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Just imagine how different the ponies would look. note 

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Page for the 2017 movie.

    General 
  • This whole thing got started because Lauren Faust was pitching to Hasbro an animated series based on her own dolls, Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls. We almost got an original property and My Little Pony would either still be in G3.5 or someone else would have handled the reboot.
  • The show was not originally supposed to be in Ponyville at all, but in a different town known as Fillydelphia.
  • Sweet Apple Acres was going to be called Big Apple Orchard or Big Apple Farm, in addition to Big Macintosh being Big Apple — the idea was that Applejack's brother inherited the farm while she just ran things.
  • The show was originally going to be named My Little Pony Adventures.
  • The show was originally intended to be 1/3 adventure stories, but it quickly became apparent that the extra workload they entailed meant they were difficult to pull off on the very tight production schedule. Lauren said that the main casualty of this was Zecora, as her originally planned mentor role ended up not really being needed. Similarly, Lauren originally envisioned a lot more diversity in body types for the ponies, but that too would've been more work for the animators.
  • Originally, the Everfree Forest was intended to be a sort of external threat that continuously encroached onto Equestria's borders, and would historically have been found further beyond the old castle before growing over it.
  • Adventures in Ponyville was going to have a Fluttershy game, which can be glimpsed here and read about here.
  • According to M.A. Larson, the Ponyville Schoolhouse's school paper was originally called The Horse's Mouth instead of Foal Free Press, and Featherweight was originally called Milquetoast and was Namby-Pamby's little brother.
  • Before Big Macintosh became an official couple with Sugar Belle, he had a Ship Tease with Marble Pie. According to Jim Miller, it was there for the writers to play around with but abandoned when the Big Macintosh/Sugar Belle pairing took off. Hasbro also got nervous about Big Macintosh possibly being Marble Pie's fourth cousin twice removed note 

    Characters 
  • In Lauren's original pitch for the show, Pinkie Pie was a pegasus (like Surprise, the G1 pony she was based on) and Fluttershy was an earth pony. In fact, the entire cast went through a design change, from G1-style ponies to G3-style ponies (although some of them are In Name Only).
  • Several characters had name changes for legal reasons. Twilight Sparkle was Twilight Twinkle (a G3 pony), Princess Luna was Princess Selena, Apple Bloom was Appleseed, Big Macintosh was Big Apple, Gilda was Grizelda, and Zecora was Shaman.
  • Celestia was going to be Queen, not Princess, but Hasbro feared the kids would think she was evil if she was a Queen.
  • Originally, Nightmare Moon was called Discord, but still had her regular design. The name 'Discord' was later re-used for another character.
  • In the original pitch, Apple Bloom was alone in her quest for a Cutie Mark. Lauren was asked to add in some friends to accompany her on her journey. Thus, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were created and the Crusaders were born. Oddly enough, Lauren Faust always thought they should have their own Spin-Off show (where kids learn how to do stuff while the Crusaders are engaging in new activities looking for their cutie marks).
  • According to Lauren, there was going to be a Running Gag where Pinkie Pie would eat too many sweets, get a sugar rush, then run extremely fast and plow through Sugar Cube Corner's door, forcing Mr. and Mrs. Cake to replace it once an episode.
  • Lauren has said she had a sea ponies episode in mind, but it didn't get made under her watch. Sea ponies would later be introduced in the 2017 movie, and make an appearance in the show proper in season 8, but Lauren had stopped working on the show by then.
  • Trixie was originally going to be a boy, until the episode's scriptwriter suggested to Lauren to make the character female. Lauren admitted in an interview that this change was absolutely for the better.
  • Lauren originally designed several monsters to be cuter and prettier thinking Hasbro wouldn't let her get away with the monsters being "too scary". Turns out she was wrong and Hasbro didn't think her original designs were scary enough.
    • On the other end, the Ursa Major was much uglier and scarier before getting toned down (it's still pretty ugly and scary). Interestingly, in this case, the change was not due to worries that it might be too scary but because it the difference between adult and baby was too drastic and executives were worried that the intended demographic might not recognize the larger monster as being the same species.
  • According to Lauren, Rarity had a scene scripted for "Luna Eclipsed" where she would have gone overboard designing an outfit to soften Princess Luna's demeanor, leading to another humorous misunderstanding, but it apparently got cut for time, so Rarity is ultimately absent. (though her voice actress is still present as Granny Smith and Luna).
  • There were plans for an episode centered around Big Macintosh. The episode was supposed to have little dialogue coming from the star character. However, it was dropped for a probable number of reasons (namely, that silence can get very boring).
  • Princess Cadance was not going to be a Winged Unicorn. Lauren was surprised (not necessarily pleasantly) at this development.
  • According to Amy Keating Rogers, Derpy's scene in "The Last Roundup" was originally going to be a little longer, complete with a flashback on how the Town Hall got ruined. She was also named Ditzy-Doo (a character previously mentioned in "Winter Wrap Up" that Lauren Faust considered using Derpy's design for), but was referred to as "Derpy" at the director's request as a Fandom Nod. Considering what happened later, this nod probably was not the best idea (though certainly well-meaning).
  • Lauren said at a Bronycon panel that she originally proposed making Rarity the Element of Inspiration, but this was rejected for being too hard for kids to understand.
  • Before the show came out, Twist's design was either changed or considered to be changed; either way, there's at least one unused design for Twist.
  • While Twilight was always intended to be Celestia's successor, the original bible used neither "alicorn" nor "princess" (this also shows in the first episode, where Celestia and Luna are referred to as "unicorns").
  • A retroactive example: but Lauren Faust really wished she knew what a Longma was when she was creating Discord, since her vision of him was that of a dragon-horse hybrid.
  • Starlight Glimmer was originally going to be named Aurora Glimmer, but Hasbro changed it due to Disney trademarking the name "Aurora".
    • Which is odd, considering Hasbro managed to release a G3 character named "Aurora Mist" without any problems, and the bio on Power Pony Zapp's trading card states that her real name is Aurora.
    • According to The Art of Equestria, Starlight's hair was originally just two shades of purple instead of the purple with teal streaks. Also, she had a number of other mane and tail designs, including a Rainbow Dash-inspired look and even one seemingly inspired by Sweetie Belle.
  • M. A. Larson revealed that Mage Meadowbrook in "The Cutie Map" was originally named Jasmine Flower, which "sounded a little more Eastern". It was changed presumably for "legal reasons". That would explain why, when Mage Meadowbrook debuted, she was a completely different character (and race) than initially presented.
  • Svengallop was originally going to be named Pony Baloney, but it was rejected due to sounding corny and making it way too obvious he was a bad guy. Other names were considered as well.
  • Prince Blueblood was originally going to be called Duke Blueblood, but it was changed since the executives thought little kids wouldn't know what a duke is.
  • According to The Art of Equestria, Rarity was originally going to be a fan of dressage (a kind of real-life horse performance where the horse and rider go through a series of complex, practiced tricks and maneuvers), which was supposed to be a sort of Equestrian version of dancing.
  • They had pitched ideas for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon that Hasbro declined feeling their story was "over". They also pitched ideas for the zebras and Zecora's origins that didn't go anywhere.
  • One of Sludge's names was originally suppose to be Slale. Nicole Duboc confirmed there was also tons of others that never came to pass due to legal issues.
  • To coincide with the show's tenth anniversary, Lauren Faust herself uploaded an old image all the way from 2008 showing the oldest possible concept for the show so far. While Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack look the same, Pinkie was a Pegaus (as stated above), Fluttershy was an Earth Pony, and Twilight had a dark blue mane, along with a crescent moon and star for a cutie mark, which may have been reused for Night Light, her father in the final product.
  • According to meeting notes that ended up leaking following the reorganizations that took place after the Hub Network rebranded to Discovery Family, the writers had discussed potentially bringing over more villains from Generation 1 into the show for Season 5, including Grogar, King Charlatan, Erebus, and Crunch the Rockdog. These plans were ultimately scrapped, though Grogar did become a villain during the show's penultimate season.

    Episodes 
  • M. A. Larson says that "all eps have sort of "placeholder" titles and lots of them change." The episodes with known Working Titles are:
  • "Applebuck Season": Originally, the Apple family would harvest apples by hitting apple trees with their heads, called "applebonking". The plot wouldn't be about Applejack being sleep-deprived, but more about Applejack being brain-damaged. This was vetoed by Hasbro.
  • "Dragonshy": The original treatment for the episode. Princess Celestia is referred to as "the Queen", and the reason the Mane Six are tasked to make the Dragon move is because the pegasi are powerless to stop the smoke. Pinkie Pie is referred to as "Pinky Pie", and rather than Rainbow Dash make the dragon angry by kicking him, the ponies collectively decide to force him off the mountain. A fight breaks out and culminates in the dragon throwing the ponies except Fluttershy off the mountain (instead of knocking them to the ground with his fire in the final cut), so an angered Fluttershy, rather than tell the dragon off for harming her friends, utilizes the "Stare" to force him to apologize and leave (which would have made "Stare Master" redundant). So what changed? Aside from the names, the removal of the violent scene of the ponies falling off the mountain and the removal of Fluttershy utilizing the Stare on the dragon and saving it for "Stare Master", not a whole lot.
  • From the same source as the above, "A Dog and Pony Show" had its plot also unchanged, except the Diamond Dogs were originally Diamond Dawgs and had a Gangsta Rap aesthetic (they stole gems for "bling"). This was probably changed because it might have looked like a racist stereotype.
  • Early pitches for what ended up becoming Secret of My Excess had it as a Christmas special. It was likely changed after "Hearth's Warming Eve" became the season's actual Christmas special, and changing the setting to Spike's birthday allowed them do to the exact same gift-giving Aesop.
  • According to Amy Keating Rogers, Applejack was originally meant to be a fourth culprit in MMMystery on the Friendship Express, who managed to avoid incriminating herself but confesses to the deed in the end anyway.
  • "Magic Duel":
  • "Wonderbolts Academy":
    • The pink Palette Swap of Wild Fire was originally going to be Wild Fire herself. She was swapped out due to a then-existing ban on OCs (one of the other animators had put an outsider's OC into an earlier episode without permission). Wild Fire's flaming wheel cutie mark remained on the chalkboard in one scene instead of being updated to the new pony's sunflower cutie mark.
    • According to Meghan McCarthy, the script had a different final scene. The ending would have had Lightning Dust suffer a Heel Realization and swap positions with Rainbow Dash as a result. As well, Rainbow Dash would have returned with a "First in Class" medal, with a hint that she was on the fast track to being part of the Wonderbolts.
  • "Spike At Your Service", as originally written, had Spike pledging a life debt to Rarity rather than Applejack. It was changed during preproduction because Rarity came off as too demanding and therefore mean-spirited. Applejack's easygoing personality was considered a kinder foil for Spike so she was used instead. This is the reason Rarity had no spotlight episodes in Season 3.
  • In "Applebuck Season", Applejack was supposed to "help" Rarity as well, but it was cut for time.
  • The original plan for the season 3 finale "Magical Mystery Cure" was intended to be a two parter where Celestia intends to start teaching Twilight more advanced magic and sends her a box of magical artifacts, stating they'll open them the next day. Twilight opens it early and accidentally causes all her friends' cutie marks to swap places and when she asks Celestia for help, she doesn't know how to fix it. Twilight doing something Celestia couldn't and remaking a magic spell was what was supposed to earn her her wings. However, not only was most of this scrapped, but the episode didn't even become a two parter, leading to odd pacing issues among other problems. The writer wasn't sure why his original idea was changed so much either except that he intended the episode as a conclusion for the series, which it wasn't.
  • The original pitch for what would become the Series 5 episode "Rarity Investigates" had a similar plot but would have been a Courtroom Episode titled "The Rainbow Confession".
  • Lauren Faust originally planned for some sort of entity to have been responsible for Luna transforming into Nightmare Moon and Discord being released from his statue; however, this arc ended up being cut after Lauren relinquished control of the show.
    • This is addressed in the comics, however.
  • According to Jim Miller, before the School of Friendship was a thing, early pitches of Season 7 had it solely foreshadow the Pillars while Season 8 would follow up with a Story Arc dedicated to bringing them back with their artifacts. But Hasbro wanted to wrap it up in 2019 with 9 seasons, so the entire idea got compressed into the Season 7 finale "Shadow Play" instead.
  • According to Nicole Dubuc , the season 8 finale was going to have the Elements Of Harmony and The Tree Of Harmony destroyed. It was instead moved to the season 9 premiere.
  • "Growing Up is Hard to Do" was originally conceived at the tail end of season 5 according to Jim Miller.
  • An episode called "Mother Country" was proposed where the Apple siblings' mother would be revealed to have undergone a similar experience to King Midas: she received a "growth touch" that caused anything she touches to grow; while it heals dead trees, it also affects ponies (which she discovers after accidentally triggering a growth spurt in her son and explaining why he's as big as he is). Tortured by the fact that she can't safely touch anypony, she entrusts her children to Granny Smith and leaves home. After learning this, Applejack and Apple Bloom head into the Everfree to find the satyr that gave her the ability so he can reverse the curse, and allow them to get their mother back. M.A. Larson was apparently glad this one was scrapped.

    Songs 
  • Composer Daniel Ingram posted to his SoundCloud profile an early version of "Hop, Skip, and Jump" from "Dragonshy" in response to receiving 3500 likes on his Facebook page.
  • Pinkie Pie's "Piggy Dance" song from "Baby Cakes" was originally written for "The Best Night Ever" as a longer song to the tune of the "Chicken Dance", but was cut at the last minute due to time restrictions.
  • The "Smile Song" was originally going to sound very different, and include a talk-sing "patter" section with lines by a number of characters (most of whom ended up either only having silent cameos in the episode or not appearing at all): Derpy Doo (then named as such due to Amy Keating Rogers not having been aware of the full name "Derpy Hooves" at the time), Hairy, Shimmy Shake (who was to be Twist's mom), Rarity, Fluttershy, multiple Polo Ponies, and multiple cows.
  • Some songs were shortened due to time constraints, although at least two confirmed cases (Love is in Bloom and Find a Way) did get released in full later.

    Voice actors 
From various interviews we've learn the cast setup could have been just a little different...
  • According to Lauren, she initially wanted Tara Strong to voice Pinkie Pie, and Tara wanted to voice her with a Bubbles-esque voice. In "A Hearth's Warming Tail", we even get a little taste of this 'what could have been' when Twilight gets caught singing in a Pinkie-like voice, which does sound a lot like Bubbles as a pony. Strong also auditioned for Applejack.
  • Kathleen Barr, the voice of Trixie and Queen Chrysalis, apparently did a "very good" audition for Celestia.
  • Ashleigh Ball had auditioned for Spike, and thought she got the role as she got a phone call back for it.

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