Dear Princess Celestia 2
Dear Princess Celestia,
Oh my gosh I can’t believe Gary can actually see the future! I mean I knew something was superspecialabouthimbecauseIgotafunnycombomostlyinmytummybutwithsomeweirdkneetwitch
Dear Princess Celestia,
I hope you’ll forgive the lateness of this letter. As expected, Rainbow Dash is not an easy pony to catch when she’s motivated.
Fortunately, if nothing else, I’ve learned just when to rely on my friends for help since moving to Ponyville. Also fortunately, Pinkie Pie had noticed Rainbow’s rather enthusiastic response to the news about Gary and had come to the (somewhat presumptuous but understandable) conclusion that she was celebrating something. After convincing her the situation was somewhat more dire, Pinkie Pie was most helpful in stopping Rainbow Dash before she got too far in her search.
At this point I feel I need to apologize, Princess. After seeing Rainbow Dash’s overreaction I realize how my own response to my discoveries must have seemed to you and Spike. And to Gary as well, I suppose. Small wonder he tried to run if I looked half as angry as Rainbow Dash did!
Still, I’m trying to follow your advice about over-stressing myself. There’s nothing I can do about how I acted before except maybe offering Mister Stu an apology for imprisoning him in my basement after this is all over.
Assuming, of course, that he’s worthy of such an apology. I still have my personal doubts that he is, but I’ll wait until you’ve reviewed the story disks before I elaborate on my reasoning.
In the meantime my next letter should include two reports seeing as I’ve had the opportunity now to appraise Pinkie Pie of the situation with Gary Stu. Spike is currently taking dictation for her letter and, assuming Rainbow Dash has calmed herself enough to remove her gag, I’ll be handling her report.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S.
On a side note, do you know of any research papers regarding the tensile strength of party streamers? Pinkie Pie somehow has managed to keep Rainbow Dash restrained with some of hers and I’ll more than likely just file that as another “It’s just Pinkie Pie” phenomena but it never hurts to be thorough.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I can’t believe I’ve been friends with such a no good dirty liar this whole time! If I ever get my hooves on Gary I’m gonna teach him a few lessons and they are not gonna be ones he can write to you about
(My apologies again, Princess. Rainbow Dash seemed much calmer so I allowed her to start writing this letter herself. I know I’m in no position to be faulting her for being angry, but it’s probably safer if I take dictation until she proves she can have more decorum when addressing royalty.)
So right. Gary.
I’m not gonna lie. When Twi showed up saying Gary had known all about us and our adventures before they even happened, I laughed. I mean, wouldn’t you? It sounded like the start of some kind of prank on either me or Gary.
Okay, it was a joke that didn’t make much sense, but I just figured it was Twilight’s first try.
Then she used that memory sharing spell of hers to show me some of what she’d seen in Gary’s story disks. After I shook off the headache that spell gave me because that was a lot of stuff to just dump into my brain (I did apologize for that. A lot — Twilight) I realized she wasn’t making this stuff up.
So at first I was like, “Okay cool! Gary knows the future even better than Pinkie does!”
But then I thought about it for a sec. See, Gary knew everything that was gonna happen to us. It’s not like when Pinkie gets those weird feelings and has to figure out what they mean. He knew every last little detail.
The reason I got so mad was because that meant he knew about my Sonic Rainboom at the Best Young Fliers Competition before I ever pulled it off.
You know, I thought Gary was nice. He and Fluttershy were cheering me on while I practiced, he came up to Cloudsdale with the others when Twilight found that cloud-walking spell, and he even kept encouraging me when I got a lit when Rarity entered the contest too!
The thing is, he didn’t try to stop Rarity from entering.
And no, I’m not mad because Gary let Rarity enter with those froo-froo sparkly butterfly wings and made me ner gave me some stiffer competition. Not by a longshot.
I’m mad because he knew Rarity was gonna fall during the contest and he didn’t do a thing to stop it! AND HE DIDN’T DO A THING TO STOP IT!
Gary was waiting in the stands to pick me up when I crashed. He acted all worried when he saw how high Rarity was flying. But he never told her to stay out of the competition! He didn’t even remind her the wings were super fragile! He never said a single thing! He just sat back and watched it all happen and then when Rarity was falling and even the Wonderbolts were in trouble he was all like “No! Nopony could get to them fast enough!” Well what if he’d been right? WELL WHAT IF HE’D BEEN RIGHT?!?
I thanked him for supporting me and pushing me so I could do the Sonic Rainboom, but he knew it was gonna happen all along! Worse, he knew it would happen in exactly the way he let happen! Why?! Rarity could’ve been hurt or worse and he could have said something but he didn’t do it and for what? Just so I could pull off some cheesy stunt and win some dumb contest?
What else isn’t he telling us? Am I supposed to come up with something even better than the Sonic Rainboom? Set a new Equestrian World Record? Finally become a Wonderbolt? If I am, then what’s the cost? Who else is Gary gonna let get put in danger or hurt or you-only-know-what-else just because he thinks it’s supposed to go that way? How am I supposed to be okay with any of that?
Well I’m not. It’s one thing if that stuff happens on its own and nopony could’ve stopped it but Gary could’ve done or said something to keep my friend safe and he didn’t. What if that happens again or, worse, he pushes somepony else into danger just so things happen like how he saw?
My dreams aren’t worth that. Nothing is worth that. Maybe I got a bit of an ego when everypony started treating me like a hero, but I never carried things that far. If Gary can’t realize that’s wrong then it doesn’t matter if he’s trying to help us. He’s no hero and he’s definitely no friend of mine anymore.
Your faithful citizen,
Rainbow Dash
(My apologies for the obvious grammatical faux-paxs above, that was the result of letting Rainbow Dash proofread the letter. She insisted that if she wasn’t allowed to write it herself that I at least made it clear how much she wanted to stress certain parts. I’ll include a version with proper capitalization later.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle)
(Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that it’s totally possible to write so fast that you set the parchment on fire.
Also it looks like when I do it it lights up with my message flames. Go figure. But that’s why you probably got a really short and kinda burnt-up letter a few minutes ago. Sorry about that! Pinkie Pie said she’ll take it slower for me on this one.
Your favorite dragon,
Spike)
Dear Princess Celestia,
Sooooooo Gaaaaaarrrryyyyyy
(I told Pinkie she could go a bit faster. — Spike)
So Gary can see the future like me? That is so amazingly super-awesome! I’ve never ever met another pony let alone a human that has anything like my Pinkie Sense before! Though I guess I’d never met a human before Gary so maybe they all can do that?
Anyway that just means so much about Gary makes sense now! I’d always wondered about stuff like how he’d know the lyrics for the songs I made up or manage to figure out just what sort of places I was gonna pop out of when I had something to tell everypony or
(I’m sorry I can’t keep up anymore, my claws are starting to cramp! But Pinkie’s right. She’s the most unpredictable pony in town but she’s never managed to surprise Gary. She’s basically just listing a bunch more examples of that.
Also something about porridge and oatmeal I think. — Spike)
Alright, serious stuff now. Gary’s story disks sound like a super-double-ultra-powered-up version of my Pinkie Sense cuz they’re what told Gary what’s supposed to happen. And thinking back it sounds like Gary was just trying to be a super-double-ultra-powered-up Pinkie Pie by using everything he knew to help everypony! I mean, he knew to keep me company so I didn’t wind up spoiling my own surprise party that the girls were planning to throw for me! Not to mention Applejack’s family reunion today or helping me find musical instruments to stop the Parasprites or even convincing Spike here that Twilight wasn’t trying to replace him with Owlowiscious!
What’s even more amazing is just how accurate he is! I mean, when I get a Pinkie Sense I gotta figure a lot of stuff out and sometimes I don’t always get it totally right or even figure out what a combo means until after I see what it was trying to warn me about. But Gary hasn’t been wrong about anything yet! Hey, do you think I could come up to Canterlot and watch some of those story disks with you? We could have popcorn and see what other sort of stuff is gonna happen or was supposed to happen! Like, I wonder what they say about the Crystal Empire since they don’t have Gary there
Princess? Sorry for the crayon writing but Spike just went to Twilight and took his quill with him. I dunno what happened he just got a funny look on his face when I mentioned the Crystal Empire. Weeeeeiiiiirrrrrd.
I mean I bet I already know what happens anyway. If Gary wasn’t the one that saved the Crystal Heart in the disks then Twilight must’ve managed to do it just like you wanted!
Oh gosh wow I just realized that whole Crystal Empire thing was supposed to be a test for Twilight and if Gary saved the day when she was supposed to then no wonder she got so mad at him ‘cuz I know you said she passed anyway but what if she was supposed to save the day and like super pass the test and maybe prove she’s ready to become a princess herself or something and OH MY GOSH I GOTTA GO BAKE SOMETHING FOR TWILIGHT RIGHT NOW NO WONDER SHE’S SO GROUCHY ABOUT THIS!
Your faithful citizen,
Pinkie Pie
P.S.
Say hi to Princess Luna for me! Also I know the One-year Anniversary of her return is coming up soon, so can you find out what kind of cake she’d like?
P.P.S.
I can hear Twilight and Spike talking up in my room so I'd better get this letter to them first! Toodles!
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Completely forgot about how Rarity could've fallen to her death.
Actually. There was another story (that I can't find think of the name but I swear I read it here) in which some HiE pretty much told others to not help cause Rainbow would save Rarity and boom it doesn't go according to the episode. Rarity didn't die (nearly did)...but yeah.
And stealing Spike's biggest moment of glory and taking Twilight's test away from her?
Hey Gary, what's your input on this?
Either Gary started having second thoughts and changed his approach between the Competition and the Crystal Empire, or he was in the same mindset both times. If it's the latter, things aren't looking good for him.
8405550
Ok, the Rarity thing is iffy, but on the other hand, something like that may have been the only way to get Rainbow to overcome her mental blocks to be able to pull off the Rainboom. Like I mentioned in my last comment here, there are probably good reasons to not screw with events too much, even stuff that has people in danger, the biggest one being that if you change things too much, things will go increasingly off track and your record of future events becomes exponentially more inaccurate.
As for the Crystal Empire thing, one could argue that Spike might be better off without the ego inflation and other issues his hero status in the CE came with (like apparently having to wear a disguise every time he visits)...except has been key to at least one important event, like getting Thorax's foot in the door, which leads to the redemption of the changelings. And this probably illustrates my point the best. Spike doesn't have his hero status, which means it'll be harder to sway opinions about Thorax, and given Gary himself is now in the doghouse, with his own CE rep probably about to go down the toilet, there's probably not going to be anyone in a position to help Thorax when the time comes.
As for Twilight's test, she technically failed it even in canon, if you go strictly by the wording of Celestia's instructions that ONLY SHE could save the CE. But really I've always thought that making the fate of the CE a test for Twilight (one Celestia left her MASSIVELY ill-prepared for at that) to be incredibly morally dubious at best, but that's a whole different discussion.
And there it be, something that shows, maybe he did have ulterior motives, basically, Taking poor Spike's greatest moment from him.
That, alone, tells me Gary is using his future knowledge for gain. Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken that from Spike, and let it go how it was supposed to.
When I started this, I expected a one-shot, silly little crackfic. But this is a deep, insightful story that makes you think hard, question things you thought you knew. Well done I say, well done.
8405596
Exactly. Spike has very little to be proud of beyond "I'm a good assistant", very little to show he can stand on his own two feet - and the Crystal Empire is the biggest of them all. Taking it from him is enough to make me as mad as Dash.
8405596
yeah no rainbow dash's letter is enough to throw reasonable doubt on that, well i don't approve of him taking spikes moment, we don't have sufficient evidence to say he did it for gain at this time.
also the level of detachment twilight is using now is as disturbing as her anger, more because she seems to think if it turns out like she thinks she's justified when she isn't really justified, as i may have mentioned in other reviews, technically Gary hasn't committed a crime, he may be a moral black hole of a person, but he is within the law.
That bit with Rarity falling seems a bit out of character with what Gary's been up to. I mean, if he's willing to step in on the big and small stuff then what exactly stopped him from stopping Rarity from entering the contest?
Oooh, this isn't looking good for Gary. They're getting angry at him, but for opposite reasons.
Some are angry he didn't act when he could, while others are angry he used his knowledge of future events. And they're not going to care about these opposing reasons, they're probably going to just accept that their friends are angry at him.
8405799 Not enough information but it looks bad. I think the author threw this bit in there to keep both camps of the pro-gary and anti-gary sides going. Still want to see where this ends up. It's looking like where certain events are the key to this mystery where he intervened vs the ones he had little to no intervention.
8405596 Spike saving the Crystal Empire was luck and brinkmanship combined. It's likely he intervened because it reduced the chances of failure and Sombra succeeding. The author seems to be hinting that certain events are key to him intervening and not. Keep in mind certain events that he did intervene had no effect on the outcome (Lesson Zero, It's about time). In Lesson Zero, he literally more or less did what Spike did and it still happened anyway.
At the end of the day, there's literally not enough to know what the hell is going on. Not to be a jerk, but I'm glad you are not on a jury. With little evidence that has been presented, you'd have had Gary hung long ago before the trial even started.
8406059 The author can't make it a forgone conclusion of Gary's motives one way or the other too soon. it's a mystery and the answer coming out too soon ruins it.
8405576 Agree on the Thorax bit however the point of Celestia wording the assignment as such was to make Twilight be able to sacrifice her needs before others, even at the cost of failing a test. That was the whole point of the CE, to see if Twilight was worthy of a key part of being a future Princess. And she passed with flying colors.
8405550 I need to double check this but did it not say Twilight passed the test anyway?
And with the new info about the Best Young Fliers' Competition and the Crystal Empire, I think we can safely say, "Alright, this is getting a little weird." There's no apparent rhyme or reason to when he intervenes. Counting on Dash to save Rarity was a huge gamble, but counting on Spike to save the Crystal Heart was an equally huge gamble.
So why was he willing to put money on one and not the other?
So Gary lets Rarity nearly fall to death just because he "hoped" that Rainbow would save her with her Sonic Rainboom? Dude, that's messed up. I'm not sure what Rarity herself has to say to that.
And then he ruined Twilight's test and took away Spike's glory (one of his greatest, deserved or not, moments in his young life, and now he will never be seen as a hero. That's even more messed up) so that the dragon will never be recognized as anything else than the "number one assistant"?
Congrats Gary, you fucked up! No, seriously, there is no excuse that he changed the Crystal Empire outcome. He not only ruined one of Twilight's most important tests (to count on others and put your own desires back if the situation demands it) for prooving herself as a future princess (No season 3 finale?
). He even completely ruined many future events where Spike's "reputation" is key.
Well, Thorax will starve now to death and nopony cares for an "unimportant dragon's word".
If he plays time police/morale police then he should have prevented Rarity from potentially dying and in exchange let the Ponies and Spike handle the Crystal Empire on their own. He already screwed over the timeline beyond everything because of that.
And espeically with his DVDs! Most likely he freaking KNEW what Spike would have received and he destroyed everything in this regard.
x 1000
Twilight, and Spike (who even defended Gary. Good job dude! You went behind the back of the one who stood up for you the most...) mostly, have every right to be angry on him for THAT action with the Crystal Empire.
I defended him many times and said we shouldn't judge him before we know his side... but now that we have it confirmed (" If Gary wasn’t the one that saved the Crystal Heart in the disks then Twilight must’ve managed to do it just like you wanted!") what he did during the Sombra event and the Best Fyler Competition? Nope, sorry, can't see anything positive in that. Or anything that would put him in a better light in regard to these two events at least.
So that is why she's mad.
8406968
It could technically still be reliant upon how directly involved he was in those episodes. It could be that he had little to no input on the episode where Rarity fell, maybe he did try to do something behind the scenes that no one knew about without revealing what he knew, but say for example he tried to talk to Rarity but he wasn't allowed to talk with the contestants because rules.
As for the Crystal Empire he could have been unlucky, maybe he wound up in Spike's spot by mistake and it was too late to fix it. Maybe he feels really bad about it but was too scared to bring it up.
I'm not gonna say you're wrong or anything, but despite this there still is a chance Gary's a good person. There's always a chance.
Anyways don't mind me just offering an alternative here.
Well, I liked how it kind of left it going either way for Gary's motivation, but since the author just came out and said he's a dick...
8407518
It's not about the survival of Twilight, but that Gary, as Pinkie explained, is the savior of the Crystal Empire. Nothing about Twilight or Spike. He took away the young dragon's most important event in his life. And he most likely knew the episodes where Spike's "glory" plays an important role. Despite that... Gary is named as the savior. And that's something I think is a pretty hard assmove from him. In the case that was planned by him, if not... well, we still need to hear from his POV. But if yes... yep, assmove.
He could have stayed out of Spike's and Twilight's way and help the other Ponies and they would have been fine in the end, because he knew that everything will be fine, but he made himself the savior. And planned or not by him, the Crystal Ponies will see him now as the hero and not Spike like it should have been. Gary took away an important part of history.
8407531
Na, it's fine. I just think about the future because of his actions.
Gary took away, wanted or not, a very important part of the history line. Without Spike's reputation the Crystal Ponies have no reason to believe "Spike, the Brave and Glorious" when Thorax appears and the chance is high that he will end up in a very tight spot anyway. Maybe he will even starve, because Spike won't be asked to take part in the patrol what led to him finding Thorax in the cave like it happened the show, so nobody will find Thorax and save him most likely.
I was going to say that in this situation, Gary would be damned if he does, and damn if he doesn't.
But reading about how he interfered with RD's and Spike's episodes... he really f-ed up, instead of simply playing a supporting role the way he did with AJ.
Well done, Author. Not many fics can get readers as fired up (in a good way) as this one has. Moar, plz.
8408814
Oh that, yeah. Sorry.
But I didn't mean to suggest that he didn't knew the outcome, but the fact that he blindly believed into his "show knowledge". That he acutally didn't even try to prevent Rarity from entering the contest to stop her from falling into her potential doom. Maybe he knew that Rainbow Dash would/could catch her, but it was a gamble no less. Rarity's life was in danger, despite the fact that he knew/believed that she would be fine. The real world can always drift apart from "fiction", no matter how slim the chance may be.
8408690
So wait when he does interfere he's doing it wrong, but when he stays out of an episode he's also wrong? That sounds a little bit hypocritical.
I think I understand what you mean though. When he did interfere he did it in a way that changed the outcome of the episode and that's the problem, and when he didn't it seemed like he didn't cared about his friends. You think he should have done something more middle ground. But you understand how your comment might come off as hypocritical? I mean you say that Gary should have trusted the Crystal Empire to end the way it should've, but apparently not the episode with Rarity falling. I'm not trying to nitpick or anything, sorry if it comes off that way, but some people might see this as a mistake in your comment. Like I said I think I get what you actually meant.
But here's something else I'm going to present. I'm starting to think that there's not going to be anything good happening to Gary even if he is innocent. Someone pointed out that there's no real way to please all of the mane six since all of their replies and problems are different, "some of them are mad that he interferes when he shouldn't", "others are mad that he didn't interefere when he could've". Furthermore if he told them from the beginning what he knew it's quite possible nopony would trust him since he knew about the future and who would trust someone like that? If he kept quiet about it and stayed away from anyone and Twilight someone found out, and then he wouldn't have any friends to support him. So basically I'm starting to think there's almost nothing Gary could've done to remain in the ponies good graces. So I'm thinking that even if he turns out to have had good intentions he will still not really be very well liked by ponies anymore, maybe even to the point of leaving Ponyville. So basically I'm starting to picture an ending where no one is happy and everyone feels like they lost a friend(s). What do you think?
8409006
Indeed, that could very well happen if Rarity finds out that Gary didn't prevent her from falling to her possible death, even if she was saved in the end. She might be very furious with him, too.
So yeah, there is not THE solution. There will always be Ponies who see him as a fiend and enemie from now on and will refuse to see him as a friend ever again for their own reasons.
But to the point what you wrote in the first part, maybe I didn't write it out clearly enough, sorry if that happened. I meant it more from the moral point of view and how his behaviour contradicted itself from the different reports of the Ponies.
First, he let Rarity fall to her death without giving a warning. Even if he knew that Rainbow would have saved her, he still didn't actually say anything and risked her life. In the end it's not certain that the "real world" would even to 100% follow the "show script". That being said, letting Rarity fall was a huge gamble on Gary's part, any small scale change could have led to her doom. Maybe he knew that she would be save from the knowledge of the show, but there was still the chance that he might have been wrong.
They would have banished him out of Ponyville or decided to do something worse if Rarity truly fell to her death and Twilight finds out later that Gary could have saved her with saying something in the first place. So he can't escape the scolding, no matter how good his intentions were, that he risked Rarity's life and I'm sure more Ponies, like Rainbow Dash, will never forget that he did that.
So there he should have interfered with the episode in Rarity's favor. It would have been the right thing to do as a suppossed-to-be friend. Future knowledge or not.
Secondly, the moral point now in the Crystal Empire. He could have taken part in the episode, as well as in the other episode, no problem. But there more like a middlesman who perhaps aided the other Bearers in their tasks. Because once more, morally speaking, he KNEW (like he knew that Rarity's wings would be destroyed) that this was one of Twilight's key moments on her way to ascension. And a very important event in Spike's life. He took this away from BOTH, however he did that.
So not only may he have endangered/already taken away Twilight's ascension, depending on what Celestia and Luna think when they see the DVDs for themselves and compare Gary's deeds with the "real future". He changed essentially the outcome of many episodes with being the hero instead and they will notice that all I think. Twilight, Spike, Celestia and Luna.
So in this episode, he should have interfered more as their friend as well (how he should have done it, in Rainbow's understandable position, for Rarity), but not taken away the end how it was supposed to happen. Again to return to what I said earlier, there is no 100% gurantee that an episode ends like in the show. But from what Twilight said the episodes seemed to be VERY accurate. So it can be said that the final outcome of the Crystal Empire maybe would have changed in a very small scale, but only in the scale of unimportant details so that MORE THAN one possibility can occur (or Pony) that something can be saved.
But in opposite to the premiere of season 3 the episode of Rainbow Dash had the gamble of character death involved if Rainbow would have started maybe a little later to react or when a wind current threw Rarity off path. There wasn't more than one possibility.
I see why you think that my statement could be seen as hypocritical, but because it depends on what is on risk and how outcomes can come to be. Or so I think.
Rainbow Dash was the ONLY Pony who had the responsibility on her shoulders and one small error and nobody would have saved Rarity instead. So at one point, how Rainbow said, a life of a friend was in mortal danger. There was only one possibility. And he didn't react.
In the other situation however no life was at risk, because Cadence and Spike (or one of them) would have done it, because thére were more than one possibility that Sombra ended up defeated. And he reacted despite that.
Morally speaking, he screwed up big time in both situations.
Furthermore, earlier you could have gotten the impression that Gary tried his best to "preserve the timeline". That he let Rarity fall could be a additonal point to support that theory eventually. But Twilight and Pinkie (on her own way) said that he did things that could give the impression that he implemented himself as the hero.
So as you said, he's screwed anyway.
Gary has to talk for himself before anyone can be sure, but it can't be denied that he risked Rarity's life to "preserve the timeline" on one side, but on the other, for whatever reason, he ended up as the savior as the CE instead of Cadence, Spike (and Twilight) and took the pole position. So there he fundamentally "changed the timeline".
It could happen that the Ponies will point that out.
Or that he helped Applejack and prevented the Apple Family Reunion from ending as a disaster. When he has no qualms to interfere there in the timeline to help Applejack as a friend, why didn't he do it with Rarity? And why DID he do it in the Crystal Empire? His contradicted behaviour doesn't give much hope for him until now.
He had two sorts of duties that fought each other in his mind:
1. Preserving the timeline
2. Doing the right thing as a friend from the moral POV
And I have the impression his decisions could have been made much better. He focused on the wrong endings and changed history already beyond recognition anyway. So the Ponies will be cross with him that he always intervened when HE liked it, but not when it was MORALLY right. I think that's his biggest problem where they will judge him for.
I'm really interested to see what all decide to do in the end.
8409173
I didn't really think your comment was contradictory, but I could see how someone else might. I wanted to point that out because if I didn't someone else probably would, and they might not be nice about it.
Even now I could nitpick your statement if I wanted to. For example you say he didn't know Rarity's episode would end well, but he did know Sombra's episode would, or something stupid like that, but there's no reason to keep going with it I know what you meant.
I still kinda think there might not have been a way for him to interfere with that episode. I mean Gary can't fly so he could't do it himself, and if he took the time to set up something to catch her, or talked to someone about it they might get suspicious wondering how he knew what was going to happen, which is something Gary wants to avoid. And again he may have tried something behind the scenes that no one else knew about. I also don't really think Gary ruined Twilight's ascension.
But I see your points, and I hope you don't think I'm coming off as a smart alek or anything I'm not trying to. I don't really want to debate this anymore right now, it's not going to change anything after all, so I think I'll just leave it here for now.
8409325
No problem, I don't saw any negative in your comment or anything like that, you just pointed something out. No biggie. I know what you mean and you are right.
And until Gary takes position himself we can all think and guess whatever we want, but he needs to confirm what and why he did it himself. Still, thanks for your feedback.
Rainbow clearly doesn't see that the reason he didn't do anything was because nothing NEEDED to be done by him to keep anything unpleasant from happening to Rarity. Rarity probably wouldn't have believed him anyway, and if eh HAD done something to prevent her from getting involved, then Dashy wouldn't have performed the Rainboom. Even though the information was GIVEN to her by Twilight. I guess her shortsightedness is one of the reasons I generally don't like her.
Aren't the Rarity situation and the Crystal Heart situation really similar? In both cases Gary could choose between allowing the future to play out while potentially letting something terrible happen, or intervene and rob someone of their moment of glory.
He's wrong on one of them, but he can't be wrong on both.
As far as the RD Rarity situation goes how do we know he didn't do something? He could have had a quiet word with a couple of rescue ponies pointed out that one of the entrants was a unicorn with little experience flying and really delicate wings and ask them to make sure ponies were stationed above the ground ready to catch her. Whether they actually followed through or not he might have thought he was covered in case he'd changed something that prevented RD from saving her. In fact if they weren't there he could've gone home had a panic attack and when the Crystal Empire happens takes a more active role because he doesn't trust subtlety anymore.
Of course there are plenty of other interpretations but this covers everything I think. Not to mention the obvious the more you reveal/change the less useful your future knowledge is, it's less useful than the Pinkie sense that way as the PS is always updating as the situation changes his info isn't.
Lastly has this being discovered now changed him, assuming he was truly altruistic and has now been unfairly imprisoned cast out and made homeless and soon to be friendless (so he presumes) could he now decide he should have used his advantage for at least somewhat more selfish ends enough to have his own home for example.
throughout reading this, my mind has continuously drawn back to this...
8408576 when did the author say he was a dick? If so, he killed the story's suspense.
8411117
Just out of curiosity, why can't he be wrong on both?
8452671 Because he made two opposite choices under very similar circumstances. If the correct choice is to meddle in the future to avoid risking lives, then Gary was wrong to let Rarity almost die so that Dash could save her, but right to meddle to save the Crystal Empire even if he stole Spike's glory.
But if the correct choice is to avoid meddling in the future so that characters can have their moment of glory no matter how risky it may seem, than Gary was wrong to save the Crystal Heart himself instead of letting Spike do it, but right in letting Rarity almost fall to her death so that Rainbow Dash could save her.
8405576
thank god, that whole thorax crap was the worst.