Hello everyone.
I've been trying to make sense of the first 3 seasons, and adjusting a chronological order for these first episodes. I like to call this the "Unicorn Twilight Season" simple, I know.
My goal is to set episodes in blocks of natural seasons depicted in the show. Some episodes had to be skipped since they are part of an arc finished in later seasons, that is "just for sidekicks" and "Games ponies play". Other episodes like "A bird in the hoof" and "The mysterious mare do well" don't appear on the list because they're not referenced after season 3 or not at all. "Keep calm and Flutter on" is also skipped since having Discord reformed doesn't come into play after season 3 and otherwise there's no reason for that. Evil Discord is best Discord.
I'm having a hard time placing "Spike at your service" and "Lesson zero" in a way that they make sense, the later to make sure ponies other than Twilight send letters to celestia so I can combine episodes from season 1 and 2.
The list so far goes as follows:
[Summer]
>Mare in the Moon
>Elements of Harmony
>Look Before you Sleep
>Griffon the Brushoff
>Boast Busters
>Dragonshy
>Feeling Pinkie Keen
>Call of the Cutie
>Green isn't your Color
>Bridle Gossip
>Show Stopers
>Lesson Zero
>Read it and Weep
>Party of One
>Owl's Well that Ends Well
>Stare Master
>The Cutie Pox
>Baby Cakes
>The Cutie Mark Chronicles
>>27887938
[Fall]
>Applebuck Season
>The Ticket Master
>Sonic Rainboom
>Family Appreciation Day
>Super Speedy Cider Squezzy 6000
>Suited for Success
>MMMystery On the Friendship Express
>A Dog an a Pony Show
>Over a Barrel
>Secret of my Excess
>One Bad Apple
>Luna Eclipsed
>Fall Weather Friends
>>27887956
[Winter]
>Heart's Warming Eve
>Winter Wrap Up
[Spring]
>Sweet and Elite
>Apple Family Reunion
>The Best Night Ever
>The Return of Harmony part 1
>The Return of Harmony part 2
>Hurricaine Fluttershy
>Dragon Quest
>Swarm of the Century
>The Last Round Up
>May the Best Pet Win
>It's About Time
>A Friend in Deed
>Spike at Your Service
>Ponyville Confidential
>Too Many Pinkie Pies
>Sleepless in Ponyville
>Wonderbolt Academy
>Putting your Hoof Down
>Sisterhooves Social
>Hearts and Hooves Day
>>27887966
[Summer]
>A Canterlot Wedding part 1
>A Canterlot Wedding part 2
>Magic Duel
>The Crystal Empire part 1
>The Crystal Empire part 2
>Magical Mystery Cure
What do you guys think? I know almost all finales and openers are at the end but the list is open to changes and critisism.
It seems interesting. dumping for others input.
why put magic dual there? that seems like a large time laps from the wedding to the empire for only one episode.
>>27888086
We could move the Wedding some episodes earlier, maybe after "It's about time"
>>27888152
that seems good
>>27887956
Ticket Master would go in Summer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8VFS4LTYE
FS: "Oh! Well, hello, Twilight. I hope you don't mind, but we're all doing a little spring cleaning for you."
TS: "It's summer."
Also in The Ticket Master, the Mane 6 arguing over who gets to go to the Gala shows that their friendship is still fresh and new, and both Twilight and Spike are amazed that Twilight was able to teleport them back to the Treebrary.
Spike: "Warn me next time you're gonna do that."
TS: "I didn't even know it was gonna happen!"
Her own surprise suggests this is an unexpected development in her abilities.
These two factors—the Mane 6's early stage friendship and Twilight's developing magic—would make me put this episode before Boast Busters, where Twilight is up to 25 spells.
In addition, Dash's reluctance to hang out with Pinkie also shows a newness in their friendship, so it's an early one as well. I'd almost say the first 5 episodes are chronological, if not for the fact that most apple varieties are harvested in fall.
>>27888328
>it's an early one
Griffon the Brush Off, I mean.
I should say I've always kind of thought of the episodes as already being in chronological order. This thread is making me think how long it's been since I've last rewacthed more than one episode. Man, when I first got into this fandom I was constantly rewatching Season 1 and then Season 2 when it finished. I don't think I've rewatched an entire season since 2012.
>>27887966
I wouldn't put Sisterhooves Social that far ahead.
>>27888328
>"It's summer"
Completely forgot about that, thanks anon, I'll make sure to change that.
With the invitation being sent in early summer and the gala celebrated as a spring opener or simply during spring, makes the gala much more important with an almost year long reservation.
>>27888434
I needed episodes that didn't have rainbow dash around as if she was still in the academy. But I'll move it since I have "sleepless in ponyville" before the sisterhooves social and in that episode rarity and sweetie work as a team. It wouldn't make sense to backpedal on that progress.
>>27888466
OP, you're agitating me. You're making my brain all fuzzy, trying to think about where all these episodes fit.
Question: Are you trying to compress all of these episodes into one year? Because honestly, I feel like by the time Magical Mystery Cure rolled around Twilight's been in Ponyville for at least two years. And I feel like Winter Wrap Up and Hearth's Warming Eve were two separate winters, WWU being the first and HWE being the second.
>>27888509
also, RoH should be around the one year mark. twilight sent a letter to Celestia every week. during the 'fight' with discord. twilight got all of her letters back. I remember a thread where we counted them and it was around 58 scrolls on the floor.
>>27888509
I'm sorry but I had to work on this since I'm in summer break and I've also had this Idea for quite some time. It's also making me a bit crazy and that's why I came here for some advice. I'm trying to make it as long as possible but having fall finishing one episode and winter finishing the next is a bit weird. You could say ponies didn't do anything during winter but I kinda wanted to merge those two winter episodes together to make it last a bit longer.
>>27888544
Nice catch. I originally had RoH before the wedding and the crystal empire. I wanted to make the finales and the wedding the last stretch were everything goes wrong and the slice of life episodes are over to make space for an adventure/action big finale. But I'll have in mind those little details.
>>27888544
Yeah. Yeah, one year sounds perfect for Return of Harmony. BTW, are you gauging spring episodes based on greenery/amount of flowers in bloom/rain?
Hmmm...
I don't know if I'd put Putting Your Hoof Down after Hurricane Fluttershy.
I'd say you could move It's About Time closer to A Canterlot Wedding. Time travel is a heavy spell to learn, and I feel like Twilight's skill with magic should always be getting better towards the end of seasons.
Maybe it's just because it was close in broadcast date to A Canterlot Wedding, but I'd say MMMystery on the Friendship Express was a later episode.
Baby Cakes I would say is a later episode.
Fall Weather Friends is another one of those "friendship is still new and tender, still figuring each other out" episodes, so it would come sooner.
I'd say Bridle Gossip happened before Green Isn't Your Color.
How do I put this... Any episode that feels like it's an "introductory" episode—e.g., we're meeting a character for the first time, we're seeing a deeper relationship or bigger conflict between two characters for the first time—just anything that feels like it's got exposition overtones, like "This is X, this is how X works/behaves", I would put it as an earlier episode.
>>27887930
I would just put Lesson Zero right after Return of Harmony, just like it is in broadcast. I mean, why not? Following it, Twilight isn't the only one writing the letters.
>>27888681
Yes basically, then again there's not that much of fall scenery in the show so I kinda made the mane 6 travel to other places to make that less noticeable. That explains why I have mmmystery on the friendship express, dragon quest and over a barrel during fall. Putting your hoof down is another episode for the "rainbow is in wonderbolt academy" arc since you don't see her in that episode and there's not that many episodes without rainbow dash present. I'll move "it's about time" and "baby cakes" around. With the train mystery episode being the "we know now you're responsible pinkie and we can trust you with this cake" I'm off for now. I'll come back after a nights sleep. Thank you guys for the input.
Where does hotwings fit into this?
>>27889185
Here or there, anon.
This thread needs more attention
>>27887930
Wow, I've been thinking about doing something like this since forever. Great work, OP, I'll use this list for my next rewatch.
>>27890950
Thank you for the interest, but mind you, there might be some incongruencies here and there, this list is not final. And I'm also having double thoughts about leaving "a bird in the hoof" in or not, because of character development for Twi, Mr. & Mrs. Cake and even Angel; that could work as a build up for other episodes later on.
>>27891069
Yeah, well, I've seen the previous replies and (unless the thread gets more participation later and there's a new list with a great consensus) I'll probably make some changes here and there, but as a starting point it's definitely interesting.
![pony_chronology_v2_by_russelh-d3l2gvp[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/MEPbwcQ.jpg "pony_chronology_v2_by_russelh-d3l2gvp[1].png")
>>27887930
Have you seen this? Might help you.
P.S. trying to combine seasons 1 and 2 is autistic as fug. Obviously all of season 2 is meant to take place after season 1 and to be in order since unlike S1 it coincided with the actual time of year when it aired. But hey, you do you.
>>27891170
Thanks. I'm taking notes on this, I know it's autistic but that's part of the challenge.
>>27891276
>I know it's autistic but that's part of the challenge.
truer words have never been said
Bump for interest.
So, here's a revised timeline, taking into account your input so far, with a time span of almost two years; I think this one looks more convincing.
>>27894827
>>27894839
>>27894839
Note: Oops, my bad. Family Appreciaton Day shouldn't be during summer, since the CMC are still at school, it should be here>>27894849
During fall after Wonderbolt Academy.
Now it should be ok.
