Q. What's with the pony thing?

A. A bunch of players play pony characters based off the ponies in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in their nations (either as a minority or in some cases majority) that adopt an ideology based upon a religious and philosophical ideal derived from the show.

Q. Why do ponies invade nations?

A. There has been claims that ponies have been responsible for invasion and national imperialism, and most established nations that are Ponyist do not. However there are nations who like to write about ponies doing that, when they have no historical presence in the nation in question. It was done legitimately only once, and was done by the nation of Hippostania, and this generated much controversy. Since then ponyist “invasions” and “revolutions” became frowned upon by the greater ponyist community, and it is important to know that these types of stories do not make up most pony nation's backstories. If you want to roleplay your own nation being invaded by ponies merely to defeat the ponies then it is likely that ponyists will ignore the offender.

Q. How do ponies have a nation?

A. As derivatives of MLP:FIM go it's rather natural, as that show presets everything from a head of state to local officials, a variety of towns and cities, and even a national founding myth. Types of pony nations also vary quite a bit.

It also must be noted that actual pony nations, that have ponies as majority demographic and primary culture are rare. Most nations that are aligned with ponies do posess pony populations, but they are minorities.

Today, only the  Greater Pony Herd , Lykosia , Magical Equestria and Princess Luna have fully pony populations.

Q. What Tech level are pony nations?

In NationStates terms, most pony nations are MT or PMT, with elements of FanT to do to pony magic. Of course, this varies. Several Pony nations also exist in FT, and some tend to focus more heavily on the FanT side of things.

Q. What's all this about ‘ponyism' then?

A. Some pony nations, like the Greater Pony Herd function as a theocracy, with Ponyism as the state religion. As a religion, Ponyism revolves around the worship of the two Regal Sisters: Celestia and Luna as gods, as well as idolization of the Elements of Harmony, and sometimes of the current bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Other nations, like YellowApple  utilize Secular Ponyism, which is simply using the Elements of Harmony to guide ones self in life. While not actually pacifist per se, the virtues promoted by this religion (Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty) are generally without any hostility to anyone.

Actual doctrinal information about ‘Ponyism' varies by player, but a brief introduction is being written from an in-character perspective and can be seen here.

Q. How can ponies handle guns/drive vehicles/etc?

A. In the show on which the ponies are based, the ponies do have a capacity to pick up and handle shovels and spears and drive vehicles such as cranes and even trains. This is obviously magical, and is covered more under magic, below. There are obviously things that they can't do with hooves that human hands can, but a bit of critical thinking will usually present a workaround; there exists IRL a computer keyboard that doesn't require fingers for example. Some ponies (unicorns) also have the ability to move objects with their minds, very swiftly and precisely.

Q. What kind of magic exactly do Ponies have?

A. It breaks down roughly like this

• Unicorns: Unicorns possess, of ponykind the most obvious magical ability, but not the only magical ability. Most unicorn abilities derive from their horns, made of a keratin-like material we call alicorn. More sophisticated abilities are generally roleplayed to be require study, akin to stereotypical wizard magic, while the employment of simple telekinesis is as instinctual as reaching out and grasping an object is to a human. For the most part, telekinesis is the limit of most unicorns' magical ability though in some notable cases other abilities such as teleportation are known.
• Pegasus Ponies: The second most obviously magical of pony species, Pegasus Ponies have two magical abilities unique to themselves. The first is that they can fly; frankly, ponies are about as aerodynamic as a brick, and their wings are far too small to loft them unaided, and yet they do so with both ease and elan. Pegasus Ponies are capable of, in rare cases, breaking the sound barrier , and turning, at speed, on the head of a pin. They can also arrest their motion very easily, and carry others from time to time. These represent close to the top end of observed feats of flying. In addition, pegasus ponies are able to magically manipulate clouds, ranging from summoning them from nowhere to walking on them, to building permanent structures out of clouds. Clouds so affected do not generally move in the wind. Some other abilities also exist, such as being able to trail smoke or leave rainbow trails in the air.
• Earth Ponies: Earth pony abilities are drastically less obvious than others. Nonetheless, primary among Earth Pony magical abilities are those related to farming, including magical plant growth. Similarly, other abilities also exist in this sub-species, though magic makes up a much smaller part of the lives of earth ponies.
• All Sub-Species: All ponies have two notable magical abilities. The first is to be understood by animals, almost all animals. This is less commercially useful than you would imagine, for while ponies will happily participate in animal husbandry, they will rarely become involved in raising animals for slaughter, which limits their employment in conventional agriculture, though of course, they make superlative carers of animals not raised for meat, and excellent environmentalists. The second is that almost all ponies excel in some area, and during puberty, gain a marking on their flanks (known as a 'Cutie Mark' entomology unknown) symbolically depicting that talent. This can be for instance, blacksmithing, art, writing, commerce, justice or any of any number of other trades. While not all ponies will seek employment in a related area (and not all such talents are necessarily useful to them commercially) many will.

Q. Isn't this all incredibly silly, having Nationstates Roleplay based on a little girls' cartoon?

A. Perhaps. As can be easily guessed, we don't much care for how seriously people take us. Behold the Acid Test:

The bottom line is probably; if you can't sit through the above video, you're best off not RPing with us.