And there's more in the way.

Not from me, though. I can't make puns to save my life.

I've always assumed Cadence and Shining Armour do the best they can to get the crystal ponies back to normal, there's no way you can just cure 1000 years of Mind Rape and depression. Still, I'm pretty sure they're doing a very good job at ruling fairly and cheering up the ponies. Though I'd imagine Shining at least has semiregular visits to Celestia to serve in the guard.

Wouldn't he have retired from his position when he moved to the Crystal Empire with his wife? No sense being the Captain when you're not even going to be in the area.

Well, Cadance's powers are rather suited to helping the crystal ponies. Even without taking into account how powerful I think she is.

He's probably not captain anymore, but at the least must have reports and advice to give to the pony soldiers. And yes, they must exist. I'd imagine there isn't as much war as on Earth, but they must at least have skirmishes with the other races now and again. Besides, Shining and Celestia demonstrate stern discipline in times of crisis, so that kind of training must come from somewhere, if only by implication. Since Equestria is implied to be a pretty decent-sized country, there must be many races wanting such well-maintained and fertile lands.

I think Equestria and the Griffon Kingdoms could have a sort of 'love hate' relationship like Britain and France have/had. They've quarreled in the past...they mock each other...but they also frequently ally up too.

but that would require them to have someone to ally up against. Do they fight the minotaurs?

Yeah, I'm under the assumption that someone's been appointed to his old position of Captain of the Royal Canterlot Guard, we simply haven't been introduced to them yet.

In semi-related news, I love bat ponies drawn by Equestria Prevails. In fact, all his royal guard stuff is awesome. Behold! Wild Fire Guard!

edited 30th Jan '13 9:38:03 AM by Calnos

Hell, the ponies themselves are worth invading for. With the strength of Earth Ponies, they'd make excellent slave labor. The Pegasai would make great use in warfare, and just imagine the destruction if Unicorns could be trained for battle. their levitation powers alone could do a lot of damage if working together, enough of them could hurl large boulders, disrupt sensative cargo and supply wagons, and that's not even getting into those with powerful magic like Trixie or Twilight Sparkle.

Oops, how did I get so grim dark?

@ Blissey

Hogs! Who are like the Huns/Mongels/Vikings/general raider race!

EDIT:

Those bat ponies shame me with their awesomeness.

edited 30th Jan '13 9:39:28 AM by ApplelightLimited

On the subject of nations, where the heck are the other zebra? For some reason I tend to think they're nomadic, but I'm not sure why. Also, could their magic be considered the witch to the wizardish unicorns?

I think Twilight said zebras are from "a far away land" in Zecora's debut episode. Most zebras don't immigrate to Equestria apparently.

Now there's something to explore in a future episode or Expanded Universe; How and why did Zecora move to Equestria?

Also what kind of time shenanigans caused them to retroactively spring into existence?

@Dark: The problem is that all the attributes that make them useful for labor also make them really tough to keep under control.

True, but if they can be isolated, and brainwashed into thinking no one needs them aside from those that have captured them, they'd probably break rather easily. Earth Ponies strike me as very dependant on others for inner strength. Pinkie will go nuts if she doesn't have anyone to be happy or make friends with, and similarly Applejack can put up with a number of demands, but doesn't seem to know what to do if no one needs her. Given that, if Earth Ponies can be twisted into depending on their slavers, that will create an unbreakable loyalty they would find very hard indeed to reject.

In the next fanfic of my fanverse, you find out about this! Long story short, zebras with a special talent related to anything magical or of a similar nature are expected to go on a sbbatical outside of zebrica to expand their studies before returning to bring new knowledge to empower the zebra kingdom. Zecora was concerned about recent behaviour of the King Zebra (yes, this is very loosely based on the parody German comic) moved to the other side of the world for her sabbatical and never returned.

Not sure how that particular pony does it. I'd expect the punk, metalhead, and biker ponies would brand themselves.

who knew that Cadance had a taste for meat?

I thought it was going to be something suggestive.

I'd expect the punk, metalhead, and biker ponies would brand themselves.

Ouch.

With Swastika?

A pony worth fighting for?

At least with that they'd actually be a thundering herd

Best princess.

That's the real finale.