AJ's Cousin Appleberg is a big shot director and producer.

No, no. Peelberg.

Even better!

@Turtlebutter: Most people really suck at certain things. And they always will no matter how much they practice. Like me and handwriting for example.

Anyway, sorry about all the gloom going on.

Director of the classic Paws, in which an angry cat torments a small seaside town.

The town doesn't seem to notice a difference though. Twilight and Spike seem to be the only two that recognize whats went wrong. So there is some sort of reality shift.

@Sereg - but if you keep at it... your current state is better than what you started with right? I cant draw but I can definitely draw better than I used to ... from trying. I'm still not a pro at it but its at least acceptable.

edited 25th Feb '13 9:08:46 AM by Turtlebutter

Nah, we'll snap out of it. Have to go to bed though, so see you.

You beautiful person.

edited 25th Feb '13 9:08:08 AM by edvedd

The way it looks, it seems that a semi-Cosmic Retcon happened... but only for those five ponies. It wasn't their marks that got switched by the spell, it was their destinies; the mark flipping was a side effect. So you have each pony thinking they're supposed to be acting out somepony else's destiny/role in society, despite not having the ability/desire to do so. I.e. Applejack thinks she supposed to be fulfilling the role meant for Rarity, even though she sucks at fashion. In fact, that fits with my headcanon about the Cutie Marks being representative of the ponies' state of mind.

For example: AJ gets Rarity's destiny, and thinks she's somehow meant to be a fashionista. Because she believes this to be what she's meant to do, her cutie mark changes. The reason it changes to Rarity's mark is because subconsciously, AJ knows that it's Rarity who's meant to fill that niche and knows that Rarity's mark is appropriate for somepony with that role. Because, on some level, she thinks "This is what this destiny is supposed to be", she manifests the cutie mark of the pony who was supposed to be there. They all retain some subconscious idea of who really does what, which is why they're able to snap back once they fulfill their proper roles.

edited 25th Feb '13 9:11:42 AM by JapaneseTeeth

You could have a lot of fun with the implications of the destiny-swapping spell. Like, all the townsponies know there's something wrong about the mane six, but they just can't put it all together.

Applebloom and Big Mac didn't seem to notice... unless they were just employees at the farm and Pinkie wasn't just taking place of their Sister.

Have to go to bed though, so see you.

Pfft. You furriners, going to bed at noon. Damn freaks.

So.. is there an implication with this episode that ANY pony could technically become a Princess if they acted like Twilight Sparkle?

Meanwhile, at Equestria daily...

How to get sent to the moon in Ten Seconds Flat.

I also noticed that Time Turner (Dr Whooves) seemed to have his arm around a unicorn in a background shot. I guess that ruins a whole bunch of shipping.

The whole spell in general is pretty (fridge) horrifying implications. I mean, Twilight essentially accidentally overwrote her friends' identities (and altered the townspeoples' at least a bit too if it was a cosmic retcon).

That'd be a pretty horrifying state of mind. :/

@Turtle: I'd say it's possible, although I think it's also linked to the elements, so I doubt you'd ever have hundreds of alicorns flying around. Then again, it's all part of my headcanon that the elements help determine the Equestrian line of succession, so who knows?

edited 25th Feb '13 9:35:24 AM by JapaneseTeeth

Well I wouldnt imagine 100's of alicorns flying around... but at least its something to shoot for as a Pony. Im just wondering if its limited to Unicorns (the Magic element) or if one of the other elements could also ascend if they met the criteria.

Apparently, spells are literal, and don't care that they're not complete.

When Twilight put the spell right, she changed that last line to mean that the marks of their destinies are fulfilled by all of them together, which chagned the format of the spell entirely.

You know, if they really wanted to do the whole "Twilight broke reality" thing, why didn't they just go all out and do something similar to All Good Things. . .

@Turtle: My theory is that "unicorn magic" and "magic of Friendship" are two different things, and that a pony of any race could be the element of magic and is thus a candidate for ascension. It's just that in this case, it happened to be a unicorn.

My whole ascension theory is in more detail here.

Well they never said anything one way or another. The only real mystery is what happened to the Apple family.

I have a feeling that all the ponies will eventually ascend. Except for Rarity.... just for the irony of it all.

Applejack wouldn't want to ascend. She's too humble.

She'd get ascended just for being honest about not wanting to ascend.

Would ascending the others be a good idea?