Death

Not to be confused with the character, Death of the Endless

Given the child-friendly nature of the series, one may not expect death to be a major concept in the brands history. However, mortality and death have been recurring concepts throughout the series, since the early days, typically ranging from from ambiguous deaths to the very few on-screen deaths.

Unlike most toyetic series, deaths in My Little Pony usually are not done for marketing reasons, or at least not overtly so (death of a character usually translates into a new, more favorable character or the chance for the dead character to return with a new form, and thus a new toy) but is often done for backstory or dramatic purposes. Most deaths in the series are implied only, but there have also been instances of characters exclaiming phrases that mentions words like death, dead, kill, etc. There have also been instances of villains threatening to murder others, but these are relatively rare.

History

Generation 1

My Little Pony cartoon

A humorous example appeared in "Would Be Dragonslayer", where Squire Alonzo claimed he wouldn't hurt Spike, he would slay him instead. Given his naive and kind of dimwitted personality, it's possible Alonzo didn't even know slaying meant killing.

Though never directly dealing with deaths, "Baby Its Cold Outside" involved King Charlatan nearly killing his son, Prince Edgar when his greed went to far, and feeling guilty as a result.

Being the infamously dark special that it was, "Rescue at Midnight Castle" has a few moments of potential death with one seen death. The three most noteworthy accounts involve Applejack, Spike and Tirek.

Around the middle of the first half, Scorpan only delivers three Ponies to Tirek, who demanded four. For his failure, Tirek threatens to cut Spike's head off.
Near the end of the first half, Applejack falls into a raging river after an accident on a rickety bridge. Being the selfless girl she was, Megan jumped into the river to save her and the two nearly drowned before being saved by the Seaponies.
Near the end of the second half, Tirac tries to enact the eternal night by unleashing the Rainbow of Darkness upon the world, but his darkness is countered by the light. In doing so, Tirac dies, causing all his dark country to cease to be.

In "Applejack's Amazing Adventure", she struck the Jewel Throne with such force that it cracked opened and opened a crack that went as far as the "ends of the earth", causing the Jewel Wizard to fall down it and presumably die.

My Little Pony Tales

Savage ponies throwing a helpless victim into a volcano, so it may devour her

In "The Slumber Party", Bazzle ended up causing the death of the boy Squire who still hunts Bazzle hundreds of years after his death as a ghost. In the same episode, Squire encountered the belongs of a long dead Knight.

Death was depicted many times in "Ponies in Paradise". The first time was when Patch thought that the ponies of Tropical Island would cannibalize Bright Eyes, another was was when Sweetheart thought the ponies would hurl Bright Eyes into the Hungry Volcano, so it may devour her and stop erupting. Lastly, Bright Eyes nearly fell into the volcano itself, nearly killing her.

In "Whos' Responsible", Bright Eyes feared that the pollution of Big Pony River would "kill all the fishes".

Generation 4

Friendship is Magic cartoon

Although never explicitly stated, it's heavily implied that Applejack's parents have since passed away. This is evident by how they're always mentioned in passing, such as Applejack saying her mother "loved both sides of her family".

King Sombra has, according to various accounts, suffered death on multiple occasions. His defeat by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna left him as a disembodied shadow, in which form he spent a millennium in captivity. Shortly after his escape, the Crystal Heart restored his body, shortly before it channeled the light and love of the Crystal Ponies to shatter him. Grogar-or so he claimed-later apparently restored Sombra to life, but this too was brief.

Friendship is Magic comics

In The Return of Queen Chrysalis - Part II, a map is shown depicting two graveyards.

In "The Fall of Sunset Shimmer", several books containing implied death contents were shown, such as the Haunting of Hill Horse, Condestoga Cannibalism, Infamous Cemeteries of Equestria, Soylent Green Recipes, etc.

In an alternate dimension, Stygian proclaimed that Flash Magnus and Rockhoof both died, with Rockhoof having an accident in his towns volcano. He also claimed that he killed his universes Starswirl the BeardedLegends of Magic Annual 2018 Daybreaker later revealed that she and Stygian had killed Nightmare Moon after she rebelled against the Pony of Shadows.Nightmare Knights #4

Though never explicitly stated, Princess Eris's entire motivation is to destroy the world from the inside by causing the most destructive of chaos, which would undoubtedly cost at least some ponies their lives.Nightmare Knights #1

Generation 5

My Little Pony #5 featured several deaths and implied deaths. Explicitly, Captain Cannon Bone was shown to die, being reduced to a skeleton. A scuba diver who uncovered her treasure later had an unfortunate run in with a shark, though their fate was left ambiguous. In the stories final act, it was revealed that the that the entire town of Candlebright Cove was completely destroyed by Discord, with all of its inhabitants being just gone. It's unclear if they were killed or sealed away, but given the fact that post-redemption arc Discord never bothered to return them if they were just sealed...

Suicide

The idea of suicide and self-harm is even rarer in the My Little Pony brand, but at least one instance of a potential suicide exists, albeit in a mythological context. In "The Many Tales of Queen Chrysalis", after Queen Chrysalis had sacked Timbucktu and trapped all of its residents, the monarch of the land, King Orion was left in a near death state. Ashamed by his failure, Orion escaped the city and flew to deep into the sky until he eventually became "starlight".