Ponies

The My Little Pony brand describes its characters as ponies. The brand's toys, as the name suggests, usually consist of small colorful plastic ponies. The characters on the various My Little Pony television shows and movies are depicted with varying degrees of fantasy elements, like the ability to speak, fly, and use magic.

Use of the term "ponies"
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic divides the ponies into three "types":
 * Earth ponies, who most closely resemble real ponies for having no wings or unicorn horn.
 * Pegasus ponies, for whom two terms are used: "Pegasi" in the episodes Sonic Rainboom and The Return of Harmony Part 1, and "Pegasus ponies" in Sonic Rainboom and Look Before You Sleep. When referring to a single pony, "Pegasus" is always used, with the exception of "Pegasus pony" in Friendship is Magic, part 1.
 * Unicorns, which are always referred to by this term in the show, but the wiki also uses the term "unicorn ponies" for consistency with "Pegasus ponies" and "Earth ponies", since unicorns are also called ponies.

The two princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, are referred to as unicorns despite having both a unicorn horn and wings; they are called "Pony Princesses" in Hasbro's merchandise. At the October 2012 New York Comic Con, Jayson Thiessen and Meghan McCarthy stated that all of the writers are now using the term "alicorn" in their scripts.

Related terms
The show's dialogue frequently substitutes human terms with pony terms in certain words and phrases, such as "everypony", "on the other hoof," "what the hay", and more.

Other terms
Braeburn refers to other ponies as "horses" in Over a Barrel; Sapphire Shores mentions "Clothes Horse magazine" in A Dog and Pony Show; and Trixie boasts in Boast Busters that she is destined to be "the greatest equine who has ever lived". In season 2 episode 15, Flim and Flam state that "Any horse can make a claim, and anypony can do the same", which would seem to suggest that horses and ponies are two different things. Three other kinds of equines are featured in the show: Zecora, who is a zebra and explicitly stated not to be a pony, Cranky Doodle Donkey, who is a cranky donkey (as his name implies), and a mule that is used as a visual gag in Applebuck Season (and Hurricane Fluttershy). One of the Diamond Dogs refers to Rarity as a "mule" in A Dog and Pony Show, a term which deeply upsets her.

Horse-like stylization
The show's developer, Lauren Faust, wanted the ponies to act in ways characteristic of horses and avoid human conventions that wouldn't fit with their stylization, like human poses and holding items in their hooves. Faust wanted the characters to "evoke the feeling of a natural horse" Exceptions have been made throughout the show either intentionally or accidentally.

Use of instruments


Most of the time ponies hold objects with their mouths, with their "wrist", between their hooves, by using magic, or simply just with a single hoof: ponies hold shovels in their hooves in Winter Wrap Up, and Octavia and the violin playing pony in Luna Eclipsed "hold" the instrument's bow with their hoof.

Applause
Ponies applaud in the series in two different ways. The first is by clapping their front hooves together, which Twilight Sparkle is the first to do in Look Before You Sleep; other examples are the clapping by Hoity Toity in Suited for Success and by Apple Bloom's classmates in Family Appreciation Day. The second way characters applaud is by stamping their front hooves on the ground, first done by the theater audience in The Show Stoppers; other examples are the applause by the fashion show audience and Rarity in Green Isn't Your Color, and by crowds in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, The Last Roundup, and Putting Your Hoof Down.

Hoof-bump
A hoof-bump can imitate either a handshake, high-five, or even a fist bump. Ponies bump their hooves in several instances in the series:
 * Look Before You Sleep: Rarity declines a hoof-bump by Applejack since she spit on her own hoof before offering it. Later the two of them do a hoof-bump after Twilight declares her slumber party a success.
 * Fall Weather Friends: Applejack and Rainbow Dash do a spit-soaked hoof-bump before competing against each other before the Iron Pony competition and before the Running of the Leaves.
 * A Friend in Deed: Pinkie uses the term "hoof-bump" in her Smile Song.
 * In a flashback from A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, Young Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadence do a double hoof bump.
 * In Ponyville Confidential, the Cutie Mark Crusaders do a three-way hoof bump several times throughout the episode.