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My Attempt at a Chronological Timeline


Starshine Sprinkles

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It's been awhile since I worked on this, so some further thoughts

Fall Weather Friends

September 20-21 2 days w The Running of the Leaves on September 21. IMO, this is the start of Autumn & is 3 months after The Summer Sun Celebration

Super Speedy...6000

Ciderfests are usually in October, so first weekend in October.

Best Night Ever.

November 21, year 1. 1 or 2 days (depending when you think the party broke up)

It's the 21st of some month (Ticket Master). The S5 Episode Make New Friends....Discord must be at least November. year 2 or in Spring.

May the Best Pet Win

Spring, year 1. Tanks For the Memories (S5) is Winter, year 2 & it's Dash's first Winter w Tank

Hearts & Hooves Day

Pony Valentine Day (Feb. 14)? This is a problem because it's picnic weather (probably Spring) & February is mid Winter. This means either

1) Winter is over no later than, say, Feb 10 (to allow for Winter Wrap Up). This means that Winter is very short. This makes sense because it explains "Why so few Winter episodes?" It's because "There isn't much Winter to have adventures IN"

The problem is that Rarity specifies"90 days of Winter" (song "Winter Wrap Up") So either this is a continuity error or Winter starts in early November, shortly after Nightmare Night. This makes Autumn  or Autumn starts in August.

2) IMO, H&HD has to be MUCH later. Somewhere around Easter to around Mother's Day (early May)

June, Year 2

One Bad Apple

School seems to be out. They mention a Summer Harvest Festival. The calendar says otherwise, but  in the USA Summer is considered to run from Memorial Day weekend (last Monday in May) to Labor Day weekend (first Monday in September). So, June, year 2.

Secret of My Excess

Spike is hatched during Twilight's school application. (Cutie Mark Chronicles) In the USA, this would be between semesters. So, early May to the end of July. I'd say July, year 1 except the Crusaders have a cameo (Spike steals Scootaloo's scooter). Either  this is a continuity error or the episode is after Call of the Cutie. So, it's late May year 1 or early June, year 2

Duel Master

It seems to be a long time since Boast Busters, so I'm putting it in June. 

IMO, one of these 3 episodes is almost certainly the last episode before Magical Mystery Cure.

Magical Mystery Cure

Has to end no later than June 18, year 2. If you accept EQ Girls as canon, then no later than June 13

  • Brohoof 1
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Seeing as though you put To Change a Changeling between Secrets and Pies and A Health of Information, the Changeling episode could easily take place at the same time with either one of them, since only Starlight and Trixie were in that episode and neither of them were in the other two.

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Finally got around to adding season 8 and the new specials. Also changed the placement of the following episodes, reasons can be found under the entries in question: Princess Spike, Applejack's "Day" Off, The Times They Are A Changeling, Dungeons & Discords, Viva Las Pegasus, Stranger Than Fan Fiction and Daring Done?

 

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I think this is about right. Within the framework of 1,2,3 — 4,5 — 6,7 — 8 for each year, there can be a lot of room for different perspectives.

Here are two things I noticed recently that need to be kept in mind: The Changelings celebrated Hearth’s Warming 1 time before season 8. So the season 6 finale needs to come before the season 6 episode “A Hearth’s Warming Tale.”

In the season 5 finale, in the Nightmare Moon alternate timeline, she says it has been “years” since she banished Celestia to the moon. Since Luna’s return is independent from Twilight and her friend, then in that alternate timeline, Luna returned as she did in the first episode, except no one was able to stop her and she banished her sister to the moon. Since Starlight’s spell takes Twilight to an alternate present, the setting of the true present must be at least 2 years since the first episode, since NMM says it has been years since she banished Celestia.

 

edit: I can upload pictures from the excel spreadsheet I have later today, because I’m noticing that we’ve done a few things very similarly

also I think the three episodes preceding Amending Fences in broadcast order are supposed to remain in that order. Twilight says in Amending Fences there were “3 big events this week” which make sense to be the donkey wedding, the yak summit, and the thing from Princess Spike.

 

Here's my timeline:

Spoiler

odo.thumb.png.d5c6ca2f8a4f4e79ddf720043ccfb6ee.png

 

Edited by Zestanor
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Season 4, Twilight is an Alicorn, but still lives in the library. This means that all of S4 has to take place between

Magical Mystery Cure & Twilight's Kingdom. S4 can't possibly be mixed with any other

Some of the events of the later seasons don't really get into "Where is Twilight staying?"

But the S5 season finale, Twilight is definitely living in the castle, so it's definitely post S4.

I'd make it. 1,2,3 /4/ 5,6,,7 /Movie/ 8

But yes, the S5 season finale definitely is at least June of year 2 & probably later than that

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  • 4 weeks later...

Cronology Crabgrass! The first 10 seconds of this new episode: How many seasons of show have just been turned into a single year to say that there is only the current team of buckball players from Ponyville in the hall of fame?

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7 hours ago, keybounce said:

Cronology Crabgrass! The first 10 seconds of this new episode: How many seasons of show have just been turned into a single year to say that there is only the current team of buckball players from Ponyville in the hall of fame?

In my timeline, Buckball Season is before the third on screen Fall season, and this new episode is during the fifth on screen Fall season. so this isn't unusual. If it's two years apart, and Buckball took some time to get popular, one record in a Hall of Fame sounds about right.

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  • 3 months later...

I liked this and further emulated it by splitting up portions the timeline into adjusted seasons for easier viewing. I thought I'd post it as a sort of reply. Main consideration were breaking at significant points and keeping screentime fairly consistent.
Year 1 Summer:
Friendship is Magic - Family Appreciation Day (21 episodes)

Spoiler

This marks the entirety of the time when Twilight is sending friendship reports after moving to Ponyville. Family Appreciation Day isn't super significant, but I think Lesson Zero works better as a season starter than finisher, and I think Family Appreciation Day works well enough as a finisher for the more friendship-oriented start of the show.

Year 1 Fall/Winter:

Lesson Zero - The Best Night Ever (23 episodes)

Spoiler

I really wanted Winter Wrap Up as a season starter, and toyed with a short season spanning from Winter Wrap up to Party of One, but The Best Night Ever/Return of Harmony was too compelling a breakpoint.

Year 1 Spring:

The Return of Harmony - Equestria Girls (18 episodes + 1 movie ~ 21 episodes)

Year 2 Summer:

Season 4 + Rainbow Rocks

Year 2 Fall/Winter/Spring:

Season 5 + Friendship Games

Year 3 Summer/Fall:

On Your Marks - The Saddle Row Review (20 episodes + 1 movie ~ 23 episodes)

Spoiler

I think The Saddle Row Review makes a surprisingly satisfying season finisher.

Year 3 Winter/Spring:

A Hearth's Warming Tale - Fame and Misfortune (22 episodes, counting the 44 minute EqG specials as double episodes)

Spoiler

Fame and Misfortune works so well as a season finisher, I remember wondering why it wasn't when it aired.

Year 4 Summer/Fall:

Hard to Say Anything - My Little Pony: The Movie (15 episodes + 1 movie ~ 20 episodes)

Spoiler

Not gonna lie, this is the only place I fudge the chronology above, moving A Royal Problem before Hard to Say Anything so I can have Fame and Misfortune as a finisher and A Royal Problem as a starter.

I haven't bothered renaming Season 8, yet but I guess it would be Year 4/5 Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter/Spring? Depending on how the chronology of season 9 comes out, I may just call it 'Year 5' or something.



@Starshine Sprinkles Love the chronology, hope you'll add Season 9 in due time. Thanks so much!

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Sadly... while this is really cool... i am of the opinion that many more years have passed in equestria since the beginning. All the ponies act much older and Season 8 just had way to much time go by in it. I think it's safe to say each season is about a year.

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Just not reasonable. There are plenty of references to season of the year, etc, in the show, and it is not, cannot be, one year per season.

 

Keep in mind, we originally had "one letter per week", and 52 shows initially. And we've got a timeline that basically puts the first three seasons (52 episodes) in just over a year if I recall correctly.

(rechecks)

Yep.

 

What evidence do you have for "one season = one year"? Consider that this would mean the CMC are now 8 years older than when they first appeared, which would be fully grown -- they are still half-pints.

 

(I think 7 going on 8 in year one, and 11 going on 12 in the last season. That lets them attend hogwarts as 11-year-olds after the show :-)

 

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14 hours ago, Kadeda said:

Sadly... while this is really cool... i am of the opinion that many more years have passed in equestria since the beginning. All the ponies act much older and Season 8 just had way to much time go by in it. I think it's safe to say each season is about a year.

Then 'Tanks For the Memories' should not have happened, because Rainbow Dash should already know that tortoises hibernate (well, technically, brumate, but that's pretty much just hibernation for cold-blooded creatures).

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7 minutes ago, heavens-champion said:

Then 'Tanks For the Memories' should not have happened, because Rainbow Dash should already know that tortoises hibernate (well, technically, brumate, but that's pretty much just hibernation for cold-blooded creatures).

Actually if you treat S2's Winter Episode, Heartwarming Eve (the one that gives backstory on the founding of Equestria) as happening BEFORE May the Best Pet Win and treat S5's Tanks for the Memories as the first real winter since Rainbow adopted Tank, then the contradictions goes away.

After all, on the fictional chronology on the MLP Wiki, in between each Season Premiere and Finale, there's a bullet point list that responds to each episode in that given season. And right above the list, there's a note that says: 

"In unspecified order" 

So you can quite easily fix the problem by imagining that the order we see the episodes air aren't necessarily the actual order in universe itself. 

Since this show is not exactly intended to be like Once Upon a Time with the constant switching back and forth between past and present, the MLP show should be allowed to have wiggle room for its timeline. So we as individual viewers, are allowed to come up with our own explanations and reasons for order of events.

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6 minutes ago, Will Guide said:

Actually if you treat S2's Winter Episode, Heartwarming Eve (the one that gives backstory on the founding of Equestria) as happening BEFORE May the Best Pet Win and treat S5's Tanks for the Memories as the first real winter since Rainbow adopted Tank, then the contradictions goes away.

After all, on the fictional chronology on the MLP Wiki, in between each Season Premiere and Finale, there's a bullet point list that responds to each episode in that given season. And right above the list, there's a note that says: 

"In unspecified order" 

So you can quite easily fix the problem by imagining that the order we see the episodes air aren't necessarily the actual order in universe itself. 

Since this show is not exactly intended to be like Once Upon a Time with the constant switching back and forth between past and present, the MLP show should be allowed to have wiggle room for its timeline. So we as individual viewers, are allowed to come up with our own explanations and reasons for order of events.

Now that you mention it, it is pretty light on continuity.

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  • 1 month later...

I never really thought of trying to make a chronological order for the series, but its really well done here. Although, I like to imagine that lesson zero happened shortly after discords break out, so she kinda had a trauma and tried to be extra organized. 

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Things that I'd like to see here:

1. The idea of "one moon = one moon phase = one week", which apparently fits most of the episodes from season 4 until the bleeping last 3 :-). Take this into account when dating things, and keep in mind that Granny Smith probably has memory faults. :-)

2. Some reference to other places/sites that are doing this sort of timeline attempt. I'd like to see a comparison of how the different timelines compare to each other.

 

(The "moon = week" people came up with a 7 year timeline for the series, which I suspect is just too long -- the CMC would be much, much older by the end if that were the case. See https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Nf6WRf5vhQf72oWdq3F6YoNORrw7xmcx7vi0vYSWnQ/edit -- note that they are 4 years to the middle of season 7 with a large amount of "nothing happens here" time gaps in the ending period)

 

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On 10/16/2019 at 4:20 PM, keybounce said:

Things that I'd like to see here:

1. The idea of "one moon = one moon phase = one week", which apparently fits most of the episodes from season 4 until the bleeping last 3 :-). Take this into account when dating things, and keep in mind that Granny Smith probably has memory faults. :-)

2. Some reference to other places/sites that are doing this sort of timeline attempt. I'd like to see a comparison of how the different timelines compare to each other.

 

(The "moon = week" people came up with a 7 year timeline for the series, which I suspect is just too long -- the CMC would be much, much older by the end if that were the case. See https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Nf6WRf5vhQf72oWdq3F6YoNORrw7xmcx7vi0vYSWnQ/edit -- note that they are 4 years to the middle of season 7 with a large amount of "nothing happens here" time gaps in the ending period)

 

The thing is that it not being around 7-10 ish years doesn't make sense either. The only conflict is the CMC and the babies model design. Everything else in the later seasons show a large amount of time has passed.

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I have also my version. Take a look if you will. ^_^

 

 
5926 b. Eq The alicorns settle in a land and name it Equestria.
5720 b. Eq The alicorns drive of the dragons to the east, where they form their own land.
4174 b. Eq King Grover reunites the griffons and builds the city of Griffonstone.
3693 b. Eq Arimaspi steals the idol, which in the process kills him and king Guto.
3636 b. Eq A part of the Griffons leave Griffonstone and go live on Mount Aris.

 

 
1999 b. Eq Discord comes to Equestria.
1912 b. Eq The alicorns take charge at him.
1827 b. Eq Discord defeats the alicorn leaders and takes control over the lands.
955 b. Eq Grogar is born.
909 b. Eq Grogar is adopted by Discord as his apprentice.
666 b. Eq Discord is betrayed and defeated by Grogar, who declares himself emperor of all he saw.
606 - 82 b. Eq Grogar experiments on animals and create monsters.
494 b. Eq Grogar becomes known as 'the Father of Monsters'.
121 - 98 b. Eq Grogar tortures most of the alicorns and creates not only earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi, but also Windigo's, Nirik's, Umbrum and the Siren in the process.
98 b. Eq Gusty the Great is the first naturally born unicorn.
85 b. Eq Gusty the Great finds the last few alicorns and they begin making plans to defeat Grogar.
82 b. Eq Grogar is defeated by Gusty the Great and his magic is trapped inside his own bell.
78 b. Eq Earth ponies, unicorns, and Pegasi begin to live together under extremely hostile conditions.
77 b. Eq Grogar dies inside his prison.
The alicorns find a home in a hidden land to the west.
54 b. Eq Gusty the Great reforms the Nirik so they become Kirin.
48 b. Eq Clover the Clever is born.
25 b. Eq Gusty the Great adopts a new aprentice named Clover the Clever.
9 b. Eq Clover the Clever becomes the advisor of Princess Platinum
1 b. Eq The windigo's are defeated by Clover the Clever's friendship fire.
0 a. Eq Equestria is created again.
1 a. Eq Gusty the Great dies of old age.
42 a. Eq Clover the Clever dies of old age.
150 a. Eq Starswirl the Bearded is born.
164 a. Eq Celestia is born.
169 a. Eq Luna is born.
172 a. Eq Lord Tirek and Scorpan arrive in Equestria and begin to destroy the land. 
Scorpan reforms after experiencing the kindness of Equestria
173 a. Eq Scorpan and Starswirl go to the alicorns and convince them to fight agains Lord Tirek.
Lord Tirek is defeated and Scorpan returns to his land after seeing the beauty of Equestrian citizens.
Starswirl adopts the last two alicorns, Celestia and Luna.
200 a. Eq Stygian gets the pillars together.
202 a. Eq The pillars banish the Siren to another dimension.
212 a. Eq The pillars plant the Tree of Harmony to keep the Everfree forest at bay.
222 a. Eq The changelings are created in the Everfree Forest.
240 a. Eq Stygian gets infected by the darkness and begins to call himself 'the Pony of Shadows'.
The pillars banish themself and Stygian to Limbo.
241 a. Eq Discord comes to Equestria and takes control again.
   
243 a. Eq The Umbrum are locked up in prison by Discord and he builds the Crystal Empire on top of the prison.
  Discord creates the Crystal Heart as a weapon against the Umbrum.
299 a. Eq Discord is turned to stone by Celestia and Luna.
Celestia and Luna become princesses of Equestria.
367 a. Eq The Crystal Empire is formed to guard the Umbrum.
Princess Amore is crowned first queen of the Empire.
375 a. Eq Luna becomes bitter and turns to Nightmare Moon.
Celestia banishes Nightmare Moon to the moon and becomes the only princess of Equestria.
376 a. Eq King Sombra takes over the Crystal Empire and defeats Amore.
377 a. Eq King Sombra is banished under the frozen north by princess Celestia.
The Crystal Empire vanishes thanks to a curse put on it by King Sombra.
383 a. Eq The school of magic is made.
1345 a. Eq Shining Armor is born.
1347 a. Eq Cadence is born.
1348 a. Eq Sunset Shimmer is born.
1351 a. Eq Apple Jack is born.
Rarity is born
1352 a. Eq Twilight is born.
Fluttershy is born.
1353 a. Eq Pinkie Pie is born.
Rainbow Dash is born.
1355 a. Eq Starlight Gimmer is born.
Sunset Shimmer is going to another dimension and betrays Celestia.
1357 a. Eq Spike is born.
Twilight becomes Celestia's aprentice.
Celestia transforms Cadence into an alicorn.
1362 a. Eq Scootaloo is born.
1363 a. Eq Apple Bloom is born.
Sweetie Bell is born.
1375 a. Eq Nightmare Moon returns
Nightmare Moon is defeated by the bearers. 
1376 a. Eq Discord returns and tries to take over again.
Discord is defeated by the bearers.
1377 a. Eq Queen Chrysalis covers herself as Cadence and tries to take over Canterlot.
Queen Chrysalis is defeated by Cadence and Shining Armor.
King Sombra and the Crystal Empire return.
King Sombra is dispelled.
Shining Armor and Cadence are the new leaders of the Crystal Empire.
1378 a. Eq Discord is reformed by Fluttershy.
Twilight becomes an alicorn and is crowned the Princess of Friendship.
Sunset Shimmer is defeated and reformed.
Lord Tirek escapes Tartarus
Lord Tirek is defeated by the bearers.
1379 a. Eq Starlight Glimmer is defeated and made Twilight's aprentice.
1380 a. Eq Flurry Heart is born.
Queen Chrysalis is defeated by Starlight, Trixie, Thorax and Discord
1381 a. Eq Stygian is freed from the darkness.
The stromking is defeated and Tempest is reformed.
1382 a. Eq The school of friendship is made
Cozy Glow is defeated.
King Sombra is resurrected by the fake Grogar. Lord Tirek, queen Chrysalis and Cozy Glow are also summoned.
King Sombra is defeated by the bearers.
1383 a. Eq Tirek, Cozy Glow and Chrysalis are defeated and turned to stone.
Celestia and Luna retire and Twilight takes their place.
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On 10/19/2019 at 12:52 AM, Kadeda said:

The thing is that it not being around 7-10 ish years doesn't make sense either. The only conflict is the CMC and the babies model design. Everything else in the later seasons show a large amount of time has passed.

I agree that several years have passed. I like the 4 years through season 8 view of things.

 

Yes, the CMC need to have bigger bodies by now. Heck, the two fillies in Season 9 are apparently older than them all these years later. ... Well, ok, maybe if they were in their late teens.

 

I have also my version. Take a look if you will.

(I really hate tables here. There is no button on the bar for tables, nor any "reveal BBCode". So I can't do anything with them, and your post -- with text that doesn't belong in the table -- shows how painful it can be.)

 

That's a completely different idea, and a completely different topic. It belongs in it's own thread. This is an attempt to put the episodes into chronological order, different from air-date order.

 

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On 10/24/2019 at 9:58 PM, keybounce said:

I agree that several years have passed. I like the 4 years through season 8 view of things.

 

Yes, the CMC need to have bigger bodies by now. Heck, the two fillies in Season 9 are apparently older than them all these years later. ... Well, ok, maybe if they were in their late teens.

Four years is a bit to short if you consider how many Heartswarming Eves have happened.

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17 hours ago, keybounce said:

Really? How many HW Eves have we seen now? I thought we had only seen 3 on-screen.

I think there's been five of them seen on screen but more have been implied. In the season 8 one, the changeling kid mentioned that Twilight taught them Hearths Warming traditions last year. That would have have to happened after the season 6 episode because they were not good guys yet so that would imply that at least 2 years have passed between season 6 episode 8 and season 8 episode 15. I actually think it's more than two since nine months pass between season 8 episode 1 and season 8 episode 9 but there's no proof of that. If you add that to the special before season 9 and that's already at minimum 3 years.

Edited by Kadeda
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Dang ... that ...

Remember, re-ordering episodes across seasons is kinda required. Are we talking about "A hearths warming tale" first, and "the hearths warming club" second there? If so, the updated timeline in post 1 here has those as year 3 and year 5. (And yes, it has more than 9 months between those episodes).

 

Don't assume "tv season" = "one year". It's about 2 tv seasons per pony year on average.

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20 hours ago, keybounce said:

Dang ... that ...

Remember, re-ordering episodes across seasons is kinda required. Are we talking about "A hearths warming tale" first, and "the hearths warming club" second there? If so, the updated timeline in post 1 here has those as year 3 and year 5. (And yes, it has more than 9 months between those episodes).

 

Don't assume "tv season" = "one year". It's about 2 tv seasons per pony year on average.

Any type of re ordering just opens up a can of worms. I believe it to be the case as I think that season 1 episode 3 happens after season 1 episode 4 but you're still trying to fit them into the smallest time frame available. It's been quite a few years... most feel it's about 7 or 8 which is reasonable. You say 4 and you have to do a lot of squeezing to get that to happen. 

Even at the beginning of season seven... Celestia mentions something like... "Here we are after all these years Twilight... (ehh, something about the beginning of the show.)" I don't think she would say that for like 2 or 3 years. That's something people say for like 5 years or more. Where ever you have them ordered... a significant amount of time passed between the first episode and the season 7 opening.

Edited by Kadeda
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