>>/10500/
> Pet Theory

> I’m not sure how specifically it could be applied or even if it really fits, but part of me likes to imagine just from that line Twilight mentioned in passing that at this point in the show, the canon really is that Ponyville and Canterlot alone are more or less the entirety of Equestria,

I think that is a interesting theory, a model for canon, if you will. Most fans I've seen either try to reconcile it as one package or hate the show as non-canon past a certain point. (or "it's just a kid show, don't think deeply into it!) I can sympathize partly with the later two but I'm closer to you on the one. Here is my model of canon and how I go about theorizing that I have wanted to explain for awhile now but never got around too. 

I think, for analysis of Episodes and the shows' lore itself, it is better to view things through a lens of:
Season Canon:
There are patterns that hold for entire seasons but may not make sense in a future season. 
Episode Canon:
There are patterns that only hold for single episodes, or one off lines and implications that never went anywhere.

Certain things, like, for example, in Season 1, a throwaway line might just be that, in Season 4, a throwaway line you might be able to make a pretty elaborate theory of intent because the show was trying to build and consolidate it's lore cohesively. Or for example, as mentioned previously, Canterlot being over a day away from Ponyville in one Episode, but never being that way for other future episodes or even really previous. That would be an example of "single episode" canon in my eyes. I don't like just disregarding certain things or taking what later episodes and retcons without considering, and sometimes favoring, earlier implications and the like. 

So, from there, that is where I might try to "construct" a series canon, on the basis of what patterns held and what things were continually implied. For example: to go way further out from these seasons, in Season 8, Father Knows Beast really implies that Twilight is a mother figure to Spike, but Season 9's Sparkle Seven goes the complete opposite route and implies Spike is a younger brother. I would look through the series and see which one held up more over taking the newer at face value and/or coming up with a theory to explain the contradiction. Not that can't be still fun!  As for Spike, he really is more of a pet sidekick, a talking dog if you will! joking aside. The idea of all the powerful magic messing things up and making all the contradictions we see I think is a pretty cool idea. I have seen bits and peinces of that concept in fanfiction but never like that. I think you should hold onto that theory and maybe try to build it up as that is a pretty novel way to explain everything. Feels like you could build a case for it. 

 >>/10499/
> Making comfy places for animals to inhabit is something I loved to do for my cat growing up and seeing this all makes me feel like I understand her a little bit. 

Cute, I tried to make comfy places for my cat growing up sometimes but she had her own preferences. I can relate to both that and finding that detail interesting.

> Another curious detail is Twilight saying “smoke is covering all of Equestria” – naturally at this stage Equestria as shown has just been Canterlot and Ponyville, with the Appleloosas having their colony out in the west, so it makes more sense and even feels a bit gen1-ish, where a lot of the conflicts in that show between the various magical creatures were over small fields, forests and otherwise small plots of land. 

Every second longer that dragon sleeps is another acre of Equetria is covered in smoke!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

> Now that I think is the real reason, but we could probably say something like this is a district called “central Equestria” or something and so it’s called Equestria for short. You could replace Twilight’s mentions of Equestria with the word “Ponyville” and it’d probably still make coherent sense as an episode, 

It would make sense, in regards to the scale of "a