All the Ponies in All the Wikis in All the World... · 2:40pm Jan 23rd, 2021
Blog Number 130: MLP Wikia Edition
Here's a useful resource: every pony on the show, listed according to importance (core cast, major cast, family, background named, background unnamed), with notes on when they appear and what they do.
More details below!
This one seems familiar, somehow...
Don't know how many of you are aware of this resource, but I think it's worth highlighting, just in case. The links above are generic guidance, whereas these are the specific lists. Here, take a look:
- https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ponies/Alicorn_ponies
- https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ponies/Earth_ponies/Mares
- https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ponies/Earth_ponies/Stallions
- https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ponies/Elders
- https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ponies/Foals
- https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ponies/Pegasus_ponies
- https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_ponies/Unicorn_ponies
That's right: "Earth Ponies" is so big, it gets two lists. My theory that they're the most family-oriented tribe (i.e. breed like rabbits) is gaining ground! 
And that's not including Crystal Ponies, merely mentioned ponies, non-pony characters, and Equestria Girls characters. I haven't even considered all the creatures.
Apparently, "living apples" are an actual species in Equestria.
It's a handy treasure trove of trivia, especially for those of us prospecting for rare or unusual characters to flesh out or even give a name to! (And for those of us speculating why certain ones get character tags here while others don't). I use it often, and I highly recommend it. 
It's also a great place to scavenge screenshots and ID images, for when you just get the urge to pony up a blog post!
Just, you know...
...don't overdo it.
That's all for now! Impossible Numbers, out.
Only because of a moon rock irradiated with magic from Celestia and Nightmare Moon's battle a thousand years ago. That comic was fun... in concept. In practice, it was a hair-tugging exercise in frustration and nerfing the entire cast to justify the plot.
But yeah, that wiki is an incredibly valuable resource. I mostly use it for double-checking episode transcripts and seeing what obscure offshoots of the comics I might have missed.
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Oh, that old story.
Funny thing is, most of what I know about the comics comes from there. It's inevitable when the characters you're looking up get bit parts in them, to be fair. But I haven't actually read any, myself. Maybe I should correct that...
Yeah, it's surprising how often specific wording in a transcript isn't exactly how you remember it. I've been caught out like that a few times, which is why the wiki is so useful (checked against the actual episode clips, of course; the wiki's not run by superhumans).
Other thing I quite like about the character pages is the detail given on other merchandise. I've gained some useful characterization ideas just from reading toy descriptions. You'd be surprised.
It is indeed an amazing resource! I’ve used it a ton over the years cross-referencing character interactions, finding obscure OC’s that fit a particular story’s needs, or just getting base images for cover art. Charm and Noteworthy’s appearances in my stories are a result of that, as is this tracking of Soarin’s career.
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If I listed the stories where I'd used the wiki for background characters, I'd basically be listing most of my output. For instance, the idea that Goldengrape is an incorrigible comedian (in My Princess, My Fool and Lure of the Flower) came from a few throwaway toy descriptions in his wiki article under "Merchandise".
One downside with background ponies in particular is that the wiki's sometimes a bit too obsessive. Not every appearance they make is useful, so it takes a while to find something juicy or workable. Although that said, the really obscure or rare ones don't always provide enough fanfic fuel, either.
Definitely an amazing resource, though. It's like an unofficial "fanfic bible".
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Haha, and to think I perused the same site, likely viewed some of the same images, and turned the same character into a quiet psychologist. Such is the magic of fan fiction
I’ve used this extensively when trying to come up with background ponies to fill in the blanks in some of my scenes. It is a very helpful resource, indeed.
And yet we never see Luna hugging the life out of this particular pony.
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Cue fanfic in which Princess Luna moonlights as a talking cat.
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Categorical Grant has regular cuddlefic contests. I’m sure someone could do something about this.
I use that site's list of characters a lot. If there's a background pony I want to use but don't know the name, if I need help tracking down which episodes they were in, if I need help with what their color scheme is (I'm colorblind, so this is a valuable resource to me), I can find all that. I even referenced the site exceedingly in one of my stories to show all the ponies who have an hourglass cutie mark.
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I don't know what you think, but I find some fan-made names (and occasionally a canon one) kind of disappointing and ill-fitting at times. For instance, there's a pegasus foal called "Princess Erroria" on there, purely as a gag name because of an accidental alicornification in one flashback. I remade it as a sort of in-universe mocking nickname (due to a Nightmare Night incident in which she dressed up and mispronounced her new name), but she's firmly "Alula" otherwise, which better fits the pegasus naming motifs.
This is the sort of thing I wouldn't mind trying one of the days. I'm already planning to make much of the fact that Amethyst/Sparkler and Rarity have the same three-gems cutie mark. It's one of those things that opens up opportunities for compare-and-contrast.
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The dumber fandom names I'll only use if I'm writing a dumb comedy and it fits. Otherwise, I just use an OC or pick a different character.
For me.... I consider myself lucky to have so many favorite female characters from G4 of MLP. x3
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We really are spoiled for choice, aren't we?
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Well what can I say? I'm always that one guy in any type of Fanbase that loves Female Characters solely on Design with personality being a secondary. X3
Excellent stuff, thank you for pointing at these lists. It's been a while since I've consulted these, but that's more due to my own activity level than any lack of usefulness.
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One of my favourite experiences is to go through a list of characters and say, "Ooh, that one! I wanna look at that one!" It really is a treasure trove of ideas.