For those who read the comic and have watched the entire show, for the time this was written, it might have been impressive and FiM would venture out of its comfort zone.

However, considering that such desperate climaxes have happened in episodes like both The Beginning and the Ending of the End (Season 9) or Twilight´s Kingdom; the 4th gen could have perfectly gone through this route. In fact, when Rainbow Roadtrip aired, this comic would fit more in 2019 than the 1 hour special that we´ve actually got (resembling the 3rd gen in a way), so FiM ended up closer towards this direction than the cute innocent one we had in the first seasons, despite its inherent slice of life nature.

There are only a couple of details that would feel weird, like Fluttershy swearing or the enormous epic intensity in the last part for beating Gralo. As for the rest, the show has covered this in one way or another. Hell, even in pages 87 and 88, when Gralo gets out of Garret´s body, for 2012, that might have been a really edgy moment but if you read this in 2020, you will get exactly the same vibes that one would perceive while watching Shadow Play with the Pony of Shadows (Season 7´s finale).

I wouldn´t be impressed at all if gen 5 followed the steps of FiM and added another layer of depth or seriousness into the show. Perhaps this comic illustrates what could happen in an hypothetical scenario.