My Little Pony: A New Generation Reveals The Show’s Dystopian Ending

The movie My Little Pony: A New Generation follows the original Friendship is Magic series but reveals the show’s disturbing dystopian ending. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic lasted a decade and developed a strong fanbase. It was a revamp of the original 1980s series, aimed at young girls to persuade them to buy toys. However, the new series developed a cult following among an older audience. These adults and teens found the dialogue and characters of the remake genuinely witty, even if the show was juvenile in its message.

This new film, which was released on Netflix in fall 2021, seems to embrace that older audience. My Little Pony: A New Generation is set several years beyond the original, with all new characters and plotlines. In this world, ponies, unicorns, and pegasi no longer live together. In fact, they are segregated and fearful of each other. The film centers on Sunny Starscout, a pony whose father raised her to believe that other species are equal and should be treated with love.

This segregation in My Little Pony: A New Generation tells the audience that the original show had an unseen dystopian ending. In the new film, this segregation has been going on for so long that the new generation hears the stories of ponies, unicorns, and pegasi living together and thinks they are fairy tales. This suggests that, like The Hunger Games, so many years have passed that none of their relatives even remember the harmony that once existed in their homeland. It may have even been centuries that this segregation and prejudice have existed. While the suffering is never explicitly mentioned, the implication is clear. These ponies, unicorns, and pegasi have lived in fear and oppression for generations.

The film really focuses on ill-founded prejudice and how to stand up against it. Villain Phyllis Cloverleaf hates unicorns and pegasi so much that she creates technology to get rid of them. The hero of My Little Pony: A New Generation, Sunny Starscout, played by actress Vanessa Hudgens of The Princess Switch, tries to be an agent of change by destroying those inventions. Furthermore, when a unicorn named Izzy Rainbow appears, Sunny’s pony friends all run away, fearful because of how they have been raised. Yet Sunny doesn’t; instead, she actively befriends the unicorn. Sunny refuses to believe that pegasi or unicorns are any different from her. In this way, the film allows its younger viewers to think about real-world injustice and how they might act and react.

This film is also part of a larger trend towards dystopian fiction. Netflix’s Squid Game, a series where the rich bet on the lives of the lower class, has enjoyed rave reviews. The Handmaid’s Tale season 5, another series involving segregation of different groups, is in production after enjoying several years of high ratings. While one might not immediately think of My Little Pony: A New Generation when they hear “dystopia,” the implication is there in the new film. The Pony series has always known that there are adults watching – it seems that they have marketed to that audience once more.

While it might not be explicit, My Little Pony: A New Generation has some dark, dystopian implications about the ending of the original Friendship is Magic series. Of course, peace is restored by the end of the movie, but it’s clear from the plotline there have been generations of suffering in this world. This film is perhaps aimed more towards the adults who enjoyed the series rather than the children the franchise originally aimed towards.

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