History Recap / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDWIssue51To53

* OneMillionBC: When Pinkie and Applejack are sent into Equestria's prehistoric era, they find a jungle-covered, volcanic landscape where dinosaurs and cave-ponies living together.

-->'''Twilight''': [[LittleNo No...]] I had those '''[[SuperOCD organized]]!'''\\

* {{Prehistoria}}: When Pinkie and Applejack are sent into Equestria's prehistoric era, they find a jungle-covered, volcanic landscape where dinosaurs and cave-ponies living together.

* EarlyBirdCameo: The final panel of the third issue shows an image of Shadow Lock's ancestor, an evil alicorn-like pony. Come the Season 7 finale, it is revealed that this was the Stygian a.k.a. Pony of Shadows, who serves as the finale's ArcVillain.

* {{Prehistoria}}: Pinkie and Applejack are sent into Equestria's prehistoric era, which has dinosaurs and cave-ponies living together.

* UnPerson: Shadow Lock is essentially committing ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae Damnatio memoriae]]'' against his ancestor.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Shadow Lock's motive for erasing all of those books? To prevent some ancient disaster from reoccurring.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Shadow Lock's reasoning for committing ''Damnatio memoriae'' is that all information pertaining to his ancestor is forbidden and corrupting which could lead to somepony becoming just like his ancestor. Because of this, he concludes that the only way to protect Equestria is for his ancestor to be completely forgotten. Twilight points out that the problem here is that having no foreknowledge of Shadow Lock's ancestor means that nopony can make an accurate identification or make the necessary preparations to defeat or even defend against him which means that history will inevitably repeat itself.
* EarlyBirdCameo: The final panel of the third issue shows an image of Shadow Lock's ancestor, an evil alicorn-like pony. Come the Season 7 finale, it is revealed that this was the Pony of Shadows, who serves as the finale's ArcVillain.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mlp_idw_53.jpg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: [[spoiler:The final panel of the third issue shows an image of Shadow Lock's ancestor, an evil alicorn-like pony. Come the Season 7 finale, it is revealed that this pony was the Pony of Shadows, who serves as the finale's ArcVillain.]]

* EarlyBirdCameo: [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2016/11/friendship-is-magic-comic-issues-51-53.html According to Asmus]], the events of this arc would tie in directly with Season 7 of the television series. Follow up interviews suggest that it is more that the comics are now better informed by Season 7 events, so while there may not be any direct tie-in, there will be less continuity hiccups. This was confirmed when the events of this arc were never mentioned in season 7.

* EarlyBirdCameo: [[http://www.equestriadaily.com/2016/11/friendship-is-magic-comic-issues-51-53.html According to Asmus]], the events of this arc will tie in directly with Season 7 of the television series. Follow up interviews suggest that it is more that the comics are now better informed by Season 7 events, so while there may not be any direct tie-in, there will be less continuity hiccups.

** [[spoiler: Later events indicate that Shadow Lock's ancestor was the pony that became The Pony of Shadows]].

* HistoryRepeats: Shadow Lock is convinced that even knowledge of his ancestor existing is a danger, and that someone finding out about him could trigger a copycat, but Twilight argues that knowledge of the past is important.

Meanwhile, the other six figure out that Shadow Lock's magic has stuck them in short spans of time that repeat themselves, and find ways to escape the magic. They join Twilight and Shadow Lock as he is revealing his faults, and they give him the idea from being trapped that if he doesn't face his history, he will be doomed to repeat it. Shadow Lock admits the error of his ways and promises to try to research his ancestor, in case that should ever come to pass. As the ponies start to return home, Twilight reveals that Shadow Lock never shared with her the name of this villain.

Back at the castle, they discuss their next steps, where Twilight reveals that she had Spike set up a sleepover at the Canterlot Natural History Museum, believing that Shadow Lock would strike there next. As predicted, Shadow Lock arrives, and sends Twilight's friends into realms based on the museum's displays, while she tries to face down Shadow Lock herself so as to understand his purpose. Confronted, Shadowlock admits that about a year prior he discovered that he was related to a villain foe from a thousand years in Equestria's past. Not wanting to have that known, he studied magic that would allow him to erase that name - and any memories associated with that - from books around Equestria as to avoid having to face that past.

Meanwhile, the other six figure out that Shadowlock's magic has stuck them in only short spans of time that repeat themselves, and find ways to escape the magic. They join Twilight and Shadowlock as he is revealing his faults, and they give him the idea from being trapped that if he doesn't face his history, he will be doomed to repeat it. Shadowlock admits the errors of his ways and will now continue to try to research on his ancestor, in case that should ever come to pass. As the ponies start to return home, Twilight releases that Shadowlock never shared with him the name of this villain.

** Trenderhoof is seen working at the newspaper office and Mane-iac when Shadow Lock pulls her from Twist's comic book

* HistoryRepeats:
** Shadow Lock is convinced that even knowledge of his ancestor existing is a danger, and that someone finding out about him could trigger a copycat, but Twilight argues that knowledge of the past is important.
** Mane Six members and Spike (sans Twilight) are stuck in small loops of recreated history based off of the musuem exhibits by Shadow Lock, but manage to escape by using their knowledge of the events to change them for the better and escape.
* MythologyGag: Shadow Lock's parents apparently retired to a place called [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends Somnambula]].

* TheScottishTrope: Shadowlock's motive for erasing books is to erase any mention or memory of his ancestor's name from the minds of ponies and even the actual name is never mentioned in the comic (though we do see a picture likely of him).

* AemorPiercingQuestion: When Twilight, pointing out that Shadow Lock's ancestor was obviously defeated, given that he's not ruling Equestria now, asks how it happened, he realizes that he can't remember, and that he's erased so much history that despite the fact that there probably ''is'' a safe way to stop things, he's not sure what that would be now.

** That said, images of Shadowlock's ancestor shown in the last issue of the arc look strangely similar to the reformed Changelings as they appear in Season 7...

Back at the castle, they discuss their next steps, where Twilight reveals that she had Spike set up a sleepover at the Canterlot Natural History Museum, believing that Shadow Lock would strike there next. As predicted, Shadow Lock arrives, and sends Twilight's friends into realms based on the museum's displays, while she tries to face down Shadow Lock herself so as to understand his purpose.