So me and Clarity had this debate.
We both agreed that the events of
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is both canon and history in
My Little Pony: A New Generations.
Thing is, at one point, all of Equestria was populated with ponies up until Opaline caused a division amongst the pony-kind that divided them once again into pony tribes. Now most of Equestria appears to be nothing but countryside save for three settlements for each pony kind. How can Equestria once be populated by hundreds of millions of ponies is now reduce to a few thousands in specific areas?
Let's say, hypothetically, that Equestria was the size of America which has the rough population of 332,403,650 and if it was divided into four. Three for each three kinds of ponies and a fourth for "other" (griffins, changelings etc) then you'd still have 83100912.5 American ponies.
Are you telling a small coastal town had a population of 83100912.5 Earth Ponies? It doesn't look like it. Coastal towns have around one and a half thousand in number of residents and Maritime Bay is believed to be the only home to all Earth Ponies in all of Equestria.
Bridlewood is regarded as a hamlet for the Unicorn population. Because it's in a forest surrounded by trees it's kind of hard to say for sure the exact number of Unicorns there.
Given Zephyr Heights is surrounded by clouds with obscure what appears to be a grand metropolis, I can sorta buy most of the pegasi population living there.
But other that that, the rest of Equestria between these three settlements appear to be mostly countryside.
So way I figure, Opaline must have started rumours and fights which triggered a series of event which caused some sort of near-genocidal catastrophe, leaving just enough few thousand ponies left to settle in their own settlements.