Was it known at the time that Season 3 could have been the end?

[MJNSEIFER]

Season 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was going to be the final season, and that "Magical Mystery Cure" was going to be the series finale, but at some point they found out they'd be doing more seasons.  Was this a widely known fact at the time, like was it common knowledge the show was supposedly coming to an end?  I didn't find this out until years later - I just thought "Magical Mystery Cure" was a normal finale, and the show would continue.

There's a chance I'd do better asking bronies this question, as it's their reaction I'm looking at, but I suppose if it was, it would explain why Equestria Girls got so much drama when it was announced - I remember bronies acting like they thought it was going to replace FiM, so if it had been announced it was ending, they probably thought it was.  I actually remember not understanding why there was such a fuss about a spin-off, because I had no reason to believe that FiM was ending.

There's also a small chance that this could explain why hardly any of them seemed willing to wait until next season to see how the Princess Twilight storyline went, as they thought this was simply how it was ending, but this is doubtful, as I remember them moaning about how the Mane Five would have to treat Twilight differently, so it sounded like they thought more season were coming.  For the record, I never understood any of the fears about Princess Twilight, and was not surprised they never happened.  None of them fit the show.

So yeah, was it actually more commonly known than I thought?  Because I genuinely had no idea at the time.

[RoseNoire]

I was following the series at that time and I never felt it was supposed to be the series finale. Maybe you can have a better idea of the situation by reading Equestria Daily's articles from 2013 and prior ? Just a thought.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I'm seeing a few more people say this and some people are saying M.A. Larson had said it himself. Among the fandom, I don't think we knew this until Larson told us. Season 3 ended airing on February 16th, 2013...but EqD posted about Season 4 having 26 episodes on February 5th, 2013.

[LadyMoondancer]

I think by the time it came out it was known there would be more seasons, but also that it was created as a finale before those seasons were greenlit.

I definitely knew it was "supposed to be" the finale when it aired.  It felt like a finale to me.

[otocolobus_manul]

Yep, I remember seeing people saying s3 would be the end on a different forum I was on at the time (about mid-s3).

[Ponyfan]

I've always seen that episode as one that could have been the series finale if FIM didn't add more seasons.


Ponyfan

[RoseNoire]

Now that I think of it, maybe the first contract was to make 3 seasons and then check if the show is popular enough to renew the thing and have more seasons. That's probably why the s3 finale feels like an ending. The crew decided to play it safe in case their contract wouldn't be renewed.
Because I think I remember that contract thing going on so people were relieved when they knew more seasons were to come. So maybe we need to dig deeper than 2013 articles.

[Zapper]

I don't know about any fan reactions but the S3 finale certainly felt like an end. The way it was written it seemed like this was Twilight's arc completed.

I didn't think it was going to end because of FiM's popularity. And well, lots of people had strong reactions to EqG because they weren't ponies. D'uh!
I caught a bit about the crazy fans worrying Sunset Shimmer would replace Twilight because of their themes and stuff. But look how that went. The writers introduced three more ponies that played on her theme (Starlight Glimmer, Moondancer, and Luster Dawn) and none of them replaced Miss Sparkle (so far, lol).