This is my childhood ^__^
When I was a child, me and my brother played with My Little Ponies. We had a lot of them, and we had made up an entire world that the Ponies populated. We didn't pay much heed to the official "canon" that was marketed but did our own thing, giving the Ponies personalities, families and all sorts of adventures. (I remember being so mad at the adults who said we were playing with "horses" - they were Ponies, and in my head that meant they were people, not some animals.)
This morning, I did what I had been thinking about for a while now and went down to the cellar and took my Ponies out of storage to have a look at them. They're all standing on my desk now, so many pieces of brightly colored plastic.
I found no less than 28 Ponies stuffed into a plastic bag, and just seeing them brings back all sorts of memories. I never had any imaginary friends, and though I fanned madly on things long before I had any idea what fandom was, I never created any self-insertions or original characters even in my head. What I did have was these Ponies, and they were my characters. All of them had personalities and quirks and stories of their own. It makes me so nostalgic. ^_^
Some of them I remember very clearly even now, but I am also very grateful to my child self for writing a list of all the families, which I also found in the bag. Otherwise there would be a few I wouldn't be able to place anymore. It's been many, many years since I saw them last.
It's funny about their names. Most of the Ponies had a name in English on the box, and most of the time, we simply used that. Sometimes we didn't know or even care what it meant. A few times I didn't like the box name, or there wasn't one, so I made something up. But because all the box names were in English, I tried to make something English-sounding up. Which in hindsight led to some pretty hilarious results.
In "canon", all of the Ponies that aren't clearly marked as male (big and hairy hooves) are meant to be female. But we didn't keep to that - most of mine were female, yes, but a few were male just because I felt they should be. And my brother's ponies were mostly male as far as I remember. Looking at it now, though - I sure put together a lot of heterosexual core families. Heh. :P
And the adventures... I remember far too little, but I do remember that the Ponies went around exploring strange places and fighting evil villains. The one story I remember best is the one that my brother and I drew illustrations of after playing it out - it involved an evil wizard and his henchmen: a pair of walking boots, a large balloon and a green slime (I believe we called it a "lump of diarrhea"). And there was a "darkness" that corrupted Ponies and turned them black and evil. There was also sword fighting action. Because obviously that's what Ponies do. ^_^
On to the Ponies!
The royal family! The queen, Diamond Flower. The king, Majesty. The prince, Moondancer. And the princess, Yoyo.
They were all magic-users. In our world, a horn was a sign of a male magic-user, and a diamond on the forehead was the sign of a female one. Yoyo's diamond is pasted on yay, because Ponies sold with diamonds on their forehead was a lot rarer than ones with horns. (We called them "Horn Ponies" (hornponnyer). Never "unicorns" (enhörningar).)
Trickles and Fireball and their kids, Starburst and Donkey. They also had two more kids, Blossom and Dangles, who belonged to my brother.
The long-legged one is Donkey - don't ask, because I have no idea what I was thinking when I named her. I do remember that she was adopted, and belongs to a races of Ponies that are much larger than usual. She's actually barely more than a baby, she just looks big.
Trickles and Fireball were the first Ponies I ever got, at a Christmas when I was... six, maybe? Tiny Me managed to spell "Fireball" as "Fagerbool" on the Pony list.
Kiss Brow and Tug and their kids, Pawi, Lickety Split and Stella.
Looking at the name now, I can't stop giggling at "Kiss Brow". What kind of a name is that? Either it was on the box, or I managed to make up it at random but - really weird. To Tiny Me, of course, it was just a name. And I don't think I ever figured out what it meant, or I wouldn't be so surprised when I look at it now!
Pawi, too, is a weird name, but that is indeed made up by Tiny Me. Doesn't look much like English to me today, but it has a 'w', so...
The Apple Delight family. Mamy, Blixten and the kids Dawer, Tio and Tictic. They had a second boy called Mito who belonged to my brother.
These were marketed as a family, and they fit too well together for me not to have them be a family. On the other hand, they came without names. "Mamy" is obviously my distortion of "Mummy", which was probably on the box. The dad got called "Blixten", which is the only time I gave a Swedish name to a Pony. The boy is "Dawer", and the girl "Tio" (not to be read as the Swedish numeral) - which are both Tiny Me doing pseudo-English again. The second girl, Tictic, didn't belong to the original family. Mamy and Blixten had another child, and apparently she turned out pink.
The Wing Ponies (vingponnyerna). Butterflies and her kids, Northstar, Bonty and Surprise.
Northstar and Bonty are twins, and the latter is a boy. His name is pseudo-English and not meant to mean anything. Surprise is the little sister. I remember getting her as a surprise present when my youngest brother was born (when I was seven). I was told what the box name meant, and found it amusingly appropriate.
In our world, the father of these kids actually existed, too - it was another Wing Pony called Peppermint that belonged to a friend of ours. Obviously they didn't live together.
Fladderponnyer! The one-winged one is Flitter. She lost one wing and then she couldn't fly. It was very sad. She had a twin called Flutter who belonged to my brother. The purple one is Snowdrop.
And the rest. Bushty (a magician with a nonsense name), Sundrop (who was very shiny), Stareye (who belonged to a different people than the other ponies and was a bit of an outsider) and Rony (who also belonged to a different people. She had a son, Bokony, who belonged to my brother).
This morning, I did what I had been thinking about for a while now and went down to the cellar and took my Ponies out of storage to have a look at them. They're all standing on my desk now, so many pieces of brightly colored plastic.
I found no less than 28 Ponies stuffed into a plastic bag, and just seeing them brings back all sorts of memories. I never had any imaginary friends, and though I fanned madly on things long before I had any idea what fandom was, I never created any self-insertions or original characters even in my head. What I did have was these Ponies, and they were my characters. All of them had personalities and quirks and stories of their own. It makes me so nostalgic. ^_^
Some of them I remember very clearly even now, but I am also very grateful to my child self for writing a list of all the families, which I also found in the bag. Otherwise there would be a few I wouldn't be able to place anymore. It's been many, many years since I saw them last.
It's funny about their names. Most of the Ponies had a name in English on the box, and most of the time, we simply used that. Sometimes we didn't know or even care what it meant. A few times I didn't like the box name, or there wasn't one, so I made something up. But because all the box names were in English, I tried to make something English-sounding up. Which in hindsight led to some pretty hilarious results.
In "canon", all of the Ponies that aren't clearly marked as male (big and hairy hooves) are meant to be female. But we didn't keep to that - most of mine were female, yes, but a few were male just because I felt they should be. And my brother's ponies were mostly male as far as I remember. Looking at it now, though - I sure put together a lot of heterosexual core families. Heh. :P
And the adventures... I remember far too little, but I do remember that the Ponies went around exploring strange places and fighting evil villains. The one story I remember best is the one that my brother and I drew illustrations of after playing it out - it involved an evil wizard and his henchmen: a pair of walking boots, a large balloon and a green slime (I believe we called it a "lump of diarrhea"). And there was a "darkness" that corrupted Ponies and turned them black and evil. There was also sword fighting action. Because obviously that's what Ponies do. ^_^
On to the Ponies!
The royal family! The queen, Diamond Flower. The king, Majesty. The prince, Moondancer. And the princess, Yoyo.
They were all magic-users. In our world, a horn was a sign of a male magic-user, and a diamond on the forehead was the sign of a female one. Yoyo's diamond is pasted on yay, because Ponies sold with diamonds on their forehead was a lot rarer than ones with horns. (We called them "Horn Ponies" (hornponnyer). Never "unicorns" (enhörningar).)
Trickles and Fireball and their kids, Starburst and Donkey. They also had two more kids, Blossom and Dangles, who belonged to my brother.
The long-legged one is Donkey - don't ask, because I have no idea what I was thinking when I named her. I do remember that she was adopted, and belongs to a races of Ponies that are much larger than usual. She's actually barely more than a baby, she just looks big.
Trickles and Fireball were the first Ponies I ever got, at a Christmas when I was... six, maybe? Tiny Me managed to spell "Fireball" as "Fagerbool" on the Pony list.
Kiss Brow and Tug and their kids, Pawi, Lickety Split and Stella.
Looking at the name now, I can't stop giggling at "Kiss Brow". What kind of a name is that? Either it was on the box, or I managed to make up it at random but - really weird. To Tiny Me, of course, it was just a name. And I don't think I ever figured out what it meant, or I wouldn't be so surprised when I look at it now!
Pawi, too, is a weird name, but that is indeed made up by Tiny Me. Doesn't look much like English to me today, but it has a 'w', so...
The Apple Delight family. Mamy, Blixten and the kids Dawer, Tio and Tictic. They had a second boy called Mito who belonged to my brother.
These were marketed as a family, and they fit too well together for me not to have them be a family. On the other hand, they came without names. "Mamy" is obviously my distortion of "Mummy", which was probably on the box. The dad got called "Blixten", which is the only time I gave a Swedish name to a Pony. The boy is "Dawer", and the girl "Tio" (not to be read as the Swedish numeral) - which are both Tiny Me doing pseudo-English again. The second girl, Tictic, didn't belong to the original family. Mamy and Blixten had another child, and apparently she turned out pink.
The Wing Ponies (vingponnyerna). Butterflies and her kids, Northstar, Bonty and Surprise.
Northstar and Bonty are twins, and the latter is a boy. His name is pseudo-English and not meant to mean anything. Surprise is the little sister. I remember getting her as a surprise present when my youngest brother was born (when I was seven). I was told what the box name meant, and found it amusingly appropriate.
In our world, the father of these kids actually existed, too - it was another Wing Pony called Peppermint that belonged to a friend of ours. Obviously they didn't live together.
Fladderponnyer! The one-winged one is Flitter. She lost one wing and then she couldn't fly. It was very sad. She had a twin called Flutter who belonged to my brother. The purple one is Snowdrop.
And the rest. Bushty (a magician with a nonsense name), Sundrop (who was very shiny), Stareye (who belonged to a different people than the other ponies and was a bit of an outsider) and Rony (who also belonged to a different people. She had a son, Bokony, who belonged to my brother).