Twilight Sparkle's obsessive scheduling habits lead to an all-night planning session that gets interrupted by a startling visitor: her own future self, appearing with a facial scar, an eye patch, a head bandage, a burnt mane, and a tattered black suit. Future Twilight attempts to share an urgent warning about an impending catastrophe. Before she can explain the nature of the disaster, however, future Twilight vanishes back to her own timeline, leaving only cryptic clues about a threat arriving by next Tuesday morning. As a result, present-day Twilight mobilizes all of Ponyville to "disaster-proof" Equestria against every conceivable emergency.
The three-headed guard dog Cerberus escapes from Tartarus and rampages through town, and Twilight assumes this must be the foretold disaster and successfully lures the beast back to its post. However, a letter from Princess Celestia about the missing dog creates a paper cut on Twilight's face in the exact spot where future Twilight bore a scar, which convinces her that the real catastrophe still approaches. In an attempt to avoid triggering any events, she attempts to be completely immobile, but Spike's teasing causes her to react violently, resulting in a magical accident that burns her mane into the same singed style as her future counterpart.
Desperate for answers, Twilight seeks help from "Madame Pinkie Pie's" fortune-telling booth, but receives only predictions about birthday presents. As various mishaps give her the remaining injuries that match future Twilight's appearance—a flower pot creates her head bandage, and misuse of a telescope damages her eye—Twilight becomes convinced that only stopping time itself can prevent the looming disaster. She leads a midnight infiltration of Canterlot's magical archives to find the necessary spell.
When Tuesday morning arrives without incident, Twilight realizes her anxiety was completely unfounded and vows to stop worrying about problems that don't exist. Pinkie discovers a time-travel spell that allows one brief trip to the past, which Twilight uses to warn her earlier self about the coming crisis. The spell cuts off before she can explain that there is no actual disaster, creating the exact scenario that started her week of paranoia and revealing that her injuries came from her own frantic preparations rather than any external threat.
Reception
Sherilyn Connelly, the author of Ponyville Confidential, gave the episode an "A" rating.[1] In her review of the episode in SF Weekly, Connelly commented on the episode's time loop concept, writing that "it's hard to not feel a little existential terror when considering that time loop continuing on."[2]
In a critical analysis of the episode, author Jen A. Blue examined "It's About Time" as an "ontological paradox" or "time loop" that raises questions about free will, destiny, and determinism. Blue analyzed how Twilight's attempts to prevent a perceived disaster actually cause the very future she saw and wrote that "everything that happens is logically consistent" despite the circular nature of events. Blue wrote that the episode presents a single event viewed from two perspectives, explaining that "there is only one event, one point in time and space which Twilight views from two different perspectives." Blue positioned the episode within the season's exploration of time and commented on its significance in establishing Twilight's character. She wrote that between this episode and "Lesson Zero", it becomes clear that "Twilight has a tendency to overreact and create disasters where none are needed." She concluded that this character knowledge would be important in understanding the season finale ("A Canterlot Wedding").[3]
Brendan Kachel of flayrah wrote that the episode was "great" and that it was an example of how comedy can be cruel per the excessive amount of slapstick pain done to Twilight, though he argued that the humor was acceptable because most of Twilight's injuries were self-inflicted due to her obsessive-compulsive behavior.[4]
↑ Blue, Jen A. (2014-10-25). "The pony who holds my fate in her hooves (It's About Time)". My Little Po-Mo: Unauthorized Critical Essays on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season Two. pp.185–190.
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