Is the real Twilight dead? It's About Time mysteries

[ManaMinori 4,149]

looking back at "it's about time", I really have to wonder if Twilight died in that episode, as a result of the events of her future self travelling back in time to warn her.

From that moment on, there are many unexplained events. Every action that one takes alters the events of the future, whether a little or a lot. So what if future Twilight coming to her past self altered that reality and set it in a course where Twilight dies? it was only after that that she started looking like "future" (possibly the reconstructed timeline) Twilight (or a clone with implanted memories)

If this is, in fact a parallel universe from some third party pony fixing the time loop, then it would explain Pinkie's constant stress on wanting things to be fun (possibly a mirror pool Pinkie)

 

Another mystery in this episode is just how many evil creatures from Tartarus really escaped when Cerberus left his post? Did any truly even escape? After all, we see the "inmates" in cages, forum the scene in "Princess Twilight Sparkle". And in the book "The Mares of S.M.I.L.E", somepony in the government of Equestria says that Tirek was just a cover-up. But if that is so, then what was covered up? Twilight's death (and eventual replacement with an AU Twi, who later became an alicorn, herself?) More villains than assumed coming out of Tartarus? Or some other government cover up that Sunbutt has under wraps?

[cmarston1 5,964]

I don't think Twilight died because of the time travel as they still ended up being the same person by the end of the episode. It just ended up being a stable time loop.

[EquestriaGuy 1,074]

Time travel in that episode adhered to the Novikov Self Consistency Principle.

 

Time travel in the show is very intriguing. For instance, the S5 finale can be excused from obeying this principle if Magic is a deeper fundamental force than physics or temporal causality, and if the goal of a spell is altering time rather than traveling through time. In the case of a spell that rewrites time, the timeline works like a Microsoft Word document, where a sentence copied from a then deleted paragraph can still be pasted into the document in a way that makes it fit.

[Nightshroud 331]

Twlight died while fighting Nightmare Sun.

The sister to Nightmare Moon that was hiding in Celestia.

Brewing schming to be relesed then one day she did.

Destroying Equestria in the process.

 Something angered her so much her rage EXPLOEDED.

There She murders twilight in the process.

Or at least that's my explanation on it.

Edited February 8, 2017 by Nightshroud

[Blood Moon 109]

I see it as a stable time loop that has been created. Twilight originally traveled to the past to warn herself not to panic...which got its message cut off early and caused her to panic. Said panicking is what led her to go back in time and give herself the message not to panic, which gets cut off and causes her to panic, and so forth. That loop is now a stable event that would keep happening and is now stuck in the timeline forever.

 

What would truly cause a change in the timeline is if a Twilight in that loop decided to not go back in time to tell herself not to panic...or took off all the stuff that made her look crazy to keep her past self from going on about a future war and actually got her message out, which would then cause herself not to panic, that would cause a change and re-write history since a whole new branch was taken that stopped the loop from happening over and over again.

[nr2038 51]

Thinking on this topic:

 

Oh no I've gone cross-eyed.

 

Then realizes it is cartoon and sits back and enjoys the show.

[Nightshroud 331]

well i thought maybe sunset shimmer was the altnerate twilight

[sweetolebob18 728]

It is possible that it created a split time stream Y instead of a stable time loop O.  I wouldn't say Alternate Twilight is dead, exactly, just "You can't get there from here" (punchline to an old joke  about directions)

 

There are several good Time Loop stories on Fimfiction including

Hard Reset by Eakin (Twilight stuck in time loop trying to thwart 2nd Changeling invasion)

The Best Night Ever by Capn Chrysallid (Blueblood stuck in time loop. Guess when)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Sweetie Belle by Distaff Pope (AU with Sweetie in Luna's School. Get's stuck in time loop among other things)  

[Buck Testa 5,505]

No, it's about time was a perfect time loop. She went back in time because she went back in time. Everything that happened in that episode was inspired by her going back in time. If she never went back in time the loop would never exist. It has no real catalyst besides the loop itself.

[ManaMinori 4,149]

No, it's about time was a perfect time loop. She went back in time because she went back in time. Everything that happened in that episode was inspired by her going back in time. If she never went back in time the loop would never exist. It has no real catalyst besides the loop itself.

we know from "the cutie remark" that every action taken in the past (or present) creates alternate futures. So Twilight's every action (or non action) had to set different AU timelines in motion, to support each time she travelled back in time. If the loop is continuous, but the actions in between are different each time, then which Au with its altered future have we been following since that episode, if the loop from that episode is truly infinite?

[Buck Testa 5,505]

we know from "the cutie remark" that every action taken in the past (or present) creates alternate futures. So Twilight's every action (or non action) had to set different AU timelines in motion, to support each time she travelled back in time. If the loop is continuous, but the actions in between are different each time, then which Au with its altered future have we been following since that episode, if the loop from that episode is truly infinite

That instance of time travel was much different than it's about time.

 

1. The time travel itself was very limited and from what we've seen Twilight says and behaves the same way on each end of the loop. Twilight did not have enough time and/or foresight to change the loop.

 

2. The finale time travel was specifically designed to change the past and had Starlight as an active participant altering events.

 

They may both be time travel, but the controlling elements of each are different.

[Lil Pip 775]

The real question is what happened to the too many Pinkie Pies.

[Will Guide 21,371]

The real question is what happened to the too many Pinkie Pies.

Back to the mirror pool where they came from...

Except for maybe one stray Pinkie clone that can be spotted in "Saddle Row Review"

[Lil Pip 775]

Back to the mirror pool where they came from...

Except for maybe one stray Pinkie clone that can be spotted in "Saddle Row Review"

That might be Equestria Girls Pinkie.

And naw, whats in the mirror pool anyways? Does bringing them back actually change anything? It'd be the equivalent to melting down metal toys, then putting it into a pit of molten lava. Which is the same thing as dying. It just means they were born differently, instead of turning into dirt through a slow process, they turned into magic energy. Or arguably they are just mirroring entities that spawn from the pool, but thats not really shown to be the case.

[SBaby 660]

No.  She didn't die in 'It's About Time'.  She died in 'Magical Mystery Cure'. 

 

When the Cutie Marks got scrambled and she was trying to use magic to correct them, the Elements of Harmony went out of control and vaporized her, in an attempt to correct the contradiction and get things back to normal.

Edited February 11, 2017 by SBaby

[Regent 77]

I love these discussions, so much so that they're a fundamental part of a fanfic I'm working on. In it, I posit that in S5 the universe is destroyed and remade based on events that occur during Rainbow Dash's race.

 

First, the original universe is destroyed, except for: the Cutie Map, Twilight, Spike, the spell, and Starlight. The universe is remade into the one where Equestria is in a losing war against King Sombra's Crystal Empire. Though the characters are alive again, they're different. There's no going back to that original universe, there's no getting back the original Mane 6 (minus Twilight). It can't be brought back, only remade. Twilight fails to remake the universe a few times before stopping Starlight.

 

If you accept this theory, I will further suggest that "It's About Time" is non-destructive, because Twilight doesn't succeed in changing the past. Everything she does was always supposed to happen, with the lesson being learned in hindsight. It's a clean loop. There might be a chicken/egg question here, where there may have been an original universe where she decides to time travel just to do it, and ends up going back and starting the loop, but that doesn't make sense either because the whole point was to tell herself not to freak out. It's a paradox. The solution to the paradox is to just wave your hands and say it was all supposed to happen that way.

 

But absolutely everyone save for Twi, Spike, and Glimglam dies in the Season 5 finale. According to my story, they even create some characters who find a way to avoid the destruction of their timeline and end up in the (remade not restored) original universe.

 

Back to the mirror pool where they came from...

Except for maybe one stray Pinkie clone that can be spotted in "Saddle Row Review"

 

And the pink rave dancer, and also "Diane" if you count that fan comic series.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Regent