Now there’s a sad fanfic waiting to happen. Some old pony’s last, lonely day in the once grand terminal before it closes forever. Silently reflecting on the times when it was a constant bustle of activity, balloons coming and going all day, a stark contrast to a cavernous space now empty and quiet. Eventually the last minutes tick away, the workday ends, and the last employee locks the door on not just a station, but an entire pony era.

@Background Pony #4D64
That sort of thing is… part of a gradual decline too. At some point there just aren’t enough employees coming to work to bother changing the signs when there also aren’t enough customers to matter and the airships won’t leave if they’re not full to a certain capacity.

Whatever happened, and however it happened, it came at some point when the Equestria we know from FIM was transitioning into the precursor society of G5, because there are both old and new destinations listed; Bridlewood was an actual city once, big enough for air service to/from the Capital, and it existed contemporaneously with Manehattan and Neighagra Falls.

@Incursor
I agree in theory, but the train station didn’t reflect a gradual decline in commerce over several years. The board showed multiple daily departures for other parts of Equestria, as if everything was fine one evening when they locked up for the night, and then they just… didn’t open it again the next morning. That and the failure to even keep track of why the crystals were important makes me think that there WAS some kind of memory modification happening.

Many moons ago? Not years? (They’ve used years enough on the show moons must be smaller, unless moons changed in use.) That makes it sound a lot more recent than assumed.

@TexasUberAlles
Magical mind wiping is possible, but it runs the risk of coming off more contrived/cliched and worsening undoing G4’s accomplishment if it was undone just like that as opposed to over such a long period.

@Background Pony #8689
How did it go from crystal to wood?
Pretty sure all of these horses went from crystal to meat.

@Solbreaker
in G4 the tree was in a forest surrounded by castle ruins
You could say the same thing about most of England and Wales. Stuff happens.

@WyrmSpawN
It’s either a very, very long time difference or ironically magical mind-wiping and the second one is just stupid

That is straight up the Memory Stone from Equestria Girls.

@Background Pony #8689  
Well, we know something catastrophic happened since G4. I think the three crystals were literally the magic of the three races, condensed into crystal to protect or preserve it against whatever happened. It wouldn’t be inconceivable that the tree changed into normal wood at that point. (This might also explain the absence of the alicorns.) Once the theat had passed, the ponies for whatever reason failed to recombine the crystals and release their magic, and the dregs of magic that had been left over eventually just ran out.

@Background Pony #B0D1  
This location doesn’t appear to be surrounded by any water. It has a canyon and river running through it, but no coasts.
 
@neo4812  
Maybe the magic from the Tree of Harmony enriched the earth, and a real tree grew in the Tree of Harmony’s place after its magic ran out.

but thats a real tree how would bark grow on the crystal one

This is a tree inspired by the Tree of harmony…. I pieced together the map. They are hugging the east coast of Equestria, no where near Ponyville.

@Macaroni C-Pony  
I suspect its between 3 to 5 thousand honestly.
 
 
@Background Pony #FCEA  
This is in no way a retcon of anything.

My little pony retcons are tragic

If that is true, maybe the Treehouse of Harmony will revive and become a meeting place for the G5 Mane Cast.

@IceKitsune  
I hope it’s at least 1000… at most 5,000

One possible explanation may be that the meltwater from Zephyr Heights had stopped coming down into the lower valley, but we have never seen the lower parts of this area, and even then we should have seen overgrowth around this area where there was a stream of water through a ravine, these are hilltops with a lot of rain if the weather pattern in the G5 is the same as in the G4. Besides, these meadows are part of a cultivated landscape near active settlements. Where I live, overgrowth is a big problem because many people move out, and it could take decades before everything was overgrown. Many meadows that were important for wildlife, disappeared under bushes and small trees. Besides, we do not see if there was agricultural activity there in the movie.
 
The ruins could be buried underground, this is not unusual - but then you would see irregular shapes on the ground to be able to find signs of artificial constructions, even a boulder is enough. It is completely slippery all around, as if an atomic bomb had atomized everything except the tree. The whole valley - we have not seen the lower part of the valley floor where Ponyville was - seemed to have been flattened out, neither buildings, woods, roads or anything could be seen. The map that Sunny uses may have been based on Argyle`s fieldwork.
 
Everfree had some of the largest concentrations of raw magic seen in the entire G4, and no one has a good explanation for this, which not only scared the ponies because it was “not natural”, but also because it gave a dark and threatening influence to anyone in nearness, which suggests dark magic rather than chaos magic. If all this has disappeared completely, it’s like a giant volcanic eruption if it happened at once. One can thus speculate whether this is exactly where the magic began to disappear, because with so much magic one can create enormous spells of unprecedented strength.
 
And by the way about the Memory Stone; all information about this was kept secret so Argyle could only have learned about this through the “Journal of Friendship”, but this gives a strong hint as to what might be hiding in future G5 episodes. There are many loose ends out there, and there are things that point towards Grogar without this being confirmed. I personally believe that Everfree was where Tambledon once lay, this has never been confirmed. What if Grogar could use the magic of Everfree without having to break through the dimensional barrier? We do not know.
 
But if all the magic explodes at once; only the harmony tree could survive such a ragnarok. All life in Everfree will have been exterminated.

I just think it has been way longer than a lot of people assumed. A lot can change over the course of several thousands of years. For all we know we could be 10,000 years or more in the future past the events of The Last Problem. (I don’t actually think its been 10,000 years later but you get my point)

it most certainly is not…

@Solbreaker  
Well its a fan theory that the everfree forest was made by Discord, or at least corrupted by him. Maybe he got rid of it when he left Equestira or something

@ImperfectXIII  
Maybe. Maybe if this is indeed correct the series will explain why, but a forest and castle ruin simply doesn’t vanish without leaving a trace of their existence, even with time and magic. We can only wait and see.

@Solbreaker  
Land shifting/erosion over a long period of time?

@WyrmSpawN  
Sunny’s dad was researching why no one remembers the mane six or when everyone was friends and had a picture of the Memory Stone. (There’s a screenshot of it, and it was tricky to notice if you’re not looking for it).  
He has no way of knowing it is destroyed in another dimension, of course.

@Background Pony #8E16  
It’s either a very, very long time difference or ironically magical mind-wiping and the second one is just stupid.

@Background Pony #DB39  
Something bad like really, really bad happen. Like level memory wipe the entire Continents bad.
 
Zipp also say during the scene where she visit the abandon station underneath Zephyr Heights used to be busy with Pegasi, Unicorn and Earth pony than suddenly they just forgot???

I can see why, but considering in G4 the tree was in a forest surrounded by castle ruins, I am a bit confused

@Background Pony #8689  
Probably the same way everyone lost their magic, and memory of the mane six.  
Something bad happened between G4 and G5.

Is it hollow due to being a living tree house?