Royal Guard Theories.

[The Awesome One 1,314]

Maybe their clones....Star Wars much? But not all of them, kind of like the Empire Storm Troopers. Some of them were ex-clone troopers but a lot were just new recruits. That would explain Shining Armor having a unique look but all the other one's looking the same. But that's just my theory.

 

 

The most possible one is that they have to look like each other because it's part of their uniform. Shining Armor is the captain so he is given a bit more freedom. So he get's to keep his man the way it was and he was already white.

Edited June 11, 2012 by The Awesome One

[Mr. Jaguar 1,402]

I don't think by unique they literally mean every pony's cutie mark is different, I mean, there's only so many special talents, and so many many ponies, there's bound to be thousands of ponies with the same special talent.

 

To clarify my response, a good number of guards could have a cutie mark that involves a shield, yet somehow each one is still unique in a way. One guard could have a striped shield with his family colors, another could have a shield with stars surrounding it, another could have a shield with wings protruding from it, etc.

 

Something like that could work.

 

It's entirely possible that there can be multiple ponies with near-identical abilities out there. You're putting far far too much weight in the MLP wiki's words.

 

 

Just because something's not shown on screen, doesn't automatically mean that it doesn't exist in their universe. My theory still stands.

 

 

This also.

Edited June 11, 2012 by Pegasus25

[Cross Sparkle 101]

well the royal guards should have a cutie mark. i mean they cant be blank they are full grown stallions. and mabey the mlp franshise dont have many ideas for all them cutie marks cause there just so many

[Regality 233]

They most likely each have their own unique talents. Some may even involve things such as combat and survival. But they may be guards for reasons not involving their talents; such as volunteering to defend the kingdom, or there could be some sort of lottery-like draft. Who knows...

~~

[Flame Blitz 85]

They're like clones of each other!

My theory: they're a spell that Celestia did. To keep the order, and knowing that she isn't onipresent, she created a group of ponies that would obey her withou questions: perfect soldiers.

That just gave me a fanfic idea.

[silvadel 1,393]

My thoughts are that it makes them easier to animate having their cutie marks obscured. It also as others have said hides their strengths and weaknesses from a potential enemy. I mean if you were fighting a royal guard you might do it differently depending upon if you saw a shield, a bear, or musical notes.

[zzuxon 16]

I'd be inclined to say they are all clones of a handful of different ponies, but I actually play MLP: RiM as a Unicorn training for the royal guard so, I guess they just dye their coats.

[rainbow_hearts 148]

My theory. They are normal guard ponies and nothing is weird or wrong with them.

 

 

Also some more words down here for the heck of it

[Zygen 6,065]

Maybe they're all unique, but at the same time their the same.

Like maybe all of there talents are for being royal guards, but they are represented differently.

Afterall the cutiemarks themselfs are unique, I don't think that means the talents are all unique.

I mean afterall, Isn't all of applejacks family all related to apples? There special talents are all apple related, but they're cutiemarks are unique even if the talent isn't.

 

See what I'm getting at?

[Aerial~Shot 177]

I believe that the Royal Guards all have special talents that are in some way useful for being a Royal Guard, toughness, intelligence, martial arts, some type of magical or flight ability, tenacity, et cetera. I would assume that they have different cutie marks, but they're obscured by the uniform to make the guards themselves much more uniform.

 

I theorize that being an on-duty Royal Guard probably requires the pony in question dye his coat a specific color as a part of some military dress code.

 

This theory makes a lot of sense to me. The guards' cutie marks are most likely all different, but still something useful to them as guards.

 

All the pegasus guards are grey, and the unicorn guards are white, so this dying-their-coat-according-to-uniformity would work. Shining Armor - a unicorn guard - is also white.

[NyxChick12345 5]

Well, I think the armor they wear is enchanted, to make them white, and have blue manes and tails, of make them grey, or make them look like dragons. The enchantment takes away the cutie mark while the pony is wearing the armor

 

Two ponies cannot have the same cutie mark, but two ponies can obviously have the same TALENT. Just look at Applejack and Big Macintosh. Trixie and Twilight. They probably special talents like shields and swords. Or they could have other cutie marks, like chairs or plants because being a royal guard isn't really that hard. All you have to do is stand there and look intimidating.

[мσℓт 40]

Heh.

 

They might be like Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny.

 

SO MUCH OF THEM.

 

AND ONE BROCK.

 

But hmm.

 

That is odd.

 

Maybe Celestia had a spell to duplicate one guard into another.

 

Or make her own guards.

[Luximus 481]

I think they do have their cutie marks, and it would be something related to the fact that they protect the two Princesses. Or they are there because it's what they truly want to do in life/it's what they are required to do. Take us, for example, we join the military to fight for our freedom and peace because we want to and we have to. Oh yeah, I have a friend who says if he was a pony, he'd be a guard with a shield for a cutie mark. It's what he wants to do, and it's his destiny.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

Well it could be a guard does have a cutie mark, but each guard has a special skill or ability that the other can't do. Maybe one is good with throwing spears, while another is good at firing a catapult? They are hidden so the enemy does not know what skill they have. It could even be possible that a pony can obtain the same cutie mark as someone else. We've just never seen it before.

[100 beasts kaidou 321]

I dont know guys. they seem very VERY boring and bland, they barely do shit. they dont have personalitys. they blindly follow the princesses. even though I dislike the way SA is potrayed i think hes 1000 times better than the other royal gaurds

[Nature's Spell 526]

A better question is why they suck at protecting their Princess? They are as bad as Storm Troopers! A few things I agree with. They dye their coat/mane and their cutie marks can be as varied as any other pony, but likely have something to do with their chosen profession.

 

I wonder if Twilight will be assigned a bodyguard? My guess is no but I could see Shining Armor doing it against her will. Could be a cool fanfic. Your brother assigned me to you, I will do my job, even if it annoys you. Twilight would resist but come to some kind is agreement.

 

The Ponyguard: Never let her out of your sight. Never let your guard down. Never fall in love.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Nature Spell

[100 beasts kaidou 321]

A better question is why they suck at protecting their Princess? They are as bad as Storm Troopers! A few things I agree with. They dye their coat/mane and their cutie marks can be as varied as any other pony, but likely have something to do with their chosen profession.

 

I wonder if Twilight will be assigned a bodyguard? My guess is no but I could see Shining Armor doing it against her will. Could be a cool fanfic. Your brother assigned me to you, I will do my job, even if it annoys you. Twilight would resist but come to some kind is agreement.

 

The Ponyguard: Never let her out of your sight. Never let your guard down. Never fall in love.

actually i dont think she will. only luna aand celestia have ones while Blueblood and Cadnece dont. besides that will ruin the slice of life episodes

[Nature's Spell 526]

 

actually i dont think she will. only luna aand celestia have ones while Blueblood and Cadnece dont. besides that will ruin the slice of life episodes

I agree with you, but it would be funny to see or read. I so wish I had time to write a fanfic. I guess I could just not work or sleep. :-)

[Officer Strike 152]

Royal guard? My name is Officer Strike and i am new to mlp forums but I am a royal guard and you can ask me lot about royal guard life

[silvadel 1,393]

As for people thinking, "There are too many royal guards," look at the size of Manehattan.  It is just that there are more ponies than you think and hence more guards.

[Kiri 7,277]

I think the show artists find it easier to make all the guards look bland, except for the ones that have more prominent roles, like Shining Armor. There was an idea floating around that the armor the guards wear is enchanted so that their identities are concealed for security purposes. Captains get to have custom, non-enchanted armor so that they stand out, since they are high ranking leaders. I somewhat accept this theory as it relates to the show, but have a separate idea of how the guards would look if we were to "step into Equestria" ourselves. I think every pony has a unique cutie mark. The Wonder Bolts all have similar talents in speed and agility, yet their marks portray that talent differently. There aren't as many Wonder Bolts as there are guards, and they also have a more substantial role via their interactions with Dash, so that is why I believe they get to keep their uniqueness. So why can't there be different ways to depict talents related to defending Equestria? My head cannon is that if Equestria were real, the guards would look just as unique as every other pony, if Flash Sentry is anything to go by. His mark is personalized to him, but still reflects a guard-related talent. That's just how I see it.

[The Nth Doctor 652]

That explains why the Royal Guard are absolutely useless in an actual crisis

 

They don't have Cutie Marks and are therefore talentless except at standing around doing nothing

 

 

 

Or the armor makes them all look alike so that villains can't target a guard's family to infiltrate the ranks

[Watcher 0]

Actually since almost every guard has the same main and coat colours i would say they are more like an ethnicity. What I think is that somewhere in Equestria there is a town full of white coated and blue maned ponies that train themselves to be royal guards . Since they are still individuals each one would probably have his own special talent, but their main goal would be to become a royal guard.

[KatonRyu 1,026]

Personally, I think that minor differences in the Cutie Marks could still lead to a lot of ponies joining the Royal Guard. One could have a sword, another two crossed swords, a mace, a shield, a crowned shield, a sword and a shield...there are so many military or royal symbols that could mean they have some kind of talent to do with fighting.

 

Alternatively, it could just be their job. Their talent could be gardening, but if they can't get a job there and they're strong because they know how to work in the fields, they might join the Guard to earn money. I highly doubt every single pony has a job that matches their Cutie Mark, just like people IRL often have jobs very different from their passions or talents out of necessity.

Edited January 6, 2016 by KatonRyu

[cmarston1 5,951]

They are all magical clones of each other.