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.

The show My Little Pony Friendship is Magic places the ponies in the "magical land of Equestria".

Three pony types
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic divides ponies into three main "types" in the first episode: Earth ponies, Pegasi, and unicorns. These are called the "three pony tribes" in the episode Hearth's Warming Eve. The storybook Under The Sparkling Sea adds sea ponies, and previous My Little Pony generations included flutter ponies as well as sea ponies, however they are absent from the Friendship is Magic series. The division into three types led the show's developer, Lauren Faust, to initially give them equal representation in the show's main cast, in the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The powers of the Alicorns draws equally from the three types, according to the book Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell.

Earth ponies
Earth ponies have no wings or unicorn horn, and therefore most closely resemble real ponies. They are the kind first introduced by the My Little Pony brand. The chapter book "Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell" mentions that one special trait is "the strength of a good, true heart of an Earth Pony." The main cast of the show My Little Pony Friendship is Magic features two Earth ponies: Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

Pegasi
Pegasi, or "Pegasus ponies", are ponies with wings and flight abilities – in the fashion of the legendary Pegasus. The term "Pegasi" is used in the episodes Sonic Rainboom and The Return of Harmony Part 1, and "Pegasus ponies" is used in the episodes Sonic Rainboom and Look Before You Sleep. When referring to a single pony, "Pegasus" is almost always used, with the exception of one "Pegasus pony" in Friendship is Magic, part 1. Pegasi can usually fly and interact with clouds. The main cast of the show features two Pegasi: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

Two Pegasus royal guard ponies pull Princess Luna's chariot in Luna Eclipsed. The guards have tufted ears, bat-like webbed wings, non-hairy tail and crest, and wear dark purple armor.

Unicorns
Unicorns feature a magical horn on their foreheads, and usually have magical abilities. They are always called "unicorns" in the show, but the wiki also uses the term "unicorn ponies" for consistency with "Pegasus ponies" and "Earth ponies", since unicorns are also a type of pony. The show's main cast initially features two unicorns: Rarity and Twilight Sparkle, but Twilight gains wings in the season 3 finale, Magical Mystery Cure (see next section).

Alicorns
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are referred to as unicorns in the episode Friendship is Magic, part 1, and Princess Cadance is called a unicorn in the episode A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, all despite having both a unicorn horn and wings. They are called "Pony Princesses" in Hasbro's merchandise. Meghan McCarthy stated at the October 2012 New York Comic Con, between the airing of seasons two and three, that she had used the term "pegacorn" in the show's scripts, and mentioned switching to the term "alicorn". In the season three episode Magical Mystery Cure, Twilight Sparkle is described as an alicorn once she gains wings. Rarity, on the other hand, gained butterfly-like wings in the episode Sonic Rainboom without being called an alicorn. In the chapter book Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, it is written that Twilight, and by extension at least also Cadance became "part of a special breed of pony called an Alicorn. This meant that Twilight was now able to harness the magical powers of the Unicorns, the flight abilities of the Pegasi, and the strength of a good, true heart of an Earth Pony."

Crystal Ponies
Crystal Ponies are introduced in the episode The Crystal Empire - Part 1. Like Earth ponies, they do not have horns or wings, however they become more faceted and "glittery" through their magic and the magic of the Crystal Heart – this appearance carries on to other episodes that include the Crystal Ponies. The magic affects other characters temporarily in The Crystal Empire - Part 2, where Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, the main ponies, and Spike – who is a dragon – all temporarily possess on the texture and "coloration" of Crystal Ponies. Princess Celestia notes the importance of the Crystal Ponies when she tells Twilight that if their kingdom is "filled with hope and love, then those things would spread all across Equestria."

Seaponies and mermares
Seaponies appear in the storybook "Under the Sparkling Sea", where the main characters go to the underwater kingdom of Aquastria. They resemble sea horses, and referred to as "cousins" of the earth-based ponies. Mermares appear in the same book and have fish fins, tail, and scales, and they are presented as the seaponies' competitor in the kingdom of Aquastria. Mermares are described as more introvert, bigger, and faster than seaponies. Neither kind of submarine ponies bear a cutie mark.

Mermares also appear in My Little Pirate: Friendship Ahoy, one being the love interest of Hoofbeard.

Bat Ponies
Two royal guard bat ponies were seen in Luna Eclipsed and Fluttershy was turned into a bat pony in Bats!

Nomenclature
The term "My Little Pony" – and more often "My Little Ponies" – is used a few times in the show, such as by Twilight Sparkle in The Show Stoppers, Princess Celestia, Cheerilee, and Discord in The Return of Harmony Part 1, and Pinkie Pie in Fall Weather Friends, always in conversations concerning at least one pony. "Foals" is used in a few different contexts in the show, and "colt" and "filly" are used to refer to young ponies too, while "baby ponies" is used to refer to the youngest ponies. Apart from the above terms, others are sometimes employed: Trixie boasts in Boast Busters that she is destined to be "the greatest equine who has ever lived"; Sapphire Shores mentions "Clothes Horse magazine" in A Dog and Pony Show; and Braeburn refers to other ponies as "horses" in Over a Barrel. In The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, Flam states that "Any horse can make a claim and any pony can do the same." In Flight to the Finish, Scootaloo precedes a song by saying about her and her friends "we may just be little ponies, but we have hearts as strong as horses!"

Other equines
Other kinds of equines are featured in the show.
 * Zecora is a zebra and explicitly stated not to be a pony – despite being the only other creature to feature a cutie mark.
 * Cranky Doodle Donkey is a donkey as his name implies; Matilda is another donkey.
 * A mule is used as a visual gag in Applebuck Season, Hurricane Fluttershy, and One Bad Apple; Mulia Mild is another mule. One of the Diamond Dogs refers to Rarity as a "mule" in A Dog and Pony Show, and she acts deeply upset about it.
 * The draconequus Discord is introduced in The Return of Harmony and "has the head of a pony, and a body made up of all sorts of things", says Cheerilee in that episode.
 * The Changelings are another equine-like insect species introduced in A Canterlot Wedding.
 * The Saddle Arabian delegates feature a different design than the other ponies.

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". Faust specifies a few attributes in one of her interviews: the back of the ponies' heads streamlines down their neck and to their back; the manes fall to one side of the neck like a real horse; and they have authentic horse trots and gallops. Despite this, season two and onwards saw the show incorporate more human-like stylization as new artists joined the show.

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 Melody 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, like Twilight Sparkle in Look Before You Sleep, Hoity Toity in Suited for Success, and 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, also known as high-hoof or brohoof, imitates 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 Bird in the Hoof: Rainbow Dash and Philomena hoof/wing-bump toward the end of the episode.
 * Sisterhooves Social: Applejack and Apple Bloom hoof-bump (referred to by Sweetie Belle as a "high-hoof") after corralling sheep.
 * A Friend in Deed: Pinkie Pie uses the term "hoof-bump" during the Smile Song.
 * Ponyville Confidential: The Cutie Mark Crusaders do a three-way hoof-bump several times throughout the episode.
 * They also perform this action, albeit, in a tired fashion, in One Bad Apple, and again with Babs Seed towards the end of the episode.
 * A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, The Crystal Empire - Part 1, and Games Ponies Play: Twilight and Princess Cadance do a double hoof-bump in their "sunshine, sunshine" dance.
 * Wonderbolts Academy: The term "hoof-bump" is once again used, this time by Rainbow Dash.
 * Games Ponies Play: Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy hoof-bump during the "Equestria Games Inspector's" visit to the Crystal Empire.
 * Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1: Twilight and Pinkie Pie hoof-bump as they and their friends put on the Elements of Harmony.
 * Castle Mane-ia: Applejack and Rainbow Dash hoof-bump while agreeing to stay in the castle to prove who is the most daring pony.
 * Daring Don't: Daring Do offers Rainbow Dash a hoof-bump before Rainbow Dash hugs her.
 * Flight to the Finish: The Cutie Mark Crusaders hoof-bump while agreeing to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's challenge. Scootaloo and Granny Smith also hoof-bump after Scootaloo regains her confidence.

Other gestures
In Keep Calm and Flutter On, Rainbow Dash moves her hooves to imitate air quotes, even though part of the point of air quotes is that the two fingers of each hand represent the two curved lines of the quotes.