Selects a random pony name from the mlp wiki.

random_pony.py

import urllib
import json
import random

class PonyList(object):
    api_url = "http://mlp.wikia.com/api.php"
    query_common = {
        "action": "query",
        "list": "categorymembers",
        "format": "json",
        "cmlimit": "300",
    }
    ponies = []
    categories = []

    def __init__(self, *categories):
        self.categories = categories

    def __iter__(self):
        if self.ponies:
            for pony in self.ponies:
                yield pony

        for category in self.categories:
            for pony in self.generate_ponies(category):
                yield pony

    def load(self):
        self.ponies = []
        for category in self.categories:
            for pony in self.generate_ponies(category):
                pass


    def generate_ponies(self, category):
        query_continue = {}
        while True:
            query = self.query_common.copy()
            query["cmtitle"] = "Category:" + category.lower().replace(' ', '_')
            query.update(query_continue)

            url = self.api_url + '?' + urllib.urlencode(query)
            response = json.load(urllib.urlopen(url))

            for page in response["query"]["categorymembers"]:
                pony = page["title"]
                if "/" not in pony and ":" not in pony:
                    self.ponies.append(pony)
                    yield pony

            if "query-continue" in response:
                query_continue = response["query-continue"]["categorymembers"]
            else:
                break


pony_list = PonyList("Alicorn ponies", "Unicorn ponies", "Pegasus ponies", "Earth ponies")
pony_list.load()
print random.choice(pony_list.ponies)