One thing I’ve been thinking about… ponies tend to have jobs that are closely related to their talents, right? Not always; Twilight is (was) a librarian, Rainbow was a weather worker, and I’m sure there’s many other examples. But it seems to be the most common way ponies pick their career, which, you know, makes a lot of sense. Why not try to make money doing the thing you have a talent for?
 
But my thinking was, does that apply to things like… being a leader? Diamond Tiara’s mark seems to suggest it’s very possible to have one. Now, in Equestria we have the Princesses who rule over everything, but we know there are positions like mayor. Which seems to be a position a pony is voted into? Can a pony have a mark for, like, being a politician? I’m not sure what Mayor Mare’s mark represents, it could be politics or maybe just paperwork or something. My point is, in a world where everyone in your species has a special talent which indicates that they are better at or at least more naturally inclined towards a certain task, how would you deal with someone with a mark that says they should be a leader? In Equestria it seems a pony like this will have to either be born into power, try to run for some office or become a manager/boss/etc at a business.
 
But what about other countries with ponies? (Which so far canonically, is like, only the Crystal Empire, I think). Where there isn’t an immortal being on the throne, would talents influence who sits there? Monarchies here are hereditary, but, then again, we don’t have magical destiny-symbols on our butts.
 
So I decided it was fun if I used all that in my headcanon for the Crystal Empire :D
 

 
Before Sombra, the Empire was ruled by either an Empress or Emperor. This individual was the absolute monarch, and had the final say in all matters -though they did appoint others to act on their behalf in different matters, they could (and did) override their decisions if they disagreed. Their power was upheld through the Crystal Heart, which allowed them to use the harmony of their empire to protect against the harsh weather of the north, as well as directly wield its powerful magic. An Emperor/Empress wielding a fully activated Heart could go head to head with even a realised Alicorn or two in terms of strength.
 
There’s only one thing they could not change; the Rule of Succession.
 
Roughly, the Rule of Succession says that:
 

 
The first part of the Rule is made just to determine who is eligible to enter the succession. The reason for the sub-rule is to stave off some controversy of who this does and does not apply to. The reason this is necessary is that the Heart is such an important and well recognized symbol of the Empire; it’s surprisingly often featured as a part of ponies’ marks. So the point of this rule is to only find ponies where the Heart is the focus of the talent. For example, in my nextgen verse, Diletto would not qualify because the Heart is not centered, nor the largest icon featured, and Felicity would not because their mark has more than one instance of it. Flurry Heart does however, as the Heart is in the center of her mark, and the snowflake surrounding it is symmetrical and serves to accentuate it.
 
It is still not foolproof it never could be with so many ponies having the Heart on their flanks but it does sort out some ponies which might try to claim a place in the succession otherwise. Still, many many controversies of whether a specific pony’s mark is considered focused on the heart or not has happened during the Empire’s history, often ending in bloodshed.
 
It’s worth noting that while the Empire and its rules assume that if a pony has the Crystal Heart as their mark, it automatically means their talent involves/is leading the Empire and wielding the Heart. This isn’t true; the pony’s talent is actually usually something else, which is just expressed via the Heart as their mark. Like how Twilight’s talent is magic, expressed via the icon of Harmony as her mark.
 
So for example, an Emperor with a talent for teaching has this expressed as a glowing Heart. An Empress with the talent for enchanting gemstones, expressed as the Heart with magic swirls around it. Or Candence’s talent for spreading and reaffirming love, expressed as the Heart surrounded by golden decorations cradling it. None of these has anything to do with being a leader, yet the Heart is the main symbol of their marks. And so, they were crowned.
 
The second and third parts of the Rule simply specify who takes precedent in cases of dispute between who shall be the next Emperor/Empress.
 
The last part is an attempt to stave off civil war and unrule which comes when no pony exists to take the throne. Most Emperors/Empresses ensure that they have very clearly stated and documented who they wish to supersede them should the situation occur, often as soon as they take the title. Since in the cases where it is unclear, the unrest that was attempted to be avoided happens in full force as ponies come out of the woodworks to claim that the late ruler actually wanted them to rule.
 
If an Emperor/Empress tried to ignore the Rule of Succession, well… it tended to lead to the forming a rebellion and civil war. This happened not an insignificant number of times in the Empire’s history -most often ending with the citizens… getting choppy… with their previous ruler. That isn’t to say the rulers didn’t get away with quite a lot of corruption on their end; the more intelligent ones managed quite often to get the ponies they wanted on the throne after they passed, by bending the rules and removing competition via unfortunate ‘accidents’.

 
Thousands of years later, it reappears, and the story from then we’ve seen. The remains of Sombra were banished, and Cadence took over the throne. It was not the plan originally; she and Shining had only intended to stay and protect it from the storm until the Crystal Ponies could get back onto their hooves. But then they all started calling her Empress, much to her confusion. The Rule of Succession was explained, and how her mark showed her destiny for ruling them -she wasn’t a Crystal Pony, yes, but at this point the Empire didn’t much care. An Alicorn had come bearing the mark of the Heart, the outcome was obvious. Candace disagreed -it felt a bit too much like Equatria conquering them when they were at their lowest. Eventually they compromised, and she agreed to follow the fourth rule -acting as their ruler with the title of Princess until such a time one of their own entered the succession.
 
To her surprise, this will eventually be her own daughter. While not biologically a Crystal Pony, Flurry Heart is definitely seen as one of them by the population. Most of whom are thrilled to have an Alicorn, bearing the mark of the Heart, who was also born and raised in the Empire, on the throne. Whether Flurry actually wants this or not is another question.