>>42714387

Due to the crystal ponies not being saved from sombra, they are made to fight for him. All equestrian economic activity has been focused on the war effort. While I'm sure there's countless examples through history of economies shifting like that, there's only one war like that since the industrial revolution, meaning this is ww2, either from an American or a Canadian perspective. I don't know what Canadians were doing at that time. Our Town, also, featured ww2 based themes, meaning there may be some statement in here about those wars specifically. As, for the Americans, that war is largely about isolationism and its shortcomings, that's the obvious connection. The crystal ponies were left on their own, isolated, and their tiny empire threatened everyone everywhere as a result. In the first conflict with starlight, twilight did absolutely nothing, simply allowing starlight to act, and ended up here. Spike, note, was still right, as saving FS's yellow butt would have been a bad thing, but total inaction is insufficient.

As this story is now a WW2 allegory, I'm somewhat expecting a metaphor for the nukes. It would have to be some kind of explosion, but this show isn't that violent...

...
no...
NO
Are you FUCKING kidding me?? N"O
God dammit, everything is always the fucking nukes, holy SHIT I'm chuckling like I'm mentally ill help

Anyway, AJ asks what's different in this timeline.
> Twilight Sparkle: Well, for one thing, where we came from, there's no war with King Sombra
and AJ makes this face. <-

> Twilight Sparkle: [gasps] Spike, that's it! The map is connected to the Tree of Harmony! It must sense that something isn't right!
Remember, the tree is a physical object in the everfree, meaning that the actual tree does exist, even if the castle doesn't. The table, seen here, does not come out of a time portal with spike and twilight, as far as we know. It's just here. AJ also hasn't seen it around, meaning that it's a somewhat recent addition to the scenery around town. We have no idea how this table got here. Maybe the tree had enough magic on its own to create this table and these damaged crystal chairs, but in this timeline the elements could not have been reunited with the tree, so it should be killed by plundervines by now anyway. Potentially, the table itself is a required component of the timetravel spell, and so is always present at the future exits of the portals, but that's not really a fully supported theory. It is the best we have, though. We also have to assume that the plundervines haven't destroyed the tree yet, and that implies that the m6 were draining the tree by using the elements, and that they caused the tree to be overtaken by weeds by being heros.