Butterfly Effect

by stageheart

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Nightmare Moon, Thriller, Mystery, Adventure, Discord, Princess Celestia, Zecora
Length: 2533

How each alternate timeline in "the Cutie Remark" happened.

"Time is a river, where even the tiniest changes seen, can lead to a cascade of effects downstream."

-Zecora

We all know Starlight Glimmer used the cutie map along with Starswirls spell to try and stop the rainboom. This lead to multiple very different timelines. But how did each timeline happen? What happened to the Mane 6 in each one? How did the tiny little changes Twilight and Starlight make each time lead to universes so drastically different from eachother? Find out!

Published 2017-07-18 14:50:11 UTC
Last updated 2017-07-25 19:44:14 UTC

Sombra Timeline: Rainbow Dash

Author's Note

Have not seen anyone try to do this yet, so here we go! Everything is based around what we see in the episode. Any and all feedback is appreciated.

Sombra Timeline: Rainbow Dash

Sombra timeline

Rainbowdash

The small blue filly watched in agony as the brown bully crossed the finish line. She had absolutely no idea what had happened. One minute she was going faster than she had ever gone before, and the next she was frozen in mid air. She felt completely humiliated. She should have been smart enough to see that coming. When she finally did get free she moved away from the race in embarrassment. One thought plagued her head as she flew slowly back to her home. She had failed. She had lost.

----------------------------------------------------------- “Rainbow, you have been outside forever.” a blue pegasus yelled. “It’s time to get some dinner sweetie.”

“In a minute mom. I have to try this new trick. Next time I race those bullies I am going to WIN.” The filly raced back and forth practicing flips over and over again. “I just have to fly faster.” She sped past.

A rainbow haired pegasus moved outside the cloud house. “Now come on honey. She is such a determined little filly.” He picked up his daughter, “your gunna become a fine racer one day. Just like me. You know.... it would not surprise me if you made the wonderbolts some day.”

The filly broke from her father's grasp. She looked down. “The wonderbolts will never take me. I am a loser.”

“Come on sport. You lost one race. I lost many in my time.It's not like the fate of Equestria depended on it”

“But I could have WON. I could have won is those bullies did not freeze me like that. I was that close!!!” The filly started to fly away before her father stopped her.

“Hey come on. Maybe you can be one of the princesses royal guards someday. Then no one will ever mess with you.” The filly squealed and jumped up with excitement.

“That’s it!!!!!!” The filly yelled as she spun around. “I will be one of the princesses royal guards. Then no one will ever freeze me like that again!!! I will be so famous and awesome!!” She flew into her father's arms. “Thanks for that idea.”

The stallion laughed. “I think you should look at your flank Rainbow.” The filly turned around and squealed again in excitement. On her flank there was a shield with two swords criss crossing, surrounded by a circular rainbow.

“I got my cutie mark!!! I got my Cutie mark!!!!” The filly flew around with joy.

Rainbow Dash, now a full grown pegasus soured and flew through the smog filled skies. Tonight was a very important night. The night of the “summer sun celebration.” This was where her one chance to show her princess her stuff. Her one chance to possibly become one of celestia's guards. She flew faster and faster through the polluted skies into ponyville.

Rainbow did not know much about ponyville, other than it happened to be the birthplace to the most successful apple packing industry in equestria. It also had a reputation for being very dirty and polluted. A funny choice for the summer sun celebration but it did not matter to rainbowdash. She whisked through the ever growing smog into ponyville. Ready to impress the princess.

Rainbow Dash stared in complete helplessness up at the black night mare.
“From this day forth the night WILL LAST FOREVER!!!!” She screamed.

“You can not do this.” a small voice whispered. A purple unicorn with books as her cutie mark stepped forward. Rainbow felt like she had seen her before, but she knew that was ridicules. “Those of us who will be loyal to the princess will always fight for her. Always.”

The dark princess just laughed. “Then I will just have to vanquish anyone who stand in my way.” She shot out a string of light from her horn and hit the purple pony. The unicorn laid motionless on the floor. This caused quite an uproar among the ponies.
Screams and running filled the air. Rainbow just stared at the body of the young mare. A sudden rage filled her. A rage unlike anything she had ever felt before. That mare was defenceless, innocent.

All sense completely left rainbows head and she was not exactly sure what she was doing. Her body was disconnected to her thoughts. She sped as fast as she could to the princess. Faster than she had ever flew in her life. She flew straight into the mare and suddenly she hit her, but where where should have been an impact there was a huge boom. A boom that completely wiped rainbow out and crashed her into a nearby wall. A weird mass of color and darkness filled everywhere. But rainbow could only focus on one thing. The rainbow circle growing bigger and bigger. “I did not know I could do that. I did not know I could do
that.” She whispered to herself over and over. It took her a long time to get out of her trance. It was not until a white unicorn with a purple mane told her to run that she did.

Rainbow Dash stood at the princess royal court. She bowed as the princess stood over her.

“You have a gift Rainbow Dash. I have never seen anything like it. Somehow you
were able to perform a sonic rainboom. One that was strong enough to put nightmare moon back on the moon. Have you ever done anything like this before.”

Rainbow blushed. “No, I have only been able to even fly that fast once before.....and well....it did not end well.”

“Rainbow dash how would you like to become a part of the royal guards, as our secret weapon.” The princess said.

Rainbow looked up from her “It will be an honor princess.”

The royal guards all stood in a straight line. Rainbow dash at the end. The captain paced back and forth between them. “We have been able to contain them in canterlot with these.” He held up a spray with a symbol of an apple on it. “A product from Sweet Apple Industries. It was a originally meant to speed the growth of trees, but failed. We have found another use for it. If you spray it on a changeling they will die and resume their original form.” He sprayed it on one of the guards. It had no effect except to make him sneeze. “However on normal ponies, it is harmless. We have also found a pink pony with psychic abilities. She is able to tell whether or not someone is a changeling. We are still barely mudding through though.” He looked directly at rainbowdash. “I think in order to get rid of them for good, we are going to have to use the secret weapon.”

The rainbow mare looked down. “I....I don't know Shining Armor. I have only been able to do it once and I did not even know it was going to happen.” The white stallion looked down at her.

“You know I see a lot of my sister in you.” Rainbow blushed. The captain spoke his eyes glistening with tears. “So many other ponies could have died if it was not for you. We are counting on you. We know you can do this.”

The mare looked up “I will do all I can.”

----------------------------------------------------------- A sharp pain bursted on rainbows ear as she pushed away changeling after changeling. The spray was not strong enough for all of them. She had only one choice. She had to do this. Within a window of changelings she flew up higher and higher. Until she was looking over the entire city of canterlot. She could not think straight. Her ear was throbbing so bad. One of those things must have bit her. She forced herself to focus on the task at hand. She had to do this. She had to. She took a deep breath and began to fly downward. Just as she was picking up speed a hot pain hit her left wing. A pain unlike anything she had ever felt before. She could not stop though. The adrenalin from the pain caused her to fly faster, and she kept going. Faster. Faster and Faster. When suddenly it happened again. The same thing from before. A huge burst of sound and color. Rainbow hit the ground with a thump. She looked up and saw several changelings being blasted away with her rainboom. She had done it. She looked at the place where her left wing should be and there was a blob of blood in its place. It had been ripped off. She had done the boom with one wing. She laughed at how funny she looked and then passed out.

The princess paced in front of Rainbow. She now had a metal wing and there is a picture of her on one of the stain glass windows defeating the changelings with her sonic rainboom. “In this time of crises and war Rainbowdash. We look to you.This is our hardest challenge yet. You are a very special pony.”

The mare bowed. “I will not let you down princess.” She said proudly.

-The events of “The Cutie Remark” happen within a week after this.

Sombra Timeline: Fluttershy.

Fluttershy

The young filly tried over and over again to befriend the animals, but it was to know avail. Ever since she had landed on the ground a few weeks ago all they did was run away from her. She walked slowly through the city of fillydelphia completely defeated and heartbroken. She knew something like this was too good to be true. A gruff old stallion with a sweaty wet beard stopped her.

“Hey filly, what's eatin ya.” the pony said.

“Nothing” She looked down. “I just.....Its nothing.”

The stallion looked at her questionly. “you're not from here are you?”

“No.I am not.”

“Well,...” he looked around. “do you have anywhere to stay tonight?”

“No” the filly whispered. “I am.....not a strong enough flyer yet to fly back up to cloudsdale” She looked at her weak wings.

“Do you have anyone you know that you want me to call?”

“No ...its fine.” The filly backed away. “I like the ground.”

The stallion sighed. “Look, I have an empty room. You are welcome to stay for as late as you want.”

The filly started to walk down the stairs of the stallions house. She had been staying with him for a few days. His name was Sheepherder, she had found out. He was nice enough, and even fed her. He did not say much though. He was always working. Fluttershy walked into the barn where he always worked, and was surprised and scared to see many sheep in there. “Animals? Oh no...” She backed away.

“Hello you.” Said the man. “These are my sheep.”

Fluttershy backed away. “Oh well that's very nice. Um I was just well....I see that your busy so I will just umm.”

“Fluttershy would you like to help me shear these sheep?” Sheepherder said.

“Well you see,...The thing is. I am just not sure.” The fill baked away.

Calm on. The stallion guided the young foal to the sheep and let her touch it. “I just need you to hold it down for a minute while I shave it.” The sheep was antsy. Fluttershy was very nervous about touching it. When she did something surprised her though. The sheep immediately calmed down and stopped swarming. It was weird. I was like her touch had super powers. As soon as Sheepherder shaved the sheep he looked at fluttershy. He had a surprise on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Asked fluttershy then he looked at her flank. She had a cutie mark. It was the shape of a sheep. She was not sure what to make of it.

“Fluttershy?” Sheepherder said. “Would you like to work for me?”

Fluttershy did not know what to say. She really really wanted to be able to tend to animals, and not enslave them. She really really wanted to see them run free, but what other option did she have? She swallowed before whispering “Sure.”

“Fluttershy?” The rainbow filly opened the barn door. She saw her friend surrounded by sheep. Her mane full of wool. “Fluttershy!! I have been looking all over for you for days. What happened? After the race it was like you disappeared.” Rainbow gave her friend a big hug. “I was so
worried.”

Fluttershy just looked at Rainbow’s flank. “You have your cutie mark.” She said very nonchalantly.

Rainbow smiled. “Yeah...I will tell you all about it when we travel back to cloudsdale, but let's get out of here that sheepherder dude looks PRETTY creepy.”

“Rainbow Dash i am not going back to cloudsdale.” She showed her friend her flank with the sheep. “I have decided to stay here. It is my destiny.”

Rainbow Dash looked hurt. “What? But flutters.....”

“I am sorry rainbow but this is the way things have to be.”

Rainbow looked down. “Is this really what you want?”

The filly lied. “It is. I promise I would not want to be anywhere else.

Rainbow started to cry. “Well......goodbye then. I....will miss you.

“Ill miss you to.”

“Fluttershy I have great news.” Years had past and Fluttershy had fully grown into a full grown mare. “Sweet Apple Industry's wants a partnership with us. The BIGGEST industry in equestria wants to partner with US. We will make tons of money off of that. Is’nt that exciting?”

“Yes it is.” Fluttershy tried to sound excited but she really was not.She gazed out at the sky. In the best places of equestria the sky was orange. Dirty orange. In the worst there was nothing but smoke. She lived in the orange area. It was such a wide difference from the blue sky she came to fall in love with all those years ago.

Sweet Apple Industries. Fluttershy knew that name far too well. It was that company that was more responsible than any other of polluting equestria. It started out as a small company in ponyville, but expanded greatly becoming the most successful business in equestria. There are now factories all over equestria, but the largest is somewhere in the plains. It is rumored that working there is miserable. The employs are treated horribly with unreasonably long hours and awful wages. The owner....Applejack.... Fluttershy thought her name was, was known to be bitter, standoffish, and rude. She pushed her own family to the state of exhaughton. There was even a rumor that she once, literally worked an employee to death. Fluttershy did not want to work for someone like her. But what choice did she have, except to keep sheering those sheep.

“Oh and fluttershy?”

“Yes” The mare looked at her boss.

“They want us to help by donating our woal to make uniforms for the war.”

The events of “The Cutie remark” Happen within a few months after this.