Both the Sombra and Chrysalis sections were delightfully dark. And not just by comparison, or a fan trying too hard to make somethng out to be creepy in a "if you think about it long enough" fashion, but genuine weapons of war and all but mentioning that ponies have died. Awesome.

And or the Changelings, the paranoia and security were great as a police state. When the Everfree is your only safeguard, and they could be pulling a kill and replace where anybody could be one of them, that has palpable Paranoia Fuel to it.

So fans that try to grim dark Equestria out of insecurity that you're watching a girls' show, kindly shut the buck up.

Post of the Day #1292

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

One other show the finale reminded me of was The Simpsons Halloween episode where Homer kept traveling back and forth from the prehistoric era to altered versions of the present. Not only because both stories reference the butterfly effect, but also because of how Homer kept traveling back and forth to different alternate futures.

I also had some possible Fridge Brilliance concerning the first two alternate futures:

• In the first, unless I'm forgetting something, the only change was simply that Rainbow Dash was stopped from doing the Rainboom, with everything else playing out very similarly to what happened originally. Thus, there was no big burst of bright colors, which is fitting because Sombra's rule made everything look very somber in color and mood. Also, I noticed that Sugarcube Corner still exists in that timeline, but it's now a bakery that focuses on bread (it had a giant loaf of bread on the roof) because the war effort means they need to focus on the necessities and sugar is probably rationed or banned (just like the sugar rationing in WWII).
• In the second timeline, Starlight Glimmer taught the bullies to be kinder to Fluttershy. This could fit with the changelings taking over because they eat love energy, and perhaps ponies became even kinder, more loving, and more trusting of each other in that universe, leading to the changelings having even more food.

As much as I'm surprised to say it, but I mostly agree with Seraphim here.

because the war effort means they need to focus on the necessities and sugar is probably rationed or banned (just like the sugar rationing in WWII).

That's probably the main reason, but it's also notable that Pinkie likely never came to Ponyville in that timeline anyway.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Okay, so we have Starlight, Trixie, Sunset, and Moondancer. All unicorn mares, most likely of above magic ability, had a beef with Twilight that resulted in being befriended.

Twilight has her own merry band of rejects now.

"I feel like I'm on a raft and surrounding me is an ocean of dumb."- Mr. Sark

I'm guessing it's still ran by the Cakes.

As for Starlight's redemption, I thought it was fine. The main thing that I enjoyed was that she knew she was in the wrong. Yea, her past friendship failing because her friend got his cutie mark was kind of a poor excuse. Yea, with this one petty revenge scheme, she essentially doomed Equestria not once but many times over. The fact that she was whole-heartedly expecting punishment for her actions was really what showed she had changed.

OOC: So I finally got around to watching the finale. I have to say, I was quite impressed. It's nice to see somepony be a rival to Twilight in terms of magical prowess. If there is one complaint I could say, I don't get why Twilight needed to explore the alternate timelines after the second time. If all she needs to go back is the scroll and table, why ever explore? She nearly got Nightmare Moon involved because of this. Oh well, it wasn't a huge detraction.

As for Starlight's motivation, I find it believable. I know it comes off as shallow, but I have met people IRL who have blamed minor/unrelated things to some greater misfortune in their life. So Starlight blaming Sunburst's cutiemark for her lack of friends sounds believable to me.

I have a feeling some fanfic writers are going to have a field day with this episode. I would love to see how those alternate time lines play out. That is, what events transpired that lead from Rainbow not pulling off the sonic rainboom to each of the alt. timelines. I really want to learn more about that last one. Apparently Rainbow getting knocked out from the sky leads to, what appears to be, total annihilation of Equestria.

We are all made of star stuff. Very, very weird star stuff.

After looking and seeing that Starlight has her own page with both the fake and real cutie mark, I'm questioning why we haven't done the same on the CMC page.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

join the club, we've got jackets.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

Now, I have to wonder...are each of these timelines coexistant, or does one replace another each time Twilight resets? I don't think it would be as dark as people say if the timelines are replaced: ponies and their roles would merely be reshuffled and have different memories. I doubt that the show (or any time travel story for that matter) would ever take into account the fact that every second, people physically change thanks to cells growing and dying, so I'd think that' she best we can come up with.

Adventure Time and Steven Universe retgoned their timelines, and Futurama ust let the whole universe die and start over, so yeah. Maybe it's best they're not mentioning the finer details.

I think how Starlight explained the time spell meant that the timeline was being rewritten each time, and not creating multiple different timelines.

That's how I saw it, anyway.

"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Mae

Certainly, that strikes me as more merciful.

Anyway, maybe Twilight should form a group dedicated to formerly evil (or at the very least, unfriendly) unicorns whom she's helped. We can start with Sunset, Starlight, Trixie, Moondancer and Lyra, who just kind of wandered in.

Oh God! Natural light!

Orange Twilight, Pink Twilight, Blue Twilight, and Yellow Twilight.

Are there any other Twilights I should know about?

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

All we're missing is Red Twilight and Green Twilight and we'll have our own Twilight Rainbow.

edited 29th Nov '15 10:05:47 AM by Keybreak

OOC: Sounds more like a Power Rangers team than anything else.

We are all made of star stuff. Very, very weird star stuff.

Zecora's dialogue implied that the timeline is rewritten rather than existing independently.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Anyway, as to how each given Timeline turned out, here are my personal theories of how each might've happened (using that comment posted earlier as a format).

• Sombra: NMM returns, but Celestia has a Plan B and manages to re-seal her. Because Celestia never passed control of the Elements over to the Mane 6, Discord never gets frees. Because Twilight is no longer Celestia's student, she doesn't drift away from her brother and grows closer to him and Cadance. As a result, Chrysalis' invasion gets stopped earlier because Twilight notices something is wrong earlier on. Sombra returns. SA and Cadance are still weakened from repelling the changeling invasion, so Celestia has to declare war. Without the mane six around with the elements, Celestia jacks up security on Tartarus, keeping Tirek from escaping.

• Chrysalis: Like above, Celestia defeats NMM, retains the elements, and keeps Discord sealed. However some sort of minor For Lack Of A Nail issue means Twilight isn't around to bust Chrysalis or free Cadance, meaning Chrysalis successfully absorbs their magic, and defeats Celestia.

• Nightmare Moon: Celestia is still searching for the ponies she believes to be the next element bearers when NMM breaks out. She can't find them in time and NMM wins. Alternately, she manages to send Twilight to Ponyville like in the original plan, but it fails because timeline shenanigans mean not all the ponies are there (e.g. RD and Fluttershy never moved to Ponyville or something).

• Tirek: Some other villain (possibly all of them) manage to escape. Tirek absorbs the energy and becomes powerful enough to lay waste to Equestria.

• Discord: Celestia uses the elements to purify Luna somehow (possibly with Cadance's help; without Twilight around to train for Alicorn-hood, she focuses on educating Cadance), but doing so breaks her link with the elements and allows Discord to escape. Without Fluttershy around, Discord stays evil.

• Flim and Flam: Okay, I'm not sure about this one. Best I've got is that some of the above stuff happens and ruins Equestria's economy badly enough that Flim and Flam can industrialize.

• Ashlands: All the villains manage to escape somewhat simultaneously. The results are quite obvious. Alternately, this is the timeline where Starlight won: She managed to research some sort of megaspell that removed everyone's cutie marks, with the eventual result being that everything died because no one had the skills necessary to take care of the world.

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GO GO TWILIGHT RANGERS

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

I have to wonder how screwed things would be if Midnight Sparkle broke through the dimensions. How can you beat something that feeds on pure magic and acquires knowledge to gain more magic to acquire...

By finding an anti-magical being?

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

Well, the one thing that made her vulnerable is that she isn't consciously evil; she just let the magic get to her head. It would be entirely possible to talk her down.

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Set Tirek on her.

... then you have 2 problems.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Midnight Sparkle vs. Tirek?

Pass the popcorn, this'll be awesome.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?