Conquer Trilogy: Complete Timeline · 10:30pm Oct 2nd, 2016
There's a piece of writing advice I like to give: a story should not need supplemental material to be understood. An author shouldn't need to explain things after the fact. If a prereader or commenter asks you a question, then that information should probably be in the story.
Authors aren't perfect, though. I think that, in most cases, having the information presented in a sub-optimal way is better than not having the information at all. Clarifying things that have already been presented robs them of a little of their magic, but also gives more concrete points of reference. Presenting information outside of the story also adheres to Death of the Author: since the information isn't actually in the story, then it is fair game to ignore it.
So rather than explaining it over and over in separate comments, here is the complete timeline of the If You Came to Conquer trilogy. Obviously this involves a lot of spoilers, so watch out for that. This is also in purely chronological order, so knowledge of the story is likely still required to understand how events progress. After all, time travel tends to muck things up a bit.
Items in Blue happen "offscreen" (i.e. they are not shown in any of the stories). Since Discord A and Discord B never leave their respective timelines, they are each only referred to as "Discord".
Universe B (Ruined Equestria)
* Luna becomes Nightmare Moon and kills Celestia in their fight. Removes Celestia's heart.
* "Princess Nightmare Moon" takes over Equestria. Creates eternal night. Works ponies to death creating a new castle/other tyrannical activities.
* Life starts to die because of the lack of sun.
* Eventually Princess Nightmare Moon is left alone. She does things to fill the time, like reading, writing, etc. She uses magic to live without food and other such things.
* ~1000 years after her confrontation with Celestia, she confronts Discord. (If You Came to Conquer starts here)
* Discord sends her to Universe A.
* Discord is alone. After some time, he gets bored and revives Celestia.
* Celestia kills Discord, and takes his heart to replace hers. "Celichtia" can now use Discord's magic.
* Celichtia travels to Universe A.
* Celichtia returns to Universe B with Luna A.
Universe A ("Canon" Equestria)
* Princess Nightmare Moon arrives in Universe A. Confronts Luna A.
* Celichtia arrives in Universe A
* Princess Nightmare Moon kills Luna, leaves her dead body alone. Princess Nightmare Moon disguises herself as Luna. (If You Came to Conquer ends here)
* Celichtia revives Luna, takes her back to Universe B. (You Too Will Deteriorate ends here)
* Princess Nightmare Moon confronts Princess Celestia A. Intentionally throws fight so Celestia wins.
* Princess Nightmare Moon spends ~1000 years on moon.
* Princess Nightmare Moon returns from the moon. Is confronted by Elements of Harmony, as per the show. She fakes her own reformation using magic, and resumes her Luna disguise.
* Timeline progresses as per the show.
* Tirek reappears.
* Princess Nightmare Moon kills Tirek (Inexcusable starts here).
* Princess Celestia confronts Princess Nightmare Moon.
* Drama ensues.
* Princess Celestia eventually decides to pretend to love Princess Nightmare Moon and let her be. (Inexcusable ends here.)
* Time passes.
* Celichtia arrives in Universe A (You Too Will Deteriorate starts here).
* Drama ensues.
* Celichtia confronts Princess Nightmare Moon. Princess Nightmare Moon decides to stay in Universe A.
* Discord talks to Celichtia.
* Celichtia travels back in time of Universe A.
So there you have it. Most readers already figured out all the details and progression of events on their own. And as per Death of the Author, the author’s interpretation isn’t necessarily more valid than anyone else’s. But hopefully this will help people who were frustrated by the story's vagaries. Those who already came to a specific interpretation or conclusion are naturally welcome to ignore this (I personally like the All Just a Dream theory).
Thanks for reading. As always, comments, criticism, and corrections are welcome.
Time travel always makes things confusing and messy, just ask Fry. Luckily I've read enough time travel stories to be able to hold on during the ride.
I have no idea why, but I'm rarely ever confused by time travel stories. Your stories made sense to me, and they were so enjoyable to read!
My only unmet question is now 'What happens in the 'Everyone in Equestria died' timeline, now that it has 2 Princesses again?
Oh - and what happened to Celichtia's heart?
No real answer why Lichlestia kill Discord A.
In the end of "You Too Will Deteriorate" she was not so cruel.
4238092
"Princess, I hope you won't mind me asking this, but why do you have a stutter?"
Celestia smiled. "You are n-not the first pony to ask that. You n-needn't worry about it."
"I've been researching it, and you don't seem to have any of the usual symptoms of a genetic stutter or even--"
"I can assure you, it is qu-quite a boring story. Just another piece of long-f-f-forgotten history." Celestia gestured towards the library doors.
"Now co-come along, Twilight. We have to get s-s-started on this week's lesson."
4238092 What happens after the story ends is the sort of thing that is up for interpretation.
As for Celichtia's heart, I imagine Nightmare Moon ate it or something melodramatic like that.
4238120 She wasn't so cruel to her sister. That's no indication of how she would treat Discord. Especially a Discord who had apparently taken over the world and intended to turn her into his plaything.
4240378 Princess Nightmare Moon is HARDCORE
I think the only thing I didn't pick up on is Celichtia having Discord B's heart. The details are there, I just missed the significance.
Did someone actually theorize it's all just a dream?
4947454 A few comments on the first story proposed the idea.
4947593
Got it, interesting.