Does Equestria need a stronger army?

[TransitPony 219]

If Equestria is getting attacked by all these outside forces, then yeah it should get a military. 

I always wondered how a unified air force (Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts* putting aside differences, teaming up together) would work out... 

*Especially leaving anything related to Nightmare Moon.  

[Senko 459]

Rather explains Celestia's support of Twilight's friendship school over the EEA they're potentially gaining strong allies who can help fight conventional armies.

This also play's into my personal theory that Flurry Heart was born a princess of destruction so she can grow up amongst these more warlike races (yaks, dragons, griffons) and get a different mindset to most ponies. She is Equestria's response to all these threats Celestia raises the sun, Luna raises the moon, Cadence protects the crystal empire by keeping the Umbral ponies sealed away with the power of love, Twilight tries to befriend the threats turning them into allies and if you get a situation like the storm king a grown up flurry heart will lead the army against them.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

What we need is an episode focused around the guards.

[Vlazamal 338]

5 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

How I would do it is that since Equestria isn't a federal government, each region would have to train it's own fighting force under an agreed upon set of standards. If you don't follow them, then you'll have to compensate your neighboring towns for coming to your aid. Start simple, like making self defense and first aid a mandatory part of a foal's curriculum.  Same with weapons saftey. They may not need to know how to handle it, but how to be safe can be just as effective. Have regular drills for emergency preparedness. Then, make militia service manditory. Like one year for every adult. Fine them if they refuse. Reward them if they stay longer. That way, your civilians are your reserve. And if all regions agree on the formation of a military, include significant incentives to stay as well as progress through the ranks. It can't be just patriotism and a need for self preservation that gets ponies to stay enlisted. Also station them at the borders. How did no pony notice the Storm Armada travel halfway through the country to reach the capital? 

But while a military is encouraged, it should also be a last resort. Diplomacy, next to magical weapons of fate, is Equestria's strong suit. Deescalation and compromise have worked in the country's favor. Show your enemy the benefits of peace, compared to the burden of war. After all, as Sun Tsu said: "No nation has benefited from prolonged warfare." 

 

7

I wouldn't say that diplomacy has "Worked". Considering that MLP takes place in the span of a few of years and it's gotten invaded like every few months, I would argue that there needs to be SOME deterrence.  Your idea of such a well-regulated militia would be a good step. However, Equestria as it's seen with its huge population and bountiful resources could amass an army easily capable of defeating any threat. It wouldn't necessarily strain relations with its neighbors, but rather stop monsters and villains from just coming by to ravage Equestria every season. It's not "success" in my opinion if lives are threatened on such a regular basis. It doesn't hurt to have an extra layer of deterrence to keep against truly malicious actors.

[Senko 459]

1 minute ago, Vlazamal said:

I wouldn't say that diplomacy has "Worked". Considering that MLP takes place in the span of a few of years and it's gotten invaded like every few months, I would argue that there needs to be SOME deterrence.  Your idea of such a well-regulated militia would be a good step. However, Equestria as it's seen with its huge population and bountiful resources could amass an army easily capable of defeating any threat. It wouldn't necessarily strain relations with its neighbors, but rather stop monsters and villains from just coming by to ravage Equestria every season. It's not "success" in my opinion if lives are threatened on such a regular basis. It doesn't hurt to have an extra layer of deterrence to keep against truly malicious actors.

Though this brings us back to the last 1,000 years and the fact either they did have something successful to deal with all these threats for that time period we don't see due to hero bias or something has changed in the last few years that has caused a lot more conflict than is normal.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

5 minutes ago, Senko said:

Though this brings us back to the last 1,000 years and the fact either they did have something successful to deal with all these threats for that time period we don't see due to hero bias or something has changed in the last few years that has caused a lot more conflict than is normal.

I think what happened was that Equestria had peace for thousands of years and got use to not being at war and thus making their military a lot weaker than it once was.

[Denim&Venöm 16,515]

5 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

I think what happened was that Equestria had peace for thousands of years and got use to not being at war and thus making their military a lot weaker than it once was.

Again, that's if they've ever had a military to begin with. 

 

5 hours ago, Vlazamal said:

I wouldn't say that diplomacy has "Worked". Considering that MLP takes place in the span of a few of years and it's gotten invaded like every few months, I would argue that there needs to be SOME deterrence.  Your idea of such a well-regulated militia would be a good step. However, Equestria as it's seen with its huge population and bountiful resources could amass an army easily capable of defeating any threat. It wouldn't necessarily strain relations with its neighbors, but rather stop monsters and villains from just coming by to ravage Equestria every season. It's not "success" in my opinion if lives are threatened on such a regular basis. It doesn't hurt to have an extra layer of deterrence to keep against truly malicious actors.

Yeah, but at the same time, over 1000 years and it's solved every crisis without military intervention. Locals may go "what's the point?" plus, there's the risk of escalation. Threats to equestria steping up their game. Once you go down that path, there's no turning back. You can't uninvent warfare.

[Senko 459]

They also seem to have a tendency to panic as a species when faced with the unexpected at least initially. whether its an invading army or being asked to have something ready a day early. Of course once that initial panic passes they seem to settle to harness quite well as shown by the WW2 alternate timeline so its possible if you combine that with the royal guard needing to be commanded by a princess (as shown when Celestia and Luna got ponynapped by Discords vines) the problem is these day's enemies rather than attacking the edges/remote towns tend to go straight to Canterlot and hit the princesses. So once that initial panic passes there's no one to take command like there used to be in the past when threats didn't go straight for the royalty.

Plus of course there's special agent Sweetie drops testimony that when the bugbear escaped from Tartarus they had to shutter an entire secret anti-monster agency. So its also possible that Equestria is just the victim of bad luck with all its security measures dissapearing at the same time as all these attacks (or more work by the same darkness that got Stigian and Luna). Anti-monster agencies being shut down, the captain of the royal guard moving to another country, one of the princesses going with him, increased presence on the world stage from Twilight and her friends travelling to every corner of the world.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Senko

[Acons 43]

16 hours ago, Lucid_Nightlight said:

I think what happened was that Equestria had peace for thousands of years and got use to not being at war and thus making their military a lot weaker than it once was.

My thoughts on Equestrian Army are similiar. Equestria (and ponies) is a very peaceful kingdom, so I don't think they would need a strong army, or even have any militar tradition.

[Singe 2,109]

They do need some form of defense when they can't rely on the Princesses and Mane 6 to take point. Equestria could have been able to develop magical weapons to put enemies to sleep or paralyze them.

[Kolombo 8]

If you take a better view, you can see, they have the most powerful army on the whole continent(?) that they developed during the whole show.

Beside, the guards, they have the Elements of Harmony, two demi-gods who can control orbs, a quasy god really reality bending ability, they can change weather when ever they want, they have on anti-christ baby plus the pony version of the Doctor. And these are only those thing I managed to recall. Oh, yeah, mind controlling crystal heart, do not forget about that.

I have to say, wipe it out twice and do not forget about writing your will, before declare a war against the mini-horses. 

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,832]

They need an official army of pro royal gaurds. With machine guns and rpgs. I'm just joking about the weapons. The army of royal gaurds need to learn some spells.

[Kolombo 8]

You're right. It is sorta awkward, the person you should protect could protect you a thousand times better. Hehe. 

I want to see an episode where they were useful.

 

 

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

Equestria doesn't need a better army because it has heroes that are sufficient enough for its defense. You think an army's going to stop Sombra? Or The Pony of Shadows? Armies cannot stop supervillains, only superheroes can.