G1 Cotton Candy has always been an easy to find pony, having been introduced in the first year of MLP and also included in the 2nd year. And from her introduction, children have tenderly hugged her and said, “Cotton Candy, what the heck are those things on your butt supposed to be?”
Most MLPs have symbols that are easily decipherable. Butterflies, stars, balloons, there’s even a baby pony with a racing car. We don’t know the minimum age for a pony to get a driver’s license, but we know what it is. But what is Cotton Candy’s symbol? I have seen people speculate: “bits of cotton”, “pieces of cotton candy”, and “rocks or pebbles.”
But the truth is her symbol a leftover artifact of the original plans for MLP. Bonnie Zacherle, creator of My Little Pony, originally envisoned the ponies as being gender-neutral preschool toys with “real horse” colors and patterns.
Then Hasbro got the idea of making the ponies “fantasy colors” and marketing them directly towards little girls. The ponies became every color the rainbow. But early marketing materials reveal that this wasn’t even their final form!
This is the front of the Year 1 backcard for the original six ponies. Everyone has spots for their symbols (except, ironically, Cotton Candy).
These are screenshots from the very first MLP commercial, also advertising the original six ponies. The prototypes of Blue Belle and Blossom both have spots as their symbols, like the backcard. (The second pony is definitely Blossom, not Cotton Candy, who appeared earlier in the commercial and is lighter in color.)
Given that the original plan was for the ponies to resemble real horses, my assumption is that the spots were meant to mimic the blanket pattern on (some) appaloosas.
Appaloosa horses have a rich history themselves, being a breed developed by the Nez Perce Indians, who were reknowned for being excellent horse breeders.
But why did most of the original six MLPs lose their spots? What gave Hasbro the idea to put flowers and hearts on them?
Well …
Yep, Care Bears debuted about a year before MLP and were an instant hit. While there is no hard proof that Care Bears inspired the symbols on My Little Pony, but it seems like a reasonable hypothesis. It must have been a very late change.
At any rate, five of the original MLPs got recognizable symbols while Cotton Candy, for whatever reason, retained her appaloosa spots. In a way, her symbol is … nothing. But in another way it’s a legacy, a link to the very start of MLP.
Mooncustafer 