My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic is the fourth incarnation of Hasbro’s My Little Pony franchise, commissioned in 2010 to be written by Lauren Faust and aired on The Hub. The series was originally set to air for sixty five episodes, concluding with the season three finale, Magical Mystery Cure, which saw the main protagonist Twilight Sparkle come full circle from the antisocial bookworm who didn’t care about friendship to becoming the Princess of Friendship. However, since online fandoms were becoming increasingly prevalent around the time of FIM’s release, the rise of the brony community led to the series becoming so popular it was continued past the original intended ending. Over its decade long run FIM would gain a ton of tie in material, such as the Equestria Girls spin-off series, a theatrical movie in 2017 and several comic book series published by IDW.

But as they say, all good things must come to an end. In 2019 FIM concluded with the season nine finale, The Last Problem, which served as an honourable send off for the show’s nine season saga. And as is always the case for MLP, when one generation ends, a new one begins. But there was a problem there. G4 had been so successful, it even blew G1’s popularity out of the water and turned MLP into a media juggernaut. How was this new incarnation possibly going to compare to what came before? The answer it seems, was obvious to Hasbro; connect the two generations.

Early concept art for G5 shows that Hasbro originally toyed with the idea of race swapped versions of the Mane Six, such as Earth Pony Twilight or Unicorn Fluttershy. Fortunately, this idea was dropped and the decision was made to move forward with a new case of characters. Instead, this new generation would be a sequel series, still set in the world of Equestria, just an unspecified amount of time in the future. This connection is evident as early as the opening scene of A New Generation, which features a cameo of the Mane Six, complete with a voice reprisal from FIM’s main cast. And the references to G4 in the movie don’t stop there. Sunny’s lighthouse is fulled with references to the G4 era, Twilight’s Cutie Mark can be seen in several places (Sunny’s bag, Argyle’s journal and the stain glass window in Zephyr Heights) and there’s an old Wonderbolts poster in Zipp’s hideout.

This connection to G4 didn’t seem to be stopping after the movie, either. In the buildup to Make Your Mark’s release the Mane Six were appearing in promotional material and even in the toyline. Then MYM came out, and something was noticeably different. There were no more direct references to G4 like there had been in the movie. Or at least, not in chapter one. Chapter two’s trailer set the internet on fire by teasing Twilight at the end, and while we did get a return of Twilight Sparkle in the form of a recording (complete with Tara Strong reprising her role), chapter two otherwise contained no references. In fact, the connections to G4 didn’t return until a year later with the return of the Breezies in chapter five and the return of Spike in chapter six, along with another appearance from Twilight’s Cutie Mark in the form of a shield generated by the Unity Crystals around the Brighthouse. So, the question is; what happened?

Well, remember how I said FIM was aired on The Hub? The Hub was a collaboration between Hasbro and Discovery, and originally Hasbro was in primary control. But then after season four of FIM the deal was renegotiated and Discovery ended up in primary control, rebranding The Hub as Discovery Family. And as part of this deal, Discovery gained partial rights to everything from season five and onwards of FIM. A writer for MYM confirmed in a panel at a con that they had to pay royalties for Twilight’s appearance in Growing Pains. With this knowledge in hands, fans have proposed the following theory; the final product of Make Your Mark as we got it wasn’t the originally planned story.

Some fans say that MYM was a confusing show at first, but it got better later on, and I agree. Around the time of chapters one and two MYM couldn’t seem to make up its mind on whether it was a sequel series or not, but had come into its own by chapter three. Well, the theory goes that Hasbro was willing to pay royalties to Discovery for the movie, but not for the series, or at least, not the whole series. So chapters one and two are a bit of a confusing mess because they were hastily working behind the scenes to remove most of the G4 connections. I originally didn’t know what to make of this theory. It had long confused me why Hasbro decided to make a sequel series when MLP as a franchise has always been targeted primarily towards kids, and as such the kids G5 would be targeted at wouldn’t be familiar with G4 as it was before their time. But then I thought about it and realised something; Tell Your Tale.

Tell Your Tale is a G5 series released on YouTube that started between ANG and MYM. It’s first season then ran alongside MYM and it’s second season is now MLP’s flagship series since MYM concluded in November of 2023 with chapter six. TYT is somewhat controversial amongst older fans, some of whom consider it far too goofy and question why it was even made. Well, I think know why. Kids have short attention spans, so TYT with its five minute runtime and cartoony art style is perfect for kids. And the sales figures released by Hasbro confirm it. TYT outperformed both MYM and FIM in terms of popularity amongst MLP’s target demographic of two to eight year olds. What if the two shows were meant for different audiences; TYT for kids and MYM for older fans who are familiar with FIM. But because of the rights issue they couldn’t go through with their original plan.

This might also explain something else that’s been confusing me; the six month long gap between chapters three and four and how Bridlewoodstock fits into it. If they had to redo chapter four to remove most of the G4 connections (and also decide if they were going to do the same for chapters five and six) it would explain why it took so long to complete. It would also explain Bridlewoodstock. Apparently the special was originally supposed to be released as a standalone like Winter Wishday was, but it took so long to complete it was released with chapter four. This makes sense if you think about it. Secrets of Starlight serves as a bridge between chapter six of MYM and season two of TYT, so it’s logical to release the special with the chapter itself. Bridlewoodstock on the other hand has no real connection to chapter four and feels more like a spring special. I suspect the original plan was for the special to come out around March and then chapter four would still come out in June, but with them reworking the last few chapters behind the scenes the production of the special was slowed down to the point that the decision to release the special and chapter four together.

I’ve been wondering for a long time why G5 was connected to G4, and I think I’ve finally cracked it. But what do all of you think?

7962057
I mean it is still connected to G4 but they probably don't want to reference it too much then again why did they do it who knows but anyway I still think it is still connected in my opinion

7962057
They took advantage of G4's popularity and said "Fuck it, let's make them be in the same universe so we can sell twice the toys and get more money."

Is not that deep.

7962060
I think the OP and your money gif or both right. Basically discovery had the rights and they got greedy so things got changed last minute cause discovery pretty much said no to using g4 characters and refs in g5 if has to kept the rights or bought them back g5 wouldn’t be a train wreck with the older fans. Honestly they should have gone with the fim reboot but someone leaked the designs online and the fans hated them without giving it a chance

7962101
There’s a reason the race swap idea wasn’t popular with fans. Think about it, they had just said goodbye to beloved characters they had been following for the past decade. Imagine if they did that and Hasbro then came out and said that the new generation was alternate versions of those same characters. Not only would it have been confusing for fans to try and separate the new versions of the characters from the old ones but it would have screamed creative bankruptcy on Hasbro’s part.

7962057
Personally I'm fine with G5 being connected to G4. :)

After all.... it is something that wasn't done before in the MLP Franchise, that being connecting to a previous generation.

7962132
So am I! It gives us clues to what might've happened in Equestria after the events of The Last Problem.

And it touches base with equality and unity.

7962737
Indeed =3

7962057
You sir
Just NAILED EVERY SINGLE POINT!

7962063
But maybe it is!

7962132
Indeed
Honestly im glad they are trying their best
And i like it like this
It explores the new world while The new cast Explores the past of what occurred!
I believe season 2 is gonna be more about their new world
As season 1 was more about exploring the past and wrapping up the secrets of what happened with Twilight's equestria
Season 2 will be about the new world and the threats that wish to harm harmony this time

7962845
Except is not.

If the writers wanna make them being related have sense or not, that's on them, but as for Hasbro, they only approved G5 being a G4 sequel because of money. Simple as that.

7962853
Hmm...
Nuh uh!

7962856
Sure, you do you, lil bro.

7962860
Yeah
im teasing, you know?

7962846
For sure =3

7962959
Indeed my friend

7962976
Heh =3

I still wished it wasn't related so that it could have been more creative and original.