Crystal Empire canon headcanon · 10:32pm Jan 6th, 2023
What is the Crystal Empire? (Besides Hasbro's advertisement for "crystal" toys.) It's completely unexplained, messes with the whole "There are three pony tribes, and they founded Equestria" thing that was explained in the Hearth's Warming episode, and it's in a geographically strange location.
This is my Crystal Empire headcanon that I came up for my story. Usually, I'm my own worst critic, but I think I came up with something decent here, since it ties up not only G4's prehistory and founding of the Empire, but even previous generations, to an extent - as much as they can be tied together, of course. And, it does it all without contradicting even the tiniest piece of canon (G4 canon, at least.) As it's - in my opinion - interesting enough to post by itself, and I barely saw any sufficiently detailed explanations in any of the fics I read, I decided to go ahead and do it.
The one story that I read which had a good explanation of how it was founded was this one, and I haven't read any others.
If you know some fics with really good Crystal Empire lore explanations, feel free to recommend them. Either way, here goes:
First off, the map of Equestria and the world.
The Empire is in a strange valley - not elongated, as valleys usually go, but a big, round, circular one, surrounded by mountains on all sides, except for the one, singular narrow pass in the south. From what we see in the screenshots of the Empire, there's plenty of arable land for them to have a number of farms, too. A ridiculously good place for a starting civilization to set up in, to say the least. But, what is the valley's name?
What if it's Dream Valley?
Dream Valley was the setting of the OG magical little ponies, G1. I haven't actually got around to watching any of the previous generations, though I'm tempted to, one of these days. I did pick up a few crumbs of lore here and there by taking a peek at the wikis sometimes. There's not much geographical description of the valley, but let's assume.
Now then, where did the three tribes come from when they fled to the lands that became Equestria? Well, looking at the screenshots of the Hearth's Warming episode...
Pegasi did not live in cloud cities yet, but on top of a mountain somewhere.
Princess Platinum's castle was built on top of a small mountain, surrounded by bigger mountains...
And when the other tribes were attacking the earth ponies for the last of their food, we can, once again, see mountains in the background. It's almost like they all live in a relatively large open territory, yet one that is surrounded by mountains on all sides. And later on, though they take different routes, they all end up going through the same, narrow mountain pass that ends up leading them all to a single location.
So, where did they come from? The only location on the entire world map that fits the terrain is the valley where the Empire now resides. The location of Our Town (north of Manehatten) seems partially surrounded by mountains and hills, though not completely. The badlands might fit, but it doesn't look like it's in a climate zone that even has winters with snow. One other place that might fit is the valley with the Rainbow Falls, but it's also very close to the Empire. Conclusion? Ponies fled from the north, going south. (Which also makes sense since they were fleeing the cold.) And the place they fled from was Dream Valley.
Then, how did the Empire pop up in the ruins of the previous pony civilization? My thoughts - not all ponies fled, no matter how desperate the situation looked. The pegasi, easy to travel and being partially nomadic, flew away down to the last one. Earth ponies, however, loved their land, and some of them refused to leave, even if it meant their deaths. And a few unicorns refused to flee as well, mostly powerful and accomplished wizards, since they didn't want to just leave centuries worth of knowledge accumulated in their wizard towers to rot away.
When the three bickering tribes fled, the windigoes followed suit. The remaining ponies didn't hate each other, and there was no hate for the windigoes to feed on any more. The remaining survivors breathed a little easier, though things still looked grim: They were without food, and the land was buried under a very, very thick layer of magical, windigo-conjured snow.
The few unicorns and the remaining earth pony families began working together to try and restore life to the valley, somehow. The earth ponies got to reading through the massive libraries of the wizards and sorting through forgotten magical knowledge, much to the unicorn wizard's surprise at the erudition level of the "simple farmers". In old manuscripts written by Starswirl, they discovered the same thing Clover the Clever knew: what Windigoes were, and how they worked. They now knew the cause, but seeing the fleeing windigoes chase after the three tribes and finding out that it was their infighting that brought them there was of little comfort to the remaining ponies.
Well, lacking pegasi to change the weather, magical cold seemed like a problem for the wizards to solve. They started looking for a way to thaw the valley once more, and quickly decided that they required a powerful artifact for the task, one that would need to be charged by a great many ponies, since the power requirements exceeded even what the mighty wizards could produce. As such, they crafted a conduit that would allow both the unicorns and the earth ponies to use their magic in unison, using the most common magical material that just about any magic-capable species could utilize: crystals.
It was hard, both for the earth ponies to dig out a suitable slab of crystal, and for the unicorns to shape and enchant it. They were all half-dead by the time they were finished, and it was literally do or die. Focusing on their love for their land and each other, all of them channeled their remaining power into the Heart, their last hopes going with it. And, it worked - a mighty unicorn shield sprung up from the artifact, empowered with the earth pony's connection with the land, green grass immediately springing up from where the snow used to be.
They cried, they sobbed, and they cheered, for they had succeeded. The cold was kept at bay, and they had a chance. Naturally, it was hard for the survivors, for a long, long time. The small amount of ponies could only provide enough power to keep a small area safe, which expanded with each new pony that was born adding their power into it - and yet, it would also mean that they had yet another mouth to feed, and desperately needed the expanded territory. It was a delicate balance, but over time, the population grew and grew, empowering the Heart more and more.
Generations passed, and one day, the Heart hit a snag - it became overcharged. The population hit a point where the artifact couldn't deal with all the power being poured into it. Fortunately, the old wizards put in safety measures, and excess power was bled off - in a strange wave of magic that, rather unexpectedly, begun crystallizing everything around it, including ponies. At first, there was panic, but as soon as they saw that they weren't literally turned into hunks of rock, the ponies calmed down. As it turned out, the combined power of the two tribes didn't just work together, it synergized into something new - the power of unicorn's arcane magic and earth pony's earth channeling blended into a sort of mastery over arcane earth - also known as crystals.
With the Heart now bathing the ponies in its new magic, they began to change, not only in appearance, but also in talent. And as they mastered their newfound power over crystals, the magic only grew stronger, creating a powerful, resonating feedback loop that soon changed every pony in the Empire into a crystalline version of themselves. Over time, the last vestiges of the previous civilization were torn down or fell apart, and a completely new people rose up in its place - the crystal ponies.
The whole process took quite a long time. During that period, Equestria managed to rise into a powerful country, get taken over by Discord and toyed with for an unknown amount of years, until the Two Sisters managed to overthrow him. With all the upheavals, Dream Valley faded into myth, largely forgotten. However, a mysterious, massive burst of magic from the north reignited the Equestrian's curiosity, strange, colorful ribbons of magic trailing across the sky. A few scholars suggested that the location matched the old legends, positing that perhaps some old, forgotten artifact had detonated after being buried under the snow for eons. An expedition of adventurous ponies set out to explore the lost ruins of their dead predecessors, and see what the deal was.
Imagine their surprise when they found the Empire where they expected a wasteland.
Naturally, the two pony nations allied fairly quickly. Despite being much smaller than Equestria, the crystal ponies always had a slightly smug attitude towards the Equestrians, seeing as their ancestors chose to remain and survive, while, in their view, the ancestors of Equestrians were cowardly and weak, choosing to flee, instead. Still, they did have friendly relations, although any attempt to even suggest uniting the two nations into one would be met with utter disdain by the crystal ponies.
It all changed when Sombra came, of course. After he was destroyed, a new pony sat on the throne, one raised from foalhood and installed by Celestia. While still nominally independent, the nation became a part of Equestria in all but name. While the citizens were grateful for the rescue from the dark mage, they were not entirely happy with the change. Rumors still flew across the Empire. Who was Sombra? He wasn't a crystal pony. Was he an Equestrian unicorn, that ended up breaking their power and banishing the Empire for a millennium? And now, another Equestrian unicorn sat on the throne, with his alicorn wife...
I've always gone with the idea that, while the empire does love genuinely Cadance and Shining (and then Flurry once she's born), they will never allow another stallion near the throne again. In the sense of having any political power that is.
No comment on the rest, though it is interesting.
5707352 Two crystal ponies meeting for tea. First one raises his tea cup and says, "To the Crystal Princess, and may Sombra burn forever where he has been tossed."
Second one agrees and they both drink, but after a moment, he asks, "Aren't you worried about Shining Armor going down the same dark path that Sombra did and all of this happening again?"
"No," said the first one, pouring himself another cup. "I've met Princess Cadence. I've seen the way they exchange glances when they think nopony is looking. He doesn't have time to go evil."
"Oh," said the second pony. "Good point."
(I'm wading around in Empire headcanon a bit too since I've got both Letters and Twinkle Twinkle brushing up against the legacy)
That is a fascinating idea/concept. Certainly something for my mind to chew on for a couple of days, maybe I'll fit it into my own head canon. Thank you for sharing!
A very well thought-out headcanon.
I would recommend the old G1 specials and show. They're lovely fantasy romps, very charming. The movie's not so great, it feels more like a bunch of different events cobbled together than a single cohesive story, but the rest of it's pretty fun.
And on that not, if I may share my own personal take on the matter: I always liked to imagine G1 as taking place in G4's ancient past. It also so happens that some of the G1 ponies are what are referred to as "twinkle-eyed ponies", with eyes that resemble cut gemstones. They're not remarked on in the show itself, but one of the companion comics that were released in Europe has it that, in the past, some regular ponies were enslaved by a wizard (a human one, notably -- G1 wasn't particularly shy about human and humanoid characters) who forced them to work in his gem mines until they all went blind. Their escape involved the destruction of the wizard's crystal throne, and the shards became embedded in their eyes and became new, functional gemstone eyes.
At any rate, after the events of G1, the Dream Valley ponies split into two groups -- the twinkle-eyes and the three pre-Equestrian tribes. Disown begins among the three tribes, the Windigos come along and the migration happens as in the episode. The twinkle-eyes, who are living in their own society a ways off from the main group, aren't caught up in this due to being largely uninvolved in the conflict due to being a bit more distanced, but they do realize what's going on. They respond to the climate crisis by basically doing what they do in your headcanon -- they dig up or shape a great big slab of crystal and enchant it to make the Crystal Heart in order to channel and amplify their positive emotions, keep the windigos away, and create a warm oasis to inhabit. Basically they come to the same realization as the founders of Equestria, but also create a physical conduit to channel their friendship and positive emotions through in order to survive in a now permanently hostile environment.
As it turns out, living day in and day out in the aura of a giant magic crystal when you're already partly crystalline yourself has interesting effects on your physiology.
(There are a few snags in this -- mostly a) I need to figure out why the crystal ponies are mostly earth ponies when the twinkle-eyes where an even split between the three kinds and b) why they'd move away from the other ponies in the first place, but overall I'm fairly happy with this.)
Anyway, regarding the CE's integration into Equestria, that's an area where I have fairly different ideas! Grogar is stated to have once ruled Equestria in fear and terror, right? And, if you notice, shots of Ponyville and environs also show it as a flat, hilly stretch with tall mountains on every side. And Grogar was a G1 villain at first. My headcanon is that old Dream Valley was where the Ponyville and the Everfree are now -- the princesses built their first castle on the site of old Dream Castle. After the G1 show's events, Grogar returned and took over, ruling for a time before being overthrown and sealed again. However, by the time his reign ended, ponies had fled to the far corners of the world to escape him, leaving their old homeland empty. The founders and Crystal Empire descend from one such diaspora group; the countries and towns that the Pillars came from descend from others.
My idea is that the three tribes more or less accidentally stumble back into the Dream Valley area post-Windigos. Afterwards, the original Equestrian nation is founded mostly as a confederacy of many independent pony nations -- the original three-way alliance served as the core, with the pseudo-Norse, pseudo-Egyptian, pseudo-Cajun etcetera groups joining later as equal partners, as did the Empire. This remains the case even after Celestia and Luna come along. Eventually, however, Discord comes along. He rules for quite a while, and by the time he's done almost all cultures and nations had been pushed to the brink of total collapse. They're rebuilt as best as can be, but when the next form of Equestria has to be built from the ground up it ends up being much more centralized. This trend continues after Luna's fall and banishment; over time, most of the old nations end up just kind of being... absorbed into the main Equestrian culture and system over the centuries, although some maintain more of their identity (like the pseudo-Egyptians). The Empire, which vanished alongside Sombra back before the mess with Luna, ended up skipping the entire process; the Heart was also able to act as a weak version of the Elements; it didn't keep Discord or his chaos out, but it kept the worst of it at bay.
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Thank you, happy to provide.
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That is fairly interesting. Your explanation seems to focus more on unifying the previous generations and the total history of Equestria and the other nations, while mine's more G4 focused. Not sure about the valley being in Ponyville/Everfree, since as I pointed out, the geography is really specific, and doesn't quite match the map (though there are shots of mountains around Ponyville that don't quite match the map). But then, the castle of the Two Sisters would be outside the Ponyville valley, since the Everfree doesn't appear to be surrounded by mountains. That was my main observation from the Hearth's Warming episode - there weren't just some mountains around their lands, they were encircled by them from every possible direction that you could see.
All the splinter pony nations do make sense, what with supervillains constantly taking over Equestria, apparently. There would have been plenty of refugees fleeing from them, which would form their own cultures over time. It's a bit annoying, honestly - each villain keeps adding unknown amounts of years of lost history to the lore. How long did Grogar rule? Centuries? A millennium? And then they got rid of him and had a period of peace, then Discord showed up, and then the alicorns took over? Though I suppose it might have been before the windigo incident, since Tirek said that "The land that would become Equestria was a mere collection of farms and pastures until he declared himself Emperor of all he saw". And yet, "the land that would become Equestria" was settled by refugees fleeing from the windigoes, so, once again, it's implied that Grogar's reign was after they fled Dream Valley. Your "loose Confederacy" explanation fits the situation - since there was lots of space to spread out, as they were no longer constrained by the mountains of Dream Valley, the ponies created a bunch of little counties/lordships/city states all over the place before Grogar showed up.
It'd make sense for the ponies to start getting centralized into a singular nation after Grogar gets deposed, to unify against threats like him and create larger armies to fight his leftover armies of monsters and suchlike, instead of after Discord - and then Discord shows up, because "things were getting a little too orderly for his tastes", since the ponies completely eliminated all chaos from their territories. And after he gets deposed, the ponies double down on having a unified, orderly nation out of spite and hatred of all things chaotic, with the Sisters as it's unifying symbol.
Lastly, one final piece that ties G1 Dream Valley with the Empire's location: Flutter Valley. It is somewhere nearby Dream Valley, since ponies travel there to meet the flutterponies. Where could that be? Consulting the map, there's only one possible location - the place where Rainbow Falls are now located. It's a very strange place - a valley surrounded by both mountains, and a deep ravine. Seems very hard to navigate - but a perfect defensive location for a population where everyone can fly.
As to where the flutterponies had gone - well, the changelings had to come from somewhere, which is a headcanon that I saw in multiple stories. And, from the wiki:
Say, some villain (Grogar, or one of his monsters) destroys it. What do we get? A scenario like the Sunwell and the High Elves in Warcraft 3 - a population that lost it's home and is addicted to the magic of a potent source, and without it, they're desperately thirsting for more magic, at any cost. Over time, the hunger and their less than savory feeding habits begin twisting their appearance...
The crystal pony predecessors might have gotten the idea to create the Heart from the stories of the Sunstone, too. If it worked for the flutterponies, it should work for them, right?
That's a cool take on it, and I like how you fit in the G1 world as pre-history here, and how the Crystal Heart is a self-made solution by the ponies themselves. Plus it also helps explain the emphasis on crystals in the Empire. The one wrinkle here is how the ponies survived in the Frozen North prior to the Crystal Heart's power -- but one could assume that the land was fairly liveable during the warmer months up until it was devastated by the Windegos.
If you're interested, I've written a story that covers the origins of the Crystal Empire from a different angle, tying in a few other threads as well:
- MLP: FiM
- MLP: Movie
- Drama
- Slice of Life
The most powerful sorcerer in history rescues a young Princess from her own curiosity, and helps her found a new Empire. But the sorcerer has her own reasons for doing so -- and they're not nice reasons...5707613
Ah, yes. I read that one. I'll admit that I found it a bit weird, though. They built the Crystal Empire after discovering the ruins of... The Crystal Empire? Some ponies were there in the past, and they took inspiration from the ruins, so... What was the first Crystal Empire?
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But what Empire was that, and were those ponies? There's a hint in the vase that Sacanas finds, though she's a little too caught up in her own plans to pay attention to it. The point is that the Crystal Empire that we know might have been founded as a reaction to the formation of Equestria. (And it also explains how one city could somehow be called an Empire.) In any case, it's another take on the Empire's origin.
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bootstrap paradox