Is Equestria Girls a parallel universe or an alternate universe, to FIM?

[----- 477]

Yeah, stupid question, I know.  

But what is it?

 

 To me it was actually always an alternate universere, but a person I know  meant it is a parallel universe. 

What do you think?

[Mario3D13 167]

 

Yeah, stupid question, I know.  

But what is it?

 

 To me it was actually always an alternate universere, but a person I know  meant it is a parallel universe. 

What do you think?

 

 

It is, indeed, a parallel universe. Each EQG movie takes place between two different seasons. EQG was between S3 and S4, RR was between S4 and S5, and FG was between S5 and S6. Make sense now?

[Castle Bleck 19,296]

Parallel.

 

Alternate would be more along the lines of what Starlight caused at the end of S5.

[Rainbow Diamonds 282]

I think an alternate universe is where there was a different outcome in the past. For example, there are alternate universes where Rainbow never did the Sonic Rainboom. 

 

Equestria Girls is a parallel universe. 

[Dark Qiviut 22,368]

Parallel. Each EQG film takes place in between seasons, and both universes are concurrent with each other.

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

Yeah, basically parallel. I've always used the term "alternate universe" the same way I use the term "alternate history." An alternate universe diverges from the main one at a specific point in time, while a parallel universe simply never intersects.

[Gestum 2,493]

Is there a difference between those two?

[Nuke87654 1,849]

Is there a difference between those two?

An alternate universe needs to occur in the same universe as the original one and needs a canon event in said original universe to have altered.

 

Parallel universe in the other hand is concurrent to the events of the original universe and not affected by anything that changed or happened in said universe.

 

It would be the difference of saying how eqg verse wasn't affected by any of time travelling shenanigans that happened in the season 5 finale while we saw a bunch of alternate universes occuring in that episode.

[Dark Qiviut 22,368]

Is there a difference between those two?

Yes.

 

A parallel universe is a reality that runs simultaneously with another. Alternate universes occur within the same universe, but with different facts.

 

The Cutie Re-Mark's timelines are alternate universes: What if the Sonic Rainboom didn't occur, and what are the consequences?

 

EQG is a parallel universe: It's not affected by Starlight's time-traveling spell.

 

The Fallen from Stack Exchange explains the differences really well here.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Dark Qiviut

[Nuke87654 1,849]

 

The Fallen from Stack Exchange explains the differences really well here.

Yep, that was where I found that info on the differences too.

[Fhaolan 4,476]

Neither.

 

I'm suspicious that the EqE 'universe' is actually a bubble, or parasite, universe. Basically a sub-dimension that exists only because the main (FiM) universe exists, either leaching energy from it, or simply copying 'signature' objects from it.

 

My reasoning for this is:

 

1) The 'parallel' characters don't match the ages of the characters in the main universe.The humanized CMC are old enough to be in high school along with the Mane 6, and Big Mac. Celestia and Luna are at a minimum a thousand years old in the main universe, but are still alive without magic in EqE. While all these characters exist in both universes, their radically different ages mean that the CMC existed as humans before they existed as ponies, and Celestia and Luna existed as ponies *long* before they existed as humans.

 

2) Time seems to run at a different rate. Sunset Shimmer entered the human world and for approximately four, maybe five years, going by her activities at the school. Yet Twilight was completely unaware of there being a prior 'personal student' of Celestia, despite being Celestia's personal student since Twi got her cutie mark. This doesn't fix point 1, as it really just makes it worse and more obvious that something weird is going on.

 

3) When human Twi went nuts and started to bust up the joint, the human universe started to crumble *into* the pony one. As if the human one was really just a facade, layered on top of the 'real' universe.

 

4) We've seen other similar 'bubble' universes on MLP. The place the Breezies live seem to be one. Tartarus seems to be one. So this seems like something that happens.

 

So what I'm figuring is happening is that the EqE universe is constantly adapting and re-ordering things in order to maintain maximum parallelism, almost like a living thing.

[Dark Qiviut 22,368]

@@Fhaolan, Your evidence, while very valid, doesn't quite quell parallel universe debate. The EQG 'verse timeline can be faster, doesn't have to completely match, and can crumble into the pony world. The only purpose for a parallel universe is if it's a self-contained reality coexisting with the other. Pedestria's reality is completely different from Equestria, but they exist perpendicularly with each other. I'm not sure about the breezies' home (though they treat the portal as some kind of shortcut rather than a gateway to a whole new world ), but Tartarus is a part of the same world as Equestria.

 

2) Time seems to run at a different rate. Sunset Shimmer entered the human world and for approximately four, maybe five years, going by her activities at the school. Yet Twilight was completely unaware of there being a prior 'personal student' of Celestia, despite being Celestia's personal student since Twi got her cutie mark. This doesn't fix point 1, as it really just makes it worse and more obvious that something weird is going on.

DHX got lazy and executed their worldbuilding very poorly. EQG1 established that both Equestria and Pedestria run at exactly the same time. One day in Equestria is one day in Pedestria and vice-versa. Of course, when the film stated it, the first set of gigantic plot holes pop open.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Dark Qiviut