Time travel is a curious thing. Starlight Glimmer tried to alter the past, but Twilight Sparkle and Spike were able to stop her. Because they stopped her and the past wasn't altered, there's no record of Starlight's actions to be found in any historical archive. It's as if the whole thing didn't even happen.
But not all ponies look at time from a linear perspective of cause and effect. Take Minuette, for instance. She wasn't part of Twilight's epic quest, but because of her special talent, she saw it all. All of the timelines starting and stopping; all of the heartbreaking futures; everything. She even knows what would've happened had Twilight failed to stop Starlight in the end (spoiler alert: it's not pretty).
With all the trauma affecting her at once, Minuette is not her normal, cheery self. Thankfully, she has a close friend who knows a thing or two about freaking out over such things.
Very interesting - your idea for Minuette's special talent is very intriguing, a bit like the psychic character in the movie Next.
Minuette being the pony equivalent to Sans is now my headcanon. I honestly can't think of a better reason for her cutie mark being an hourglass than this. You have a like my friend
What is Minnuette's special talent actually, or isn't it properly explained in the show??
Anyway, great fic. I seem to prefer reading the ones that focus on the aftermath of the effects (For example, I read one where Celestia saw it all happen as 5 different windows that she has), and you managed to capture both Twilight and Minuette very well.
6848486 As explained in this story, my headcanon is that Minuette's special talent is that she can perceive time in a non-linear fashion, and that allows her to study it as a theoretical physicists. And no, I don't believe it's ever been explained in the show.
Some other timelines probably already have existed (Starswirl, most likely without Minuette in them, and one for Twilight?).
This Minuette is possible because time spell is already a spell that acts above time. Then Minuette can create other such spells to detect things outside of the timeline.
Maybe Minuette should talk with Starlight about this too. To give Starlight some perspective on what she did.
Minuette might also explain that Starlight created a paradox with her actions to show the dangers of messing with time travel.
6858259 I considered having Starlight being part of this conversation as well in the initial draft, but I decided against it. First of all, as I mentioned in my Author's Notes, there are already plenty of stories in which Starlight is harshly lectured about the damage she's done and why she's wrong. I have nothing else to add to that. Secondly, I'm not entirely clear on Starlight's current living situation. Is she going back to Our Town? Staying with Twilight? It's all up in the air until Season 6 rolls around.
Though you are correct in a sense. Perhaps it would be helpful for Minuette to speak candidly with Starlight. For her own catharsis, if nothing else.
...
And now I can't stop hearing Megalovania play in my mind after reading that author's note.
Anyway, I like a little fluff story now and again. Good work.
This was great.
Your take on Minuette's talent is rather interesting; makes her somewhat omnipotent in a way. Though I have to wonder if the other hers can tell the likelihood of their timelines working out okay, and maybe do what they can to make that happen. Actually, that raises another question - since she knows the probabilities and can presumably act on that knowledge, and being her would likely act on that knowledge in consistent patterns she could in effect limit the amount of timeline-splits based on event probabilities... The possibilities of this are endless.
See, this is why I like you Metool, for your stories as either ingenious and/or heartwarming as this.
( Also for some reason now have the Tenth Doctor's theme playing in my head...)
Nice to see some friendship between these two characters
I was expecting Starlight to randomly wander into the room right at the end there.
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maybe you could update this?
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Well, even if I know now that Starlight was staying with Twilight, my first contention still stands. There are already tons of stories that give Starlight a harsh lecture about what she did, and I just don't have anything to add to that.