Commentary MLP:FiM Cutie Re-Mark Spoilers · 12:49am Nov 29th, 2015
I am going into this season finale with only one real expectation, to end up depressed at the end, not by the story itself, but by what rules of the world it will establish and by the narrative tools it will end up using that in of it themselves are not depressing, but are ones that I myself, get depressed by. As such, I expect 99.9% of the rest of the viewers to love it while I shall, not. :-(
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Okay, let's start the march of pet peeves, normally I only get these for when I read Sun_Tzu's parody summaries.
I think they should have changed Moon Dancer's appearance now that she isn't being a anti-social recluse and is logically now taking BETTER CARE OF HERSELF. Boo. Bad mark. Ding.
Interesting call back to the CMC getting their cutie marks at once.
In other words, if Fluttershy had the guts to stand up for herself, Equestria would have been doomed, heh.
-Uh, the rainboom didn't inspire Pinkie Pie to leave the rock farm. Where the hell did that come from? No offense, but that's a pretty annoying retcon.
- What would have been an interesting episode is Pinkie Pie and Applejack comparing and contrasting their beliefs on AJ, who feels family is everything, and thus returned to the farm, while Pinkie Pie LEFT the family that had JUST AS STRONG a sense of family and duty as Applejack! It's a WASTE nothing has come of that!!! Boo. Bad mark. Ding. (Treating two opposite actions as good, without explaining WHY the other one was bad in the other instance and vice versa. Boo.)
Only....
40 minutes and 12 seconds to go on an episode that's a two parter epic season finale that I just want to get through. -_- Dammit.
For once, Twilight notices that Glimmer is in the background. IMHO, this PROVES Equestria has no mass communication, since Glimmer was able to enter and NOT be identified!
So Twilight can finally fly. Wish we'd seen her getting used to earth pony strength too. It would go a way to SHOWING rather than TELLING that Earth Ponies are NOT the have-nots in the super powers department in Equestria. Boo. Bad mark. Ding.
I don't think I've truly liked an episode since crusaders of the lost mark. (I do agree that the colors of their marks blend in a little too much, but the shield idea is cool, and bravo for having the guts to actually give them their marks AND having Diamond Tiara given an actual personality).
Starlight's mistake, she didn't BURN the scroll. And Starlight it seems DOES understand harmony, that she's able to activate the cutie mark map. She just has a very twisted view of it!
Reminds me of how Avatar Korra's uncle, in spite of being evil, had better spiritual prowess than her! (It's similar to how I think in a one-on-one conflict, Glimmer is the better and stronger mage than Twilight even after her Alicorn power-up... she just didn't understand how friendship made ponies stronger than the sum of their parts and was utterly blind sided by it.).
At least now we know where they'll end up (right back where they started seeing Pinkie Pie eat the cake. -_- "Hi! I just had an adventure that never happened! That wasn't a waste of the viewer's time at all!)
Spike TOUCHING the scroll triggers the spell after all the bells and whistles Glimmer had to go through?
So Glimmer knows the cloud walking spell... (Only way she could be going around.). So she is a mage type unicorn. That settles that.
Did Glimmer IMPROVE on Starswirl's magic? Or rather find a way to enhance it? Either way, she's smarter than she looks.
Okay. Twilight and Spike can't because they know it'll disrupt history. It's outright CRIMINAL that no pegasus even TRIES to save Fluttershy when she falls!!!!
Ah, so Glimmer's telekinesis is strong enough for her to use it as FLIGHT? 0-0
"Ah, so sorry about this." In reality from the tone of her voice and expression, you can tell Glimmer is RELISHING this.
And she's strong enough to hold herself AND freeze in place almost rainbooming filly RD.
So the animals just WANDER AWAY from Fluttershy? Geeze.
Ya know... in season 1, Pinkie Pie painted her rock farm as... a painfully miserable place... until we meet Maud Pie, and see how much she utterly loves her sister, and how she shows no resentment nor 'bad taste in her mouth' when she goes through her family's own Hearth Warming Eve traditions. So yeah... I'd say this is a case of setting marches on. Once this episode is over, the rock farm will go back to being Pinkie Pie's family home instead of being the most bleak and soulless place in Equestria. Boo. Bad point. Ding.
And all those 'rainbow didn't happen' stories just became obsolete, along with the 'Twilight becomes an alicorn' fanfics did, and the 'mane six as humans' fanfics.
And to be honest... Glimmer IS insane, no two ways about it, at all, let's not mince words. She couldn't have spent this much time studying her targets and learning nothing of their previous quests. Like say, NIGHTMARE MOON! And WHY did she decide to do all this? NOTHING BUT REVENGE! She figures that this'll stop the mane six from ever bothering Own Town. She, INSANE!!! She doomed the world!
And for some reason, Twilight gets sucked back to the future first when she arrived second. -_-
Why did the thrones and the map remain if time has been completely written?
Also... it feeds odd that this episode implies that NO ONE could have measured up like the mane six did to save the world. When all it ACTUALLY takes to make a hero is a little bit of courage and being in the right place at the wrong time.
'The Crystal Empire Takes up half of Equestria'.... King Sombra rules half of Equestria? Geeze, you think SOMEONE OUT THERE would have been brave to take down the tyrant without Twilight and Spike there.
Why is Carrot Top scared of SPIKE?
And what I'M wondering is why Ponyville isn't Chaos Capital of the world in this reality! If there REALLY WEREN'T any Elements of Harmony to challenge or outsmart Discord! Shouldn't the OTHER HALF of Equestria be a checkboard mess of insanity? .... -_- Unless the CMC's bickering really did free Discord. Which is kinda insane, there was no bickering near his statue in a 1000 years? You think they'd put up a sign.
What I find insane? Is that Twilight DOESN'T THINK ABOUT how her friends all wouldn't have gotten their cutie marks in reality! WE KNOW IT'S COMING! And Twilight is WAY TOO SMART to not know it's coming! In particular when she's ADMITTED time has changed! So WHY is she acting like a audience stand in when we the audience already know it's coming and Twilight is too smart NOT to know it's coming?
And HOW does this make something a timeloop? That makes no sense!
Why would the Cakes store be a bread store without Pinkie Pie? Weren't they ALREADY bakers? I thought THEY were the ones who taught PINKIE the finer ponies of pastry cooking. I know they're pressed for time and need to show the viewer as much as they can as quickly as they can how screwing up the world is now, but this feels badly written. Bad point. Boo. Ding.
I'd ask why the world isn't in eternal night... but I get the feeling we'll find out in the form of Evil Celestia... -_- Yeah, more food for the Celestia is Evil/Incompetent/Aloof.
So without Applejack around, Sweet Apple Acres and Carrot Top's farm got bought and.. -_- Sigh, of course, got EEEEVVILLL modernized. Seriously, why is modernization always shown to be EEEEEEVIIILLL?
The cans have Granny Smith's face on them? 0-0 Curiouser and curiouser.
I get it, AJ is a blank flank as an adult, because being a traditionalist apple farmer was the only thing in all of time and space that gives her life meaning. It's confirmed, ponies are robots.
Though I am surprised to see AJ back at the farm rather than being a high class mare in Manehatten as Applejewel. That's just plain weird.
At least they didn't have it bought out by the Riches (who are of course evil by virtue of having more money than them).
And AJ has her country accent still instead of a Manehatten one.
Twilight is SURPRISED Applejack doesn't know her? When she KNOWS that the event that brought them all together never happen!??! Huh!?!?
RARITY left for Manehatten? At least that shows AJ DID know Rarity before meeting Twilight somehow. I wonder if we'll see Rarity destitute, or having ended up like Suri (puts Suri's own corruption into a thief and a backstabber into light if that happened). What surprises me is that AJ came BACK from Manehatten!
"She went to help with the cause the same as everypony else."
Okay ... bronies... we wanted an Equestria at war story.... and we've been given one... and we're going to be shown just how awful and ugly war ACTUALLY IS! "Hope that makes you happy!" I can imagine someone telling us.
To be honest? What I find insane? Unless Alicornification has been handed out like hot-cakes in this new reality, I'm wondering WHY THE BLOODY HELL APPLEJACK ISN'T NOTICING THAT TWILIGHT IS AN ALICORN! It's not like she's covering her wings!!!!!
I just wonder who Sombra found as his grunt forces since his slaves would likely surrender first chance they got, unless he is now like a cancer, spreading across the like by himself.
Wasn't Twilight's Castle in the MIDDLE OF PONYVILLE BEFORE?! How did it become to be in the middle of nowhere?
Another question... why isn't what's LEFT of Equestria overrun by hungry changelings? Or did Nightmare Moon and Discord decimate the place so much, that the place was no longer the land of milk and honey that tempted the changelings to invade in the first place?
At least Twilight isn't using a memory spell... guess she can't give AJ memories that AJ never experienced in this reality to begin with.
At least Applejack has enough empathy to CARE still.
I wonder if Glimmer doesn't care as long as she has her precious Out Town... oh wait, half of Equestria ruled by Sombra... guess Glimmer didn't get her cake or get to eat it. Unless she was so blinded by revenge she doesn't CARE that the ponies she once thought of as her FRIENDS are now suffering under Discord.
Mind control armor. Got it. Mindless grunts so don't have to do any thinking, with only Sombra doing any thinking, he's still a one pony empire.
Celestia is still around when Sombra invaded? Did she just banish Luna back to the moon for ANOTHER 1000 years? . . . That.... that sadly.... makes... makes a lot of sense.
New Equestrian flight suits... guess war does push progress along whether we like it or not. Welcome to the key to great strides in human progress, finding new ways to kill each other.
Guess Sombra isn't a coward after all, he's on the battle field himself.
... Okay... RD is in the Wonderbolts after all... welcome to mid-war promotions. And she lost on of her wings and ... apparently also the progress of war results in the birth of prosthetic limbs. I have to give RD credit... She was denied the Sonic Rainboom... and she STILL had loyalty to Eqesturia and gave her wing, and nearly her eye, and so much else... she's still loyalty.
And Pinkie and Maud are there as well, apparently ground forces. And Pinkie Pie doesn't have her poofy mane and ironically Maud's mane is more wild... and both prove to intense rock smashers.
Yeah... we WANTED an 'Equestria at war badass story' and instead of feeling pumped or epic at all these intense fight scenes going on... we feel, we feel SAD knowing that these ponies never had to go through this insanity.
I wonder if we'll bother to see what became of Discord, SA, Cadence, Luna, and the changelings.
Or the poor breezies... easily forgotten in the middle of this... I doubt ponies had the TIME to help them fighting off hell itself.
So Rarity and Fluttershy in this reality are part of the grunt labor force keeping the supplies coming to Equestria's army.
I guess it makes sense since Rarity ALREADY had her talent for sewing BEFORE finding her cutie mark.
I guess even the writers can't bring themselves to have Fluttershy doing the fighting on the front line....
What shocks me is that Celestia had no one to send to the Crystal Empire to save the day in the mean time! You think of Twilight didn't work out Celestia would have focused on Moon Dancer or Trixie instead to save Luna from herself and be Celestia's errand girl. (I guess neither of them had Spike there? Since hatching the egg wasn't the ACTUAL point of the test?)
It's ironic that we get an dark world not with Nightmare Moon or Discord, but Sombra.
To be honest... this reminds me of the Crusaders war hammer pony fan comic... but isn't filling me with level of Epic RAGE at the mere sight of it... I guess because those twisted by Sombra's mind control aren't written off by the narrative and the rules of the setting and magic as beyond saving. And the PONIES are still the good guys rather than being as ruthless and brutal as the bad guys!
There was a FOAL with a back pack there? Okay, horrors of child soldiers confirmed, bloody dammit, that's more important that some poor innocent widdle rabbit that get displaced by the tyrannical monster.
AJ just marches off to get back to her job... Twilight doesn't stop her... she says she'll make things right... AJ says "Ah hope ya do."
Twilight goes back in time to stop Glimmer from altering history... why is it only 15 minutes into the story that Twilight manages to do this?
Why do I get the feeling that Twilight trying to fix things is going to slowly make things WORSE with each successive timeline? But how WOULD she present this insanity from happening?
Prevent the scroll from ever being made? . . . But then she would have never gone back in time to fix it to begin with. -_-
It's interesting that Glimmer changed the spell so she COULD alter time... something even Starswhirl wasn't able to do. Both Glimmer AND Twilight have surpassed Starswirl now.
What I find insane is that we didn't see what became of that reality's Twilight Sparkle!
And we learn... Starlight Glimmer explicitly made the spell not as a time travel spell, but as a "Send Starlight Glimmer through time spell"... 0-0 Okay, color me impressed. That's one way to make your macguffin tamper proof. Thankfully Glimmer might be pragmatic, but she's still too driven by revenge to do it quietly, she STILL wants Twilight to SEE what she does! She fixed the spell SO Twilight would!
And she can apparently zap Spike and Twilight into a solid Crystal prison... she's been studying.
And Glimmer rambles... and Glimmer reveals...yes, she DOES believe her own philosophy. She saw Our Town as a SANCTUARY where a pony couldn't lord their Cutie Mark over someone else's. (Well, at least THAT was settled in my fanon's favor.)
What I find rather annoying? The writers never showing if the girls are still blanks, or have the same marks. IMHO it would ironically prove Glimmer RIGHT that Cutie Marks are slavery if the same pony living a completely different life gets the EXACT same mark!
And having given her ramble (and not seeming to care she's also ruined half of Equestria, or doesn't know because she's that selfish and blind), she lets Twilight and Spike fall to their deaths.
'Those bullies'... geeze, can't Hoops, Score and Touchdown have names already?
0-0
Glimmer THIS TIME alters time not by stopping RD's rainboom but... BUT BY BEIING A GOOD PERSON IN ANY OTHER SITUATION ACROSS TIME AND SPACE AND GIVING THE BULLIES A TALKING TO ABOUT THEIR POOR TREATMENT OF FLUTTERSHY!? And doing it in a LOVING AND MOTHERLY VOICE?
Guess her motherly attitude in Own Town wasn't all just for show. (Guess that trait being real doesn't actually conflict her blinding hatred towards Cutie Mark... which ironically makes you wonder how much she hates her own, which given cutie marks are the self, makes you wonder how much she hates herself.).
Reminds me of those story ideas where a villain goes back in time and SAVES Bruce Wayne's parents!
Okay. I figured something like this somewhere in the back of my head... but I never imagined I'd actually see it!
And Twilight is caught in a VERY awkward position! She has to ENCOURAGE bullying!?
Without Fluttershy needing to be rescued, RD's face never happens, Shy never fall to her doom... etc.
This line popped into my head:
Starlight Glimmer, "You know the difference between you and me Twilight Sparkle? I'm willing to do what's NECESSARY!"
She even gets the BULLIES to agree with her that an equal world wouldn't be so bad.
And there's the trap, what Starlight wants, 'equality for all' is NOT inherently evil! It's part of stopped the Windigos after all! ("We're all ponies.").
"-what did Amon want? Equality for all. Unalaq? He brought back the spirits. And Zaheer believed in freedom. The problem was, those guys were totally out of balance and they took their ideologies too far."
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG with equality, promoting spiritualism, or freedom. But what happens when you consider everything else (like happiness, fulfillment, growth) secondary to it?
And Twilight TRIES to argue against Glimmer's point... but Twilight's NOT USED to arguing against villains who actually WANT SOMETHING GOOD (even those who want it at the cost of everything else good, reminds me of the deer from IDW, but better written)... when Twilight last verbally thrashed Glimmer, Glimmer had been exposed, betrayed, and cornered... on even ground, Twilight falls apart trying to argue against Glimmer's rhetoric.
And the bullies decide to HELP FLUTTERSHY rather than bully her! And the thing is, there is something ALMOST genuine about Starlight's happy smile here. (I'm reminded of Chase Young in the finale of Showdown, where he never fell from grace, but his friend did, and the world went to hades, and chooses to become evil again for the sake of the world... )
Twilight says Glimmer did that spiel just to stop the rainboom.
Glimmer defends that she did it became she believes in Equality, the rainboom in this case was just bonus.
Twilight sees RD... and tells Starlight this isn't over yet.
Glimmer, with a satisfaction that only comes when you GENUINELY know your opponent is walking into a screw up, "If you say so!"
Twilight does the logical thing and try to bait RD into racing her (and what, push SHy over the edge? The bullies will just save her then, and even if Twilight succeeds, that foalhood experience will make it a lot less likely for them to trust a unicorn with the same dragon and face a lifetime later).
AND RD... the queen of arrogance and ego only bite size... says a race with Twilight would be unfair since she's an adult and RD is a filly?!?!?!?! 0-0 RD actually backing DOWN from a insanely high challenge?! RD sees Twilight is an Alicorn (NOW someone notices?! -_- ) and makes an excuse and makes tracks after Spike gives RD the thumbs up (guess that didn't work).
Twilight tell RD just needs to fly fast enough for a Sonic Rainboom... but RD says she can't do that... guess RD's not as confident in her early years as she let on. Then again, we've known RD's ego is a straw giant for a while.
I wonder who did the Sonic Rainboom that STARTED this 'myth' to begin with!!!!! ANYONE THINK ABOUT THAT?!
Twilight says "I've seen you do it! In the future!" And little RD makes tracks from the obviously crazy Alicorn.
Okay... how did history change this time? They're in Everfree... why?
How does GLIMMER plan to get back to the future?
Okay... ponies being tribal and wearing green zebra strip pant? WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED FOR THIS TIMELINE TO COME ABOUT!??! (Berry, Shy, and Pinkie (WITH HER HAPPY MANE! WHAT THE HECK?!?!?! WRITERS! ANSWERS!).
"Silence changeling! All servants of Queen Chrysalis found in these woods must be destroyed!"
... They think they're changelings as a matter of course?
And... they actually used the word 'destroy' in THAT context... I wonder how that got past the censors.
Or how THIS even came about! What happened to Sombra in THIS timeline!? OR DISCORD?!
And yeah... these ponies have a 'kill and don't ask questions later' for changelings... I ... feel genuinely disappointed in that... I liked the idea better of ponies treating changelings as just other creatures who had bad guys rather than them ALL being bad guys or ALL working for Chrysalis.
-_-
ENDS PART 1
BEGIN PART 2
I guess this is the writer's way of telling ME meanwhile, "You wanted Fluttershy with a spine? HERE YOU BUCKING GO!" Jerkass genie.
Spike manages to hold off the killing by breathing fire... Guess changelings can't mimic abilities like that after all.
And in this reality, it seems Zecora is a rebel leader... I guess that explains the get ups, and at least Zecora acting, ya know, RATIONAL.
But seriously... we're supposed to believe it wasn't even a year since the changeling invasion? IF it was three years THEN I could see them having been hardened into this group and changing their attitudes this much. Not a few months!
And so Zecora has a ointment that negates changeling magic by 'revealing the truth inside.'
Zecora says, "It is we, who should not be." 0-0 That's DEPRESSING TO HEAR!
Zecora guesses that chrysalis doesn't run in Twilight's world... and Twilight leaves out that it was SA AND CADENCE who stopped Chrysalis, Twilight and her friend played a vital role, yes, so this makes sense, but you think Twilight would give her brother and sister in law credit!
And Zecora explains the butterfly effect is in FULL effect here, which is why the two timelines Twilight has seen are so different.
I'm just wonder HOW it happened differently!
Twilight sees RD, Rarity and AJ run through the bushes asking desperately for help... odd it just happens to be the three of them, Twilight should realize now is not time for consequences. AND WHY do they have the same cutie marks HERE?! AND! They're not wearing the tribal marks means to negate changeling magic... I get the feeling that some changeling read Twilight's mind since her emotional image of her friends was so strong and just followed suit.
I can smell a trap... but given how emotionally distraught Twilight is... I can forgive her falling for it hook line and sinker (even if she realizes it MAKES NO SENSE that the three of them are here with their normal cutie marks!!). What I can't believe is Zecora's camp falling for the same trick after they nearly killed Twilight just to be safe! If they were THIS incompetent they wouldn't have lasted this long!
And Zecora DOESN'T... She doesn't fall for it.
AJ turns out to be CHRYSALIS IN DISGUISE!!!! The other shape shift into her guards.
Chrysalis' entire army shows up, and the little foal we saw running to her dad turned out to be a infiltrator (yes she didn't have the markings)!
I wonder if SENSING TWILIGHT's massive amount of magic was what made Chrysalis find them!
Chrysalis gives an transparently fake promise of leaving Zecora's ponies alone if Zecora comes to Canterlot's dungeons quietly.
Twilight, "If there's even a chance Chrysalis will keep her word, shouldn't you try?"
-_- Twilight. She can't be that dumb. Chrysalis is the QUEEN OF ALL TREACHERY! Twilight should KNOW Chrysalis won't keep her word!
Zecora skips speaking in verse and tells Twilight stop Glimmer and get the world back on track.
The two sides clash, Zecora's rebels holding out as long as they can, Zecora lasts as long as you expect her to against a full-powered-up Chrysalis.
Wonder why Twilight didn't just go back in time on the spot... maybe she doesn't WANT to abandon these worldlines to oblivion if she doesn't have to?
In spite of being a flesh and blood unicorn against an Alicorn Princess, Glimmer proves to be on even ground!
Sadly.. the epic battle between Glimmer and Twilight gets RD and the bullies to stop the race, get some popcorn, and enjoy the epic battle.
And... Equestria at night... Yep. We knew it was coming. Here's Nightmare Moon.
COME ON TWILIGHT!!!!! THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL YOU CAN'T PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER ON WHAT'S HAPPENED IF IT'S NIGHT WHEN IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE DAY!
And... Twilight's epic battle with Glimmer actually, DRAIN HER MANA RESERVES?!
Glimmer has been doing through training hell since we last saw her!
Twilight sees the castle of the two sisters fully repaired and restored... we know whose living there.
Here's praying that the Alien Parasite thing doesn't come up. PLEASE don't come up!
And we see Rarity wearing a dress based on the Night Guard armor... and having her tail and mane in a bun.. and... her cutie mark is the same as in the prime timeline?
Okay. Destroy all cutie mark. Starlight Glimmer is right. They're instruments of Slavery of fate. Sign me up.
And Rarity says the castle isn't for viewing today, since the tapestries all need changing 'again'. Seems that Nightmare Moon DOES allow ponies to visit her castle. (Assuming this world isn't good luna and evil Celestia).
And what I find insane is that Twilight keeps missing herself in this new timeline.
Rarity, "I don't social with DRAGONS, I don't know any pony who would."
You wanted a Rarity who wasn't warm to Spike? Here ya go! Happy?!
Twilight rambles to Rarity things Rarity of course has absolutely no way of knowing what so ever.
"Every present I come to is worse than the last!"
"Time travel you say?"
And Twilight FINALLY realizes whose castle this is!
And Rainbow Dash in this timeline... has become of Nightmare Moon's bat pony guards. And she is NOT a nice pony, at all! The buzz cut doesn't do her at all. (Interesting that Nightmare Moon still calls herself 'Princess' of Equestria rather than Queen.).
Given Nightmare Moon only came along once RD and co were already adults... I wonder what they've endured to have their attitudes changed so much.
And Nightmare Moon now has fangs. They're bigger than the last time we saw them too.
Odd we likely aren't gonna see Discord's world... then again maybe they didn't want to remind viewers just UTTERLY EVIL Discord was!!!
"My sister has been imprisoned in the moon for years!" Not the sun? And YEARS!? Okay... this creates some odd paradoxes with continuity.
And Nightmare Moon calls Celestia her sister without hesitation.
Twilight uses Spell Copy to trap Glimmer in the same crystal she did Twilight earlier, instead Glimmer shatters it through sheer force of will and the fight is on again.
And... we get a momentary look at a world that is ... pretty much a LIFELESS WASTELAND DEVOID OF ANY LIVING THING BEING DESTROYED BY TIREK! So yeah, Tirek wasn't interested in conquering, or ruling, or playing, like the other villains... once he ate up the magic of the ponies... the reduced the place to a FREAKIN' WASTELAND! He wanted DESTRUCTION! He OBLITERATED ponykind! If that isn't enough to show Tirek is still MLP's ultimate evil, I don't know what is! He doesn't want one stone standing atop a another!
Next Twilight makes another zap at Glimmer, but she jut side steps and hits RD instead.
And... we get our momentary look at Discord's world after all. And we Luna and Celestia being nothing more but Discord's personal clowns. At least that finally answers what happened to them on the day of chaos. Given Discord's sick sense of humor... it's fitting.
What's funny? Is that in NONE OF THESE WORDS does Twilight encounter Glimmer! Nor does she RULE in any of them! She'll never back what she lost.
Next Glimmer helps Shy through the hoops.
The next one isn't THAT awful considering the rest... it's just Flim and Flam with a modern machine putting out the apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres... to be frank, as bad as that is... it's about the LEAST horrible future we've seen!
Glimmer, "Spare me your overblown ego." 0-0 How the hell can Glimmer not know? Oh right, blind with revenge.
This time Twilight takes Glimmer WITH HER to the future.
Know I called Tirek's world a dead waste land?
I was wrong, THIS is a dead wasteland! There's literally NOTHING! No heroes, no villains, nothing.... it looks like part of Entropy's Oblivion to be honest.
Glimmer can't believe the mane six are that irreplaceable. It sickens her that six ponies can that more important than everyone else.
Twilight IS the symbol of everything Starlight Glimmer hates: ponies who are "more important" than others. No wonder she hates her so bad.
And Twilight APOLOGIZES that doing what had to be done at Our Town had to cause Glimmer so much pain.
And Glimmer, pissed off at this perceived sense of superiority that she hates so much... show Twilight what her what she is.
And we learn... Starlight and Sunburst, best of friends forever.... Sunburst used his magic to save Starlight from a falling book tower they'd built together ... and Sunburst gets his cutie mark... And DOESN'T EVEN LOOK AT HER as he show off his new cutie mark to his family... doesn't even SPEAK TO HER! Doesn't check to make sure she was all right.... nothing.
He went off to the school for Gifted Unicorns and Starlight never saw him again.
Twilight finds the idea of a cutie mark ending a friendship ridiculous ---
--- But Starlight shatters this and bloody points out that NOT EVERYONE get the luck of having their friends get their cutie marks at the same time... and she IS going to make Twilight know that pain!
They return, and Glimmer is determined to destroy the scroll so Twilight can't stop her again. (She TELEPORTS IT OFF SPIKE'S BACK!).
She doesn't CARE the world is destroyed it seems, as long as she can have revenge for having her perfect little world stolen from her.
Twilight admits she DOESN'T know Glimmer's pain, but she can't let her do this!
Glimmer is PISSED at the idea of six ponies' friendships being MORE IMPORTANT than everyone else's!
Interesting... Twilight turns this around... telling Starlight that her losing Sunburst is what lead to the miseries they're in now! Twilight claims that every friendship is important, not just hers and her friends. (It would have worked better if they had shown this more. Seriously, it was the most interesting thing I've seen and it barely a couple lines long, I wish this part of the exchange had been touched upon and explored more).
Where the heck did the scroll GO?
The mane six show up... wasn't Pinkie Pie eating cake before? I wonder if history is as flawlessly perfect as we hope.
The mane six are shocked that their friendship was THAT important.
Twilight again insists that it's that undoing THEIR friendship causes friendship's magic to unravel all over Equestria due to all friendships being connected. (Again, I bloody wish they'd gone over this more.)
And Twilight admits she couldn't out-magic Starlight Glimmer!
Makes you wonder if Glimmer's cutie mark is so meek BECAUSE she hates it that much.
Interesting that Glimmer doesn't just run away while the mane six discuss her fate, and apparently have the authority to do so.
Glimmer wants to face her punishment like a mare.
Seeing the our towner hugging was nice, and so was the song.
So that's that.
I abstain from giving this a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
---
Personally, it would have worked BETTER if Twilight had said, "you can go back in time and unravel ANY group of friends and you'll have the same result!"
Though I think it's depressing that the bullies HAD to be bullies in order for Twilight and co to become friends.
I'm not letting that stop my Rainboom-less universe fic from existing!
My biggest problem with it was that they focused on the Mane 6 becoming Starlight's friends over fixing Starlight's previous friendships, although they did have the Our Town scene at least.
As for the ridiculous consequences of time travel... it's possible that this is what every stable time loop looks like from the inside. You just can't *stop* until the effects create the cause.
As for Twilight being special... I think they're special because Harmony chose them and invested its power in them, so when they were unraveled the energy that might have let some other group take their place was unraveled as well?
OTOH it might just be 'we got lucky' -- each individual villain was defeated in *most* of the Bad End scenarios.
One thing that doesn't make sense, is when Starlight changed the past to where RD never did the sonic rainboom and Twilight failed her entrance exam, shouldn't she have lost her wings? She would have never even come close to a situation where she could become an Alicorn. Who knows, Twi might have even wound up with a different cutie mark.
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I think it's cause she was in the past when all the changes happened.
I wonder if we could have seen a version of Equestria ruled by the iron hoof of Princess Sunset Shimmer and her army of thralls if they had time.
Ever thought that she might LIKE that sweater and manestyle?
It kinda did, in a bit of a roundabout way, but, she was clearly kinda miserable on the farm, Rainboom swept in, poofing her mane up, she threw a party and eventually, she moved away.
There's only so much they can DO on the show due to it's rating for one, and B, ever thought that they just might not have thought of that and that all things considered it won't make that big a difference?
Again, only so much they can do. Heck, one of the writer said "We can't show Twilight punching Tirek in the face" which is a bit of a pity.
Or she just wanted to bake a cake for Twilight. Or Twilight ordered one off screen.
Yeah, I was kinda surprised about that too.
Well, there was no Rainboom scaring them giving Shy a chance to calm them down.
Ever thought that Maud being the older sister, though we're not sure by how much, meant she couldn't always spend a lot of time with Pinkie?
Season 5, ruiner of headcanons! And besides, YOUR fics are just as obsolete by that logic, and besides, it's FANFICTION, it's not MEANT to be taken as canon.
No shit?
Well, it IS where the spell was cast, and it's part of the Tree of Harmony, so, maybe it serves as a magical anchor point?
Maybe they tried and failed? And they didn't know WHERE the Elements were.
Again, tried and failed. Guy has an army, has a lot of black magic, and is obviously pretty smart, remember all the traps he set in Crystal Empire? And besides, few knew about the Crystal Empire, much less about the Crystal Heart.
Dragon, and stranger.
King Sombra is more of an orderly evil than a chaotic evil, and besides, maybe that field trip never happened, or some other small things meant Discord was never released.
Maybe she's in slight denial?
Time travel rarely does.
Again, you're too quick to take things negatively. Again, times changed, and perhaps they never became pastry chefs and got different ideas for what they wanted to do? Butterfly effect and all that.
Actually, that'd have been an interesting AU, but, sadly no.
It's NOT, they just can't afford to do things the old fashoned way.
No you dumbass, maybe she just got a different cutie mark. You DID this before, remember?
Maybe she did spend some time there, or maybe she didn't like it and came back out of depression more than realization or had to help her family with the war effort?
Filthy Rich is a perfectly nice pony, we saw this in Diamond Tiara's debut, and now she's a nice, er, pony.
Maybe she's just got a lot on her mind.
Oh for fuck's sake, maybe the writers thought of it on their own, genius.
Busy/doesn't care.
See how the helmets's eyes glowed green? Maybe it's an enchantment to make them fight, or he corrupted them.
Good question.
Probably.
Indeed.
Revenge bliding.
And it works.
Only thing she could do, with no Elements, or tried to use them or something, I dunno.
DON'T YOU START! I HAVE HAD IT WITH WAR! Between my History teacher who won't shut up about it, Fallout 4 and now this, or maybe they always had them are just deployed for war.
Yep.
Ground forces, did, did you just make a pun? ALso, PInkie and Maud used Rock Smash! It's Super Effective!
That was probably the idea.
Most likely.
I'd normally say battle medic, but there's only so much they can show with the show's rating.
Again, nobody said she didn't, or maybe she was still wracked by guilt of having to banish Luna AGAIN, or they didn't know Celestia and vice versa.
Well, his name means Shadow in Spanish.
*rolls eyes* Yes yes, we get it.
Maybe she was too shocked and horrified.
Magic, snort snort.
Or he just did most of the hard work and they just did a bit of "editing".
Maybe she just became a regular unicorn who never went to Celestia's School?
Which is why you're not a show writer.
I think it's Dumbell, not Touchdown. And maye she never found out their names or forgot?
It is ridiculously creepy, yes.
The irony doesn't escape me, yes.
Exactly, but when you take it too far, THEN the problems start.
Fun fact, Hades was actually probably one of the nicest Greek Gods, kidnapping Persephone was preally the worst thing he did, which considering what his little brother Zeus did, is very little.
Arrogant, yes, but NOT stupid.
Maybe a pegasus flew really fast one day and there happened to be an explosion and a rainbow nearby at the same time or something? Kinda weak an argument, but, eh, after a while, those myths start to get somewhat hard to believe, and even if it was true she was a filly at the time, she obviously didn't think SHE of all ponies could pull one off.
Magic.
As far as they know, they ARE all working for Chrysalis. Those are the only ones they've ever encountered.
Pretty sure they don't even KNOW about you. And besides, you of all people should know about be careful what you wish for.
War changes people. Ponies, whatever. And maybe in this timeline it was.
Since they never knew about them until Twilight told them, with no Twilight around, they never knew.
Nice, isn't it?
Only downsdie is her not having her double coice thing which was cool.
Likely.
Po nies are ridiculously forgiving, and she's from a timeline where things are a lot nicer.
Probably not, she's not a monster.
To be fair, Twilight has done a lot of casting recently, and Alicorn or not, she's only got so much magic.
Maybe she just hoping against hope it's not Nightmare Moon. Not gonna lie, this excited me, it's been a while since we last saw Nightmare Moon in her full splendor and it is glorious!
Oh yeah.
I will post this as many times as I have to.
I didn't actually.
We do actually, for a depressingly short amount of time, which is good, if he noticed her, who knows what he'd do to Twilight.
Again, time travel, you don't overthink it. Maybe Nightmare Moon happened earlier, banished earlier, came back earlier etc. Bam, no paradoxes.
WHo are you trying to convince here? WE GET IT. I'm kinda glad we didn't see more of his world, he'd have either magic drained Twilight, or outright killed her and she isn't boosted enough to stand a chance this time.
And the sarcastic clap, oh god that face is PRICELESS!
Exactly.
Yep.
I know, wait, back up,
Never thought I'd see those words. Anyway, I got chills seeing that place, there wasn't ANYTHING, just, a wasteland, it scared the hell out of me, wondering just what the hell could have done that?
Maybe he was just too excited?
Once again only so much can be done.
Good question.
Yes, maybe it was after?
Possible
Well, Twilight IS a Princess, maybe the Mane 6 act as her advsiors, politically speaking?
Which I approved of. It makes sense that they'd induct her into their fold like that because, well, they kept Discord at arm's length, and well, Twilight's Kingdom happened, so, maybe this way, they can prevent her from turning back to her old ways again like Discord did. I kinda hope she'll just be a recurring character like Discord than a full seventh member of the team. I just had a thought for Season 6, might be interesting to see Discord, Luna, Sunset and Starlight interact during an episode, maybe focused on them, could be interesting besides, Discord is hilarious and Sunset is adorable, it's bound to be a fun episode if it happens, which I doubt, but, hey, I can dream.
It was, the song was a bit bland for my taste, but it was a good song, and yeah, seeing Night Glider briefly glare at Starlight before she explains and begs for forgiveness was a nice touch. I don't think it happened that easily, but the song was like a montage, like What My Cutie Mark Is Telling Me.
Oh?
That feels like it was somewhat implicit.
Life sucks sometimes.
They are part of the time machine/spell.
(EQ girl ending) It simplest way to explain things in less than a few sentences what just happen to Twilight. It's a close enough definition.
Could have be despair crushing moment. Instead Zecora took the news like a champ. Fucking Metal.
Not dumb, It's just who she is.
Or not. One TV season equals a year or Nightmare moon escaped early. If the CMC and other foals age up next season, I'll stand by this statement.
We live in that future and I weep.
Imperfect world creates imperfect people. The trick is not to dwell on it and learn from the imperfection. Or you become Starlight Glimmer.
All those alternate worlds/timelines didn't have Twilight, Spike and Starlight and in them. Where did Starlight go when Twilight and Spike went to the alternate worlds/timelines? Questions answer in fanfiction or another time.
Thanks for the blow-by-blow, it was fun to read. I agree with most of your points. I will say that as a personal rule, I am always way more forgiving of plot holes and logic failures in fiction when they involve time travel, because I have literally never seen a time travel story in any genre that is completely missing plot holes.
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I ironically wasn't going for a blow by blow, but thanks dude!
I just now realized something: Starlight Glimmer is probably the most powerful unicorn alive, even more powerful than Twilight was when she was a unicorn. And yet, for years she did nothing but basic levitation and the cutie mark removal spell, so she could pretend to be equalized as well. I would call that pretty strong evidence of the depth of her convictions, that she values the "friendships" she had in Our Town over exercising her own talent at magic.
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In other words, she hates her own special talent, let that sink in for a moment.
3581025 Eeeeeesh.
3581025 I've hated and still hate parts of myself. Made good point.
Actually, according to the creators, Celestia prepared that test specifically for Twilight, somehow knowing beforehand (or at least having a hunch) that Twilight was the pony she was looking for. But it is a little jarring that apparently no one can fill the role Twilight and her friends play, that it HAS to be them.
I mean, what about Sunset Shimmer? Couldn't she wield the Element of Magic? Couldn't Celestia have dragged her out of the mirror world, kicking and screaming if need be (which in my opinion she should have done anyway, since she knows the dangers of unbalancing worlds and admits that she knew nothing of the world Sunset Shimmer went to therefore putting her in danger) and then teaching her what she needed to learn instead of giving her the boot just because curiosity and arrogance led to a single, A SINGLE, terrible decision that frankly pales in comparison to some of things Twilight has done.
Going by how they have been described so far, the Elements of Harmony should be able to be wielded by anyone, so long as they embrace friendship and embody the qualities that the Elements are named after. The fact that they are making it seem like only Twilight and her friends can wield them is pretty disbelievable, especially since we know that others can through Celestia, Luna, Sunset Shimmer and Good King Sombra.
It's also pretty insulting towards Celestia. It has been shown on many occasions in the show and comics that Celestia is a wise, and somewhat mischievous, ruler that has ruled Equestria for over a thousand years. She cannot be so incompetent as to be pinning all her hopes and plans on a single filly, or else the ponies and enemies of Equestria have made it their personal mission in life to redefine the word 'stupid'. There is no way that stopping the Rainboom should have prevented Celestia from finding a candidate to wield the Element of Magic (especially since we know Trixie and Sunset are alicorn material) or from taking Twilight as her student regardless. It makes it seem like Celestia only took Twilight on for her powerful magic, when we know that she took Twilight on for her Cutie Mark (which has its own unfortunate implications, but seems less callous), which she and Luna saw on the Tree of Harmony (despite that about three other ponies have had that same star in their cutie marks) when they first got the Elements and have been waiting for a pony with said mark to act as the third princess (Cadance becoming an alicorn was an unforeseen circumstance which Celestia did not plan on).
The thing is that Twilight has seen cutie marks end friendships before with Apple Bloom and Twist. They may hang out still off screen, we'll never know since Twist doesn't have a VA anymore and the comics do not seem to be interested in it either, but that episode had Apple Bloom declare she had no one to hang out with after Twist got her cutie mark. Which makes it a shame that the CMC was not involved in the plot, despite how important they were building them up to be this season.
I liked the episode, I really did, but I do have a beef with the whole Rainboom thing. Twilight became friends with the other members of the Mane Six BEFORE they found out about the Rainboom. It played no part in them initially ecoming friends and only strengthened the bond they all ready had when they found out. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were even friends before the Rainboom! That was why Dash stood up for her! The idea that they could not be friends if the Rainboom didn't happen, causing them to gain their cutie marks at the same time, undermines the very concept of friendships and actually supports Starlight Glimmer's argument that cutie marks ruin friendships.
I'd go on about Starlight's motivation for her philosophy, but that's been done to death. The only comment I can make on it by this point is that it doesn't matter if her reason was insignificant to others because SHE"S CRAZY! Her reasons are significant only to herself, she doesn't want to hear anyone's opinion on it.
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Thanks for your honest opinion.