@Frustration in Excelsis  
I agree with you.

@Frustration in Excelsis  
Internal sabotage would be if two of their execs had a grude and wanted to say “I told you so” on the company’s dime.

@Magma-Fox  

 
To be honest, I always felt that the current generation’s take on magic has typically boiled down to “a character makes their horn glow and something plot-relevant happens”. It never really seemed to me like an internally consistent magic system was ever established – what characters can and cannot do often changes quite wildly depending on the needs of the plot. I don’t think that this is a bad thing, necessarily, because I don’t feel it really hurts the show, but I wouldn’t say that FiM has an established magic system of its own.
 

 
No information G5 has even been officially released yet – all we have is an extremely fragmentary collection of preliminary data, unfinished character designs and setting and storyline concepts that some hackers stole and dumped on the web. G5 doesn’t tells us what powers earth ponies have because there hasn’t been any official release to tell anyone anything yet – blaming its writing team for the gaps in material that was effectively stolen from them doesn’t seem very fair to me.
 

 
If I can be honest, that seems very paranoid. Why would Hasbro want to deliberately sabotage one of its main sources of profit?

@Magma-Fox
 
Hasbro mandated the use of various G3 names so they wouldn’t lose the trademarks on them. The same is happening for G5 but there are a lot more important names this time.

@Magma-Fox  
Silence!
 
We don’t speak of those dark, dark times.

@Background Pony #A066  
Yes, but that was a terrible time.
 
G3, and the accompanying G3.5 were not very Well Thought out. The character designs looked derpy at best, or were down right freaky.
 
And even then, FIM has an established Magic System and a way to go with ot. The prior generations, minus G1, didn’t really have a fixed System, and was loose at best, Deus Ex Machina at worse.
 
G5 doesn’t Tell us if Earth Ponies have magic powers, or if they can use magic. We have had these Characters for Eight Years and have gotten used to those girls! G5 may derail Everything just for Hasbro to bandwagon off G4, which currently smacks of Intentional Sabotage!

@chubbyninja89
 
alright, so you don’t want them vastly changing her character design, fair enough. just don’t go porygon2z on us when it comes to design change. :P

@NLTLF  
Now you’re just trying to put words into my mouth.
 
You’re assuming that I’m talking about things being based upon race, which it isn’t.
 
It’s more so about character design and how a character has been fleshed out. I mean since Fluttershy’s been a Pegasus for what, nearly 8 years now, it’s completely fair to associate her as being a Pegasus who prefers to live on ground level to be closer to her animal friends.
 
And I can tell where you’re coming from. But I’m not going to bother getting into a “debate” with a SJW about that hogwash.
 
But the bottom line is.
 
Don’t just assume you know what people are thinking or meaning or whatever, it only makes you look like a moron.

@chubbyninja89
 
it just sounds like firm logic to me.  
“pegasus” isn’t a personality. just like “black” isn’t a personality, or “girl” is a personality. their personality can stem from the identity, or how much they let their identity affect them, but the identity, by itself, isn’t the character.

@NLTLF  
I’m talking about how you’re trying to say I shouldn’t define the character for being a certain race of pony, despite that character being well established as that race.
 
“you mean to tell me that what kind of horse the character is defines, or rather, is their personality”
 
That sounds like some SJW nonsense to me.

@chubbyninja89
 
what are you even talking about by now

@NLTLF  
Rather a bunch of nonsense about “Not judging” and so on and so on.

@NLTLF  
Quit trying to turn this nonsense into a chance for you to rant about a bunch of nonsense.
 
The facts are, that G4 has been the longest of all MLP series, and I don’t know whether or not that means a ton when you consider the other series. So it’s fair to say that Friendship is Magic is what we can and will use as the grounds for looking at the characters and such.

@Background Pony #A066  
We don’t speak of that.

@chubbyninja89
 
okay, giving you hints certainly hasn’t changed your mind so i’ll just go right ahead and say it. what kind of horse a character is wouldn’t actually affect their character. fluttershy can still be a loving caretaker with a bit of social anxiety as a unicorn, rd could still be athletic while not being a pegasus, pp can be an entertainer while having wings.
 
sure, what they do with their time might differ because of it, but their personality and character could stay mostly the same.

@chubbyninja89
 
“Rainbow Dash always dresses in style!”
 
In G3, Rainbow Dash was an Earth pony into fashion and dresses.

@NLTLF  
Well, does Rainbow Dash’s life goal to be one of if not the best flyer in Equestria mean anything to you?
 
And as far as another like Applejack, it only makes sense that she’s an earth pony, since earth ponies seem to have that “magic” to them that allows them to tend the earth and grow crops much more effectively than other ponies.

@chubbyninja89
 
yeah, uh, the blue one. what about her

@NLTLF  
Well, somewhat.
 
More so that Fluttershy has been a Pegasus more than any other type of pony, so it’s ok to think that she’s supposed to be a Pegasus at this point.
 
Not to mention that she is more unique as a Pegasus who prefers to live on the ground rather than up in the clouds, like probably 90-95 percent of most Pegasai do.

@chubbyninja89
 
you mean to tell me that what kind of horse the character is defines, or rather, is their personality

@mjangelvortex  
Ok, that explains a little bit.

@chubbyninja89  
It’s not the final design. Nor is it even the only concept design from the leaks. Multiple concept designs were leaked.
 
And yes, it is true. G3 Fluttershy was an Earth Pony, her G1 inspiration was an Earth Pony, her G2 inspiration was an Earth Pony, and if Faust had her way FiM’s Fluttershy could have been an Earth Pony while Pinkie Pie would have been a Pegasus.

@chubbyninja89
 
It’s based on one of the five concept arts for G5 Fluttershy.

@chubbyninja89  
Nope, we don’t know how the final designs will look. However, I think Row 4’s designs (made by Erika Worthylake) are the most appropriate ones to be chosen because they’re close to what the production team wants! It needs some adjustments (the ears, the muzzles in some angles and Applejack and Fluttershy’s faces), but they look decent.

@Background Pony #C3EC  
So it’s not the final design?
 
 
@Background Pony #F98A  
That’s not true, since now Fluttershy’s character has been actually established as a Pegasus.