Inanimate objects

Some characters in the series aren't sentient creatures nor even living, and they mostly play a part as characters only in other characters' minds. This article covers the more prominent non-sentient characters.

Bloomberg
Bloomberg is the name of an apple tree that Applejack and her friends take to Appleloosa in the episode Over a Barrel. Applejack treats it as if it were a baby, cooing and talking to it as if it were an infant. Additionally, Bloomberg even has its own bed on the train and Applejack reads it bedtime stories. Spike, in an effort to escape the noise of the others during the trip, seeks the company of Bloomberg so that he can sleep in peace. At the end of the story, Applejack looks proud as it is planted on top of a hill in the Appleloosa orchard.

Series 2 of Enterplay's trading cards includes a card featuring Bloomberg, #41. Both sides of the card list his name with a trademark symbol, and the back of the card includes the description "Applejack's favorite little tree isn't such a little tree anymore! In just one day, Bloomberg set a whole herd of world records—first tree to travel first class, first tree kidnapped by buffaloes, and first tree to be mistaken for Fluttershy! Bloomberg eventually found his place as king of the Appleloosan apple orchard, but secretly, he still misses Applejack's bedtime stories."

Pinkie Pie's imaginary friends
During the episode Party of One, Pinkie Pie comes to the conclusion that Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are avoiding her latest party, believing they no longer want to be her friends. She soon replaces them with inanimate objects. These "new friends" are: While Pinkie puppeteers and voices the objects, in her mind the objects are moving and speaking on their own. They denigrate Pinkie's friends, persuade her to leave her old friends, and praise her when she agrees. They also try to prevent Rainbow Dash from taking Pinkie Pie to her surprise party. The imaginary party ends when Pinkie is dragged by Rainbow Dash to the Sweet Apple Acres barn house, where she attends a party celebrating her birthday, secretly organized by her friends.
 * Mr. Turnip: a bucket of turnips, slightly slow-speaking.
 * Rocky: a pile of rocks with a Bronx accent.
 * Sir Lintsalot: a clump of lint who speaks in a slightly sophisticated accent.
 * Madame le Flour: a sack of flour who speaks with a French accent.

Smarty Pants
Smarty Pants is Twilight Sparkle's old doll from when she was a filly, and is introduced in the episode Lesson Zero. According to Twilight, Smarty Pants comes with a notebook and quill so that it can be pretended she's doing her homework.

When unable to find and solve a "friendship problem" to relate to Princess Celestia, Twilight exclaims that she is going to create one herself. She takes Smarty Pants out of a blue and gold chest in the library and presents it to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, trying to provoke an argument between the fillies that she can solve by emphasizing the importance of sharing.

However, her plan goes rotten when the Crusaders turn out to be unenthusiastic about the ragged old doll. Twilight enchants the doll with a "want it, need it" spell, which makes the Cutie Mark Crusaders fight over who gets to play with it, much to Twilight's delight. However, she doesn't manage to break up their fight, and asks Big McIntosh, who is passing by, for assistance. He retrieves the doll, but falls under the spell and takes it for himself, eventually causing a mob of Ponyville's citizens to desire and fight over the doll.

The doll is abandoned by most of the ponies when Princess Celestia intervenes and lifts the spell, but Big McIntosh, showing a genuine want for the doll, runs off with it. In Ponyville Confidential, a picture of him cuddling the doll appears in a Gabby Gums article.

The doll is featured again in Twilight's flashback in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1. Magical Mystery Cure shows the doll again in flashback during Celestia's Ballad.

A mini-figure toy of the doll has been displayed at the 2013 New York Toy Fair. Little, Brown's My Little Pony Friendship is Magic official guidebook My Little Pony: The Elements of Harmony lists Smarty Pants by name and appearance.

Series 2 of Enterplay's trading cards includes a card featuring Smarty Pants, #43. Both sides of the card list her name with a trademark symbol, and the back of the card includes the description "A little known fact – without Smarty Pants, Twilight Sparkle may never have gotten into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns! Studying at Twilight’s side, Smarty Pants took notes with her quill and notebook, and between lessons she built excellent book forts. Now happily owned by Big Mac, Smarty’s skill with fancy mathematics is a big help in balancing the Apple Family checkbook." In the IDW comics, Smarty Pants appears on page 3 and  cover RI.

Tom
Tom is the name Rarity gives a large rock in "The Return of Harmony Part 2", thinking that it's a diamond. The name Tom is after Tom Sales, a storyboard artist on the show.

Rarity, while under the influence of Discord in "The Return of Harmony Part 1", digs through a slab of rock which has three gems reminiscent of her cutie mark embedded in it. She breaks apart the rock and extracts a large diamond, acting fawning and protective towards it. When Twilight Sparkle arrives, the "diamond" appears as a simple boulder, making it clear that only Rarity sees it as a diamond. Rarity refuses to part with it for the majority of both episodes, and Twilight even helps Rarity carry it in hopes of eliciting a positive response from her.

In Part 2, Twilight asks her friends into her library, but Rarity remains outside and says she's on to Twilight's plan to steal "Tom" from her, addressing the boulder by name. Resigned, Twilight carries the boulder inside for Rarity and crashes it through the door, leaving a giant hole in the wall. Later, as the other ponies venture back outside, Rarity delays in order to push "Tom" ahead of her. Twilight magically levitates the rock, then the scene cuts to outside the library, and Twilight is heard exclaiming "Look out, here comes Tom!" before the boulder flies out the window, leaving another giant hole in the wall.

Near the end of the episode Twilight reverts Rarity to her normal self, and the illusion that the boulder is a diamond goes away. She rolls it out of her house and asks her friends never to speak of it again. Applejack speaks of it again later in the episode when the ponies are getting Rainbow Dash to rejoin them, much to Rarity's annoyance.

According to his Series 2 trading card, Tom was the rock used in "Too Many Pinkie Pies" used to close up the entrance to the Mirror Pond.

Gallery

 * Inanimate objects image gallery