Ask Twilight - Equestrian Government

Q: Dear Twilight, there's something we've been wondering about for a long time now. If Princess Celestia is the ruler of your country, why is it called the Kingdom of Equestria?

A:  That's certainly a good question! I've received several other questions about various aspects of the Equestrian government, too, and this provides me with an excellent starting point for explaining the subject.

Equestria is a kingdom because it is the successor to the legacy of the Old Kingdom – the ancestral homeland of the three tribes – via Princess Platinum, who was the eldest daughter and heir presumptive of the last unicorn High King, Aurum III. (Despite briefly proclaiming herself the Queen of Unicornia, she never took the title of the High Queen of either Old Kingdom or of Equestria, however.)

Instead, the Founding Compact assigned supreme authority equally to the three leaders of the tribes and their successors, each bearing the title of Prince or Princess. Princess Celestia and Luna continued this tradition when they assumed the thrones after the era of Discord, ruling as equals who each embodied all three tribes. (The words “king” and “queen”, in modern Equine, are only used to refer to foreign, non-pony rulers, such as the various griffon sovereigns or the rulers of the zebra city-states. King Sombra's use of the title upon his rise to power in the Crystal Empire was a deliberate statement of independence and a display of contempt for Equestrian tradition.)

Ultimately, Princess Celestia - and now, as we're slowly moving back to diarchy, her sister Princess Luna - is the sovereign ruler of all Equestria. Nothing becomes the law of the land until she has signed it; she has the supreme judicial power and can review and override any decision of the courts of justice; and is the chief executive of the whole government of Equestria. In theory, her power is absolute.

In practice, however, things are quite a bit different. Princess Celestia, for all of her wisdom, power and benevolence, is still just one pony, and there simply are not enough hours in the day for her to run the entire Equestrian government, even on a fairly general level. Thus she has for centuries delegated much of her power to trustworthy subjects, only exercising her full authority rarely.

Broadly speaking, there are three branches of Equestrian government: the Nobility, the Parliament and the Civil Service.

Nobility is by far the oldest branch of Equestria's government. As Equestria grew and expanded, this expansion was neither regular nor uniform. The best lands were claimed first, leaving large areas of untamed wilderness within Equestria where strange and dangerous things could lurk. Thus, to keep the patchwork nation together, the Princesses took the old Unicorn idea of nobility (traditionally based on a mixture of pedigree and magical potential) and expanded it to include Earth ponies and pegasi. The nobleponies swore loyalty to the Twin Thrones, and were granted hereditary authority over various regions, with a duty to defend them and run the local government.

In the modern day nobleponies form a hereditary class of executives and regional managers. They've lost much of the broad authority their ancestors held to the Parliament and the Civil Service, but they still wield considerable influence, and retain numerous traditional privileges, such as the right to hold Court of Justice (these days used mostly to settle simple civil disputes, or to handle the most open-and-shut criminal cases), or to maintain armed retainers (in the modern day, most noble families simply have one or two bodyguards).


The origins of the Parliament go back to the 4th century AC. For a long time, the original system of noble administrators worked well, but problems began to develop. More and more nobles passed their power onto their favorite, instead of the most competent, heirs and the noble families began to lose sight of their purpose. Equestria was in a fragile state after Princess Luna's exile, and Princess Celestia neither could nor wanted to reform the nobility by force. Instead, she set out to create a counterbalance for them. Based on elements of Earth pony and pegasus cultures, the Parliament represented the commoners and gentry of Equestria. Originally, they merely presented petitions and suggested laws to the Princess, but with her tacit support the Parliament's power grew until it handled almost all legislative matters.

These days the Members of Parliament are elected by a democratic vote for five-year terms. The Parliament, in turn, elects the Chancellor, who represents the Parliament in the Royal Council (and technically controls the proceedings in the Parliament, but in practice that's the Vice-Chancellor's job). There are several political parties and factions in the Parliament, but the Reformists, Loyalists and Royalists are the most important; currently, the Reformists and Royalists maintain a majority coalition. (Of the minor parties, all of which together don't measure up to any of the three major ones, I want to mention the confusingly named Party Party, a well-beloved political joke that has lasted for over a century and predictably gets the vote of my friend Pinkie Pie.)


The most modern branch of Equestria's government is the Civil Service, growing out of the old Palace administration and the permanent aides and assistents to the Parliament and the high nobility. They provide an independent, professional class of bureaucrats, advisors, clerks and judges, less subject to vagaries of political climate than the  Members of the Parliament and more flexible than the nobility with their ancestral titles, traditions and wealth. (I may be slightly biased in their favor, as my parents are both high-ranking civil servants.)


Finally, there is the Royal Council. Led by the Chancellor and made up from senior civil servants, influential and insightful nobles, and a few notable experts and scholars, it advises the Princesses on various subjects, arbitrates and settles issues between the various branches and levels of government, and generally wields the highest authority invested to any mortal ponies in Equestria.


I hope this brief overview of Equestrian government was helpful to you!