My Little Pony C: Friendship Carries On

[DigoDragon]

An interesting little detail about the ponies that G5 pony movie doesn't talk about...

Spoiler: Pony details

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I noticed that all the adult ponies do have cutie marks. The marks are small and only show on their right flank. Easy to miss them, especially on the pegasi because their wings are long enough to cover them when folded. Foals do not have theirs.

But if magic was gone, then wouldn't the cutie marks disappear too? I guess since they're not talked about in the movie when discussing magic, the cutie marks are just for show. Perhaps the talent magic in the cutie marks come later?

Spoiler

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One of the scenes takes place where Everfree forest used to be.

https://derpibooru.org/images/2711036?

Spoiler: G5 Equestria

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Yeah, *used* to be. G5 takes place either so far out into the future that the environment has changed a lot, or some cataclysmic event destroyed the forest save the one tree. :O

[LibraryOgre]

Spoiler: G5 Movie Theory

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Now, I haven't actually seen the movie, so maybe there's something in it I don't know about, but is could it be possible that the story is actually taking place wherever the pony tribes originated from rather than Equestria? If the ponies in the movie were the descendants of remnants who stayed behind rather than going to Equestria, then that could explain the level of distrust they held for each other, with Sunny's father either having traveled to Equestria and back or actually come from Equestria originally.

Spoiler: Unfortunately, No

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While I love the theory, the Mane Six are toys that Sunny played with. But my IMMEDIATE response to your theory? "HER NAME IS SUNNY! She will become Princess Celestia!"

[DigoDragon]

Thoughts about the current state of Equestria.

Spoiler: G5 Thought and theory.

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Okay, so one thing that does happen in G4 is that Celestia often commissioned stained glass windows to tell important historical points in Equestrian history. We see a few windows based on the exploits of Twilight and her friends.

In the G5 movie, Zipp shows Sunny and Izzy a strained glass window said to be ancient. There are four panels to this window; the three tribes of ponies each with their crystal, and Twilight's cutie mark above them. The earth pony pane is of course completely missing, so as to make a reveal at the end of the movie, but more to my point is that at no point did Sunny look at that window and consider that earth ponies had magic too.

(It's ok, Sunny, some of the writers didn't either, LOL)

So here was a random thought in my mind today. What if at the end of Twilight's reign, she decided that instead of one pony in charge of the magic of friendship, she'd give the three tribes the responsibility of keeping that magic together? Twilight creates the three crystals and so long as the tribes remain friends, pony magic remains with them. Okay, not a bad idea in theory.

So what happened?

Well, what if one or more earth ponies were unhappy with their lot of magic? They see unicorn magic and pegasus magic and think to themselves they got a raw deal? So they break up "the fellowship" as it were, destroying that center pane in disgust and set off the chain of events where distrust is sewn and the magic disappears.

If we look at the three tribes, earth ponies seem the most well off without magic. They're all cheerfully enjoying their own society. Not counting the distrust all three share, earth ponies seem to have a good thing going on.

So if that's the case, it seems fitting that an earth pony is the one to bring the three tribes back together and restore both friendship and the pony magic.

[Form]

Thoughts about the current state of Equestria.

Spoiler: G5 Thought and theory.

Show

Okay, so one thing that does happen in G4 is that Celestia often commissioned stained glass windows to tell important historical points in Equestrian history. We see a few windows based on the exploits of Twilight and her friends.

In the G5 movie, Zipp shows Sunny and Izzy a strained glass window said to be ancient. There are four panels to this window; the three tribes of ponies each with their crystal, and Twilight's cutie mark above them. The earth pony pane is of course completely missing, so as to make a reveal at the end of the movie, but more to my point is that at no point did Sunny look at that window and consider that earth ponies had magic too.

(It's ok, Sunny, some of the writers didn't either, LOL)

So here was a random thought in my mind today. What if at the end of Twilight's reign, she decided that instead of one pony in charge of the magic of friendship, she'd give the three tribes the responsibility of keeping that magic together? Twilight creates the three crystals and so long as the tribes remain friends, pony magic remains with them. Okay, not a bad idea in theory.

So what happened?

Well, what if one or more earth ponies were unhappy with their lot of magic? They see unicorn magic and pegasus magic and think to themselves they got a raw deal? So they break up "the fellowship" as it were, destroying that center pane in disgust and set off the chain of events where distrust is sewn and the magic disappears.

If we look at the three tribes, earth ponies seem the most well off without magic. They're all cheerfully enjoying their own society. Not counting the distrust all three share, earth ponies seem to have a good thing going on.

So if that's the case, it seems fitting that an earth pony is the one to bring the three tribes back together and restore both friendship and the pony magic.

Spoiler

Show

I'd think that the moment the earth ponies (or any of the tribes) would start to value magic over friendship is the beginning of the end of that magic if it went down like that, because friendship == magic in MLP. The movie seems to make that point pretty explicitly too with the magic not coming back when Sunny reunites the crystals; the magic comes back when the three pony tribes decide to be friends again.

And I got the impression the pegasi and unicorns aren't really worse off? I mean, the pegasi have their own fancy city and the unicorns... ok, the unicorns seemed kind of depressed.

[LibraryOgre]

Spoiler

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I'd think that the moment the earth ponies (or any of the tribes) would start to value magic over friendship is the beginning of the end of that magic if it went down like that, because friendship == magic in MLP. The movie seems to make that point pretty explicitly too with the magic not coming back when Sunny reunites the crystals; the magic comes back when the three pony tribes decide to be friends again.

And I got the impression the pegasi and unicorns aren't really worse off? I mean, the pegasi have their own fancy city and the unicorns... ok, the unicorns seemed kind of depressed.

Spoiler: G5 Speculation

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However, I'd argue that while friendship IS magic, it's clearly not the only form of magic available to ponies... Celestia and Luna both had their own power, and I'd say that anyone implying that Nightmare Moon was drawing on the power of friendship has some pretty fancy footwork to do to prove it.

[Form]

Spoiler: G5 Speculation

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However, I'd argue that while friendship IS magic, it's clearly not the only form of magic available to ponies... Celestia and Luna both had their own power, and I'd say that anyone implying that Nightmare Moon was drawing on the power of friendship has some pretty fancy footwork to do to prove it.

Spoiler

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True. And then there's of course King Sombra, Lord Tirek, Discord before his redemption, the pony of shadows and so on...

Good thing the ponies haven't turned to alternate sources of magic then. Come to think of it, I wonder if some of them might have tried as their friendship magic disappeared.

[LibraryOgre]

Spoiler

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True. And then there's of course King Sombra, Lord Tirek, Discord before his redemption, the pony of shadows and so on...

Good thing the ponies haven't turned to alternate sources of magic then. Come to think of it, I wonder if some of them might have tried as their friendship magic disappeared.

Spoiler: G5 but silly

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Beware the Ponymancer! Her loyal legion of zomponies are something from a nightMARE!

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler

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I'd think that the moment the earth ponies (or any of the tribes) would start to value magic over friendship is the beginning of the end of that magic if it went down like that, because friendship == magic in MLP. The movie seems to make that point pretty explicitly too with the magic not coming back when Sunny reunites the crystals; the magic comes back when the three pony tribes decide to be friends again.

And I got the impression the pegasi and unicorns aren't really worse off? I mean, the pegasi have their own fancy city and the unicorns... ok, the unicorns seemed kind of depressed.

Spoiler: G5 movie talk

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All it takes is one or two ponies to mess things up. We've seen it happen many times. Heck, we saw Cozy Glow nearly wipe out magic from Equestria. And she was just a filly!

Spoiler

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Come to think of it, I wonder if some of them might have tried as their friendship magic disappeared.

Spoiler: G5 movie talk

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The unicorns may have moved to the forest in that attempt after their magic initially disappeared. Perhaps they sought a way to carness crystals for magic, but failed to yield results.

Spoiler: G5 but silly

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Beware the Ponymancer! Her loyal legion of zomponies are something from a nightMARE!

Spoiler

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So it's 28 Pranks Later, but Pinkie Pie is wearing sinister robes with sprinkles?

[Aotrs Commander]

Spoiler

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[Manga Shoggoth]

Is she getting tanked again? No wonder she can't fly straight...

[Topaz]

Looks like she might have gotten another promotion!

[otakuryoga]

Spoiler

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are those giant tanks being carried on the backs of 4 smaller tanks?

[DigoDragon]

Is she getting tanked again? No wonder she can't fly straight...

Ha! I was just thinking that too.

If they'd fit her with armored barding, she could BE the tank! Imagine the destruction she could cause, and she'd still never know what went wrong. :V

[Form]

Spoiler: G5 film rewatch (partial)

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On rewatching the G5 film Zipp, Izzy and Sunny end up in a trainstation/travel hub of sorts in Zephyr Heights and there are these signs of Bridlewood and Maretime Bay. They used to visit each other. That indicates those settlements were founded well before the tribes separated and suggests to me that their separation was a slow, gradual thing (though an acceleration of that process because of some incident is possible). I think each settlement appealed more to one particular tribe than the others, so in each settlement a majority of the populace probably belonged to 1 tribe in particular from their very founding.

Also noticed the Spike plush in Sunny's room! Albeit only after pony youtubers pointed it out. It nice to see that Spike gets some cred too.

I wonder what Canterlogic is going to do now their anti-unicorn and -pegasus devices will no longer be needed. They seemed to focus on those kind of products rather heavily. Might need to diversify.

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: G5 film rewatch (partial)

Show

On rewatching the G5 film Zipp, Izzy and Sunny end up in a trainstation/travel hub of sorts in Zephyr Heights and there are these signs of Bridlewood and Maretime Bay. They used to visit each other. That indicates those settlements were founded well before the tribes separated and suggests to me that their separation was a slow, gradual thing (though an acceleration of that process because of some incident is possible). I think each settlement appealed more to one particular tribe than the others, so in each settlement a majority of the populace probably belonged to 1 tribe in particular from their very founding.

Also noticed the Spike plush in Sunny's room! Albeit only after pony youtubers pointed it out. It nice to see that Spike gets some cred too.

I wonder what Canterlogic is going to do now their anti-unicorn and -pegasus devices will no longer be needed. They seemed to focus on those kind of products rather heavily. Might need to diversify.

Spoiler: G5 movie

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That station also had a sign for Manhattan, so other pony towns may still exist. Those towns might not have gotten the memo about the reunion, so there's potential story for the series next year.

Canterlogic could rebrand the escape balloon pack as a method for earth ponies to fly up to Zephyr Heights. Might cause more paperwork for Hitch though. XD

[t209]

Spoiler: G5 movie

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That station also had a sign for Manhattan, so other pony towns may still exist. Those towns might not have gotten the memo about the reunion, so there's potential story for the series next year.

Canterlogic could rebrand the escape balloon pack as a method for earth ponies to fly up to Zephyr Heights. Might cause more paperwork for Hitch though. XD

Spoiler: G5 Movie

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Consider that most of the ponies don't know about these settlements though.

[Form]

Spoiler: G5 Movie

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Consider that most of the ponies don't know about these settlements though.

Spoiler: Pony settlements

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I hope the settlements shown in the movie aren't the only settlements left. That kind of depopulation would imply some seriously nasty societal upheaval. D:

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: G5 Movie

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Consider that most of the ponies don't know about these settlements though.

Spoiler: Pony settlements

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I hope the settlements shown in the movie aren't the only settlements left. That kind of depopulation would imply some seriously nasty societal upheaval. D:

Spoiler: G5

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or a cataclysmic natural disaster. Cause like... you look at the "modern" Equestria maps and Manhattan is not on them, despite the name on the destination board existing in the station ruins.

Whatever happened, it wiped out these places from the maps in a "no reason to place a marker here" way, rather than a "we don't talk to them anymore" way.

[Topaz]

Did anypony else notice that we got new ponyart from Egophiliac?
https://egophiliac.tumblr.com/post/6...-pony-movie-on
It's pretty awesome to see the positive responses to the G5 movie.

[DigoDragon]

Did anypony else notice that we got new ponyart from Egophiliac?

I had not, actually. I been spending more time looking through circles with newer, less known artists and writing encouraging words to them. Even commissioned a couple a while back. Trying to be welcoming into the community and such, and since I only have so much free time to browse, I've fallen behind on some other places online.

I'll have to check out Ego's work later this evening though!

[Form]

Did anypony else notice that we got new ponyart from Egophiliac?
https://egophiliac.tumblr.com/post/6...-pony-movie-on
It's pretty awesome to see the positive responses to the G5 movie.

I had not, but that's a nice Izzy! For the most part I just look at whatever artworks gets showcased on Equestria Daily.

I had not, actually. I been spending more time looking through circles with newer, less known artists and writing encouraging words to them.

Aww, that's nice!

[Topaz]

I had not, actually. I been spending more time looking through circles with newer, less known artists and writing encouraging words to them. Even commissioned a couple a while back. Trying to be welcoming into the community and such, and since I only have so much free time to browse, I've fallen behind on some other places online.

That is awesome!

I was kind of surprised when the amount and quality of Pony art was sustained so well after FiM ended. Then again, I suppose ten seasons and a movie is enough to establish a setting pretty well.

[DigoDragon]

Yeah, the pony fandom has been self-sustaining for a while and it's been good. It helps that the idw comics have kept going

[Manga Shoggoth]

It is quite surprising how long a fanbase can last, especially if there is alternate media - Doctor Who lasted an interregnum between 1989 and 2005 (minus the Paul McGann film in 1996), with Big Finish Productions, various books and the odd charity event.

[Form]

I hope it lasts forever. When I'm 80 years old and in a nursing home, surrounded by pony plushies, I still want to be watching My Little Pony generation N. I'll be the coolest old man in there.

Aw, ****. I just realized there was a pony convention nearby not too long ago and I completely missed it. I just lost of track of it. Ok, maybe I still wouldn't have gone because going to a convention/festival/party with lots of strangers by my lonesome is still a little bit daunting, but I've done that a bunch of times. Now I still haven't gone to any pony conventions! I'm just a bit miffed that I'm missing out.

[LibraryOgre]

It is quite surprising how long a fanbase can last, especially if there is alternate media - Doctor Who lasted an interregnum between 1989 and 2005 (minus the Paul McGann film in 1996), with Big Finish Productions, various books and the odd charity event.

Which is kinda weird to me, since I've been involved in the Star Wars fandom, which kind of went feral between '85 and '97, and never 100% came back from it.

[DigoDragon]

Probably a good thing. Feral ponies are probably too dangerous to be a simple friendship problem. XD

So the news around the internet is that there's gonna be a mini-movie/special early next year for G5, then the show later in the year, and then a Christmas special. Sounds like next year could be a good year for pony.

[LibraryOgre]

Probably a good thing. Feral ponies are probably too dangerous to be a simple friendship problem. XD

So the news around the internet is that there's gonna be a mini-movie/special early next year for G5, then the show later in the year, and then a Christmas special. Sounds like next year could be a good year for pony.

Everyhoof's coming up pony!

[Manga Shoggoth]

Everyhoof's coming up pony!

For those of us able to access it, anyway...

[Form]

For those of us able to access it, anyway...

If it's any consolation, the fandom has already started making their own G5 stuff. Which is something, at least?