[SPOILERS] The Battle of Canterlot

[Thewookie Wooker 64]

Aside from the Mane 6 fighting a ton of Changelings. The Royal Guard has taken quite a bit of flak for their complete collapse in their time of need. I have a few ideas on what happened.

 

1. Inteligence was lacking- for starters the Candence fiasco would have only came to light briefly before the fall of the shield leaving a mere few minutes, for any royal guards who saw the real Candence with Twilight charging the ceremony's location, to actually spread the news that the Princess was an imposter. Still leaving which enemy it was in the first place absent. The shield falling in itself would of shocked many of the guards regardless.

 

2. The city was infiltrated prior to the all out invasion- Changlings may have seized or intercepted intelligence reports. They may have captured a reinforcements train and replaced them with Changelings.

 

3. They were overrun- The Changelings used Mass Assault tactics and plainly overran the Royal Guard. The Chinese were known to do this in later stages of the Korean War and USSR in WWII.

 

4. There was still a battle occurring at the time- We only saw a few captured Royal Guards meaning others could of continued to fight as likely seen by the many large explosions during the outer-view shots. Additionally, since this show is still supposed to be for little kids in general, a massive battle scene with Royal Guards and Changelings duking it out with spears and swords wouldn't have been allowed. Unlike the Mane 6's hand to hand combat + party cannon/ Twi gun; the Royal Guards are equipped with spears which = stabbing which = blood.

 

 

I bet they fought in the towers and in the streets, in the buildings, and in the gardens. They never surrendered! And if they lost the city, the Equestrian Empire, beyond the capital would carry on the struggle. And in God's good time, the Mane 6 would capture the EoH and liberate the "old"

[Eenohay 318]

Yeah to be honest, the Mane 6 wiped out a significant amount of them by themselves, and only Twilight had some sort of advantage. You would think that the Changelings really didn't stand a chance against Equestria

[Starshine 16,330]

Simple, few of them changed into a Royal Guard and smacked the real ones from behind, giving their already massive number of brethren a higher hooves

[Jadefire 2,796]

Yeah, the changelings attacked from straight above with less than 120 seconds warning and immediately started swarming. My theory is that by the time the guards could get reorganized (the guard checkpoints seemed to be expecting a traditional ground attack), the city was pretty much already under Changeling control.

 

Not to mention possible infiltrators (like Chrysalis) and the changelings' shapeshifting abilities would play merry hell with logistics.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Jadefire

[Thewookie Wooker 64]

Logistics if it were a pony would have cried lol.

[RagingTwilight 101]

Yeah, the Royal Guard was completely thrown off-guard...not to mention the changelings zerged like the baddies they are. But I have no doubt the Royal Guard fought as hard as they could.