Talk:Lord Tirek/@comment-26973802-20141112020942

Who else here thinks that the reason the Tree of Harmony's magic disappeared after being active for a thousand years was because Tirek damaged it, in the hopes it would prevent the Elements of Harmony from being used against him?

Think about it. Tirek was hiding in a castle close to the Tree of Harmony at the time (since it was strongly implied he is the supposed "Pony of Shadows" at the end of Castle Mane-ia). He obviously knew that Discord was turned to stone, and probably knew what did this to him. Maybe he didn't know about the Plunderseeds, but he probably hoped that the damage he did would force the ponies to return the Elements to the Tree to heal it, and decided to let the Plunderseeds do their work once they came up. How Tirek escaped the Plunderseeds in a weakened state I don't know, but he also escaped Tartarus unnoticed in Season 2, plus maybe the Plunderseeds don't attack evil creatures. Also in a weakened state he probably couldn't do much damage, atleast not at once, but just enough to weaken its magic so it stopped repelling the Plunderseeds.