Sweetie Belle looked to where Philomena’s cage had been, and sighed. Closing her eyes, she took a few moments to mourn the loss of her pet. Opening her eyes, Sweetie walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Approaching a calendar hanging on the wall, Sweetie counted the days, watching as she passed months by, and eventually landed on a day she would normally look forward to.
“It’s Hearth's Warming Eve. But I don’t know how to celebrate by myself.” Sweetie glanced toward Rarity, who was looking at her in confusion. Sweetie pulled out Rarity’s looping note, and waited. Weathering the reaction, Sweetie pointed to the calendar.
“Rarity, please help me celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve.” Sweetie waited patiently as Rarity bit her lip, and sighed, nodding once before dissolving into a smile. Sweetie grinned, and turned to head for the door.
“Great! I’ll go get Twilight and everypony else.” Sweetie made a quick note to invite Mr. Turner and Ditzy as well. Giggling, she trotted quickly to Twilight's, and quickly informed Twilight of the news.
“Hearth's Warming Eve? Well I guess we can organise something. It’ll have to be small though. Need a hoof telling everypony?” Twilight tilted her head, and Sweetie nodded, holding up the two letters she wanted sent. One for each Princess. Twilight sent them off, and soon enough Sweetie was ready to leave.
Next up was Applejack, who was at the farm. Shortly after, Sweetie found Rainbow Dash, and had her tell Fluttershy. Walking toward Sugarcube Corner, Sweetie also informed Pinkie Pie. Naturally, once Pinkie knew, there was no turning back.
Sweetie managed to find Time Turner easily enough while delivering Ditzy’s job advert. After handing him the 'I am a looper' note, Sweetie waited a moment, and then spoke.
“Hearth's Warming Eve? Oh, do you mind if I come as a Changeling? No, maybe a pear. Yes, I can sense the irony right there.” Time Turner smirked, and Sweetie tilted her head, but they were interrupted by Nurse Redheart, and Time Turner dashed away. Sweetie turned toward Ditzy, and breathed in, walking toward the hopeful mare as she gazed over the advert.
“Miss Ditzy, Pinkie Pie is hosting a private party tonight at Twilight’s, and I’d be grateful if you brought Dinky along.” Sweetie smiled warmly, and Ditzy nodded. After all, it would be a free meal for both of them.
“Oh sure, just let me do something first. I just lost my job and I have a feeling this might just be the one for me. Call it fate.” Ditzy laughed, scratching the back of her head as she took to the air, and flew away. Sweetie turned, and made her way back to Twilight’s.
“So are we ready?” Sweetie looked to the group of ponies as they shared a glance, and gave a toothy grin. Sweetie beamed a smile, and looked around, seeing a seat for herself. Sweetie knew there would be a party later tonight, but before that, there was a time honored tradition to keep.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts, I present to you: Farts Warming EVE!” Rainbow Dash smirked, and Sweetie blinked, sensing instantly this was going to be a very strange telling. Rainbow Dash coughed, and began her tale as the others moved into position.
“Once upon a time, the three pony races lived apart, and none farted, for it was very rude to do so.” As Dash spoke, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy made a show of trying to hold something in, while looking at their flanks.
“So eventually, someone did it.” As if to make a point, Dash smirked, and let off a large poof of gas. Everyone else cringed away, Twilight diving for the window, forgetting about her magic.
“Eventually, everypony realised the one who did it had the right idea, and so everypony let it go. And thus, they decided to found a new nation, one where everypony farts, and they called it Fartlestia.” Dash bowed, and Celestia appeared on stage, wearing a mask depicting a pony farting.
“Pfff-bwuhahhaha.” Sweetie fell off the chair, rolling with laughter, the others bowed, sharing a quiet smirk. Pinkie Pie moved around them, setting up for the party just in time for the other’s arrival. Sweetie smiled, looking to everypony and beaming a smile. This was so much fun!
“Time for presents.” Sweetie dove for the first one, and opened it to reveal a cupcake. Her second one was a muffin. Sweetie realised the third one was a snowflake pattern scarf, and threw it around her neck. Twilight naturally gave her a book. Rainbow Dash made an excuse about her being present enough. Fluttershy had a basket of flowers, which Sweetie could enjoy later. Applejack gave a basket of apples. Time Turner gave her a list of Changeling spells, such as detect emotions.
“Thank you, this is great!” Sweetie beamed a smile, and all smiled warmly in response. Pinkie Pie turned, and layed a random polka-dot pattern on the floor.
“Enough presents, it’s time for Twister!” Pinkie giggled and everyone took a place beside the pattern. Sweetie bounced up and down excitedly, this was going to be fun.
Sadly, it turned out Sweetie was not good at Twister. Apparently being a child with smaller arms was a handicap. No matter, Sweetie still enjoyed it, feeling worn out as Rarity carried her home. Closing her eyes, smile plastered on her face, Sweetie knew that Hearth's Warming Eve had been done right.
Being slipped into the bed, Sweetie stifled a yawn and blinked her eyes open, noticing a curious present on her vanity table. Standing up, she sluggishly walked over, and opened it. Instantly alert, her eyes widened. Sweetie had been expecting a surprise present from Rarity, but this was not something Rarity would ever get her.
It was a clock that told the date and time. Not only that, it had the correct day. Sweetie instantly knew that this clock would even work with time looping, keeping an accurate count of the days as the loops began to count up. Sweetie strapped it around her wrist, and sat down on the bed.
“Happy Hearth's Warming Eve, and thank you for the present.” Sweetie spoke to the room, knowing whomever had given the present was likely to be listening. Laying back down, Sweetie gave a yawn and decided to try beating the Crusaders at a snowball fight again. After all, she was getting better at remembering their movements.
With that thought fading from her mind, Sweetie drifted into sleep.
Nice! the lock was a nice touch!
Wait a second...
Thursday is a Snow Day, and we're on loop 32.
Assuming that :
- 7 days in a week (only 5 of those days are experienced in a loop)
- Equestria uses roughly the same calendar system as us (365.25 days in a year)
- Hearth's Warming Eve is Christmas (December 25)
http://www.mbari.org/staff/coletti/doytable.html
359 - (~32*5)
359 - 160 = 199
So, you're telling me that there is a snow day in the middle of July.
And that's considered normal. It's been considered normal for the past 31 loops or so at least.
Right...
Ok, so this individual point has to be the reason why the timeloop is happening in the first place. Now to wait ~67 loops for verification.
Of course, the logical explanation is that an Equestrian year is ~200 days long or some nonsense, but that's just weird.
5484318
You forgot to account for an unknown number of death loops when she first acquired Philomena. Making it completely plausible that such an extreme amount of time has passed
5484385 You forget that Sweetie doesn't/couldn't track those. For one, those loops were a couple of minutes long at best, so I doubt that matters*, and then you have to consider that she was too busy dying via asphyxiation over and over again to actually keep track of what loop she might be on.
An extreme amount of time MAY have passed, but Sweetie Belle doesn't know the exact details, so as far as she's concerned it's loop 32. That's all that matters when it comes to her deciding that loop 32 is Hearth's Warming Eve.
*- Assuming each death loop was an hour long (no way, but let's go with it), it would have taken 720 death loops to add an additional month. So, we're talking about a few thousand loops in stupid conditions in order to get a month that would normally have snow.
Or Ponyville is in the Arctic, but The Crystal Empire (and the fact that there are like 5/91 episodes with snow) would like to have a word with that.
Of course, the most likely bet is that the Ponyville Weather Team is stupid as hell and made it snow in the middle of July, but that's not fun.
5484318
"The brony notion" made a video in which he tried to figure out just how long 100 moons is. In that video he made the point that an Equestrian year might be twice as long as an Earth year. Btw, here's the link to that video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-32Gq6RchMQ
If that's true, then that means each season, including winter, would also be twice as long. Also, nopony ever said that Hearthswarming Eve was at the start of winter. Granted, Christmas is at the start of winter here on Earth, but for all we know, Hearthswarming Eve might only be a week or two before winter wrap up. In fact, if an Equestrian year is twice as long as an Earth year, then the idea of mlp seasons one through three happening in only a year (as was stated in "princess twilight sparkle") would seem a little less ridiculous. Ok i've gotten sidetracked. My main point is that Equesria is not Earth and the way they mesure time is probably very different from us.
I think you mean depicting.
So what WAS in the cookie jar in the last chapter?
Did it kill her?
if Luna have had it for so long... and only Celestia weren't allowed to look inside it. Why had Luna not already looked inside it?
I'm so confused right now...
wait... Maybe she is having a REALLY long dream... like a dream within a dream.
I want to found out more about star swirls letter in one of these loops, preferably really soon. I know that the decoded letter has to be some kind of riddle or maybe theres more decoding to be done on said letter. If what we've seen so far is all there is to see then that would make Star Swirl a bigger troll then Dischord.
5484630 I find it interesting that the video contradicts itself at 3:41, where it says in text "two equestrian years = one of our years". Opps.
Ok, ignoring that, lets go with some more assumptions :
- Equestrian Year is Earth Year x2 (730.5 days)
- Seasons are exactly 1/4 of a year
- Season transitions are abrupt
31 loops = 155 days
1 season = 182.625 days
Winter Wrap Up implies that the season transitions are abrupt. So under these conditions, Hearth's Warming Eve MUST be within the last ~27 days of winter, and Loop 1 needs to be within the first ~27 days of Winter. Nothing conflicting. Just... odd.
--
The concept of a longer/shorter year feels wrong to me. Not in that they can't use such a system, but in that it's hard to fully understand the implications of it all. If Equestrian Years are 2x longer than our years, then Luna was imprisoned on the moon for 2000 earth years. (Which... would make it nearly align with our calendar. 2015 AD[or CE] = 1007... something. Sounds interesting for EQG fics or any other sort of Earth/Equestria crossover.) It would mean that Luna would have been imprisoned when Rome was at it's height (give or take a century), and was released by the time our civilization got addicted to Broadband.
It's something to think about.
--
Also the only way that the whole Seasons 1-3 happening within a single year thing wouldn't sound like bullshit, would be to make the years 3 times as long. Then rename "Year" to something weird like... "Cycle", and then divide the Cycle into 3 parts, then evenly distribute the seasons within these parts, and then finally, rename these parts into "Years".
Yeah, the year was 1003 (or 1004?) during s04e01 and I won't consider any alternative as canon if I can help it. Maybe they were secretly referring to something special in the lunar calendar. Yeah, that's it.
5484687
You beat me to it.
polka-dot
Wow! So sudden! And we still don't know what exactly ended Loop 31...
Well, this was nice and cheerful!
Shouldn't that clock be a watch? 'cause when you say 'clock'... I think of one of those alarm clocks... not a watch...
Mr.
_________
When'd Philomena get lost / dead / gone?
5484998
I think people are over thinking Equestria > Earth years. Mostly since it'd mean that every birthday is actually 2 X older than normal, and gestation times would be much less than 11 mos.. How I see it, a season happens durring the spring > fall of most episodes, and we miss out on any real semblance of time passage unless its needed for the show. (after all 6 months listed on the show in Baby Cakes was six months of growth.)
5485370
"Mr." is not necessarily correct. In British English, it is just "Mr" without the full stop, because the contraction ends with the same letter as the full word.
The looping Philomena was only able to loop if she ended in the same room as Sweetie Belle. There is now only the one original Philomena again.
Oh, I can sense the "not predicting, just remembering" snowball fight loop coming up...
5486642
Would be awsome if she memorized there movements to the point where she could literally walk in the middle of the battle field and take everyone out with a handfull of snow balls without getting hit.
5484719
5484998
Perhaps the seasons are artificial? We already know that the weather is controlled by Pegasi and that the transitions between seasons has to be managed and regulated by the local populace. It's entirely plausible that authorities in Cloudsdale decided on the timeing and duration of seasons to best suit Equestrian needs and it is by that schedule that their entire calendar, and thus timings for holidays, is built around.
In addition the planet could still have it's own natural seasons that do not align to their calender which explains the wild snow during what they would consider the middle of summer.
--Sollace
Hopefully she asks to have Philomena back soon.
*Looks at like bar, sees a number*
666
Well, shit.
5484998
5485370
Alternatively, Equestria is in the southern hemisphere, and it was snowy in Canterlot during Hearth's Warming Eve because it's on a mountain. Summer snow on mountains is common, and Mt. Avalon is well and truly high enough to qualify.
In addition, snow and ice is an integral part of the hearth's warming legend. Is it such a stretch to believe that the pegasi would therefore let it snow?
Sincerely,
-Obligatory Australian Idiot
5490339
What does that have to do with people over thinking Earth > Equestrian years? If they have seasons, then they'd have seasons regardless. And it'd still fall on the date that is considered Hearths Warming, on the Season considered Winter.
No, the 4 Seasons have a rather strict and efficient system. Winter needs snow, so that Winter Wrap up can occur. With all the pony jobs that are bound to that event. Which signals Spring. The Falling of the Leaves happens at the end of Summer, signalling Fall. Those are the two events that are a massive part of Pony Culture. And part of the system that the ponies use to contol the seasons.
5491319
Dude. Did you not read my signature? I was being an idiot.
On a related note, we should probably stop thinking too hard about this. In canon, there are four episodes which are focused on seasons. The season one opener, which is in summer, winter wrap up, in winter, fall weather friends, in autumn, and the season four opener, which is one summer after the first. Unless I've got these the wrong way round, the only way for canon to make sense is if the seasons are backward.
Alternatively, what if the episodes aren't in chronological order?
Wait, aren't phoenixes immortal?
5492639 It wasn't in the same room as Sweetie when the loop reset.
5492585 I'm pretty sure they aren't. Almost positive. Obviously the return of harmony parts 1 and 2 both happen before call of the cutie, for
1. "Crusaders" argue
2. Twist doesn't have her cutie mark.
And why would Rarity wait that long (even if you say it's not long, i'm just quoting someone) to make the gala dresses, and then wait that long for the gala? not exact words = no quotation marks
Here:
^Love this series!^
Why the fart jokes? Why?
As I was reading this, I was literally clenching my butt to hold in a fart.
5484318
They could be in the southern hemisphere.
5484318 did you know that in the southern side of the globe is winter in july and summer in December?
Leonzilla
5594023
School in July? Also it snowed in the Hearths Warming episode. He is right. This is a huge plot hole.
5596554
I would like to point out that Equestria Is a land of magical technicolour horses, with 1 variant having wings and the ability to control the weather and seasons, so it is not completely incomprehensible to believe that Hearths Warming Eve and Winter Wrap Up can take place at different times in the year, Hearths warming eve may be snowy as it represents the weather that the ponies ancestors had to endure, while their summer is in July, anything is possible in horseland.
Seriously? Flow charts and tactics? It can't be summer because there is school. If I recall there is a summer break mentioned in episodes. Water park could have been indoor or enchanted.
5594023
I went to Bolivia last year, and over there it's Christmas in the SUMMER. December is summer for them.
And we don't know whether Equestria is on the southern side of their planet, or the northern! Or western or eastern! All we know for sure is that Equestria is a land in which ponies live, so... yeah.
5646238 Where I live, it's summer in December. It just means we can have Christmas outside having a BBQ instead!
GOD DAMN IT DISCORD! WHAT DID SWEETIE BELLE EVER DO TO YOU? (My interpretation of what this means. Specifically, who is behind the time-loops)
It needs more details.
nonono
Ok crazy time mistakes aside... especially considering the snow days were literally an integral part of the story early on (winning the snowball fight was a priority for her) I can forgive that.... maybe. Probably not. ANYWAYS, how the heck did Philomena die!?
6185414
She wasn't in the same room as sweetie when she died and so didn't loop or she was in the room and died with everyone else from cookie jar exposure.
Well then... Hmmm...
First off, sweetie, just get another philomena. Secondly, this proves for sure that there is an intelligence behind the loops. Perhaps it is something so maddening that knowledge of it past "it exists" is like exposure to Cthulhu. That is, wave bye bye to your sanity tokens.
Also, I'm willing to bet this entity is the one that wants entertainment.
Wait a moment... Are we, the readers, this entity? There's a can of worms.
6501766 wut....
but what was in the cookie jar then that was so deathly and destructive? And how come a troll chapter can affect the main story parts?
7427484
That's some insanity time loop logic right there. You lost the only living thing that was looping with you, so you can just get another one.
This will be ADORABLE
Hm... I mean, I GUESS this chapter could be non-canon, since the loop week takes place in early/mid-December, yet 160 days later is only a week or two later... Hm...
I'm just so interested in Starswirls character. The Gift? Saving her from the death loop? and everything they do later. They obviously care about Sweetie having gone through this himself but at the same time they are cold and calculating later on. I'm gad I chose to re-read this, I forgot how amazing it was.