) I can safely say that My Little Pony: A New Generation was great! 
And here are my random thoughts:
What's the most valuable lesson you took away from MLP? · 11:06am Oct 8th, 2019
With the finale on the horizon, I'm in the mood to look back on previous episodes and ask you guys:
What is the most valuable lesson you took away from the show?
For me, it was the moral of It Ain't Easy Bein' Breezies. Up to this point, back when Fluttershy wasn't near the top of my favourite Mane Six ponies, the writers stuck to a repetitive formula with her episodes: she's timid about something, people try to stop her being timid, she learns a lesson along the lines of being more assertive/overcoming her anxiety, and then goes back to square one in her next episode so she can learn it again. It wasn't Fluttershy being stupid and forgetful with her lessons, it was the fault of the writers for recycling the same basic story over and over and it getting boring. Ideally she would've learnt this lesson once and then learnt the ways to apply it in different situations.
With It Ain't Easy Bein' Breezies, that day came to pass. After this episode, Fluttershy's character development stuck and she took the lesson to heart, becoming more assertive and witty while still being empathetic and having certain things she doesn't like, like Nightmare Night.
That lesson being that always being nice and placating people is an extremely unhealthy thing. Sometimes an act of kindness can do more harm than good and some people will take advantage of your kindness, so you have to be able to put your foot down and be assertive to someone for their own good. It may not make you feel warm and fuzzy inside but there are times when you have to be cruel to be kind.
That's a rare lesson for both children and adults, and an incredibly valuable one at that.
What about you?
One key lesson I took away from the show is to follow your heart and pursue your dreams no matter what. This is perfectly embodied in the CMC, who never gave up hunting for their cutie marks no matter how hopeless it seemed.
As a common saying in Blighty puts it, "Worry not about what others think, as they'll think it anyway.
It's a really tough call, but off the top of my head, I'm gonna have to say the same thing as you. The importance of knowing when to be harsh is not only important because it is, but also because of how rarely it's covered in media. It's easy to be nice, it's just basic human instinct. But being kind through harshness is just as, if not more important, and the fact that a show like FIM covered this is truly excellent.
One that readily comes to my mind off the bat is from the very first episode I ever saw, Lesson Zero. In particular, the lesson about not letting fears or concerns turn a little concern into a major one. I can be rather self-critical and anxious, and really have problems with the idea of messing up or outright failing at something, and it's something that I've struggled with a fair couples times. So I really identified with Twilight in that episode - and even with the way that she's had to re-learn that lesson a fair few times since then. Some of these things really do take some time to stick.