Rubicon Behind the Scenes Episode 3: Timelines and Canon · 3:18am Nov 20th, 2020
Hey gang.
Its taken a bit--life's been a bit hectic, because sweet merciful heavens 2020 can go fuck itself. So ready for it to not be 2020 anymore. Anyway, this is the long awaited post that roughs out timelines and talks about what stuff from Canon I'm keeping for Rubicon, and where I'm going "NERRP."
Timeline....right. Well, First and foremost, like I've mentioned before, I'm spreading out a lot of the historical events over a longer period than the show, because I dont like the "1000 years ago was a very busy year" thing going on. I'm going to stick to the things that are from Canon, rather than everything I have for the Rubicon universe, because SPOILERS...but if you're good, eventually, I'll post a version of just the timeline that I can edit to add in events as they are revealed in the stories. :P
(all major events below are for equestria's years, not the human world.)
~8000-8500 years ago: First appearances of the emotiphages (Sirens, Windigo, Changelings.)
~8200 years ago: Warring Tribes Era begins.
~7600 years ago: Starswirl punts the Sirens to the human world.
~7200 years ago: Discord is created.
~7100 years ago: Warring Tribes Era ends. First Hearth's Warming, unified pony-kind, etc.
~7100 years ago: Clover hides the Memory Stone in the human world.
~7000-6000 years ago: Discord slowly gains power, eventually running amok.
~6000-5900 years ago: Celestia and Luna are born, and ultimately ascend. They very quickly use the Elements to stop Discord and turn him to stone.
~5900-1000 years ago: Celestia and Luna help put Equestria back together from Discord's mess, ultimately taking over leadership of pony-kind. For the most part, things run well, with a variety of minor and major events that set the stage for the modern Equestria's social, political, and cultural environment.
~1000 years ago: Luna falls to the Nightmare and Celestia banishes her to the moon.
~400 years ago: Celestia seals Chrysalis and her Changelings in a mountain/volcano for...reasons.
Those are the big things. As far as canon goes, most of those big events are fairly close to what canon states for Rubicon (except for maybe the Siren's banishment, which was a lot more complicated and harrowing and less "starswirl just doesnt want to deal with them.") Certain things set the stage for "this must happen before that" such as the Warring Tribes Era needing to come before the princesses--after all, if the princesses were around, unicorns wouldn't be the ones raising sun and moon.
Among other notations and canon versus divergent...
Seasons 1-3 of FiM are pretty much unchanged for Rubicon, though I do flesh some of it out, and make it happen over several years. Again, it seems silly for all of that to happen so quickly.
Season 4-5 of FiM are...there, but I do change a few things. The major points stand though. I can't get rid of Tirek--Him and Scorpan are the whole reason I fell in love with MLP back in 1986-87. Also, Starlight Glimmer's temporal shenanigans are going to do things.
Season 6-9 of FiM...I pretty much ignore most, if not all of it beyond a few good episodes.
Equestria Girls 1 is pretty much what you see on the tin, though as I'm sure you all know, I do a lot to flesh out Sunset's history and motivations.
Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks is seen in the story itself--mostly the same, but given that its the major point of divergence, there's some changes.
Equestria Girls Friendship Games and Beyond: *snorts* While some of the major events will appear, they will be nothing like was seen in the movies, specials, shorts, etc. We're going full on magical girls, ladies, gents, and others, and its about to get serious.
The Fall of Sunset Shimmer: Mostly canon, though I do flesh it out. Its a reasonably solid backstory for our girl, and I happily tweak it for my own ends.
Special information:
Starswirl the Fuckwit and his band of idiots: I'm completely scrapping the canon "Pillars" shit, because I find it redundant. I'm also not on the "sucking Starswirl's Ego" train. Starswirl, for Rubicon...Well, he was a real pony at one point...but he's almost more like the character of King Arthur is in the real world. Starswirl was a famous sorcerer, who was responsible for creating and codifying a lot of magical theory and famous spells, but over the centuries, a lot of similar figures were lumped in with him, their discoveries and accomplishments ultimately being attributed to him, and what modern ponies know of as "Starswirl the Bearded" is actually an amalgamation of a number of historical figures. As for the rest of his band, they were simply former bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Not a pack of ponies who planted a magic seed in their manure.
The Elements of Harmony: These are way older than Starswirl, older than the alicorns, older than Discord. Magical artifacts of that kind of power aren't created by piddly sorcerers who are overblown with a sense of their own self importance. ....though the exact nature of their origins will be revealed in time. Bruhahah.
The "School of Friendship": Nope. Stupid idea, especially because it outright contradicts something presented early in the show--that you cant learn everything in a classroom and that social relationships with others are one of those things. Not happening here. The resulting students? Not a thing for Rubicon.
Thorax and the Changelings transformation into good guys: I like Thorax, don't get me wrong. He's adorable in his first appearance and I just want to hug the little guy. But his big reformation of the rest of the changelings? Not a thing here. His change is unique to him, because he's a special little bug-pony-monster....for...reasons.
Sunset in the human world: I've mentioned this several times, but Sunset has spent approximately 5 years in the human world. If you imagine that the portal opens every 30 lunar months, roughly, (though we dont know the length of a Lunar Month in Equestria), that equates to approximately three days every 2.5 years. Now Sunset knew she had been "replaced" by Twilight Sparkle, which means its likely that she went back for at least portal opening to learn this and dig up info. So if her arrival is 0, then the first portal cycle is 2.5 years, and the second (which would mark the events of the first movie) is approximately at the 5 year mark. (I also go with the idea that because of the time distortion/discrepancy between the two worlds, Sunset had the ability to focus beyond the veil when 30 lunar months had gone by in Equestria, getting a bit of scattered information depending on where the mirror had been stored at the time.)
Next Blog will be talking about Pony Culture and Society, since its come up several times and factors heavily into Sunset's behavior in Arc 2!
Happy Turkey-Day for those who like stuffing themselves stupid!
Sincerely,
An extremely tired author who is so ready for it to not be 2020 anymore
Yesssss. Beardo and the crew creating the elements was such a terrible and just a cheap way to make him more important.
Nice rough time line.
Interesting that there's far more history here. Discord being around for over one thousand years before becoming a bird roost is a fun twist.
Yea, I pretty much consider FIM to have ended after Glimmer's "redemption". She breaks space/time, has a flimsy excuse for doing all the awful cult shit she did, and gets a slap of the wrist at the end of it all. It was at that point I kinda went: "okay, the writers clearly are out of fricks to give, so I'm just going to stick with EG. At least I still find Sunset compelling."
Curious where Sombra, the Umbrum and the Crystal Empire fit into the timeline.
And yea, 2020 can get f**ked by the strap-on from Seven.
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Yup. Hence why I eliminate that whole bit of redundant garbage and replace it with something more sensible.
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I've got way more than that actually mapped out for the universe, but again, SPOILERS. And yeah, Discord running amok for so long is tied into his origins, and a few other things about the setting as a whole.
I wasn't...overly happy with Glimmer's redemption. It...felt underdone at the end. But I'm also not a fan of "every villain can be redeemed." Some villains dont repent. Some people are just evil bastards who revel in their nastiness. Some just dont give a shit. Sometimes, heroes have to make hard choices for the greater good.
And truthfully, I actually like EqG much more than FiM. There's so much potential there, and the characters just feel more...complex. (Possibly because it has an older target audience, so censors let them get away with more.) Sunset has become my favorite character.
As for Sombra, the Crystal Empire, and other such shenanigans...well. You'll see. *smirks* I think you'll enjoy it, actually, given what I've read about your universe. >:}
Are we ever gonna se the dazzlings again?
YES, THIS.
I've had people argue with me about just how "busy" the past 100 years have been and though they've got a point, it still reeks of lazy writing, same with the BS about the pillars that made the Tree of Harmony worse by association.
Now that I mention it... I recently read a series of journals about someone tearing down the last 3 seasons, and while there's a *lot* of salt there, there's some interesting insight into the inner workings of the show creators that explains many of the issues and poor decisions the later seasons (6 onwards) suffered from. Worth checking out if you have time to kill and feel as salty about it as I did:
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/799348/dannyj-reviews-mlp-season-7-part-1
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/898749/dannyj-reviews-mlp-season-8-part-1
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/930390/dannyj-reviews-mlp-season-9-part-1
Hasbro: But we need to sell more playsets!