Could the Crystal Heart/ Empire be tied to The Tree of Harmony?

[ManaMinori 4,149]

I dunno, guys. I mean, the way it's described by Sunbutt, as she tells Twilight of it seems pretty spot on with the story of the Founders of Equestria, during Hearthswarming.

"If the empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold...."

 

So I'm thinking that the founders of Equestria could've at some point, discovered the Tree of Harmony, and its first fruit- rather than the 6 elements- was the Crystal Heart. Or perhaps the entire empire was created by the tree, with the Heart (much like the fire of friendship made by Clover) served as Equestria's first line of defense. The entire empire is crystal, the Artifact, like The Elements, and Twilight's castle is crystal....the tree itself is crystal...can't be a mere coincidence.

 

And likely, once the Heart, the first fruit, so to speak, of the Tree was taken and assigned permanently to the empire by the founders, the Tree's could've produced new "fruit", Equestria's second line of defense, likely knowing (since it IS sentient and all) that the Empire would fall, and its crystal heart- which was needed to spread love and hope through Equestria- would go missing for 1000 years, so the Elements were born shortly after, to ensure its return, later.

Tree of Harmony has a good insurance policy, seems like.

 

But what are your thoughts, you guys? Is the Crystal Empire born from the Tree, like Twilight's Crystal castle was? Does the Crystal heart predate the Elements of Harmony?

[ManaMinori 4,149]

Anybody got opinions or headcanons to throw around?

[Midnight Blossom 58]

I'll admit. I've often wondered about that myself. Or perhaps the heart was taken to the north where it was needed at the time and served as the seed for another tree of sorts. I mean it's at the center base of the Crystal Palace if I remember correctly. Perhaps the castle grew around it and spread outwards creating the city of the empire with it. Maybe something similar will happen to the area around Friendship Castle making it not feel/look as out of place amongst the Ponyville structures.

[ManaMinori 4,149]

I'll admit. I've often wondered about that myself. Or perhaps the heart was taken to the north where it was needed at the time and served as the seed for another tree of sorts. I mean it's at the center base of the Crystal Palace if I remember correctly. Perhaps the castle grew around it and spread outwards creating the city of the empire with it. Maybe something similar will happen to the area around Friendship Castle making it not feel/look as out of place amongst the Ponyville structures.

if the heart originated from the ToH, but wasn't hanging from the brnches like the elementw, rather having been grown by the tree, much like Twilights castle was, in a set location, would tbe tree allow anypony to move it beyond its intended perimeters, though? With the tree being sentient, I have to wonder...

[ManaMinori 4,149]

Fingers crossed season 6 explores this, what with another trip to the crystal empire for the royal baby is in order

[Marimo 555]

They already covered this in the Celestia and Luna Journal. The Crystal Heart was discovered in the nearby Chrysalline Mountain when the crystal ponies were mining for gems. A crystal unicorn who was full of love called Amore felt a connection to the Heart and was able to use her power with the Heart to magnify the love and spread it across the area. The love would give energy to the crystal ponies, and that energy would feed back into the heart. That area would soon become the Crystal Empire, and Amore gained her cutie mark and became the original Crystal Princess.

 

So even though the journal gave some focus on both the Tree and the Heart, there was no connection made between the two. They seem to just be two individual powerful entities who just happened to either be crystal or have a crystal aesthetic.

Edited January 31, 2016 by Marimo