Beyond the darker tone and emphasis on adventure, its a special film to me because of what it means and where it came from. Journey of the Spark kinda came from the fears I had a lot when I was a kid. The fear of isolation and not being able to face your mistakes. Growing up as a kid diagnosed with a form of autism, I felt more alone in the world than I honestly would’ve liked. It wasn’t until I got into the Brony community that I found some of my best friends. Now, we’re a family of sorts.

So in many ways, Journey chronicles and deals with the themes of social isolation, depression, and forgiveness. Twilight is manipulated and forced into this extremely dark and alienating experience because of this one horrible mistake she causes. But that one mistake forces into effect the events of Twilight’s friends going off to find her through selflessness. There are things at stake with them going off to find her, but the true importance of them finding Twilight is so they can reunite and tell Twilight how much she means to them. Regardless of what mistakes Twilight has made, they only want to help set things right because they care too much about Twilight to abandon her completely. Its the near exact opposite of The Lion King. That is the heart of the story.

For me, when I look at the Pony community and how much its changed, it feels strange and alienating to a few. Its grown so much since the show first aired and in some cases, many people have felt lost amongst the massive crowd. At the same time, when I really think about it, the film is also kind of a commentary on the state of the Brony community as a whole. It sort of connects the changes and fears that we faced (and still face) to the backdrop of Twilight’s journey in the film. The movie isn’t trying to make a blatant statement or anything, nor is it really trying to shove it in your face, but its something to think about and I hope that we succeed in getting all of these things across when you guys see the film for yourselves.

Essentially, what was discussed was that they’re okay with the film being made, but they can’t give us legal permission due to that pertaining to endorsement from the company.

Initially, we made the changes we did because we wanted to be sure that Hasbro was okay with the film we were trying to make. So that’s why we took the necessary precautions we did. That does not mean we’re completely safe from C&D. But we’ve lowered the risks as much as possible.

It wasn’t. My implications when it came to Discord was that I wanted to give him an air of mystery surrounding his moral intentions. Even in the new draft, its made clear to the audience that Discord has some sort of grudge against Celestia because something happened between the two of them long ago that essentially made Discord the way that he is.

Whether or not it was him being turned to stone is never mentioned in either version of the script. Just that something happened between the two of them that lead to Discord building up nearly over a millennium’s worth of hatred and anger.

This is something that I should make apparent to tons of people on the internet. You guys have NO idea how hard it is trying to build a production team or the overall story from the ground up. 

Two years have gone by and without a doubt that was one of the hardest steps in getting this movie off the ground and to a point where we feel that we can make deadlines and what not. There’s so much work that goes into these types of projects, but so many people take that for granted.

It has not been easy for Journey of the Spark, but we’re now confident in our abilities because of how much things have changed over time.

No. The movie doesn’t touch upon that point of history within the show’s continuity beyond the fact that its briefly mentioned by Discord in one scene. Nothing else beyond that though.