Majesty:
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Using a sterile cotton swap and saline, I swabbed the surface of each pony in particularly dirty areas.  Then I inoculated the surface of Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SAB) petri dishes.  This media is designed to grow a variety of molds and inhibit bacteria. This will help us eliminate bacteria from our equations for now.  We can always go back and do these same experiments using bacteria instead of mold and see if we get any marks or discolorations.  I also took swabs from a Medly which had, to my eye, spots that look like mold and a Flutterbye that has spots that look like cancer or rust caused by metallic glitter (photos in spoiler). 


I then went into our lab's cold room which has it's own fine array of mold growing on plastic surfaces.  Photos in spoiler:


I swabbed each of these molds and put them on SAB agar as well.  Now we have a nice array of petri dishes.  No growth yet, but we may see some in a few days:

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I will take a photo of the dishes each day for several weeks to determine if anything grows and I will post any interesting results here.  It is possible that mold that grows on plastic or vinyl will not be supported by standard SAB agar and so we won't get any growth even if there is mold present in the pony plastic.  My guess is that we will get growth however, because the mold is feeding not necessarily on the plastic but on the oil residue left on the ponies after have been touched.  We'll see though!

If Phase One is successful, I will move on to Phase Two and inoculate new and older ponies with mold cultures.  The new ponies will be Dollar Tree fakies and the old ponies will be three Majesty ponies- the one shown above and another two baity ones I have.   Prior to inoculation the vintage ponies will be boiled and put in an oxyclean bath and photographed to note existing body markings.  The new ponies will be swabbed to check for "native" mold.  Two new ponies and two old ponies will be swabbed with a mixture of mold cultured from ponies (if any is cultured) or cold room mold and stored in a sterile jar in a dark location to allow for mold growth.  One of each type inoculated with mold will also have a layer of sterile water placed in the bottom of the jar to create a moisture rich environment. 

As a control, a new pony and an old pony will be placed in a jar with sterile water at the bottom to create a moisture rich environment in the absence of mold.  This should help us determine what change in the pony's condition is due to moisture and what change, if any, is due to mold.  I may try and spray the ponies with Moldzyme inside and out (a commercial mold killer) to try and get rid of as much mold that may be contaminated them as possible.  All experiments will also be performed in a BioSafetyCabinet (BSC) to prevent contamination from airborne mold spores.

If we get any mold discoloration on the test ponies I will take thin sections of the affected plastic and look at it under the microscope.  I will also swab the affected area and culture the mold in special mold culture chambers and observe the mold on slides.  This will allow me to see the structure of the mold and possibly ID it.

I will post pictures of the petri dishes every few days.  If there's any suggestions or questions or input or whatever feel free!  Ooo or should we take bets?  What do you think will happen?  Will the petri dishes from the ponies grow mold?  Will mold make marks on the ponies?  I know Black Curtains has done  a lot of science with ponies before- it would be awesome to compare results!  Her study on pindot and dirt was really cool (http://mlparena.com/archive/Forums//viewtopic/t=259561.html).  Maybe we could sterilize some dirt and see if that makes a difference? 

UPDATE: 12/27/15

Here is the basic rundown of the results thus far and some of the more interesting photos of mold growing on the ponies.  So far, the only visible mold growth is on the ponies that were inoculated with a surface swab of the mold mix.  The pony that was only inoculated inside (Snuzzle) and the sterile water control (Sundance) do not show any mold growth so far.  The Majesty with the addition of water in the sterile jar is showing substantial more mold growth than the Majesty with no additional water.  She has a large patch of it near her symbol.  Neither of the fakies are showing growth yet but they also did not have a surface swab.

So, now we know given the right conditions, mold can grow on ponies.  The question will be, does this growth leave non-removable marks?  I think it's obvious the addition of water will encourage mold growth.  I wish I would have added a treatment with a descant in the jar, because adding liquid mold culture to the inside of the pony alone will increase humidity in an enclosed space.  So there is no really good control for the humidity test 

Anyway, on to photos!