@CronoM  
“Sir, this is an Arby’s.”

“Yes….Starswirled’s failed attempt of summoning my true essence after failing to save Stygian, whom instead of letting him become the fellow forebearer he was meant to be, Starswirled instead allowed to fall into darkness.”
 
“The seed contained many truths, powerful love and harmony, but still greatly lacked wisdom, understanding and balance. Without those things, while its light may push back almost ANY darkness, it can only forced upon temporarily. Very little true harmony and understanding can be achieved with those trinkets alone. There will always be evil that resists harmony in all its forms if understanding is never achieved. Starswirled and his apprentice Celestia failed to comprehend this truth, and endured great suffering because of it. Those 6 trinkets alone carry great power but have great risk even in the wisest of hands. Weaponizing Harmony in such a manor is like blasting a hole through the very fabric of Karma. It can heal, and hurt, and sometimes make the divide between light and darkness even farther then ever.”
 
“But do not despair my Equestrian children. When darkness returns from the failings of the past, a new generation will emerge to meet it.”
 
“The one who doesn’t believe in the impossible will wear my colors and shall herald a destiny to the true chosen ones and bring the power of the elements to the new era with a great boom across the Equestrian sky, creating an impossible bond of destiny and friendship that will define their generation and many more.”
 
“The one who carries the mark of the tree will be the spark, the symbol, that the elements can reawaken around. She will be both guide and be guided the most, for she knows only the light. Her growth as this person, the wielder of boundless magic without a moral, will reflect the growth of the elements in either realm.”
 
“And the one who will succeed where Stygian and Starswirled failed will inherit Celestia’s mark, as well as the symbol of balance to remind her one day that both good and evil exist in her. Due to the same misguidance and lack of understanding that led to her sister’s fall and banishment, Celestia’s true heir will face many trials and temptations of darkness like Stygian did, but will rise to the challenge of her own failures and become a person worthy of my final gift to both pony and humankind. While improving herself everyday, she will also guide the Spark to be a better person then her master, for both ponies AND humans under my responsibility. “
 
“And all 7 of the chosen ones, across dimensions, shall surpass their forebearers in ways they couldn’t even imagine.”
 
“You think think this tree is a god? No. It is simply a failed avatar of me, a mirror of what ponies wanted me to be at the time, a force that can banish and destroy evil.”
 
“This homunculus of a god seed is not what you seek…..
 

 
….for I am the god of Equestria. And I answer only to the 7 who truly know me.”

@Selaphiel  
Whatever sentient magical being lives inside the tree of harmony probably decided to grow into the tree like shape, probably because Ponies feel more comfortable around it when it looks like a tree, just like how it grew two castles and makes a holographic projection of Twilight Sparkle, because ponies and other creatures can interact with it more comfortably.

I don’t think the tree itself was anything other than a tree shaped crystal formation that was merely used to house the Harmony magic.
 
Just like any other magic imbued objects and lifeforms in their universe. Including the “Elements of Harmony”. They’re really just mere jewelery without the magic they contained.

@RIG  
It’s funny how the show managed to fix that

@Diaz  
Imagine if the tree of harmony had never came into being,  
if some wizard thousand of years ago had recklessly left magical shit laying around…

@Diaz  
And this tree is also sentient

Turns out, it was all just a seed from some smug wizard.

Yahwe, protect us from pastel horses.

Also I have a headcanon where the tree of harmony is a spirit itself and the reason it allowed the elements to be taken in the first place was because every major event in the show so far including why it didn’t stop starlight glimmer from abusing the time travel spell despite how dangerous her interference with time was is because it’s just another part of it’s master plan.

It sucks it didn’t have some sort of powerful “Tree Spirit Guardian” the Mane 6 would have to confront to get to the tree to save Equestria.

The season 4 opening and finale along with a good chunk of season 5 does give heavy implications that the tree of harmony is sentient especially considering that the cutie map is connected to the tree of harmony.

@.  
Once again, Outer God.  
All logic has no meaning.

@Kharn The Generally Swell Guy
 
No, the being you speak of would look more like some sort of growing, flesh, tree shaped, thing… Covered in mouths.
 
This tree is simply the full power of the rainbow of light converted to tree form with a few fruits to still use the rainbows power.
 
This spirit of freindship seems to be a interdimentinal being, one who I’m willing to bet made the elements.

@Ping_chan  
Shub is an outer god. Therefore all other arguments are invalid.

@.  
Naaah, it’s totally that weird sparkly tree thingy, Shub-Niggurath.

Fools… You forget who is the true master of harmony here…
 
 

 

 
 

@F  
Oh my dark gods that is genius.

@F  
Yes!!

@Kharn The Generally Swell Guy  
I guess I could go to the forums and see if anyone is interested in old Quake 1 items. * tosses rocket launcher and nail gun to the floor *

@Ping_chan  
shrugs I ’unno. Pawn ’em?

@Kharn The Generally Swell Guy  
But then what am I supposed to do with these runes that I collected?

@Ping_chan  
This ain’t a video game, son! This is the real world! Can’t you tell by the magical tree that grows jewels that fire rainbow lasers?!

@Kharn The Generally Swell Guy  
It worked in the video game Quake!