Theorycrafting Equestria's Loss of Harmony

[Jeric 46,851]

The synopsis of the Generation 5 explicitly states that the new show takes place in an era after Twilight and company set up the future of Equestria to be a stable and peaceful nation exemplifying, well, the magic that comes from friendships. That future wasn’t permanent, and this is where most of my tasty speculation cider is fermenting. It brings up so many many questions. 
 

Peace is hard to achieve. It is harder to maintain. Reaching the highs that our hero’s achieved was absolutely miraculous, and I could never take that achievement away, or marginalize it with with a statement that they failed. Did a longer lasting ere of peace and prosperity invite complacency? If so, did the loss of friendships and even this new separation of the tribes come about slowly over a generation or two? 
 

Whatever the reason for the current state of Equestria, I look forward to a strong explanation that goes beyond the natural deaths of key characters, or some magical explanation, though those may very well be the cause. 
 

What do you all think? Does the answer lie in sociology, evil magic, the lack of venerated characters, or .... is Tom behind it all? 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

I loved season 8-9. Having said that, here's an idea. They could go on a quest to find/save Princess Twilight Sparkle, and her huge guardian dragon Spike. The could think this is the only way, but discover that their own friendship gives them the power to save the world.

I wouldn't rule out Tom though. I never trusted that rock! He's always up to something!

Edited February 27, 2021 by cuteycindyhoney

[Sparklefan1234 170,732]

1 hour ago, Jeric said:

What do you all think? Does the answer lie in sociology, evil magic, the lack of venerated characters, or .... is Tom behind it all? 

 

What if a couple of ponies who were up to no good started making trouble in the neighborhood? 

Seriously, that could be a possibility. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Sparklefan1234

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

42 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

 

What if a couple of ponies who were up to no good started making trouble in the neighborhood? 

Seriously, that could be a possibility. 

The Fresh Princess of Equestria?

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

You know, I think the mane 6 may still be out there...well at least all of the memories and such. Like the friendship journal, or Twilight's letters to Celestia...my point being that these could actually help in restoring harmony.

What they mean by loss of harmony is that ponies and creatures will become divisive due to certain circumstances. The main characters may be meeting for the first time and who knows, a new group could inherit the Elements of Harmony.

[Jeric 46,851]

5 hours ago, C. Thunder Dash said:

You know, I think the mane 6 may still be out there...well at least all of the memories and such. Like the friendship journal, or Twilight's letters to Celestia...my point being that these could actually help in restoring harmony.

I’m almost certain that Sunny (the earth pony that looks like a cross between Scootaloo and our own Buffy) is a self studied student of the Mane Six. There is that one still that shows her studying an old book or journal, so I think this is a possibility for sure

[Neoeryn 196]

The synopsis mentioned something about old enemies, so I'm wondering if we're going to see the Equestria that happened after the possibility of Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy escaping their stone prison? The one screenshot with the two pegasi looked like it was either in the Wonderbolts HQ, or a storm of some sort.

If not that, then I don't know any other old enemies aside from the Storm King, that one of the writers teased about 'coming back' a few years ago. That could also play a role in the look of the weird storm vibe in the pegasi screenshot?

Either those two could be possibilities, or we may see G1 villains return. I would love to see how Hasbro would design them now that they're using CGI.

I'm thinking the only way friendship and harmony failed, is because the world of Equestria was too perfect at the end of G4. I mean, eventually something would have definitely happened, as peace and getting along won't last forever. But I don't know. I'm quite interested in where they go with the story, and what antagonists they decide to add.

[Will Guide 21,360]

7 hours ago, cuteycindyhoney said:

I lobed season 8-9.

I'm confused. how can somebody lobe a season. does that have to do with the brain? 

Well much like in real life, peaceful time doesn't always last forever there's going to be difficulties as time goes on. But I would like to just see for myself what that trouble is

[Jeric 46,851]

16 minutes ago, Will Guide said:

Well much like in real life, peaceful time doesn't always last forever there's going to be difficulties as time goes on. But I would like to just see for myself what that trouble is

True. I hinted at a possible bystander effect slowly becoming ingrained in Equestrian society. If Twilight and her council actually did handle the heavy lifting society may have grown comfortable with the concept that their role in spreading friendship and holding on to it is limited. When presented with a problem larger than a simple interpersonal conflict, it’s easy to see how everypony just said, “I’m sure they got this!”

To be honest, G4 showed some of this happening already from time to time. It definitely happens in our own world. 

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

It is a gritty reboot. Like I said in the other thread, setting it in the same universe makes it feel like FIM was all for nothing.

[Jeric 46,851]

31 minutes ago, Neoeryn said:

I'm thinking the only way friendship and harmony failed, is because the world of Equestria was too perfect at the end of G4. I mean, eventually something would have definitely happened, as peace and getting along won't last forever. But I don't know. I'm quite interested in where they go with the story, and what antagonists they decide to add.

I could see a Machiavellian antagonist working over generations to try and create suspicion among the various races. Sometimes a figure rises during chaos and uncertainty and becomes a leader and wants to keep everyone safe in his or her land? Maybe a resurrection of a villain? A pony who has an pure isolationist view? 
 

I’m hoping that we don’t see the mane characters existing as the only figures of this era who realize life sucks. I really really hope that it’s commonly acknowledged that everyone wishes things could be the way they were, but has a defeatist attitude about it all. “It is what it is”

Moments ago, Metal Brony 42 said:

It is a gritty reboot. Like I said in the other thread, setting it in the same universe makes it feel like FIM was all for nothing.

Maybe it is like building a great cathedral. G4 was about slowly erecting a wonder of architecture in friendship, and G5 intends to show us that these things have to be maintained by more than the builders. Think about successful adoptions of governments in history. They start something that has to continue on through generations as society is generally dynamic. 

[Tao 7,756]

Thing is,  what Gen 5 is touching on is also what is happening to this very day.    A lot of young souls may not understand and Gen 5 might hope to show even when we are far apart,  we can cross those lines to make bounds and deep connections with others.  Yes Gen 4 did break down a lot of walls in the world and even bring in other races,  but its up to to next generations to carry this on and as some have said,  something may have happened to make those walls come back. We will just have to see what this new Gen brings us!

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Good times create weak ponies, weak ponies create bad times ... or so one is led to assume. I blame Prance philosophers, but I'm sure our glorious writers will find a comically incompetent villain that made it all happen by using the power of plot.

 

Also, dabuck happened to windigos and the fact that one can't even bake pastries right without the power of Friendship & Harmony? Why are these ponies not living in a complete shithole country? Canon is a lie!

[HedonismBot 239]

 

1 hour ago, Jeric said:

Maybe it is like building a great cathedral. G4 was about slowly erecting a wonder of architecture in friendship, and G5 intends to show us that these things have to be maintained by more than the builders. Think about successful adoptions of governments in history. They start something that has to continue on through generations as society is generally dynamic. 

It's also possible that all this is confined to some corner of Equestria having limited contact with the parts we saw in G4 (like that Southern Equestria place from "Daring Done") - that the happy ending Twilight and her crew fought for wasn't completely undone.

[Octavian 5,421]

I hope it's sociology, like in the Hearthwarming Tale.

Unicorns are snobs. Pegasi are brutes. Earth ponies are numbskulls. Ponies just drift apart over time and forget to hook up on snoutbook or hug each other enough.

Also Private Mutinsy "Well, I don't hate you... I actually hate Commander Hurricane a lot more than I hate you guys."

After Alice and wonderland nopony should be surprised at pansies throwing shade

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by Jeric
Changed yellow text to blue for readability

[Toastypk 923]

This is really the one aspect about G5 that I'm super tepid about.

For one, knowing that the Equestria I know and love is in "the past" now is a sad thing to think about, but then again it might be all in how you frame it, especially since the Season 10 G4 comics keep happening.

But now that we know it does take place in the future, what the heck happened?

I know they aren't going to do this, but I almost want to see the Mane 6 team up with Sunny, Izzy, Pipp and Hitch, Chrono Trigger style, different time periods, as they work to save the future.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

19 hours ago, Will Guide said:

I'm confused. how can somebody lobe a season. does that have to do with the brain? 

Well much like in real life, peaceful time doesn't always last forever there's going to be difficulties as time goes on. But I would like to just see for myself what that trouble is

I'm back on an edit...

I was upset about something earlier that had nothing to do with this post. . I didn't mean to snap out here.

I fixed my typo.

Edited February 27, 2021 by cuteycindyhoney

[Jeric 46,851]

14 hours ago, Toastypk said:

know they aren't going to do this, but I almost want to see the Mane 6 team up with Sunny, Izzy, Pipp and Hitch, Chrono Trigger style, different time periods, as they work to save the future.

This isn’t outside of the realm of possibility. We saw the Pillars in FiM. Perhaps there is a way we might see the Mane Six at some point in the G5 show. We saw that there was an overarching story explaining the Elements of Harmony over the course of many seasons slowly giving us more and more information. The question of how Ponies drifted away from the Magic of Friendship is one that may be slowly revealed if the show continues past a single season. And that means that we may very well see the Mane Six in some form, even if it’s done in ways similar to Korra where some characters had passed away. 
 

FiM also has some characters that may be long lived or immortal that may still be around and used to explain more. 

[Tom Gallagher 33,588]

On 2021-02-26 at 5:24 AM, Jeric said:

.... is Tom behind it all? 

No, I’m not!  I’ll never let harmony disappear from Equestria! 

...oh wait, you’re talking about Rarity’s rock, aren’t you? 

[Jeric 46,851]

45 minutes ago, TomDaBombMLP said:

...oh wait, you’re talking about Rarity’s rock, aren’t you? 

Yeahhhh. Running gag from me since I joined back in 2014 that Tom is behind all the evil in Equestria. Him and Angel Bunny

[Sparklefan1234 170,732]

5 minutes ago, Jeric said:

Yeahhhh. Running gag from me since I joined back in 2014 that Tom is behind all the evil in Equestria. Him and Angel Bunny

 

Don't forget Twist. She is the true mastermind behind all of Equestria's problems. 

[Tom Gallagher 33,588]

7 minutes ago, Jeric said:

Him and Angel Bunny

I always knew Angel was up to something... 

[Jeric 46,851]

33 minutes ago, Califorum said:

I hope that this takes place centuries, or thousands of years into the future. At least a couple decades. Its the closest thing we will get to a new world. Plus, the main characters could be distant descendants of the mane 6.

I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that this will probably take place 1000 years in the future. During FiM, It seemed that 1000 years ago was when all the crazy happened. It would be amusing to think that this new era is looking back on Twilights rise and rein in the same way that they looked back on the old time. Plus they may have forgotten what is true and what is legend in a 1000 years. In the first episode of FiM everyone forgot about Luna for example 

[Truffles 2,033]

11 minutes ago, Califorum said:

That is very true. Maybe Twilight is now a sort of god like Mufasa was in the Lion King after his death, and she will speak to the characters in visions or in the sky. 

That's interesting. When I first started watching FiM S1 and 2 I thought to myself that Twilight and her "apostles" have saved Equestria so many times she's going to become a religious figure in the far-off future. And this was before she became an alicorn at the end of S3. It doesn't seem like that happened, though Sunny (and maybe Hitch) proves she does have her little group of die-hard future fans.

[TotallyNotNyx 15,566]

I like the route they've taken with this. Hopefully the properly flesh out the lore, though I doubt this would be done in bits and pieces over the season(s). But I do agree that the Mane 6's vision of Equestria was too good to last forever, with all good things eventually passing, there would be a turn towards darkness. The interesting part is figuring out what exactly happened.