Anvilicious: A good part of the time, anyway. While a few of the aesops were handled with surprising subtlety, most of them fell into this.
"Shop Talk" is made of the worst kind of this, namely that blackmail is the answer to all your problems.
"And the Winner Is..." teaches us that good fortune is something you should feel guilty over. If all your friends can't join you in something, it's better that nobody goes at all.
Audience-Alienating Premise: This is the reason the show flopped. Fans of the usually fantasy-themed My Little Pony franchise found the slice-of-life elements dull and cliché; while most Slice of Life fans couldn't get beyond the fact that the cast is all brightly-colored talking ponies. It's still a controversial topic in the MLP fandom decades later.
Awesome Ego: Melody is a cocky, somewhat self-obsessed party girl with aspirations of being an actress and musician. Smug though she may be, her spotlight episodes indicate she's actually got some considerable talent to back it up.
Awesome Music: "Sweet Music", the song Melody's band the Rockin' Beats perform in "Battle of the Bands". It's a sweet, catchy tune that carries meaning when the band's performance suffers without Melody. However, the song becomes even more awesome when Melody's twin sisters join in near the end the second time it's played.
Better on DVD: With the release of the entire series on DVD, some fans have come to appreciate the series better after being able to watch it straight through and picking up on consistent details most might miss when watching the episodes independently, such as:
Bon Bon being the only member of the cast to get motion sickness consistently rather than whoever fits the joke best.
Patch having a talent and enjoyment of construction.
Teddy overcoming his fear of water in "Blue Ribbon Blues" becoming a major plot point in a later episode "Happy Birthday Sweetheart!".
Bon Bon's diary is introduced very early in the show, long before it becomes a plot point in several episodes late into the season.
Perhaps most importantly, that the season finale having the entire town be flooded due to being reckless and inconsiderate about how they disposed of garbage was actually done multiple times throughout the series rather than just suddenly introduced in that episode.
Broken Base: Many fans who loved the previous fantasy good-versus-evil themed episodes of My Little Pony and Friends cried out They Changed It, Now It Sucks!; there's also the Anthropomorphic Shift. Other fans however were indifferent and there are a few who liked it, aside from drawing fans of Slice of Life programming to the franchise.
Common Knowledge: No, Tales is not part of My Little Pony's Generation 2. It is part of Generation 1, albeit taking place in a different continuity than the one that started with My Little Pony TV Specials.
Cult Classic: Tales has the smallest My Little Pony fanbase. However, its fanbase is rabidly devoted.
Don't Shoot the Message: "Shop Talk" aims to teach that spreading false rumors is wrong, but motivation by revenge and blackmail is the only way it can be stopped.
Although everyone has their favorite of the seven girls, Patch tends to be the most notable. The single tomboy of the group, fun-loving, and the sheer amount of weird things that keep happening to her have some fans convinced her past might have been explored more if a second season had been made.
Clover's sister, Meadowlark. Likely because of her Cool Big Sis persona and the only sibling dynamic to get fleshed out in the series. She appeared in all of two episodes, and it's common to hear fans wish they could have gotten to see more of her.
Among the boy ponies, Lancer since he's the kindest of the three and the most willing to be sociable with the girls.
Fandom Rivalry: Within the same franchise, to boot. As noted above, this incarnation of MLP draws ire from some fans of the previous And Friends incarnation. Aside from that, fans of Tales are also locked in a cold war with certain brony sects (to be specific, the rabid ones who enjoy dissing anything not FiM). The latest shot fired by said bronies was taking pot-shots at the series' long-awaited DVD release in the reviews at Amazon. This was seen by many Tales fans as a particularly low blow.
Bon Bon’s dance partner in “Roll Around The Clock” is not given a name in the show itself. Fans seem to have settled on calling him Spinner, due to his spinning top symbol.
It is sometimes called Gen 1.5 by fans who are aware of that the show being animated Generation 2 series is a misconception.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The only plausible reason why two of the ponies from this series got a kiddie ride made after them and the show has seen home video releases in the UK and Australia. And in Australia's case, it was a complete release of all 26 episodes spread across 4 volumes. The series has had no toy releases for its home market, the U.S, and home video releases were long withheld until 2015 when other countries got them earlier.
In "Shop Talk", an annoyed Teddy kicks an apple tree, and all the apples fall down (a good deal of them right onto him, naturally). Fast forward to Friendship is Magic and this is the main method of apple harvesting used by Applejack's family. Able to harvest an entire tree in one kick? If he were in Friendship is Magic, Teddy would be legendary for his "applebucking" skills.
In the song from the same episode, Clover mentions Count Appaloosa as being Madame Percheron's fiancé. Friendship is Magic has a town by the name of Appleloosa which is a play on the breed of horse.
"Lets feed her to the volcano!"Explanation In the episode "Ponies in Paradise", Sweetheart has an Imagine Spot where a group of native ponies throw visiting ponies into an active volcano as a sacrifice.
This edit where Starlight is skating with Ace, the ice breaks, and Starlight falls into a fiery pit, is often used as a joking example on how dark G1 MLP was, along with the aforementioned volcano scene.
Moe: Sweetheart is caring, optimistic, and doesn't have a mean bone in her body. Her speaking voice is also easy on the ears.
Never Live It Down: The Boys, Boys, Boys song. Many people believe it to be an indicator of the show as a whole, despite it being a tiny part of the episode, has very little influence on the plot, and the girls learning to go against that mentality is how the episode ends.
Scouring the credits reveals that the singers were directed by Cathy Weseluck.
Melody would be Kelly Sheridan's first voice acting role, leading her into a prolific career in voice acting (even getting to return to the My Little Pony franchise 23 years later as Starlight Glimmer).
"Princess Problems" has the Happily Adopted Patch faced with the possibility of being taken away from her parents to live with the King and Queen in the Isle of Pony. Becomes a Heartwarming Moment when it turns out she isn't the long-lost princess; one of her friends from the town's orphanage is.
The song "Off You Go" from the episode "Gribbet". You try not crying, especially just after losing a pet, or giving away something of sentimental value to someone else.
Starlight being heartbroken when despite trying hard to impress him, Ace still won't give her the time of day.
The Scrappy: Ace is the most hated character for not only treating girls like crap and using them for his own purposes (only made worse by the fact that the show is aimed for girls) but for also being a Jerkass in general. Not helped is he's the only main character to not get a proper focus episode ("Just for Kicks" is a Starlight episode).
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Logan Barrington was inducted into the girls' club at the end of "The Tea Party". He never makes another appearance for the remainder of the series.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: One episode introduced mysterious pegasi (one of which introduces herself as Brightglow) and a Winged Unicorn whose bodies are noticeably brighter than the other characters and dotted with stars. The winged unicornnote which have also been called "unipegs", "pegacorns", or "alicorns" performs magic and they appear to know Patch. They are only seen for one episode, only to never be brought up again. Presumably this might have gotten a followup if there had been a second season. Still, it does make for good Fanfic Fuel.
Unintentional Period Piece: The "Jazzercise" in "Just For Kicks", the cassette player in "Stand By Me", the rapping in "Shop Talk" and the obvious parodying of MTV with PTV (which could possibly have been even further dated. New Ponies on the Block, anyone?).
Vindicated by History: More people like it more than when it was first released, as many now see the Slice of Life format as being groundbreaking.
Clover who shifts from being too lucky to Blessed with Suck. It's hard not to feel sorry for her.
Sweetheart in "Shop Talk" when Teddy accuses her of spreading rumors about his teddy bear. She clearly couldn't do anything to stop her friends, especially when Ace and Lancer hear about it. With everything that happens to her, you just can't help but give her a hug.
The King and Queen of the Isle of Pony lost their only foal, and for ten years had no idea if she was alive or dead, let alone where she was. They never gave up hope, though.
◊ is a popular image people like posting due to its infamous Off-Model animation.
