Crystal Empire

The Crystal Empire is a location that appears in the third season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. A blurb on one of the toy sets based around the Empire says that Princess Cadance and Shining Armor "lead the Crystal Empire together!"

Depiction in the series
The Crystal Empire first appears in the third season's opening two-parter The Crystal Empire, having "suddenly appeared in the arctic north of Equestria after a 1,000-year curse caused it to vanish" according to the respective descriptions of the Adventures in the Crystal Empire DVD by Shout! Factory and a clip from The Crystal Empire - Part 1 uploaded by The Hub's YouTube channel. It is inhabited by Crystal Ponies and tiny ewes, and is described in the Ballad of the Crystal Ponies as having a rich culture and long history, including "the Crystal Kingdom anthem". Much of the early history of the empire is unkown although its possible it was at one point streching across the world like most empires e.g. the real world historical Roman empire and British empire. Like the latter two eventually the Empire somehow became smaller, but the title stuck.

The Crystal Empire was taken over by the evil unicorn, King Sombra, who turned it into a dark land and enslaved the crystal ponies. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna defeated him with their magic, turning him to shadow and imprisoning him in the ice of the arctic north, but not before he placed a curse on the Crystal Empire, causing it to vanish for a thousand years. After it returned, the Crystal Ponies had no memory of their kingdom before King Sombra took over. King Sombra also returned and threatened to invade the empire again, so Shining Armor and Princess Cadance came to defend it, projecting a defensive barrier around it.

Celestia sent Twilight Sparkle and her friends to help Cadance protect the Crystal Empire. By reading a book in the library, they found out information about the crystal ponies and set up the Crystal Fair. Twilight made a crystal rock look like the Crystal Heart as spoken of in the book, however she found out soon after that the Crystal Heart is a powerful item that was hidden by King Sombra and is the key to protecting the Crystal Empire, so while the others kept the crystal ponies occupied to prevent them from finding out the Crystal Heart had not yet returned, Twilight and Spike searched for the Crystal Heart.

When Cadance began to run out of power, Sombra began to cover the empire with shadow crystals. Twilight and Spike searched the castle for the Crystal Heart, as nopony would dare look there while he was in power. They overcame various obstacles and reached the Crystal Heart, but upon arrival they activated an alarm, causing Sombra to trap Twilight in a wall of shadow crystals. She told Spike to take the Crystal Heart to Cadance. When Cadance's barrier fully disappeared, Sombra invaded again, to the terror of the crystal ponies. Seeing Spike with the Crystal Heart, he rode a growing shadow crystal toward him in an attempt to get it and intercept (or possibly kill) Spike, but Shining Armor threw Cadance at him and she saved him from his attack. The crystal ponies recognized Cadance as the Crystal Princess.

Cadance returned the Crystal Heart to its original place, using its power to unleash an explosion of love and light that restored the Crystal Empire, temporarily turned Cadance, Shining Armor, and the Mane 6 into crystal ponies, and destroyed (And apperantly killed) Sombra along with his shadow crystals.

The population consists of earth ponies whose manes are usually tied back with ribbon. The crystalline effect that distinguishes them is a form of magic that is exclusive to the area inside the Crystal Empire. Most ponies shared Rarity's eye design.

The Crystal Empire is symbolized with a Purple Flag "of many hues" with a Ringed Snowflake in the center which is also the same layout of their city. "Of many hues" implies that the flag, which is mainly purple, is made with an iridescent fiber.

A downshot for a later episode, implied to be the twelfth episode of season three (confirmed to be called Games Ponies Play) shows the Crystal Empire with a large stadium connected to the castle.

Other depictions
The Crystal Empire is the focus of a toy line of the same name. This toy line has a logo featuring Princess Cadance and a description reading, "Welcome to the CRYSTAL EMPIRE, a magical place full of hidden secrets! The ponies shine and sparkle here!" Crystal Fashion Style Princess Cadance & Shining Armor, one of the toy sets included in this toy line, has an individual description reading, "PRINCESS CADANCE and SHINING ARMOR share a big responsibility! They lead the CRYSTAL EMPIRE together!" The Crystal Princess Ponies Collection, another one of the toy sets included in this toy line, has an individual description reading, "PRINCESS CELESTIA and PRINCESS LUNA believe that PRINCESS CADANCE will bring happiness to the CRYSTAL EMPIRE!" Fluttershy, a single toy to be included in this toy line, has an individual description reading, "FLUTTERSHY has a tea party to make friends with the CRYSTAL EMPIRE ponies—they seem just as shy as her!" "Crystal Empire" is also listed on the packaging of mystery pack waves six and seven.

The My Little Pony Wedding Quiz section of Hasbro's Pony Wedding microsite describes the Crystal Empire as "cultured".

Gallery

 * Crystal Empire image gallery