One of the most interesting things to me when talking to other pony collectors is hearing stories of how it all began. I would absolutely love to hear from anyone who has a My Little Pony memory! Please send me your stories and I will post them here. As for me, My Litte Pony was always such an important part of my life. I began collecting from the very beginning, and have never stopped. I had aquired about 250 ponies by the time they left the stores, even with my limited allowance. It was all I would spend my money on. My mother used to get so upset. Her favorite comment was "You're just throwing your money away! It's just like if you were to take you money and throw it out in the street!!" followed by an exasperated sigh. But she didn't realize how important they were to me. I grew up in a neighborhood without many kids around, so I didn't have many friends. My brothers and sister were years older from me and gone from home, and my parents divorced. So for years it was just Mom and me. Mom worked, so I was home alone a lot. I remember when I was very little I used to complain to her that I was bored, and she'd tell me sadly that I'd "just have to learn to entertain myself." For me, that's where the ponies came in.

My first pony was Peachy. I guess I was about 7 years old at the time. I think I was in third grade. (I was always younger than my classmates.) I spent my Christmas at my Grandparents with my Dad. Christmas morning, my Grandmother gave me her present. I tore the wrapping from the box with all the ferver of a child, and there, in my lap, was this toy called the "Pretty Parlor". I must confess I was not impressed. I had never heard of this toy before. My Little Pony? What was that? I had never heard of it. Well, the parlor thing was kind of neat. And I had always liked horses. I took Peachy out of her wrapping. I will never forget her smell as she came out of the box. I politely thanked my Grandma and set the whole thing aside, reaching for other presents. I was not all that excited about the Pretty Parlor. In fact, I was thoroughly disappointed. Over the next few days, I busied myself with all of my new toys. I played with Peachy a little bit at first, then a little bit more, then a little bit more. Before I knew what had happened, the Pretty Parlor was my favorite toy, and I loved Peachy with all my heart. I was converted. Throughout the rest of my vacation, I carried Peachy around with me all day, and slept with her at night. When I got home again, I begged my mother to take me to the store. I wanted to see if there were others of these "My Little Ponies". Sure enough, at the first store, there was a whole section of a wall filled with Fireflys and Medlys. How had I missed this? How had I managed to never hear of My Little Pony? I was speechless. And not just ponies, but unicorns and pegasi, too! I picked out a pony off the shelf and looked at the back of the card. Immediately, I fell in love with Glory. I had to have her. I wanted them all, but Mom said only one, and I wanted Glory to be that one. But the store we were at had no Glorys. I would have settled for Moondancer at that point, but there were no Moondancers either. We went to every toy store in the town over the next couple of weeks, but there was not a Glory or Moondancer to be found. My mother must have seen how discouraged I was, and how badly I wanted those two unicorns. We finally special ordered both of them at a little shop called "Ralph's Toys and Hobbies". Then Mom asked if I wanted to get a couple of the others while we were there. Oy! She needn't have asked! I immediately picked out Firefly and Medly. Four ponies in one day! Well, I had to wait for Glory and Moondancer to come in, but still! I was ecstatic! I made a great ceremony of opening the pegasi. Firefly got opened first. I had wanted Glory to be my "first" pony, but Firefly would do. A couple of weeks later Ralph's called us to say my unicorns were in. I was so excited! I made my mother go that very night, as soon as she came home from work. We walked into the store, my eyes bright. I looked behind the counter, and there they were, sitting on the shelf. They were even more beautiful than I had imagined. My mother, in an unusually generous mood, also allowed me to pick out two more ponies, so Twilight and Sunbeam came home with me that day, along with the much anticipated Glory and Moondancer. I love my mother. From then on, I was hooked. It was not much longer that Applejack joined the herd. Then came Bow-Tie, Bubbles, and Seashell. I had them all. I was so proud of my little collection! I bragged that I had every MLP at school one day. My world crashed down when another girl Megan, whom I really didn't like, stated she did too, along with the original six. I pretended to know what she was talking about, but I was confused. What original six?? Apparently there were six ponies before my set that I had not known existed! Well, I didn't have every pony after all. I got over it, and went on collecting, but I was always sad that I had missed those original six. Happy was the day my mail order collector ponies came!

It must have been about that time that the My Litte Pony TV special came on. How I loved that cartoon!! I used to replay it with my herd, over and over, defeating that evil Tirek again and again. Enter the rainbow ponies. They were so beautiful with their rainbow colored hair! I wanted them. All of them. I begged my mother. I promised to do all sorts of horrible extra chores. Finally she caved in and bought me Windy, but I was not allowed to open her until I finished those promised chores. I took her out of the bag and stared at her all the way home from the store. Poor Windy! Stuck inside that plastic, and I couldn't open her and save her! It occured to me that the evil Tirek had imprisoned her in that plastic bubble. I had to save her from him! I did my extra chores quickly, and was finally able to open Windy and rescue her from that awful prison. From then on, in my mind, (just playing, mind you) any pony that was not in my herd was still in the clutches of Tirek and needed to be saved. There are still many ponies out there that need to rescued and placed safely in my herd! Please help me rescue these poor ponies! For more information, click here.

Over the summer, the first mail order My Little Pony was offered. Ember, from the MLP TV special, was offered in three different colors. You could order her in lavender, pink, or baby blue. I thought, how silly! Ember was not three different colors in the cartoon! Of course I wanted her. She was the only baby pony! But I couldn't decide which one to get. I wanted the "real" Ember. But it had been so long since I had seen the cartoon, I couldn't remember exactly what color Ember was. Was she lavender or baby blue? I knew she was not pink. Better get all three just to be safe. So I did. After they came, I still couldn't decide. But I was pretty sure it was the blue one. So I called her Ember. The pink one I named Feather. The lavander one I can't remember what I called. I think I called her Lavender. As soon as I saw the cartoon again and realized she and not the blue one was Ember, their names changed. I really don't have a name for the blue one now.

That fall was birthday time for me. What did I ask for? Ponies of course! The day of my birthday, I was walking home from school with my best friend. Near her street was an irrigation canal. It crossed under the main road. We used to make wishes on that canal. We'd go to the one side, pick a flower, and wish on it. Then we threw the flower into the water. We had to rush to the other side of the road to see it come out the other side. If we missed it, our wish got lost, and we'd have to go back and start over. This day was a special day. It was my birthday and I wanted to make a special wish. I loved my baby ponies. I thought it would be so neat to have more baby ponies. I could just imagine baby unicorns with tiny horns and baby pegasi with little wings. So I picked a flower, wished for baby unicorns and baby pegasi, and threw my flower in the water. I watched it come out the other side and float away. And wouldn't you know it? Not long after, Hasbro began making babies with little horns and tiny wings. My wish came true! (Come to think of it, every wish I made on my birthday at that canal came true. Hmmmm....) For Christmas that year, I got Baby Glory (of course), Baby Cotton Candy, and Baby Surprise. And I was right! Those little horns and little wings were absolutely adorable!

Along with the ponies I remember getting are the ponies I remember not getting. My cousin was visiting us for a while. She was quite a bit older than me. She took me to the store with her once, and I longingly looked at the ponies. I really wanted Sparkler. She was such a pretty unicorn! (Have you guessed by now that the unicorns were my favorites??) My cousin offered to buy her for me. Thus began an internal struggle. I really wanted Sparkler. But I felt I would be taking advantage of my cousin. (How old was I? 8? 9? Does this sound like a normal child's thought process to you??) She didn't have to buy me a pony. I felt really guilty that she would spend money on me. So, reluctantly, I told her "That's okay," and we left the store. To this day, I have not managed to get a Sparkler. I could kick myself now. Why couldn't I have just let my cousin do something nice for me and get me a pony that I really wanted? (Update, August 98: I have just managed to find an absolutely perfect Sparkler in a thrift shop! Yay!) My other big regrets were North Star and Baby North Star. I loved the first tooth babies, and Baby North Star was one of the cutest! But I didn't have the mother. I hemmed and hawed for a long time on those two ponies. I really, really wanted them, but.... but what? I don't know. One day, in Shopko, I decided O.K.! I'll get them! I knew it wouldn't be much longer that North Star would be in the stores. So I picked out mother and baby, put them in my cart, and continued around the store with my mother. I don't remember why I decided to put them back. I think I thought if I could get them that day, I could get them another day. But when that other day came, North Star was gone from the stores. I've kicked myself many times over the years. I had them both in my cart and I put them back! What was I thinking? Over the past few months, however, I have managed to get a very nice North Star, a perfect Baby North Star, and an absolutely beautiful Non So-Soft North Star! Finally, that childhood regret can be put to rest. The other pony I regret most is Dainty. For a long time during my high school years, I decided very sadly that I was just too old for ponies and quit collecting them. Silly me. I missed a lot of ponies during that time. Then, the Sweetheart Sisters were created. I thought that they were the prettiest ponies ever made! They had those long slender legs, delicate features, came in beautiful colors, plus lace ribbons! IMO, Dainty was the prettiest of all. I brooded over them for a long time. I had quit collecting ponies, right? I was too old to be buying toys. But they were so pretty! Then they started leaving the stores, and I panicked. I gave in. I had to go around to a lot of stores to find any that were left, but sadly, there were no more Daintys to be found. The one I wanted most, and I never found her. I have yet to get her. She is probably the highest priority pony on my want list, but I'm so picky! I want her to be perfect. And I want her purple lace ribbon. Maybe someday....

I have other regrets. I was always meticulously careful with my ponies. I never let my friends play with the curly haired ponies. They just didn't know how to brush the hair and not lose the curl! I took very good care of my ponies. I look at some ponies today and cringe when I see haircuts and pen marks. Poor things! But even I made mistakes. The day I got Lickity-Split, I was so happy! She was so beautiful, I just couldn't put her down. She had soft, pink, curly hair--the kind that had the fiber optic effect at the ends. Well, that day, I took her with me to the local water park. I had a blast playing with her in the pools and down the slides. Little did I know what the chlorine was doing to my pony's hair. By the time I got home, her hair was pale and frizzy. The entire mane and tail were completely frizzed! I was horrified! I trimmed off the ends as much as I dared to, but it was no use. Her hair was ruined forever. Word to the wise: Never put your ponies in chlorinated water. The other pony I destroyed was Gusty. She was my very first so-soft unicorn. The first thing I did when I got her was run my fingers over her fuzzy horn. I absolutely loved her. Sometime later, I hauled out all of my ponies to the sand box and played out all 8 hours of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, my favorite movie. By the time I was done, poor Gusty was covered in sand, and it would not come out. My mother and I soaked her and scrubbed her for days in different chemicals. The result? Her flocking thinned and she was still brown. I gave up. No more was I able to enjoy the feel of her fuzzy horn. Word to the wise: Never put your so-soft ponies in the sandbox.

Besides the two ponies I runied, I am shamed to say there were two ponies I lost. The first was Tiny Bubbles, my first baby sea pony. I loved her because her colors were just opposite from Bubbles. One day, I packed a number of ponies in my backback to take over to my friend's house to play. Tiny Bubbles was one of them. I expressly remember putting her in my backback. I walked down the street to Janelle's. When I got there, I opened my backpack, and dumped out the ponies. Tiny Bubbles was not there. I still can't imagine how she managed to disappear between by house and Janelle's in a sealed backpack, but she did. I was horrified. Janelle and I backtracked my steps, scanning the road, and stopped at every house along the way asking if they had seen my pony. But no luck. She was gone. To this day I can pick out her float, sticker, ribbon, and comb. I have not managed to replace her. Yet. The other pony I lost was little pink Ember. I don't remember anything about losing her, except that one day she was there and the next she wasn't. I searched the house for her to no avail. I couldn't understand it. She was simply gone. I had just played with her the day before. About 5 years later, my mother came up to me holding little pink Ember in her hand and asked, "Is this one of your ponies?" I was shocked. I thought she was gone forever! I asked where she found her, and she showed me the spot. She had been hidden inside this old record player/coffe table thing that we had and were about to get rid of. Apparently Mom was cleaning it out in preparation to give it away. Then I remembered. I had been playing hide and seek with my ponies that day and hid "Feather" in that coffe table. Hmph. I guess it was a really good hiding place.

The best trade I ever made came sometime during grade school. I had been to a popular amusement park, the Lagoon in Utah, over the summer. While I was there I got one of those bracelets that were filled with water and glitter. Remember those? Anyway, my friend Janelle really wanted my bracelet, and she offered to trade me Pinwheel for it. Well! I agreed and we were both extremely satisfied with our bargain. Pinwheel became one of my most favorite ponies. To tell you the truth, I think I got the better end of the deal.

One day in sixth grade, I was playing on the playground and happen to spot Parasol lying on the ground. Huh. It must have belonged to one of the younger kids. With great care, I picked her up and brushed her off. I already had Parasol of course, but I could just imagine the pain some small child was going through. I know I would have been heartbroken to have lost my Parasol, or any pony. I turned her in to the lost and found, but she was never claimed. One week later, someone from the office carried her into my classroom and gave her to me. Apparantly, if it wasn't claimed in a week, the person who turned it in got to keep it. So there I was, in sixth grade, and I had a My Little Pony on my desk. My whole class snickered at me. Wasn't I a little too old to be playing with ponies? I tried to explain, but I was still embarrassed. From then on, I kept my pony playing very secret. Thus, Parasol was the first pony I got a double of. I remember feeling scared that I would lose a pony, and wouldn't be able to claim it. I wanted to have a way to identify my ponies. So, silly me, I went home and wrote my initials on the bottom of every pony's left hind foot in my collection. This went on for a few years. Every new pony in my herd got "branded". Thank goodness I stopped this practice after a while.

When I played with my ponies, I tended to put them in pairs. I called them "friends". Each pony in my herd had one special friend. Usually, the two were in the same mold. For insance, Love Melody and Quackers are friends. It's very rare that a pair of friends were not in the same pose. The exceptions were Glory and Moondancer, who went together in my mind, Sunbeam and Twilight, and Lickity Split and Cherries Jubilee. I think at the time, I just didn't have any other ponies in the same pose as LS or CJ. When the boy ponies came out, I created heards. (Remember, I'm a horse person.) Each herd had a stallion, a lead mare, and a bunch of other "lesser" mares. The lead mare got the title "queen". For the longest time, I only had two boy ponies. Before I got Love Melody, Slugger's queen was Glory, and Quarterback's queen was Quackers. Love Melody quickly replaced Glory as lead mare of Slugger's herd, though. Every baby pony who didn't have a true mother was adopted. All the adult mares would stand around in a circle, and the babies would parade around in front of them till they all had new mothers. Generally, the Queen and her stallion would adopt the most. Slugger and Glory's "family" consisted of (in order of age) Lucky, Baby Glory, newborn twins Puddles and Peeks, and teeny tiny twins Rattles and Tattles. That was my biggest family. Peachy has a special role. She is the "wise one". She's the oldest pony in the herd, and all the others go to her for advice.

I was never really in to collecting the sea ponies. There were two many others I wanted. My experiences with baby sea ponies were always troubled. My first was Tiny Bubbles, who, of course, was lost, never to be seen again. The next two I came accross were at a garage sale I was at with my mother. There, in a box of junk, lay Ripple and Sun Shower. I couldn't believe it! Two ponies at a garage sale! I had my heart set on them, and carried them around with me the rest of the time we were there. When we went to pay for them, the lady said, "Oh..... those are my daughters and I don't think she wants to sell them. They must have gotten in that box by accident." She checked with her daughter who immediatly came out and took them from my hands. I was very upset. I had already imagined them to be mine. My mom saw how disappointed I was, and took me to the store that night where she bought me a Ripple and Sunshower of my own. I love my mother. The only other baby sea pony I had was Celebrate. She came with the party gift pack. When it came out, I wanted it so much, and said that's what I wanted for Christmas. Mom said O.K. Christmas morning came and I was so excited! I looked for the box for the pary gift pack, but I couldn't see it. I thought it just must be buried. Well, I got through all my presents, Christmas morning was over, and no party gift pack. I was so sad, I actually started to cry. It wasn't that I was ungrateful for my other presents. I was very grateful, and I felt so guilty for crying. I was ashamed and didn't want anyone to see. But my mother saw and took me aside and asked what was wrong. At that point I lost control and sobbed, saying that I had wanted the party gift pack so bad, and she said she'd get it for me, and it wasn't there. She said, "Oh....", thought for a minute, disappeared into her bedroom, and brought out one last present all wrapped up. She apologized and said she just forgot it. It was the right shape...dare I hope again? I tore it open and there it was. Five new ponies with tons of birthday accessories. I love my mother. :o)

Christmas was a good time to get ponies. I used to write down on the calendar all my ponies' birthdays. Their birthday was always the day I got them. The only exception there was the birthflower ponies, who just had to have birthdays in their respecitve months! But by far and away, the most popular birthday was December 25th. On a pony's birthday, I would sleep with them that night. My bed Christmas night was always a mass of ponies! I quit that after a few years. I was always worried I'd ruin he ponies' hair.

Aonther memorable Christmas was the year Paradise Estate came out. The movie had come out that summer, and I made my mother see it with me. It got to the scene where the Moochick creates Paradise Estate. At that point, I leaned over to my mother in that darkened theatre and said, "They're going to make one of those, and I want it." Sure enough, PE hit the stores not long after. I was hoping to get it for Christmas. Mom couldn't afford it, but Dad was a different story... So that Christmas I was back at my Grandparents like usual, and my two closest cousins (agewise) and I played together. My Grandparent's house was really neat. The basement was deliciously spooky, with all sorts of "hidden passages" and "secret rooms". In reality, it was just unfinished. But there was one room that was really fun. It had one of those doors cut in half so you could open the top half and not the bottom half. Well, we were playing down there, got into that room, and lo! There is a Paradise Estate! Of course, we all wanted it, but I was hoping it was for me. Obviously someone thought to "hide" it down there, and didn't count on us finding it. We didn't know whether or not to tell anyone we found it. But I just had to know! Working up a few days of courage, I asked my dad if it were for me. He seems disgruntled that we had found it. He didn't say who it was intended for, but sounded like he might just decide to take it back. I quickly ended my plea and left. Now I was afraid if it was mine, Dad wouldn't give it to me anyway. But all my worries ended Christmas morning where we discovered a really big box with my name on it.

I got a lot of mail order ponies over the years. The worst experience was ordering the birthflower ponies. Of course, I had to have them all. Plus I wanted an extra January to give to my best friend for her birthday. Well, the 4-8 weeks or whatever passed, and they still hadn't come. I started to get nervous. If they didn't come soon, I would miss my best friend's birthday. We finally wrote a letter to Hasbro asking where they were, along with my plea of "I'll miss my friend's birthday!". (I think my mother's letter was a little more threatening.) A single January BP came a couple of weeks later, just in time. But where were the rest? They finally came a few weeks after that. All in all, it took about 5 months to finally get them. My favorite mail orders are the TAF babies. As soon as I saw them, I knew I had to have them! At the time, I only had Love Melody and Dancing Butterflies. After I ordered I found Sugarberry who was tailless, and a Miky Way who was maneless and hornless at a local thrift shop. Poor Milky Way. She looked horrible! I have managed to find a mint Mikly Way since though. I also managed to trade for Sweet Tooth and Up, Up, and Away. In a very short time, I had all six baby and adult TAF ponies. Baby Love Melody is, how'd you guess, my favorite. She is the princess of the entire herd and is betrothed to Lucky. I missed the pearlized babies. I was so upset! I was all set to send the order off, and then I saw the fine print: "Canadian Residents only." Ugh! I was SO mad! I've managed to get a couple of them, but I am still searching for the rest. Someday, I will have them all. I will, I will, I will!!

I have so many other memories of my ponies. So many images flash in my mind: I watched "The Golden Horseshoes" and immediatly painted the bottom of Mimic's hooves with sparkly nail polish. I used to pick out every pony I had in the My Little Pony movie and line them up to watch it on TV. Once I found TE Bright Eyes abandoned in a pool at the Lagoon and sadly gave her back to her owner. There's a tradition in our family that the last doll the mother gives the daughter is a Bride Doll--my mother gave me the Bride Pony instead. I remember dressing up all my ponies for beauty contests. I also remember that as careful as I was, my Firefly's and Bow-Tie's tails brushed out hair by hair until there was nothing left. So many memories, but they are all precious. And my ponies are precious to me. I would really love to read other peoples' memories. Please send them to me and I will post them! Thanks for reading this. May all your pony dreams come true!

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