History WhatCouldHaveBeen / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic

* Along with Big Apple, Sweet Apple Acres was going to be called Big Apple Orchard or Big Apple Farm -- the idea was that Applejack's brother inherited the farm while she just ran things. It also was originally not supposed to be in Ponyville at all, but in a different town known as Fillydelphia.

* 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, with her originally planned mentor role not really 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.

* In Lauren's original pitch for the show, Pinkie Pie was a Pegasus Pony (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 (though some of them are InNameOnly).

* Lauren has said she had a [[http://comments.deviantart.com/4/1603670/2041358198 sea ponies episode]] in mind, but it didn't get made under her watch. Sea ponies would later be introduced in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie the 2017 movie]], and make an appearance in the show proper in season 8, but Lauren had stopped working on the show by then.

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* According to meeting notes that ended up leaking following the reorganizations that took place after the Hub Network rebranded to Creator/DiscoveryFamily, the writers had discussed potentially bringing over more villains from [[Franchise/MyLittlePonyGeneration1 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.

* According to meeting notes that ended up leaking following the reorganizations that took place after the Hub Network rebranded to Creator/DiscoveryFamily, the writers had discussed potentially bringing over more villains from [[Franchise/MyLittlePonyG1 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.

* From the same source as the above, "A Dog and Pony Show" had its plot also unchanged, except the Diamond Dogs were originally Diamond ''[[TotallyRadical Dawgs]]'' and had a GangstaRap aesthetic (they stole gems for "bling"). This was probably changed because it might have looked like a racist stereotype. (And also probably would've screamed WereStillRelevantDammit)

* Before Big Macintosh became an official couple with Sugar Belle, he had a ShipTease with Marble Pie. [[https://derpibooru.org/2168594 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. [[ExecutiveMeddling Hasbro]] also got nervous about Big Macintosh possibly being Marble Pie's [[KissingCousins distant cousin]].

* The original pitch for what would become the Series 5 episode ''Rarity Investigates'' had a similar plot but would have been a CourtroomEpisode titled "The Rainbow Confession".

* Lauren has said she had a [[http://comments.deviantart.com/4/1603670/2041358198 sea ponies episode]] in mind, but it didn't get made under her watch. Sea ponies would later be introduced in [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie the 2017 movie]], and make an appearance in the show proper in season 8, but Lauren had stopped working on the show by then, so who knows what they would have been like under her watch?

* 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 [[NotWhatItLooksLike another humorous misunderstanding]], but it apparently got cut for time, so Rarity is ultimately an AbsenteeActor (though her voice actress is still present as Granny Smith and Luna).

* According to [[https://twitter.com/#!/M_A_Larson 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 he was Namby-Pamby's little brother.