What does it mean?

(Potential spoilers below the break. Or not. It depends.)

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Comments

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I'm thinking "Twilight Sparkle" is whenever the timelines are synced up together such as they can interact. The arrows from each instance is when either Twilight, Sparkle, or the synced state affects the other timelines. Going backwards is time travel, going forwards is a delayed effect.

I've no idea on the arrows colors, but I'm guessing the red x is from timelines being erased / overwritten.

[Sh4dowWalker96]

Hmmm... Looks like a graph of temporal/spatial shifts between the worlds of Twilight and Sparkle, or how their separate worlds differ from the main line that is Twilight Sparkle. The main parts that confuse me are just the red lines and Xs.

Edit: removed spoiler, dunno why I even had it in the first place.

[smutz92]

Looks like they may become one again

[wille179]

3066717
I can tell you this much because it's not a spoiler: The "Twilight Sparkle" line is the show itself.

[wille179]

3066766
Well, it is a gameplan, of sorts, but it has nothing to do with the Canterlot Wondercolts.

That reminds me, I still am unsure on how to deal with Equestria Girls. I'll deal with that later.

[Iamawesome]

It's a timeline. The more the black lines go away from each other, the more Twilight and Sparkle diverge from canon Twilight. The coloured lines probably show events. The yellow ones are probably be markers for events in canon. I'd guess a pink line is for when an event happens identically timed as in canon. The violet lines would be for when an event happens earlier or later than in canon and the green ones for when Twilight and Sparkle affect each others timeline.

I'm not sure, but it's probably something like this.

[tana1100]

it is a timeline diagram right? twilight sparkle meaning canon timeline

[wille179]

3066838
Assume you are correct. Then what?

[Iamawesome]

3066846 I don't have the time to figure out which line represents which event right now, but I will take a look again later.

[SaintAbsol]

Okay...

It's fairly obvious that the middle is the canon timeline, and the other lines refer to the two different lives of the 'sisters' following the split. The yellow lines that intersect all three are most likely the major events in canon, or events that you deem to be major at least. Where the lines are red (And, by extension the red X's), I am guessing that the unique circumstances of the two caused such a divergence from canon that the event simply did not happen, or was radically altered from what happened in canon. The arrows, as they can all be traced back to event lines, would therefore be instances when the event represented by those lines happened at an earlier or later point in time. With purple lines being events altered from the canon timeline, and green lines being events altered from (or possibly by) Twilight and/or Sparkle.

There's my two cents.

[BronyPonyMan]

What 3066864 said. don't think i could have put it better myself.

[Gastredner]

I'm going to reference the big spoiler post from the blog, so if you haven't read it, you might want to skip this.

We know from that blog post that two events will occur earlier in atleast Sparkle's timeline than they did in the show: The return of the Chrystal Empire and Discord's plunder vines. We also know that Discord himself was released earlier than in the show. If we compare this with the chart above, we see that there are indeed three purple arrows leading from TS's original timeline downwards to Sparkl'e timeline, with the bottom-most one occuring also in Twilight's timeline. That would mean that the yellow lines are the most important, big events: The one at the very bottom should be Nightmare Moon, the hird the release of Discord, purple arrow number five the return of the Chrystal Empire and, last but not least, the plunder vines at number seven.

If we'd assume this to be correct, the yellow lines would be (from bottom to top:
- The Nightmare Moon Incident
- Discord's Escape (SS version)
- Discord's Escape (Original version)
- The Wedding Invasion
- Return of the Chrystal Empire
- ???
- Discord's Plunder Vines
- Discord's Reformation
- Ascension

That would mean that green arrows are flow of information: The CE returns, Sparkle handles it and tells Twilight all about it. Same thing for the wedding, only that it occurs earlier in Twilight's timeline (which might mean that Shining and Cadance actually manage to get married in SS at the point were the respective purple arrow is pointing). Red crosses are probably things that do not occur. We know that Discord won't get reformed in Sparkle's timeline--that would be the red cross on the top right. That would mean that Twilight doesn't ascend, however--atleast not at the original point in time. And we know that this is not the case (well, we don't really know, but we do know that Death has a sister...).

I'm also confused why Twilight's and Sparkle's timeline has a second kink, starting before the wedding. It seems to far removed from Discrod's Escape to be caused by Sparkle's short escape from Canterlot).

Of course, there are problems: Why did Discord's Escape get two lines, while the CE's return only get's one, even though both events happen earlier than planned? I tried to fit Tirek's escape into this, but I didn't find a matching line--maybe it's not considered that important? What is the mystery event I marked with ??? in my proposed timeline? What is the mysterious event without a yellow line in the middle, the one that happens later in Twilight's timeline and not at all in Sparkle's? How come that Discord's reformation happens so much earlier for Twilight than for TS? What do the red lines mean (I don't think they are radical differences, the NMM incident wasn't really different from the one in the show)? Only the author knows...

Edit: Removed those annoying spoiler tags...

[Deynarth]

You sir , are a sadist. My brain is already fried after 6 hours of finals , and now this....
I'll let my brain cool down and study that later...
Most inventive spoiler I've seen in a while , for sure....

[Obsidian]

Yellow-

Yellow lines denote major plot points.

From Bottom to Top
Nightmare Moon
Grand Galloping Gala
Discord (#1)
Canterlot Wedding
Crystal Empire Returns

Then, for the last few it gets a little more difficult to guess.. based on the relative positions of the lines, I want to say they are cronologically close to each other, so for the first set, I want to go

Ascension/Returning the EoH
The second set would be Tirek and Cutie Map/Equalists

There are some other rather major events though, Magic Duel (in at least one timeline) may be a thing, as well as Discord's Reformation. In any event, some of these events would throw off the rest of the timeline, and without knowing what seasons the author plans to involve, or if the timeline goes that far, it's difficult to guess.

X-
The Xs may imply that some of these things will simply NOT come to pass, and it could affect both timelines. Discord, being what he is, may well never be reformed, especially considering what he did when they encountered him the first time. Plus he would screw/fuse the timelines.

On Sparkle's line this could imply that something to do with Discord, or based on position the Magic Duel doesn't occur, and then later the encounter with Tirek is negated somehow.

On Twilight's line, it's probably the Equalists which are rendered void somehow.

Pink Lines -
I'm thinking the Pink lines are when events pretty much occur as canon, with minor differences if any. Nightmare Moon and the Gala pretty much went as expected, at least up until Discord broke loose. It can be assumed that Twilight's timeline the Wedding and Crystal Empire Return will probably be pretty close to what happens in Canon.

Green Lines -
I'm just guessing, but I think green lines are going to be when an event from one, directly impacts another. Sparkle's leadup to the wedding (though in her case it may well be the conflict between the covens) seems like it will impact Twilight's line around the Crystal Empire. Likewise, Twilight's wedding, seems like it will impact Sparkle's jaunt to the Empire.

Something in Twilight's ascension may trigger something on Sparkle's side (seeing as Sparkle isn't connected to the EoH like Twilight is). The last would be something Sparkle does with the equalists affecting Twilight's timeline after the fact.

Purple -

Purple seems to be when an canon/major event happens, but at a different time from the prime timeline. The most obvious would be Discord, who broke free during the Gala as opposed to slightly later.

On Sparkle's side, it looks like she would be going to the Empire/dealing with Sombra before Shining ends up marrying Cadence, but they both still probably happen. It also looks like the ToH/Plunder vine incident might somehow occur before Ascension, though how that would actually work is anyone's guess.

For Twilight's side, it may well be that they still reform Discord, but only after the events of Plunder Vines and ascension, and even, if I'm right... after they deal with Tirek, who looks to be occurring almost instantly after the Plunder Vines/ToH. I could see that event being the reason why Sparkle doesn't have to deal with it, they know it's coming and they stop Tirek earlier, plus without Discord, he wouldn't have gotten nearly as strong.

Unfortunately, most of these are just guesses at best. Good spoilering though.

[Blackshadow of Abys]

when in doubt blame aliens

[Gastredner]

3067512
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/158/329/9189283.jpg

[Blackshadow of Abys]

3067585 imgcache.ifans.com/forums/imgcache3/eeedd03c9ec6701049dbeff4464320ff.png?orig_url=http

[Gastredner]

3067698
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[RowanSkie]

The written and explained timeline all in one picture.

With no freaking labels.

My God.

[Iamawesome]

3066846 I was on a long and boring train ride yesterday, so to spend timeI looked at it again and created a commented version of the image:
(Read from left to right and from bottom to top)
Warning, Spoilers!
static.fimfiction.net/images/story_images/250845.png?1431605305
Edit Some comments:
I interpreted the green lines as Twilight ans Sparkle talking to each other and thus affecting the other timeline. For example there are to green lines from Sparle's Crystal Empire and Twilight's Changeling invasion crossing just before Twilight goes to the Crystal Empire. This implies that the two share notes, leading to Twilight having information on Sombra and Sparkle having information on the Changlings, before the events transpire in their timelines.

I interpreted the crosses as a serious diversion from canon, which lead to me fearing the Alicorn Amulet in Sparkles Timeline (Alicorn Amulet + Black Mage = Bad). Annother interpretation might be that the event doesn't happen at all. This would also make sense, as Trixie would not chase the amulet in Sparkles timeline.

The "Cutie Map" incident still confuses me a little. Shouldn't there also be a pink horizontal line leading from the canon line to Sparkle's? Otherwise there would be no event from which the green arrow originates.

[Iamawesome]

3066804 Please let Twilight and Sparkle end up in the same Human dimension (The human dimension was never split after all).
Having the two next to each other in human forms would be hilarious.

[wille179]

3068633
It's amazing how close you got since my personal copy, with my annotations, depicts other changes that occur that aren't otherwise marked. Consider this: Why would the two timelines move apart? Not physically, but in terms of events? It happens twice - look where the second one is.

Also note that the lowest X is at exactly the same level as the origin of the purple arrow going to the other timeline. I made this on a grid, so the height is indicative of relative time.

Furthermore, why would the empire show up early and the changelings late in one, but not the other? It's been stated that unless an initial condition is changed, the timelines like syncing up. Also, think about who and what are in the crystal empire.

Now see if you can make any new predictions.

[Iamawesome]

3068686 Well, the Crystal Empire's curse is made of dark magic, so it is likely to be affected on the Sparkle side, be it by Sparkle and Thorn messing with things they shouldn't, a general higher level of dark ambient magic, or even the rouge vampires. Sombra might even be controlling them. He has fangs after all and there are quite a few fics that make him one.
With the Crystal Empire returning early, the Changeling's plans would be messed up again, especially if they were targeting Cadence and she moves to the Empire. Thus, it's understandable that they would take their time to readjust their plans. Another option would be that the Changlings wanted to strike later anyway. If I remember correctly, Shining and Cadence are not getting married in the Sparkle line, so they would need a different plan to get into Canterlot.

Also note that the lowest X is at exactly the same level as the origin of the purple arrow going to the other timeline. I made this on a grid, so the height is indicative of relative time.

No they aren't. The cross is about half a centimetre lower. (Yes, I did just measure it, don't judge me)
This is why I was not sure on whether you meant the same event or not. So the Alicorn Amulet turns up after everything else is done in Twilight's timeline. I wonder what might cause that...
What I also wonder about is Tirek with Sparkle. His event is crossed out. The obvious answer would be that Twilight warned Sparkle and she caught him before he rose to power, however there is no green arrow to indicate that. He might also have not escaped at all due to "It's About Time" happening differently.
Also - Do we get Trixiecorn , dark Twilycorn or neither?

No, don't answer these please

The timelines pulling further apart is also interesting, because it begins before all those weird shifts... With all that fuss about vampires right now, I wonder whether they are the cause of this. The timing would definitely fit. This would imply that something similar is happening in Twilight's line as well, as it is pulling away too. Fascinating

[wille179]

3068831
I was thinking more along the lines of this (1:40 - 2:30):

and this.

[Gastredner]

3068831
Twilight won't need to inform Sparkle about Tirek--the spoiler blog post said that Sparkle meets Tirek earlier than in canon in Canterlot and kills him/eats his soul/destroys his soul (reference). However, I can't find a green arrow between the empire's return and the probable Tirek event that leads from Sparkle's to Twilight's timeline--which is strange, surely she'd tell her sister about it.

However, Tirek escaped from Tartarus towards the end of the second season, close to were the timelines divert further from each other. We also saw him the first time when he was in the Chrystal Empire. We don't have a canon reason for the empire's return, but it might be possible that Tirek was involved. I'm not sure how and why he would do such a thing--maybe to try and ally himself with Sombra, to take his magic or to create a distraction so that his escape from Tartarus isn't discovered early on (however that would work).

The timelines moved further apart when Twilight Sparkle split, creating two timelines. It would be sensible to assume that the second kink comes from a similar event. Time travel was an element in It's about Time where Tirek escaped, which seems to make the assumption that the kink is caused by Tirek's escape or Twilight's time travelling more plausible.

I'm surprised that the graph actually goes that far into the future given that wille apparently still hasn't decided on how to handle EG.

[wille179]

3069261
The movie stands alone enough that I could theoretically skip it completely, not that I want to.

[Gastredner]

3069281
Seeing how Tirek happens earlier for Twilight, maybe due to Sparkle's influence: Might that be the cause for the alicorn amulet appearing later than it did in canon? In Twilight's timeline, Trixie was never really put to shame--Twilight simply performed something that was almost impossible to recreate for anypony else, so I'd guess Trixie wouldn't feel very angry about that. Also, since she wasn't exposed as a fraud, she probably never had to work on the rock farm and might have not gone after the amulet. However, with Tirek happening earlier, something might change from canon events and atleast some ponies don't get their magic back. Trixie might be one of those--hearing about a fabled amulet that gives it's user magical powers would be incredibly tempting in that kind of situation, which would explain why it still happens.

[Mercy]

*Reads timeline chart*
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