Derpy and Dinky are looking to me for how to proceed with this, since I'm the one with royalty-visitng experience. The closest guard stationed at the gate is watching us from under his shiny helmet. They've got another one on the other side of the gate, and a third sitting in an adjacent guard tower. I'd comment about how light the security seems, but with them managing the festival, and the ponies they're protecting being living super-reactors of magic, I guess the guards are more for the citizens than the Princesses.