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auren-dawnstar — MLP Chronological Timeline
#analysis #chronological #episode #mylittlepony #timeline #friendshipismagic
Published: 2016-09-25 21:12:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 16065; Favourites: 180; Downloads: 826
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Description
Seasons 1 through 3 currently.This was something of a side project I started to help me plan out a much larger story project that I wanted to run parallel to the canon events of Friendship is Magic. However, I'd held off on starting the larger project because I frankly couldn't come up with a sequence of events I was happy with.
Then Tanks for the Memories came along and applied a very significant frame-of-reference to the show's episodes (Princess Twilight Sparkle 1 & 2 as well to a lesser extent). While simultaneously scrambling the episode order of seasons 1 and 2.
Seasons 4 and 5 are still missing since there are some details I need to look through in their episodes before I feel comfortable adding them to the list, and season 6 is still airing and could surprise me with something as well. I'll update this file when I finish combing through the remaining episodes.
Please note: This is by no means me saying "this is the exact order the episodes really happen in." There are episodes that have no specific requirements to where they could go, and future episodes could even change the order as well.
Not to mention I could've easily missed additional details. I lost track of how many times I had to move episodes around because of a new detail I'd stumbled across.
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Comments: 95
"The Cutie Re-Mark" has the alternate timeline Nightmare Moon say they banshies Celestia years ago, meaning it should have been years in the main timeline. I've seen use as an argument against your one year theory. Anyways you can account for that (a year or more passing between "Princes Twilight Sparkle" and "The Cutie Re-Mark", NMM being unreliable due to zero days passing since eternal night)?
Celestia claim that it's the first Summer Sun Celebration since Luna's return could refer to it being the first since recovering enough emotionally and popularity wise to partake in. And they've skipped over of Grand Galloping Gala's and Summer Sun Celebrations since. I've seen it argued the first 3 season would take place over two years, which would fix the jumping around seasons issue, her derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/12/…
I still think you put the most, best work into your timeline and here you can fir those in.
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Could you add MLP comics to this list, as well?
I tried to do it myself, but mostly failed.
www.fimfiction.net/blog/370199…
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I haven't actually read very many of the comics to be honest. So I wouldn't really know where to even begin with them.
Also, from what I understand there have been episodes in the more recent seasons of the show that apparently contradict things that happen in the comics. Which might make continuity between them and the show even more difficult to pin down.
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Sweet. I've been needing some well put together timeline to place my own story events along. Are you planning on adding to this any time soon?
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I've been meaning to move stuff around that doesn't quite fit where I've put it and add everything from season 4 onward for a while now. The real issue is managing to set aside enough time to make some progress on it. Since this first part was an on-and-off project over about 4 months, and I've been juggling around a few other projects lately as well that have been taking up a bit of my free time.
That said, I should probably try to make some progress soon considering the supposed end of the series is coming up in the next couple years.
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God speed! I want to get into MLP again so this helps so much, thanks!
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Looking back at this, I would actually argue that MMC and Princess Twilight Sparkle P1&2 occur prior to late summer, because of Pinkie Pride, wherein not only is Rainbow Dash's birthday celebrated, but also the anniversary of her arrival in Ponyville, meaning she got there less than a year before MMC, but also before the premier.
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Magical Mystery Cure is at the tail end of the "early summer" category because it is the very last episode where Twilight is a unicorn. In addition to that, Princess Twilight Sparkle follows after it because it's not only the first episode that aired where Twilight is an alicorn, but it also shows that she's still learning how to use her wings. Which means the time difference between the finale and the premiere can't be that long. The reason it's on the edge of early and mid summer is because the very end of the season 4 premiere presents the Summer Sun Celebration holiday. Which occurs on the longest day of the year, also known as the summer solstice, which on our calendar falls near the end of June. Which is usually considered the first month of summer. Though I suppose technically the actual first day of the seasonal summer is actually the summer solstice as well.
Either way, since Twilight is an alicorn in Pinkie Pride the episode would pretty much have to happen after all three of those episodes. Which would mean that Rainbow's previous birthday would have happened after the series premiere as well. Essentially requiring that she'd have to have lived in Ponyville for at least two years before Pinkie Pride.
That isn't necessarily a problem for anything, however, since anniversaries are something that can be celebrated annually for more than one year. Birthdays are technically anniversaries of one's birth, and they're celebrated every year. Not to mention yearly wedding anniversaries, or anniversaries of significant historical events. Plus, at first it was only going to be a standard birthday party thrown by Pinkie. Until Rainbow mentioned that she'd coincidentally moved to Ponyville on one of her birthdays. So Pinkie made it a big, special party instead.
Plus there's evidence in favor of Rainbow having lived in Ponyville for multiple years before Pinkie Pride, and even the series premiere. One is that she's the lead weather pony of the entire Ponyville weather team. A job position I doubt could be achieved in a short span of time, even based on merit of talent and skill. Then there's Celestia's flashback from the season 7 premiere where she recounted that she had already known the other five ponies were living in Ponyville for at least some time before she was forced to send Twilight away. So Rainbow probably had to be living there for a while to actually catch the notice of the ruling princess.
One last possibility relies rather heavily on whether the friendship journal portion of the 'Journal of the Two Sisters' book is still considered canon. As it rather directly states that Rainbow moved to Ponyville ten years prior to the birthaversary in Pinkie Pride. Which would actually add to the significance of the birthaversary being a massive party. Since it would mean that Rainbow had lived in Ponyville for a full decade by that point.
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Oooh, your right. I actually totally blanked on the fact that the Princess Twilight Sparkle fell on the Summer Sun Celebration. I suppose I also misinterpreted the mention of the birthiversary as the first one.
Although, I don't put much stock in the Journal of the Sisters. It's knocked pretty solidly out of the realm of canon by The Crystalling. The Journal asserts that Luna and Celestia were always Alicorns, and originated among other Alicorns. But The Crystalling has Luna saying an Alicorn has never been born that they know of. Add to this that ten years is a little under half of Rainbow's life--going by the assumption she's a young adult--and it's pretty clear she's been on her own in Ponyville since moving there, since her parents have never moved away from Cloudsdale. It seems more likely it's somewhere in between.
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Yeah, the actual Sisters' part of the journal is now in that gray area where the parts contradicted by show canon are no longer full canon. Though the book itself was one of the few cases where they did declare it actual canon. So the parts not contradicted could probably still be considered canon still (up for interpretation of course). Granted part of the problem was that the episodes' writer hadn't read the book either, and alicorn lore in general has been rather vague the entire show too which doesn't help.
The friendship journal bonus part at the end of the actual hard copy could still be considered canon though. Since there's nothing in the show itself that outright contradicts it. Rainbow moving to Ponyville at maybe 11ish years old wouldn't be too much of a stretch either. Since Equestria seems to be safe enough where kids can actually travel alone without much supervision. Considering show canon actually shows Applejack travelling to and from Manehattan all by herself when she goes to stay with her relatives, Pinkie Pie moves to Ponyville around the same age all by herself from the family rock farm. Which is a good ways to travel considering there's no rail lines out that way. Even the Crusaders were able to take the train to Canterlot and also all the way to the Crystal Empire without any adult supervision as well.
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I've been re-watching the series according to this list and I have to say that everything just seems smoother. I like this order. The only thing I found that proposes a small background issue is that Dash is reading a Daring Do book in "A Friend in Deed" and this list places that episode before "Read It and Weep".
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Yeah, I've got a small list of things that I apparently missed that others caught. Been meaning to go back and straighten it up at some point and add on the remaining seasons.
Shouldn't be too hard though. The rest of the seasons have more contained story arcs which would make things easier. The most notable episodes I can think of off the top of my head that would need changing around are the journal episodes from season 4 to fit with the bookmark order shown in the finale.
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I would like to include an extra detail about Owl's Well That Ends Well coming after Secret to My Excess. Namely, that in Owl's Well That Ends Well, at the start, we see Spike getting a bunch of gifts and praise. This slowly gets to his head, and he starts to get a little greedy with said gifts and praise. Twilight says: "Spike, that's enough." as if to remind Spike of that fact, and Spike laughs it off nervously because he knows what she's referring to.
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Interesting. I tried something like this back in 2011 and found an interesting pattern that no longer holds true: you could group episodes into blocks of, if I recall, seven episodes. The first block takes place before the second, which occurs before the third, and so on. Episodes within each block can take place within any order, though. Looking at who wrote each episode, this appears to be an artifact of production schedules. Things get messy with some episodes, like Hearth's Warming Eve, being aired out of order. While certain episodes clearly throw this off, I think it's a fine way of structuring any miscellaneous episodes around the key ones
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Dude I can't tell you how much I appreciate this! This is awesome and your order makes a lot of sense to me. I wish that Hasbro put this much effort into the order in their own dang show >_<
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Pinkie's birthday has been established to be May 3rd, so your timeline is pretty well made. Good Job!
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I tried making a chronology a lot like this one, but I prefer to be much more wedded to the episode order and not play too fast and loose with it. I see in the comments some who have noticed some of the devils in the details and such that kind of screw up your order a little bit. That's why I like to stick close to the episode order. But whatever floats your boat.
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I rather enjoy how this turned out and in some way I can almost see how the episodes fit together in some form. However, what does confuse me is how 'Fall Weather Friends' is placed after 'Return of Harmony'. Because if we recall when Applejack is under the spell remembering who she really is when Twilight works her memory charm, she remembers the end of that 'Running of the Leaves' race with Rainbow Dash remembering the friendship they had. If this were the case, either this episode was meant to take place before that two parter with Discord returning to bring a reign of terror... Or it's actually a 'Flash Forward', meaning she's seeing an event that's going to happen in the near future.
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Because we're so AWESOME! 
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I was watching some episodes this morning and something came up that doesn't quite fit the order. You put The Ticket Master in autumn. In that episode, the scene where Fluttershy says she's doing some spring cleaning, Twilight blatantly says it's summer.
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Equestria Girls- Twilight actually states that the Grand Galloping Gala is a Fall based event.
18 minutes in until 18 minutes and 20 seconds.
The scene being after she enters Principal Celestias office to inquire about the crown thanks to info from Fluttershy about the crown. It does actually seem like they're 2-3 months ahead since we don't know when the Summit is. It could even be 4 months. Still, this is pretty awesome and I'm not finding much that conflicts with your run down except what I stated.
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One thing that I would argue contradicts parts of this timeline is the placement of Lesson Zero. Since the formula of season one episodes was that at the end of each episode, Twilight wrote a letter about what she learned about Friendship, it means that any season one episode that Twilight writes about something she learned through her friend learning it would have to take place before Lesson Zero.
Of course how much of a problem the re-arranging of some episode would have depends on how important it is to have all season 2 & 3 epsiodes after Lesson Zero. Episodes where Twilight writes the letter are of course okay (which really only applies to Luna Eclipsed), and depending on your stance, so are episodes without letters being written (being Return of Harmony, Hearths Warming Eve, Read It and Weep, Hearts and Hooves Day, It's About Time, Ponyville Confidential, A Canterlot Wedding, The Crystal Empire, One Bad Apple, Magic Duel, Sleepless in Ponyville, Wonderbolt Academy, Spike at Your Service, Keep Calm and Flutter On, Just for Sidekicks and Games Ponies Play).
The biggest problem would have to be Party of One and A Friend in Deed, which would have to be set a year apart (minus 72 days) and since Twilight appears in A Friend in Deed it means that the Summer Sun Celebration in Princess Twilight can't take place one year after Friendship is Magic, since Twilight must stay as a unicorn for at least two springs in Ponyville. Some other problems might also arise, but this is by far one of the biggest holes in the S1-S3 one year theory.
Still great work on the timeline, I always find it interesting when people try to apply chronolgy to MLP.
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Hmm, Definitely interesting I remember trying to do this back when there were only 46 episodes, now there's 143 with 23 more on the way, 4 movies, 8 mini-sodes, 10-12 books, 70-something comics, and the little lore snippets between Faust, Larson, Berrow, and Mcarthy.
I am rooting for you, if I ever get free I'll have to definitely use this for my own long projects that run parallel to the universe, #MK9style .
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I just can't get behind any attempt at applying a hard chronology-- to a show that wasn't produced with one in mind-- if it's based on the fundamental assumption that no major events ever happened offscreen and that what we see is all that they got. This doesn't account for the possibility of any major seasonally-tied events occurring without onscreen comment because none of the main characters were involved.
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I'm a little surprised that it took until "Tanks For the Memories" for you to notice how scrambled the first few seasons are. "Princess Twilight Sparkle" made it pretty clear that we'd need some significant gymnastics to fit everything into a year, after all. (That was the point when I decided that trying to track the precise order of episodes was too much work.)
Anyway, I find this to be well-researched, and I did not notice any claims to dispute or any significant conclusions I had reached about timing that you missed.
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I suspected for a while that the early seasons took place in a relatively short time span, but had nothing really concrete to work with. Even Celestia's lines in Princess Twilight Sparkle were vague enough to be debated. Tanks for the Memories was another matter since it was pretty obvious that Rainbow had never spent a winter with Tank.
I did try to take into account as many details that could affect order as I could. Though I do seem to have missed a couple small things. Even after that though it's still a pretty flexible timeline
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three hearth's warming eves have come and gone which means that twilight has lived in ponyville at least three years. That's a lot of ground to cover
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Yeah, I figure season 6 ends pretty close to the three year mark since she moved. A lot can happen in even a single year though so I don't think it's much of a stretch either.
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I think you missed The Best Night Ever. Or did I miss it?
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It's about in the middle of the spring list between Sweet and Elite and Reed it and Weep.
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Putting Your Hoof Down may actually be the first episode chronologically. It might be a stretch, but we don't see or hear mention of Twilight Sparkle or Spike, meaning they haven't moved to Ponyville yet. It does begin Fluttershy's arc of becoming more assertive and it may be how she learns to use the Stare as seen at the end of the episode. Applejack and Rainbow Dash also don't make an appearance, possibly implying the Mane Six haven't come together as friends yet. It isn't solid evidence, but it's food for thought.
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I've seen it suggested that Putting Your Hoof Down" may predate the series in general, before any of them had met Twilight.
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I've seen that as well, but honestly I don't think it would fit well back then as I don't think they would have acted like such close friends before Twilight came along.
Granted Pinkie is friends with everyone in town. However, before Twilight I don't think Rarity would be more than simply acquainted with either of them. Plus given just how introverted Fluttershy was when Twilight first met her I don't really see her socializing much with anyone back then aside from Rainbow. Let alone how much time she spent with the two of them in the episode.
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This looks nice and well researched. I like it!
However, it seems like Secret of My Excess should be before Ponyville Confidential. Since Spike was born while Twilight was applying for school, his birthday would be before the school year starts, but Ponyville Confidential takes place during school. While Canterlot could have school start on a different day, they usually don't differ too much from place to place in the same country.
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Yeah, that has been brought up, and I was a bit on the fence about it myself. So I probably will move it around. I figured it's placement was a bit flexible anyway.
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Great work! I've always been believing that the first 4 seasons happened within one year, simply because of Tanks for the Memories, and now I've found someone with the same opinion. Yet the details of all episodes in the first 3 seasons form such a large puzzle that I never thought about touching on.
Do you think it's possible that Equestria Games actually happens before almost all Season 4 episodes? Based on the assumption that the pony Olympics happens in summer. This would place episode 1-5 and 10 before it.
There will be so many more indicators in the last 3 seasons... Rarity's business, Dash's bond with the Wonderbolts, Starlight and Twilight's castle... Wait. There's the Hearthwarming's Tale in S06E08, meaning that it's in winter. In Season 5, there are two winter episodes, S05E05(Tanks for the memories) & S05E20(Hearthbreakers), and we see no Starlight in them. I guess S06E08 would be a very special case, and should be placed in the 3rd year since Twilight's arrival...
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Tanks for the Memories is probably the biggest time frame indicator in the show. Simply because it absolutely has to happen less than a year after season 2's May the Best Pet Win!, and because of that I used it as the primary basis point for this timeline.
I figured that the Equestria Games happen in the summer as well, but it could actually stay where it is and not cause any problems. While not really required, I figure Hearthbreakers and Tanks for the Memories happen in the same winter season, and since Scare Master was originally supposed to air before Hearthbreakers I'd place it before both of them. This would make season 5 start around autumn and as a result season 4 would happen in the two summer months following season 3.
Plus it would be really weird for Starlight to stalk Twilight for over a year before getting her revenge rather than a couple months.
Plus with the time skip between seasons 5 and 6, and A Hearth's Warming Tail airing early in the season, I would say it would nicely fit in as the 3rd winter season since the pilot episode.
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Really cool. I've thought of doing something like this before, but never really found the time for it.
IMO you should make this a Google Doc so people can suggest corrections inline with the page.
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I pieced it together over a span of a few months when I had the time, but I really wanted a coherent timeline to work off of for some ideas of mine so I went ahead and tried to make something believable that took into account as many small details from the show as I could manage.
I'll probably consider the Doc when I can get around to adding the other three seasons. Might make things easier and I'd probably be less likely to miss some details.
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Hmm...may I adapt this a bit for my own personal timeline?
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Go right ahead. I actually started it so I had a viable timeline to work off of myself, but I figure a lot of it is still pretty flexible for moving episodes around.
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I always understand "moons" as every phasys, so, one month = roughly 4 moons. 100 moons, 2 years and one month. Seems more likely
And thanks a lot for putting on such work! Well done!
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I figure using moons as a form of timescale could work with the way they use it in the show. Though it's a bit trickier as their actual use does seem to be a bit ambiguous in-show.
Glad you enjoyed it.
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Damn! You put a lot of work into this and boy does it show! It's a great read and really makes me want to rewatch the series in this order to get a better feel for how it'd be when viewed chronologically.
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