My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E20 Its About Time/YMMV


 * Aesop Amnesia: In just the previous episode, Fluttershy learns to stop being so submissive and stand up for herself, make her voice heard. In this episode, she's seen struggling under the weight of dozens of Pinkie Pie's bags while Pinkie Pie has fun with some balloons. This is slightly justified, however, if you interpret it as Fluttershy just kindly helping out, and not as her being coerced into it. We would really need to see the scene in which she and Pinkie Pie decide who carries what to decide.
 * Well, Fluttershy did said next time she would like to carry the balloons. So there was a little assertiveness.
 * Or maybe Fluttershy still felt guilty over the Reason You Suck Speech she gave to Pinkie (and Rarity too, only she wasn't around at the time).
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: Twilight fans rejoiced due to the fact that this is a Twilight-centered episode since Lesson Zero.
 * A bonus rejoicing as the episode had a good amount of screen time with Spike who was really lacking in past episodes.
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The sudden appearance of a giant Hellhound appearing in the middle of the sweet town of Ponyville and is never mentioned again.
 * Arguably justified, considering all the other crazy things that have already happened to Ponyville, such as the giant rampaging dragon or the town-devouring parasprite swarm.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Some fans suspect one was loaded and placed on the wall with the hourglass at the end.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Of the nitpicky type: "Pegasus" in Latin-based languages is a masculine term, and thus the city should have been "Los Pegasus" instead of "Las Pegasus" (Spanish male plural instead of female plural). That would have still worked as a punny take on Los Angeles, but they were clearly wording it as a play on Las Vegas. Of course, in a world where females seem to outnumber males, it could be justified in that fashion.
 * Epileptic Trees: Everyone seemed to assume that this involved time travel due to the inclusion of the word future. Not unlike what happened with The Last Roundup. However, unlike in the Last Roundup, this was true.
 * Fanfic Fuel: A maximum-security pit where the most evil creatures are imprisoned? Let's have just one of those evil creatures escape...
 * With one huge scary monster which is supposed to keep them there. Cue Kaiju-like duels over Canterlot and Manehatten. Come on, sing with me: Cerberus is friend to all the fillies..
 * How about the "Star Swirl the Bearded Wing?" A maximum security wing of the Canterlot archives where powerful and dangerous spells are kept?
 * And Pinkie was let in?
 * At least she wasn't the one eating ice cream.
 * Just the fact that time travel via magic is possible. Okay, okay, Twilight blew her one chance with that specific spell, but Future!Twilight suggested there were more time-related spells in that wing.
 * Here's another way to read it: It only works once per point in the past.
 * A town built on (er, near) the gates of Hell, populated with a number of spunky young Badass girls and their friends, drawing from a variety of physical and magical powers to keep creatures from said gate in check? And characters named Spike and Angel?
 * On a much smaller scale, Twilight's really cool birthday present.
 * Twilight wanted information on the cause of a future disaster. Pinkie tells her about a future birthday present instead. Wouldn't it be very Pinkie-like if she were more on target than anyone realized?
 * Another non-Ponyville town, Las Pegasus, is confirmed, and implied by Rainbow Dash's figure of speech to be on an opposite coast from Fillydelphia.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Pinkie is the best pony for Twilight to bring to the Canterlot archive, since she has a knack for locating useful things in a library.
 * Twilight resolves to stop worrying about the future. Unfortunately, she's still worried about the past, so she goes back to deliver the message which started the whole mess.
 * Why does the guard let Twilight into the library without question? Well, knowing Twilight's character he must know that she makes frequent visits to the library all the time.
 * She's also Celestia's trusted student and a national heroine. She's probably authorized to be in any part of the Archive she wants to.
 * In "A Canterlot Wedding" its established that her big brother is captain of the guard. Its likely enough that they would recognize who she is and let her through.
 * You can get simpler; Twilight or Spike probably sent a letter (offscreen) to Celestia explaining what happened. The princess probably told the guards to let her in on Tuesday morning to perpetuate the Stable Time Loop. This would also explain why Celestia was so amused to find her there that morning.
 * Letting her student get worked up over nothing (and making sure she's there to see the results) would also fit nicely with the fandom's view of Celestia.
 * Why does Twilight firmly grasp the Idiot Ball at the end of the episode and go back in time to warn herself, even though she knows a message from her future self is what causes all the trouble? At that point, she has gone for days without any sleep, under constant stress. Her judgment is understandably impaired.
 * Not to mention her bout of insanity was preceded immediately by a blow to the head. Granted she's been prone to both Super OCD and Amusing Injuries before, but it's likely that particular flower pot jarred something loose.
 * In addition, she's probably just so relieved to learn that there's no catastrophe and that everything is fine, she just may not have been paying attention to the fact that she was repeating the loop.
 * Or she fully intended to travel back in time. If she didn't, she would have no reason to even be in the Canterlot Library. So, she had to go back in time to tell her past self about the time spells in the Library so all of reality wouldn't crash into itself.
 * Keep in mind that the time loop wasn't fruitless. Cerberus was found and returned to his post, Ponyville was fixed up (possibly preventing a series of accidents like those that occurred in "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well"), and Twilight did learn a lesson that would have prevented her breakdown in "Lesson Zero". Twilight would never have accomplished these things if she didn't go back to warn herself.
 * Fluttershy can easily tame Cerberus...because he is already tame! He's the guardian against the horrors of Tartarus. Guard dogs are tame creatures. (Can't be often he gets to play fetch and get tickled. Or is there somepony who takes care of him?) While he does scare the ponies at the beginning, the clear problem is that he has left Tartarus unguarded, not that he himself is that dangerous (though guard dogs can be mean if provoked, of course).
 * Also, consider that each head wore a spiked collar. Somepony or creature had to make that for the beast. Unfortunately, whomever provided the collar still didn't house-train him...
 * Given how she responded to his going missing by sending Twilight a lost dog flyer, Cerberus may very well belong to Celestia.
 * Fridge Horror: Yes, somewhere in Equestria is a door to Tartarus that holds ancient horrors, guarded by the three-headed dog, Cerberus. Within hours of walking distance to Ponyville. Given the distance and the dirtied look of Twilight when she returns, it's probably deep in Everfree Forest.
 * Fridge Logic: And Fluttershy is ready to tame them all, apparently...
 * Nope. Cerberus wasn't sealed away, he's the guard dog. Everything on the opposite side of what he's guarding however...
 * As long as they're not dragons, Fluttershy's still probably got the upper hoof.
 * And with that knowledge it actually was necessary for Twilight to warn herself, otherwise nopony would be prepared for Cerberus's time away from the gate, and in that time to get him back chances are something would have escaped to reek havoc upon a unsuspecting Equestria.
 * If you know your Greek Mythology well enough to know what the historical Tartarus is, you get a totally different Fridge Horror that such a place is in Equestria. Hint: It was more or less Greek Hell!
 * Which means that Tartarus wouldn't just hold all manner of demons and monsters (and likely whoever the Devil for ponies is - Krastos, maybe?), but also evil ponies who had commited terrible amounts of evil. What if a dead pony version of Hitler was set free?
 * With a bit of twisted logic, this can actually become a bit of Heartwarming in Hindsight. If Equestria is so saccharine because all the evildoers have been cast and/or banished into Tartarus, then sending her sister to the moon and sealing her worst enemy in stone can be considered acts of mercy on Celestia's part.
 * That take for Nightmare Moon is probably very likely, Discord is a bit more iffy. And if that is the case, that leads to some even more Fridge Horror; just how much worse are the things in there!?
 * Keeping Discord close by was likely simple pragmatism. If he escaped while in Tartarus, he'd have an army of monsters just begging to be set free. Additionally, depending on just what was in there (and how chaotic they might be), one of the other inmates might have been able to free him sooner, perhaps before the Mane Six learned how to wield the Elements…
 * Also, considering it took a day for Celestia to send the poster to Twilight, it can be assumed that Tartarus isn't exactly close to Canterlot. If Discord escaped were his statue was, all Celestia had to do was look outside and see his statue was gone.
 * Fans keep talking about Celestia banishing everything to the moon as if it was a special power of hers, but it is rather blatantly obvious that the reason Luna turned into Nightmare Moon ends up on the moon is because of her magical connections to it. Seeing as the Elements of Harmony turned Discord to stone when Celestia and Luna wasn't using them, using the Elements on whoever presumably has an effect depending on who they are. Stone is solid and unchanging, the opposite of Chaos. For all we know, if they used it on Derpy Hooves she would be banished to/turned into a muffin...
 * That eyepatch came out of a fireplace... with Pinkie's hoof kicking up soot... Ow.
 * Fridge Logic: No, seriously, where did that flower pot that fell on Twilight's head come from?
 * Derpy probably dropped it.
 * How exactly was trimming Pinkie Pie's mane supposed to prevent a disaster? It's not even long enough to trip over.
 * Trimming it helps her see better. She found that time travel spell later on.
 * Genius Bonus: The equations on the blackboard are actually derived from special relativity, and describe... time dilation. One would wonder which DHX Studio animator has a degree in physics.
 * Twilight exhorts Pinkie to adjust her 9 3/4 in. catadioptric telescope. Is a 12-year-old kid really going to know what this is? Well, besides being some kind of telescope, of course.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Pinkie wears latex for fun. Then, there's ball emergencies.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: People's reaction to Pinkie as a fortune teller? "She really is a gypsy!"
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Many fans were expecting Doctor Whooves to do something special in this episode, even if it was just a Funny Background Event. He shows up, but only to act as a normal background pony.
 * Unless you want to argue that he was just maintaining his cover.
 * If that is the case, how funny would it have been to give him shifty, nervous eyes during the scene in question?
 * In all likelihood the studio probably thought they reached their Doctor Whoof nod quota for the season and don't want to over do it.

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