Oh my god, what is even going on in this thread. Just skimming this page made me go cross eyed.

Watching Twi and Cheerilee go at it isn't much of a curse. Just saying.

Yeah, but then everyone else in the office is just like: "What the fuck."

You see, what happened was the episode was originally written without the manecut scene in. That resulted in Pinkie being unable to find the time travel spell, causing a paradox and therefore, a bad episode. So, M. A. Larson went back in time to warn himself to put that scene in, but he couldn't get the message across in time and oh dear I've gone cross eyed.

EDIT:Well, how was I supposed to know he was a dude? His name is a single letter!

edited 6th Jan '13 7:16:14 PM by IrishZombie

Himself, Irish. Larson is a dude.

The problem I had with Wryte's theory is that the two timelines he theorizes are mutually exclusive.

I don't see where you're drawing this conclusion from, though. Again, I refer you to my chart.◊ The original timeline is that in which the time loop is stable. The alternate timeline is one in which the time loop is unstable, causing a paradox that rewrites that timeline to resolve itself by removing the time loop entirely. This does not create a new timeline, but rather rewrites the same timeline without the paradox, the end result being no different than if the alternate timeline had originally branched off before future!Twilight's point of arrival.

Time Travel is hard.

I give my liiiiife, not for honor, but fooooooooor you~

human~AJ :D

Dakimakura? wut

QUEEN

Word of Larson

Time travel is a general pain in the ass, and it's best to avoid it unless you are an expert. Otherwise Father Time might slap the hell out of you. And not metaphorically.

edited 6th Jan '13 7:19:59 PM by Lopiny

Ah, old Father Time. My dad used to take me to marksmanship practice with him.

edited 6th Jan '13 7:21:00 PM by Steventheman

^^^ Scootaloo digs it.

Also, you just linked the image that set off this whole discussion. :P

edited 6th Jan '13 7:23:02 PM by Wryte

Nah, the worst thing that could happen is stranding yourself in a past with no timeline back to your relative present because you pruned the possibilities of the future relative to that past too aggressively.

D'awwwww :3

human!Older!Babs

That wasn't in the book

edited 6th Jan '13 7:29:45 PM by AceOfScarabs

@Wryte: It could still be caused by Pinkie's mane, just in a different fashion. The reasons I don't get your theory is that

1. it doesn't explain how the loop forms and averts the disaster; it starts with the loop already there, and then explains how deviating from it would cause the disaster. But it isn't a scenario where the disaster occurs in the original timeline

2. it doesn't explain why Twilight would inexplicably deviate from the loop by not cutting Pinkie's hair when all the other factors are the same. It's just saying "if the loop wasn't really a loop, the universe would end", which is true, but the idea is that creating the loop averts the disaster, not that the disaster is caused by deviating from the established loop.

Basically the issue is this:

There's no reason for the loop to exist at all in the original timeline. Or if it's entirely self-sustaining, then the disaster cannot happen because there's no cause for it in the loop.

What I'm getting from the tweet is that the original timeline is the one in which the disaster occurred, Twilight started the loop (saving the timeline) but sending the message to herself, resulting in the cutting of Pinkie's hair.

For the record, I'm not taking this seriously at all, it's just fun to talk about.

edited 6th Jan '13 7:32:07 PM by JapaneseTeeth

No translation really needed

Yay, I have a commission of the first OC pony I ever thought up! Say hi to Quarter Note, everyone!

Where are all those pony 4komas from? Is there someone in Japan making pony doujin?

@Crowfall: Artist:shepherd0821, go look'im up on Derpi, he also has a Deviantart page.

edited 6th Jan '13 7:40:05 PM by AceOfScarabs

@Ace: Oh, I saw his deviantart page, but I just assumed he was translating them. I didn't know he made them himself. Cool.

I still like the Achron model of time travel best. It lets you pull off paradoxes without things getting confusing (usually).

You mean with causality-enforcing waves sweeping the timeline every once in a while? I just gave myself a crash course in the game with the trope page

edited 6th Jan '13 7:51:05 PM by Lopiny

1. it doesn't explain how the loop forms and averts the disaster; it starts with the loop already there, and then explains how deviating from it would cause the disaster. But it isn't a scenario where the disaster occurs in the original timeline

Why does there have to be a disaster in the original timeline? It's About Time never indicated that there was a real disaster being averted until the MA Larson post about Pinkie's mane, which is a disaster Twilight could never have sent a message back about in the first place, as its disastrous consequences could only be known in a doomed timeline where Twilight didn't have the ability to go back in time to give the warning in the first place.

It seems like you're looking for a reason for the time loop to have been created in the first place outside of the events we witnessed directly in It's About Time, when there was no indication in the episode itself that there was any such external impetus for the time loop's creation.

2. it doesn't explain why Twilight would inexplicably deviate from the loop by not cutting Pinkie's hair when all the other factors are the same. It's just saying "if the loop wasn't really a loop, the universe would end", which is true, but the idea is that creating the loop averts the disaster, not that the disaster is caused by deviating from the established loop.

Well, there's the obvious "she didn't think of it" answer. In this case, the timeline simply splits when Twilight doesn't think of cutting Pinkie's mane instead of when Pinkie's mane doesn't get cut, which is an inconsequential difference to the purpose of the discussion, but still provides the explanation for the wildly different results.

I'm also not sure what your point is when you say, "the idea is that creating the loop averts the disaster, not that the disaster is caused by deviating from the established loop." The end result is the same: the disaster does not come to pass (re: is averted) by virtue of the mane being cut.

By the way, can I just say how in love I am with this fandom after writing this post?

Speaking of Derpy songs, this one is better.

Yep. It's a fun game. You should try it.

My point is that "averting" the disaster implies that the disaster was "supposed" to happen. Or to put it another way, I take it to mean that in the original timeline (i.e. the one in which time travel never occurred, and is thus "natural") the disaster did happen, and the presence of time travel changed the timeline so that that was not the case.

In your scenario, the disaster can only occur if Twilight goes back in time. The thing is, unless the disaster was already imminent, she wouldn't go back in time to give herself the message to prevent it, and as such the loop can't be broken because there isn't one. Basically, if we assume that the disaster requires time travel to occur, it won't because the loop only starts if the disaster gives Twilight a reason to return to the past.

Basically, my theory is that the disaster occurs in the "normal" timeline, that is the one in which Twilight never time travels. Thus when she realizes it, she goes back in time and triggers the loop that results in Pinkie's hair being trimmed, thus saving Equestria.

And yes, the fandom is awesome because of stuff like this.

edited 6th Jan '13 8:02:36 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Awesome in a manner that might generously be described as unnecessarily overly analytical

This is TV Tropes. There is no such thing as "unnecessarily overly analytical".

Oh, Shepherd0821? I think he's actually Chinese, but I'd need to see one of the untranslated yonkoma to tell.