@Marx
 
Personal views don’t matter for this. Neither mine, nor yours. It is a simple fact that plenty of shows watched by young children had plots dealing with character deaths. Assuming that a show suddenly can’t, because the species of the main characters is pony, is just completely ridiculous.

@CMC Scootaloo  
Yeah how about no? It’s not narrow minded thinking at all to think a family show is rarely going to show death.
 
Also ‘dies during battle’? There’s barely ANY fighting in the show this isn’t Transformers or TMNT
 

 
I think you should take your own advice especially when you’re being this arrogant. Your personal view of what a tv shows rating can get away with doesn’t make you the only sane person.

@Ereiam
 
There are plenty of shows like this that showed deaths and had no problems with children seeing it. Mostly because those kinds of shows where, much as MLP: FiM is, family shows, which raises the bar a lot in regards to what they can put into the show, as opposed to kid’s shows.  
And the ratings are subjective. They get assigned by whatever the current person assigning them feels like is appropriate for children. And they aren’t overly restrictive with this, unlike the worried parent fraction would be.  
As long as it’s nothing too morally questionable, by society’s standards (though, there’s one piece of official material where it already went there even), or overly violent in a gory sense, they can most likely keep the rating. No one had any problems when Twilight tried to kill Tirek for revenge in a very violent, DBZ-like way.  
An on-screen death the plot of a movie/episode actually openly deals with is nothing that would require increasing the rating. Just because all the other TV shows nowadays dumb down their plots to not offend anyone doesn’t mean MLP: FiM has to or will follow this procedure.
 
“And if you seriously believe that Hasbro greenlit the show for any further motive than to promote the franchise”
 
“Promoting the franchise” does not mean catering to children. The earlier generations catered to children, G4 caters to everyone, regardless of age or gender.  
Hasbro greenlit a family show for all ages and audiences, not a kid’s show. A show that is mature enough to entertain everyone, from 6 to 99.  
If that happened with ulterior motives in mind, because Hasbro excepted and hoped for being appealing to a huge, adult audience and making more cash that way than with just children, is hard to tell, but either way, this is what happened, because this is the nature of the show and what Hasbro was greenlighting pre-2010.
 
“you clearly know nothing of how capitalism works”
 
Increasing the profit. That’s all that matters in capitalism.  
If suddenly, in an completely unexpected twist, children would largely lose interest in the show and the toys and everything, but bronies are still all there and demand more and show more willingness to pump money into Hasbro for more episodes and merchandise, then watch how fast Hasbro continues for that demography alone. It might even demand that DHX goes all the way grimdark with the show then, to attract even more adults, if that would be a good thing or not, in order to keep up the enormous profit it makes with the franchise.  
In that case, Hasbro would adapt to the new circumstances without much second thought.  
Hasbro would never kill this cashcow as long as it still gives so much milk.  
Killing off profit is not how capitalism works.

@CMC Scootaloo  

 
The show is rated TV-Y, which means “suitable for all audiences”, therefore excluding anything that could upset young children, amongst which violence other than cartoonish.
 
And if you seriously believe that Hasbro greenlit the show for any further motive than to promote the franchise, and with any audience in mind other than kids and their parents (i.e. potential customers), you clearly know nothing of how capitalism works.

@Marx
 
“Anybody that’s ever heard of mlp wouldn’t be thinking ’I wonder how someone will die in this series’ if they haven’t seen a single episode. Sheesh”
 
“Sheesh” indeed. And that’s why it’s narrow-minded thinking. Again, the species does not matter. What matters to determine if a pony will ever die is taking into account the world they live in.  
Equestria gets assaulted by something or someone about every three months or so, if not more often because that’s not counting possible off-screen events.  
And they never shied away from showing dark things. So, if a pony dies during some battle, don’t expect them to portray it in a bloody, gory way. But don’t expect them to pan away the camera, with a death scream coming from off-screen and then only hinting at the body that lies around off-screen somewhere, either.  
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is not that kind of show.  
I don’t like to think about it, but it’s only a matter of time until somepony dies. It’s something you could already realize during Season 1, unless you were more busy substituting reality.
 
 
@Jarkes
 
I didn’t say there would. I’m just fighting that silly, nonsensical assumption of “No death, because, you know, ponies!”.
 
 
@Ereiam
 
Except there isn’t a prime target audience and never was there ever be one. MLP: FiM was always made for all ages. Show-wise, there was never a limitation to a certain audience or age group. It’s only the toys that are marketed towards children (and even that isn’t completely true anymore today), which does not affect the nature of the show.
 
 
@Dig Dug
 
“Deviating from that could be a jarring step in the wrong direction if anything.”
 
You mean a logical consequence from the viewpoint of a, on the surface, cheery world, that has to constantly fight against the darkness in order to not get devoured by it. The show was never sugarcoating anything, if there was anything that could have been shown with even more darkness, but wasn’t, then it was solely due to time constraints.  
You can’t show all the gruesomeness and horrible aspects of war if you have only fourty-five minutes for that and have to, on top of that, let the war share this screentime with the depiction of two other timelines, everything that led up to their creation and everything that happened afterwards and in-between their creation.  
That’s all there is to it. There is no such thing as “We don’t do this, because children in the audience!” only “Damn, if only we could show that, but there isn’t time!”.  
The movie has much more time, so, if something happens, expect it to be fleshed out on-screen quite a bit.
 

 
But I already see what’s going on here, your comment shows that nicely….. No one wants to see a pony die, I get it, so everyone is denying the possibility of this and shuts it out, with whatever arguments necessary, if confronted with it.  
I’m probably the only brony in this fandom who doesn’t want this to happen either, but also accepts and braces himself for the likely inevitability of such a sad event, because there is nothing that can be done about it if it so happens.

TV shows are often constrained by time, budget, and regulatory hurdles that prevent certain think from getting into them these days.
 
But movies on the other hand, might have more open lee way around these traditional rules on what makes it into shows of their ratings.

@CMC Scootaloo  
Think about it from a historical perspective. So far, the only casualty has been Sombra, which even that is debatable since you could argue he was more of a force of darkness and CRYYYSSTAAALLSSSS than a living being at that point. The series may have broadened itself to more stable, coherent plotlines, but it will still shy away from getting too serious onscreen outside of character introspection; the Season 5 finale being a prime example with several terrible futures yet never outright showing death, or pain, or traumatic experience. The message of how bad things are is there, but it’s never explicitly shown.
 
The show has always left its’ deeper side to implications and assumptions, sugarcoating it in a thin veil of humor and child-friendly stories which hide meanings meant for those who know better in the audience. Deviating from that could be a jarring step in the wrong direction if anything.
 
 
That being said, Hasbro has a terrible tendency to kill it’s series protagonists in the movies, so if Optimus has taught us anything, don’t get too attached to Twilight you guys.

@CMC Scootaloo  
“There will never be deaths”, as you say, not because it’s a show with ponies, but because it’s a TV-Y show with young kids as its prime target audience, just in case you forgot (periphery demographics may influence the content, but only so far as it remains kid-friendly first and foremost), and it’s probably a safe assumption to postulate that they’re aiming for a G-rating for this movie as well.  
So grumble about moral guardians all you want, the simple fact remains that as long as TV Parental Guidelines and the MPAA have their say about it, showing good guys dying onscreen would be guaranteed to ramp the rating up, and that’s something that Hasbro executives just won’t let happen.

@CMC Scootaloo
 
There could very easily be some death in this movie, but it certainly won’t be on the level of, say, the G1 Transformers movie, where 20-30 of the old characters were killed off in the first 30 minutes to make way for 20-30 new characters.

@CMC Scootaloo  
Except I never said there wouldn’t be any death just not as much as people hope there would be. I’ve already said that a few times.
 
Also it’s not silly and ridiculous to assume a show about pastel talking ponies will never show death. Anybody that’s ever heard of mlp wouldn’t be thinking ‘I wonder how someone will die in this series’ if they haven’t seen a single episode. Sheesh

@Marx
 
Where did I say I “want” something? I’m just annoyed by certain people treating this show like a show for damn toddlers, while it clearly is the opposite of it.  
It’s a freaking family show, if a pony dies, then it dies, and it’s going to be in the show then.  
And if nopony dies ever, then nopony dies because the script writer didn’t get ideas for this, but not because “We have six year olds in the audience, we can’t show death!”.  
Assuming that there will never be deaths because it’s a show with ponies is just silly and ridiculous. The species doesn’t matter, like, at all.

@CMC Scootaloo  
Hey, that’s Disney’s motto: G means anyone can die if it’s off screen.

@CMC Scootaloo
 
@Marx  

 
I understand that people love the show and premise and all but I think y’all are setting your expectations a bit too high with what you want the series to deliver.

@Marx
 
You can definitely expect everything that isn’t gory or bloody.  
And if you think that’s the selling point, then you still refuse to acknowledge that, if you like it or not, a few of these “cute” ponies might end up being dead.  
Even a pony can die when killed by a villain and that there are a bunch of six year olds in the audience won’t prevent this from happen.

@Jarkes
 
@CMC Scootaloo  

 
I think he’s referring to generation 2 and 3, which were extremely G, to the point where it was stupid, moral, story, and message wise.

@CMC Scootaloo  
It’s more of there can’t be as much death as people hope for because ponies.
 
And I dunno I think the ‘selling point’ was the cute colourful ponies with decent personalities in whatever stories they end up in. If that wasn’t the defining factor why wouldn’t they sell cute colourful ponies as toys?
 
Also grown up and serious now? How serious are we talking? XD

@Marx
 
That’s still saying “There can’t be death, because ponies.”.  
People really must get over viewing “cute, colorful ponies” as the defining factor of this show, that’s really narrow-minded.  
That might have been fitting in the early generations, but a lot of stuff has changed since G4 started. “My Little Pony” has grown up and is serious now.  
It’s not the same kind of show anymore.

@CMC Scootaloo
 
Even though G1 had TWO major villain deaths…

@CMC Scootaloo  
I agree with the point though I just don’t see it happening a lot in Mlp o.o;

@Marx
 
You ignored the point in my comment quite expertly, sir!

@CMC Scootaloo  
Well there are people in the fandom that want darker themes like in fallout or Game Thrones.  
However since it’s ‘just Mlp’ I’d say don’t get your hopes up.

@Ereiam
 
Source? Plenty of animated movies/shows for the whole family had character deaths, not just in anime, in western animation as well.  
I never get were this weird thought comes from, that there can’t be death in it “because it’s My Little Pony”.  
I guess that is a symptom of some people still being stuck in the older generations.

@Ereiam  
Bambi.

@Meanlucario  
Well, remember that this is MLP, so killing off someone who’s not a complete monster is off the table.  
But if she’s indeed a good pony stuck on the wrong side, I can certainly envision her being willing to fight the heroes to the bitter end (not that it necessarily needs to happen).  
Something like Bellamy in the Dressrosa arc of One Piece, to make another comparison with another series.