This is the entire lore and story of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic seasons 1 to 7.
Disclaimer: This video will not cover the Equestria Girls movies and specials or the
2017 feature film, as both will be done in separate videos.
This video will also not cover the stories of the comics, other media or previous generations
of MLP as this video is only telling the contiguous story of the main show.
Let’s begin!
Long ago, there lived three tribes, the Pegasi, the Unicorns and the Earth Ponies.
Though the tribes were divided, they all depended on one another for survival.
The Earth ponies, who are attuned to the Earth, are known for their incredible strength, and
were tasked with farming crops for all the tribes.
In return, the Unicorns with their horns used their magic to raise and lower the sun and
moon every day, while the Pegasi with their wings used their flight to control the weather
needed to grow the crops.
Everything changed when mythical creatures called Windigoes arrived and started a massive
blizzard that destroyed most of the crops that the Earth Ponies had grown, causing a
famine across all the tribes.
A grand summit was held where each of the tribe leaders discussed what to do.
The meeting didn’t go too well as the leaders blamed each other for the cause of the blizzard.
The leaders and their number twos all decided that they were to find new land themselves.
Unbeknownst to them, all three tribes found the same plot of land and started to fight
for it drawing the attention of the Windigoes’ blizzard, which had been feeding off the fighting
and hatred of the tribes since the beginning.
The leaders had no choice but to seek shelter in a cave where their fights and hearts continued
to grow colder with the blizzard.
Eventually, the leaders were completely frozen in ice.
The tribes’ number twos fortunately saw how the fighting caused their leaders to freeze
and agreed to be friends with each other, igniting the “Fire of Friendship”, which
incinerated the Windigoes and melted the ice off their leaders and the land around it.
The three tribe leaders saw how harmony had conquered the coldness of hatred and grief,
agreed to share the land they found and named it “Equestria”.
Many years after the founding of Equestria, a powerful unicorn named Star Swirl was assigned
to be the mentor of the two newly crowned princesses of the land, Celestia and Luna.
The young princesses were powerful and supposedly immortal ponies known as Alicorns.
With a pair of wings and a horn, they had the ability of both flight and magic.
They offered to help raise and lower the Sun and Moon respectively every day to bring balance
to the land.
Meanwhile, dangerous creatures coming in all shapes and sizes threatened to take advantage
of the growth of the new pony nation.
Brothers Tirek and Scorpan were intent on stealing magic from Equestria.
However, Scorpan came to appreciate the ways of the ponies and urged Tirek to abandon their
plans to which he refused.
Scorpan soon alerted the princesses, who then sent Tirek to Tartarus, a place where ancient,
evil creatures are imprisoned.
Sirens Adagio, Sonata and Aria fed off ponies' negative energies to make their voices and
magic more powerful, with the intention of conquering Equestria with their songs.
A scholarly unicorn named Stygian brought together six of the land’s greatest heroes,
known as the Pillars of Old Equestria, to stop them, one of them being Star Swirl who
banished them to another world, believing their magic will cause no harm there.
Stygian, believing he could fight alongside the Pillars, took artefacts from each of them
to make copies, however the Pillars misunderstood his intentions as being selfish and out of
jealousy, and kicked him out for it.
Having been cast away from the group he assembled, the Darkness enveloped Stygian and he transformed
into a creature known as the Pony of Shadows.
The Pillars responded by sacrificing themselves, using a rock formation known as Ponhenge to
trap the Pony of Shadows in limbo.
Knowing this plan will trap themselves in limbo too, they infused a powerful seed with
their magic that will one day grow into a force that could protect Equestria in their
absence.
The Pony of Shadows was summoned by the Pillars to Ponhenge, and its magic caused all of them
to disappear into limbo, leaving behind each of the Pillars’ artefacts to be scattered
across Equestria, while the seed that the Pillars planted grew into a magical object
known as the Tree of Harmony.
Years later, the powerful and mischievous creature of chaos known as Discord turned
Equestria into his playground, ruling it in a state of unrest and unhappiness for the
ponies.
Celestia and Luna, having discovered the Tree of Harmony, retrieved six magical artefacts
contained within the tree known as the Elements of Harmony knowing it was the only way to
defeat Discord.
In a standoff against Discord, Celestia and Luna wielded the six Elements and defeated
him, turning him into stone.
But before his defeat, Discord planted several “plunderseeds” to steal the magic from
the Tree of Harmony and capture Celestia and Luna.
However, even without the Elements contained in it, the tree continued to have enough magic
to prevent the seeds from doing so.
At this point, we are now about 1000 years before the events of the show.
In the arctic north of Equestria, an evil unicorn named King Sombra took over the magical
Crystal Empire inhabited by the Crystal Ponies and enslaved them.
Celestia and Luna saw the suffering of the ponies in the north and so, overthrew and
then banished him into the ice but not before he was able to put a curse on the Empire that
caused it to vanish completely.
Over time, tensions between Celestia and Luna heated up.
Luna became jealous of her elder sister’s greater power and reign over the ponies, and
one night refused to lower the moon for the sun.
Despite Celestia’s reasoning with her, she demanded greater power.
The Darkness in Luna turned her into a wicked mare known as Nightmare Moon and started to
attack Celestia.
Celestia refused to attack back at her sister who she had been ruling with for many years,
but soon had no choice but to use the Elements of Harmony against her.
The Elements banished her to the moon for a thousand years, which Celestia dutifully
regrets.
This began the great Celestia-Luna rift.
Celestia took over Luna’s duty and raised both the sun and moon every day.
Every year, an event called the Summer Sun Celebrations was thrown to commemorate the
day of Luna’s banishment.
However, to Celestia, this day was one of great regret and sorrow.
Over time, ponies had begun to forget the time of an Equestrian diarchy, and Princess
Luna was forgotten from history.
Enter the Sonic Rainboom event, several years before the premiere, a young filly named Rainbow
Dash performed the first ever Sonic Rainboom while in a flight race, and as a result caused
her cutie mark to appear, setting in motion a chain of events related to her future friends'
cutie marks.
Cutie marks are symbols on a pony’s flank that represents the pony’s unique talents
and abilities.
It is naturally earned after a pony discovers his or her true talent.
In this case, Rainbow Dash got hers for flying extremely fast, which makes her talent being
an incredible flyer.
They are a pretty big deal in Equestrian culture.
Back to the timeline, in the capital city of Canterlot, a talented young unicorn named
Twilight Sparkle, with the help of Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom, passes her entrance
exam to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, gains her own cutie mark and becomes one of
Celestia’s pupils.
- Season One -
We’re now at the premiere, the point where Friendship is Magic begins.
Twilight Sparkle, now one of Princess Celestia’s most faithful students, stumbles upon a book
on “Predictions and Prophecies”.
Twilight discovers that the “Mare on the Moon” will return “on the longest day
of the thousandth year” and bring about everlasting night.
Twilight writes a letter to warn Princess Celestia, but Celestia soon replies back to
tell her to focus on making friends and to help out at this year’s Summer Sun Celebrations
held in Ponyville the next day.
She travels to Ponyville along with her trustworthy baby dragon assistant Spike to check on preparations
for the celebration and meets Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow
Dash who have all done their duties for the celebration.
However, during the celebration, it is found that Celestia has been captured, and the menacing
Nightmare Moon returns, showing herself in front of everypony and executing her plan
for eternal night.
Twilight Sparkle, upon seeing Nightmare, returns to “Predictions and Prophecies” to find
that defeating Nightmare Moon requires one to possess the Elements of Harmony, currently
hidden in the Everfree Forest.
She plans to seek the Elements herself, only to find Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy
and Rainbow Dash following along with her.
Together they faced obstacle after obstacle, with everypony using their unique abilities
to pass each one.
When the six ponies finally find and recover the Elements, Nightmare Moon arrives and destroys
the Elements right in front of Twilight.
Then, a spark ignites in Twilight, finally realizing that the spirits of the Elements
of Harmony are embodied within the five friends she made including herself, each representing
a certain aspect in friendship, namely Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty and
only when those five elements are present does the sixth element appears, Magic.
The Elements are reborn as gems on necklaces, except Magic, which is forged on a crown.
The Elements, wielded by the six ponies, create a rainbow-colored blast of magic that vanquishes
Nightmare Moon, returning her to her original form, Princess Luna.
Celestia returns with the sunrise and explains that Twilight had the magic to defeat Nightmare
Moon when she let true friendship into her heart.
It is then revealed to them that Princess Luna is Princess Celestia’s long lost little sister.
Not wanting to leave Twilight’s newly made friends behind, Princess Celestia assigns
Twilight a new mission to learn as much about friendship as she can in her new home in Ponyville,
which Twilight accepts.
From then on, Twilight lives in Ponyville’s Golden Oak Library.
Together, Twilight and her friends are known as the Mane 6.
Twilight begins learning about friendship, sending letters to Celestia
about her findings.
She saw the birth of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a group of three young ponies who had yet
to earn their cutie marks on a mission to do what it takes to get theirs; A unicorn
named Trixie that boasted about defeating an Ursa with her magic, only for everypony
to find that she lied when a real Ursa invaded Ponyville and Twilight stepped in to put it
back to sleep.
She saw winter getting wrapped up by the ponies manually as tradition to prepare for the spring;
Rainbow Dash overcoming all odds performing her second Sonic Rainboom, and attending the
Grand Galloping Gala in Canterlot in an evening of unmet expectations and disaster.
- Season Two -
After a minor squabble between the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Discord is suddenly freed from
his stone state after a thousand years and returns to wreak chaos, turning Ponyville
into the chaos capital of the world.
The Mane 6, upon overcoming the challenges Discord has placed, defeats Discord and traps
him in stone again with the Elements of Harmony.
Twilight, along with her friends, continue learning about friendship, sending letters
to Celestia.
Queen Chrysalis, the leader of the dangerous creatures that feed on others’ love called
Changelings, infiltrates Canterlot and takes Princess Cadance's place in her wedding with
Twilight Sparkle’s older brother, Shining Armor, by using a changeling’s unique ability
to disguise as any other being.
Twilight eventually finds the original Princess Cadance trapped in a dungeon and frees her,
which brings Chrysalis to reveal herself during the wedding.
Chrysalis and Celestia have a standoff, while Twilight and her friends go get the Elements
of Harmony.
Though they had an epic fight, they eventually lost.
However, with the power of love that the real Princess Cadance brought to Shining Armor,
they banished all the changelings including Queen Chrysalis to lands far away in one fell swoop.
They get married afterwards.
- Season Three -
The Crystal Empire reappears after vanishing for a thousand years.
King Sombra, in a weakened shadow form, attempts to regain control.
Twilight is sent to the Crystal Empire to help save it as part of a test by Princess
Celestia, and her friends accompany her.
After setting up a Crystal Fair to raise the spirits of the Crystal Ponies, Twilight finds
the Crystal Heart, an ancient relic that protects the empire from the heavy snow of the north
and sends Spike to deliver it.
With the Crystal Heart in place, the Crystal Ponies use the "love and light within" them
to defeat Sombra.
Princess Cadance is recognized as the "Crystal Princess" and rules the empire with her husband
Prince Shining Armor.
As a request by Princess Celestia, Discord is freed once again from his stone prison
to be reformed, so that his magic can be used for good instead of evil, a feat which Fluttershy
accomplishes, and Discord is now friends with the ponies.
(flutter yay)
Twilight Sparkle receives a book from Princess Celestia, which is said
to contain Star Swirl’s secret unfinished spell.
This spell, which Twilight casts, unknowingly switches her friends cutie marks, causing
them to question their destiny.
Twilight, knowing she needs to fix this, assembles them and cures them one by one.
Through the adventure, Twilight finally finishes the secret spell and creates new magic.
This new magic is of course, friendship, in which Star Swirl was unable to accomplish
long ago.
The creation of this new magic, earns her a new title of Princess, and becomes an Alicorn
in the process.
- Season Four -
The Summer Sun Celebrations in Canterlot is suddenly disrupted when the plunderseeds that
Discord planted a millennia ago begin to sprout, invading Equestria and capturing Princess
Celestia and Princess Luna.
Twilight, upon drinking a time travelling vision potion, sees the Tree of Harmony.
Twilight and her friends return the Elements of Harmony to the Tree of Harmony and destroy
the plunderseeds, releasing Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in the process.
The tree however, sprouts a chest that has six locks for six keys.
Celestia and Luna are unsure of how to open it, but tells Twilight that she’ll definitely
need her friends to help unlock the chest.
Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack eventually find their keys while
helping other ponies discover their element of harmony.
This leaves one key left for Twilight to discover.
One night, Tirek’s escape from Tartarus was seen in Celestia’s vision and so she
elects Discord to stop him.
This plan backfires however, as Discord betrays the princesses and allies with Tirek in his
plan to steal all of Equestria’s magic.
The princesses know that stealing alicorn magic will be Tirek’s ultimate goal and
so they transfer all their magic to Twilight, since Tirek is unaware of the new princess.
Twilight, who now has the magic of four alicorns, goes into hiding.
Tirek eventually finds out about Twilight and seeks to find her.
Tirek then betrays Discord while Twilight continues to practice with her new powers.
However, she stumbles upon Tirek while teleporting.
Twilight and Tirek engage in an insane magic duel that leads to the destruction of the
Golden Oak Library and pretty much the landscape outside Ponyville.
Tirek then offers Twilight a trade of releasing her imprisoned friends for all the magic in Equestria.
Twilight agrees despite her friends' protests.
Discord, repentant of his actions, gives a medallion given to him by Tirek to Twilight
as a sign of true friendship.
Believing this to be the final key needed to open the chest, Twilight and her friends
race to the Tree of Harmony and unlock the chest.
The unlocked chest gives Twilight and her friends new “Rainbow Power” that derives
from their friendship and defeats Tirek as well as bringing everypony’s magic back.
The chest then flies into the sky and implants itself in a spot near Ponyville.
The chest then grows into a new castle.
The new castle is now Twilight’s, now crowned as the “Princess of Friendship” by Celestia.
- Season Five -
In the Castle of Friendship, the Mane 6 discovers a map containing all of Equestria.
The map summons all of them to a small village that housed ponies with equal signs as their
cutie marks.
All of this is the work of Starlight Glimmer, a unicorn who believes true friendship is
achieved through everypony being equal.
As such, she replaces the Mane 6’s cutie marks, imprisoning and brainwashing them until
they accept their new equal fate.
Starlight is then revealed to have not been equalized, and so the entire village goes
after her and their old cutie marks.
Seeing her plan foiled, she runs away with the mane 6’s marks already in her possession
only to be stopped by the unique talents of the newly recovered villagers, allowing the
Mane 6 to get their cutie marks back.
After Twilight’s failed attempt at trying to reason with her, Starlight escapes into the caves.
The village is restored and the inhabitants live happily together with their new marks.
The map signals a job well done.
The map continues to summon various pairs of the Mane 6 to various locations to solve
the friendship problems of not just ponies, but all sorts of creatures across Equestria.
At the same time, the roots of the destroyed Golden Oak Library are now hung up on the
ceiling of the new castle as a memoir of how far they have come.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders eventually get their cutie marks at the exact same time in helping
others find their purpose in life and Princess Cadance and Shining Armor announce that they're
having a baby.
Starlight Glimmer seeks to take revenge on Twilight by travelling back in time with the
help of an ancient spell to stop the first Sonic Rainboom from happening.
As a result of Starlight's interference with history, several alternate timelines are created
that were filled with war, suffering and darkness.
Starlight reveals in her backstory that it was because of her old best friend Sunburst
getting his cutie mark that she didn’t get to see him again and wanted to develop a society
where no one will be judged by a cutie mark.
Twilight reasons with her, Starlight is reformed and becomes Princess Twilight’s first pupil.
- Season Six -
Princess Cadance gives birth to Flurry Heart, the first naturally-born Alicorn in Equestria.
The Mane 6 and the royal sisters travel to the Crystal Empire to help with the new baby’s
“Crystalling” when suddenly Flurry Heart breaks the Crystal Empire’s Crystal Heart
and the empire is once again vulnerable to the snow of the arctic north.
Meanwhile, Starlight reunites with Sunburst.
Upon being notified of the enveloping snow, Sunburst and Starlight brings to the rest
a spell to fix the Heart and with the magic of the princesses, Sunburst and the rest of
the Crystal Empire, the Crystal Heart is restored along with the Empire.
Soon, a rogue changeling is discovered in the Crystal Empire which causes the whole
city to be under lockdown.
Spike eventually finds the starving changeling named Thorax and learns that he is nice and
different from the other changelings.
Spike eventually persuades the Crystal Empire to accept the changeling into the family and
succeeds.
Starlight continues her apprenticeship under Twilight, adapting into her new life and making
new friends such as Twilight’s old rival Trixie.
While Starlight and Trixie were away from Ponyville, Queen Chrysalis returns with her
army of changelings, effectively capturing all of the most powerful ponies in Equestria,
leaving Starlight with only Trixie, Thorax and Discord to rescue them from the Changeling Hive.
Discord and Trixie fall into the changelings’ traps and are captured while Starlight and
Thorax make it into the throne room only to come face to face with Chrysalis.
Chrysalis proceeds to drain the love from Thorax that he has collected from the Crystal Empire.
Starlight instead tells him to share it with Chrysalis willingly.
This transforms Thorax into a new colorful form.
The other changelings follow suit, sharing love instead of stealing it and take on similar
colorful forms.
The resulting magical energy destroys Chrysalis’s throne, and the ponies that the changelings
captured are all freed.
While the changelings changed, Chrysalis did not and rejects Starlight’s offer to reform
and swears inconceivable revenge upon her before flying away.
- Season Seven -
Starlight, Trixie, Discord and Thorax are awarded “Pink Hearts of Courage” by Twilight
for their heroism during the changeling invasion and Starlight graduates from being Twilight’s
student but continues to stay in Twilight’s castle.
Sunburst discovers Star Swirl’s lost journal in an antique store in Ponyville and learns
that Star Swirl and the Pillars are still trapped in limbo and alerts the Mane 6 and Starlight.
Without much thought, they gather the artefacts of the Pillars to Ponhenge and free Star Swirl
and the Pillars, as well as the Pony of Shadows from limbo.
(facehoof)
Twilight soon finds a spell that could send the Pony of Shadows back to limbo
without sacrificing the Pillars using the combined magic of the Pillar’s artefacts
and the magic of the Elements of Harmony contained from the Tree that grew from the seed the
Pillars have planted.
The whole team goes to find the Pony of Shadows and opens the portal.
While the Pony the Shadows is being pushed into the portal by the magic of the artefacts
and Elements, Twilight sees Stygian’s true form within the darkness and flies inside.
Twilight finds Stygian despairing over his friends' betrayal and only wanted their respect.
He explains his motives behind taking their artefacts and the Pillars overhear their conversation,
realising their misunderstanding.
The Mane 6 and The Pillars of Old Equestia work together to pull Stygian from the darkness
with their magic and the darkness gets sucked into the portal to limbo.
Soon, Star Swirl is reunited with his old pupils, Celestia and Luna, and The Pillars
decide to each see what has become of their old homes.
So that was MLP: Friendship is Magic Seasons 1-7 summarised.
This video was edited by daspacepony and voiced by JarrodFeng, do check out their channels
if you haven’t already.
If this video is well received we might get the Equestria Girls and MLP Movie summaries
out sooner!
So do stay tuned to this space!
Thanks for watching and see you all in Season 8!