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Tirek has won, and Twilight's friends are gone. She and the other princesses have just one chance left. Maybe if one of them can go back, she can warn them right when he escapes and stop this all from happening.
It might be a long shot, but it's the only chance they have left.
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I'm impressed. Not even a day until we got darkfic of this episode.
4368581
I went into the tragedy department, but damn do writers go fast. Still, kewl story brah.
Dayum son, you write fast!
Oh.
The best/worst part is where this is fairly believable. Tirek really wasn't a muck-about villain. I could easily see him doing something atrocious, like this implies.
Have an upvote, you damn bastard.
Well thats a much more interesting story of what happened to her.
Well, that didn't work.
Heh, realized where this was going partway through. Poor Twilight.
This is surprisingly similar to a story I wrote just the other day. Clearly this is the time for time travel stories, because, you know, we've touched on that so much in the last two seasons.
4368609 Make that TWO upvotes sir!
Haha that certainly is a neat way to take this down an alternate route. You should probably add an AU tag though.
Friendly word of advice, if there's character that doesn't have a tag yet, use the "other" tag.
Well, it was a neat idea. The concept was definitely good. However, I did think the execution could have been better.
The Next Tuesday Morning thing was... well, kind of contrived. I think you could have come up with a better explanation for that line. The rest of the explanations for how she looked were fine, I guess, but you're still asking me to buy a lot with the idea that Twilight coincidentally ended up looking exactly like that in two entirely different ways. It kind of stretches believability. As well, I do think that the fic was too short for the idea. This needed more time for development. Right now, most of the story is just explanations for how this massive coincidence came to be.
Although, I will praise the divergeant timelines. I was very impressed by how you managed to justify the different futures by the lesson that Twilight learned from that episode and the events that occurred in it. Very cleverly done.
Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.
The worst part is knowing what is to come.
From anyone else, Eakin, it would be contrived. From you, it is so perfect and so terrible.
I'd like to thank you once again for the story, but I'm not sure I can.
That was fast...
But you do love your time travel, don't you...!
Huh, saw a very similar idea on /r/mlp earlier today,
"Tirek escaped when Cerberus went away from Tartarus in *It's About Time*. What if that started the stable time loop? Eqestria lost, (almost) everypony lost their magic to Tirek, but Twilight somehow got away and traveled back in time to warn herself? It didn't go as planned and started a stable time loop that didn't do anything, but still altered the timeline in a way that let the good guys win?"
Was this inspired or just a coincidence?
Loved the twist at the end. Also, damn you write fast.
.....that fracking twist.
This is magnificent. Some of the best chilling darkfics are the shortest. This definitely fits in with The Cough and Writing On The Wall, both spectacular with their ability to make a reader's blood run cold with so few words. The difference here is in a call to canon events that one sees coming just at the right, or wrong, time. The faint light of hope one has building up slightly as we get to the end is snuffed out with a deliberate and cruelly slow pace.
And you laugh. Muahahaha. C'mon, you know you do.
4368641 That comment is about as appropriate as it gets.
And, of course, it's a time loop.
I'm glad to see that this one has a happy ending. After all, we finally see what instigated the Inventor's Paradox at the heart of "It's About Time."
(And if I'm misinterpreting this, please let me. I'm not a big proponent of Death of the Author, but I'd like to be able to think some version of Equestria doesn't suck in this story.)
In any case, thank you for this.
4368691 But if this was the start of the time loopy paradox then it isn't NECESSARILY an alternate universe
I don't get it. Am I supposed to assume that the time trip from "It is about time" never happened?
edit: nvm that; I get it now.
Now will this work by Trunks rules or...
...Damn...that was chillingly impressive.
4369508 I had forgotten about the time loops.
But the twist doesn't really work if you think about it.
Remember the end of It's About Time? Twilight goes back to last Tuesday morning to tell herself not to worry. She's unable to get the message across, thus setting the events of the episode in motion. Unless this Future Twilight somehow cancelled out that Future Twilight, the ending makes no sense.
Brilliant. Just the nudge that Twilight needed to change history and defeat Tirek. And it seals off into such a neat little stable time loop, too...
Yes! Finally I see something like this. I always thought there was an 'original' timeline and the only thing that made sense was that something was missed due to Cerberus not being at Tartarus. When I learned there was a villain who escaped from Tartarus, I knew I had another piece of it and thank you so much for writing this. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in these sorts of thoughts.
Yikes. Miles of comments before I sleep, apparently.
4368588
Yours too! Really liked it. Could we see a redeemed Tirek in S5, 6, or 7? (Gonna guess no)
4368599
Would have been faster, but transcribing the scene from It's About Time precisely took a bit longer than I would have expected.
4368609
Yeah, he was a badass. Smart, powerful, and seductive in the ways a good villain should be. Hell of a lot better than Sombra, for sure.
4368641
Except that in a way, it kinda did work. She created the conditions that led to her other-self's victory, although not in the way she intended to.
4368648
It's always time for time travel stories! Hadn't read yours before I wrote this, but great minds apparently think alike.
4368712
Too short to meet their requirements, unfortunately. Couldn't even if I thought it would make it in.
4368823
Let's not kid ourselves; this story is contrived as hell. Much as 4368704 pointed out, it doesn't necessarily make sense. I was determined to force Twi's end state into the precise dialogue from IAT, and some parts of it fell more naturally into place than others. DannyJ mentioned that the story was a bit rushed. Well, yeah. I'd call that a feature rather than a bug. I tried to move quickly enough that readers wouldn't have too much time to overthink things. More to the point, I tend to believe that audiences are more willing to forgive little awkward moments and inconsistencies when:
A) They don't detract from the central thrust of the story, and
B) When the story respects their time and tells itself in a compact manner rather than dragging itself out.
4368917
Did you read the author's note? In fact I even asked the person who posted that if he was okay with me grabbing the idea and filling it out. So in short: totally inspired by that
4368995
Interesting that you think of this as horror. In a way, it kind of is. Good horror, I think, is like a magic trick in reverse. A magic trick shows you something familiar, say a deck of cards or something, and does something extraordinary with it by exploiting your biases and perspective. With horror, you present something unnatural and otherworldly, then drag it back and anchor it to something the audience is familiar with. The more intimately familiar they are the greater the impact. In this case I get why you're getting a horror vibe: this Twilight is in a horrible and incredibly wrong situation. She casts her spell and anchors her experience to established canon, calling into question just what you really saw in that scene. But if you think about it, this Twilight's actions led to main Twi's eventual success, so it's bittersweet rather than 100% awful.
The real question is: where did this Twilight end up after she disappeared?
4369308
You're right. You know how IAT is a stable time loop? Look at the name of the fic. Also the artwork. A broken timepiece, and a brand new castle...
4370305
Yes, IAT is a stable time loop. But why can't a stable loop have a particular impetus? Put another way, sure it's stable NOW. What makes you so sure it was always stable to begin with, rather than just trending towards precise repetition over a hundred, thousand, or hundred billion loops?
4370382
When the writers put the escape that close to a known time travel incident, they were basically asking for it.
4370539
Well yes, I know it's contrived, but as you said, you kept it from feeling contrived. It is possibly the single best case of suspension of disbelief I have ever experienced.
You are truly among the most skilled of writers on the site. Your ability to write to audience alone makes you first-rate, not even counting your wonderful stories.
It is now my rule of thumb, that regardless of premise, I will enjoy everything you write. It has not failed me once.
It's so twisted - that the first Twilight thought she had failed utterly, and would have likely died thinking herself completely a failure, while in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Such painful irony. Such great joy and crippling sadness, all at once. I don't even know what to feel.
Damn. Let me guess this is the first loop of the time loop? And the rest were really from next Tuesday? Am I right?
I am so very glad you wrote this, so I didn't have to. Excellently done!
4370539
Well, the only stable universes are ones which only contain stable time loops or no time loops at all. But that doesn't mean there aren't a whole lot of unstable states which don't eventually lead to those stable ones... it is always a fun idea for fiction. And I have to admit I enjoyed Endless Eight, with its many very subtly different repetitions, and I like the general idea of stories like that, where the same events play out over and over again, getting better every time. Sadly, it is hard to really keep a story like that interesting unless the loops diverge quite significantly; Endless Eight was fun for me, but a lot of people hated it (and it probably was several loops too long).
There's actually a very interesting theory of time travel which states that no stable universe will have time travel in it - basically, in any universe which discovers time travel which allows time travel to back before the time travel spell was invented, at some point, someone will go back in time and prevent time travel from being invented at all. Of course, it is more or less impossible to disprove, short of inventing time travel - which, if the theory was correct, eventually result in that universe no longer existing because at that point it would only exist in a metastable state and eventually be given the push over to nonexistence in favor of a stable state.
Of course, there's always the time travelling hipster as a counterpoint...
boingboing.net/filesroot/201004161615.jpg
Of course, maybe our universe is just doomed.
4368641 Heh, nice reference to the author's other story about time travel.
What.
Oh, I think I see where this is going.
Yeah, that's where it's going.
I knew it! Oh man, this works PERFECTLY as a predestination primer. Good show, good show!
4370305
I like to think about it as Eakin utilizing multiple time lines model.
Time line 1: Events that you know from "It is about time" never happened; Twilight in that time line uses the time jump spell to warn herself in the past about Tirek. However, she does not know that the spell creates a new time line; it does not modify the existing one in any way.
Time line 2: Twilight in this time line is visited by Twilight from time line 1. Everything happens as seen in the show.
Time line 3: Twilight in this time line is visited by Twilight from time line 2. Everything happens as seen in the show.
Time line 4:... you get the idea.
"It is about time" episode was a little bit confusing since it felt like creators of the show were trying to push the idea of fixed time line model, but events seen in the episode would make it paradoxical.
So the only logical conclusion would be that the show is using multiple time lines model (or variation of that), implying that you have not seen the whole picture in the episode (i.e. there must be a time line that instigated the whole thing).
edit: "It is about time" can still be using fixed time line. Inventor's paradox is actually tolerated by fixed time line model.
...oh my gosh, you went there.
4370539
Well, don't I feel silly. I thought the story was intended as an alternate stable time loop. I much prefer the way it reads when she actually succeeded in changing history, so thanks for pointing that out to me.
That was an interesting take on the time travel line up in the pony universe.
By god that was... something... I feel like a piece of my heart broke off when I realized what was happening... wow....
Whait wat
If you mean that wayyy before, when twilght met ftutre twlight, she was actually warnin' her 'bout Triek, then NO SENSE as her clothing, mane ect... represented her day trying to search for the time spell to warn her about (paradoxxx!)
wtf am me missing teh ssomethign?
Oh, and by the way, the world after Tirek rules over it...wow. Scary shit.
MADNESS D:
All I have to say is http://i.imgur.com/D9Ac34G.jpg
Can I just take a moment to say how absolutely brilliant that was, tying in the whole "Next Tuesday Morning" thing? Like on a scale from 1 to brilliant, it was brilliant. I'm honestly surprised at how well thought out that was.
4377846 Eakin is saying that Tirek originally wins. Twilight apparently didn't have a strong enough bond with her friends to realizing that choosing to save them could get her the final key, and the world went to shit as a result. In the end, she went back from Next Tuesday Morning to the week before Tirek's escape, to warn past!Twilight about Tirek. To tell her to make more time for her friends, to tell her about the time travel spell, to save Equestria. Suddenly you're in the plot of It's About Time. Rebuilding the dam before it broke and making sure the water tower was full? Those were things past!Twilight took care of because she was obsessing about the future, leaving her more time to spend with her friends when those disasters didn't occur. It became a stable time loop when she went to the Canterlot Archives and then back in time. Now Twilight isn't from Next Tuesday Morning, just normal next Tuesday morning, causing the cycle to happen all over again, but with a different original Twilight. Thus leading to the future where she chooses to save her friends and save Equestria.
Exactly my thoughts. I wished for this fic, and it come to true!
gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Mr-Burns-Saying-Excellent.gif
4370718
Endless Eight's not on fimfic, is it? Didn't show up when I tried to search for it. Darn it.
4386012 My god, that's fucking smart. Thanks.
4388588
Endless Eight is not a fanfic. It is an arc from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which is an anime (which actually involves multiple time loops; that is just a repetitive one).