Why the unicorn who befriended Scorpan was not Star Swirl the Bearded: An Argument · 1:13pm Aug 6th, 2014
According to the Tale of Hearth's Warming Eve, Star Swirl the Bearded was the mentor of Clover the Clever, who helped found Equestria. This means that Star Swirl was already a renowned conjurer before Equestria was founded, which happened "long before the peaceful rule of Celestia". (see S02E11)
Of course one might argue that the "rule of Celestia" might refer to the time after Nightmare Moon's banishment, so I'll strengthen my point by specifying where in time Tirek's and Scorpan coup for Equestrian magic is located.
When Tirek and Discord meet in S04E25, Discord begins conversation by saying "Tirek, I presume?" This tells us they never met before. However, Tirek immediately recognises Discord and even calls him "legend". We can thus deduce that Tirek is younger than Discord and that his first attempt at stealing Equestrian magic necessarily took place after Discord was imprisoned in stone, as Tirek seems to recall Discord as an important historical figure.
Now to Scorpan's friend. We are told by Celestia that "Scorpan soon came to appreciate the ways of Equestria, even befriending a young unicorn wizard."
We know that an unspecified time before Discord's reign, which lasted an unspecified time and is described as "an eternal state of unrest and unhappiness", Star Swirl was already old. (or at least old enough to mentor other ponies and be called 'the Bearded')
This Star Swirl the Bearded did, according to Celestia, "not understand friendship". (see S03E13)
An unspecified time after said reign, we hear of a "young unicorn" who befriended Scorpan.
One can easily see that these two ponies can not be the same.
The Princesses should probably fire whoever illustrated that book for them. That guy also seemed to think Tirek was grey.
Here we see a historically inaccurate book illustration.
I came up with the theory that Star Swirl ended up in a time lock during the reign of Discord, and when he got out, after Discord was put in stone, he tried to use a potion to restore his youth... but it turned him into a baby. So approximately 20 years after Discord was turned to stone, Tirek and Scorpan turned up, while Star Swirl was a young unicorn... again. Who obviously had decided to reprioritize the role of friendship in his life, if he befriended Scorpan and got him to turn on his brother.
Of course, a better excuse is that there's more than one Star Swirl.
But I'm pleased to see that someone else interprets the timeline as I do. A lot of folks seem to think Discord did know Tirek, but I didn't see any evidence of it. And I was fairly sure that Hearth's Warming had to have happened before Discord, so that makes Star Swirl too old to have met Scorpan as a young unicorn unless time travel, de-aging, or more than one Star Swirl.
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Another possibility I came up with is that he might have botched up a time travel spell and ended up hundreds of years in the future. Without a way back.
The de-aging, however, is (to me) always the catch.
While we have seen such magic in the show, it was by no means permanent and easily undone.
And it still leaves the problem that you don't call somepony young because they look young. I mean, look at Celestia and Luna. Do they look old? Not really. Are they old? Yes.