Shiny Happy Sparkle Ponies (SHSP) were created on The Model Horse Blab! Their first appearance was in a thread started by Raventyde about the picture on the back of a Breyer Box. Once created, the stubborn things refused to get out of my head, and thus a world was born!

SHSP are a blatant parody of a multitude of cartoon shows from the 1980’s. Each group of ponies (or villains) can be traced back to a specific show, or genre of shows. In these initial posts, I’m going to let y’all guess where they came from …but I’ll put up a full reference list on the website (as soon as it is finished).

The main parody is My Little Ponies, but they owe a lot of their underlying world to Rainbow Bright, Care Bears, and (scarily enough) Gummi Bears. There is even a little bit of Mary Stanton’s Unicorns of Balinor if folks are willing to dig deep enough!

So here are the basics of the SHSP world (so that the other bits will make more sense):

The Rainbow
When people in the Real World go to sleep they cross over The Rainbow into the Land of Dreams. They cross back again when they wake up (which is why sometimes you’ll wake up and feel like you’re falling.. you didn’t make it all the way over the Rainbow! ). The Rainbow has two ends, a Near End in the Real World (in WildWood Forest) and a Far End at the foot of Slumber Mountain in MorningStar Valley where the Sparkle Ponies live.

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The Near End of the Rainbow

WildWood Forest
Is where the Near End of the Rainbow touches the Real World. No humans go into the WildWood because it is full of magic and is guarded by the WildWood Ponies. The forest is on the western border of the Kingdom of Arcadia.

The Kingdom of Arcadia
Is a medieval-fantasy realm. Magic works here (because of the Rainbow) and the feudal society is rather pleasant, all things considered. Arcadia is ruled by a nameless King and Queen who live in the Castle Greystone. The have one daughter, named Amber, and a few hundred loyal subjects.

The Kingdom of Arus
Is ruled by Duke Vil Lain, while his brother King Alfor is off fighting a border war. Arus is along Arcadia’s northern border and has less magic because it is father from the Near End of the Rainbow.

Castle Greystone
Was built a hundred years ago by the great King Adam, and was made entirely from a mysteriously colorless grey stone. Hidden somewhere in Castle Greystone is the Rainbow Sword.

The Rainbow Sword
Was hidden in Castle Greystone by King Adam, who used it’s magical powers during the Dream Wars to force the Bad Dreams behind the Gate. No one had seen the sword in a hundred years, and it’s rumored that the sword can only be found by one of True Heart and True Need, and only that person will be able to wield it.

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The Far End of the Rainbow

MorningStar Valley
This is the valley on the Far Side of the Rainbow where the Sparkle Ponies live. The Valley is surrounded by the Mountains of Silence, which no Sparkle Pony has ever crossed. On the other side of the mountains to the west are the DarkWood and the Endless Plains.

Slumber Mountain
Is the tallest of the Mountains of Silence. At the foot of the mountain is the Gate to the Land of Dreams and the Sparkle Pool.

Sparkle Pool
Is used by the Sparkle Ponies as a scrying pool so that they can see other realms. Sometimes it tells the future, sometimes the past. Sort of a gamble, all things considered. This is also the pool where Sparkle Ponies are born. At the bottom of the pool are thousands of Sparkle Jewels put there by the Celestial Unicorn. When a new Sparkle Pony is needed, the Ponies will all gather around the pool and sing the baby awake. One of the jewels will rise from the bottom, do a nifty transformation sequence, and poof! Pony!

The Land of Dreams
Humans (when they are asleep) can pass safely through the Gate to the Land of Dreams, but no one else can. It is magically enchanted so that none of the Bad Dreams can escape. The Gate is in the side of Slumber Mountain which is at the Far End of the Rainbow.

The Key
There is a Key to the Gate that is hidden in the Endless Plains and guarded by the Emotiponies. If anyone uses the Key to unlock the Gate, all the Bad Dreams would escape and take over the Kingdom of Arcadia.

The DarkWood
The DarkWood used to be a normal forest on the edge of the Endless Plains. But during the Dream Wars not all of the Bad Dreams were trapped behind the Gate, some of the smaller dreams escaped and hid in the DarkWood. Over the years the forest has turned Bad and now it is slowly growing outward and taking over the Endless Plains.

The MirrorDark
Is the universe on the other side of the Mystic Mirror. Everything in that world is the mirror image of this one and it is ruled by Neeuq Krad and her evil Sparkle Ponies. The Star Ponies guard the Mystic Mirror and keep Neeuq Krad and her minions out of MorningStar Valley.

The Moon
Is where the Celestial Unicorn lives.