Headcanon of the day: Equestrian Succession and the Crystal Empire · 4:41pm Jan 13th, 2016
Maybe doing a string of these'll get me back in the mood and spirit to do a little writing.
From the time of the coming together of the the Three Tribes (the Hearth's Warming story) until the coming of the alicorn princesses Equestria was a de jure triarchy led by the heads of the tribes: Platinum/Pudding/Hurricane at first, and then their successors. There were frequent clashes between the three and much internecine wrangling for succession within each tribe, though the system worked well enough overall to see Equestria through its formative years.
From the time when the Three Tribes gave political control to the alicorn princesses until the first appearance of Nightmare Moon Equestria was a diarchy, nominally co-equal between Celestia and Luna. This degenerated over time as ponies came exclusively to Celestia for political matters and Luna - only partially voluntarily - either sought or was increasingly relegated to off-throne duties like leading their armies and overseeing scientific and magical matters.
After Nightmare's banishment Equestria became a de facto monarchy headed by Celestia. She tried various systems of representative government and delegated authority but in the end she had to maintain overall control to keep the country together. She did so masterfully, instituting an age of peace and prosperity while quietly not relinquishing any more power than necessary. Behind the scenes she never repealed the laws and structures from the time of the diarchy, hoping against hope that she could one day have Luna back.
With Luna's return Equestria once more became a diarchy, though in name only as Luna was initially in no condition to rule. But she was a fast learner, eager to resume her role (both to prove her worth and redeem herself), and with help from Celestia and Twilight came up to speed remarkably quickly. Her quickly-regenerating alicorn power returned to her her former physical stature as well.
Having examined Sombra's sealing magic, Celestia knew that the Crystal Empire would return shortly after Nightmare Moon's thousand years were up and had scouts watching for it. At the same time she had agents and spells scouring the country for signs and rumors of the reappearance of the Crystal Empire's hereditary ruling line, which culminated in the ascension of Mi Amore Cadenza to Princess Cadance. Her cutie mark matched the Empire's Crystal Heart, and at once Celestia took her under her wing to teach her statecraft, politics, diplomacy, economics, and more. She did so stealthily, working feverishly to keep Cadance out of the public eye except where absolutely necessary.
The Crystal ponies, fresh from years of enslavement and torment under Sombra, returned to the world only to find themselves once again under his boot. After his latest defeat - again at the hooves of Equestrians - they eagerly accepted status as a Protected State. The Empire once held territories across Equestria's north, all lost as Equestria's armies marched against Sombra a thousand years prior and subsequently annexed into Equestria proper. Canterlot granted the Cadance and the Crystal Empire a small portion of their former territories to hold in a convoluted vassalage arrangement. The Empire is barely one worthy of the name, though they maintain at least nominal independence and they're in talks with Equestria to be granted a large swath of the largely-uninhabited northern lands to expand their holdings.
Cadance still holds the dual titles of Crystal Empress and Princess of Equestria, and as such she was briefly third in line for the throne of Equestria, behind Celestia and Luna. In the event they were temporarily unable to rule she would hold the throne as Regent. With Twilight's ascension to alicornhood Equestria is nominally a triarchy. In practice Twilight is much more valuable concentrating on the Tree of Harmony, the Cutie Map, the Elements, and the Rainbow Power, rather than sitting in Canterlot hearing petitions. Celestia and Luna continue to rule Equestria's day to day affairs, though (as we've seen in the show) Twilight is available to substitute or take over if needed. This frees Cadance to concentrate on her duties to the Crystal ponies; officially she is still in the line of succession, though as before she would act only as Regent until another alicorn returned to the throne and is not part of the ruling triarchy - no tetrarchy here!
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I've never liked the idea of the Emoire being subordinate in a vassal way, but the idea that it was more or less recreated I do kinda like! Nice
Now, how long before Emperess Cadenza I makes her move?
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The Crystal ponies are a proud sort, but after being enslaved, saved, and enslaved again they're more than a little gun-shy. Add to that the 1000-year displacement they have to get over (like Luna's, except an entire civilization's worth) and they happily latched onto the biggest, strongest neighbor they could: Equestria. That's one reason they're ecstatic to have an alicorn princess defending them - that, and seeing her butt-stamp.
Side note: they built a statue to Spike, and Twilight lets him bask in the glory, but when pressed he readily admits that Twilight got him that far. Though they don't truly blame Luna and Celestia for letting Sombra entomb them the first time, they haven't forgotten, either. They also haven't forgotten that one of their new saviors also became an alicorn, and quietly they admit that if Cadance weren't available, they wouldn't mind Twilight running the place, at least for a while.
The Empire itself is independent (Crystal City, which is all they really have; it's less an Empire and more a city-state). It's the surrounding lands that Celestia arranged to lend/lease to them to get them started. The land has been part of Equestria for the last thousand years so Celestia can't just give it away. She's letting them make the case for their own stewardship of the territory, which will make it easier for Celestia to eventually sell it to them outright - probably for a symbolic sum like two bits and a slice of crystalberry sideways cake.
Eventually they'll end their status as a Protected State, and Celestia is more than willing to let them, as long as they and Cadance show that they can protect the Heart. It's a resource far more valuable to Equestria than entire mountains of gems.
3684087 This seems more than reasonable. I quite enjoy seeing your thought process.
Gunshy! Aye, I figured as much. They are in the two-parter, though at the time are under direct threat.
My headcanon is that Equestria isn't a kingdom but a federation. First the founding after the first Hearth's Warming was about the three tribes recognizing the other's value. Abandoning the Earth Pony and Pegasus governmental traditions for Unicorn feudalism doesn't seem to fit in with Equestria's values. Second Celestia seems to want to be approached as a normal pony and not an absolute monarch and she appears to want ordinary ponies to take responsibilty for their own lives whenever possible with a very hoofs off approach of guidance rather than giving orders. Finally when trying to get the inspector to use the Crystal Empire for the Equestria Games it was mentioned that the "must have met tons of Princes and Princesses."
In my view Equestria is a collection of regions and city-states with each being mostly self-governing. Each has its own governmental tradition depending on its founding. For example Ponyville and Manehatten were founded by Earth Ponies and are therefore goverend in the Earth Pony democratic tradition. While Canterlot was founded by Unicorns and thus follows the feudal inheiritance model.
Celestia, Luna and now Twilight act more as mediators and if nessicarry arbitrators when the various regions come into conflict or when one regional government is accused of corruption. They also act as diplomatic faces in international matters. They direct the Royal Guard which while a full time professional military is quite small. In the event of war each region has its own militias which form up around this Royal Guard core. Finally as alicorns they protect the realm from "outside context," threats (Discord, Tirek, etc.) that mortal ponies just can't handle. As part of these roles they have the ability to make certain "Executive Decrees," but these powers a clearly defined and limited.