1) Bon-Bon: Well, thank you but they always got in the way.

B: Hate to break this to you, but somepony already tried the whole puppy thing. Doomed to failure from the start, of course. But as far as ludicrous conquest plans go, it wound up being quite threatening. Before it was all over they completely took over Hoofington; and the population there didn’t even know it.

2) Yes. In fact, there’s quite a few ponies that look nearly identical to one another. Strange phenomenon that has something to do with near-perfect genetic match-ups going back to common ancestors.

I was at the royal wedding. But during the attack I spent most of my time running around the streets trying to get ponies to safety. She told me about it after the fact, but Professor Lyra (inactive) was mind-controlled.

Older followers might remember that Professor Lyra was the one that gave Krastos his present home in Ponyville, after she moved to Canterlot.