Good December hoofers,
I hope (in the existential-absurdist sense) you’re all having a good start to the December month. In my usual goings-abouts, I discovered a picture of Twilight Sparkle-horse as an Equestria Girls schoolpony. While I had seen such images years ago, I believe – when I saw the image this time, the thought came to me that maybe Equestria Girls did indeed happen, but that it happened while the Mane 6 were actually ponies. Perhaps the ponies in ponyland just dreamed that they were anthropomorphic.
To support this view, see the following video – a parody of “California Girls” created by Hasbro back in May of 2011 (according to the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki):
The first “Equestria Girls” was released two years later.
In this video, we see the ponies as ponies and calling themselves “Equestria Girls.” As California is often associated with dreamin’ (as in the song, “California Dreamin’), and the first use of the term, “Equestria Girls” appears in a song out of California… logically – it seems plausible that the Mane 6 merely went on a vacation to ponyCalifornia and simply had a dream about humanWorld.
But why is this important?
After Lauren Faust was fired by Hasbro, her original vision for MLP: FiM could not come to fruition. Therefore, what we were left with was the result of a real-life battle between friends who supported Lauren Faust’s vision and discordian corporate forces who didn’t care what quality of show they output as long as it made them as much money as possible as quickly as possible.
The key to solving the pony shortage, according to Hasbro, was to make as many toys and pony episodes as quickly as possible – even if they had rocks in them or can’t-get-the-taste-off-my-tongue. (And of course, we all know what happened when G5 rolled out.)
With G6 maybe coming soon, has Flim and Flam learned their lesson yet? Below, we have some G6 pony screenshot leaks:
My initial impression/criticisms:
- The perspective is complex and disorienting
- The backgrounds aren’t detailed enough
- The pink-ish horse has massive iron hooves for some reason (or is that armor)?
- The other ponies also seem to be wearing hoof-armor
- Their faces are a discordant mixture of toddler, teenager, snapchat, emoji, and pony features
- In the bottom-right picture, I can’t tell if the purple-like pony is thinking, watching porn, or wincing at something somepony said
- In the same picture, I can’t tell if the blue-ish pony is questioning, constipated, or about ready to angrily hit the purple-ish one over the head with a book or take off her iron hoofticuffs and use those instead (queue old-timey glovey video)
- I can’t tell if the pink-ish pony is recovering from eye surgery or not.
- The sad, fluffy pony must represent G4 (or is she smiling slightly? – hard to tell)
- Those hook-hands coming out of the wall above the map appear rather ominous and I’m not sure why they’re there
- At least there is a medpak nearby that we can use to revive ourselves after watching an episode
- In the top-left picture, the purple-ish one’s expression is just bizarre – like she’s some kind of wise, old mushroom-like entity watching over their friend’s probably completely unnecessary emotional outburst
- The blue-ish pony, aside from her wings looking clipped, also looks like she has a hoof coming out of her wing
- In the top-right image, the pie is over-animated and the pink-ish pony’s expression looks more like an emoji expression than a pony expression
- The purple-ish pony blushing in front of her parents like that reminds me of an erotic MLP fanfic I once read. Why she’s blushing like that in front of her dad, I don’t think I ever want to find out
- The background ponies generally look deranged, whereas in G4 they were always happy and supportive
- It looks a little too unedited-ai-generated
- The way the blue-ish pony in the bottom-left image is swooping down doesn’t look physically/anatomically-possible for a pony
- The rainbow table in the top-left image looks very sad.
Overall, it looks like Hasbro used AI in a bad way – there are good uses of AI – to generate and then edit the ponies and pony-scenes. While I’m still not sure if I’ll ever get around to watching more than one episode of G5 – based on this artwork, I’m absolutely not touching this generation. No cider that has rocks in it or can’t-get-the-taste-off-my-tongue, thanks.
What do you ponies think about Equestria Girls and G6? Is this image I randomly found on the internet a real leak, or maybe it is but just AI-generated/assisted concept art? Regardless, I think that it can be agreed on that if Hasbro wants their franchise to be successful long-term, they need to hire artists and writers who love the show and take direction from them in how to proceed rather than the other way around. Ideally, they would also let Lauren Faust return and continue her work on the show where she left off.
Works Cited:
Lauren Faust. My Little Pony: FiM. Zacatron94. “Twilight Sparkle – Equestria Girls Clothing”. https://www.deviantart.com/zacatron94/art/Twilight-Sparkle-Equestria-Girls-Clothing-456655855.
Lauren Faust. My Little Pony: FiM. Hasbro. “Equestria Girls.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XupTVx-GIws. Uploaded by: Letupita725HD★. https://www.youtube.com/@Letupita725HD. [Full Promotional Video Link: My Little Pony – Official Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc1wi0VMhbA.]
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki. https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Equestria_Girls_(commercial). Date Accessed: 3 December, 2024
The Mamas & The Papas. “California Dreamin'”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aK6JnyFmk. Uploaded by: Folk Experience. https://www.youtube.com/@FolkExperience.
Lauren Faust. “Fausticorn”. Artist: Aakili-amethyst. “Stained Glass: Fausticorn -recolor-“. https://www.deviantart.com/akili-amethyst/art/Stained-Glass-Fluttershy-better-312384603.
Lauren Faust. MLP: FiM. The Shake Ups. “The Discordians – The Shake Ups In Ponyville”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvgX42PKh8Q. Uploaded by: The Shake Ups. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPj637kBrhzWwz7bD9K8i-Q.
Lauren Faust. MLP: FiM. Featured Image from “The Flim Flam Brothers [With lyrics] My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic Song”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=JoPNc_EFnT0. Uploaded by: MLP Songs. https://www.youtube.com/@MLPsongs.
Lauren Faust. MLP G6. “My Little Pony G6 Leaks”. https://www.deviantart.com/thebronypony123/art/My-Little-Pony-G6-leaks-1099185672. Uploaded by: TheBronyPony123.
Bonnie Zacherle. MLP: G1. My Little Pony Song “Nothing Can Stop The Smooze”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJXWNV2wGu4. Uploaded by: Wishfaerie. https://www.youtube.com/@WishFaerie.
Lauren Faust. MLP: FiM. “Let The Rainbow Remind You – Extended”. “Let The Rainbow Remind You (Extended) | MLP: FiM [HD]”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz5Eh-bTUjA. Uploaded by: Letupita725HD★. https://www.youtube.com/@Letupita725HD.