And then Shimmer turned out to be the new villain. Whoppee!

@Background Pony  
Or here’s another idea. She rarely uses her wings because she’s only had them for a short time (maybe two days or a week and she only pretended to fly but really she used levitation) even though Rainbow Dash keeps volunteering to give her flight lessons.

@bboifatz  
Oh excuse them for giving the show character development and plot development. God, you’re worse than Confused Matthew. Only with ponies.

@Background Pony  
Well that’s a load of bull. Who’s to say she can’t have her own place? Luna has, wherever she lives though she visits Canterlot, Celestia has Canterlot, Cadence has the Crystal Empire, whose to say Twilight isn’t going to have Ponyville as her place of business. There is no rule that states princesses can’t live amongst common folk. Hell, the show’s called FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC. Emphasis on “FRIENDSHIP”.

@James Rye
 
Because princesses aren’t allowed to have friends or live in ponyville in bboifatz’s world. I assume he pulled that out of his ass.

Still expecting Sunset Shimmer to be toyline-exclusive. But whatever.

I’m entirely mellow on this situation, I’ll go with whatever they want. It’s only some months before next season. So it might have a chance…
 
Or not, the reception from Magical Mystery Cure wasn’t so good, and I don’t think what I’m saying is going to stop you from arguing. I just hope they can bring the show to it’s full glory with it’s 4th season.

@bboifatz
 
Why does she have to give up her wings and title to go back to ponyville/her friends?

@bboifatz  
I guess we’ll just have to see… I just see all this speculation as pointless until, like you said, we see for ourselves, so all I have in my head is what makes sense to me.
 
They wouldn’t really have much of a show though if they just shoved the rest of the six into the background and made it all about Pretty Purple Princess Twilight…

@Background Pony
 
You mean this brony membership card DOESN’T get me free pancakes at IHOP?  
Well dammit.

@Background Pony
 
You have no idea how relieved I would be if it turned out that Twilight Sparkle decided being a princess is not for her, gives up her wings and then goes back to ponyville– but I’m just plain past the point where I can believe something like that without seeing it, especially since there is no evidence for it other than wishful thinking.
 
I think it’s more likely that Twilight’s role is changing, and that she will now be more of a mentor to the other characters. I cannot imagine them finding a bullshit enough excuse to go somewhere in the middle, where she’s still a princess but for some reason she’s the Ponyville librarian. There is no way to make that work that isn’t contrived and insulting to the audience’s intelligence (although that fits with Magical Mystery Cure, I suppose).
 
Then we have this Sunset Shimmer character. She looks and sounds from her description like somepony who could easily fill in the gap in the Mane 6’s roster now that Twilight has ascended into a mentor role. It may not be a popular choice, but neither was turning Twilight Sparkle into an alicorn princess, so by now I’m just rolling with the punches.

… Oh, and just for the record, fandoms don’t have membership cards. You either like something or you don’t, you call yourself a brony or a furry or an anime geek or whatever or you don’t. There’s no roster that you can just add or remove your name at will. There is no “in” or “out” of the fandom, you’re either a fan … or you’re not; and if you’re going to base that on what other people are doing, then God help you…

Good lord, why on Earth would they replace Twilight? This whole show started out essentially based on her. Haven’t the staff already said that she’d stay in Ponyville?
 
Here’s what’s gonna happen… Twilight is going to come to terms with her new status and the fact that it would ultimately separate her from her friends, realize that she’d rather be a normal pony with her friends (not to mention that she doesn’t really have a kingdom to rule over), and things will go back to the way they were with Twilight now having earned the Ultimate Friendship Lesson. Tutelage over…
 
… Or not. Hell if I know or care, I’ll keep watching the show no matter how much I disagree with what’s going on, and I imagine most other people will too if for no other reason than that it’s earned our loyalty.

@Dr Outback  
>>implying this is actually hard to do.
 

 
@The Smiling Pony  
The way I ‘ship’ them has Octavia hateful about Vinyl’s choice in damn near everything, constantly trying to murder her (as a true respectable classicist would) but Vinyl being so Wild n hip and completely unpredictable due to the immense amount of drugs in her system makes it virtually impossible for any of her plans to come off, so when Vinyl notices something was up she returns to being a simple exasperated roommate to hide further plots. It’s a very oldschool ’toon setup :D

@Starlight Gaze  
show, not shower… it’s too early.

I really feel that most of the fandom cares more about fanon and headcanon more than the shower, which is why a lot of Bronies lose their shit when something new comes out because it doesn’t support their “perfect viewpoint”.

@SeraphimDawn  
The funniest thing about the internet is that even if one is the only one in a room screaming something different, one can always claim the rest are part of some nebulous ‘vocal minority’

/mlp/ is having a meltdown over this?
 
Really?
 
Celestia has a whole school for gifted unicorns. I don’t see what the big deal is.
 
@Ebalosus  
Yeah, this! I’d love to see some interaction of Twilight with her classmates in flashbacks, and maybe some more character development with Celestia.

Lets see…while I agree with TSP on the fact that they should be fortifying what they have instead of introducing even more new elements to canon, I don’t personally mind some of the additions (Cadance and the Crystal Empire spring to mind). I actually do want their back stories explored more, since the ideas themselves are interesting.
 
As for Sunset Shimmer, if they do introduce her to the show as a character of some importance, I hope they do with her what I’ve been waiting for since season 1:
 
Expand upon Celestia’s character!
 
They have the perfect opportunity to do that through a former student (née even former protegé maybe).

@Starlight Gaze  
It has melted down many times and yet we’re still here. Most of the fandom are actually quite passive or cool with things like new content. Many of us may be upset with alicorn Twilight and the Derpy controversy, but we learned to adapt. Vocal minorities who want to cause ruckus, unfortunately, tend to be noticed.

@The Smiling Pony  
To tell you the truth, I’m getting tired of Lyra/Bonbon and Octavia/Vinyl ships. I tend to see Lyra AND Bonbon as being in a more sister-like friend relationship than a romantic couple. Octavia and Vinyl to me are either colleagues or friendly rivals in the music business, they may or may not have much interaction with each other as they never appeared on screen in the same place in the show.
 
Then again, everyone has their own interpretations to things like this and I respect it. I just don’t like how some people feel they had to force their headcanon onto others.

Holy shit is the fandom going to have a meltdown every time something new is revealed? This is beyond asinine.

Bon-Bon is only happy when she’s not receiving any special focus. When she’s front and center, she doesn’t like anything.  
@The Smiling Pony  
Marry me.

@The Smiling Pony  
Both of them have been shipped since the beginning. I was asking if Vinyl’s basic fanon character has changed. both Lyra/Bon and Vinyl/Tavi ships vary from friends to lovers. Their Personalities do come from evidence in the show. More so Lyra and Bon Bon then Vinyl and Octavia. Lyra is mostly shown really happy and Bon Bon has voice roll that show her more refined but as happy. Vinyl and Octavia are more typecasted due to the fact they haven’t been shown outside their profession. DJ’s are known to be lively and Hip. Octavia plays cello at Canterlot. Canterlot ponies are known to be more refined and classy.

This will be interesting to see how it turns out. I’m kind of hoping it turns out there is no sunset shimmer, because otherwise I don’t think trusting them on anything is on the cards anymore.