It’s cute… but is it cute enough for me to be cool with my timeline collapsing?
 
Hmm…
 
I’ll have to smoke on it to be sure.

@MorphinBrony  
[External Screaming]  

No, Twilight! You’ll cause a paradox!

@wanderingmagus  
It’s not really about the whole “we have to friend EVERYONE” aesthetic. It’s more about the fact that the show itself is written like an episode sitcom where absolutely no plot can go unresolved by the end of the episode, leading the writing team to cramming hasty conclusions into a twenty-minute timeslot that really isn’t big enough for a lot of the things they attempt.
 
I mean, Cutie Remark utterly ignoring all the interesting implications about Starlight’s personality didn’t help.

@monikerpending  

 
Because Hasbro is a toy company out to sell toys to a target demographic of little girls, and don’t think they should destroy their own Aesop of “it’s never too late to make a friend” and “everywhere you go, friendships there will grow” and “friends will change the world you see”? Because judging from how they ended this episode they were fully prepared for it to be THE series finale, and wanted to end on a high note with Starlight redeemed? Because the past five seasons have shown that you don’t need a recurring villain? For the same reason that “Discord is playing the long con” proved false? Because in Equestria, Friendship is literally Magic, the strongest force in existence, and unlike your cynical jaded outlook, the writers DO create a virtual utopia where literally every problem can be solved through friendship and love and rainbows?

@Background Pony #7B41  
Fine! I shall peruse your post and post-haste retort.
 
She waited so long to tear it because she was trying to create a last minute plan. She wants friendships in connexion with her to never cease. She didn’t want to risk going to a future that would be worse than what she espied. She figured to play the part of tragic, remorseful villian and won Twilight over with her lies. She’s a coy vixen who faked being equal, she faked her sorrowful tale (which is flimsy anyway), and she will be the shows first recurring villian. She is the ruse master, and you fell for it.
 
Twilight doesn’t know that it won’t end badly but don’t you think it is the safe bet? And Twilight is the nearly infallible hero. I am sure Starfart Glammer must have known that Twilight’s self-righteous code would make her unlikely to lie. Why would they allow Starfart to turn good from a writing standpoint? Do we need another whatever that orange girl is from EQG? This would give the show that twist and recurring villian lack.

@monikerpending  
You’ve given me no cause to do other but disagree. I suppose I can leave it at that.

@Background Pony #7B41  
I skimmed around and read a few words. I sense that you are incorrect, and you should grovel in obeisance towards me in recompense (face southwest).

Well, this is an embarrassing discovery. Sorry about this.
 
@Background Pony #FC86
 
There you go. Starlight Glimmer should be held accountable for what she does–and only what she does. What she never did was cause the end of the world. A circumstantial connection is insufficient. We’re also lacking intent.
 
@monikerpending
 
As far as all save Spike and Twilight are concerned, the other timelines are nothing. Even for them, they may as well be false memories for all that’s changed.
 
Let’s say Lyra died in every timeline at some point before Twilight’s return. If she is not dead now that the timeline has been restored, there are no dead Lyras. Regardless of the number of timelines, there has only ever been one Lyra, who is alive. In physical terms, every Fluttershy we saw was the same Fluttershy we’ve had for years.
 
As you describe it, it would have been better for Starlight Glimmer to make sure the timeline Twilight showed her came to pass than to consider changing it again. What reason does she have to trust Twilight when she says it always ends badly? How does Twilight even know that’s true? She’s never seen the real end. That’s like saying the show ended with “The Return of Harmony: Part One”.
 
Starlight Glimmer didn’t want to accept the truth, but if she’d just rejected it outright, wouldn’t she have just gone on with showing up to stop the race over and over again? She’s acting like someone who’s discovered that her efforts were all for nothing or worse. Even then, if she’d wanted to destroy the scroll instead of vent frustration, why did she draw it out for so long? If she was looking to torture Twilight, we’re back to why she abandoned the original plan.

And then she left to get milk.
 
For thirty years.

@Background Pony #AEFC  
In your first paragraph you are treating the other timelines as nothing. Say an individual creates a universe with people in it (Rick & Morty style). Then that individual screws it up badly but diesn’t believe that he did anything wrong. Then say you show him, and he sticks his fingers in his ears ignoring it. Then he wipes out the universe as if it never happened (erasing timelines). And say their motive was disconnecting to their actions, like say, they lost a friend. Yeah, they’re a psycho.
 
It depends with Twi. Did she know? Either way, I am glad she saved the world 1000 years later but if she didn’t know, then she’s dangerous. I don’t want her killing me. She gets the axe.
 
But her Rainboom had to happen at an exact time. She got hindered. She was also a filly. For gods sakes man, think of the children!

@Background Pony #AEFC  
Even if it turned out to be some kind of ‘perfect’ utopia as you describe, I’d still bring the murder charge against Starlight for murdering a filly. And why would I view someone as a hero who just murdered a child? That would be fucked up and ethically wrong. Also considering the fact that Twilight would have been unable to hatch the egg that Spike was born from… I’d also bring about the charge of manslaughter as well…
 

 
Considering this^ is the end result of stopping the sonic rainboom, I don’t think the world ending would matter that much… Although that expert would be right, it wouldn’t end in 1000 years if Starlight’s actions had been successful, it would end much closer to about 50.

@Background Pony #0958  
Don’t you mean “Mom”?

[deleted]

@angrybrony  
Three teeth is all they really need to make quick work of a Snausage.

@Joseph Raszagal  
it’s weird-cute. you know like pugs puppies

I think I’m with Spike on this one, I’m not sure if it’s cute or just straight-up weird.

@monikerpending  
No, she didn’t. If it turns out that some random paramedic saved Jeffrey Dahmer’s life as a child, the paramedic does not become guilty of mass murder.
 
If Starlight Glimmer had stopped the race by killing Rainbow Dash each time until the time Twilight convinced her to stop, then she’d be guilty of murder. She’d have committed the action, even if it was undone. If it turned out that killing Rainbow Dash would instead have triggered a golden age in which changelings and ponies established perfect harmony under the Emperor Tirek and the wise counsel of his governors (the alicorns, Discord, and Sombra), would you label her a hero for triggering such unintended, unpredictable consequences? Would you waive the murder charge?
 
What if some time travel expert comes to Equestria’s present and reports that any of the alternate presents we saw would have prevented the world from ending in a thousand years? Would you demand punishment for Twilight because she’d stopped the world’s saviour? Ruined lives are ruined lives, right?
 
No. None of this is relevant to her actions. Trying to stop the rainboom was wrong of itself. How Dash dealt with the outcome was still her responsibility. If I say something hurtful to you and you respond by shooting a member of my family, you are wholly responsible for your decision. I am not, unless I somehow knew exactly how you’d respond beforehand.
 
It’s no different for chronoportation. “Attempts to change the past can only turn out badly,” is just a figurative moral for people who don’t have time machines.

@Background Pony #AEFC  
And of all the lives she ruined in alternative time lines. Even if they don’t exist anymore she killed a lot of beings.

@PonyPon  
She didn’t, neither with her village nor with breaking Twilight’s friendships.

@Background Pony #AEFC  
The point is she tried.

@monikerpending  
She hasn’t destroyed any lives. Even the occupants of her village have just moved on with theirs.

@TheAntiCat  
That was not my intention. Starfart manipulated time, desyroyed lives, and might be a sociopath, who lied to Twilight’s face about forgiveness. She is preying upon their weakness for compassion. She is a traitor who deserves a proper death. If you support her reformation, I would advise you to reevaluate your position. If not, good.
 
I change their monikers because I find humour in it.

@TheAntiCat  
How do you figure that? If Starlight Glimmer had good parents, I would think that she wouldn’t go on with the rest of her life with such a deeply disturbed mindset regarding companionship as she did. She was having serious abandonment issues. It may be very likely that she either has no mother, or her parents were generally very neglectful, and should not have even taken the responsibility of being her parents.