Cloudchaser
In Enterplay's collectible card game, Cloudchaser mentions her parents in her quote on her Enterplay collectible card game card's Gen Con Indy 2013 demo version and α #11 R version.

Cockatrice
Fluttershy refers to the cockatrice's mother in Stare Master.

Crackle
In Dragon Quest, one of the teenage dragons says that he thinks the dragon-costumed pony trio is Crackle's cousin.

Diamond Tiara
Diamond Tiara's father, Filthy Rich, and her great-grandfather, Stinkin' Rich, are featured in Family Appreciation Day. Filthy Rich gives a presentation to Diamond Tiara's class about his business, Rich's Barnyard Bargains, and tells them it was one of the first stores in Ponyville when it was founded, which is later featured in Granny Smith's flashback, where Stinkin' Rich opens a zap apple stand. Babs Seed refers to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's mothers in One Bad Apple.

Discord
In April 2013, The Hub jokingly referred to Discord and the Predaking from Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters as "long-lost twins?" on Twitter and Facebook.

Emerald Green
In Enterplay's collectible card game, α #12 C, a card of Emerald Green, gives him the description "Emerald is sometimes confused for his winged cousin in Cloudsdale. He doesn't really seem to mind."

Flim and Flam
Flim and Flam are twins, with the only differences between them being their voices, their cutie marks, their hairstyles, and Flam having a mustache. They make their first and so far only appearance in The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, with the intention of driving the Apple Family out of business.

Gizmo
In Shining Armor's flashback in the IDW comics' Friendship is Magic Issue #11 story neigh anything..., Poindexter says "My mom is going to get really mad if I get grass stains on her new turtleneck..."

Hoops
In Fluttershy's flashback in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, colt Hoops taunts filly Fluttershy by saying that his baby brother can fly better than her.

Pinkie Pie
According to Pinkie Pie's recollection in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, she was raised on a rock farm with her parents and sisters. She says there was no talking or smiling. They spent each day harvesting rocks, until Pinkie threw their first ever party a short while after Rainbow Dash's first sonic rainboom. In Magic Duel, Trixie claims to have had to take a job on a rock farm to earn a living, and shows Pinkie's father pointing out a group of large rocks. Pinkie Pie's family resembles the Amish. In contrast to her mostly gray and brown family, Pinkie Pie is pink.

In Pinkie Pie's Laughter Song, she mentions having been taught by "Granny Pie" to laugh at things that scared her, and in Too Many Pinkie Pies, she mentions that her "Nana Pinkie" told her of the Mirror Pool.

Lauren Faust said on March 15, 2013 that Pinkie's sisters weren't named as far as she knew, but they considered naming them "Mince Meat Pie" and "Chicken Pot Pie".

Pinkie Pie and her family are featured in the chapter book My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie and the Rockin' Ponypalooza Party!, which names her mother Cloudy Quartz, her father Igneous Rock, and two of her sisters Marble Pie and Limestone Pie. In the book, Granny Pie and Nana Pinkie are each mentioned again, and a third, older sister of Pinkie Pie's is also mentioned. The story description on the chapter book's back cover reads, "When the family rock farm is in trouble, Pinkie Pie tries to help in the best way she knows how—by planning a Ponyville 'rock' concert: Ponypalooza! The party will be super-duper cool and is sure to save the farm. But...Pinkie's family doesn't like the idea and wants her to be serious for once in her life. What's a pony to do?" Of the IDW comics', Pinkie, Marble, and Limestone appear together as fillies in a picture on cover RI, and Pinkie and Marble appear together with Trixie both on a Jetpack Comics exclusive cover RE and on a Larry's Comics and Jetpack Comics exclusive cover RE.

In Enterplay's collectible card game, α #29 C, a card of Igneous Rock, lists his name with a trademark symbol and gives him the description "Pinkie Pie's father runs the most successful rock farm in Ponyville history. His sedimentary rock collection is the envy of absolutely nopony." A "Pie Family Rock Farms" merchandise design is available through WeLoveFine.com as a T-shirt and formerly as bags.

It was announced on July 20, 2013 that "we get to meet Pinkie Pie's sister in #mlpseason4!"

In Pinkie Apple Pie, it is suggested that Pinkie Pie is a possible cousin to the Apple family, but all evidence given leaves this unclear.

In Pinkie Pride, Pinkie Pie looks at a photograph of her "whole family". In addition to her parents and her sisters Marble and Limestone, there is a third sister with them as well, making an overall debut appearance. This sister of Pinkie's, Maud Pie, appears in person in the episode of the same name.

Princess Platinum
In the episode Hearth's Warming Eve, Spike states that Princess Platinum is the unicorn king's daughter.

DJ Pon-3
In Shining Armor's flashback in the IDW comics' Friendship is Magic Issue #11 story neigh anything..., DJ Pon-3 appears as a filly atop the unicorn stallion 33⅓-LP, who is modeled after her. In response to speculation of 33⅓-LP being a parent of DJ Pon-3's, artist Andy Price has stated "I think more big brother, considering the high school setting" and "considering the high school setting, more of a big brother, I would think", and colorist Heather Breckel has referred to 33⅓-LP as not being DJ Pon-3's father.

Parents
To promote The Cutie Mark Chronicles, The Hub's website gave users three potential stories for how Rainbow Dash got her cutie mark. Rainbow Dash's parents are mentioned in one of the alternate stories as "loving, supportive parents" who tried to help Rainbow Dash find her mark.

In Games Ponies Play, during her flashback as a filly, Rainbow Dash is shown standing on the back of an adult Pegasus stallion with a similarly rainbow-colored mane and tail. Her relationship to the stallion is not explicitly referred to. Next to the stallion is Rainbowshine, an adult Pegasus mare with exactly the same eye color as Rainbow Dash but no similar coat or mane colors.

Sweetie Belle
Sweetie Belle is introduced as Rarity's little sister in Stare Master. In both Stare Master and in Sisterhooves Social, Rarity gets frustrated with Sweetie Belle's attempts to help her.

Parents
Rarity and Sweetie Belle's mother and father are introduced in Sisterhooves Social, but their names are not mentioned in the show. Rarity's mother is visibly a unicorn, while Rarity's father wears a hat that obscures his horn. They sport Upper Midwest American/Canadian accents, and a questionable fashion sense. The mother has the same body design as Mrs. Cake. Rarity's mother strongly resembles the G3 unicorn Garden Wishes. Her looks are also similar to a G1 unicorn named Buttons and a toy named Ribbon Wishes, but has a different eye color than the latter. Rarity's father is enthusiastic enough about Sweetie Belle's burnt cooking that he asks for Rarity's untouched plate. He later makes a background appearance in One Bad Apple, sitting on a jetty and fishing, with burnt food and glass of burnt drink next to him. His cutie mark is a set of three American footballs and he is voiced by Peter New; their mother is voiced by Tabitha St. Germain who also voices Rarity. Rarity's mother's cutie mark is obscured by her pants in Sisterhooves Social, but is shown to be three cookies, two of them whole and one with a bite taken out of it, on page 145 of Little Brown's My Little Pony Friendship is Magic official guidebook My Little Pony: The Elements of Harmony. On the same page, Rarity's father is shown wearing different clothing, revealing his horn. Both parents also appear on page 16 of the IDW comics' Friendship is Magic Issue #9. Rarity's father is one of the available playable characters in Gameloft's mobile game, which gives him the name Magnum.

Silver Spoon
Babs Seed refers to Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara's mothers in One Bad Apple.

Snips and Snails
After the Foal Free Press prints a Gabby Gums column about Snips and Snails in Ponyville Confidential, Snips mentions that his and Snails' mothers always told them they'd end up in the papers someday.

Chief Thunderhooves
In Over a Barrel, Chief Thunderhooves mentions his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and great-great-great-grandfather.

Rumble
Both Thunderlane and his brother Rumble are introduced in Hurricane Fluttershy, when both are seen standing together during tornado duty training. During the final event, Thunderlane doesn't show up and Rainbow Dash asks Rumble "Where is your lazy brother?" Rumble tells Twilight and Rainbow Dash that Thunderlane has fallen sick with the Feather Flu.

Season two
Shining Armor is introduced as Twilight's older brother in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1. Before his debut, he was announced as a part of a then-upcoming toy set "Pony Princess Wedding Castle" which comes with him and his bride Princess Cadance. Shining Armor also appears in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2.

Season three
He later appears in both parts of The Crystal Empire, Games Ponies Play and in Magical Mystery Cure.

Season two
Twilight recounts in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 that Princess Cadance was her beloved foal-sitter when she was a filly. By the end of A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, they become sisters-in-law by Cadance's marriage to Shining Armor.

Season three
She later appears in both parts of The Crystal Empire, Games Ponies Play, and in Magical Mystery Cure.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light
Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor's parents are briefly seen in a flashback in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, during the wedding ceremonies in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, during the princess coronation in Magical Mystery Cure, and in more flashbacks in the IDW comics' Friendship is Magic Issues #11-12 stories neigh anything... and neigh anything Part 2 presentable in periwinkle. In the first season, they enroll their daughter in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, much to her delight, and they accompany her at her entrance exam. When Twilight's powers go out of control, they are briefly transformed into an agave and a cactus. In the second season, they attend their son's wedding. In the third season, they attend their daughter's coronation. In the comic stories, they have speaking roles.

Neither of the parents is named in the show or in the comics. The mother strongly resembles Lauren Faust's original concept art that was based on G1 Twilight, and she appears with the name Twilight Velvet in the fourth and sixth waves of mystery pack toys and in Gameloft's mobile game; according to the mystery pack collector cards and the game, Twilight Velvet "loves writing stories about adventures". The father shares Noteworthy's color scheme, and appears to be visually based on the G1 German release Rainbow Pony Nachtlicht. Twilight's mother also appears to have the same magic glow as her daughter, as seen when she gets a tissue for her husband in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 and Magical Mystery Cure.

Uncle
Shining Armor mentioned he had a "favorite uncle" in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, and wore this same uncle's badge at his wedding.

Twist
The Smile Song in A Friend in Deed was to have introduced Twist's mother, who would have been named Shimmy Shake. Writer Amy Keating Rogers "thought that since The Twist is a dance, it would be cute if Twist's mom had a dance name too!" The scene was ultimately cut from the final version.

Sisterhooves Social
"You an' Rarity can compete against other sister teams in all these neat events!"

- Apple Bloom in Sisterhooves Social

The Sisterhooves Social is a series of contests and races that two sisters can compete in to win prizes.

Competing pairs

 * Berryshine and "Piña Colada" (white shirts with light blue trim) - winners
 * Amethyst Star and "Dinky Doo" (blue neckerchiefs)
 * "Cloud Kicker" and "Princess Erroria" (pink/purple baseball caps, purple cloth tied around one foreleg)
 * Golden Harvest and "Noi" (green headbands)

Golden Harvest and "Noi" are seen together again at the beginning of the market scene of Putting Your Hoof Down.