My Little Pony is having a tea party, and you’re invited.

If you were a little girl in the 1980s, that last statement might have made the 5-year-old in you squeal with glee.

It might seem like a dream, but it’s true. The same colorful ponies you played with as a kid are galloping to a stage near you — the stage at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, to be exact.

“My Little Pony Live! World’s Biggest Tea Party” will be on stage Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with life-size ponies, ladybugs, butterflies and even “Breezies,” tiny ponies that fly through the air.
It’s going to be one great big girlie bash.

As the story goes, Pinkie Pie and seven of her friends from Ponyville are throwing the party, and everyone is going to pitch in with their own special talents to make it a success.

Pinkie Pie is joined by Rarity the Unicorn and Thistle Whistle, a winged Pegasus pony, along with other familiar ponies that may have lived on your bedroom shelf.

Kids can interact with the ponies as they sing and dance to “I’m a Little Teapot” and learn about friendship.

Lauren Viator of San Antonio, Texas, gets to be part of it all as a ladybug and a puppeteer. She said interacting with the audience is an important part of her role.

“We kind of just assist the ponies with everything they need to do in the show to get ready for their tea party that they are throwing, and we also get the audience involved and go out into the audience a couple of times to visit with the kids,” Viator said.

She said kids are sometimes surprised to see “probably the biggest ladybugs they’ve ever seen” coming so close to them.

“They love it. They’re always like, ‘Ladybugs! Ladybugs!’,” she said. “They never expect us to come into the audience.”

When Viator was younger, she said, she played with My Little Ponies, too.

“When I got the job, my mom threw this huge party for me for getting the job and she dug in the attic and got out my old ponies,” Viator said. “We had a My Little Pony board game and we had to play that. She dug out all the old stuff so we could reminisce about our own My Little Ponies. It was fun.”
Viator said the show appeals to a large age range.

“I think that’s one thing that makes our show so much different than a lot of the live children’s shows that they have these days is that moms did grow up with My Little Pony so they can relate to it as well,” she said.

Clara Rusch, director of production, said the appeal of My Little Pony is simple.

“I think it’s great to have something that’s just girlie for girliness’ sake,” Rusch said.
But the message of getting along and the value of friendship also bring a gentle lesson to “World’s Biggest Tea Party.”

“These ponies have been friends for a long time and they stick next to each other even when they make mistakes or some of them don’t work as hard as others or they let each other down, but they’re still friends, and their friendship comes through in the end,” said Rusch.

Rusch said the production team tried to stay true to the drawings and DVDs of My Little Pony.
“I think we did a really good job of bringing the land of Ponyville to life,” she said.