Multiple Choice Past: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Something like that... happened to me, you know? Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another; if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be ''[[Trope Namer|multiple choice]]''!"''|'''[[The Joker]]''', ''[[The Killing Joke]]''}}

 

 

[[Video Games]] occasionally do this as a starting conversation to decide what your basic character build will be like.

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', {{spoiler|the swirly-mask shinobi says he is either Tobi or Madara. Could be the Sage of Six Paths' elder son.}}

* A single-author example is ''[[Golgo 13]]''; Taiko Saito prefers to keep his past a mystery, so there are several different histories for him.

* Hiruma from ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' is seen pulling this during a flashback chapter. Is his father a shogi player, a doctor, or a white-collar criminal? Apparently, it depends on what he feels like today.

** Eventually it is revealed {{spoiler|he was an amateur chess champion.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Tsukihime]]'': with each separate route, the minute-but-important details of Shiki's childhood ''appear'' to change or even be downright inconsistent with the other routes. Only after finishing all the routes can the actual backstory be inferred, by piecing together the revelations and details from each route (like a convoluted puzzle).

* To keep the revelations nice and fresh the manga and video game adaptions of ''[[Code Geass]]'' seem to have this, especially in regards to CC and Marianne.

** Hell, Team Rocket is ''full'' of these. Did Jessie go to nursing school or did she join a bike gang? Did Jessie and James meet in the bike gang, at an academy they flunked out of, or when they joined Team Rocket? Was Meowth Giovanni's right-hand 'mon until Persian came around, or was he a servant?

*** To be fair, that last one could be Meowth's warped vision of things. The cat ain't right.

** Wolverine's arch-enemy Sabretooth likewise has multiple possible pasts. He was part of the same "Weapon X" program as Wolverine, which included false memory implants, so that's no surprise.

* [[X-Men|The Phoenix]] is either Jean Grey's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] or a variation on [[Grand Theft Me]] who duplicated her rather than possessing her. [[Your Mileage May Vary]].

* The DCU's [[Crisis Crossover|Crisis Crossovers]] (and not just the ones actually bearing the Crisis name) [[Cosmic Retcon|altered reality]], changing the pasts and presents of a variety of characters. ''[[The Legion of Super Heroes]]'' has had ''three'' such reality reboots (counting the original Crisis.) Also, retellings of characters' origins will vastly alter them on occasion, with no Crisis-type justification. As such, most DC characters with a significant amount of history have multiple formerly-canonical histories, as well as ones that are ''equally'' canonical but completely incompatible.

** [[Superman]], for example, has a ''canonical'' multiple-choice past: he was given the choice between two of his innumerable origin stories, and he picked the one that he liked more (and, incidentally, made more sense).

* A [[Multiple Choice Past]] is almost canon for the [[Trope Namer|Joker]], as evidenced by his quote at the top of the page. A number of writers have given him a different origin in the past fifty or sixty years, and all of them are half-canon, because [[The Joker]] [http://dccomics.com/dcu/heroes_and_villains/?hv=origin_stories/joker&p=1 isn't sure himself.]

** Also played with in one issue of ''Robin'', which starts off with a flashback about a green-haired, white-skinned boy in a purple shirt with a pony. "Or was it a bike?" the narration muses. "No, a pony." The little boy did something bad, and then his daddy shot the pony in front of him. Cut to the Joker, narrating, and he's actually weeping real tears. He's in a cell at Arkham, and a speaker on the wall asks him if the story is true, because it's the ''seventh'' [[Freudian Excuse]] story he's told them.

{{quote| '''Harley Quinn:''' Joker told me things, secret things he never told anyone...<br />

'''Batman:''' He's got a million of them, Harley. }}

** A 2004 story arc in ''Batman: Gotham Knights'' suggested that the ''Killing Joke'' version is more or less Joker's real past, since a pre-Riddler Edward Nigma witnessed the murder of "Jack"'s wife and later offered to tell the Joker who did it (although the version told in ''The Killing Joke'' has it that his wife was killed in an accident, not murdered). Later writers have pretty much [[Canon Dis Continuity|ignored it]].

** In the 80s, an issue of ''[[The Question]]'' reinvented [[the Riddler]]; his real name was Edward Nashton, and he changed it to Edward Nygma when he became the Riddler. His obsession with riddles wasn't born from cheating in a school competition and wanting to prove how clever he was; it was a compulsion to tell the truth due to a violent father. It also claimed that he was never a major Batman villain. Later, [[Neil Gaiman]] wrote a ''Secret Origins'' story in which Riddler retells his classic origin, before adding "Or maybe I'm a frustrated second-rater called Nashton with a meaningless schtick!"

*** The Riddler's latest origin, post-''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', is ''largely'' his classic origin... but his real name is Edward Nashton.

* In ''[[Supreme Power]]'', Zarda gives three conflicting origin stories that involve both her and Hyperion when he asks her where she came from. Since Zarda's demonstrably insane, it's safe to say none of them are even close to true.

* In the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' comics (and later, the movies and the '00s cartoon), Splinter was originally the beloved pet rat of Hamato Yoshi, who saw his master's assassination and then later was mutated into a humanoid intelligent rat-being. In the '80s cartoon series and the spinoff comic books, Splinter is Hamato Yoshi himself, forced into exile and living in the sewer when he first encountered the mutagen. Having recently been in contact with sewer rats, the mutagen turned him into a humanoid rat.

* One issue of ''Secret Origins'' gave four different, mutually-exclusive origins for the mysterious [[The Phantom Stranger|Phantom Stranger]].

** Actually, according to the [[Word of God]], they're ''all'' true.

** When a Black Lantern tried to eat the Phantom Stranger's heart during ''[[Blackest Night]]'', it saw three of those backstories, leaving it stunned long enough for the Stranger to spring a trap. The Stranger's response? "You have seen everything and you have seen nothing."

** Aaaaaand then the [[New 52|reboot happened]] and he actually does have a concrete origin now, that's heavily implied to be {{spoiler|[[The Bible|Judas Iscariot.]] }}

{{quote| '''Madame X:''' Orchids have ''no thorns!''<br />

'''Stranger:''' ''These'' orchids did! They were ''special!'' }}

** Additionally, all of these stories were parodies of Marvel characters' origins.

* Bizarro, although in this case it's a [[Justified Trope]] because, technically, Superman has been cloned more than once, and not always perfectly, and more than one of those imperfect clones have been named Bizarro.

** Post Crisis Supergirl also had this in spades... when she first appeared her backstory was simple, She was sent to Earth at the same time as Superman and was his older cousin and she was supposed to look after him when they got there, but she was trapped in Kryptonite and in suspended animation for years and didn't emerge until Superman was a full grown adult. But then it was revealed that, that origin might be partly false and that her whole side of the El family was evil and she was sent to kill her cousin. But then it was revealed that, while she was sent to kill Kal-El it's because there was a curse he inherited that would break down the barrier to the Phantom Zone which Jor-El, Superman's Father, invented (this too would later be ignored) and that eventually phantom zone monsters would start crossing over to the real world unless Kal-El was killed; this origin was even verified has being correct by a Monitor... but then Supergirl's parents showed up and it turned out that her real origin was a modified version of her Silver Age origin (that a chunk of Krypton survived the destruction), and that everything else was the affects of Kryptonite poisoning making Supergirl crazy.

* Donna Troy's past is so complicated, writers are more likely to spend more time attempting to clean it up rather than chronicling her current adventures.

* ''The Kid Stays In The Picture'' opens with the following quote:

{{quote| "There are three sides to every story: my side, your side and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently."}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Joker:''' You know how I got these scars?}}<br />

{{spoiler|'''Batman:''' No. But I know how you got these.}} }}

 

== Literature ==

*** Which is [[Fridge Brilliance|Fridge Brilliant]] if you think about it - just being around these things [[Go Mad From the Revelation|causes madness]], so accuracy is thrown to the wind. Some authors explicitly state they are so alien that trying to describe their nature and relationships in terms humans can understand is a waste of effort.

* Lucien of ''Character Issues'' continuously claims that his father died in a variety of ways, ranging from crushed by a TV to poisoned by an Elf-like creature which snuck into his house at midnight every night. Depending on the view point, this is either hilarious or [[Nightmare Fuel]].

* [[Terry Pratchett]] has said "There are no continuity errors in ''[[Discworld]]'', just alternate pasts."

** And then he went and [[Justified Trope|justified it]] with ''[[Cosmic Retcon|Thief Of Time]]''.

* A mystery novella serialized by the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper during [[The Nineties]], wherein the [[Big Bad]] offered up a different explanation for the huge scar across his face in every installment. In the final chapter, it's revealed that the wound was merely the result of a nasty fall at a grocery store.

** And Campbell in ''[[My Sister's Keeper]]'' tells us various different stories about why he has his service dog, until at the end it's revealed that {{spoiler|The dog can detect when he's about to have a seizure.}}

* Peter Pan in the original ''[[Peter Pan]]'' book by J.M. Barrie. He tells Wendy of how after being adopted into Neverland, he tried to return home to his parents only to find the window locked and another little boy in his room, and he uses this as his justification for disliking adults. The narration of the book says something along the lines of "this may or may not be what happened; but it's how Peter remembered it at the time and thus he wholeheartedly believed it."

** Either confusing pasts is a theme with Zelazny, or he just has trouble making up his mind when he's writing a story: the Chronicles of Amber involves ''dozens'' of "histories" for Corwin, and he spends much of the series trying to unravel which ones are true. (Adding to the confusion: Corwin is immortal, he can travel to as many worlds as he wants, there are "shadows" of him in a lot of those worlds, ''and'' he has about 15 siblings with similar powers who all lie and scheme and plot.)

* In ''The Thirteenth Tale'', one of the main characters is an author who tells a different life story every time she's interviewed. It's implied that she has difficulty breaking this habit, even when she starts out with the intention of telling the truth.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

** Garak also had a [[Multiple Choice Past]]. The second-season episode "The Wire" had him confess to different, contradictory stories about why he's on the station, and other people offer contradictory information about what they knew of his past. At the end, Bashir confronts him about it, only to have Garak declare that they were all true.

{{quote| '''Bashir:''' Even the lies?<br />

'''Garak:''' ''Especially'' the lies. }}

*** The book ''A Stitch in Time'' has Garak remember his childhood and the real reason he was exiled, while walking through the ruins of Cardassia. He killed a high-level official, who caught Garak with his wife (all three went to school together). Interestingly, his boss and father Enabran Tain actually ordered the assassination, but it was the semi-public way Garak did it that got him kicked out of the Obsidian Order.

** He ''is'', however, a world-class track runner, capable of sprinting a hundred meters, ''with hurdles'', in about ten seconds.

** Then there are the hints he's just Neil Flynn, his actor, fallen on very hard times.

** In lieu of the Janitor in season 9, Drew seems to have taken his place as 'dude with weird past'. So far we know that he had a meltdown his first time through med school which ended with him in prison, dressed up in a 'very flammable' dinosaur suit as part of community service, has been married, never uses public bathrooms after spending a month living in a gas station restroom, his parents believe him to be dead, he has an ex wife and stage-managed the Western leg of the `05 tour of Wicked.

* [[Stephen Colbert]]'s character shares some of his history with the actor (ten brothers and sisters, born in South Carolina) but the rest of it tends to change from episode to episode according to the [[Rule of Funny]] - including the names of his wife and children. Some fans have [[Wild Mass Guessing|theorized]] that the ''character'' may be making it up as he goes along.

* This was done intentionally on ''[[Green Acres]]''. Each season featured an episode in which Oliver and/or Lisa tell the story of how they met, but it's always a different story.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has explained away the creation of the Daleks in three different ways. Once in their debut story "The Daleks" (which didn't actually show it), a second time in a spin-off comic ''The Dalek Chronicles'' (which didn't contradict the first origin story) and finally in "Genesis of the Daleks".

* In [[Stargate SG-1]], Jack O'Neill's backstory throughout most of the series was that he was ex-Special Ops, and O'Neill wore a master parachutist's badge and later a space and missile operations badge on his dress uniform but never pilot's wings, but in an episode of Season Eight, Sam Carter pointed out that he used to be a test pilot. This is likely an [[Ass Pull|ass-pull]] by the writers, but given that he did pilot some experimental aircraft and that this backstory was never mentioned again, and that the only occasion when the viewers find out anything about O'Neill's background is when someone else mentions it, it's possible that Carter herself was mistaken.

** Also, Vala's past. She was brought up on a nice planet with a conventional life (and fiance) until she was chosen by Qetesh, OR she was sold to a weapon dealer and killed him to earn her freedom, OR she was brought up by her bitchy mother and conman father, and also ''how'' many times was she married?

* Detective Kate Beckett of [[Castle]] has elements of this. Aside from conversational information for characterization, there are the things she teases Castle about that are never substantiated.

* In [[The Mighty Boosh]], Howard and Vince frequently flash back to their shared past - but without any continuity about what this shared past has been. At one point they insist they are the same age, at another that Howard is ten years older than Vince. Vince may have been raised in the jungle by Brian Ferry or he may have gone to school with Howard. It comes down to [[Rule of Funny]], of course.

 

 

 

== Mythology ==

* In [[Greek Mythology]], for example, different authors gave different parents to many heroes and deities, and told events in their pasts differently. The Kabeiroi, Kouretes, and Korybantes, related sets of minor deities, had several different genealogies and origin stories. Humanity itself had separate creation myths in different cities, along with different explanations for how they got fire, writing, and so forth.

* Ancient Egyptian authors also differed on the parentage of various gods. This isn't surprising, given that such family relations were often more a matter of local cult rather than "myth" as such. By the end of the New Kingdom, many gods were worshipped in threesomes identified as husband, wife, and son, and temples in different regions used different combinations of gods.

 

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Done with the entire ''species'' of illithids (Mind Flayers) in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]].'' One of the earlier versions says that they're mutants outcast from a long-gone human society in the Astromundi crystal sphere (solar system). Another version puts them as emerging when parasites from "[[Cosmic Horror|the Outside]]" entered the game's reality and began [[The Virus|bonding with and mutating]] humanoids, and went on to rule an interstellar empire millennia ago which has since fallen. An old [[Dragon]] magazine article depicts them as invaders from an alternate Prime Material Plane, trying to reshape whatever world your characters are from in the image of their homeworld. A more recent version says they're ''from the future'' and traveled back in time to escape a nameless enemy that was destroying them, and to prepare better for that enemy while in the past. It's ultimately left up to the Game Master to decide which of these is the "truth," or if perhaps they're all successive layers of lies used to disguise the illithids' origins and that the most recent retcon is just another lie. However, in the 4th Edition rules, Mind Flayers are once again from the Far Realm - beyond the borders of the universe. This certainty may be only because there haven't been enough years into the new edition to let their webs of deceit get fully developed yet, however.

* ''World of Darkness'' gamelines tend to play with this.

** And then there's the Raven Queen. Depending on what you look at, she's a [[True Neutral]] goddess of death as part of the life cycle, an evil former consort of Nerull who overthrew him to gain his title as God of the Dead and now plots to destroy the other Gods so she can gain that title that she believes is rightfully hers rather than her lesser title of Goddess of Death, or a selfish and power-hungry goddess that epitomizes the reason [[True Neutral]] is now Unaligned.

 

 

* ''[[Steambot Chronicles]]'' had a literal version of this, where after meeting with Mallow you can recover from your amnesia and reveal your past. Or not, if you didn't feel inclined. Unfortunately, this leads to some [[Paused Interrupt|incredibly stilted]] dialog in the following scenes.

{{quote| [Name] is... the son of a baker... ''fast''... ...and a lone wolf.}}

** Although at the end of that one, the bronze dragon that was guiding you implies that after you've destroyed the last of the Infinite Dragons who were trying to alter the time stream, he would alter events so that the original bloodless escape is what everyone will remember.

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' you have the option in several conversations to choose certain aspects of what happened in your past, as well as what happened in the first game. You can even choose non-canonical endings for what happened in the first game, and the rest of the second will react accordingly.

* In ''[[The Suffering]]'', your actions in the game dictate how Torque's family died via [[Karma Meter]]. There are three endings. In the good ending, they were murdered and you were framed. In the neutral one, Torque killed them on accident, and in the bad ending, he murdered them all.

* ''[[Dragon Age Origins|Dragon Age: Origins]]'' takes this to a whole new level, with each of the six "Origins" having a separate starting quest chain, with a follow-up in one of the main story quests later on.

** Flemeth combines this trope with [[Unreliable Narrator]]. At least two different versions of her story, the legend and the story she told Morrigan, have been told thus far, and Morrigan even says she doubts Flemeth told her the truth.

** Note that the Mario Bros. have never been seen in the Mushroom Kingdom between the time they were babies and the present. It can be pretty easy to put the pieces together and say that they were taken to Brooklyn to be protected, because, seriously, who in their right mind wouldn't move after all the stuff that happened to Baby Mario and Baby Luigi?

* Like his [[Fandom Rivalry|rival Mario]], [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] has a fairly inconsistent past as well, though the video games themselves have never done much to elaborate on his past. Tails, Dr. <s> Robotnik</s> Eggman, and especially Blaze have similar inconsistent pasts.

* ''[[Touhou]]'': Almost but not quite literally the case for Sakuya. ''[[All There in the Manual|Perfect Memento in Strict Sense]]'' offers multiple backstories for her, but they're all rumours going around the village, and it's unlikely that any are actually true.

* The premise for Hail to the Chimp is that former king, the Lion, resigned in disgrace due to a "scandal" that neither the box nor the instructions describe in any way. There are several possibilities as to what this scandal is, one of which is chosen at random each time you load the game.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', about five versions of Cloud's past in Nibelheim have been officially released so far. At least one of these (the most detailed) is eventually revealed as a lie within the story, although due to the circumstances of the lie and due to it covering more than the others do, it's still debatable whether huge chunks of it are true or not. The other four are wildly divergent with ''Crisis Core'' and ''Final Fantasy VII''`s "[[The Reveal|true]]" account having roughly equal canoninity despite ''Crisis Core'' having an entirely new character provoke Sephiroth's downwards spiral and despite the fact that Zack doesn't get the opportunity to do all the silly things ''Final Fantasy VII'''`s "lie" account implied he did. The OVA ''Last Order'' is also diverging, but probably the most radical in terms of what it implies about Cloud's past - it contains a strange scene where Cloud summons a great strength and his eyes begin glowing, causing Sephiroth to ask "What are you?", ''long'' before Cloud was granted with Mako abilities in the original ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', implying that Cloud isn't human or was experimented on previously.

* This happens in [[Hyperdimension Neptunia]] and its sequel. In the original, Compa meets Neptune after she falls out of the sky, and IF is met (and unknowingly tricked) into joining Neptune and Compa's party. In the sequel, Compa and IF were childhood friends, and they met Neptune (and Nepgear, who is exclusive to the sequel) after she fell off the top of the 10,000 story tower.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In [http://www.superstupor.com/sust08042008.shtml this] ''[[Super Stupor]]'' webcomic, a character is grieving that her background was [[Retcon|retconned]] (''you know, it never happened''), yet she still remembers it.

 

* In the ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]'', Tacoman had several different backstories, Mr. Absurd had two.

* Used as an alternative to [[All Myths Are True]] in ''[[Tales of MU]]'', as seen in the [http://XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/story/other/in-the-beginning myths of different races].

** So far he's been a failed clone of Spoony, from the future, a different person, the same person but not somehow (left unexplained), and an alternate personality that was given up "in the past". All of these origins are equally canon.

* There is no single definitive version of [[The Slender Man Mythos]]. Even his ''appearance'', though built around a basic template, varies from story to story. The central tenet of [[The Slender Man Mythos]] is [[Rule of Scary]].

** ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' season two features the protagonist doing this (badly). Jay goes through three contradictory stories explaining his presence in the hotel to Jessica, much to her confusion.

** The Foundation itself according to SCP-001 propositions

 

* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' gives several varying explanations for both the origin of Phantom Limb and how Billy Quizboy ended up with a robotic hand, with the Monarch's being the most plausible. When Dr. Venture finally asks him about it, point blank, Billy merely replies "Excellent question. I have no idea."

** They later gave them both a definite past. The Monarch's version, while not complete, did get most of the facts right (Phantom Limb was Billy's professor, not roommate and the latter had already [[It Makes Sense in Context|lost his arm to a rabid pitbull]] prior to the incident). The comment about him not knowing ended up becoming a [[Cerebus Retcon]] because of this. Turns out he dosen't remember because {{spoiler|OSI wiped his memory}}. When Billy learns of the deception, he rather suitibly flips the fuck out.

** [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Single-handedly]] killing a man with a thumb is at least partly plausible in that it has been done before...

* [[Darkwing Duck]] is given at least three mutually incompatible origin stories over the course of the series. [[Word of God]] says this was a deliberate invocation of [[Rule of Funny]] - and if they'd had more episodes, they'd have written even more...

** Darkwings origins "multiple origins" were always [[Played for Laughs]], but there were never any real inconsistencies. Two of them were obviously Darkwing [[Unreliable Expositor|making stuff up]] (his baby alien story and his adventures as a privateer), and the rest were pretty compatible. He was first inspired by his [[Stable Time Loop|time-travelling older self]]. Then, he took up the [[Coat, Hat, Mask|Coat Hat and Mask]] at his senior prom, while battling Megavolt, and finally, he went to China to study [[Foo Fu|Quack Fu]] under Master Goose Lee.

** As the information in ''The Time Bandits'' was given by a government employee of [[Glorious Mother Russia|Thembria]]. Nothing's saying that official facts have to be truthful.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' not only has a multiple choice past for pretty much every character, but even a multiple choice future. As the show exists in a [[Comic Book Time|floating timeline]] however, this is pretty much unavoidable. Heck, one of the show's flashback episodes was set throughout the 90s...the decade which started right along with the show itself. Talk about trippy.

** Timmy and his fairies have screwed around with time so much they could all be possible.

* ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' had four different episodes with flashbacks to the duo's childhood and when they were first genetically altered. They all contradict each other.

* [[Rocko's Modern Life|Rocko]] is stated in some episodes to have known Filburt as a kid, and in another, he says they met Heffer in high school. In other episodes, though, he apparently left Australia and came to O-Town as an adult. [[Word of God]] says that the latter is definative, anything else is just the characters misremembering.

* On ''[[Invader Zim]],'' Ms. Bitters gives multiple back stories, such as imploding in a spaceship when she was a child and being a fairy princess in a magical forest (before running into a bug zapper). According to [[Word of God]], however, she's always been in the same place she is now; the "skool" was actually built around her.

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', Lucius VII [[Human Popsicle|froze his father]], Lucius VI, making him a psuedo [[Self-Made Orphan]]. Exactly how always varies. At first it was because they had a heated argument, then because Lucius VI lost a bet, then because Lucius VII's talking bird told him to.

* Jerrica Benton (AKA: [[Jem]]) either inherited Starlight House from her father, or lived there with Kimber (her sister) Aja, and Shana all her life. In fact, [[Take a Third Option|it may have even been both.]]

* In [[Transformers Generation 1]], the Constructicons had no less than three wholly separate and contradictory origins in the cartoon ''alone''. First, that they were built on Earth by Megatron in 1985. Then, that they were Autobots from Cybertron reprogrammed by Megatron millions of years ago. Then that they were Decepticons who built Megatron in the first place years before ''that''.

* Filbert meets Rocko in different scenarios in ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]''. [[Word of God]] said this is actually because Filbert just has bad memory.

* It's implied in an ''[[Arthur]]'' episode where Buster "saves" a cat on a tree that Buster invokes this trope when he lets heroism get to his head. Buster is seen bragging to some reporters about how he got the cat down, Francine mentions that she's starting to get bored with Buster's heroism stories, and then Binky arrives and says that he's not bored of his stories, as they're "always different."

** It must be true because it gels with Rainbow Dash's story. Pinkie Pie actually ends her story with, "And that's how Equestria was made" and later suggests telling how she got her cutie mark. Pinkie Pie, [[Cloudcuckoolander|being Pinkie Pie]], simply forgot which origin story she had just told.