How Many Years have past since G4

[TheUnknownPhantom5 67]

How long do you think it's been in between G4 and G5?

Are all G4 characters most likely dead by G5, or do you think It's gonna be like Avatar the Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra where some characters from G4 are still alive, just really old?

[JMTV99 1,348]

Probably a thousand years, maybe?

IDK, we'll find out once the movie hits.

[TotallyNotGrogar 11]

Considering how much technology has advanced and the harmonic society as we knew it seemed to break down and rebuild itself separately probably at least a couple hundred years. Regarding to any characters that might be alive, aside from alicorns the ones that come to mind are dragons. Dragons seemed to have very long lifespans in G4 so maybe Spike, Smolder and company are still kicking. It would be funny (and a little sad) to see Spike as a grumpy old dragon reminiscing about old times.

Also Discord because the essence of caos is eternal. And the villans from the finale trapped in stone might still be hoping to break free one day.

[Steve Piranha 28,781]

3 hours ago, TotallyNotGrogar said:

Considering how much technology has advanced and the harmonic society as we knew it seemed to break down and rebuild itself separately probably at least a couple hundred years. Regarding to any characters that might be alive, aside from alicorns the ones that come to mind are dragons. Dragons seemed to have very long lifespans in G4 so maybe Spike, Smolder and company are still kicking. It would be funny (and a little sad) to see Spike as a grumpy old dragon reminiscing about old times.

Also Discord because the essence of caos is eternal. And the villans from the finale trapped in stone might still be hoping to break free one day.

I think it may be even longer, as FIM Equestria  is considered ancient by G5 

[Sonic Shimmer 4,116]

Looks like a few hundred years at least, maybe thousands. None of the cities from G4 seem to exist anymore. The Mane Six probably passed into legend and most assume they never existed.

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

Certainly over a thousand years, maybe longer if the Mane Six are now legends.

[Skylight Scintillate 1,851]

Well from what it seems, none of the characters from G4 are there. It seems like everything from G4 is considered ancient history, so I would say a few thousand years.

[Paleopony 690]

Hundreds of years, if not thousands.

[Dec Browne 20]

Let’s not forget that G4 has things like arcade games, colour photography, film, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and Jet Set’s cutie mark of three aeroplanes.

[HedonismBot 218]

3 hours ago, Dec Browne said:

Let’s not forget that G4 has things like arcade games, colour photography, film, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and Jet Set’s cutie mark of three aeroplanes.

Then again, there was a statement from one of the staff to the tune of "If you see something that looks unusually advanced, assume it's powered by magic". If they'd been relying on magic to run their machines, they would have had to invent a lot of stuff from scratch when the all the magic went AWOL.

Edited October 9, 2021 by HedonismBot

[Goat-kun 2,498]

Given their track record, I'd say about a thousand 

[Evil Pink One 12,983]

they've gotta step up their game from G4..... so older than Celestia at this point.

[Star Flame 33]

At least 5000 years. We saw sunny pass near the tree of harmony, and there were no remaining ruins from the royal sisters's castle or anything. This implicates a long time has passed. Considering also that the mane 6 are considered legends, or even silly bed-time stories.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

At the very minimum, it's been at least several generations which would roughly be about 400 years. This might be the exact amount of time that has passed but I think it's going to be much longer than that. It'd be nice if we were given an official confirmation though I suppose us guessing does have its perks.

[Props Valroa 26,043]

I'd say around a thousand. At the very least, around 500 years. It has to take a great amount of time for the world to go to hell like it did there.

[Lucky Bolt 34,914]

I'm gonna go with 1,000 years. It seems like a ripe good number.  Long enough to develop technology like phones and such, which they did. 

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

I'd say at least a decade, but it's probably closer to a millennium since the Equestria in G4 is referred to as ancient Equestria and the mane six are only bedtime stories.

[Kosmodakrigan 36]

Presumably at least 2000 years. If we assume Twilight's reign lasted 1000 years like the previous political cycles (Discord, Celestia + Luna, Celestia alone) and no new princess took over after she retired. 1000 additional years for her legacy to pass into mythology. And for all those cities to be abandoned (we don't hear of Canterlot, Manehattan, Vanhoover, Fillydelphia etc.).

The technological progress and social shift could have happened within less than a century. G4 already has steam trains, zeppelins, arcade games, DJ equipment and hydroelectricity. Look how much has changed over the 20th century. Besides technology, racial segregation was normal in the US while most Europeans had never seen a Person of Colour within living memory.

The tech level in communication and recording makes it hard for the events of G4 to pass into myth. It's the main reason why we don't have any new myths today, unless you count multimedia franchises which perpetrate (pop) society and have at least some moral message like Star Wars and Marvel.

Sunny's father has relics from G4 that date back over 10 generations. If we assume ponies have lifespans akin to humans, this would amount to c. 300 years. This is way too short for  G4 to become myth in a literate technological society. I don't remember if he said it's just in his family for over 10 generations. Or it was just a gross estimation.

So, presumably it's several millennia, with 3000-5000 years being most likely. Twilight ruled for 1000 years with little changes in Equestria during that time. It would make sense if there was some point where civilisation fell back and much technology was lost for some time until it was rediscovered. This would've been the timespan during which many cities were destroyed or abandoned and the historical records of FIM got lost and turned into mythology.

Edited March 27 by Kosmostiraedan

[The Nth Doctor 652]

Twilight's reign only lasted a few moons (years) before it collapsed, given she doesn't look like her Last Problem self in the hologram (comics aside, but given the shift to mini-series rather than numbered issues, it looks like they're going to be ignoring the early stuff, which is disappointing, but understandable)

The dragons also said they've been asleep for centuries

 

Although we simply don't know what really happened in G5's version of G4, since nothing we learn about it lines up with Friendship is Magic

[Kosmodakrigan 36]

34 minutes ago, The Nth Doctor said:

 a few moons (years)

You mean months. A moon is the time the moon needs to rotate around the Earth, which is approximately one month.

[Iforgotmybrain 3,508]

My headcanon is that it was something like 500-1000 years given the amount of changes from G4 to G5. That's more than enough time for holidays and traditions to change. Cities to rise and fall. Tech to change and advance. Canonically I'm not 100% sure if we know since it seems most claims in G5 have been conflicting or kind of vague.

[Starlight Serenade 558]

I would like to say several hundred years to thousands of years as others have previously mentioned, but G5 tends to have some ambiguous timeline.

[The Nth Doctor 652]

On 2024-03-27 at 6:08 PM, Kosmostiraedan said:

You mean months. A moon is the time the moon needs to rotate around the Earth, which is approximately one month.

Nope

A "moon" is a year in pony terminology

[Princess Celestia 606]

Impossible to answer, I still live in my generation's timeline and only magic can possibly tell me about the future to come. Besides I don't know how humans count their time. I guess it's different from ours?

[KPackratt 68]

If that terminology applied to G4, then Sunset Shimmer would be in her forties considering the portal to the Human World was open once every 30 moons (before Twilight opened it permanently) and she moved there on the previous opening cycle. Sunset being a few decades older than the rest of the Canterlot High students and even her friends would be a pretty peculiar situation. I'd say the definition of "moons" was changed somehow in the generation that followed it.