Talk:Tree of Harmony/@comment-24659719-20171214110400

after watching magical mystery cure and princess twilight sparkle again, i had an epiphany about the continuity issues regarding the elements and the tree of harmony that seemed to spring up from what we learned in shadow play.

1. Starswirl and the Pillars planted the seed and the tree of harmony sprouted as we saw it in the flash back to when celestia and luna removed the elements from the tree. the pillars never saw the tree again after that and went to prepare for confronting stygian. hence somnambula saying it is nice to see what has become of the tree, since so much time has passed while they were in limbo.

2. Starswirl on the other hand did see it again as he was mentoring celestia and luna, who chose to build their castle next to the tree of harmony, which at the time of making that decision may not have held the element gems themselves, as starswirl was experimenting with them. the unfinished spell. when he chose to abandon the spell he returned the element gems to the tree, and went to prepare for confronting stygian. starswirl is arrogant and lacked the understanding of friendship that was necessary to complete the spell. celestia and luna would have called the grand and beautiful crystal tree as the tree of harmony after learning of its origin. starswirl himslef would not have done so, hence his questioning sneer when he finds out the name. although i do believe he was the one to place celestia and luna's cutie marks on the trunk of the tree, when he returned the element gems.

3. the decision to create the tree was to provide equestria with a means of protecting themselves should things not go according to plan when the pillars confront the pony of shadows.