My Little Pony: IDW 20 20


 * The correct title of this comic is "My Little Pony: IDW 20/20". Due to technical limitations, the slash is removed from the article title.

My Little Pony: IDW 20/20 is a special-edition comic released by IDW Publishing as part of its twentieth-anniversary event "IDW 20/20". In this comic, the Mane Six accidentally get sent twenty years into the past and team up with their younger selves in order to return to their own time period.

Summary
The story begins in Canterlot, where Rainbow Dash—wearing her Element of Harmony—puts on an aerial performance for the visiting ambassadors of Abyssinia. However, dense storm clouds unexpectedly fill the sky during her performance, much to Applejack and Fluttershy's concern. Just as she performs a sonic rainboom, Rainbow Dash gets struck by lightning, causing time and space to rupture.

The story then shifts to twenty years prior, on the day that young Rainbow Dash performed her first sonic rainboom and she and the rest of the Mane Six got their cutie marks. Shortly after she performs the rainboom, the Mane Six of the future appear before their past selves, having been pulled backward through time because of future Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom colliding with the lightning storm. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity each explain to their filly counterparts what has happened, and they are instinctively drawn toward Ponyville to find the rest of their time-displaced friends.

In Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle explains the situation to her younger self and Princess Celestia, who arranges for a Pegasus chariot to fly the two Twilights to Ponyville. On their way to Ponyville, future Twilight reveals that she is the Princess of Friendship in the future and imparts upon her younger, friendless self the merits of friendship.

In Ponyville, the past and future pairs of Mane Sixes all meet up and find a portal leading back to the future that was ripped open when the older Mane Six were thrust into the past. However, the Elements of Harmony that they were wearing during Rainbow Dash's performance have disappeared, and they cannot return home without them. Future Twilight and Rarity use their gem-finding spells to track the Elements in two opposite directions, and the twelve ponies split into two teams to retrieve them.

During their retrieval of the Elements of Harmony, the older Mane Six explain to their younger selves the values of friendship and teamwork and how much said values have changed and shaped their lives over the years. Future Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy demonstrate this by working together to retrieve the element of kindness from a sleeping bear, and future Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack demonstrate it by helping filly Rainbow Dash retrieve the element of magic.

With all the Elements retrieved, the past and future Mane Sixes meet back up in Ponyville, and the older Mane Six use them to open the portal to the future. When their magic is not strong enough to open it, their younger selves offer their support, causing the portal to successfully open. Just before the older Mane Six depart for their own time period, Princess Celestia arrives. In order to make sure the younger Mane Six do not know too much about their respective futures and risk altering history, Celestia decides to seal away their memories of this experience—to be unsealed when the spell wears off in the future. With everyone in reluctant agreement, the older Mane Six bid goodbye to their younger selves and return to the future.

As soon as the Mane Six return to their original time period, Celestia's memory-sealing spell wears off, restoring their memories of meeting their future selves twenty years ago. When asked what they learned from meeting their younger selves, Twilight says:

"Your friends are always your friends. Even before you've met them."

- Twilight Sparkle

Quotes

 * Twilight Sparkle: Wha—Where am I? Is this Celestia's school? How did I get here? Oh, no... I've traveled through time again, haven't I?
 * Young Twilight Sparkle: You're me!


 * Young Rainbow Dash: Can't catch me, you weird imposter!
 * Rainbow Dash: Will you slow down?! I'm you!


 * Young Fluttershy: Eeeeek!
 * Fluttershy: Oh, no... Please don't scream! We get tummyaches when we scream!


 * Young Applejack: What's th' big idea, goin' around lookin' like me?!''
 * Applejack: Ah am you, you ornery varmint!


 * Young Pinkie Pie: So some kind of temporal distortion sent you to the past?
 * Pinkie Pie: Yep!
 * Young Pinkie Pie: And you arrived next to your younger self because of quantum kirlian attraction, right?
 * Pinkie Pie: Right!


 * Young Rarity: You look divine! Your manestyle! Your posture and grace! You have an aura of pure, confident elegance!
 * Rarity: Oh! Well, er—thank you?


 * Young Fluttershy: ...I have friends in the future?
 * Fluttershy: Why, yes! Lots of friends! And you—I mean me—I mean we're more confident! And we can talk to other ponies without crying!
 * Young Fluttershy: Do... Do our friends teach us to be like that?
 * Fluttershy: A little, but... most of that strength is already inside us. It takes us some time to find it, that's all.


 * Princess Celestia: Let's try to keep the time paradoxes to a minimum, shall we?


 * Young Twilight Sparkle: If you have wings, then—then we must be a princess!
 * Twilight Sparkle: We are!
 * Young Twilight Sparkle: Are we the Princess of Magic? Or Books? Or Organization?
 * Twilight Sparkle: Actually... we're the Princess of Friendship!''
 * Young Twilight Sparkle: What? Friendship? But... But we don't have friends! Or need them! We don't need friends in order to learn and make discoveries, right?
 * Twilight Sparkle: That's what I thought, too. Obviously. But something that took—will take—me a while to learn is that friends are what make all that worthwhile. Your friends are going to change your life in ways you can't imagine.


 * Twilight Sparkle: This portal must have been ripped open by our journey through time!
 * Young Twilight Sparkle: You're right! The magical signature of this portal is extraordinary!
 * Rainbow Dash: Wow, eggheads in stereo!


 * Young Applejack: Um—howdy, y'all! I'm Applejack!
 * Young Pinkie Pie: Hiya! I'm Pinkie Pie!
 * Young Twilight Sparkle: S-Should we really be talking? What if it causes a temporal paradox if we meet before we're supposed to?


 * Rainbow Dash: The six of you are gonna be the best friends in Equestria!
 * Fluttershy: Even though we're all so different...
 * Rarity: Or maybe because we're so different!


 * Rarity: No one pony is as smart, or as tough, or as fast as all of us! That's the real magic of friendship!
 * Rainbow Dash: Well, that and the magic lasers we can fire out of these jewels.


 * Twilight Sparkle: For me, Ponyville just felt right. It's more than just the place where I made my first friends—it's the place I got to make my home! Where I got to shape myself and find who I really am!


 * Twilight Sparkle: Pinkie! Are you still the fastest knot untier in all of Equestria?
 * Pinkie Pie: That's why my trophies say!


 * Princess Celestia: Nopony can know too much about their own future. So I'm afraid I'll need to seal away everypony's memory of today.


 * Applejack: [to Young Applejack] You're even tougher than you know!
 * Rainbow Dash: [to Young Rainbow Dash] You're gonna knock 'em dead, kid!
 * Twilight Sparkle: [to Young Twilight Sparkle] You'll love the future. I promise.
 * Rarity: [to Young Rarity] Never lose sight of what you love, dear. And never buy half-price silk.
 * Pinkie Pie: [to Young Pinkie Pie] You're in for so much fun!
 * Fluttershy: [to Young Fluttershy] It'll be better than you could ever hope.


 * Princess Celestia: So did you learn anything from meeting your younger selves?
 * Pinkie Pie: I learned that I've always needed conditioner!