Like, holy shit, the entirety of S05E05 "Tanks for the Memories" is about Rainbow Dash's tragic war against the inevitability of deathhibernation. It's basically as close as a don't-say-that-word kids' show comes to featuring a character openly trying to defy the fate of mortals.

Sure, Tank still ends up hibernating, and the episode ends on the moral that it's fine and he'll come back in spring, but wow.

What's with the instant downvotes? I mean yeah this connection was obvious but it's still worth talking about given how shy they are about this topic on the show (four and a half seasons and the show still won't admit that Applejack's parents are dead even though everyone who works on the show agrees they are)

Edit: shh you never saw that

4734054 That's actually what struck me about the episode. Like, holy crap, in real life, if your pet is dying, he's not coming back in three months.

Also, that "hibernation" is a really contrived situation for these kinds of feels to come up in.
4734029
And even though they literally showed a shot of a funeral on-screen once.

4734228

And even though they literally showed a shot of a funeral on-screen once.

Also Sombra exploded to death on-screen.

I guess this episode goes with the normal assumptions about death.
-it is inevitable and trying to delay it too much is wrong.
-even if someone dies you'll still see them again eventually because death isn't really death.

Though the only things from that episode I focus on are Dash's song, Dash's robes and how Dash destroys an entire city. Or maybe it was just part of a factory, but it's more fun to think of it as an entire city.

4734019
I think people decided it was about death because of how upset Rainbow Dash got, but I don't think it was actually about death so much as it was about dealing with absence in general. Honestly, I'm pretty sure this was more about not seeing someone for a long period of time than death - given the timing of the episode before the summer break from school, I think that summer vacation might have been more of the target here than death.

4734515 Ok, with the timing it makes a lot more sense.

But in that case, shouldn't Dash have been a lot less vehement about the whole thing? I mean, not that she's known for her maturity, but... I would have figured she'd had friends go on vacation before? Been on vacation herself? Didn't she go to Wonderbolts Camp as a filly?

4735078 The general fanon consensus to explain this seems to be that Dash lives in the moment to such an extent that three months legit feels like forever to her.

And yes, the episode was about grieving the loss of a pet. Like, it wasn't even subtext. He was buried in the ground. (Pet tortoises of species that hibernate are usually put in a box of straw in a cold enough cupboard, IIRC. Ponies have a closer relationship with nature, but it seems weird to leave him to hibernate outdoors.) Not five minutes after it aired, people watching the streams were pointing out the stages of grief.

4734019 Good call.