The differences are several: here some examples

-The ponies have a much more anthropomorphic behaviour (ex: they were casual clothes such as jeans, dance standing on their two legs, go to the Olympiads, act in Hollywood movies standing on their two back legs)
-Genders are pretty random: for example, Gusty, Flutterbye, Glory, Moonstone, were all male ponies.
-There is no thing such as mom-baby pony. The relationship between ponies is...uncle/aunt and nephew!
-Comics were coloured in very flashy/neon colours,especially in the later-80's period.
-MLP genesis: the first ponies were born after the world's first baby child's...happy laughter. First pretty rainbow butterflies, they soon evoluted in...MLP pegasus..
......

I am very glad to be able to share some of those wonderful stories and art...In my opinion they are absolutely brilliant and wonderful, but I *may* be partial, since I grew up loving them to pieces. ;)





-COMIC STRIPS
-MAGAZINE COVERS
-ILLUSTRATIONS

GDF: that is to say, "Il giornale della felicità". This was the name of the Italian MLP magazine. This magazine, published by KIKKA publishing (and later by DDS publishing (florence) was published for several years, from approx the mid 80's ( I think from May 1985) to 1989-'90 (this latter issues were defenitely different from the first ones, anyway, and inlcluded mostly games, DIY activites and so on).
What is really important to say, is that, unlikely most other European countries, such as the UK , for the Italian market were created stories and comics that were completley indipendent and different from anything else in the MLP world!