In commemoration of Nintendo’s 135ᵗʰ anniversary, September 20 to 30 is NIWA Cross-Wiki Week. Click here for event details and the possibility to win a $20/€20 Nintendo eShop gift card. Please remember to follow the manual of style and code of conduct at all times. Check the Bulbagarden home page for up-to-date Pokémon news and discuss it on the forums or in the Bulbagarden Discord server.
Ponyta is an equine Pokémon with cream-colored fur. It has brown eyes and triangular ears with reddish interiors. Yellow and reddish-orange flames form its mane and tail. The mane forms a short crest on top of its head and a short strip down its back to its tail. Additional flames are present behind its elbows and knees. The fire appears about an hour after hatching. It has four long legs, each ending in a single, gray hoof. These hooves are said to be harder than diamonds.
Ponyta has extraordinary jumping abilities and is capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound. However, a newborn Ponyta is a weak runner and is actually barely able to stand. It gradually strengthens its legs and becomes faster by chasing after its parents. In the anime, it is shown that Ponyta can control its flames so that its rider is not burned by them. Ponyta live in grasslands, on plains, or anywhere that it can run freely.
A Ponyta appeared in Holiday Hi-Jynx, under the ownership of Santa Claus. He commonly used it to pull his sleigh. It reappeared in Christmas Night, where it was seen delivering presents again. It was eventually replaced by a group of Stantler, as shown in Stantler's Little Helpers, and its current status is unknown.
Ash borrowed Lara Laramie's Ponyta when she couldn't qualify due to her having a broken arm. During the race, it evolved into a Rapidash and it became faster, allowing Ash to win the race.
Ponyta was first seen in Ponyta Tale. It carried a postman to Pallet Town to deliver mail to Red but soon went berserk until it was calmed by a Venusaur, belonging to Red himself.
A Ponyta appeared in The Kindest Tentacruel as one of the Pokémon in Yellow's fantasy about evolution via evolutionary stone, despite it not being able to evolve through such a method.
Platinum owns a Ponyta which serves her as a form of transport, who first appeared in Stagestruck Starly. Although a weak battler with nothing but a streak of losses against every Gym Leader he had faced, in Canalave City, he was somehow able to defeat both of Byron's Bronzong and evolve soon afterwards, becoming a Rapidash.
Ponyta's Stadium and FireRed Pokédex entries state that it can jump over the Eiffel Tower and Ayers Rock, which exist in the real world. Tokyo Tower is referenced in the Japanese versions of Stadium and FireRed.
Origin
Ponyta and its evolution are based on fiery steeds in mythology, such as those belonging to the Greek god Helios, Skinfaxi of Norse mythology, or the horses of the Ashvins in Hindu myth. The fire in its Shiny coloration refers to blue fire, which generally indicates a higher temperature than orange fire but may also be caused by certain chemicals burning at a normal temperature.
Name origin
Ponyta is derived from pony, a small horse. It phonetically sounds like the foreign word bonita (nice in Spanish, Basque, and Catalan; beautiful in Portuguese and Galician; goodness in Latin).
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.