Ponyville

Ponyville is a town in Equestria, the main setting of the series My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, and home to the leading characters. Ponyville is first featured in the first episode, and is the setting for most episodes.

Geographical location and features
Friendship is Magic is the first episode to show that Ponyville is bordered by the Everfree Forest. In Dragonshy, a mountain is within walking distance of the town.

Canterlot's mountain is visible from the town. A map that Granny Smith shows in the episode Family Appreciation Day portrays Ponyville's location relative to Cloudsdale, Canterlot, and the Everfree Forest. The episode MMMystery on the Friendship Express takes place on a train traveling from Ponyville to Canterlot. In The Best Night Ever, the main characters travel to Canterlot in a horse-drawn carriage.

In a scene in The Mysterious Mare Do Well, the camera pans to show the river that flows through Ponyville. A hydroelectric dam is situated near the edge of a waterfall, upstream of the town.

History
Granny Smith describes the founding of Ponyville to a class of fillies in the episode Family Appreciation Day. She recounts how when she was just a filly, her family were pilgrims and made a living by "collecting new seeds and sellin' the old". When they came to Canterlot, Princess Celestia granted the Apple Family land near the Everfree Forest, where Granny Smith and her family planted their first orchard. Granny Smith describes how they soon ran out of food because "an orchard don't grow overnight". One night, she ventured into the Everfree Forest by herself to look for food. She discovered "the most incredible" apple trees that bore rainbow-colored apples. When the filly returned home with a bag full of them, she and her father planted the first Zap apple seeds. Drawn in by the jam made from the unique fruit, other ponies started coming to the land, such as Stinkin' Rich, Diamond Tiara's grandfather, who started a small market that sold Zap Apple Jam. Granny Smith concludes the story of the founding of Ponyville by saying, "And before we knew it, we had ourselves a nice little town, bustling with all kinds of ponies."

Because the town was founded by earth ponies, they had to clean up winter by hoof instead of by magic. In the present day, Ponyville still does the "Winter Wrap-up" as a town tradition; in Winter Wrap Up, Twilight says Ponyville has done this for "hundreds of years".

In Magic Duel, Trixie took over Ponyville after exiling Twilight Sparkle. She put up several statues and flags of herself all over town and forced the citizens to do labor for her or face punishment. The town returned to normal at the end of the episode when Twilight beat Trixie in a rematch duel.

Houses
Typical houses are timber-framed with distinct thatched roofs and overhanging upper floors.

Town square and town hall
The town hall is located in the center of Ponyville's town square. The Summer Sun Celebration is held in the hall in the first two episodes. In the episode Applebuck Season, the large porch outside serves as a stage for Applejack's friends and Mayor Mare when they give their speeches. In Griffon the Brush Off, a rack of cubby holes in the town hall stores scrolls which Spike gathers and carries outside. The town hall is in disrepair in The Last Roundup, and when Rainbow Dash is fixing it prior to the ceremony honoring Applejack, Derpy "assists" her and further damages the building. Applejack pledges to pay for the repair of the town hall with the prize money she expects to win at the rodeo. But when her friends find out that she failed to win any prize money, they tell her they'll find other ways to fund the repair of the town hall.

More of the town square is seen from an aerial shot in Griffon the Brush Off. The square has a pool with a sculpture of a rearing Earth pony and several colorful tents pitched around it. A river runs along one side of the square, and a bridge crosses it to another tent area.

In Too Many Pinkie Pies, Applejack and her sister, Apple Bloom round up the Pinkie Pie duplicates and put them in the town hall, where Twilight Sparkle tells the duplicates to watch paint dry.

Schoolhouse
Ponyville has a schoolhouse that first appears in Call of the Cutie. Exterior shots of the schoolhouse show a bell on the roof, a flag in the front yard, and a sign on the lawn depicting an open book and the silhouettes of two rearing fillies. Classes for foals are taught by Cheerilee; for example, in Call of the Cutie, she gives a lesson on cutie marks and their significance. In Ponyville Confidential, the students work on and print the Foal Free Press paper in the basement.

Hospital
In the beginning of Baby Cakes, the main characters visit the newborn Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. When Pinkie Pie starts singing in the nursery, Nurse Redheart shushes her and eventually kicks her out. In Read It and Weep, Rainbow Dash breaks her right wing and stays at the hospital for a period of time. It is also mentioned in Hurricane Fluttershy by Rumble as he tells Rainbow Dash about Thunderlane having the feather flu and being at Ponyville Hospital.

Train station
Ponyville has had a train station and depot since the founding of the town (shown in Family Appreciation Day during a flashback). In The Last Roundup, Applejack boards a train that takes her to Canterlot; and in Over a Barrel, the main characters take a pony-pulled train to Appleloosa. Unlike that train, the trains in Season 2 are powered by steam engines.

Ponyville Retirement Village
In Luna Eclipsed, Spike says that he mistook Twilight Sparkle's Star Swirl the Bearded costume for that of a "kooky grandpa from Ponyville Retirement Village".

Ponyville Tower
Ponyville's clock tower is visible from the front of Fluttershy's cottage. Its number of marks changes between episodes, having eight marks in A Bird in the Hoof and Putting Your Hoof Down, but twelve marks in Hearts and Hooves Day. In  Putting Your Hoof Down, the Ponyville tower is mentioned by a stallion tourist.

Cutie Mark Crusaders Clubhouse
The Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse is first seen in The Show Stoppers, when Applejack takes the three fillies to her old clubhouse in Sweet Apple Acres. She says it's "on a secluded, private part of the farm", but the Crusaders express their dismay at its decrepit state. Apple Bloom fixes the broken shutters, sands off the splinters, rebuilds the roof, and repaints the clubhouse. Later in the episode, the Crusaders practice their talent show routine in the clubhouse. The clubhouse is used again in Hearts and Hooves Day when the Crusaders make a card for their teacher, Miss Cheerilee. In The Mysterious Mare Do Well, Scootaloo heads a "Rainbow Dash Fan Club" meeting, which is attended by at least six ponies. The club house is decorated specifically for that event, with rainbow streamers and posters of Rainbow Dash on the walls.

Marketplace
The marketplace is shown in most episodes, primarily in Putting Your Hoof Down, Applebuck Season, Griffon the Brush Off, Swarm of the Century, Call of the Cutie, and Family Appreciation Day. In Putting Your Hoof Down, Fluttershy purchases vegetables from different stalls run by Earth ponies. Market stalls sell apples, pies, drinks, cooking utensils, books, and vegetables (corn, potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes being the most prominent). Applejack's family run their own stall cart, with at least one adult family member operating it to sell their apples. A stall selling soap is seen in Feeling Pinkie Keen.

Farms
The most prominent farm in the show is Sweet Apple Acres, being the central location of Applebuck Season and the first farm shown on the show, where Applejack and her family reside. Other farm land is shown in Winter Wrap Up, when all the Ponyville ponies are seen aiding in seeding the ground, and The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 when the Flim Flam brothers consider rebuilding Sweet Apple Acres' barn. In Spike At Your Service, Spike counts twenty-four million, five hundred and sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty seven blades of grass at Sweet Apple Acres. In the Cutie Mark Chronicles, it is shown Pinkie Pie grew up on a "rock farm".

Sugarcube Corner
Sugarcube Corner is a confectionery shop run by Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Pinkie Pie. The three bake cakes and pastries in preparations for Princess Celestia's visit to Ponyville in Swarm of the Century. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara's cute-ceañera takes place in the shop in Call of the Cutie. Although not specified on-screen, the show's creator confirmed that Pinkie Pie is an employee and tenant of the Cake couple, and rents the loft area of the building as her home.

The building's roof resembles that of a gingerbread house, complete with "icing" trim. Two upper stories house Pinkie's living quarters; they appear as a pair of stacked cupcakes, with candles on the upper one. Posts on either side of the front door have red and white candy-cane stripes. The front door leads into the shop area for customers, while the back door leads into the kitchen. The brick chimney is stylized into purple rock-candy pillars which appears to project from the roof, and a sign with a picture of a cupcake hangs from one corner.

Day Spa
A day spa, first featured in Bridle Gossip, is apparently run by the spa ponies, one of whom, Lotus Blossom, speaks with an accent. The spa can be seen during long shots as being on the perimeter of the town square, next to the joke shop. In Feeling Pinkie Keen, ponies are seen having their own bath tubs. In Bridle Gossip, Lotus Blossom asks Zecora for her recipe for a bath.

At the beginning of Green Isn't Your Color, Rarity apologizes to Fluttershy for being late to one of their weekly get-togethers, and requests "the usual" regimen from the Spa ponies. The spa makes a brief appearance in A Friend in Deed, when Pinkie Pie brings Cranky Doodle Donkey for a makeover in an attempt to win his friendship. In Ponyville Confidential, the six main ponies and Spike are at the spa when they discuss the latest "Gabby Gums" column in the Foal Free Press.

Golden Oaks Library
The main reading room is on the ground floor, and Twilight and Spike live on the second floor. There is a basement where Twilight performs her measurements on Pinkie Pie in Feeling Pinkie Keen. The building itself is a large, hollowed-out tree, which Twilight says in Look Before You Sleep is protected from lightning by a magical lightning rod. In The Crystal Empire - Part 1, Twilight magically rips the entire tree out of the ground, exposing its roots. The tree has a large beehive hanging from a branch, a candlestick sign on the front door (sometimes, an actual candlestick figure, depending on individual animation errors), a sign of an open book outside the door, and two balconies, one of which has a telescope.

In times of difficulty, Twilight often turns to her vast library to find answers. For example, in The Cutie Pox, Twilight pulls out a book called Perplexing Pony Plagues to diagnose Apple Bloom's case of "Cutie Pox". When Twilight and Spike are searching for a way to eradicate the Pinkie Pie clones in Too Many Pinkie Pies, Spike discovers a horseshoe-shaped button hidden in the back of a bookshelf. Upon pressing it, a secret compartment containing the desired book is revealed.

According to Lauren Faust, Golden Oaks Library was originally called "The Tree of Knowing".

Carousel Boutique
Rarity's boutique, in which she makes dresses for customers and friends, also doubles as her home. Rarity does most of her designing in the main workroom on the ground floor of the building. The room is stocked with materials and supplies such as mirrors, dress form mannequins, and movable screens. In Sisterhooves Social, Sweetie Belle and Rarity make breakfast in a kitchen on the ground floor. Sweetie Belle also enters the laundry room and makes use of a clothesline that is strung up outside. She also accidentally cleans Rarity's "inspiration room" that Rarity uses to design new outfits. This room also contains a bed. In Suited For Success, Rarity's bedroom, which is on the upper floor, serves as an additional work area for personal projects. The diamond on the lower half of the front door flaps open, presumably for Opalescence's use as a cat flap. Sweetie Belle also uses the flap in Hearts and Hooves Day.

Outfits for sale at the boutique include wedding dresses, as seen in Hearts and Hooves Day. At least two fashion celebrities have visited Carousel Boutique; the first one is Hoity Toity, who attends Rarity's second fashion show in Suited For Success. He is so impressed with her outfits that he places a rush order for six dozen, to be featured at his Best of the Best Boutique in Canterlot. The second celebrity is Photo Finish, who comes to the boutique in Green Isn't Your Color to take pictures of some of Rarity's dresses. Sapphire Shores, a famous pop music performer, stops in at the beginning of A Dog and Pony Show and orders six gem-encrusted outfits for her upcoming tour.

According to Lauren Faust, it was originally named "Carousel Couture" and an actual working carousel, the carousel horses serving as mannequins for Rarity's designs, but its design was rejected.

Costume shop
During the chase sequence in The Ticket Master, Twilight Sparkle and Spike disguise themselves and hide briefly in a shop window. The costumes shown include a clown, a hula dancer, and a Christmas themed outfit with a fake beard.

Bookshop
At the start of Griffon the Brush Off, Pinkie Pie comes across Twilight outside a bookshop while looking for Rainbow Dash. The sign above the door is shaped like a closed book, hung with its spine horizontal.

Bowling alley
At the start of The Cutie Pox, the Cutie Mark Crusaders visit a bowling alley in hopes of getting bowling cutie marks. They end up witnessing another foal gain his cutie mark in bowling. The building has the same interior features as a typical bowling alley. Pins, balls, and stars are mounted above the front entrance, and it has a sod roof and pin/ball doorposts.

Joke shop
When preparing for a series of pranks in Griffon the Brush Off, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash first visit Ponyville's joke shop, which resembles a jester's hat and has a sign shaped like a laughing pony's head in cap and bells, complete with an "arrow through the head" prop. The shop can be seen in long shots as located along the perimeter of the town square.

Soap stand
In Feeling Pinkie Keen, Twilight stops in front of a soap stand to give Pinkie her opinion on "Pinkie Sense." The crate outside gives Twilight the opportunity to literally stand on a soap box while she stands on her soapbox. The stall is a short walking distance from Sugarcube Corner and the library.

Café
In The Ticket Master, Twilight Sparkle and Spike go to a café for lunch. Plants on the table serve as appetizers. The café has both outdoor and indoor seating in the form of bales of hay and giant-sized mushroom tables. Twilight and Spike are attended by a waiter dressed in formal attire. The café's menu is adorned with a stylized "H".

Quills and Sofas
In Owl's Well That Ends Well, Spike approaches this shop for a quill and points out that the store only sells two things. The proprietor, Davenport, tells him that he will not have any more quills in stock until Monday, and then asks if he wants a sofa instead.

Hardware store
The Cutie Mark Crusaders visit the hardware store in The Show Stoppers to buy supplies for the talent show.

Mr. Breezy's fan shop
This is another location that the Cutie Mark Crusaders visit while acquiring supplies for the talent show in The Show Stoppers. The Cutie Mark Crusaders promise the shop owner that they'll return the fan.

Jewelery store
First seen in Hearts and Hooves Day when Apple Bloom takes Big McIntosh to select a ring for his marriage with Cheerilee, and then in Ponyville Confidential where the Cake family are shown shopping in there. In its latter appearance, the store occupies the same building as the joke shop.

Arcade machines
Three arcade machines and one arcade claw machine are seen in Hearts and Hooves Day.

Miscellaneous features
Applejack mentions in The Ticket Master that there is a road in Ponyville named Stirrup Street.

In Ponyville Confidential, Rarity describes a newspaper called the Ponyville Express as "boring" when compared to the Cutie Mark Crusader's Gabby Gums column.

Depiction in merchandise
The Ponyville library is the setting for the Discover the Difference game. It is called the "Golden Oaks Library", or variations of that name, by trading cards of the library and of Spike, by the Twilight Sparkle Animated Storyteller's storybook Welcome to Ponyville, by the chapter book Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, by the picture book Under the Sparkling Sea, by the Stuck On Stories storybook, by the Sparkle World magazine stories Christmas at Canterlot!, Spooky Slumber Party!, and Winter Wonderland!, by Treehouse TV's Friendship Express Train Contest site, by a Hasbro seminar, by the Swedish and German versions of My Sound Book, by a German magazine story, and by Electronic Arts' Hasbro iOS app Monopoly Hotels; the English version of My Sound Book instead calls it the "Golden Eagle Library", and the Club Hub area of The Hub's website instead calls it the "Books and Branches Library".

Gallery

 * Ponyville image gallery