A sad theory about how magic vanished

[HereComesTom 2,232]

I've noticed a pattern about Equestria.  We've never once seen ordinary police or military face down a threat and defeat it, or even heard about that happening offscreen during G-4:  the day has always been saved by a small group of heroes who had something special about them. 

If you think about that from an in-universe perspective, that's actually really disturbing:  it means the average citizen is helpless, that weapons and mundane magic are useless, and in general that, if the heroes are neutralized, everypony is in big trouble!  Plus, villains keep popping up, whether they want Equestria's money, magic, slaves, or land.  They keep popping up no matter how old the heroes get, and no matter whether anyone special happens to be available to stop them or not.

So...how would a character who's responsible for the safety of the whole country respond to a world where these rules apply, and where these patterns keep coming up?  Well, they'd probably try to find some permanent solution to stop villains from coming, and perhaps the most logical way of doing that would be to remove the stuff that keeps attracting the villains:  the magic and the economic prosperity of Equestria.  (Seriously, the way Equestria kept bouncing back from disasters, their economy must be really robust!)  And since it's Equestria's unity that makes their economy so prosperous and magic so strong, getting rid of the unity gets rid of the villains---or at least gets rid of their reasons for attacking.

With that context in mind, what worries me is that, after one very near victory for one of these villains---and/or possibly a Pyrrhic victory for the good guys---some monarch of Equestria in the past told his or her citizens, "We can't keep attracting villains like this; we'll never survive if we do.  Our unity is what's giving us magic and a prosperous economy, so we're going to segregate ourselves into different cities based on which kind of pony we are, we're going to tell our kids that we've always been separate, we're going to invent stereotypes to teach us to fear each other, and from now on, we're not going to be united, anymore.  That'll get the villains to stop coming."

If I'm right, then there was no civil war, no aggression, no catalyst for hatred.  The separation was an intentional decision to forget friendship and unity, and to pretend like they'd never existed.

To me, that's a very sad way to respond to tragedy, especially when you think about what would have to happen to mixed families.  Or to unicorns born to non-unicorn parents, for that matter---there'd be generations of parents giving their children away to strangers, siblings who'd have to say goodbye to each other and never see or even write letters to each other ever again!  But...it also makes a cold kind of sense.  Villains tend to do a lot of damage and get very close to their goals, so something to permanently end their continuous attacks is much to be desired.

If I'm right that this is how Equestria's unity was lost, then I hope---oh so much!!!---that it's not Twilight who made that proclamation!  Twilight's had a cynical streak once or twice in G-4, and in theory, if a deep enough tragedy happened to her, she might turn into the kind of royal who'd do this...but it'd also ruin her character, kind of like how Luke Skywalker got ruined in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.  Fortunately, considering that there were clues that earth ponies and unicorns visited Zephyr Heights at a time when it was called Zephyr Heights instead of Canterlot, I don't think it's possible that Twilight had anything to do with this breakup...unless, of course, she lived for centuries after her friends passed away...

 

What do you guys think of this...I won't say "theory"; it's more of a thought about what might've happened to magic.  I mean, it doesn't really explain why the sun, moon, seasons, and weather started to operate on their own, or why Everfree Forest hasn't grown over all of Equestria by now with no Tree of Harmony or Starswirl to keep it in check, so...it's probably not true.  But it'd sure be dramatic if it were!

[Rising Dusk 26,012]

Interesting theory. 

One I've been playing with in my mind is that, based on the Stained Glass in the station, it looked like the three pony species willing gave up their magic.  The pegasus and unicorns in the glass look happy and the glow comes from their wings and horns respectively.  If the middle glass panel were still intact, I'm sure it would show a similar case with the earth ponies and their hoofs, seeing as the mid-credit scene might be pointing to earth ponies having a kind of magic we haven't seen yet.  Sacrificing their magic to Twilight into the crystals for what I can only think is some sort of yet known calamity. The images around Twilight's cutie mark look random and distorted, almost like reality is breaking.

As a result, I think it put up a bubble around a small part of Equestria, explaining how there are only three cities now in a country that had thousands if not millions and why the other species are absent and/or even unknown to these three cities.  A testing ground to find a pony to ascend to a Princess of Hope perhaps to aid in fighting the calamity?  The maps we see in the movie do not show all of Equestria and are missing for well known places.  This separated them from the rest of Equestria that is... time locked? Out of phase?  Waiting for a new Alicorn to appear.  I don't think Sunny has fully past the test though, seen in the more translucent than permeant wings and horn.  That might be where the first season picks up, as her adventure truly begins.

Random thoughts.