@Flutter_Lover  
It’s a guess.

@Flutter_Lover  
They’re taking a wild guess. It has some weight to it but there could be other things at play too. Like I said before, the movie was fairly bloated and a lot of times with movies scenes get cut out for time. The two of them might have had more to do in earlier drafts but were ultimately cut for time.

@Scrounge  
THAT’S why?!

@Baby Doll  
Was there some marketing exec or something that said “the wimp and the hick aren’t what’s selling this week, give their screentime to one of the big names”? Because seems infuriatingly plausible.

@Scrounge  
Yeah, AJ could have had a really good scene in that town, but alas.

@mjangelvortex  

 
Personally, I wonder why they didn’t do anything with her in Kludgetown. You got a rough-and-tumble cowgirl, you got a desert town full of crooks, they couldn’t give her just a little wild west time? I know it’s not profound or anything, but still.

@mjangelvortex  
I just believe they could’ve elevated the material they already had and in my opinion I didn’t really care for the new style (then again that’s just my opinion and possibly the minority here).
 
My main gripe is indeed the script though. I miss when I was a kid and I wasn’t so cynical.

@PaintEdits  
I’m honestly going to have to disagree with you on the new animation style. A theatrical animated film really needs to look good and the extra effort that was made with the animation in this film is definately one of the higher points for me.
 
And based on a lot of the things mentioned in the art book (as well as past leaks), they likely did change the script a lot. Earlier drafts had the ponies go to a live action world (similar to the Smurfs films) which I’m glad never fell through. Another earlier draft basically had Tempest as a male alicorn that was Celestia and Luna’s evil brother (we kinda don’t need more random brothers appearing out of nowhere). Then there was the draft where a lot of the new side characters (especially the Hippogriffs) basically took over the story abit too much and saved the day (which, while badass, does take away a lot of the attention/development from the Mane 6).
 
I can agree that more time on the script was definately needed. But I think the whole “selling toys and celebrity cameos” aspect might have been the big thing that weighed the film down (lots of toy based films seem to focus more on shoving as many new characters to sell new toys as opposed to focusing on developing a smaller cast). Because I honestly think that focusing on maybe two new movie characters (one “good guy” and one “bad guy”) would have been the best option to go with because even the new movie characters felt like they didn’t get enough attention that they deserved to get.

@Flutter_Lover  
Agreed wholeheartedly. They should’ve spent more time on the script and less time developing a new animation style that no one asked for (not saying it’s bad, but they could’ve just upped the animation budget and kept the vectors/frames/etc they already had)

@Flutter_Lover  
I wish so too. But given how bloated the movie already is, I’m not too surprised that the two of them got put in the sidelines so to speak.
 
I did have an idea how to put the both of them in without disturbing too much with what the movie had set in motion already. With Fluttershy, I’d basically add onto the gag with her and the Storm Guard. Maybe though her kindness towards him, he decides to help the rest of the group in some way.
 
As for Applejack, since a lot of her character inovolves family ties. Maybe have her bond with Queen Novo and help her try to understand her daughter a bit more. So instead of only Skystar coming to help them, so does Queen Novo.

It still irks me about this movie is the lack of lines/development of Fluttershy in this movie, along with Applejack. I wish they could’ve had more than just speaking less lines and more of development of their character rather than just the sake of the length of the film. This movie could’ve done a LOT better than what it had.