@Background Pony #F4C7  
Meghan McCarthy doesn’t work for Media DHX. She works for Hasbro. She was part of the original team brought together by Lauren Faust. I provided a source for that. This is simply a fact, no matter how much you dislike it.
 
Meghan works for Hasbro. Her job, from Hasbro, is to determine what is and isn’t canon. Her job title is showrunner.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4plKUIDOcTU  
Approximately 10:40, the gentleman on the left asks about the upcoming (at the time) episode, Slice of Life, and if they plan to use characterization material from G.M. Berrow’s books and/or IDW’s comics. Meghan explains that she gets this question about the canonicity of the comcis/etc. all the time. She explains very clearly that they treat them as separate. MLP:FiM is “its own thing.” If it hasn’t happened on the show, then it doesn’t impact the show.
 
Note, that also on the panel (second from the left) is G.M. Berrow who, at the time, was very recent an addition to the show as a writer. She had written several officially licensed books for MLP prior to that, and none of her works are included in canon either.
 

 
And here is another example where some research would show how you’re wrong. Either do your research or stop being dishonest. Andy Price works for IDW. He’s an artist. He, along with Katie Cook (writer) were assigned to the brand new MLP comics, after IDW successfully negotiated with Hasbro for a license. That in and of itself is an interesting piece of history to read about, and I encourage you to do so. Especially if you like the comics or comics in general.
 
But to say he “works for Hasbro” and/or “is in direct contact with Hasbro” is vague and not really an honest thing to say. There are folks at Hasbro that do review stuff produced by officially licensed creators, to tell them if their creations are acceptable. As in, they can’t make porn with Hasbro’s characters, or do things “too violent” or otherwise outside of the tone and spirit of things they want their IP’s to be depicted as.
 
What you’re missing here is a process by which the IDW (or other official license holders) sit down with any particular Hasbro staff and decide what is canon. They (at IDW) try to not contradict canon, but they don’t recieve guidance (typically) telling them that, for example, Flurry Heart is going to be born to Cadance and Shining Armor, so get ready for that. Or that Big Mac’s first crush ever was Sugar Belle (not Luna or Fleetfoot as per the comics, or Cheerilee or Marble Pie according to various shippers).
 
Meghan, in the video above, explains how this way is better. Because they don’t have to coordinate with each other and make sure everything lines up, they can explore and tell all kinds of different stories. So if something happened in some random comic, you don’t have to consider it as having happened when writing for an episode. As fans, neither do we. The comics are their own continuity. A paralell universe. Whatever you want to imagine it as.

@Cryosite: Are you sure that I’m the one with the dishonesty here, and not you? Name one instance where Meghan McCarthy weighed in on what’s canon or not.
 
And my analogy to Andy Price is in no way “wrong” simply because you say so. I brought him up because he’s in direct contact with Hasbro, and what he’s saying in regards to the comics’ canonicity is literally what Hasbro themselves are telling him.

@Background Pony #F4C7  
I don’t know why you think you’re right here, because you’re being really dishonest.
 
Meghan McCarthy is the showrunner for MLP:FiM. She works for Hasbro. It is her literal job to decide what is and isn’t canon for MLP:FiM.
 
Jim is just a director.
 
There are people in Hasbro higher up the food chain than Meghan McCarthy. None of them have as their job title and duties “decide what is and isn’t canon to MLP:FiM.” No one lower on the chain, like Jim, does either. It is his job, as a co-director, to ensure that the animation and acting and stuff follows the directives given to him by the showrunner, who manages the show-bible, etc.
 
Nice images, by the way, which prove nothing. You could adopt an argument that, as a co-director, Jim at least knows what Meghan’s policy is on the comics. But it is pretty clear from his answers that he isn’t willing or able to give a clear answer. Instead of outright saying, “yes the comics are canon” he gives very corporate-dodgy answers like, “they’re separate” and “Everything is canon until it’s not. Nothing is canon until it is.”
 
He is trying to come across like he’s giving an answer to some dumb fan to get that fan to go away, without pissing that fan off, nor creating a precedent that he’s not authorized to make. He mentioned he’s familiar with the fan/creator stuff regarding canon (specifically as a fan of Batman). He knows full well that this is a hornet’s nest, and there are fans (like you) who are determined that your way is correct, even when it isn’t confirmed. You’ll ignore reality in favor of asserting things onto a piece of fiction.
 
Source:  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghan_McCarthy
 
Meghan McCarthy is part of the original crew brought together by Lauren Faust. That crew was hired by Hasbro execs to create the show, then episodes for that show, using Hasbro’s IP. When Lauren left, Meghan was promoted to her place as Showrunner, where she has remained to this day.
 
I have no idea where you got the idea that she was an employee of the animation studio. Your analogy to Andy Price is simply wrong.

@Cryosite: Media DHX =/= Hasbro. Otherwise, you might as well make the argument that Andy Price works for Hasbro as well, since it’s their words that he’s responding with when asked about what’s canon or not.
 
Adding to that, the only time anyone from Media DHX weighed in on what’s canon or not is in the images down below.
 

 

 

 
Sure looks like the people over at Media DHX is echoing Hasbro’s words to me. Just not in the same manner Andy Price did.

@Background Pony #F4C7  
Meghan McCarthy is the showrunner. She works for Hasbro. It is literally her job to say what is and isn’t canon. Look it up what the word means.

@Cryosite: Regardless, Meghan McCarthy has no say in what’s canon and what isn’t. Hasbro does.

@Background Pony #F4C7  
Jim Miller has only ever been a storyboard artist and supervisor and co-director (mostly alongside Jayson Thiessen).
 
He has never been the showrunner. Only Lauren Faust and Meghan McCarthy.

@Cryosite: >“Meghan McCarthy is the only person who can declare what is canon to MLP:FiM”
 
That is not true, as she’s not among Hasbro’s staffers, and is instead part of Media DHX. Adding to that, Jim Miller, another showrunner, had once stated that the comics are “separate but canon. The way he initially worded it, though, had caused a fan to accuse Jim of saying “the comics aren’t canon” when Jim did no such thing.

Nice one

@Cryosite  
Thanks a million for your comment. :)

 
Did your caps lock get stuck or something? Why are you yelling at us?
 
As for “the writers said”
 
Meghan McCarthy is the showrunner for MLP:FiM. She is the one and only person who can declare if something is canon or not. That is what her job as showrunner is, to decide what among the things her staff creates are accepted and made into canon. The writers for individual episodes don’t get to make that claim. They have to go through her. The writers and artists for the comics don’t get to make that claim.
 
Andy Price, in particular, has been quoted as saying the comics are sort of canon, but he’s an artist who works for IDW, not Megan McArthey.
 
You can “think” they’re canon all you like, but you also are not Meghan McCarthy.
 
Now on to your main topic: timelines.
 
Sure. If you wanted to create a fanfic, comic, or draw pictures that used this idea, you could do so. Canon doesn’t matter one bit for that. You’re free to use IDW’s stuff, things you’ve seen other artists do, fanfiction, books, the Gameloft game, Them’s Fightin’ Herds, badly done Chinese knockoffs, whatever you want. You can also include stuff from other properties. Cross things over if you like. There are other things that use horses. Filly Fantasia(sp?) for example. You could use things from other Hasbro properties like Transformers or Magic: The Gathering. You could go into other companies, like Disney, Ankama, or TOEI.
 
If your question is “does this timeline idea somehow make it possible for canon to work in spite of contradictions or non-canon material” ? Not really. I mean, the S5 “alternates” were pretty explicitly presented as some kind of “timeline-ish” thing already. So you’re hardly breaking new ground with the idea there. It doesn’t work for the IDW comics though, because it doesn’t matter how well they fit, how well they can be explained, or so on. They’re simply not canon, period.