During the 24-hour Glimwood Tangle Livestream, the Pokemon Company revealed a mysterious new Pokemon that will debut in Pokemon Sword And Shield.

While it was never outright confirmed by the Pokemon Company, available evidence strongly suggests that this Pokemon is a Galarian form of Ponyta. Not only does the Pokemon strongly resemble the original Ponyta, but it was observed to share the exact same cry. The stream also ended with the cry of its evolution Rapidash, although it was not shown on screen.

With this in mind, some fans have noted that the new Pokemon also shares a strong resemblance to a scrapped pre-evolution for Ponyta that was discovered in the Pokemon Gold & Silver Beta demo. You can check out its look and details below as shared by DrLavaYT on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DrLavaYT/status/1171834366907035648

Some fans have gone as far as to suggest that the new Pokemon is in fact a pre-evolution of Ponyta, as opposed to its Galarian variant in line with Sirfetch’d also being a revival of a beta Pokemon and Obstagoon being a regional exclusive evolution.

While an interesting theory, it seems somewhat unlikely due to the new Pokemon emitting the exact same cry as regular Ponyta. At most, we could probably speculate that Galarian Ponyta’s design may have taken inspiration from this scrapped pre-evolution concept.

That said, we will only know for sure once the Pokemon Company decides to spill the beans on the mysterious Pokemon’s exact identity. We will be sure to keep an eye out for more details.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.