Yeah. If Equestria falls apart this quickly without any Alicorns in power then the ponies must be the most panicky herd creatures imaginable -- or the most gullible. That's very sad; to think that Twilight's, and Celestia's work was all for naught.

I just figure this is a shard in the Optimalverse. Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense.

Heh

7582134
I mean, you can't prove it's not a virtual reality based on MLP. It would explain the inevitable retcons/mistakes it will make.

Cool picture. It's one way this movie could make sense. Not that the story is non nonsensical from My Little Pony Generation 4. Honestly this post is hyperbolic yet does point out that this could be Optimalverse inspiration.

I imagine a person emigrating, who - like several stories here - doesn't like Celestia, and doesn't want her in the shard. They don't want to deal with the Equestria of the show, they want something more modern, more normal to the world they are leaving. They also want a more original experience than just the canon Pony world. And they want to be important in some way, they want to matter to the shard they are in. The result would be the world in that movie!

Any one - or all - of the protagonists could be the human emigrant, but my vote goes to Izzy Moonbow. She comes into the shard literally out of nowhere (though a simple backstory and town of origin is manufactured for her when needed) and doesn't have a clue how to be a unicorn. She is over-eager to make friends and she acts like she owns the shard - because she figures she does. But the program (Celestia Inside!) has an adventure for her, to help her adjust to her new Pony life. In the end, she gains friends, one of which is important - and a stand-in for Celestia - and she gains powers in a way that allows her to feel she earned them.

Looked at this way, the movie could easily be interpreted as a quasi-Optimalverse story. Do you agree?

7582308
The original matrix was a paradise, where everyone could be happy. It was a disaster, none would accept the system.

7582134
I have a few other ideas—interstellar generation ship, Glimmer splinter timeline, Discord's ongoing sociology experiment (he'll tell Twilight when the results are in!)—but this works very well.

"It's no wonder that truth is is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense"
-Mark Twain (supposedly)

7582276

Not that the story is non nonsensical from My Little Pony Generation 4. Honestly this post is hyperbolic...

Ignoring how Gen 5 contradicts series 4 canon about the Wendigoes, or the concept that friendship literally is the source of magical power, or even that the sun and moon require direct telekinetic intervention in order for day and night to even work, I present this far more major issue to the Gen 5 world:

The entire point, in the canon Gen 4 series (See 'Winter Wrap Up', 'Running Of The Leaves', and every other similar episode) for the different pony breeds is that they uniquely perform a function vital for the continuation of life. Only Earthponies can grow crops, only Pegasai can move clouds and make clouds (and snowflakes), and cause rain to fall, or wind to blow, the question stands: how are the Unicorns and Pegasai eating at all? In the movie, there is no trade between the three breeds at all. Zero trade. The Pegasai have a high-tech city, but no farms and no crops, anywhere to be seen. The Unicorns live in a forest, with no farms, no crops anywhere to be seen. Only the Earthponies have farmland in the movie. Yet all the breeds have food, restaurants, and tea to drink.

Where do they get it? No trade, only Earthponies have farms - they are clear about that in the movie, because they show their landscapes - so... how are any ponies besides Earthponies eating?

Yeah, yeah, the farms are all conveniently 'off screen'. Or 'It's only a movie for children, nothing has to make sense'. Or 'maybe the Pegasai's high tech means they have hydroponic systems or replicators like Star Trek?' Or 'Maybe the unicorns just live off of fruit and grass, right? They live in a forest! Maybe they make tea from tea trees - those grow in forests, right?'.

Shitty worldbuilding is shitty worldbuilding, and I don't care if it is in a show for adults or children. The world is a character too.

Gen 5 has severely shitty worldbuilding.

Unless... unless the entire thing is a shard in an Optimalverse situation, and food just 'appears' in stores, because a flag gets set every morning in the simulation. Instantly, the world makes sense. Food just rezzes in on shelves. Because it's data. There is always more tea in the box. Always more bread in the bag. Always more everything. Because code. Worldbuilding. It matters.

7582376

Ignoring how Gen 5 contradicts series 4 canon about the Wendigoes... the sun and moon require direct telekinetic intervention in order for day and night to even work... they uniquely perform a function vital for the continuation of life.

Well, maybe they solved all these problems and then, after everypony wasn't coerced into friendship any more, everything collapsed

7582401
I mean, yeah. Earth ponies don't have any advantage farming without their magic and Maritime Bay isn't even a farming town, it's a fishing village. So for them to have any food at all farming must be modern and mostly automated, so the unicorns and pegasi probably just have farms.

The windigos are gone because Twilight killed them. Onscreen during G4.

The sun and the moon were automated too. By Princesses Celestia and Luna. Onscreen during G4. They gave Twilight a little 'move the sun' device.

7582428
Or Twiggles just got bored after centuries of ruling, plopped those 3 villages in the middle of nowhere and pitched them against each other for her amusement

While I completely understand why writers didn't want to drag everything from G4 or why they didn't bothered with farms, there's much less excusable world building problem: every tribe knows completely nothing about every other tribe (Sunny included --- she knows only cool stories from centuries ago) while living within something like a day walk from each other.

7582376
The movie's limited run time focused on the characters which I care about more. G5 has incomplete world building like a lot of stories. Doesn't automatically make it hot garbage. Questions in this vein that need to be answered to bridge the gap from G4: Wendigoes, food productions of the tribes, tech levels they have and the culture that has evolved from the collapse. The writers have a year or so to listen to suggestions if at all to flesh out the world.

Adding in my 2 cents: Ponies are centralist, has a sheriff as leader with private company heavy influence, and solid mechanical along early electronics tech. Pegasus are liberals, has corporate-monarchy thing and with our tech levels. Unicorns are conservatives, has a strong man... err stallion in charge, and with mechanical only tech. The rest of the races? Off doing whatever with what is on claw or hoof. They'll be added in needed for object lessons and variety.

7582308
Those are some very good points.

7582366
CelestAI: "Amateurs."

7582376
All of which is to say that Lauren Faust did a tremendous job of worldbuilding, and wouldn't it have been nice to see where she would have actually taken it if she hadn't been shown the door after the first season.

7582428
Wait the sun was automated??? Which episode??? How did I I miss that?

7583121
I think it's the one where they go on vacation? I don't remember the context but it was a little stopwatch looking thing.

7583121
Yeah, it was a particularly shitty, badly written episode near the end of the run.

MLP gets a lot of forgiveness from fans, because of the good will generated from the first season, and the sheer inertia of the fandom. You can only imagine how the 'Airbender' or 'Steven Universe' crowd would deal with their solidly created show universes suddenly being fucked up the ass with goofy and completely off-point, meaningless MGM-style hijinx for no reason. They would blow all the blood vessels, and rightly so.

Sadly, MLP never was consistently given, past the first season, the continuity and solidity of worldbuilding it clearly deserved. With MLP, you get an episode that does excellent and serious worldbuilding, then three to five episodes of, basically, wacky kiddy insanity. It's very frustrating, and why I prefer the writers here over the actual show writers.

Some of us cling to those episodes that follow the original, considered, concept, and ignore the ones that go 'Looney-Tunes' for no reason. Well, the reason is talentless hacks and American-style uncaring about animation, but I digress.

7582141

If Equestria falls apart this quickly without any Alicorns in power...

We didn't see Equestria in "My Little Pony: A New Generation". We saw three nearby settlements that didn't even interact with each-other, let alone the outside world. For all we know: Equestria's doing fine.

7583642
I didn't even bother to watch that episode (if we're thinking of the same episode). Celestia and Luna retire so that Twilight, a young woman in her 20s or so, can rule Equestria all by herself? Pass. If the episode reduces my favorite character to a Mary Sue, I doubt I'd enjoy watching it.

7770960
My biggest problem with that storyline in Season 9 was that it was such an obvious thing to do. It was uncreative.