So does anyone still care about all those alternate timelines from The Cutie Re-Mark?

Well, if you do, boy do I have a... something... for you.

...Yeah, okay, it's exactly what it looks like. I wrote an eight-part essay series detailing exactly how all the alternate timelines happened in the Borderworld's universe. I wasn't content with just shrugging and saying "butterfly effect," so I actually went through, noted all the ways the wind changed, and drew a direct line of cause and effect from the different wingbeats to the seven different flavours of apocalypse we got. Yes, I am well aware that I have no life. Thank you.

Mostly, though, these read less like essays and more like story summaries, I think. I might, and I stress might, write some fics based on the ideas presented here if people show interest. I doubt anyone will, but we'll see. And if anyone else wants to steal any of this for a story of their own, they're perfectly welcome to do that as well.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Reading it over now. You took some different approaches than I did, but it's all well reasoned and at times downright heartbreaking. Magnificent work, all told.

[Oliver]

A monumental and thought provoking body of work.

While I could go nitpick around some of them, I think I shall instead offer a few general comments:

1. It did not occur to me that the future of Dumb Bell and Hoops would be directly affected by Starlight’s actions, while they might have a part to play in the future events. It should have. In fact, the important distinction of those timelines is that you try to directly connect the events as shown to the subtle differences in the Rainboom Event, which is something I considered largely futile, i.e., I treated those differences as noise.
2. At the same time, the way it manifests in your timelines is the changes in details of the Nightmare Moon battle, which I would disagree with you on, as I don’t believe regular mortals, unaffiliated with the Elements and/or the Tree, would make much of a difference.
3. The fanon is holding you back, I think. For example… why do you think Flim and Flam have invented anything, ever? Because they never even claim to have done that. Fandom commonly associates them with technological progress in Equestria, but that is mostly because hardly anybody made a comprehensive study of actual Equestrian technology. Sure, the inventor brothers might seem more interesting than pure con-men at first, but that’s mostly habit of thought.
4. It’s also interesting that you always assume that what’s keeping the Crystal Empire out of space-time is located in Equestria, rather than is a spell effect originating with Sombra (which is what canon seems to want to say without committing to anything sensible) or something else inherent to the Crystal Empire itself. Why exactly?
5. The Wasteland Timeline seems incompatible with Friendship is Magic #57.

[Posh]

Which one of these leads into NieR

[DannyJ]

4904787

Thank you. Glad you think so.

4904891

At the same time, the way it manifests in your timelines is the changes in details of the Nightmare Moon battle, which I would disagree with you on, as I don’t believe regular mortals, unaffiliated with the Elements and/or the Tree, would make much of a difference.

Understandable interpretation. It is difficult otherwise, however, to make theories like this work. This is, after all, a series about destiny going wrong, so it doesn’t generally work too well if I only let individuals chosen by destiny affect a major event.

why do you think Flim and Flam have invented anything, ever?Because they never even claim to have done that.

In canon, I’m not sure they invented anything either. But, this being set within my universe, I’m free to adopt fanon if it’s not too contradictory, and especially for this timeline project, I prefer the inventor interpretation, since it gets the timelines to where they should be faster. And if there’s one thing your blogs have taught me (besides the fact that canon is a not even stitched together mess), it’s that the most probable interpretation of canon is not always the most interesting or useful one. See: Your conclusions about Discord’s original reign, or rather, brief rampage.

It’s also interesting that you always assume that what’s keeping the Crystal Empire out of space-time is located in Equestria, rather than is a spell effect originating with Sombra (which is what canon seems to want to say without committing to anything sensible) or something else inherent to the Crystal Empire itself. Why exactly?

No, no, the Empire’s return does hinge on Sombra’s spell. But Sombra’s spell is set to return the Empire when Sombra himself returns, and Sombra was sealed in the ice by the Elements (in this universe - canon never says that, obviously, but I assume he was because the Sisters had them at the time, and it just makes sense for them to use them). Therefore the chain of logic goes:

Elements reset -> Sombra unsealed -> Sombra breaks out -> Sombra’s curse ends -> Empire returns -> Celestia risks the fate of all civilisation as a test for Twilight because reasons.

The Wasteland Timeline seems incompatible with Friendship is Magic #57.

I should also probably note that I stopped reading the comics and that I’m only cherry-picking from canon beyond season six, because it’s a huge contradictory mess that I can’t write within the constraints of.

...I may have mentioned that this series may be of very little general use. This is probably best considered fanfic in essay format, and it’s not as thoroughly researched a fanfic as Aporia is (though then again, is anything?).

4904945

That would be the timeline in which PGS updates in a timely manner.

Oh wait, that timeline doesn’t exist.

[Oliver]

4904980

But, this being set within my universe, I’m free to adopt fanon if it’s not too contradictory, and especially for this timeline project, I prefer the inventor interpretation, since it gets the timelines to where they should be faster.

No, that’s not exactly what I meant. Who is more convenient for a writer who wishes to write the story of a world changing and wants it to be abrupt, a shrewd industrialist who sticks around in one place slowly grinding it down, or a dashing rogue who sows chaos around them and can suddenly knock over anything? While the interpretation of Discord that ignores canon is usually better, I’m just thinking that in the case of the Flim & Flam, we (and by extension, you) are missing useful possibilities. Imagine, for example, a never ending con with constantly rising stakes…

Therefore the chain of logic goes:

Elements reset -> Sombra unsealed -> Sombra breaks out -> Sombra’s curse ends -> Empire returns -> Celestia risks the fate of all civilisation as a test for Twilight because reasons.

Oh.

[DannyJ]

4904991

Flim and Flam are interesting characters to me. They're interpreted sometimes as inventors, sometimes as conmen, but personally, I think they work just as well as either, or even as both at the same time (they can con people with inventions that barely work, for example). But I don't think they're fully either of those things. Those apple cutie marks of theirs are pretty ambiguous, but I like to think that they in some way represent the brothers taking their cut. Flim and Flam, to me, are best described as unscrupulous businessmen. They have no problems with being conmen, and indeed, after their first scheme falls through, that's what they turn to - totally dishonest snake oil peddling. But I think they'd be just as happy running an honest business as long as it made them profit. In canon, that's seemingly what they've ended up doing, taking over Gladmane's casino HOTEL, and I think that if they'd actually come to an agreeable arrangement with the Apples that made them rich through legitimate means, they'd be fine with continuing that as well.

In other words, I don't see them as in it for the thrill of the con, so I don't see a scenario like what you propose as being likely here. Matter of interpretation, of course. Certainly, though, that scenario would be interesting to use with them in another context. Watch my other stories very closely.