Plugging in Tommyverse Events to My Chronology, in Regards To Our Town · 2:46am Aug 13th, 2016
When I did my chronology, I set The Cutie Map in early April YOH 1505, because Our Town is clearly far north of Neigh Yoke -- I decided north even of Kon-Neighda in the Crystal Mountains, just on the safe side of the mountains from the Frozen Wastes -- this was because Starlight Glimmer wanted to put it far from the beaten path, all the scryshields in the world wouldn't do eher any good if every other traveller stumbled across it. Being located so far north, it would naturally be very cold in winter, and early April is the earliest I can see the place being accessible. It's in a dry valley like some of the ones you find in Antarctica; a miserable place for anything save for winter sports in spring through fall, which can be easily found by going up the mountains (they didn't have to go very far up the mountain in the ep to get to snow-choked terrain).
The town may have been even colder and snowier before the Return of the Crystal Empire, whose Crystal Heart is steadily pushing back the Frozen Waste toward the limits it had in the 5th Century, before Sombra betrayed Equestria to the Windigoes in my continuity. (It's a lucky thing in my world that Snowdrop Flakewright Wind was born, but that's another story entirely). The combination in vanilla canon of dry valley and snowy heights just screams "high plains desert," like the Gobi or the drier parts of North Dakota or Washington State.
So if I plug Sketch-aholic's worldbuilding into my chronology, we get:
Early April 1505 - Twilight Sparkle and her Companions overthrow the warlock Starlight Glimmer and liberate Our Town (The Cutie Map).
Mid April 1505 - Twilight Sparkle and her Companions return to Ponyville and recover from their ordeal; Celestia and Luna teach Twilight Sparkle the strategy and tactics of temporal fighting. Erratic behavior on the part of the Mane Six (Post-Traumatic and "Castle, Sweet Castle")
Mid to Late April 1505 - Twilight Sparkle corresponds with Double Diamond and other leaders of Our Town, makes arrangements to extend the railroad to Our town.
June 1505 - Realm approves extension of railroad to Our Town. Initial work begins; the year will be spent surveying and initially grading the proposed new line.
Summer 1505 - The Sandwich Brothers visit Our Town (Brotherly Bonding Time) If this should actually be in fall, please tell me! At this time, Starlight Glimmer is on the lam, conspiring with various other rebels and amassing the mystic might and erudition to cast a powerful temporal spell.
October 31st 1505 - Starlight Glimmer flakes off numerous variant time lines in attempt to defeat Twilight Sparkle in Time Battle. Twilight talks her into surrendering. (The Cutie Re-Mark).
November 1505 - Starlight Glimmer, as part of her reformation, apologizes to her former followers at Our Town, and is forgiven. She however remains at the Castle of Friendship in Ponyville as Twilight's apprentice and parolee.
Winter 1505-1506 - Starlight Glimmer helps save the Crystal Empire, is reunited with her old friend Sunburst (The Crystalling).
Spring 1506 - Railroad starts driving north toward Our Town; a bridge is built over an intervening river gorge.
July 1506 - Railroad reaches Our Town.
Late December 1506 - Events of Hearth's Warming Is Merry in Our Town.
l would probably say Montana or Utah rather than ND in that statement because 1)ND is a (fairly) flat and featureless chunk of land (seriously less than 3% of the state has trees) and 2) the nearest mountains to ND are (geologically) the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Iron ranges of Northeastern Minnesota or (conventionally) the Crazy, Little Rocky, Bear Paw's and Snowy ranges of Montana. For much of the year, one can go to those ranges and still encounter snow. Granted, most of said snow is above the treeline, but the point still stands. In fact, the highest point in ND, White Butte, stands at 3,506 feet and the lowest point, the Red River, is at 750 feet giving a mean elevation of 1,900 feet. Montana, conversely, has a mean elevation of 3,400 feet thanks to Granite Peak's 12,799 and the Kootenai river's 1,800 feet.
While Western ND is dry, Central and Eastern MT are, in fact, drier due to a rain shadow that is created by the Bitterroot range, the Continental divide and all of the little individual mountain ranges that are present in the state. In fact Belgrade MT, a town close to where l live, is drier than Dickinson ND a town in the "drier part" of North Dakota.
North Dakota only has a colder average winter than MT, and much of that is due to wind chills aiding in dropping temps (not much to block the wind when you have no mountains, trees or lakes to help moderate the wind a bit)
Yes, l realize that this is an odd hill to die on, but it irks me when people assume that the states in the center all kinda mush together and that they are all interchangeable . l am from Eastern Montana and North Dakota isn't varied enough in terrain to be a plausible Earth-anolouge to Our Town
Edit: l feel that the brothers Sandwich visit should be in the fall because that's when many of the MT mountain ranges get snow but it still allows the representatives from the various ski areas to visit the area, get an idea of what could/should go wherever and be able to return in a decent amount of time to their respective ski hills. You could place it in Early Autumn (Sept./early Oct. to fit with both your and Sketch's timelines
On the new map, Our Town is Starlight Village. That could change in the new version:
An whole bunch of land just appears in the West. Setting aside the inconsistencies, the inhabitants could change the name:
This reminds me about the changing names of former Soviet Cities from Stalin and Lenin to other names after the Soviet Union dissolved.
vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/c/cb/Map_of_Equestria_April_2013.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130403195243
2013
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2015
I can't speak for Sketch-aholic, but given how the central conceit of Brotherly Bonding Time is that it's taking place during Tommy's summer vacation, I think you're in the clear.
Ugh, this is why I hate how jumbled up canon's timeline is... I might be jumbling up my own timeline in the process!
Okay, I've always assumed that The Cutie Map took place in the late summer-early fall, right after Twilight's Kingdom, and that my fic Brother Bothers takes place somewhere between Castle, Sweet, Castle and Tanks for the Memories. Moving TK and CM to spring might end up displacing BB, which takes place during a Fall Festival and already has the castle.
Then we have the railroad extension, which is shown in Brotherly Bonding Time (the Our Town arc taking place in late June; the chapter directly after the arc is named July--I just assume that that area is cold enough year-round to always have snow in the mountains) to be nearly reaching the town already (I guess ponies are fast builders).
And Hearth's Warming is Merry In Our Town takes place at the same time as Hearthbreakers. Assuming that Starlight is reformed by then and having A Hearth's Warming Tail thrown in there soon before ('cause anachronic order) would be a problem, since it seems to me that The Crystalling takes place pretty soon after The Cutie Re-Mark, given Starlight's being given her first Friendship Lesson.
Then that brings up the problem of Cadance's pregnancy, as equine pregnancies last 11 months, and we don't know how far along she was when she and Shining Armor announced it. I place that announcement after Brotherly Bonding Time, since my fic takes place before the CMC earn their marks and the announcement after, so how far along do you suppose she was if Flurry Heart was born in winter (or maybe even early spring?) or, or...
*throws hands up in the air* Okay, do whatever you want, I give up!
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So then maybe all this stuff happens in Season 5 (what I have be YOH 1505)? The Cutie Map in early Spring 1505, the railroad gets authorized and starts construction in mid to late Spring 1505, builds in Summer 1505, the Our Town part takes place in Summer 1505 as well, The Cutie Re-Mark takes place Fall 1505, and Hearth's Warming Is Merry in Our Town in late December 1505? That seems to work for me.
It also allows enough time for some degree of forgiveness of Starlight Glimmer by the Ponies of Our Town, especially Double Diamond (*), giving that the Ponies are forgiving creatures -- its on that timesale been two-thirds of a year since she ran the place. It helps that, for the most part, Starlight really DIDN'T mean to hurt her followers. She even loved them -- just not in a very healthy way.
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(*) Especially if he once loved her, he has to feel terribly betrayed.
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I don't know. When do you put Twilight's Kingdom in your timeline? Unless the Tree of Harmony was kind and giving the Mane Six a good long break after the whole Tirek thing before giving them the Map (and maybe allowing Twilight to adjust to her new home? I suppose Rainbow Rocks suggested a little down time with the scene in the castle), it's more likely that it's about less than two weeks or something between Twilight's Kingdom and The Cutie Map.
But, nevertheless, I think I can mostly accept that (might explain why the Our Town ponies were still hung up over the whole Starlight thing when the Sandwiches arrived). We're on different timeframes in our respective universes anyway.
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I put Twilight's Kingdom around November YOH 1504. So I give them about 5 months of rest between TK (Nov 1504) and The Cutie Map (Apr 1505) broken only by Rainbow Rocks (Winter 1504--05) and possibly by "Tanks For the Memories" (either 1504-05 or Winter 1505-06, I'm not sure, it's going to come down to when Azure Sky gets nabbed by Chrysalis and hence Rainbow Dash is feeling horribly alone and vulnerable). Winter 1505-06 is looking more likely.
A lot of Season 5 and apparently some Season 6 episodes must be being presented out of chronological order -- have you noticed that?
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Okay.
Most people assume that much of the series is in anachronic order, with some episodes hinting at what the actual chronology is. At this point, I don't know which Season 6 episodes are pre-Starlight Reformation or post-Starlight Reformation (aside from On Your Marks, because I don't think that the Crusaders would wait that long to go "Now what?").
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(*nods*) Aside from the Season Openers and Closers (Friendship Is Magic, "The Best Night Ever," The Return of Harmony, A Canterlot Wedding, The Crystal Empire, "Magical Mystery Cure," Princess Twilight Sparkle, Twilight's Kingdom, The Cutie Map,] The Cutie Re-Mark, and The Crystalling) we can't be sure of the order of the episodes except that all episodes of Season N take place after all episodes of Season N-1 and before all episodes of Season N+1. We can sometimes tell the order of mid-season episodes in which something decisive happens ("Call of the Cutie," "Keep Calm and Flutter On," "Crusaders of the Lost Mark"). And we know when the EQG movies happen -- Equestria Girls between Seasons Three and Four, Rainbow Rocks between Seasons Four and Five, and Friendship Games at the same time as The Cutie Re-Mark.
There are some episodes which have to be out of order. For instance, unless "Fall Weather Friends" takes place before "Winter Wrap-Up," Season One is at least two years long! I'm sure you've noticed similar things.