They are probably my favorite creation of the comics. Shame that their portrayal failed to make they sympathetic, for the most part.

@Starswirl
 
I think the way the deer have been handled – or rather, not handled – may be my biggest regret in how FiM turned out. There’s not a lot of times when I genuinely wish the show might have taken a different route in its canonical worldbuilding, but this is one area where I do wish things might have turned out a bit closer to fan interpretations, as entitled as that sounds, or at least that we had gotten a more genuinely sympathetic portrayal of sapient deer. I genuinely love the idea of deer as MLP‘s elves – I think it had such great potential for characters, lore, stories and visuals. I would have loved to see something like Thicket in the show! You can tell a lot of talent and care went into making this spread, and seeing the fruits of this same effort put into animation would have been a real treat.
 
The comic’s… let’s say infamous take on the deer and the show settling on having them as regular animals both feel rather like letdowns, in this regard.
 
Oh, well. It is as it is. Maybe in G5, who knows.

@FrustrationInExcelsis  
Very true. Thicket itself is beautiful and the deer had great potential.

A real pity the deer’s portrayal ended up being such a damp squib, because this is some gorgeous visuals.

@Stotter  
Rogue state that Equestria doesn’t bother to eliminate? That would certainly explain why it would be considered okay to infringe on it by some ponies.

@Stotter
 
They seem to be way too reclusive to take part in any of that.
 
IMO it’s like an indian reservation in the US or the Vatican. A sovereign nation within the borders of another.

So, the political status of Thicket: Separate country enclave or autonomous area under no obligation to attend Equestrian events like the Equestria Games or the Grand Equestria Pony Summit? If the latter, how autonomous are they?

@Background Pony #8D56  
Uh, yeah, I know which is why it’s a combination of those things…Caras Galadhon had the treehouses, though.

@Background Pony #6EE6  
… Please don’t.
 
@Background Pony #8D56
 
Honestly, as you saw from the other replies here, the sort of city built in the treetops that has lots of pretty biolumecence and woodwork is a pretty common trope among fantasy realms. My mind originally jumped to the Ewok village or those treetop stages from Donkey Kong Country. In the case of the Ewok village at least, I can safely say that with how many other tropes and imagery that Star Wars borrows from in brilliant fashion that that leads back to Lothlorean.
 
I’m pretty sure Katie Cook knows her fantasy stuff and told Andy Price her vision through e-mail of these deer being your prototypical elf surrogates, and then she demanded this full page spread of dense tree housing and ponies with their mouths hanging agape.

@Lawful Girly
 
Thranduil’s palace is in Mirkwood.
 
 
@Wishy Washy
 
Anyway, these two are the only ones that guessed this right….. GODDANGIT, COMIC-MAKERS-THAT-I-DON’T-KNOW-BUT-THEY-MAKE-MLP-COMICS!!! WHEN LAUREN SAID THAT SHE BASED CANTERLOT ON MINAS TIRITH, THAT DIDN’T MEAN EQUESTRIA BECAME MIDDLE-EARTH!!

@Background Pony #6EE6  
Oi, deer != elk != moose != caribou. <_<;

Won’t be long before those deer start to enslave all the mares of Equestria.

@RedTriangle  
Diamond dogs.

@Maya  
I have a similar thought, what could be MLP equivalent of Trolls and Orcs?

Machina. (I don’t entirely remember (even though I last played Xenoblade two weeks ago, lol), but I think they had really long torsos. Which is probably better than really long necks. :3 )

@Joshua  
Or boars.

@SeraphimDawn
 
Except they have nothing in common except for being treehouses?

Looks like Ellinia from Maplestory….  

Now we wait for elk legolas.
 
Which I half expect to actually happen.

@Vree  
-…that we slowly drain from the lesser creatures’ life force.

-Where did you get all the metal from?  
-Oh, it comes from the Southern slave mines.  
…Just kidding, it’s MAGIC!

@Starswirl  

Huh. I just now noticed how it feels like most of the IDW pictures feature the ponies standing around in with their mouths open in surprise and/or awe.

Also, Horses from Saddle Arabia. They’ve got curved swords.