I think we can all agree that Generation 5 should start fresh, right? With no expecting it to fit into Gen 4's shoes.
Before Gen 4, before Faust reimagined it with her watermark of writing, Pony was an infantilized girlish joke. It embodied being a 2-6 year old girl and running around with paper machae on your head and princesses and magic crystals and talking soft fuzzy creatures.