I've been writing a story for several weeks now, and it goes over a bit more of the darker, warrior side of the Equestrian military... since I haven't seen anything to do with season three I don't know how accurate my take on the guards would be.

For the most part, I assumed that each of the guards were like normal ponies when their armor is off... what with the many different colors and cutie marks... but when the full set of guard armor is worn, the aesthetic features such as mane, tail, and coat color change to a specific color unless the character is wearing the officer's armor.

I also believed a similar thing with the night guards.

How many of you think that this is a good idea? personally I like the idea because it gives more of an explanation why the guards look exactly the same in the shows.

I've always imagined it that the uniformity has nothing to do with the armor, and their colors are altered before they put it on, then the Cutie Mark just gets covered. Your idea makes a lot of sense though, and you could fly with it easily.

My personal headcanon states that the day and night guard are the same, and that there are enchantments on the guards armour to give them that uniformed look, changing between day and night as needed.

I also like to think the day guard uniform is a sort of defensive one, whilst the night is an offensive uniform, with enchantments that aid the guards in those tasks.

As for Shinning Armor, he just happens to be born looking like a day guard, which probably lead to a fascination with them at a young age, causing him to get his cutie mark in protecting people. His armour also contains the night guard enchantment, giving him a "night mode".

Honestly, all military personnel should somehow look alike. It kinda represents a unified body. I think your idea will work.

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Personally i'm going with the concept that the armor changes the appearance, as it make sense to me. I'm also using it in my own fic when the main character retrieves his own barding at one point and wears it as sort of an advanced/ beastmode form of protection, both visually intimidating and badass alongside all the other guards wearing the same armor.

There is a plot hole the size of Canterlot in that theory. To say that anypony who wears that armor gets disguised as a member of the highest security section of the military is just a disaster waiting to happen. Think about it for a minute. Magically scanning for disguised infiltrators becomes impossible if every guard is disguised.

My personal headcanon is bleach, (in my fic Genealogy) as a tradition after graduation, because there is almost no weird tradition that millitant groups have not embraced over the years. Just look up the Roman Legions, or the Spartans.

824012 Night Guards belong to a separate species of ponies known as Bat Ponies, Thestrals, Noctrals, or Negasi.

i think its more of the regimentation of military life that makes everyone equal, just to make it look like 1 strong, disciplined force..

BUT... it'd be cool if u can play that out the right way xD

Mabye you only ever see two twins that look the same as each other. And those twins had twins who had twins who had twins.

Most people's headcanon is that the armor is enchanted. Personally I wonder why Shining Armor's fur and mark doesn't change if that's the case, but hey.

Also, the guard is just a guard. Equestria in my headcanon doesn't have a standing army. It simply has a civillian militia in every town. Think early colonial America.

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Yup. Spells to give a more or less uniform appearance is pretty much the standard fanon.

The fact that we've also seen grey guards might be a difference in rank, or division, or whatever.
They might even be the Night Guard. Assuming such a thing exists. We haven't seen Batponies/Negasi/Whatever on anything but Nightmare Night. You could always posit that as a one-time illusion by Luna, for effect, if you felt the need. I mean, obviously she donned the ol' batcloak and got out the doom chariot too.

Seemingly the higher ranks, like Shining Armor, get to keep a distinctive appearance.

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Meh. They might have callsigns, codes, small differences in armor/markings and so on.
Or it might not be considered not much of an issue. The Guard we see in Canterlot might effectively be a more ceremonial guard than anything. Something for show. The Equestrian Army, if such a thing exists, might be an entirely different body, without all the flash.

Personally, a separate army, which takes things a bit more seriously, is the headcanon I tend to go for.

My personal headcanon is that the Royal Guard distinguishes itself from the Night Guard somehow, and that each has its own captain and chain of command. The Royal (or Day) Guard ultimately sees Princess Celestia as its commander-in-chief, and the Night Guard does the same for Luna.

The armor they wear is unique to each individual, but they all bear the same enchantment to give the Guard a uniform appearance. The Royal Guard, led by Captain Shining Armor, bears Celestia's white and gold colors, while the Night Guard is given a darker armor set and gray coats.

Opliptera, or bat-ponies, are a rare breed of pegasi of unknown origin. Most of them serve under Luna's command in the Night Guard, and they are immediately identifiable by their slitted eyes, fangs and leather wings - traits that Luna does not have them hide.

Now, here's where you're going to differ completely from me, so feel free to ignore this part.

When it comes to combat abilities... both divisions of the Guard train hard every day to meet the exacting standards of active duty. But centuries of peacetime have made those standards ineffective. They can't fight at all, and are only good for crowd control and general policing.

The only ponies aware of this are Celestia and Luna themselves.

It's the greatest secret in all Equestria - peace isn't a choice, but the only option. If Equestria were to be invaded, they'd be routed immediately, unless a power along the lines of the Elements of Harmony was to intervene.

My fic deals heavily with the Dark Guard; though the ones that are in this particular troop are all Unicorns. I do like the idea of enchanted armor though. I read one story where the Human befriended a stallion in the Royal Guard, but was unable to recognize him due to the fact that when the stallion put on his armor. A camouflage effect happened, and made him look like any other Guardsman.

I like to think that the guards for whatever faction are just normal guys and gals that are just military personal. The fact that they all look alike in the show is just due to the same model, and set of animations are used to save time, and money. I also like the enchanted armor as well. You would have to assume that being in a Goddess's personal military would afford some benefits. Not just some crappy mass produced hammered plate.

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Oh, it`s many a debated topic.

My personal model for Equestrian military is such...
Army is predominantly air-capable and uses airships as mobile bases and artillery platforms. Airships tend to house several squadrons of pegasi for close-quarters area defense, might ferry around unicorn spec-ops detachments and have a mixed crew.
Ground-side engineering is primarily earth ponies and some unicorns. Defense is performed via series of strongholds that allow to stall the enemy until the strike airships arrive. Offense, appropriately, is conducted by airships with pegasus support. Airships provide long-range firepower and can shell the fortifications from a significant distance.
In case of all-out invasion, strike airships spear the attack and hold the ground for transport airships to offload the grounside crews. Once the groundside crew establishes a stronghold, air group moves on. Thus invasion is a series of quick grabs with immediate establishment of fortifications that allow to observe and control the immediate area and hold the line until the airships arrive in case of retaliatory attack.
Additionally, Equestria has a sizable counterintelligence group that invests heavily in offensive spying - like misdirection and sabotage.

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Plot hole goes away when it requires the armor be customized to the guard who wears it, as I use in my fics.

My theory is that they are like replica forces,

And that they are made to be able to keep up with their alicorn superiors in battle

and when ever somepony "Just happens to be born looking like either of the guards" its because the DNA was planted there

My headcanon is the Guard is just one small part of the larger Equestrian Army, like how the Foot Guards are just a unit of the British Army.

I see the Royal Guard as being an elite group of hoof-picked guards. Since the Princesses are basically physical goddesses, they function as eyes, ears, security, and peacekeeping forces. They won't do any good against Discord, but if someone tries to run at Celestia with a knife or other weapon, they're going to get a beatdown. Earth pony guards generally patrol the streets of Canterlot and the halls of the castle, and can double as 'plain-coat' undercover security. Pegasi guard her during travel and provide air coverage (not to mention look imposing, which is 90% of the deterrence). Unicorns guard the throne room and have fairly extensive skill in magical combat. They are very disciplined, rigorously trained, and unshakably loyal. I imagine that there's some combination of simple glamor and actual grooming involved in their uniform appearance.

The Night Guard are the bat ponies - I heard 'tulpar' from one fic, the other variants above are new to me. I lean heavily towards 'actually a separate species' rather than magical alteration. They have similar elite training to the Royal Guard. The slitted pupils and ears provide huge sensory advantages in the dark, and the membranous bat-wings allow for much greater maneuverability in the air.

The actual military is mainly active defense forces split between air, ground, and support units. Obviously the pegasi provide the air scouts, light or heavy aerial cavalry, and specialized teams for local weather control or surgical strikes. They're supplemented by airships with various roles, usually as support and power projection.

Ground forces are earth ponies and some unicorns, split between ground scouts, light or heavy infantry, and outriders. Unicorns embedded with infantry units or outriders tend to use utilitarian magic and basic combat spells to protect their comrades and counter opposing magic. Outriders eat supply lines for breakfast.

Support is comprised of every species of pony, and is split between fire support and logistics. Fire support is the artillery and siege weaponry, airships not under the domain of the air forces, combat engineers, most spellcasters, and weather teams. Logistics is the supply, distribution, bureaucracy, and other functions that keep the military machine running smoothly. Generally underestimated - until you don't have them, and then everything goes to hell very fast.

Then you have the reserves, which are... well, in reserve. Militias can also be called up for those times when Equestria is being invaded.

Now it's just a matter of thinking up tactics and strategy... hm.

I prefer to think of them as being a specific breed of pony. Since you know, horses come in breeds and all.

The enchanted armor theory really doesn't work well because of the massive security holes it opens up, as someone else pointed out.

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Depends how the enchantment is handled. If it can be tailored to individual ponies and/or other guards can see through the illusion? Very possible. It could still be faked, but there aren't any perfect security systems.

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That seems like an entirely excessive amount of effort for mass-produced body armor. Also there's the fact that Shining Armor's body doesn't change when he wears his armor. Why would everyone else have this magic armor but he wouldn't? Why would changelings be considered unusual and dangerous if such appearance-changing illusion magic were so commonplace? Why wouldn't this kind of magic be used elsewhere if it's used in such quantities here? When Twilight needed to change her friend's appearances, why did they use paint instead of this illusion magic, which is so commonplace and simple that every single royal guard can have it used on them? The enchanted armor theory just is too convoluted and opens up too many plot holes and conflicts.

I view the royal guard as the police force of Equestria, however since they are all uniform, I cannot support this headcanon. Disregarding that, do you guys think there is some sort of royal navy? Not airships but frigates, brigantines, etc.

All of your questions could easily be addressed, Heliostorm, but instead I want to ask this: "every single royal guard"? It's not exactly a huge amount of ponies, and they are the royal guard.

What I really want to know, though, is what you think the explanation is? Appearance-as-destiny would actually make a lot of sense for the world, where what a parent names their foal has clear implications for their talent or personality. I just don't see it being a popular explanation, but it's either that, easy transformation magic, easy illusion magic, or paint that won't rub off.

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There's a lot of royal guards, we saw at least a few hundred in Canterlot Wedding, and assuming similar density throughout the rest of the Canterlot that comes out to at least several thousand. That's not even getting into possible guard presence in other major cities.

As I said earlier, I believe that most royal guards are specifically their own "breed" (for lack of a better word) of pony. We know already that destinies and appearances are determined genetically: Look at the Apple family, which all share similar destinies and color schemes (all Apple family members are some combination of green, brown/orange, red, and yellow). In addition, the pony notion of destiny results in a caste-like system where each pony is expected to do what their "destiny" (which appears to be determined at birth) dictates without question or ever seeking to try anything else (for example, although Magical Mystery Cure shows us that unicorns can easily control the weather, it's still a task relegated exclusively to pegasi). Thus, it fits perfectly well within the established canon for there to be a genetically interrelated "breed" of ponies that are destined to be royal guards. Exceptions to the rule, however (like Shining Armor), exist, and Celestia is not averse to accepting or promoting talented individuals simply because they don't come from the traditional families.

Whether this explanation is popular or not, I believe it is by far the simplest theory (in terms of introducing no new assumptions that must be made) that explains our observations, without introducing any major plot holes.

I believe in servitor cloning of some individuals, and they only have some random generic cutie mark or a bar-code covered by the armor. Otherwise, there's selective breeding and ethnocentrism afoot. No low breed unicorn or pegasi, or any earth ponies, are allowed in the guard.

Take your pick.