That clip certainly makes it look like it's going to be an interesting episode. Being a Sailor Chibi Moon fan (aka Sailor Moon's daughter from the future), I'm not one to be opposed to time travel-related stories. The idea that Twilight got injured by something mundane rather than an epic war sounds like a plausible possibility, but one idea I got is that she ended up looking injured from time travel in the first place. Or, at least that could be the reason she's crackling with electricity. I wonder if the "epic pony war" mention is a nod to the fandom, particularly the fanfic Fallout Equestria, since from what I know about it, it involves a war-torn Equestria set in the far future. The way future Twilight is dressed also makes her look like she came out of a fanfic like that.

About the idea of having a trope page for this thread, I don't mind either way if one is made, but if there is a list being created, I would be curious to see it whether or not it actually gets put on the main site.

saw the preview clip.

future twilight is best twilight

I doubt it's a shoutout to Fallout Equestria, since none of them are allowed to read fan-fics anyways.

Celestia is testing Twilight.

I'm calling it. Right now. (hugs theory protectivly)

Aren't they? Why not?

edited 8th Mar '12 2:11:30 PM by PurpleDalek

@CDRW: The MLPFiM Wiki has a transcript and screenshots. Are those viewable by whatever you're browsing on?

EDIT: Links do not like apostrophes. Fixed

EDIT 2: Fixed for real this time!

edited 8th Mar '12 2:18:11 PM by Whatshisgame

Really, the solution to Twi's problem is obvious. Find the time travel spell and go to the future to ask Future Twi what she was trying to tell her.

@ Dalek: Copyright issues. They want to be protected in case of accidental similarities.

@ Whatshisgame: I can, thanks! Unfortunately, there's no content on the pages.

edited 8th Mar '12 2:15:09 PM by CDRW

legal reasons.

Best real example is from Babylon 5, JMS used to frequent message boards and chat rooms about the show and read fan ideas, until one fan wrote a story that was almost identical to an episode JMS had already planned out, he then needed to go though a massive amount of legal hurdles to prove that the idea was his first and he wasn't stealing it from the fan.

so it's to prevent a fan from suing them if they use an idea that the fan had written as story about. If they can prove they never read the story, they can't have stollen the idea.

edited 8th Mar '12 2:15:34 PM by Seraphem

Even if it's not necessarily a reference to Fallout Equestria in particular, it does look like it could be a reference to that genre of fiction.

Makes me wonder what happened to make future Twilight need an eyepatch though. It's because she has lazy eye and she's trying to fix or hide it so that ponies don't compare her to Derpy.

edited 8th Mar '12 2:18:17 PM by Rainbow

@CDRW: The links are fixed now; try 'em again.

EDIT: Wait, they aren't fixed. Hang on...

edited 8th Mar '12 2:16:56 PM by Whatshisgame

Just because the writers haven't read a fanfic, doesn't mean they haven't heard of one. I doubt its a FO:E reference though.

Watching it again, I'm encouraged by the fact that it looks like the spell is pretty obscure, so it's not like time travel is widely available or something.

Also, I bet Twilight's attempt to find the time travel spell is what caused the damage, and she ultimately uses it to try to warn herself to not try. Which fails and leads to a Stable Time Loop. The moral will be "when somepony has an important message for you, don't interrupt"

edited 8th Mar '12 2:17:07 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Huh. I never knew this. So does this No Fanfiction rule apply to all TV shows?

Pretty much; plausible deniability is the best guard against lawsuits.

Okay, NOW the links for the transcript and screenshots should work. (I had stupidly used %20 instead of %27)

Huh, that's a bit of a conditional moral, but I'd accept it. I also figured the Star Swirl the Bearded wing wouldn't be a frequently visited area of the library. I like the idea that anyone looking to read something from there can't check it out and you need special permission to even be allowed access to the archives.

@Japanese, actually, that sound very likely. I bet twilight tries to bet the book, but Celestria says no, so she needs to take a more dangerous/stealthy approach.

I found some fanart of future Twilight already, because I know that fanworks can come out pretty quickly so I looked for it out of curiosity:

http://ixobaf13.deviantart.com/art/Twilight-is-best-old-snake-289281752?q=sort%3Atime%20Twilight%20Sparkle%20future&qo=0

edited 8th Mar '12 2:21:56 PM by Rainbow

Ok, that's freaking awesome. That suit is not what I expected at all.

As a note, Lauren Faust has said that episodes (or at least a few specific episodes) are written about a year before they air, probably more.

Was Fallout Equestria even written/widely known a year ago? I recall it gaining its popularity over the summer...

@J Teeth And that there seemed to be some sort of time limit.

edited 8th Mar '12 2:26:09 PM by crowlover

I believe FOE chapter 1 was released in April.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. May you all dream of ponies!

Goodnight, Cookoo.

Night Cookoo!