We all know Friendship Is Magic's main goal is to deliver messages to its audience about friendship as well as many other things. Whether they be simple ones like "winning isn't everything", "be yourself" and "face your fears", to extremely mature ones not even adults have fully grasped like "it's better to tell the harsh truth than a comforting lie", "kindness can be a bad thing", "you are your own worst critic" and "RACISM BAD!", it's fair to say this is one of the main reasons the show is loved by fans of all ages.

But which morals in the show have stood out the most to you? Whether it's because they made you think "Wow, that's a really good lesson for kids!" or because they stick out for you on an emotional/relatable level?

Self sacrifice and Redemption ((and the latter I predict to be in other new very recent novels and stories while the first, well I have a theory that Princess Celestia and Luna didn't just try to prepare Twilight to be a princess when facing Sombra, but to ready her for death because she will die first making the greatest sacrifice of all, and while we may never see it in the show, you will see it in my headcanon.)

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"I didn't learn anything, I was right all along." - Applejack

I think just about all of them resonate with me (with a couple of exceptions), and are good lessons for everyone, not just kids; but one that hit home for me on a more personal level was from "Rarity Takes Manehattan". The "What I Learned Today" video series summarized it as "Your friends will be jerks, but that's okay because they're still your friends."

Nobody is perfect, and there will be times your friends will act like jerks, will say or do hurtful things, sometimes not even even realizing it. They may be going through a very hard time themselves and are having difficulty coping with it. If that's not how they normally are, then cut them some slack, talk it out if necessary, and remember why you're friends with them in the first place.

Saw that episode as I was in the middle of a rather unpleasant falling-out with one of my oldest and closest friends over something which was bad, yes, but wasn't characteristic of him. He said some rather hurtful and inconsiderate things, which I had a very hard time getting past. (He was in the middle of a really ugly divorce at the time, and was kind of lashing out at life in general.) That kind of motivated me to get things sorted out, which we did, and we're back to being friends.

5772643 My personal favourite isn't one that I believe was never explicitly worded, but can be summed up as 'it's much easier to make problems than solve them'.

It's a recurring theme in a lot of episodes. I believe it says something about the nature of problems and conflict in life. After all, to solve a problem, you first need a problem to exist, but problems don't require any kind of prerequisite.

It's really quite interesting.

5772643 For me it's the lesson in "P.P.O.P.", that even long time friends must practice communication skills. And considering what happened in that episode, I think this is a lesson that everyone needs to know.

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I love Pinkie Pride, one of the reasons being this lesson:

~"It's easy to get discouraged when you see someone that's apparently better than you in a talent you take pride in; however, don't give up, and keep on doing your talent because you love doing it, and there are people who love seeing your performance/work."
*This one is kind of a personal one for me, being an artist and writer. I've seen so many other artists and writers that seem to have a better grasp on what they're doing than I do, and plenty who get more attention and get talked to more while I feel ignored. I wonder why I even bother. But, I have ideas to draw/write, and no matter what, I'm always satisfied when I finally get the idea out of my head. Just looking at my art and thinking, "Yeah, I drew that... it turned out pretty good," often makes me happy, regardless if it gets attention or not.

I could find more lessons in that episode if I wanted to. It's one of the many reasons why Pinkie Pride remains my favorite episode after three years (oh, hey, whaddya know, it's the anniversary of the episode's airing today!). That, and the music, the writing, the humor, and freakin' Cheese Sandwich still draw me back to rewatch the episode.

Lesson Zero by far, because it's an actual, non trivial lesson that people do wrong all the time.

5772643 Definitely "It is one hundred percent possible to kill with kindness. Stop coddling people or else they'll never grow". I feel that's a lesson that applies to a lot of people, both online and in real life. People are afraid to criticise face-to-face because it's socially incorrect, but a lack of criticism or excessive shielding can seriously damage a person's psyche.

5772643 I never watched the show for morals, but the ones that stuck with me was "not to change who you are" and "be yourself" and things like that.

5772643 don't threaten to use your enemy's skulls as cups. Never knew that was such an issue, but apparently I was wrong.

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I don't really care for stories with morals. BUT. I REALLY relate to Mac's character arc in Brotherhooves Social. Sturggling with toxic masculinity is a big thing for me.

5772643 Be nice to people.

I mean it's really not that hard.

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One of the things I love about MLP is that it constantly teaches us the lesson: "You don't have to to be perfect; you're allowed to get things wrong." This is such an important lesson for a child, and I don't know of any show that teaches it better than MLP. The ponies that we love are so fallible; they make poor decisions, they have breakdowns, and they learn from their mistakes.

I think my favorite specific example is in "Green Isn't Your Color". This episode always stood out to me because of how the title brilliantly misleads you. From the title alone, you would expect the moral to be "Jealousy is bad". But it's not. It's not that at all. The moral is "Be honest about your feelings". Fluttershy outright says that she doesn't care in the least about Rarity's jealousy; she completely understands, expects, and forgives it, without hesitation. And that absolutely threw me for a loop the first time I watched that episode. I'd never seen a show express such a sympathetic sentiment before.

"You're not a bad dragon; you just made a bad decision" is another great example of this. Fluttershy seems to be good at it. :)

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"Don't be the nail that stands out, or else everybody will feel bad about themselves for not being cool enough, and will thus try to hammer you down."
-Boast Busters and The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well.

Don't undermine the hard work people do for you, especially if it's out of good will or love - For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils & Suited for Success

5773002 I didn't get "toxic masculinity" from "Brotherhooves Social" at all. The lesson I took from it was that you shouldn't be so desperate to make someone look up to you that you take it too far and take other people down in the process - which can happen to anyone, male or female. But one of the cool things about MLP is that the lessons can be taken different ways.

One thing I always thought was a bit strange with morals.

See, there's the moral that 'you're allowed to not be perfect', which is for many people very important. This is a moral that the show at times champions, and I have no problem with that. Most of the time, I agree with it. But there are times in my life when I've not really been allowed to not 'be adequate'.

Take my first year at university, for example. Now, this might seem strange, due to my highly intellectual and balanced appearance, but I actually failed several courses that year, to the point where I needed to do resits. This was due to a variety of factors, but the end result was the same: I was on the cusp of failing university, which would have rather severe consequences for me. It was at this time that I found myself wishing 'I wish I had been taught to be more disciplined and rigorous, and to accept my own failings and the failures of others less'.

It's odd, therefore, that many morals, both today and in the past, revolve around accepting failings, when at a very difficult time in my life I found myself needing the exact opposite. One of the things that got me motivated to succeed was my father (a wise and caring individual) saying 'please don't fail, son, it'd be awfully shite' (wise and caring he might be, eloquent he was not). This was in stark contrast to a lot of more mellow messages shows and books had provided me.

Perhaps I'm rambling, and I confess I don't really have much of an opinion on the matter: I think self-acceptance and 'being chillax' is a good thing that's good for the soul, but I do find the apparent contradiction curious.

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Only post in the thread that matters.

5773419 I think that's likely true. I suppose when push comes to shove we all have to decide which is more important.

Still, good to ponder, I suppose.

Starlight Glimmer. Everything about her, really; she just resonates with me in the same way the show itself does, and that's a difficult thing to see in a new character. The reason being that I believe that MLP: FiM stands for redemption, friendship & second chances, and Starlight Glimmer is the first major pony villain that Twilight and her friends managed to help turn to a better path. I was brought to beautiful tears in "To Where and Back again" when Starlight helped Thorax restore his race and teach them to share love, not just take it from others, because she paid it forward. She returned Twilight's kindness and belief in her by helping someone else to see a better path. This resonates incredibly well with my most deeply held ideals, as I believe the path to a better world is one long chain of kind acts that lead to the next person in line being kind to the next, and so on and so forth.

5772643 The lesson taught in Amending Fences.

It's probably the best one in the entire series, because it's one rarely touched upon in most media.

"Let's beat them up!"

- Rainbow Dash

Oh, and:

It's important to look fabulous, darling!

- Fashion Horse

From this, I have extrapolated that it is crucial to beat people up while looking fabulous.

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"Don't stick your head in a flask?"

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Mostly the stupid ones, honestly.

Like: "Progress and compromise is bad, even when it would benefit everyone involved. It's awesome to have a monopoly on a market that you alone can't possibly meet the demands of, and you should stubbornly insist things stay that way even when you encounter an opportunity to make your friends happy and make a greater profit at the same time." (The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.)

Or: "Lying is bad, even when you lie with good intentions or because your were coerced, because it might lead to your brother getting his leg amputated through a series of highly unlikely shenanigans, mainly because you kinda sucked at lying. Whether or not you value honesty as a virtue is irrelevant, as long as your honesty is driven by an irrational fear of negative consequences caused by a traumatic experience." (Where the Apple Lies.)

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It was really more like: "Just because you don't like your friend's friends doesn't mean they're bad people, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that you're necessarily wrong either. If you know from personal experience that your friend's new friend might be bad news, you may be justified in being concerned about your friend getting her feelings hurt. But, like, you should still give them a chance, I guess?"

It was a good episode.

5774193 No, but that one is important too.

It's the main lesson, the one about Moondancer and Twilight.

Some people place big importance on small things, like parties, and it's important to recognize that. Don't just think that because you skipped out on one 'small' thing with your friend(s), everything's still fine between you.

It's similar to Lesson Zero, but from the other side.

5772643 The message in The Cutie Re-Mark resonated with me:
An insignificant event in the past can shatter a timeline. Just because things are fine and dandy now, doesn't mean that billions of people won't be squirming in agony in the cumming future. Contentment is what hinders your foresight. Be vigilant.

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An insignificant event in the past can shatter a timeline.

You can say THAT again.

Just because things are fine and dandy now, doesn't mean that billions of people won't be squirming in agony in the cumming future.

cumming

Uh.

Was that intentional?

I feel like that was intentional.

5775848 It was intentional.