Honestly, I was half expecting them to do something with the letter that Garble tossed in the lava in Dragon Quest, but I guess not.

Brushie.

@Ace: Given that the changes to the intro between "Luna Eclipsed" and "Sisterhooves Social" made the second train car look more like Fluttershy's Nursery Train Car, I think that's supposed to be it.

Also, I remember hearing Shining Armor's VA Andrew Francis say in Trevor Devall's Voiceprint interview with him that Shining Armor showed up at the beginning of Season 2. Deleted Scene?

edited 20th Jul '12 7:52:30 AM by Whatshisgame

@ed I thought it would be an invitation to the wedding, and when Twilight starts yelling at Shiny, he responds, "Didn't you get my letter?"

Error on his part?

@Sky: Something like that. But then again, the letter was specifically stated to be from Princess Celestia.

edited 20th Jul '12 7:53:47 AM by edvedd

Ah, they totally missed that opportunity for CONTINUITY

@ed "Princess Celestia cordially invites you to the marriage of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor."

Something formal.

Oh yeah, they also haven't brought in AJ's truck either

edited 20th Jul '12 7:55:35 AM by AceOfScarabs

@Lurker: On the other hand with them having been to Canterlot more then a few times you would think that Twilight would have taken the time to see these ponies that were so important to her early life, and after that her friends would have at least known their names.

Anyway, yes getting to see more of them should improve their standing if they weren't bringing in another alien element with them ("you guys now rule a whole country now? Why didn't THAT come up?").

Then when Twi didn't respond, she sent another one on slightly shorter notice.

I dunno WHY I expected them to do that, but it may have worked.

And let's hope it stays that way.

edited 20th Jul '12 7:56:59 AM by edvedd

@Mio: I agree completely with Perpetual Lurker. As for them ruling a country, why would it come up? Everypony who it affects would have known already.

Don't forget that one of the other toy sets says "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna believe that Princess Cadance will bring happiness to the Crystal Empire!" which makes it sound like Cadance (and by extension Shining Armor) is new to the job.

On the subject of toy stuff making it into the show, I hope we see more toy ponies as background ponies; Blossomforth was awesomeforth, and it's a shame that she's the only Canon Immigrant we've gotten so far.

Not to mention. PRINCESS Cadence. It was implied that she was major official of SOME country and that it was not Equestria.

Theory: There was a former Ruler to the Crystal empire that died/was eliminated/imprisoned recently (Possibly mysteriously) forcing Cadance to take over things suddenly, This leads to serious repercussions that forces cadance to ask the Mane Six for help, and it gives a villain a motive.

The said villains motive is either control or Genocide from what we have seen so far. The former is standard MLP fare but the latter, hoo boy.

edited 20th Jul '12 8:06:29 AM by stevebat

Cadence's ancestors might have fled to Equestria after some historical war or disaster.

....GRAH! I need solid canon now so I can plan my story accordingly!

Edit: Actually, if things go the way you guys are speculating, this could be good. Very good indeed. There's nothing that creates intrigue like a foriegner taking the reigns of a country.

edited 20th Jul '12 8:08:29 AM by CDRW

Not really. Outside of her title it was never implied that she ruled anything in particular, let alone a foreign country.

I mean, we see PRINCE Blueblood and beyond his title we are given nothing to believe that he rules a foreign country.

The brother thing does become a bit of an issue when Twilight's birthday was in season 2, and in Canterlot no less. I mean I guess we get some sort of nod to it with how nicely the gaurds treat Twilight in It's About Time but that's easily excused with her being Celestia's student.

Basically Shining and Cadance's entrance was adaquately implemented. They were used well in their own story and only felt somewhat forced and would have benefitted greatly from a bit more foreshadowing, like a one off comment or two like Twilight mentioning learning a lot from her babysitter in Baby Cakes or mentioning family being in the audience during Hearth's Warming Eve, you know, also being in Canterlot.

But nobody's perfect.

I still like all the fanon we made regarding the Crystal Empire/Kingdom. The idea of the King in the Mountain battling the council for control was pretty intriguing.

edited 20th Jul '12 8:11:31 AM by SkyStrike

Today's Teefury shirt is cute.. but too yellow for me to wear

Epona :D

Anyway, why can't you wear yellow, is it incompatible with you or something?

I'm just going to note that the reason Twilight might not have visited her brother is because he's basically a high-ranking military official. Chances are he could have been deployed elsewhere or something. Heck, even when his wedding is like the next day, he's still on duty. I will agree that the there's a good chunk of Remember the New Guy issues, but I don't think it's that big of a plot hole that Twilight is never seen visiting him. For all we know, she did and we never saw it because it was unrelated to the story.

With Cadence...I really don't know. I'm pretty sure that Blueblood's title is probably just as social thing (he was originally supposed to be a Duke, if I remember right), but the fact that Cadence is an alicorn implies that she's a fair bit more important than he is. Just have to wait and see, I guess.

Turtle is obviously a member of Green Lantern Corps.

edited 20th Jul '12 8:25:19 AM by JapaneseTeeth

I like to imagine Shiny was being trained in the Officer Cadet Course over much of the first two seasons, so he wasn't anywhere for Twi to meet.

@T Butter: That is indeed... extremely yellow.

edited 20th Jul '12 8:26:52 AM by edvedd

My personal headcanon for Blueblood is that he's a descendant of Princess Platinum, and retains his title as per an ancient treaty between the races, but has no actual authority in the government.

Thinking about it, I like the bit of world building with the jewel mines under Canterlot. It's now filed under 'Something they don't really need to expand on, but is interesting nonetheless'.

edited 20th Jul '12 8:32:44 AM by edvedd

@Ed: I like to imagine there's an ancient enemy hidden in the deeps, HFS-style.