When it comes to the episodes of all those seasons, there were some that I admittedly had a hard time seeing how they’d fit in with the overarching stories they had. Some featured the School of Friendship in the background or as a setting, yet there’d be stories that hardly have anything to do with them or the Main Six’s jobs as teachers. Some episodes in the 9th season also carried little relevance towards Twilight becoming the new ruler of Equestria.

Others from both seasons are ones that I believe would’ve worked better as prequels to the 2017 MLP: FiM film. As a matter of fact, I always considered “Sounds of Silence”, “The Parent Map”, “Going to Seed”, “Growing Up is Hard to Do”, and “Common Ground” to be prequels to the film since the School of Friendship is neither mentioned, featured in the background, or had characters inside of it; since the Student Six are nowhere to be found or mentioned in those episodes; and since Twilight’s coronation as Equestria’s newest ruler is never mentioned.

That being said, though…

Out of all the ones featuring or mentioning the School of Friendship and the Student Six, or revolving around Twilight becoming the new ruler of Equestria, which episodes from Seasons 8 & 9 do you guys believe would’ve worked the best as prequels to the 2017 film? Especially to where they could easily be reworked as such?

In none of the seasons were all episodes tied into a singular arc, and I don't think that should have been the case with Seasons 8 and 9 either.

That said... my biggest nomination of this sort would indeed be "Growing Up is Hard To Do" which presents the CMC as explicitly young children, not even teens (when by all rights they should be approaching the age of the start-of-show Mane 6). In fact, I'd ignore the mention of Star Swirl and boot it back *several* seasons, to Season 5 or earlier.

As for other episodes... I guess a few could have come earlier, but I don't think any particularly needed to?

7841373
Imagine if the Eight and Ninth Seasons hadn't been about the School or Twilight becoming the Ruler but had been about a new generation with the CMC's becoming adults and stars of the show with the Mane Six becoming supporting characters. You had all the kids from Cheerilees class and even Cozy Glow if rewritten to be the new antagonist.

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*Insert Post-Movie Aftermath with Cozy Glow being the leader of a separatist faction within Equestria that refuses to trust The Royal Sisters and Mane Six with their safety ever again that threatens to evolve into a Civil War throughout Season 8, before evolving into a Civil War by Season 9 as Princess Luna has now joined forces with Cozy Glow to punish Princess Celestia who has now been exposed as an unrepentant Control-Freak obsessed with Destiny and complete disregard for Choice and Free Will here*

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I remember hearing that "Growing Up is Hard to Do" was actually written around season 4 or 5 but not greenlit, and when the opportunity finally came, the creators wanted to do that story so badly that they were like "Damn the plot holes, full speed ahead!" Which is a shame because if you set aside the fact that the CMC went from running a children's day camp with no adult oversight to completely forgetting how trains work, it's a perfectly respectable story.

As for those other episodes, even if there's no reason they need to take place after the movie, they really aren't harmed by that in any way.

7841373
Well, at one point, I personally thought that "The Washouts" would've totally worked as an episode taking place before "Parental Glideance". Mainly as part of Season 6. The biggest reason for why is because of this:

In "Parental Glideance", Scootaloo knew about Lightning Dust and all she did in "Wonderbolts Academy", and was even telling Rainbow Dash's parents about it. In "The Washouts", though, Scootaloo discovers for the first time that Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust knew each other, and clearly didn't know about Lightning Dust's actions in "Wonderbolts Academy" at all.

One thing's for sure, it presented quite a big continuity error.

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You’re correct on that regard.

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Think that might be a bit much. I was thinking more that the CMC's and the ponys there age we get to see move into adulthood and the older generation of the Mane Six move into supporting roles. It would have had the benefit of continuity while also keeping the original cast somewhat involved.

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True, but my method would have made the events of the Movie have a long-lasting effect on the narrative instead of having it be just swept under the proverbial rug like all the previous times this happened. There had to be a point where Ponies would no longer be willing to tolerate all the times when Princess Celestia denied a chance to get rid of a threat to the safety of her citizens and intentionally held back her own forces just to send in Twilight to stumble across a necessary solution because of Destiny.

"You think you're better than everyone else, but there you stand: the good man doing nothing. And while evil triumphs, and your rigid pacifism crumbles into blood-stained dust, the only victory afforded to you is that you stuck true to your guns. You were a coward... to your last whimper."

Android 16 to Gohan, DragonBall Z Abridged

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I would have settled for having the Mane Six move into mentor roles relative to the Student Six, as well as actually go somewhere with the CMCs as friendship tutors. Anything would have been an improvement over rolling back character development for the sake of having them keep on being the ones to learn the episode's lesson ("Non-Compete Clause", "2, 4, 6, Great!", etc.)

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That might be one way to go about it, but it would rather waste the movie popularising the Mane Cast more, wouldn't it?

7841414
Such minor glitches have happened throughout the show. Still, I suppose there would be no harm in switching those episodes.

7841463
Glad we agree on that.

A couple other episodes that I believe would’ve made more sense as prequels to the 2017 MLP film are “Fake It Til You Make It” and “She Talks to Angel”. I couldn’t get how Rarity and Fluttershy could helm their career paths despite their duties as Friendship teachers, and it seemed like both episodes could easily be turned into prequels if the animators took the time to modify them as such.

What do you think?

7841510
I agree that the balance is awkward, but I think having them all abandon their lives to be teachers would be worse, so I don't know how I feel there...

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Possibly. But look what we got. A dissatisfied ending and a timeskip.

7841585
I can see that.

Then again, I think part of why I’ve questioned how the Main Six were able to balance their career choices with being Friendship teachers was based on how much I’ve learned about teaching in general. My mother used to be a public school assistant teacher before homeschooling me from the 6th grade onwards, and in all that time, I remembered that it was hard for her to balance her duties as one with other things.