Multiverse

"Again?"
"Again."

"Princess, our world is only one of many. There are an infinite number of worlds all around us" — Starswirl the Bearded

The Multiverse is a collection of infinite timelines that, presumably, spreads across the entire My Little Pony franchise. It is the 'setting' in which every My Little Pony story ever told takes place

Concept history and evolution

A handful of stories involved the travel between different 'worlds', for lack of a better definition. My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle and similar plots featured the "human" world and "pony" world of Earth and Ponyland, though the connection or differences of these two worlds were often vague. Another 'world' depicted in the original series was the Land of Legends, a location where figures of myth and literature such as Robin Hood and Hercules called home, which was located beyond a golden door.

In 2013, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls introduced the concept of the multiverse formally into the franchise, which once again featured a 'human' world, but this time explicitly stated to be another universe. The following year, Reflections would flesh out this concept by telling a universe hopping story that focused on the mysterious dark universe. The concept of the My Little Pony multiverse would appear several more times in the comics by IDW Publishing and Seven Seas Entertainment, being a major element in the series', My Little Pony: Legends of Magic, My Little Pony: Nightmare Knights, My Little Pony/Transformers, My Little Pony: Generations and My Little Pony: The Manga. This trend more or less correlates with the multiverse trend in comics and films in the late 2010s to early 2020s.

The concept of the multiverse in the animation of My Little Pony has been notably rarer, but not unheard of. "The Cutie Re-Mark" featured several splintered-off timelines thanks to Starlight Glimmer's time travel shenanigans and Equestria Girls: Sunset Shimmer's Backstage Pass featured a similar premise, albeit on a smaller scale.

In-universe history

At some point, there was a "crisis" of infinite Equestria's.

The Pony of Shadows attempted to destroy the multiverse by tapping into the infinite power of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna but was thwarted by the Pillars of Equestria, though he never stopped trying. It was implied that he took down a number of worlds before his defeat, however.

Hasbro Multiverse

Main article: Primax

The My Little Pony multiverse is, in some way, connected to the Transformers/Hasbro multiverse, as confirmed thanks to the existence of Primax 613.28 Lambda and Tyran. According to Vector Prime, however, My Little Pony is mostly fictional in his multiverse.

Alternate timelines

• Alternative histories
  • Changelingverse
  • Discordverse
  • FlimFlamverse
  • Glimmerverse
  • Lunaverse
  • Sombraverse
  • Tirekverse

Earths

The Earths were a series of universes Discord traveled to. They were named Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-3, Earth-52, Earth-616, Earth-Fawcett, and Earth-Z respectviely. Their name were parodies of the universes seen in DC and Marvel comics, with Earth-1 and Earth-2 being the primary realities in DC's "pre-Crisis" continuity, Earth-52 being a reference to DC's use of the number 52, Earth-Fawcett being a reference to Fawcett Comics, and Earth-616 being a reference to Marvel's main universe.

Notes

Speculation

The sheer fact that the multiverse contains infinite timelines is an incredibly useful tool for both staff and fans alike. For the staff, it allows for an easy hand-wave for out-of-universe storylines or storylines that break canon, and for fans, it allows us to pretend something we didn't like just takes place in a timeline where everything is the exact same, only slightly worse.

It also may allow access for other cool events with other Hasbro products, assuming Hasbro ever allows MLP to ever crossover with any other series aside from brief cameos. A man can dream.

References

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