Tear Jerker / My Little Pony: A New Generation

"I'm really sorry, everypony..."

• The premise of the movie can be sobering for fans and bronies who loved Generation 4, which this generation is heavily connected to. The utopia Twilight Sparkle and her friends created after 9 seasons and a movie of hardship is now broken like nothing even happened as all 3 pony races are living segregated from each other thousands of years later, with all the Fantastic Racism that comes with it. It's heavily implied that this is also the reason why all ponies lost their magic.
  • And this is a given considered this takes place thousands of years in the future, but since generations 4 and 5 are in the same universe, that means all the characters we’ve grown to know and love from generation 4 are… well, dead.
    • Not only that but, other than Sunny (and, in the prologue, Argyle), no one even remembers them or believed they ever existed, with Hitch dismissing Argyle's story about them as something he made up as a foal's bedtime story.
  • There's also the implication that.. something happened that lead to the separation of the pony races (as well as possibly the disappearance of the non-pony races) during the gap between the old generation and new one. Judging from the way the abandoned station in Zephyr Heights was and the shattered stained glass, there could have been an event that caused the three races to separate and years of it led to each of them to develop a different view of one another, just like the Three Tribes before Equestria was united in the last Generation.
• There's something gut-wrenching about seeing young Sprout playing with the dolls of the Mane 6 and portraying the unicorn and pegasus ponies as bad guys. If Sprout is anything to go by, not many ponies remember that once upon a time, the savior of the world was a unicorn-turned-alicorn, and her allies were composed of different races.
  • Even worse, those toys Sprout is misusing and the playdate in quesiton? They're Sunny's personal and homemade toys and the playdate is at Sunny's house! Sprout is so caught up in his mother's ideology and his own self-centeredness that he feels he has the right to tell other ponies how they should play with their toys and impose his own desires consistently even within others' homes.
• After Sunny's failed attempt to change every earth pony's mind during the CanterLogic Event, Hitch talks with Sunny, furious about how she keeps breaking the law for her cause. Then, he softens up with her. Hitch genuinely wants Sunny to stop trying to push for pony unity, which he considers to be "a foal's bedtime story made up by her dad". Even though he cares about her, he doesn't want to abandon his friendship with her because he's concerned about her beliefs and that he's the only friend she has left in Maretime Bay.
  Hitch Trailblazer: I'm the last real friend you got in this town. You really want to lose me, too?
• The heavy implication that Sunny's father has passed away following the Time Skip, and therefore other than Hitch, it seems Sunny doesn't have anyone else when we first see her as an adult.
  Sunny Starscout: I wish you were here, dad...
• The mere fact that the citizens of Maretime Bay are so afraid of Pegasi and Unicorns that they willingly rally around Sprout despite his idiocy both counts and crosses over with Nightmare Fuel. The fact that Sprout was able to convince the Earth Ponies that Hitch and Sunny were brainwashed makes it seem like a miracle that the Earth Ponies eventually left him.
• There's a poster of the Wonderbolts in the old Zephyr Heights station, now abandoned and collecting dust. Considering they were believed to be the pinnacle of Pegasi flying ability for over a thousand years, this one really hits hard.
• The unexpected appearance of the stained glass window of Twilight's cutie mark, one of the last signs that she ever existed. While also a heartwarming moment connecting Zipp to Sunny, it could also make you emotional thinking about Twilight in regards to the aforementioned points.
• Pipp sees Zipp just as Zipp is running away from the guards with Izzy and Sunny. Zipp looks back to see her sister, and clearly wants to help her, only to end up running away with her non-pegasus friends, leaving poor Pipp hanging.
  • Really, just how quickly the Pegasi turn on their beloved rulers. The second Pipp's wires are revealed, the royal family's lives turn upside-down and suddenly they're wanted fugitives.
  • For generations the royal family of Zephyr Heights had been looked up to by their pegasi subjects for still being able to fly with their wings where they no longer could, clinging onto them as one last sliver of hope that one day they could fly again. Then that hope is thoroughly crushed when it is revealed that it was all a lie: they had been faking it the whole time with wires and trick lighting. Angry at the perceived betrayal of the royal family aside, the pegasi are now left facing an uncertain future , with seemingly no hope of ever flying again and likely no longer even able to trust anyone who says otherwise after being lied to by those they once trusted the most.
• The unicorns have more-or-less entirely been left utterly depressed by the loss of their magic. As the Mane Five enter Bridlewood, multiple unicorns are seen moping around, barely saying or doing anything. It's clear that the loss of magic in Equestria hit them the hardest.
• Sunny's Heroic BSoD after the gems fail to bring back magic to all of Equestria, the poor girl gives up on her dream of unifying the 3 ponies tribes and returns home dejected and defeated. Once she's back home she starts to store away all of her Mane 6 figures and the lamp her father made for her.
  Sunny Starscout: I thought I could make a difference. But everywhere I go, I just make things worse.
  • As Sunny walks away, she looks back at the unicorn colt who was so excited by the possibility of magic returning. The heartbroken look on the colt's face leaves Sunny even more distraught.
  • All of Sunny's friends are visibly saddened and disappointed, but the two most notable are Hitch and Izzy. Hitch joins her after wishing Izzy and the Princesses goodbye as friends, and, instead of arresting her when they get back to Maretime Bay, offers to talk to her if she needs him. Izzy watches them leave not only plainly heartbroken, but even lowers her head, likely getting ready to cry...
    • Zipp sounds like she's on the verge of tears herself as she tells Hitch he should hurry.
  • The most crushing thing about this scene? Sunny, who has officially been stated to represent Hope, is at the brink of her Despair Event Horizon.
• The destruction of Sunny's lighthouse home, leaving her homeless. Not only was it her childhood home, it was also where she grew up with her father before his implied passing and where his research on Equestria's ancient history was stored. All her belongings and the joyful memories she shared with them and her father, destroyed. Though this can be countered that as there is more of it left than Twilight's library when Tirek was through with it, it could be rebuilt with unicorn magic, and as Sunny was inside at the time it is at least possible some of her belongings survived.