)
To me it was the fact that the franchise became niche after Fandom drama. It was so niche it became lesser known by the mainstream and viewership on Discovery Family declined despite six more season renewals.
Not to mention the MLP movie underperformed at the box office despite making four times the money from the 6 million bucks. Leading to no direct sequel to the movie. And nope, ANG/G5 doesn't count since it's a sequel to FiM and not the 2017 movie.