Episode Re-Review: It's About Time · 6:21pm Mar 5th, 2021
By now word had started to surface about what was in store for the Season 2 finale, though most details remained under wraps. As for the show itself, it seemed like it had been ages since an episode debuted where no one had any complaints about it. Interestingly, M. A. Larson was penning the first Twilight Sparkle focus episode since "Luna Eclipsed" which had also borne Larson's name. But since at least "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" his track record hadn't been as great as it once was. Was he able to redeem himself, especially since he'd be tredding familiar territory? Or was Larson just stuck in a rut? Well, let's find out.
We begin with Spike having a dream where he shows Rarity a house made of ice cream, but he's woken up by Twilight pacing because she forgot to set aside time in her current schedule to make next month's schedule. A frustrated Spike goes back to bed and leaves Twilight to just mope. Eventually, however, Twilight manages to sort it all out. But then there's a gust of wind and static electricity appears as there comes a blinding flash of light. A Twilight from the future with an eye patch, a bandana, a black stealth suit and a messed up mane and tail appears and tries to get her past self to pay attention. But all present Twilight can think about is how time travel is possible and how messed up her future self is. Future Twilight claims she's from next Tuesday morning but is cut off while warning "Whatever you do don't-" and disappears. So Twilight naturally freaks out and tries to warn the whole town, but they all laugh at her and think she's crazy.
Somehow, though, the town is persuaded to take action to help Twilight prevent a possible disaster. This involves things like fixing cracks in sidewalks, tightening the bolts on a bridge so it won't collapse and even getting Pinkie's mane trimmed a bit. Nothing seems to be amiss though, until suddenly a three headed dog appears in Ponyville. Twilight identifies it as Cerberus who is supposed to be guarding the gates of Tartarus, the Greek underworld. Yet strangely enough there's no pony equivalent of Hades, who was the Greek god of the underworld.
Fortunately, Fluttershy is able to tame the beast and Twilight decides to take him back to Tartarus personally with a ball from Pinkie Pie. She's apparently gone until next morning, and Spike is somehow not the least bit concerned about this and even sees it as a chance to sleep in. Twilight then comes back, mentioning that she got Cerberus back to the gates before any criminals could escape. But I'm guessing they later did a head count and found one prisoner missing, because otherwise they just forgot about Tirek (even if they maybe couldn't track him down).
Spike then belches up a scroll that's really a lost dog flyer for Cerberus and it hits Twilight, giving her a paper cut in the exact same place as Future Twilight's scar. Rather than put a bandage over it, Twilight takes it as a sign that the future hasn't changed and whatever horrible disaster that will unfold has yet to occur. She then decides that the next best option is to avoid doing anything, just sit there and do nothing.
Spike can't resist exploiting this to eat as much ice cream as he wants despite Twilight warning him about a stomach ache. Rainbow Dash then comes in and decides to get in on the fun, messing with Twilight before Spike gets the idea to tickle her with a feather. Twilight eventually reacts involuntarily, throwing Spike and causing him to breath fire on her. Yet somehow Twilight is unharmed, she's not even singed. There's no indication that Spike altered his fire breath or that Twilight cast something before hoof to soften the impact. All that's really been accomplished is that she now looks more like Future Twilight due to the hairstyle, but she won't even try to brush it so that it doesn't look that way. Afterwards, Spike takes Twilight to see Madame Pinkie Pie (Pinkie in a fortune teller outfit) to try and predict the future.
Of course, Pinkie reveals that she actually can't predict far into the future even with her "Pinkie Sense". It's only good for vague and immediate events, such as when she gets a twitchy tale and then a flower pot lands on Twilight's head. A couple of days pass before Pinkie (or anyone for that matter) drops by to check on Twilight, and due to the flower pot landing on her head she's gone crazy. She hasn't slept at all because she's insistent on monitoring everything until next Tuesday morning. Upon learning that it'll be the next day, Twilight goes even crazier and asks Pinkie for help with a telescope. When Pinkie can't help, Twilight tries to make the adjustments herself and stares into the sun by accident.
Fortunately, Pinkie Pie has an emergency eyepatch stash and is able to put an eyepatch around the eye Twilight looked through the telescope with. She now realizes she's almost exactly like Future Twilight, and so Twilight decides the only thing to do is to stop time altogether. To that end she, Spike and Pinkie Pie (for some reason) sneak into Canterlot at night while wearing black stealth suits. Spike points out it's not illegal to sneak around Canterlot, but Twilight points out that they'll be sneaking into the Canterlot Archives, more specifically the Starswirl the Bearded wing, which might be illegal.
They manage to avoid detection and slip inside, but the Starswirl the Bearded wing is locked down. Then a guard on patrol comes by and happens to catch Twilight. But apparently this isn't the first time she's snuck into the archives after dark, so he lets her into the Starswirl the Bearded wing with no questions asked. As Twilight then passes by a mirror she sees that she looks just like Future Twilight, and it's almost Tuesday morning, so she hastily searches for anything that could stop time. Unfortunately, the sun comes up and time runs out. Twilight fears the worst, but nothing happens. Even Princess Celestia isn't surprised to see Twilight sneaking around in the archives. So it turns out there was nothing to worry about, apparently. Then Pinkie Pie finds a scroll that lets you go back in time once and only for a brief amount of time. Twilight takes it despite having no need to do so, and we find out that she caused the whole thing by trying to tell her past self not to worry.
Only after the spell wears off does Spike finally get that stomach ache from eating so much ice cream, and Twilight and Pinkie Pie prepare to head home as Twilight gives the moral about not worrying about the future all the time. So the whole time travel thing was completely pointless, Twilight made herself worry for no reason at all.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, up until the end it was probably alright. It definitely lived in the shadow of "Lesson Zero" which already did the plot of Twilight freaking out and did it better, and not a whole lot really happened aside from that. The prospect of time travel was interesting and could've been used for something greater, but it was only used for the beginning and ending of the plot. The real problem though is how nothing seems to have any stakes at all, not even Twilight traveling to Tartarus or getting burnt by Spike. And once the ending unfolds, it all falls apart. They were probably trying to go for "Time Paradox"/"Self Fulfilling Prophecy" and time travel in fiction in general tends to be very confusing.
However, in doing so they make the time travel completely pointless. Twilight has no reason to go back in time and warn her past self when nothing is going to happen that needs to be prevented. Even just having Spike's stomach ache kick in before then could've made it work. But nope, Twilight goes back in time for no reason and the whole episode is pointless because of that. It really goes to show how a bad ending can almost singlehandedly kill a story. So in the end, this episode gets a D-. If not for the ending it probably would've been passable.
And now comes an episode that could probably rival "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" and "Putting Your Hoof Down" for hatred, and the second of three Spike focus episodes almost universally despised. I'm of course talking about "Dragon Quest".
Have you heard of closed time loops? It's when a time loop has no defined beginning or end. And it's a pretty common thing in fiction, and in real life it's potentially real. So I wouldn't say it makes the episode bad. Plus, it's an incredibly fun episode if not as fun as Lesson Zero, and the characters and theme are amazing. I'd rank it as the 7th best episode of the season, it's pretty amazing, handling time travel with finesse many stories made for adults don't.
Let's say Hades does exist on this universe.
Do you think he and Discord could be family?
Honestly, I think the ending only adds to the fun of the episode. It's not one of the best of the season, but still enjoyable
Personally, I feel like the closest thing Season 2 had to a story arc was that Twilight's freak outs in this episode and Lesson Zero were setting her up to be like The Boy Who Cried Wolf in the season finale.
5468201 Maybe, but it only happened twice prior to the finale and in said finale she wasn't really freaking out. If anything, all three times she did "Freak Out" no one believed her or worse laughed at her even though after the first such incident they supposedly knew better.
Twilight was let into the Starswirl Archie's because she's Celestia's personal student, not because she did that before. Kinda obvious...