@Background Pony #B05E
You’re right, I don’t feel the tree or elements can be destroyed. Especially not by Sombra, he has nowhere near the power necessary to do that. I mean, it has been shown to handle all the magic in the world at once before. This just shows, that the writers didn’t know what the hell they were doing, and why I disregard season 9 except for 3 episodes that don’t connect to (or reference) the main arc in any way. Point of No Return, Common Ground, Going to Seed. Every other (standalone) episode has at least some reference, so those 3 are it for season 9 for me. I also consider the last episode disgusting and insulting, and consider Rainbow Roadtrip the finale.

The elements of harmony have been destroyed before, and they reformed themselves not long after. Why not again this time? The only thing I could think of that would explain this is that the tree was greatly weakened, but even then, the elements’ powers shouldn’t have just been summoned at will by the mane six, because while friendship is magical in its own way, the powers of harmony need some kind of physical conduit and a bearer to work, or else any group of friends could use them.