Theorycrafting Equestria's Loss of Harmony

[Ganondorf8 11,308]

Not sure if Hasbro is willing to talk about death considering they did go out of their way to dodge that subject during Friendship is Magic. If anything, they are likely to dodge it again though I'm not sure in what capacity since we still know little of what brought about this new Equestria.

I was expecting a time skip again as it was pretty obvious, but how much of a time skip? Hmmm... I'm going to say a few centuries which would mean none of the cast from FiM returning with the exception of any alicorns and Discord since they have long lifespans. Whether they plan on having any returning characters is also up in the air. With regards to peace being broken, all it takes is one moment and then it all comes crashing down. Said moment had to have had a major impact otherwise it would lose all meaning before we got a chance to know about it.

[Truffles 2,033]

1 hour ago, Ganondorf8 said:

Not sure if Hasbro is willing to talk about death considering they did go out of their way to dodge that subject during Friendship is Magic. If anything, they are likely to dodge it again though I'm not sure in what capacity since we still know little of what brought about this new Equestria.

I'm wondering about this as well. If most (if not all) of the Mane 6 are dead it's going to be rather hard for the movie to avoid the issue since Sunny and her friends are going to be following the lives of Twilight and the rest pretty closely.

If Hasbro really doesn't want to have any notion of the Mane 6 having passed, then the alternative is for the Mane 6 follow in the hoofsteps of the Pillars and due to some great calamity they had to trap themselves in limbo (or some other convenient place or time to tuck them away), thus avoiding any messy deaths of their heroes. The CMC and any other fan-favorites who don't have convenient long lifespans will likely have their ultimate fates ignored to avoid G5 from becoming too dark.

[Stardust 641]

Well they are trying to replicate past gens ha where there was a more obvious split between the characters and get the idea of uniting the ponies together as they meet. The way that earth, pegasus and unicorn ponies can come together. Things like what twilight did in the past with friendship will come to help them, perhaps things they left behind in legacy. I wonder what the other species are doing these days.

They will travel between places and explore the world or something and yeah I guess there be all the usual challenges, more adventure and darkness and all. 

The reason within the story is well yeah i'm guessing there was some kind of event likely some kind of bad guy, if not a magical disaster or diplomatic falling out or something. Not too sure about a war though. 

I guess it's happened b4 in fim they turn against each other such with discord, I doubt it would be him again and there be a new reason. But it would likely have element that they feel like species is better that they are different and all. And yeah they have already mentioned paranoia so I guess they think there is some kinda working against each other.

[Jesse Terrence 2,968]

This somewhat still stays within the 4chan leaks from a couple years ago.

-New "twilight" is earth

-Pony species are "separated", though no yggdrasil

-There might be a male protagonist

-CGI movie

Would be interesting if they pulled a yoru no yatterman and we found out harmony was lost because at some point the actual baddies won and made everyone think the good ones won and just replaced them to slowly corrupt the world from atop behind their heroe facade.

[Windy Breeze 15,189]

I suspect a villain from Friendship is Magic is responsible for the lost of harmony or probably by a new one. When I think of My Little Pony, I'm pretty sure there will be an antagonist or an entity who later appear is the reason behind it all.

[ChrysalisM 290]

On the escaping villain being behind it, I think this:

Need I say which villians?

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

On 2021-02-25 at 11:24 PM, Jeric said:

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? 

I'm really racking my brain trying to figure out a way to do this "well." What I'm getting so far, reeks of an "Alien 3" kind of pseudo retcon. We see our protagonists go through Hell to win the day, only to have that completely undone in the opening credits of the sequel. The last two-parter, the climax, was literally about this; and then we're expected to believe that it all just fell apart afterward? On TWILIGHT's watch? That's a very VERY hard sell, and anything they do feels like it's going to be some ridiculous amount of deus ex machina for the "villains," bad guy, or just... the apparent force of nature that is "division."

[Castle Bleck 19,361]

54 minutes ago, BornAgainBrony said:

What I'm getting so far, reeks of an "Alien 3" kind of pseudo retcon. We see our protagonists go through Hell to win the day, only to have that completely undone in the opening credits of the sequel.

Writers: *Do ^this.*

Audience: "Then how do we know it won't happen again?" *Don't bother with the new stuff.*

Writers:

Edited March 1, 2021 by Orcus on His Throne

[Toastypk 923]

Just a little food for thought from Twilight herself.
In the comic, she finds this unicorn dude who turns out to be a descendent of the Pony of Shadows/Stygian (though this was before their return) and haunted by this, he goes out to erase all record of its existance in hopes it won't come back.
I just saw this panel and it made me realize the same message is sort of going on here.
 

[Truffles 2,033]

6 hours ago, BornAgainBrony said:

What I'm getting so far, reeks of an "Alien 3" kind of pseudo retcon. We see our protagonists go through Hell to win the day, only to have that completely undone in the opening credits of the sequel. The last two-parter, the climax, was literally about this; and then we're expected to believe that it all just fell apart afterward? On TWILIGHT's watch? That's a very VERY hard sell, and anything they do feels like it's going to be some ridiculous amount of deus ex machina for the "villains," bad guy, or just... the apparent force of nature that is "division."

In fairness, the analogy isn't quite right even if the perceived effect is somewhat similar for the audience.

If we were to map what happened to Equestria onto what happened in Alien 3, then the 4 main survivors from Aliens would have lived long, happy lives together before anything bad happened. If there had been that kind of reward, then the hell they had to go through for it was at least worth it. Instead, most of them didn't even get a minute awake after the end of the previous movie, and they all were unceremoniously dumped on in one way or another. (A3 is one of the very few movies that I really, really, wanted to get up and walk out of the theater after the first 5 minutes. And I should have - the rest of the movie featured characters with "Prometheus" levels of stupidity. )

I do admit the apparent unraveling of Twilight's reign has affected me, however, and that's why a perceived effect on the audience is understandable. Specifically, I used to not get all that emotional over the end of "The Last Problem," but I was almost brought to tears upon watching it again over the weekend, now  knowing everything she, Spike, the ReMane 5, and everyone else worked for didn't last. It seems even the best laid plans aren't immune from the effects of entropy, whether or not that being is still around to try and prevent it.

[HereComesTom 2,267]

On 2021-02-26 at 9:31 PM, Toastypk said:

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.

I don't think they can avoid doing this.  At least, not if G-5 is good and takes off; a crossover with earlier generations is something done in plenty of franchises:  Star Trek, Star Wars, Power Rangers, Pretty Cure, Doctor Who, Digimon...the list goes on.  We'd love to see it, and there's no way the G-5 showrunners don't know it!

 

On 2021-02-27 at 3:24 PM, Jeric said:

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 

That'd fit with the theme, but it feels like the technology levels aren't 1000 years different between G-4's late-1800s/early-1900s and the modern times of G-5...unless ponies advance more slowly technologically than we do.

 

Here's my two cents about how the magic of friendship got lost:  I thought I read a rumor somewhere that alicorns forced ponies apart after a war.  I don't know if it's true, but note the plural on "alicorns":  the implication is that there are plenty of alicorns around.

Now, the spreading magic of friendship that Twilight was teaching could easily cause more alicorns to come into existence after Twilight's time.  If some of those alicorns were greedy for power or wealth and decided to "play the long game" using their longevity to corrupt the pony tribes with distrust over time, then they could've caused the war, separated the three tribes to further for their own goals (maybe to tax trade?), and that would lead us up to Sunny's adventure.

[TransitPony 238]

I think some new, unprecedented situation sometime after Twilight retired might have caused horror and chaos to the point where the current leaders of G5 had to put the restrictions in place in the name of keeping the country safe. I imagine Equestria's relationship with other countries could be strained because of this, especially Griffonstone. 

[HereComesTom 2,267]

5 hours ago, Califorum said:

I hope they don't make the mane 6 the new pillars or have the student 6 again. I want it to be all new or at least, all new as it can get.

Hasbro needs to come out with new toys, so I'd guess you'll get your wish---at least as far as the main characters go.

[HedonismBot 239]

On 2021-03-01 at 8:44 PM, HereComesTom said:

Here's my two cents about how the magic of friendship got lost:  I thought I read a rumor somewhere that alicorns forced ponies apart after a war.  I don't know if it's true, but note the plural on "alicorns":  the implication is that there are plenty of alicorns around.

Now, the spreading magic of friendship that Twilight was teaching could easily cause more alicorns to come into existence after Twilight's time.  If some of those alicorns were greedy for power or wealth and decided to "play the long game" using their longevity to corrupt the pony tribes with distrust over time, then they could've caused the war, separated the three tribes to further for their own goals (maybe to tax trade?), and that would lead us up to Sunny's adventure.

Yes, that was basically the plot of an early draft described in the previous leaks - The different species were on the brink of war, a bunch of corrupt alicorns came to power and forced them to live apart, and the population at large had pretty much accepted it. No word on how much of that made it into the movie we'll actually get.