Princess Lona

I think that would be a fun pairing to watch because Spike can have a hard time with physical and athletic tasks and RD obviously dose not. So it would be fun to see him trying his best to keep up with her on an adventure. At the same time, Spike probably has more book smarts than we realize, being Twilight's assistant and all, and while Rainbow has grown a lot since the show began, smarts are still not her strongest front. So while Spike is huffing and puffing trying to keep up with Dash, Dash would be twisting her brain trying to understand the ideas coming out of Spike. They would find common ground in that they both enjoy being lazy.

The shifty smirk she gives right before the fake tea sip. Maybe not the most epic smirk on the show, but sooooo much more satisfying coming from a character who is usually pretty reserved when she's not in a fight or something.

In the spa scene in Ponyville Confidential Rainbow is chomping at the bit to read the latest Gabby Gums column. Not sure if gossip rags count as proper reading material, but it's something.

There's Cheerilee and Big Mac for a mare/stallion canon friendship. In Hearts and Hooves Day they were pretty adamant that their relationship was platonic, with Cheerilee even describing them as "good friends". It was clear at the end of the episode when they started calling each other cute pet names again that it was just a joke they were playing on the CMC. Later in Filli Vanilli Cheerilee swooned over Big Mac on stage and we could interperate that as romantic interest on at least the part of Cheerilee (although I personally think that was just a fan nod since everyone started shipping them after H&HD), but for at least one episode that was a solid stallion/mare platonic friendship.

I think the confusion arises because people say that the animation is good when what they really mean is the art is good. Animation refers to the movement of the pictures. For animation to be good (in a very general sense, I understand that "good" is subjective) the movement has to be smooth, the physics have to adhere to their own laws, and light and shadow have to move together. MLP does this, but not in any way which stands out from other adequately animated 2D animations. The art on the other hand, is fantastic in many bronies' opinions, despite the fact that most characters in the show have the exact same body model. The backgrounds are beautiful, there is a whispy quality to things like clouds, plants and manes that we enjoy, and the various creatures and monsters that appear are creatively designed and styled. Plus, as many have pointed out, the colour palette is soft and calming to look at, which is a nice juxtaposition to the abundance of goofball comedy and action that occur in the script.

You know what I think would be cool? After all the controversy I think they should give her a new name every time she is mentioned on the show, as a joke. It wouldn't have to happen every episode, just once or twice a season. And it could stay very low key and background-y. For example: Maybe in one episode a group of ponies are working together to build something and Twilight calls out to Derpy: "Muffins, can you fly this wrench up to to Bonbon on the scaffolding please?" Then in a later episode all the townsponies are gathered in the square looking for a runaway flying pig or something and Applejack says: "Calm down, everypony. Now who saw the pig last?" And someone calls out from the crowd: "Bubblicious saw her heading for the Everfree Forest." Then the camera pans over to Derpy pointing toward the edge of town. She's never going to be a main character so it's not like it will really effect the continuity of the show in a meaningful way, and it would be a nice fan nod. Plus I think it would be funny to hear all the different names they come up with for her.

I always thought the Royal Guard acts as a sort of Canterlot Police Department. They probably keep petty crime in check and hand out parking tickets. When a powerful, episode-worthy antagonist comes to town, the RG trying to fight it would be like cops shooting at Godzilla with their tiny little pistols.

I'm okay with it as long as it is done well and does not overshadow the non-violent content that drew me to the show in the first place. I wouldn't want fighting to become the focus of the show. I like the group fighting scenes such as in Power Ponies and A Canterlot Wedding more than the one on one type stuff like Twilight vs Tirek in the season four finale.

Maybe Fluttershy is her real full name, and that's why she is so shy. Maybe having that name made an impression on her from a very young age and affected the way other ponies viewed and interacted with her. Her name tells her she is shy, so she believes it. The same could be said of Rainbow Dash. Maybe she's only as confident and brazen as she is because her name makes her feel strong and awesome. Sorry if this is a bit off topic but the thread just made me think of it.

Are we sure the fandom is as male-majority as all that? Obviously it was in the beginning because 4chan, but I feel like I come across pretty close to equal numbers of both genders on forums and in analyst videos and the like. I think there are slightly more men, but I wouldn't call it a vast majority. I really can't say until we get some proper stats. I wonder if here on the Internet, we just assume a person is male unless otherwise stated. I have "Princess" in my username and people still assume I'm a guy all the time. It happens on other forums too.

If they did this on the show I would die of a fangirl attack. I do not want to see all of the Mane 6 become alicorns for real, but I would like to see alicorn versions of them done by our beloved MLP writers and animators. A dream sequence is the perfect vehicle for this.

Bulk Biceps in this frame:

SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THE COMICS. And seriously, read the comics because they are so, so good at clearing up this sort of thing. I suppose some people debate this, but I consider them canon. They are licenced, after all. According to the comics, NMM was created by combining Luna's resentment with Nightmare Magic (an evil, fluid entity which lives in a host pony and feeds off of negativity). Nightmare Magic controls its host by learning all of their deepest, darkest fears and creating the illusion that they are coming true. The comics suggest that when Luna was just beginning to feel resentment, she would have gone to Celestia and told her her feelings, but before she had the chance to do so, the Nightmare Magic took advantage of Luna's weakness and took control of her. It sept in slowly and sowed more fear, creating a skewed version of reality that left Luna with no faith in Celestia's ability to understand her feelings. The Nightmare Magic showed Celestia to be a selfish and arrogant Ruler, and it showed all the ponies actively hating the night, jeering at it, lighting lanterns out of pure spite. What Luna saw was not really happening but it felt real to her and she believed it to be. Eventually this waking nightmare she was experiencing transformed her into Nightmare Moon and the rest is history. So Nightmare Moon made the same choices that Luna would have made under those dire circumstances. If Celestia and the Equestrians were being total a-holes then Luna would have been justified in trying to bring on night eternal, just to show them up. Not sure about the killing thing. But of course, Celestia would never really be so cruel and the ponies didn't actually hate the night, so Luna was tricked into acting that way. TL;DR: Nightmare Moon isn't evil but Nightmare Magic is and it created/was controlling her.

To repeat something I said before the threads were merged, just in case anypony missed it: They could have kept the Old West setting but had two Cowpoke pony families fighting over something. What most people liked about the episode was Breaburn, Pinkie's song, the Fluttertree scene, and the wagon chase. The Buffalo had some cool moments too, but overall they weren't the reason people liked the episode, so it would be easy to write them out and keep the good parts. Since Equestria is Equestria, and not our world, it would be perfectly fine to assume that the Settler ponies themselves were native to the area and that no other species inhabit the area. They could have written two families or posses of ponies fighting over the exact same thing. Episode saved, no accidental racism.

Over a Barrell. This episode is always such an uncomfortable one for me to watch because the situation depicted in it is an obvious parallel of real disputes that have been going on in our world for hundreds of years and still have not been resolved in a way that makes everyone happy. Land claim disputes between North American First Nations People and Settler Decendants are still very real and very complicated, especially here in Canada. The wounds are still fresh, the pain is still throbbing, and there is still a lot of healing to be done. And it's about more than land (more than I want to put in a post or it will be too long for anyone to read). So the episode feels incomplete to me because they took the idea of "Cowboys and Indians" and oversimplified the story to teach a lesson about sharing. It was okay in the universe of the show because the Buffalo only had one problem with what the Settler ponies were doing, and it was only a failure to comunicate that kept them from coming to an agreement for so long. Once the Mane 6 got the two sides talking, they made friends and everything was good. The Settler ponies never commited genocide against the Buffalo. They didn't kidnap their young and force them into residential schools where they were physically and sexually abused and had their language and culture taken away. The Settler ponies didn't do everything they could to anhialate Buffalo culture and way of life. They didn't force the Buffalo to assimilate or live on crappy "reserves" (ie: the worst land ever). All the Settler ponies did was accidentally plant some trees on the Buffalos' stampeding grounds. But since the events in the show are loosely based on real world events, the episode feels like a slap in the face to the real people who are affected by and trying to deal with the real problem. Obviously, I don't think bringing up genocide and racism in a kids show is a good idea, but they could have found another way to make the problems between the two groups more complex. I just feel like the issue should have matched the real world issue it was paralleling in weight. And honestly, we still haven't figured out how to solve these real world disputes so maybe they should have just left it simple, but changed the characters to something other than "Cowboys and Indians". I think they should have kept the Old West setting but just made the problem be between two feuding Cowboy pony gangs (because Braeburn is adorable and everybody loves him) or two feuding Buffalo tribes. I love this show to pieces but that episode is the one that makes me embarrassed to be a fan.

A male pony would be introduced (just one). He would be just underage but Applejack would explain to his mother why it's okay for them to date because of the Ponyo and Juliet Law. He would spend most of his screen time pouting or running in such a manner as to draw attention to the most attractive parts of his body. Despite his clothes getting torn, his face getting perfectly placed soot smudges all over it, and his mane getting all messed up as they ran away from explosions, his hooficure would always remain perfect and never chip.

Right after I posted that I googled MLP/One Piece fan art and sure enough, most people place RD as Zoro and Pinkie as Luffy. I would do it that way too if I were trying to match all of the Mane Six with a corresponding Luffy Pirate, because Pinkie doesn't match anyone else.

Rainbow Dash - Monkey D. Luffy. My knee jerk reaction was to relate Pinkie to Luffy because they both seem to be off in their own world most of the time and it affects their personalities in a similar way. Then I realized that Luffy is lazy and silly most of the time, but when the time comes to fight or face a tough challenge, he puts on his serious face and does not hold back. Just like RD. He is also super loyal to his friends, hyper-confident, incredibly powerful, and loves a good prank or joke. I kind of want to see those two in a fanfic together now.

It's totally Maud but I think Spike understands her the most out of all the characters on the show who are not related to her by blood.

I think it would be understandable without having seen the show, but it also wouldn't be very good. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those EQG ultra-haters, I just think that most of the film's charm comes from seeing characters we already know and love in a different setting. They don't introduce the characters properly in the film, mostly because of time constraints but also because the audience doesn't need to be introduced to the characters, we already know them. Even Twilight catches on pretty quickly and starts calling characters she hasn't even been formally introduced to yet by name. If the audience hasn't been properly introduced to the characters, they won't care what's going on.

Spaceships built from pony-based technology may never show up, but a spaceship could still exist in the show if it came from space.

I would kind of like to see them get complimentary cutie marks because whatever their talents are going to be, they have shown that they share a tenacity fueled by their friendship. I don't want to see matching cutie marks (that would be tacky and defeat the point of a cutie mark), but maybe their marks could all share a colour scheme or perhaps when placed next to each other they could form a larger picture. Just something to commemorate the teamwork that brought them to the goal. It could be a lesson about how an individual's unique qualities shine their brightest with the support of friends. Something else I just thought of: Each CMC could finally do the action that makes her cutie mark appear while helping one of the others. So she wouldn't be focused on herself at all, she would only be thinking in the best interests of her friend and when it's over she doesn't even realize the mark has appeared until someone points it out. Examples: Sweetie Bell is about to fall off a cliff or something and Scootaloo pulls off some crazy scooter moves to get there in time to save her. Scootaloo's scooter breaks right before the big race and Apple Bloom uses her tinkering skills to fix it in time for the start, and even improve on the design. Some apple-eating monster is terrorizing Sweet Apple Acres and threatening Apple Bloom's livelihood. Even Fluttershy is powerless to stop it. Sweetie Belle pacifies it with a hypnotic siren song and lures it back into Everfree.