Is Hoops actually to thank for the sonic rainboom?

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Every action has a reaction. And if it weren't for colt Hoops knocking filly Rainbow Dash off course and getting ahead of her in the race, would Dash have even felt the need to speed up, if she wasn't chasing after Hoops, and cause the sonic rainboom? Is Hoops actually to thank for the whole event, and by extension, bringing the mane 6 together, and causing Spike to hatch, because his actions caused RD to create the rainboom?

[Jeric 46,860]

I sense a Determinism vs. Agency philosophical discussion in there! Technically yes, but it goes deeper. Hoops is not the initial cause, but rather another effect of a previous cause, so where should we lay attribution? Fluttershy herself? Fluttershy's parents? An unrevealed earlier cause that precipitated the event cascade that led to the Rainboom?

[cmarston1 5,959]

I guess him bullying Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy lead to the former wanting to race to prove their honor and by extension preformed a sonic rainboom.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

I sense a Determinism vs. Agency philosophical discussion in there! Technically yes, but it goes deeper. Hoops is not the initial cause, but rather another effect of a previous cause, so where should we lay attribution? Fluttershy herself? Fluttershy's parents? An unrevealed earlier cause that precipitated the event cascade that led to the Rainboom?

well before the race started, RD said it was all to defend Fluttershy's honor. I assume the bullies were picking on her also. But that still points to Hoops' (because he's the leader) own actions setting the wheel of destiny in motion by choosing to let himself and his lackeys bully her, and RD to step in.

[Pixel Dusk 207]

so was it hoop's friends fault for making him like that or his parents fault for raising him like that?
was it their parents fault, or theirs or theirs? if you want to keep goin g back to the origin of the blame it would be the universe's creations fault.... or lauren fausts fault

[Deae Rising Shine~ 55,951]

If we go like that, then the furthest decision of all of Equestrias future would cause trough a lovely cuddle between Rainbow's Dash father and mother and her getting born, because without Dash all never happened.

 

or that her parents meet

 

or there parents born

 

or Nightmare Moon nev-

 

okay, i could continue this til weekend XD

 

but yeah, it probably helped getting the events on place, so in theory Starlight would only needed to get Hoops attention, because Dash wouldn't needed to speed up and with that not causing the rainbom or so :3

[Jeric 46,860]

well before the race started, RD said it was all to defend Fluttershy's honor. I assume the bullies were picking on her also. But that still points to Hoops' (because he's the leader) own actions setting the wheel of destiny in motion by choosing to let himself and his lackeys bully her, and RD to step in.

Would such an action occur without either precident or environmental influences to ones personality? Did the characters have true agency where Hoops acted like a bully in a vacuum? If not what would the other influences be? Going further, how else could the race have played out with the same result given the variable you proposed?

[sweetolebob18 728]

In the pilot, the prophecy ended

....The stars will aid in her escape

And she will bring about Eternal Night (or words to that effect -it's been awhile since I watched the pilot)

 

Look at Twilight's Cutie Mark

Remember that more than one her escaped that night -including Luna

Remember that royalty often has a meaningless but poetic title or 2

If you assume one of Luna's titles is "The Eternal Night" (or "The Unending Darkness" or whatever)

Then the "she" obviously means Twilight and the whole thing makes perfect sense & was completely accurate

(as a side issue Who was that pony Nostrodamus?)

 

What's that  got to do with this? Consider that the first 5 ponies Twilight met turned out to be The Elements of Harmony.  Consider they all got their Cutie Marks from the Rainboom. (The Cutie Mark Chronicles).  How much freewill was involved in this?  Maybe a thousand years before he was born, Hoops was destined to be a jerk.  (That's why he's so good at it).  Arguably, his entire purpose for existing was to provoke Dash & that was his Destiny.  This is the old "Freewill vs Fate" argument

Edited February 8, 2017 by sweetolebob18

[Ganondorf8 11,370]

If that is the case then Hoops changed Equestria for the better though he probably doesn't understand that.