Tear Jerker / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - Season 5

The Cutie Map

• Two sneak peeks of the episode show Rainbow Dash and Rarity falling victim to the "equalized" town from the animatic. Rainbow Dash is rendered unable to fly any faster than an average pegasus and Rarity is crying over the loss of her special talent.
• Starlight Glimmer believes that friendships only work when everypony is equal because if some friends are better at some things than others, then they must resent each other for that reason. That's just depressing. It really makes one wonder what happened to Starlight Glimmer to make her feel this way. It doesn't bring any pretty images to mind.
  • The casual way that Sugar Belle asks the Mane Six "Is your friendship ending?" when she witnesses them having a little quarrel at her eatery. The fact she would automatically assume that a simple disagreement is reason enough to shatter a friendship really shows how badly Starlight brainwashed her.
  • Possibly even worse, when she lures the Mane Six into her basement. They, and the audience, suspect it's for some nefarious reason, but the real reason is that she and her friends just want to see their cutie marks and learn more about them. It shows just how internally torn she is between trying to please Starlight, and her own natural desire to express herself. Her behavior comes off very creepy, but at the same time it's totally understandable and scarily close to someone who has been institutionalized for so long they forget exactly how to act in a free society.
• Fluttershy didn't mind the village because of all the "friendly" ponies that lived there. She changes her mind when her cutie mark is taken and renders her unable to talk to animals.
• All of the mane six are slowly slipping away in Starlight Glimmer's brainwashing chamber. And they're fully aware of this. While some of it is partially played for laughs, such as Pinkie almost acting like her sister Maud, Applejack losing her "countryisms", and Rainbow Dash's "Oh come on!" when she realizes she can't fly fast, it's not enough to cushion the blow. After all, these six ponies whom we've come to love over four previous seasons are actually losing their personalities. Fluttershy almost sounds close to tears herself. Thankfully this aspect of the episode is rather subdued, because it could have been much more unbearable to watch...
• The equals marks forced on ponies suppress their talents. Since Pinkie Pie's talent is making others, and herself, smile, her mark seems to suppress her optimism and any signs of happiness. It's painful to see somepony who's usually Fun Personified forced to cut off her own enthusiasm with a flat "I guess".
• When the Mane Six reveals that Starlight didn't give up her cutie mark like the others, you expect the towns ponies to be angry; you don't expect any of them to be sad, and indeed nearly heartbroken to find out that Starlight doesn't even believe her own philosophy. After The Reveal happens, Double Diamond and Party Favor look like they're both about to start crying, and Party Favor is actually tearing up. It's even said that these ponies gave up everything for the dream that Starlight ingrained in them, only to find out that she's just been using them and has kept her cutie mark. Double Diamond's own assertion of Starlight not even giving them a chance to be friends without giving up their cutie marks just makes it worse.
• Though his Heroic Sacrifice was a noble thing to do, the fact that as he's being sent into the town's brainwashing chamber Party Favor is apologizing to everybody for wanting his cutie mark back shows that he's honestly upset that he's let them all down.
  • And soon after, Glimmer has broken him again (possibly; it's a little ambiguous whether he's been broken again or if he is just acting to help the Mane Six), and he comes out begging her to forgive him. In short, Starlight Glimmer's a horrible person...er, pony.
  • Not to mention that by the time he's been imprisoned he has already given up hope.
  Party Favor: Didn't you see what's happened out there?! Your friend has accepted our way! You will all accept our way! It's only a matter of time!
• When the ponies are singing "Our Town" Fluttershy starts bobbing her head up and down to the music. But the serious Pinkie Pie gives her a dirty look and her eyes become filled with tears.
• Her background being explained in the season finale gives an entirely new look on Starlight Glimmer and on these episodes. From her point of view, she had finally found a way to cope with her trauma and what she perceived as a major problem with cutie marks, and suddenly some strangers come and take it all away from her. She may have been manipulative, but she really believed in her philosophy. She didn't do this to be evil, and from her point of view, it was working - both her and the ponies in her town were actually happy.

Castle Sweet Castle

• The fact that Twilight misses the library so much that she's doing everything that she can to avoid going back to the castle.
• The scene where Twilight and Spike revisit the ruins of the Golden Oaks library and mourn its loss, reminiscing about how much they miss it.
  • Combined with a bit of Fridge Horror: Before the start of the series, Twilight had spent all of her adult life (and probably a good chunk of her adolescence) as Princess Celestia's apprentice, meaning the Library is probably the first time she's truly lived on her own.
• The scene where the Mane Six (minus Twilight) are in the throne room trying to think of a way to make the castle feel more like home for Twilight and panicking when they can't think of anything.

Bloom and Gloom

• Part tear jerker, part heartwarming (in a bittersweet kind of way), is the first thing Scootaloo does when she finds out she's dreaming: she takes flight with an excited whoop.
• Apple Bloom's worries in this episode are rather sad, especially when she dreams she's going to be ditched by her family. Even Applejack saying they wouldn't kick her out for not having an apple on her cutie mark before she fell asleep didn't stop her from worrying about it.
  • Due to fan theories, Some find Applejack's little song to Bloom about her Cutie Mark a bit heartbreaking, seeing that it was probably sung to her by her deceased mother.

Tanks for the Memories

• Rainbow Dash is completely unaware that Tank needs to hibernate at first, and details a number of activities she had planned to do with him, only to have her hopes dashed.
• During her song, it becomes clear that a good part of Rainbow's desire to keep Tank from hibernating is a result of her hatred of solitude.
• It quickly becomes obvious that Rainbow's attempts to keep winter from coming are futile.
• The third act of the story has Fluttershy bluntly telling Rainbow Dash that she'll have to spend winter without Tank. This causes Rainbow to burst into tears, complete with Inelegant Blubbering. It's almost hard to watch, especially for anyone who has had to give up a pet before.
  Rainbow Dash: (sobbing) I DON'T WANT HIM TO GO!
• Pinkie says "Applejack cries on the inside, Twilight!" and Applejack calmly and matter-of-factly replies "it's true." A simple throwaway line has huge implications for what's going on in AJ's head, especially with the heavy implication her parents have passed away.
• The entire premise of the episode qualifies honestly. While Tank may have just been hibernating, the entire episode plays it up like he's dying with Rainbow Dash in complete denial over it. Now think about if your own pet was dying and there was nothing you could do to prevent it, Rainbow Dash's actions throughout the episode echo any pet owner that's lost a good friend through the years.
  • Alternatively, it's like your best friend is going to be moving away or stuck in hospital for a while and you won't even be able to talk to them until they get back, so you have no idea if they're okay or not. While not as bad as dying, it's still pretty upsetting.
  • Applejack trying to comfort Rainbow by reminding her Tank's only hibernating for a few months. This only prompts Rainbow to sadly shriek "Months?!? I don't want him to go!!" Very much like how, even though there's an afterlife, it's still painful to wait years until we may join our dying loved ones.
• The worst part? This episode follows the Five Stages of Grief almost to a T. Yeesh.
• A smaller Fridge Sadness: by draining the waterfrom the factory, Rainbow Dash just sabotaged a pegasus team's hard work for a big enough tornado, which we know is tricky. Even worse, judging by the episode's place in the timeline, it could easily be Ponyville's. You know, the one she herself put that much effort and determination into? The one that helped Fluttershy build the foundations of her confidence?

Appleoosa's Most Wanted

• Troubleshoes lives in isolation and spends his time sneaking into rodeos and accidentally messing them up with his natural clumsiness. He's obviously sad and lonely, but he thinks he's been cursed or something and that he's doomed to mess things up forever. If the CMC hadn't come along and figured out the true meaning behind his mark, he probably would have stayed like that forever.
• Just the idea that the manifestation of his Cutie Mark, something that should have been an affirmation of his identity, brought him nothing but misery. All because of a misunderstanding.
  • This can actually happen to people - having a desperate wish or calling and simply not knowing which angle to tackle it from or have any idea how to get involved - or thinking that their skillset should apply to a different aspect. It can really mess someone up, and Troubleshoes comes across as having a bit of a depression because of it.
• The fact that Troubleshoes isn't intentionally good at being a rodeo clown, or indeed, anything. He's just incredibly accident prone, and people find it funny when he crashes into things. His dream as a colt was to be a rodeo star...instead, his special talent is to be a perpetual stumbling joke and to be laughed at for it. That he's okay with this in the end doesn't make it any less tragic.

Make New Friends But Keep Discord

• Fridge Tear Jerker: Tree Hugger claims that the Smooze was covering the Gala because he's upset. Given how Discord was treating the poor creature, it's not difficult to figure out why...
• The look of sadness and abandonment on the Smooze's face whenever Discord ditches him.
• Even Discord got some Jerkass Woobie moments. Think about it- yes, he is reformed, but he still doesn't understand certain concepts of friendship. From his point of view, Fluttershy indeed replaced him by someone else. And consider the fact that he cannot be sure about Fluttershy's trust towards him after the betrayal in Twilight's Kingdom. At one point of the episode, he embarrassed himself in public, resulting him being laughed at.
  • The bit where he finally flat out tells Fluttershy why he's so upset is surprisingly affecting: he sounds honestly hurt.
  Discord: "...considering you've already stomped all over friendship by inviting her to the biggest night of the year, as if I didn't matter at all!"

The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone

• After the loss of the Idol, the griffins lost all their national pride and backslid, with Griffinstone falling into extreme disrepair as its inhabitants becoming filled with Greed once again, only helping others if they get paid in bits.
  • It's implied that Gilda isn't alone in her desire to get enough bits to leave Griffinstone forever, and that the others we've seen in Equestria have all left too.
  • Heck, Griffinstone has fallen so far that when Pinkie sees it, she thinks that Twilight, who was moping earlier about not being able to go and see the city, which she believed was magnificent from a book published before the decline, the party mare is actually kinda glad that her alicorn friend didn't come and see it.
    • Combined with Fridge Brilliance, Pinkie says this after finding the ruins of what used to be the city's library; in 'Castle, Sweet Castle', Twilight was still trying to get over the Golden Oak Library's destruction, so seeing another destroyed library would be particularly hard for her.
  • The declined state of Griffonstone hits harder when you realize it's unintentionally parallel of Detroit in all its growing squalor.
• One can't help but feel sorry for Gilda in that flashback, being bullied by the same colts who bullied Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Makes you wonder how she became such an Jerk Jock in the first place.
  • Of course, living in a place like Griffonstone surely can't be good for anyone. Without Rainbow's support and influence, Gilda had nobody at home that could prevent her from becoming a jerk.
• The brief glimpses of how hurt Gilda really was by her one friendship ending. You can hear the sorrow in her voice when she sighs and says "I did have a friend once...but you saw how that turned out."
  • Rainbow Dash too. Seeing two once good friends hating each other is just sad.
• The implications of how no griffin had ever said anything even as kind as "this tastes good" to Gilda before. Its little wonder she became such a jerk when raised like that. And despite this (and her own desire to leave) Gilda still defended Griffinstone as being "not sad."
  • To add to this, Gilda is the only griffon shown to display any open concern for others; she worries briefly when another griffon's knocked from the sky, and clearly takes pride in Grandpa Gruff's recipe. As mean as she is by most standards, she may well be the nicest person in Griffinstone, and it probably wouldn't bode well for the town if she were to leave.

Slice of Life

• Lyra's reaction to Bon Bon's true identity as a secret agent. As silly a moment as it may be, it has the poor pony in tears.
• Poor Derpy spends half the episode agonizing over how she goofed up big time.
• The Mane Six being locked out of the wedding at the end, and having to watch through the window.
• We discover that Gummy's head is not a very pleasant place, as he's deeply insecure about not being able to have a cutie mark himself.
• Depending on how you interpret the random Changeling attending the wedding, other guests being afraid of it can be a bit sad.
• Shining Armor bawling his eyes out during the procession with Cadance saying he always cries at weddings (even though this can be seen as funny as well). It hits close to home considering what happened when he and Cadance got married.
• A Freeze-Frame Bonus at the wedding implies that the Bugbear killed Donny.

Party Pooped

• Twilight despairing about how, thanks to her, Equestraia and Yakyakistan are going to go to war.
• Pinkie finally making it to the gates of Yakyakistan... only for the ledge she's on to break and slide her back to Ponyville.
• In Equestria, even Pinkie can't keep its version of The Beatles together.
• Pinkie's stress over how the entire visit is riding on her party.

Amending Fences

• Spike innocently bringing up how Twilight blew her old friendships and Twilight becoming determined to fix things.
• The small astonishment upon finding out that Pinkie and Minuette are friends just rubs in Twilight's face how out of touch she had been.
  • Go back and watch the past four seasons and change. Those four are everywhere. You have to wonder if at any point Twilight thought, "How many times have I seen these ponies in Ponyville and never even acknowledged them on an individual basis?" Sure, they took her departure in stride, but she clearly didn't know they had until her apology.
• Spike and Twilight's old home has fallen into disrepair ever since they left.
• Moondancer being crushed when Twilight never showed up to her party.
  • Then there was her outright tirade at Twilight toward the end of the episode where she lashes out at her once friend for unintentionally treating her so horribly that day. It proves two things: 1.) The sting of rejection and ignorance runs deep, and 2.) M.A. Larson is really good at writing these sorts of things. This particular scene can be very uncomfortable to watch, especially for people with abandonment issues.
    • Have you ever been ditched by a friend who didn't really explain anything, just stopped communicating all of a sudden? (Or been that friend?) Then Moondancer's tirade will hurt.
    • Kudos to the voice acting too. The intense amount of emotion in her voice as she vents out everything she was angry at Twilight for is a complete gut-punch for the viewer. It starts with slight bitterness that creeps slowly into her voice, grows steadily more as the rant keeps up and then explodes into a cocktail of rage and despair. You can tell that Moondancer's been wanting to get that out for years.
  Moondancer: [The birthday party] was only the first time I ever put myself out there, and then you didn't even bother to show up! Then you left home without saying goodbye, even though we were supposed to be friends! I was humiliated! I felt like I wasn't important! I never wanted to let myself be hurt like that again! [gestures toward Twilight's other friends] Those three finally convinced me that I had value, that other ponies might like me and want to be my friends, AND YOU! DIDN'T! SHOW! UP! [screams with anger and sadness before bursting into tears]
  • Moondancer isolated herself to the point where not only did she cut off ties with her Canterlot friends, but she may have also cut off ties with her family, if her sister's presence at the party was any indication.
  • Her house is dark and dirty, and she herself is poorly groomed and her clothes are threadbare. It's not just a case of isolation, she's clearly past caring to even take care of herself.
  • When it's all vented out and Moondancer storms off, we just get a long shot of Twilight completely still and silent as Spike tries to comfort her, tears slowly welling from the guilt of causing such long term emotional pain for someone she cared about.
• A small one; Moondancer mentions all the stuff she studies, and it's quite a list, but she can't tell what she really wants in life. Basically, she thinks the only thing she's good for is studying, and she doesn't consider applying her knowledge on any career, preferring to keep herself isolated.
  • Continuing the alternate-Twilight theme, Moondancer states that she's read the book on sleepovers too. Did she use to wonder what friendship could be?
• It also ends on quite a bittersweet note, when Spike gives Moondancer the present he wanted to give her at her party in the first episode. It shows to be a picture with her, Twilight and all her other friends.
  • Even the picture itself is painful to look at — everyone is smiling happily and enjoying cupcakes...except for Twilight, who is focused on her book with a clear look of irritation on her face. It's supposed to be touching, but it really seems like a reminder of just how little Twilight cared about friendship.

Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep

• The Mane Six are so exhausted by their nightmares at the start of the episode that they are unable to properly groom their pets, and are obviously sorrowful when something goes wrong with the attempt.
• The Reveal that Luna created The Tantabus to torture and punish herself for her reign as Nightmare Moon. 1000 years of imprisonment didn't seem like enough for her. No wonder she was so put off by how she perceived Nightmare Night back in Luna Eclipsed.
  • In fact, the episode becomes a lot sadder and harder to watch if you know someone with psychological issues to the point of performing automutilation (also known as DSH, or Deliberate Self-Harm).
  • What makes it even more heartwrenching is that (as Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom can attest) Luna spent all that time after her return visiting her subjects in their dreams, dispelling their nightmares and providing them with consolation and advice on how to deal with their problems in the real world causing those nightmares. She was helping them find peace, but she denied herself one.
• A small moment during the big dream showdown: one of the things Twilight does is make Golden Oaks come back.
• After Brotherhooves Social, Big Mac dreaming of being a unicorn and alicorn can become this. To him, being a unicorn, even an alicorn prince, he could finally consider himself special.

Canterlot Boutique

• Rarity's enthusiasm for achieving her dream steadily draining away as she's forced into mass production of a single design without any individual attention. Any creator of art can likely sympathize.
• Rarity briefly getting her creative shine back only to be shut down by a customer who doesn't like the changes she made to the dress and demands she change it back, followed by her tossing said dress in the trash. Many felt that dress was far better than the original Princess Dress.
• Sassy briefly mentioned when Rarity decided to close down the Canterlot Carousel Boutique that she couldn't be a part of another failed boutique. Just how many times had this situation happened? Was she teamed up with an upcoming fashionista who wanted to open a boutique in Canterlot only to burn out due to mismanagement and Sassy Saddle's methods of business? It's a crappy situation for both parties.

Rarity Investigates!

• Rainbow Dash ended up being VERY close to losing her life-long dream forever, all because some jerk didn't want his record broken. There's also the fact that the one who framed her was somepony she looked up to.
  • Not helping is the fact that framer did such a good job setting up evidence against Rainbow Dash that she herself is almost broken into believing she did it in her sleep.

Made In Manehattan

• Twilight getting dejected after the map excludes her yet again.
• Applejack and Rarity having to miss the Sisterhooves Social to help Coco.
• The fact that everyone there is so focused on themselves that they have no time for their community.
• Poor Coco, just when she's broken free of Suri Polomare's toxic influence, she finds herself struggling to carry a torch for her other mentor. Out of the frying pan and into the fire indeed.

Brotherhooves Social

• Big Mac getting dejected at how Apple Bloom looks up to Applejack and not him.
  • When he tries to impress Apple Bloom with an old propellor toy she loved as a baby, and she barely reacts.
• From here we see the other side of Rarity and AJ being gone and thus not able to race with their sisters.
• After the Social debacle, the famously laconic Big Macintosh delivers a beautiful speech about how insignificant he feels in comparison to Applejack, a great hero of Equestria, and how he saw winning the blue ribbon with Apple Bloom as his chance to have his baby sister look up to him again. For a moment, he sounds like he's about to cry.
  • As if that wasn't sad enough, he admits that he'd have been happy if Apple Bloom had saw him as a hero "just for a day". He didn't expect for things between him and Apple Bloom to go back to how they were when she was little even if his plan panned out; he just wanted her to admire him again for a little while. As far as he knows, he didn't even get that much.

Crusaders of the Lost Mark

• Diamond Tiara yelling at Silver Spoon for giving away the reveal of her surprise statute and later when she tries to mention it again to help her win the election only to be yelled at again. Even though throughout the show Silver was just as mean as Diamond, you can't help but feel sorry for her.
  • Specially considering that some previous episodes and the comics had shown that Silver Spoon is the 'nicer one' of the duo, and her motivation to bully the CMC was simply following Diamond Tiara's lead. So, basically, Silver Spoon became a bully just for her best friend's sake, and now said best friend was bullying her too. No wonder she eventually snapped.
• "The Pony I Want to Be" is by far one of the show's saddest songs to date. It reveals that the reason Diamond Tiara is such an Alpha Bitch is because her mother has been emotionally abusing her into doing so. It makes you realize that even if she is cruel to her peers, she is still just a child; an angry, confused child who only wants to be loved.
  • The visual imagery of her looking at other families also reveals how she wishes her parents would show her love and affection the way other parents do.
• The sequence of Diamond Tiara's expressions as the Crusaders rattle off the things that had happened to her one after the other. They go from anger, to shock, to sadness, to shame, and if Pipsqueak hadn't shown up when he did it's pretty visibly obvious that she was about three seconds away from crying.
• A small blink-and-you-miss moment, but when Sweetie Belle rambles on about how how Diamond Tiara lost the election, lost her friend, and her Mom yelled at her, look at Diamond's face. You see she's on the verge of tears and her expression is broken up. Although the CMC aren't intentionally making her feel bad, DT has never been more humiliated that her "enemies" learned of her background.
• A minor one happens with Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith tearing up when A.J says how their parents would have been so proud of Apple Bloom.
• Fridge Tear Jerker: Diamond Tiara was basically the Crusaders' worst enemy up to this point, and they still show her more kindness than she's ever received from her own mother.
  • It's eased a little considering her father Filthy Rich seems to be a pretty decent parent, but in a way it also adds to it. How do you think he gets treated at home?
• Perhaps the ultimate Tear Jerker of happiness in the whole show: When the CMC get their cutie marks, and the song that goes with it.

The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows

• A minor one, but seeing Spike accidentally incinerate the mint-in-bag comic book is this for ANY comic book fan. And Shining Armor's horrified reaction when he finds out.
  • It can be a major one if you recognize the cover art. It's a ponified Action Comics #1 aka the first Superman comic, an issue that is worth millions even in very good condition.

Hearthbreakers

• After Applejack's Innocently Insensitive trying to force the Apple and Pie family traditions together, both she and Pinkie run into the mine to weep over the families' problems. This hits home for everybody who's ever cried over their families' differences. (ex. In-laws, feuding families)
  • Easy to miss, but when Pinkie Pie sulks off, saying "Then it's my fault too", Limestone loses her 'angry eyes' and looks genuinely sad for her younger sister.
  • Applejack is visibly crying in the mine when she believes she's alone, despite confirming herself that she only cries on the inside earlier in the season. Makes you wonder if she only cries on the outside when she believes nopony can see her.
• Limestone's Big "NO!" when Holder's Boulder accidentally falls into the quarry. The way she protectively hovers over it, it's like she just witnessed her baby drop on the floor.

What About Discord?

• Twilight refuses to admit throughout the episode that she's jealous that her best friends had a great weekend without her. She's the Princess of Friendship and believes that she isn't supposed to be jealous. Near the end, Twilight's crying when she finally does admit she was jealous to her friends, who tell her that it's alright for her to have those feelings.
• Discord when his jokes have become old and is now the one being left out. Thankfully, Twilight decided he's suffered enough and offers him a tiny orange, which leads to Discord giving everypony a big hug.

The Hooffields And Mccolts

• No matter what Twilight does, the two families keep fighting and won't listen to anything the princess says. It gets to the point where Twilight doubts if she can solve the problem, as the two families won't stop fighting until one side wins.
• The first Hoofield and Mccolt. The two were close before they started fighting simply because they couldn't agree on what approach they needed to use in order to protect the wildlife. And seeing how their descendants are still fighting, they never forgave the other and kept fighting for their whole lives.
• Seeing how the innocent animals are affected by the fallout of the war. Their home is nearly destroyed by the very ponies that wanted to protect it, all because of a disagreement that neither side was willing to back down from.
  • In the flashback, it's disheartening to see the Smokey Mountains devolve from a beautiful valley into an ugly battlefield as the feud progresses.

The Mane Attraction

• Pinkie Pie buckling under the pressure of fulfilling Svengallop's wants and needs. It's one thing to give Pinkie a tall order and politely ask her for it. But to bark orders at her and threaten to take away Coloratura if she doesn't deliver, it's too much.

The Cutie Remark

• The mane six not meeting their destinies, and continuing to live their hopeless lives; Twilight failing the entrance exam, Applejack didn't get a sign to go home to Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie having to continue working on the rock farm with no joy in her life, Fluttershy never discovering her love for animals, and Rarity leaving the foundation of her career, disappointed.
  • Doubles as Fridge Horror, because Twilight failed her entrance exam, Spike's egg doesn't hatch, and there's a good chance in all of the alternatine timelines he wasn't ever born at all.
• In the Sombra Timeline, notice how in the Apple Farm Factory, the applesauce cans feature Granny Smith's face. Could this imply she's dead in this timeline?
• Twilight and Spike's friends not recognizing them, especially Applejack in the first altered present. For that matter, the state of Ponyville and the hopelessness of the situation.
• Brief, but still painful, but Celestia's expression in the Sombra timeline as she leads Equestria against Sombra's forces is that of a Reluctant Warrior filled with frustration and regret about endangering her subjects AND failing to protect the Crystal Empire from Sombra again.
• At the near end of Part Two, Starlight's breakdown during her Freudian Excuse is a tad saddening. Especially when you note that Sunburst didn't check on young Starlight to see if she was alright at all as he showed off his new cutie mark to his family.
  • Her line "Not everypony's lucky enough to get her cutie mark at the same time as her friends!" is this. Think about it: Twilight and her friends got their cutie marks at the same time and it further signified their bond, and, just recently, the Cutie Mark Crusaders got their similar-looking marks at once, which solidified their friendship. In Starlight's case, her friend got his mark before her and that friendship ended because of it. This apparently must have been the case with a lot of other ponies as well.
  • This is not a flashback, a retelling, or anything like that so there's no Unreliable Narrator here. It's a literal, unfiltered event. Sunburst basically forgot that his best friend existed the moment he got his Cutie Mark. If that weren't bad enough, it's implied that everyone else ignored her after that as well. No wonder she's so messed up by the time she meets the Mane Six.
• This look on Starlight's face as she sees the barren wasteland her actions have created. It's brief, but tells exactly what's going through her head.
  • Even sadder? In the next season, we learn that Starlight's "Our Town" village used to hold a yearly Sunset Festival, even before her Equality regime was broken. To know Starlight had a Pet the Dog moment with her villagers, it must've been devastating to see a world where all the ponies she used to watch a sunset with, they're all.. gone...
• The fates of most characters in each and every Bad Future. The Mane 6 in general are miserable whenever we see them. In the first one alone, Applejack has turned Sweet Apple Acres into a soulless factory, Rarity works miserably in sweat-shop conditions, Fluttershy treats animals like nothing more than expendable resources, and Pinkie fights on the frontlines alongside Maud, seeing her sister in mortal peril every day. Rainbow Dash has clearly gone through physical hell, sporting heavy scars; she also lost a wing.
  • In the Sombra timelime, the look of sheer despair on the Crystal Ponies' faces as they march forward to become brainwashed soldiers is very hard to look at.
    • Even sadder when you take into consideration the Crystal Ponies' broken state resembling depression. Their state has grown to the point of lashing out and self-harm through battle. If it weren't for Spike, their Despair Event Horizon would've come to a head.
  • In the Nightmare Moon timeline, Rarity coldly shuns Spike, telling him she doesn't socialize with dragons and that nopony ever should. Hearing that from the girl he has a crush on must have been crushing. Earlier in the Sombra timeline, a pony he waves at hurridly shuts her window, implying all ponies see him as just another monster to fear in these futures.
  • Rainbow Dash is working for Nightmare Moon in her timeline, which is saddening to see. Especially seeing as she was still a hero in all other timelines.
  • Still in the Nightmare Moon timeline: how must Twilight have felt upon hearing that Celestia was now trapped in the moon?
  • The Discord Timeline is saddening to see, especially after seeing Discord just starting to get along with the the rest of the Mane Six. In a timeline where he won, Discord never learns about the magic of friendship and is still the sadistic master of chaos he was when he first appeared. Even worse is that it's more than likely that Fluttershy is one of the ponies he's torturing in his world of chaos.
    • And, to top that, he turned the Princesses into his toys, turning their ethereal manes and tails into silly frizzy afros as he made them his personal clowns to torture for eternity.
  • The Wasteland Timeline might be the worst of them all. There's nothing left. The once colorful and cheery Equestria is now completely barren, with only rocks and howling winds for company. There isn't a single sign of life, meaning the entire extended cast of characters is most likely dead, from the rest of the Mane Six to quite possibly even the Alicorn Princesses. Making it worse is the fact that, unlike the other potential timelines, no clue is given as to the cause.
  • At least in the Sombra and Chrysalis timelines, there are ponies with both the ability and the will to fight back. In none of the others is this the case.
• In the Sombra timeline, when Applejack is done recounting how the brainwashed Crystal Ponies went to war, look carefully at Spike's expression. He looks so down, especially because in the original timeline, he saved the Crystal Ponies from their ultimate fate. He feels as though, in this timeline, he failed them.
• When Zecora learns how Chrysalis' victory came about, she throws everything she has at the changelings so that Twilight can Set Right What Once Went Wrong. This would basically mean that this version of her never existed, making it one whammy of a Heroic Sacrifice. Earlier, after using her paint on Twilight and Spike, she immediately realizes that she is the one who isn't meant to exist, and she takes it in stride.
• Fluttershy of all people as a ruthless guerilla who is quite willing to kill other ponies on the off-chance that they might be changelings.
• Ultimately, what's most depressing is how changing the time line alters the course of the timeline on two levels:
  • Past episodes: Small but important events never coming to pass, like the CMC ever forming, or Celestia and Luna mending their friendship, Cadence and Shining Armor's wedding, ect. And especially, the Mane Six's good deeds this past season being completely undone in the other timelines.
  • Future episodes: Future problems (friendship or otherwise) being unresolved, Cadence and Shining Armor's foal never being born, and broken friendships never being mended.
• It's obviously for the best that Twilight Sparkle and Spike's other selves were never seen in the alternate timelines. Whether or not it would've resulted in a potentially catastrophic paradox, it would've been beyond doubt a very depressing, core-rattling experience for them to have met each other.
  • Twilight Sparkle's failure to gain admittance into Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns had sentenced her to a life of obscure mediocrity.
  • Spike was either never born or had his egg hatched by somepony else in their entrance exam.

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