Creatures

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic hosts an array of creatures that have a counterpart in mythology and fantasy, some of which are more far removed from their realistic counterpart than usual animals. A few creatures, like dragons and Diamond Dogs, have speaking roles and display sapience when interacting with the protagonists. Others behave more like animals and neither speak nor display sapience.

Ahuitzotl
Ahuitzotl appears as a fictional character within the book Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone in Read It and Weep. He is shown to be Daring Do's main antagonist in the book.

Ahuitzotl in legend is a mythological Aztec god. It resembles a dog with monkey paws and a hand at the end of its tail.

Cerberus
Cerberus is a giant three-headed dog that appears in the episode It's About Time, interrupting Twilight Sparkle's attempts to "disaster-proof" Equestria.

Cerberus' general design resembles that of a black bulldog. He is shown with red pupils in his eyes and a spiked collar on each neck. As with the hydra, the three heads do not all display the same expression; when Twilight first calls out to him, the heads glance at each other, and they later look up at different times when she calls out again.

Cerberus causes a massive fright in Ponyville upon its appearance. According to Twilight Sparkle, he is responsible for guarding the gates of Tartarus and keeping the evil creatures within from escaping. Twilight explains to Spike that with Cerberus away from Tartarus, the "ancient evil creatures" imprisoned there could escape and destroy Equestria. This leads to Twilight taking Cerberus back to Tartarus after Fluttershy tames it by scratching its belly. Shown the next day, Spike receives a letter from Princess Celestia reporting a missing dog, with Spike replying "I guess the Princess hasn't heard we found Cerberus yet".

In Greek and Roman mythology, Cerberus, or Kerberos, was a three-headed dog-like beast with a serpent's tail and was responsible for guarding the gates of Hades and keeping spirits from leaving. Heracles was sent to capture Cerberus as one of his twelve labors.

Changeling
Changelings are featured in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 and are the minions of their leader, Queen Chrysalis. They are shown to be pony-esque creatures that resemble insects and have the ability to change their appearance into any other form that is presented to them. They do not appear with cutie marks, but can replicate them when mimicking ponies. They share their queen's beetle-like wings, her fangs, and holes in her legs. Like Chrysalis, they were designed by Rebecca Dart. Before the design was finalized, the script described their Queen as "a GANGLY BLACK PEGACORN with a gnarled black horn."

In A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, the changelings are shown breaking the magic force field around Canterlot, and later terrorizing Canterlot, as well as taking the form of the main six ponies and engaging in battle with them. They are soon sent far away from Canterlot by Shining Armor and Princess Cadance's combined magic, along with Queen Chrysalis at the end of the episode.

Their interest in taking over Equestria is explained by their source of nourishment being true love, and that Equestria has "more love than [they] have ever encountered." Like windigos, Changelings are 'emotion parasites' albeit they feed off of positive emotion instead of negative emotion.

Changelings come from Western European folklore and legends, usually being classified as shape shifters. They are usually associated with trolls and fairies, and can easily take the shape of other beings, usually for their own benefit.

Changelings bear a resemblance to the mythical creatures of Celtic lore known as Pùca, especially Queen Chrysalis. In Irish mythology the Pùca were mischievous shape shifters whose preferred form was that of a black horse.

In the show their sharp fangs, insect-like wings and 'vampiric' feeding habit seem to indicate a certain relationship to real-world horseflies, which normally pester horses biting them and feeding off their blood like mosquitoes do to humans.

Cockatrice
Cockatrice are featured in the episode Stare Master. Fluttershy explains them to the Cutie Mark Crusaders as having the "head of a chicken and the body of a snake," and also explains that they are fearsome, dangerous creatures. They are shown to have the ability to turn creatures into stone with their gaze. After venturing into the forest, Fluttershy finds Twilight Sparkle turned to stone due to, what is assumed to be, a cockatrice. Fluttershy later demands for it to restore Twilight and her missing chicken, who has also been petrified, to normal, showing that the effects are reversible.

The cockatrice also appears on the Comic Con 2011 promotional poster.

Cockatrices are mentioned in legend from antiquity to the Middle Ages.

Diamond Dog
Diamond Dogs are shown to be a race of sapient dogs who possess an apparent affinity for precious stones, and have large front paws shaped like hands. They are the antagonists in A Dog and Pony Show, where they kidnap Rarity and force her to find gems for them in their underground mine.

Draconequus
Draconequi are described by Cheerilee as hybrids of many different creatures with the head of a pony. A Draconequus named Discord appears in The Return of Harmony Part 1 and The Return of Harmony Part 2, and is shown to be a very powerful and highly magical being, capable of changing the overall look of the whole of Ponyville within hours.

Dragon
Dragons play a role as antagonists in the episodes Dragonshy, Owl's Well That Ends Well, and Dragon Quest. Spike, one of the main characters, Spike, is a dragon as well.

Griffon
Griffons are creatures shown to have the body of a lion, and the front claws, head, and wings of an eagle. Griffons that have appeared in the show are: Gilda, Rainbow Dash's former friend shown in Griffon the Brush Off, and a male chef griffon named Gustave Le Grand, who appears on board the train in MMMystery on the Friendship Express. Another male griffon appears on a fan-designed WeLoveFine T-shirt depicting a host of non-Hasbro characters; Samantha Bragg, the artist of the T-shirt design, refers to this griffon as "Salarfang" and gives him a brief description in a post on deviantART.

Hydra
A hydra appears in Feeling Pinkie Keen, residing in Froggy Bottom Bog.

The hydra that appears has four heads on long snake-like necks and a large, orange, dragon-like body, with only two legs and no wings or arms. The ponies note a smelly gas that envelops it as it rises from the bog, and during this scene, a tick-like insect can be seen on its neck. Before chasing the ponies, it roars and licks its lips. The heads sometimes display different expressions and even laugh at each others' misfortunes.

The hydra also appears on the Comic Con 2011 promotional poster. In the Ruckus Reader interactive storybook Things That Go Bump in the Night, it appears in Rainbow Dash's imagination. In The Hub's 8 bit promo and 8-bit network ID, it appears in Level 3 of ''Adventure Ponies! The Video Game''.

In classical mythology, the Hydra, meaning "water serpent", was defeated by Heracles (Hercules) as a part of his twelve labors. It was so poisonous that even its breath and tracks were deadly, and if someone was lucky enough to cut off a head, it grew two more in its place.

Manticore
A manticore appears as a creature with the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and a pair of wings.

The ponies encounter the manticore in Friendship is Magic, part 2, enraged by Night Mare Moon as an obstacle for Twilight Sparkle and her friends in their journey to find the Elements of Harmony. Similar to Aesop's fable of The Lion and The Mouse, as well as the fable of Androcles and the Lion, it is calmed when Fluttershy shows it kindness and removes a thorn from its paw.

The manticore also appears on the Comic Con 2011 promotional poster.

In Persian mythology, the manticore is a creature with a red lion's body, a human-like face, a mouth with shark-like rows of sharp teeth, and a voice like a trumpet. Additional features such as a scorpion-like tail, bat-like wings, and the ability to launch poisonous spines at its enemies depend on the story. It is considered a man-eater, often leaving no remains, not even bones or clothing.

Minotaur
Minotaurs are half-bull and half-human. A minotaur named Iron Will appears in Putting Your Hoof Down.

Parasprite
Parasprites are small, round, flying creatures that appear in the episode Swarm of the Century. They have ravenous appetites, multiply very quickly, and soon their presence in Ponyville develops into an infestation. Lauren Faust drew parallels between Swarm of the Century and the Star Trek episode The Trouble With Tribbles. Both parasprites and tribbles are similarly regarded as cute pets, but their rapid multiplication turns them into pests and menaces.

Phoenix
Phoenix are shown to be birds that have the ability to burst into flames. Over time, as shown with Philomena in A Bird in the Hoof, Phoenix lose their feathers with age, before crumbling to ash and subsequently being reborn. Phoenixes are also shown in Dragon Quest.

Quarray eel
Quarray eels are shown to be large burgundy-colored creatures that live in holes in the side of Ghastly Gorge, and are seen in the episode May the Best Pet Win!. Their name is a play on "moray eels" and "quarry". When Rainbow Dash races through the gorge in this episode, she tells her prospective pets that the eels become agitated when anyone gets too close to their nests. The eels proceed to pop their heads out if their caves, trying to eat the contestants as they pass by.

After Rainbow Dash dodges all of the eels with relative ease, the other animals try to make it through: the bat is almost swallowed by one of the eels, but it manages to escape out of the creature's nostril, the eagle almost has its head bitten off by another eel, the owl uses its wings to keep a third eel from biting down and swallowing it, and the falcon gets its tail feathers bitten by a fourth eel, but manages to escape.

Sea serpent
The sea serpent featured in Friendship is Magic, part 2 has a long serpentine body, reminiscent of an Asian dragon, with purple scales and orange hair, eyebrows, and mustache. He is one of the obstacles that the main six ponies face in their quest for the Elements of Harmony. It is shown that Night Mare Moon cuts off half of his mustache, sending him into a tantrum that renders the river impassable. Rarity soothes his tantrum by sacrificing her tail to make up the rest of his cut mustache with her unicorn magic. In thanks, the serpent offers his body as a bridge across the river. Fluttershy, however, who is afraid of large dragons in later episodes, shows no fear of the serpent.

The sea serpent also appears on the Comic Con 2011 promotional poster, on another poster printed in the German magazine, and on the 2012 My Little Pony trading card #34 of 84, always with Rarity's tail as half of his mustache. The trading card describes him as having a "magnetic personality", which a consultant for the design of the trading cards says is meant to reference the fan-given name Stephen Magnet.

In early June 2012, writer M.A. Larson was asked "Best joke/line/visual that you didn't write in any of your episodes?" and answered "I absolutely LOVE the sea monster in the pilots. I always wanted to bring that guy back but tough to do organically." Later in the same month, Jayson Thiessen, Larson, and Meghan McCarthy were asked "What was the *sea serpent* doing in a river? There an ocean after Everfree?" and Larson answered "river serpent, obviously."

Timberwolf
Timberwolves are a species of wolf made entirely out of wood. They reside in the Everfree Forest and appear in Family Appreciation Day. They are first seen in Granny Smith's flashback of her youth, in which after going to collect food for her family in the Everfree Forest, she comes upon a zap apple tree and immediately goes to pick its fruit. However, she had also stepped upon the territory of the Timberwolves, who proceed to chase after her relentlessly. After much running, she manages to make it back to her home, where she uses the sound of some of her pots and pans to scare off the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves' howls serve as the first sign of the yearly zap apple tree harvest.

The name is a play on a real-life breed of wolf, the Gray wolf, which is also known as the Timber Wolf.

Ursa
Ursæ are magical bears that are much larger than normal bears with fur that looks like the night sky, who appear in Boast Busters. The ursa minor is nearly as big as an adult dragon, and the ursa major is many times larger still. At the start of the episode, Trixie boasts that she defeated an ursa major that was attacking Hoofington. Snips and Snails go into the Everfree Forest with the intention to find an ursa major and lead it back to Ponyville, hoping to see Trixie defeat it. They find one and get chased by it into Ponyville, where Trixie is forced to admit she did not vanquish an ursa and cannot defeat this one. The ursa turns out to be an ursa minor, which Twilight soon returns to its mother, an ursa major, displaying her unicorn magic.

The Boast Busters story gallery on Hasbro's website uses alternate screenshots that depict the ursa minor as being bright green (similarly to the alternate screenshot at the beginning of the Friendship is Magic, part 1 story gallery on the same website ) and both ursæ as being completely opaque.

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are constellations in the Northern Hemisphere. The ursæ in the show have unusually long tails for bears, much like their constellation namesakes.

Windigo
The windigos are explained to be "winter spirits that feed off fighting and hatred; the more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become", according to the character Twilight Sparkle plays in the Hearth's Warming Eve play, Clover the Clever. The three windigoes are featured three times throughout the episode Hearth's Warming Eve: at the conclusion of the grand summit, after the pony leaders' snowball fight, and at the cave that the ponies took as shelter.

The windigos resemble ghostly and slightly translucent horses. In their first appearance, the three windigoes only look down onto the grand summit from a passage in the clouds with glowing blue eyes, but in their second and third appearances they wail and fly in a circle of clouds. They are defeated by "the fire of friendship", a pink flame that takes the shape of a heart, which was created in the play when Clover, Smart Cookie, and Pansy become friends. However, it is implied that they, or other members of their race, are still around in modern Equestria, as one of their distinctive howls is heard through an open window when Rainbow Dash and Applejack begin to argue.

In the mythology of the Algonquian peoples, the Wendigo, or Windigo, is a malevolent, cannibalistic supernatural spirit or deity being strongly associated with the winter, the North, coldness, as well as famine and starvation. It has been thought to be an ice-giant that eats people whole. The word windigo is also often used to describe or name people who have gone mad or are thought to be cannibals, such as in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine.

Miscellaneous

 * Twilight Sparkle mentions a book called Ghost, Goblins and Ghoulish Figures in the episode The Show Stoppers.

Gallery

 * Creatures image gallery