Unpopular opinion time

@TexasUberAlles  

 
IMHO, it seems like Equestria has only had diplomatic relationships with seven other countries:  
-Griffonstone (a failed state that somehow most of Equestria’s population never realized failed, despite sharing a border)  
-Seaquestria/Hippogriffs (which, despite being allies, seem to have very little communication between the two given the fact that Equestria’s government didn’t know they had been driven into hiding from the Storm King)  
-The Crystal Empire (taken over by an evil king, sealed away for 1000 years, and now appears to technically be part of Equestria or at least under the rule of)  
-The Dragons (at best tolerant of Equestria until more recently)  
-Yakyakistan (closed their border with Equestria until recently)  
-Saddle Arabia (also allies of Equestria, but they’re somewhere quite distant from Equestria, and based on how well they can communicate with some of their other allies, I doubt the communication with them is all that great either)  
-The Changeling Kingdom (former enemies with Equestria turned allies after Thorax’s rebellion)
 
I think it’s safe to say that Equestria’s diplomatic relationships with other countries wasn’t all that great until recently. Guess Twilight having the title of “The Princess of Friendship” makes a bit more sense, guess she’s kinda the head ambassador for Equestria?

@SD50-2
 
“Celestia just didn’t realize diplomacy could be so complicated”

@SD50-2  
Well to be fair, we don’t know that they’re not getting on great with,say, the minotaur nation that they import all the goods obviously designed for hands from. The above came up when they were relevant, generally without much sign beforehand.

@SD50-2  
[bq=”SD50-2”] @TexasUberAlles

@Dustcan  
It still makes little sense though. Especially since significant effort had to be going into keeping the griffonstone line functional, train tracks don’t just maintain themselves.
 
The most sensical explanation I can think of at this point is that Twilight is horrendously ignorant, which isn’t exactly a flattering revelation. It’s roughly equivalent to sending my ambassador to India to meet with the British Raj.

@Philweasel  
Well they are right next to mountains, maybe there’s mining operations out there they still had to get to.

@Philweasel  
My theory is that the remnants of the Griffin Kingdom see letting other states know they’ve fallen apart as disadvantageous. So on paper, they’re still a Kingdom and Griffonstone is still the capital - it’s just that nogriff’s willing to stump up the money for it’s upkeep. It got by on tourism for a time, but…
 
Now how Mount Aris fell without ponies noticing, I have no idea.

@Latecomer
 
If we go by the movie’s prequel book then the hippogriffs were somewhat isolationist. They didn’t turn away outsiders per se, but visitors were stopped at the gate until the queen was notified and gave permission to enter.

@Dustcan
 
I don’t see the Kirin lands anywhere on there…

@Jarkes  
The map was made before they were a thing

@SD50-2  
So, princess of friendship is only a fancier title to Equestrian chancellor or “Princess United Cities”

@Jarkes
 
Kirin Grove is south of the Dragons’ Lair.
 
…that makes sense actually.
 
@Prowl
 
It was. And then it turned out that there were kirins.
 
I love it when supplementary material foreshadows stuff like that.

@Dustcan
 
Wait, wait, wait, so they actually have to cross the sea to get to the dragon lands? That certainly was never indicated before, and given that Spike traveled on foot his first time going there, it makes you wonder how he even made it.

@Spinny
 
Spike can walk on water. Didn’t you know?

@Dustcan  
How did it have crap world building and plotting, I haven’t seen the movie yet.

@Badumsquish  
Girlfriend not boyfriend.

@Hali the Emoji girl
 
Short version is that the entire plot is about the Mane 6 having to get help to defeat Storm King’s army. They don’t, so they (sans Twilight but plus like 8 fuckboys of no discernable combat skills) simply march back to Canterlot and kick the entire invasion’s ass by their lonesome.
 
Depending on how you view it the movie is either a 10 minute special padded to 2 hours or a 2 hour movie that should’ve been 10 minutes. It helps when you realize it’s actually Tempest’s story, and on that grading curve it’s plotted well enough, but since our viewpoint follows the Mane 6…

The Storm people are confusing

We can agree that all those kingdoms should have been introduced WAY BACK from the early seasons, because now they suffer the “and suddenly they exist” shit and thus making looking everyone like ignorant jackasses.

@Jarkes  

 
I think the animals from the gala episode would say otherwise.  

@E-123  
It’s basically a result of the meta of the show changing making the early seasons make no sense

@E-123
 
Well…
 
They’ve mostly all had reasons to not be talkative. The Hippogriffs were in hiding under the sea. Griffonstone was in the middle of a sort of collapse and all the griffons were either too apathetic, too proud, or too greedy to be bring it up around ponies. The Yaks are the Yaks. They’re proud to a fault and live deep within the mountains where no pony traveler would naturally go. And the Dragons are kinda contemptuous of ponykind.

@E-123  
To be fair, both Griffons and Dragons were already established, it’s just they devolved into a Planet of Hats situation based on the first member of said species the cast ran into. Heck could argue they did the same for the Changelings.
 
And the yaks are probably a swap out for the buffalo

@Broken Adam  
Oh? Would you like to eloborate? I’d say it works pretty well in-show, the movie is just a glaring exception.

@E-123  
Nah, I can’t agree to that. I feel like if we had more seasons, then those kingdoms would’ve had more of the benefit of being fleshed out.