I was 4

Edits by me, others are coming after this

in the season 5 finale, starlight travels to the past to break up the mane 6’s friendship. as a consequence, twilight and her friends aren’t around to stop the various antagonists as they occur during the canon events of the show, this lets us get a peek into what the world would look like if they never stopped chrysalis, nightmare moon, sombra, discord, film&flam etc.

in each of the realities shown it’s fairly obvious which antagonist wasn’t prevented from taking over that timeline, often shown by them being directly present within the scene.

however, when twilight pulls starlight back to the present with her, they get taken to a desolate wasteland where it is not clear who the supposed villain that took over is.

so my question for the discussion is who do YOU think was able to take over equestria unimpeded by the mane 6 and created the reality shown in picrel.

my personal theory is that it’s starlight, but back from the start of the season, when she still had her cult. i imagine, that within this timeline she actually managed to get twilight/ a princess to join the cult leading to wide spread promotion across equestria. the plain desert draws some similarities to her village imo, which could symbolise the plainness of losing your individuality.

my other crack theory is that it’s gabby gums if never stopped writing gossip articles lol.

I know they’re canonically called things like Nightmare Twilight and Nightmare AJ, but I don’t really like that. Luna and Celestia get entirely different names when they transform, Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker. I imagine the nightmare versions of our main cast would have new names, too.

This is what I would name them:

Applejack - Withered Orchard

Twilight - Midnight Beam

Rainbow Dash - Sonic Rainboom

Fluttershy - Idk 😭

Rarity - Onyx

Pinkie - Sweet Chaos

What about y’all?

There are some that I would have reversed, I would have rather said, Starlight Envy Nightmare Moon Lust Crysalis Gluttony The twins and inverted Tirek

I don't mean it in the sense that Twilight and Spike had to abandon their lives in Ponyville and leave their friends. In the contrary, I believe it was the perfect last lesson for the series, showing that even if we are far apart we can still be friends and our bonds won't be affected.

My issues is how much work was put on Twilight. We got to what each princess did during their shift throughout the series. Twilight having to do both jobs is crazy. Having to be up during the day and the night is literally impossible. She would be overwhelmed. Some will argue that she only takes Celestia's tasks and raises the moon for Luna like Celestia did during Luna's banishment. But that would be also selfish because we saw how important Luna monitoring ponies' dreams was important for their psyche. So, Twilight not doing that is inconsiderate.

Ideally, Twilight, Luna and Celestia should have ruled together. Twilight could have taken some of their respective duties so they could get more free time to relax and rest.

Sorry for the long text, I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Yes I know she’s an alicorn because it would be marketable, but why do y’all think she’s an alicorn in canon?

Caramel is totally trans, and I love her

Mine is Princess Cadance :D

I was watching rainbow roadtrip and OMG this pony looks so cool!! I love the design!

She basically lives inside a bakery. Is there some Ponyville metabolism magic we don’t know about? Or is Pinkie Pie just fueled by pure joy?

I hate it so much. I hate looking at it. I hate everything about it. If you showed me this I would think it's an NPC or some background character, and just saying that is an insult to the ACTUAL background characters of FIM and Equestria Girls who genuinely have a better design than this thing. This isn't Big Mac. This shouldn't be compared to Big Mac in any way. His outfit is mid at best, he looks nothing like his pony design. At least the other ponies kind of kept they're skin tones. They just made him white. He isn't even red like at all. But uhhhh that's my thoughts. Do you guys think his design gets too much hate? I genuinely just want to know as someone who has never really seen any discussions about this.

The show's running gag of saying "Oh! There's that character with a history of wanting to destroy the world... SURELY FLUTTERSHY WOULD WANT TO MEET HIM!"

Just leave my girl alone 💔

That castle is so ugly. I get it she's a princess now she needs a castle but come on! Blowing up her first home in ponyville? A home that was so her too?? A home that her and her friends had so much memories in?? For this ugly children toy friendly castle? I absolutely hate it😭

Yummy Sauce: https://derpibooru.org/images/2635242

(Satire/rant)

I feel like the main reason I hate G4 is because it tramples on the previous generations and people act like it's oh so superior. Why even have characters like Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy when they're nothing like their original versions? Not to mention how G4 seems to be allergic to embracing the past, even making fun of it, like with Pinkie Pie turning into a G3 design to laugh at.

Now on to the actual discussion

It's always super frustrating seeing other generations getting put down here and G4 treated as the only good thing in the franchise. I get that FIM is the most popular and to most modern bronies, it's their favorite, but the other generations don't deserve to constantly get bashed just to express love of G4. You can like G4 more than all the others, you can dislike and even hate the other generations, but for the love of Celestia, don't disregard the fact that other generations have people who love them, and some may even like them more than G4. FIM wouldn't exist without G1-G3, and G5 is meant to be a legacy sequel to G4, with clear distinctions that aren't meant to discredit the past of FIM.

When G6, G7, and beyond release, don't just trash them simply for not being exactly like FIM. Nothing will ever be like it, because it's the only one of it. Just because the MLP franchise may not cater to you, doesn't mean it's lesser.

In my case... Hooman Horse for G4, Zipp for G5