@Background Pony #CCF8
 
Your historiography is very sound, I’ll give you that. My argument is more to do with the geography of Zephyr Heights more than anything else, as Canterlot did not border a desert region where such mountains can be found. Sure, if it is Canterlot and it suffered through some magic-induced (or magicless) climatic catastrophe, then I’ll take back everything I said, but until then I’ll be operating under the auspices that it isn’t built upon a location featured in g4.

@Ebalosus  

 
It was officially declared that Zephyr Heights is located where Canterlot was, or more precisely on the nameless mountain that had a number of mountain peaks on which a new one had been erected. The size of the mountain that Sunny and Izzy saw in the evening is so large - that we only have two or three similar mountains from the G4, the nameless mountain, “Mt. Canterhorn” (one of many fanon names), Mount Everhoof and Mount Everhoot .
 
All indications are that Cloudsdale had moved to Zephyr Heights (we have not yet learned the name of the city itself) where infrastructure had been built for a national transport system for the whole country - it is possible that there is more than one airport outside the one Zippy had found . Paris had four railway stations in all four directions. Special magic spells are needed for cloud walking for those who are not pegasians and griffons, and if Twilight Sparkle had allowed for the complete integration of all people from the earth ponies to dragons, many of these can not use magic, it would be logical if Cloudsdale concentrated on a mountain top. If Twilight had created a vast empire that could include more than one continent, while at the same time seeing Canterlot become a major city at the end of the S9, it would have meant that Zephr Heights was built as a suburb like Le Bourget in Paris. In Copenhagen, an entire city had been built between the capital and the airport.
 
So if Zephyr Heights is right where Canterlot is, it’s actually part of the imperial capital when Equestria was united, and this was undoubtedly something that the pegasi can take pride in, while managing a very large trade and communications network with airships over the whole of Equestria and perhaps even further out. But something had happened; Canterlot seemed to have disappeared in addition to being erased from the memories of the Ponykind, as only a reconstructed map was left at the lighthouse.
 
Since Sunny and Izzy came from the southeast and east, and seemed to use roads on the east side of Rambling Rock Ridge - it meant they could not see the west side of the mountain, and Canterlot is not located above the mountain tops on the great mountain plateau. A lot of the experiences that the ponies had on the journeys have not been shown in the movie, only the broken bridge and the big dead tree were shown. The Mane 5 never reached the west side of the mountainside, they had not even seen the valley where Ponyville was located. This was hidden by the clouds.
 
The biggest riddle Sunny has to solve is finding out where Canterlot and Ponyville are. As the pegasi can now fly again, it is possible that these will explore the mysterious valley that may have been inaccessible after the loss of magic. Zippy noted that no one could remember, so Zephyr Heights could have many surprises if it was part of the large megacity of Canterlot.

@Softy
 
Yeah I’m more inclined to think that the map you linked is more accurate than one that suggests that Zephyr Heights is built on the ruins of Canterlot.

considering the schedule at the abandoned station, it all takes place on east coast of equestria  
Schedule board lists following:  
Bridlewood  
Maretime Bay  
Zephyr…  
Neighagara  
Manehattan  
Regional  
Regional  
Mt Equ…
 
Now the IRL prototypes of the highlighted ones are located in close viscinity
 
So in theory it means that all those destinations are within reach of a single flight.
 
Now it took about 1 day and 1 night to travel from Maretime Bay to Zephyr Heights and about 1 day and 1 night to get to Bridlewood from ZH.  
And here’s the map from the diary.
 
The only inconsistent/confusing thing is sun direction, it’s inconsistant and inaccurate. Unless Sunny’s map is upside down(which could be real)  
_  
edit: i checked with the movie and looks like the map is upside down. South-up, East-left, West-right, North-down.

Nah, I think >>2676332 gets it closer.
 
The areas in the G5 movie are all around what used to be the San Palomino Desert, which has been reclaimed thanks to a change in climate.

Maretime Bay is somewhere in northwest Equestria as we saw in some promotional material, and Bridlewood is probably that forest around the ridge northwest of where Cloudsdale was because of the map Sunny had with her in the book.

did everyone blinked when the film showed a “visit Bridlewood” and “visit Maretime bay” in the abandoned zephyr heights station? Implying these places existed before the Equestira Brake up. Zephyr Heights is not Cantarlot.