Essays Index
Remarked Timelines series: Part 1 - Overview | Part 2 - Sombra | Part 3 - Chrysalis | Part 4 - Nightmare | Part 5 - Tirek | Part 6 - Discord | Part 7 - Flim & Flam | Part 8 - Wasteland

The Flim Flam timeline:
The divergence in this timeline is caused by Starlight helping Fluttershy through the flight course. Because she never fails in an embarrassing fashion, Fluttershy is never made fun of by Hoops and Dumb-Bell, and Rainbow Dash never needs to come to her defence. Just like in the Chrysalis timeline, the race is averted completely.

Although Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were already friends before this day, they do not become as close as they did in most other timelines. Because of Starlight's help, Fluttershy gains a boost in her self-confidence, and does not have as many problems in general through her flight camp days. She learns to stand up for herself more, and grows into a slightly more well-rounded person by her adult years. Dash remains protective of Fluttershy, but she is not needed as often, and Fluttershy does not depend on her the way she does in the prime timeline.

As such, when Fluttershy eventually moves to Ponyville, Dash does not feel the need to join her, preferring instead to remain in Cloudsdale. Though she still makes occasional visits to Ponyville to see Fluttershy, they are not best friends. Instead, it is Gilda who Rainbow Dash is closest to, and they spend much of their later teen years getting into trouble together and having crazy nights out.

The most notable of these nights for its significance to the timeline is a trip to Canterlot that the two take together, in which a boisterous Gilda gets into trouble with the law, and is subdued by a Royal Guard sergeant named Chain Mail. Though Chain Mail was already a decent soldier, on track to become a lieutenant by the time of Nightmare Moon's return, his handling of the situation with Gilda is the one extra achievement in his portfolio that was needed for him to be selected for Celestia's elite team.

As usual, Nightmare Moon returns on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, and Celestia and her team engage her in battle. Just like in the Chrysalis and Tirek timelines, Nightmare Moon is defeated and captured without complication. However, in this timeline, it is Chain Mail who dies in the battle, rather than Shining Armor. Though Chain Mail's sacrifice is mourned just as Shining's was, his death does not affect events on so grand a scale. With both Shining Armor and Luna coming out of the conflict alive, neither Celestia or Cadance withdraw into mourning, and so the royal wedding goes ahead as planned.

Without Discord or Sombra in the way, Equestria is mostly quiet. Celestia holds Nightmare Moon captive, just as in the Chrysalis and Tirek timelines, and attempts to purge the nightmare from her with conventional magic. Tirek escapes from Tartarus when given the opportunity, and spends the better part of a year skulking around, building his power. And in Ponyville, the Apple Family are once again challenged by the Flim Flam brothers, and enter into a business relationship with them on the advice of Applejack.

As the royal wedding goes ahead, Queen Chrysalis conceives and executes the same general plan that she had in the prime timeline. She captures and replaces Princess Cadance, and feeds on Shining Armor's love over several weeks, while using her position to sabotage Canterlot's defences and create an opening for her army. However, as the Elements of Harmony are not a factor in this timeline, Chrysalis does not consider Twilight important, and does not have to take any special measures to alienate her from her friends or the Princess. She instead remains in-character as Cadance throughout the proceedings, and gives Twilight no special thought.

Despite this, Twilight ends up stumbling upon the truth anyway after she accidentally witnesses Chrysalis using her spell on Shining Armor. As Cadance's behaviour so far has not been overtly suspicious, Twilight questions her directly about it. Just like in the prime timeline, Twilight is told that the spell has a mundane explanation, but Twilight is knowledgeable about magic, and is not entirely convinced. Chrysalis does not truly fear that Twilight will find out anything damning, but just to be on the safe side, she orders her to be kidnapped and replaced.

One of Chrysalis's sleeper agents within the city moves to intercept Twilight, but through sheer bad luck, he fails to take her by surprise, and Twilight is able to fight back. Though she is not the Element of Magic or a pupil of Celestia in this timeline, Twilight is still an extremely powerful unicorn, and she is able to knock the changeling out, causing him to drop his disguise and reveal his true form. Now aware that Canterlot has been infiltrated, Twilight waits to get her brother alone, shows him the unconscious changeling, and forcibly snaps him out of Chrysalis's influence.

Now working together, Shining Armor and Twilight inform Celestia of the truth, and leave her to handle Chrysalis while they and several trustworthy guards search for the real Cadance. It does not take them long to guess that she is being held in the caves below Canterlot, and the two of them soon find and rescue her. However, just like in the prime timeline, Celestia is defeated by Chrysalis when she confronts her, and after being discovered, Chrysalis orders her changelings to attack immediately.

With Shining no longer under her influence, his shield does not immediately fall to the changeling army, but he is still weakened, and leans on Cadance and his sister for support. The three of them are barely able to fight their way past all the changelings already within Canterlot, and eventually, Shining's magic gives out. He collapses, bringing the shield down with him, and as the Battle of Canterlot begins in earnest, the three are captured and taken before Chrysalis.

From here, events proceed as they did in the prime timeline. Chrysalis makes the fatal mistake of allowing Shining and Cadance to stay close to each other, and with the power of their love, they summon a powerful anti-changeling shield spell that blasts Chrysalis and her entire army out of the city. Chrysalis and a few of her surviving minions land beyond the Forest of Leota, and make a new headquarters out of Castle Black, as Chrysalis plots her revenge and hatches a new scheme based on the upcoming passing of the Secreteriat comet. It is also later discovered that the love shield had the additional effect of purging the nightmare from Luna.

With the excitement of the royal wedding passing, and Luna finally free from Nightmare Moon's malign influence, the Royal Sisters are once more able to claim the Elements of Harmony (after briefly lending them back to the Tree of Harmony in order to destroy the plundervines, of course). Armed with the power of Harmony once again, Celestia and Luna take up their old roles as the kingdom's first line of defence.

Together, they shatter Chrysalis when she attempts her revenge during Secreteriat's passing, they annihilate the Nightmare Forces when they invade Canterlot with a new leader at their head, and they easily capture Tirek and throw him back in Tartarus as soon as they become aware of his escape. Under their protection, Equestria never falls to any major villain, and the kingdom enjoys a period of relative peace and stability.

Without any major calamity in the way, the Flim Flam brothers rise to power in Equestria, profiting greatly from their arrangement with the now industrialised Sweet Apple Acres. As the brothers become richer and their business empire expands further and further, they continue to invent all-new machines for a variety of purposes, allowing them to expand into other markets and grow their influence. Ponyville is the focus of much of their expansion, as several factories are built in and around the town, turning it from a quiet, picturesque village into an industrial powerhouse.

Soon, the Flim Flam brothers are rich enough to buy out most of the land in Ponyville outright, including Sweet Apple Acres itself, which the Apple family grudgingly give up after being offered a truly exorbitant sum. When Twilight and Spike arrive in this timeline, Flim and Flam are in the process of personally clearing the land around where the Friendship Castle exists in the prime timeline, ready to build yet more factories there.