Why is there a castle in the Everfree Forest anyway?

[cuteycindyhoney 13,306]

I had to look up what you meant. I actually don't see any similarity between the two. Canterlot looks more like something out of Aladdin.

 

And how else would you get a LOTR Minas Tirith in MLP?

 

 

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.c...h?v=gMhLm481s14

 

 

 

 

[Mister Jack 566]

actually Nightmare moon was hiding behind the window and she heard of where the elements were at....

 

but I guess Celestia just decided to move away when she defeated her sister and I guess forgot the elements that saVED EQUESTRIA, on the castle (I think she has a bad habit of leaving things un-guarded)

 

The elements were inert.

 

[Envoy-in-exile 101]

I had to look up what you meant. I actually don't see any similarity between the two. Canterlot looks more like something out of Aladdin.

 

Apparently Canterlot was inspired by Minas Tirith: http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Canterlot

[LightRaider 148]

I always thought it was the royal sisters old castle, but when luna went mad, the castle was destroyed in the process, and was further moved to what is now canterlot.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,306]

Apparently Canterlot was inspired by Minas Tirith: http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Canterlot

 

They still don't look anything alike to me. maybe it's because I only saw a few minutes of LOTR, before thinking it was over rated and turning it off. Sorry, but I never even wanted to read the books.

[Envoy-in-exile 101]

They still don't look anything alike to me. maybe it's because I only saw a few minutes of LOTR, before thinking it was over rated and turning it off. Sorry, but I never even wanted to read the books.

 

You pain my heart, cuteycindyhoney

 

The colours and onion shaped domes in Canterlot are reminiscent of Aladdin, but like Minas Tirith it's located next to a mountain and has more spires/individual buildings than your stereotypical Arabian palace (which usually looks like a Taj Mahal surrounded by a city - yes, I am aware that Taj Mahal is not Arabic, not is it a palace). I suspect Lauren Faust had Minas Tirith in mind when she designed basic Canterlot, but put in a lot of other influences/her own ideas so that it's not a copy of Minas Tirith, but something on its own.

[autumnalone 21]

I like the idea of Luna and Celestia living in that old castle all those years ago, but I've also been entertaining a theory lately that perhaps that ancient castle was first built by the settling pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony tribes as they founded Equestria.

 

The balancing of these two theories also brings up the question of when did Celestia and Luna come into the picture? If the unicorns alone used to raise the sun and the moon, when was that talent lost and the ruling of the land passed over to godlike pony beings?

[Strafe 594]

Discord's old crib maybe, I don't really know, I'm guessing Faust didn't care too much about why the castle was there.

[Jadefire 2,797]

Because everything's better with random abandoned castles! x3

 

Or, I'll go with the theory that it was what used to be the castle of Old Canterlot, before Celestia relocated not long after Nightmare Moon's banishment.

[Iris Melody 90]

I assumed that the Castle had been there, then once Luna was banished Celestia couldn't stand to be alone there anymore and so moved. Normal pony houses seem to be wooden, so everything else deteriorated with no upkeep, eventually decomposed, and the forest grew up around it. The touchy sentiments may have been why nopony would enter the Everfree Forest, then habits transcended generations into a general culture rule everyone followed without knowing, or bothering to think to ask, the specific reason why.

 

A term I like to throw around when some things may not make much sense: PONY PHYSICS. heee

 

Or maybe Princess Celestia used her powers to do... stuff... maybe...

[Stretch 25]

i think it was a peaceful place until celestia and luna had their fight

[NavelColt 22,879]

I really wish we knew how long the Everfree Forest has been at it's current size. I'm curious to know if it wasn't actually there that long ago, or, was far more retreated back in the olden days. If you look at the official canon map, it shows the 'Ruins', which I assume is le castle, are in the lower half of the Everfree Forest, specifically the lower right corner. There's a growth surrounding the castle that branched off from one of the two main pieces of the forest, so it could be that over a thousand years ago, the entire forest was a lot smaller than it is now, and didn't really thicken itself, if exist at all, around the castle. That would not only leave a clearing around the castle for buildings of a town, but there's a river right there too, which supports the 'old settlement' idea.

 

As for why Celestia woke up one day and said 'WELP, time to go build a castle city in the side of a huge-ass mountain.' well, I have a thesis on that. Since the castle couldn't have been destroyed in the battle between Celestia/Luna and Discord, when they overthrew him long ago *ergo why it's called the Castle of the Royal pony Sisters*, I guess it must have indeed been the apparent fight between Celestia and Luna, which resulted in Luna's banishment. Then, Celestia probably decided to build Canterlot in the side of a mountain, because she knew that Equestria would only get bigger and spread over the entire continent from here on out, so she probably wanted a birds eye view of the entire land, as a sort of symbolic 'watchful eye' over her territory. The mountain is basically the center of the map, which supports this idea.

 

So yeah. TL;DR, the broken down castle probably had the olden days ponies long ago living around there. It got screwed to hell when Luna and Celestia clashed. Luna got banished. Celestia decided to rebuild on the side of a mountain to have a better location to watch over her ever-expanding land, which left the old castle to rot and decay, as the Everfree Forest slowly but surely engulfed and surrounded it over the next thousand years.

 

That's my thoughts :3

Edited August 10, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[TessHM 15]

I assume the situation is similar to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakow

Old capital of Equestria?

[WolvesAndDragons 0]

The Everfree forest is named such because it was the headquarters of the Royal Sisters. They cast a spell over it, locking it in it's current form to stop Discord from tampering with it. This is why the Elements of Harmony were there, why weather is self sustained, and why the animals there are so... Chaotic. 

However, after Discord left, the two sisters didn't need their hideout no longer. They abandoned their castle and left the Elements of Harmony to stay. They where the only ones to know of their secret hideout, and knew that if trouble ever returned to Equestria the villain would expect the elements to be guarded in the new castle in what is now Canterlot. 

After Nightmare Moon overtook Luna and returned from her 1,000th year banishment, Nightmare had full control of Luna's body she knew where the Elements lay. She managed to get to the Elements before Celestia did and proceeded into ruling Equestria, at least until the mane six stopped her.

This is my theory, and I hope I helped! c:

Edited October 12, 2013 by WolvesAndDragons

[DJShy 873]

This book, http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780316247542_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG, has a section within it for a interview with Lauren Faust. Within said interview, she was asked, "What is one thing that the fans might not know about Equestria?"

 

 

She said, and I quote, 

 

 

The ruins in the Everfree Forest where the Elements of Harmony were found were once Luna and Celestia's childhood home.It used to be part of Equestria, but the magical, uncontrollable forest encroached on it and they had to move their home to Canterlot.

[Mr Underhill 219]

I really wish we knew how long the Everfree Forest has been at it's current size. I'm curious to know if it wasn't actually there that long ago, or, was far more retreated back in the olden days. If you look at the official canon map, it shows the 'Ruins', which I assume is le castle, are in the lower half of the Everfree Forest, specifically the lower right corner. There's a growth surrounding the castle that branched off from one of the two main pieces of the forest, so it could be that over a thousand years ago, the entire forest was a lot smaller than it is now, and didn't really thicken itself, if exist at all, around the castle. That would not only leave a clearing around the castle for buildings of a town, but there's a river right there too, which supports the 'old settlement' idea.

 

As for why Celestia woke up one day and said 'WELP, time to go build a castle city in the side of a huge-ass mountain.' well, I have a thesis on that. Since the castle couldn't have been destroyed in the battle between Celestia/Luna and Discord, when they overthrew him long ago *ergo why it's called the Castle of the Royal pony Sisters*, I guess it must have indeed been the apparent fight between Celestia and Luna, which resulted in Luna's banishment. Then, Celestia probably decided to build Canterlot in the side of a mountain, because she knew that Equestria would only get bigger and spread over the entire continent from here on out, so she probably wanted a birds eye view of the entire land, as a sort of symbolic 'watchful eye' over her territory. The mountain is basically the center of the map, which supports this idea.

 

So yeah. TL;DR, the broken down castle probably had the olden days ponies long ago living around there. It got screwed to hell when Luna and Celestia clashed. Luna got banished. Celestia decided to rebuild on the side of a mountain to have a better location to watch over her ever-expanding land, which left the old castle to rot and decay, as the Everfree Forest slowly but surely engulfed and surrounded it over the next thousand years.

 

That's my thoughts :3

I'm willing to bet that Canterlot was built on the site of the cave, the same cave that the founders of Equestria discovered the heart of Friendship...I think that this will be relevant in season 4.  any thoughts ?

[Scootalove 10,689]

It is because, Celestia and Luna used to live in the Everfree Forest in their castle when they wielded the Elements of Harmony and since their magic couldn't keep the strange circumstances in the forest they had to move the castle.

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

Maybe in this upcoming Season we might have to see why the Everfree castle had been abandoned and ruined. Also if Everfree Forest always had been cursed.

[Aisling Ink 195]

I rewatched the beginning of the Season 1 and this is now bugging me.

 

Why is there an abandoned castle in the Everfree Forest??

 

The castle was apparently owned by both Luna and Celestia a thousand years ago but they moved away for some reason. Why?

 

And how come there's no sign of a old settlement if the princesses did live there? The current castle is surrounded by the bustling Canterlot but according to Granny Smith's flashback, the surrounding area of the Everfree Forest was clearly unhabitated and Celestia at the time was already well established in Canterlot.

 

What happened???

 

I might have read it in the Elements of Harmony guide or seen it in another early episode but apparently the castle is abandoned because it was "taken" by the Everfree forest. The forest itself doesn't need the ponies to work, the clouds move by themselves, the animals don't need any care, etc, etc... and grows without care of its surroudings. It has a strenght that even Celestia cannot control.

[Sig Hoovestrong 838]

So many theory, so many interesting ides. However think going go with that castle in everfree forest was there childhood home. Is not my own theory, but is one going stick with. For now...

[windy_prance 114]

I might have read it in the Elements of Harmony guide or seen it in another early episode but apparently the castle is abandoned because it was "taken" by the Everfree forest. The forest itself doesn't need the ponies to work, the clouds move by themselves, the animals don't need any care, etc, etc... and grows without care of its surroudings. It has a strenght that even Celestia cannot control.

 

...Are you suggesting that the castle was a failed military fortress which was trying to subjugate the evil "freedom magic" of the forest under the princess's will?

[Aisling Ink 195]

...Are you suggesting that the castle was a failed military fortress which was trying to subjugate the evil "freedom magic" of the forest under the princess's will?

 

Not really altought that's surely an inspiring way to look at it xD I think the castle was simply built there without knowing what the Everfree Forest was and how much it would have grown.

[GhostPony750 959]

It would be fun to have an episode about that castle. (You know, I love History...)

Hoping to se moar history in season 4, it's fun to learn about Equestria.

[GreyScholar 1,584]

Lauren Faust stated that castle was where Celestia and Luna once lived with their parents one upon a time in a Q&A... at least that is what she had it be, Hasbro may change that.

[Prince Midnight 817]

The Elements of harmony book that you can get off of Amazon.com states that it was luna and celestias home before the everfree took it over after luna was banished to the moon.