Understanding Time Travel (In Starfall)

Time travel can and often is a very confusing element to any story that uses it as a plot device.... And as much as I hate to say it, unfortunately I've found that to be no different with my story series, Starfall. But... because I really don't want it to stay confusing, this post is to try and help explain how time travel works within my story.

To begin, let me first point out what's probably the biggest problem with time travel... and that is, well, it's sorta like magic... or Superman... it has very blurry ground rules and generally what can and cannot be done varies (sometimes greatly) from one story to the next because of it.

Here's one example: In the movie, Back to the Future*, a paradox can/could destroy all of existence and a slight variation caused to the past can erase someone's existence in the future. This is because the story of Back to the Future is built upon a single timeline.

*I have to note that I can't include Back to the Future 2 or 3 here because of how badly they broke the time travel rules set in the first movie, and so while I love them, they would only make this even more confusing. Sorry!

But this isn't the route I went with Starfall. Instead, I used both the time travel from Terminator and in the MLP episode, It's about time.

In Terminator (which is really funny to compare to MLP, btw), a time loop is created at some point. It's built upon this: John Connor won't be born unless he sends his dad from the future to hook up with his mom in the past. If the hero failed to do this, he wouldn't be born - so now there's a connection that forces these two points in time together. Whatever happened to the timeline that existed prior to the timeloop - the one where John isn't born - is unknown. There could potentially be another separate timeline where Sarah Connor lives out her life as a waitress and never has a son or has to witness judgement day.

In the It's about time episode, something similar occurs. (Hope this isn't spoiling anyone... but is season 2...) future Twilight visits herself in the past, which makes her past self go borderline insane and in turn builds up to her eventually time traveling to warn herself not to do that that very thing - again creating an endless loop in time.

In Starfall, a major event that takes place two thousand years in the future (or a millennia beyond the current events of the TV series) forces a time loop as well, and it's connected directly to Nightmare Moon's downfall. And because of this, the story sits on its own timeline - which means, characters, places, and events will not always match what has happened in the TV series.

Now hopefully that gives you a little better insight as to how things actually work in my story, and I will revisit this topic again when I'm set to release the third and final book in the series, which is built around the event that caused the time loop in the first place.