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Andrew Joshua Talon


A fellow traveler...

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Nov
2nd
2020

Plot Bunny Theater: Alternate Cutie Remark · 11:56pm Nov 2nd, 2020

While I do enjoy the Cutie Remark, I do think the episode needed a better ending. So here's a thought:

When Twilight and Starlight land in the Crystal War timeline, King Sombra's forces actually manage to kidnap Starlight (he detected two very powerful magic users in the vicinity and became interested). He learns she's a time traveler and wants the spell. Starlight refuses to hoof it over, but Sombra keeps her contained and unable to cast. He's going to rip it from her, one way or another.

So Twilight Sparkle has to rescue Starlight and fix the timeline before Sombra gets his hooves on time travel-That would ensure he could rule everything. But she'll need some help from her friends across the scattered timelines.

Thoughts?

Comments ( 8 )

Upon reading the title I half expected this entry to be about Twi and Starlight finding a world where Shepherd (or Spike, to keep it canon) now ruled Equestria, crushing it beneath their iron foot/claw.

But your idea sounds far better. Maybe she gathers Sombra-world Dashie and Pinkie, Nightmare-world Rarity, the Zecora and Fluttershy from Chrysalis' world, and so on.

Or for maximum weirdness she gathers the various versions of herself from the timelines. Provided they didn't all end up with cutie marks for toilet scrubbing or the like.

I think that Twilight and Starlight would be forced to work together to escape Sombra. That gives them some intimacy to build later heart to hearts on.

As to the multiversal superfriends to take on Sombra, I think that depends if you want to say Starlight’s bad futures keep existing or not. Because at that point you might as well break out Agent Heartstrings and ETSAB.

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They wind up arriving in the midst of when Shep has been forced to PRETEND to crush Equestria beneath an iron boot.

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And promptly start fighting over who gets to have him.

Hmm, dunno. The thing is, when Twilight becomes fast friends with the Mane 6 in the pilot, they at least have several things in common: a shared culture, values, and a clear and present threat to all of them. The alternates from different timelines would have utterly different experiences not only from Twilight, but also from each other. You'd need a lot of time, both in terms of writing and in-universe, to establish why these alternate pones would care to help this crazy alacorn they've never seen before with a potentially suicidal mission.

...Although, suicidal, that sparks an idea. Something like The Dirty Dozen, pony style: Twilight basically kidnaps all of them and tells them they need to help her or she's not sending them back "home". It'd tick them off something mighty, but they'd begrudgingly work together, and over time as they train and/or go on the raid they do build a kind of bond trying to save each other, maybe even have some backstory from the alternate timelines each of them relates. Stuff like having family, having lived in Ponyville before the event that diverged the timelines (i.e. Nightmare Moon, Changeling Invasion, etc, et al), comparing certain events AFTER said divergence... Plan it well and you might even get them realizing that they always figured there was something missing from their lives, some sort of spark that never quite caught on with them like it did other ponies they saw around them.

Then eventually they grab Glimmer, who talks about how it figures Twilight would grab her best friends no matter how different they are, Twilight goes "friendship blah blah blah", the alternates understand what they've been missing, especially as Twilight and/or Glimmer explain why the two are at odds. Then Sombra comes in, fight ensues, and the Alternate Pones fight, even sacrificing themselves to make sure Twilight and Glimmer get away in the hope that this newfound spark of friendship will survive, especially if there's a promise that the crappy timelines they come from with all the pain and suffering will never have occurred and their loved ones will actually be safe and sound. This leaves a massive and profound impact on Starlight Glimmer, who realizes why friendship is so great, for it allows ponies to bond with each other and achieve great things, even prevent devastation through combined effort. Lesson learned, events proceed as normally happens in the episode.

Might work. It'd need a lot of work and planning, though, to work out.

Ooh, I'm always up for multiverse shenanigans.

The question is, is Starlight even there to be captured? We never do see her in a future until Twilight drags her into one. It's unclear what happens to her in the others. Since she gets wrenched back to Cloudsdale, does she simply not have time to get there the long way? Does the ripple effect paradox her out of existence once the divergence is too great? Does the calamity consume her? Is she just not in the area? Probably the first option, though with the last one, there's the question of how and why Starlight would be on the front lines.

But let's assume the groundwork's been laid and this is carried out as described. First off, Sombra was in the first offshot timeline Twilight encountered. Unless you want to make it all locals, Twilight doesn't know of any other doomed timelines quite yet. Then there's the matter of navigation; Twilight can willingly move on the time axis, less so between possibilities. Neither she nor Starlight seems to have any control over the butterfly effect. Even replicating the same defeat won't necessarily result in the same outcome given the intervening years and accumulating divergences. That makes getting back to the Crystal War timeline something of a hassle.

And, of course, there's Starlight's second biggest adjustment to the spell, just after creating something that can actually alter the past: No matter who uses the scroll, she comes along for the ride. It rather invalidates a hostage situation unless Sombra has a way to block magic he knows nothing about. (Which, to be fair, is entirely possible, but does need to be justified.)

That's not to say you can't make this story work. I'm just pointing out the obstacles you need to overcome to get from "The Cutie Re-Mark" to this concept. And several of them can be solved by tweaking the functionality of the time spell. This was already earning an AU tag; may as well lean into that.

its an intersting take
it'd have been more intersing at least

The thing would be is to have Starlight talk about why Time travel is why making changes to your timeline is dangerous. Whether King Sombra listens to her or not.
Explaining that your timeline doesn't actually change The world around you changes yes, but not necessarily under your control.

It's like trying to change the course of a river as it forms. You divert the flow in a direction of your choice but That diversion causes other diversions to happen that you may not be aware of, and suddenly you end up at an unexpected bad end because someone tripped on a a bug somewhere.

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