//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: The Princess thoughts // Story: Equestrian Paradox: "Worlds at war" // by An Sturmmann //------------------------------// Economics... Princess Celestia old foe, a foe as old as the one time when she, in her filly foolishness decided to take a look at one of Starswirl books about managing the feudal economies of the many ladyships that once held power over large tracts of land in what today is Equestria, long before Equestria was one country, back when it was just a single league of several ladyships and queendoms. She herself was but a foal who began to read information she wasn't meant to even know about, information about how you were expected to treat your slaves, how you were supposed to take care of your stallions and colts, and how you could steal away the stallions of another High lady or feudal warlady and get away with it. Truth to be told, those days were horrible, Equestria was a loose union of warmongers, rapists and many, many other bad mares, Starswirl could barely hold them together with the help of a few honorable queendoms and princessdoms, using mostly the unified faith around Faust herself as the force wich kept them together against many threats. The Changellings at the north, The buffalos at the south, the Yaks north of what today is the crystal empire, at the time a tiny city-state wich was ruled by Amore, a princess wich may be the closest thing to a hero to her, a respectable mare who taught her many of the ideals wich today everypony in Equestria follow, for the Era Amore was quite the liberal ruler allowing stallions to be politicians, soldiers, merchants, and many other jobs... or to treat stallions like actual ponies rather than mere baby-makers or cheap labour cooks. Luna was a bit more traditional than her, even back in the day, Luna fought for the rights of Stallions, yes, but was a keen defender of the idea that Stallions should be protected, loved and never allowed to join the battlefield, but quickly changed ideas when she met a brave batallion of colts who fought off a Yak raid all alone, even since then she grew to be the most loyal advocate of meritocracy no matter the gender, something wich despite a thousand years having passed, she still fights for. Anyway, economy back then was way easier than today, merely dealing with the ladies, convincing them to allow for trading, since most of the trading was done by nobles and rich folks, making it impossible for even the greatest of farmers or artisans to get more than what the local noble was willing to give, it was a harsh life, but certainly way easier to just make sure that everypony was willing to pay what the goods were actually worth. She had to break a few noses back then, how she missed when she could just trample over some mean, spoiled rich who believed that earning a few extra coins was worth the death of innocents, a single duel was enough to pass a law if needed, and the only one who could actually defeat her was Luna, for even Starswirl knew that it was a bad idea to get in the way of an Alicorn who just saw a filly die of hunger... She missed the feeling of imposing order alongside her sister and teacher, saving lives and overall being a heroine, sadly that life was left behind once the first article in the league was triggered. When the Yak khanate invaded Vanhoover, wich was the home of the strongest Queendom at the time and destroyed it, razing it to the down, and leading to the utter collapse of the north, most of the ladies and warlords had to join together, they had no other option but to give the leadership to Starswirl, he quickly send them to deal with the invasion, during several battles most high ladies took reckless and stupid choices, no matter how hard Luna tried to stop them from doing suicidal charges. The full might of the Khanate fell upon most of the armies and razed them, the entire north and center of what today is equestria was lost in but a single year, forcing most civilians and militias to hide in the south, there she and Luna led the defensive efforts, stopping the yaks for ten years just enough for their khan to die, once she fell the khanate fell to infighting. In a few months they recovered the north, using a mix of pegasi charriots and unicorn transportation spells to retake chokepoints and vital places, acting as an unifying force to all ponies, stopping the efforts of the yaks to retake what they conquered, Equestria could have expanded north but doing so would have defeated the idea of an unified pacifist Equestria, the dream that they shared with Starswirl. Once the Khanate was expelled, a series of inner conflicts and Changelling raids insued, but after a few years peace was restored, the last battle happening bewteen the Changellings and the Yaks, ending both hostile empires in a matter of months, with that, began the short-lived peace before Nightmare Moon insurrection, wich led to the thousand years peace wich most called "The Celestia Era" even if she felt wrong being considered some sort of Goddess-Empress with an entire time period called after her. The only thing wich she missed of those days was the simple economy, mostly artisans, farmers, fishers and miners, trade was done by few individuals and everypony worked for their own food, most of them shared with whoever was in need, despite the nobles outright evil actions. Economy today was... complicated to say the least... Maybe the fact she was currently holding her head with her hooves while looking down with several papers all over her already paper-filled room was proof of just how hard it was to manage an outright gigantic country. But then again, this was the price of prosperity and peace, the Rich, industrial cities of Manehattan and Fillydelphia were the heart of the small but powerful industry that Equestria had, rich capitalists and nobles pouring a constant stream of money wich allowed the creation of wealth, jobs, and goods. She herself felt enamoured with the idea of a society where machines solved most problems allowing ponies to live their lives to the fullest and focus on what really mattered, but then again, the idea was rather silly, a rather guilty wish she had, because, what good was in life with no hard work? A pair of working hooves lead to a happy pony, a pony who works to earn what it wants is a happy pony, and she had to make sure that work wasn't the only thing somepony did, family, friends, love, fun, all of them are even more important, food, water, all of them are needs. The north was a pioneer in this area, the mix of machines and hard work led to the growth of two medium-sized cities, just a hundred years ago Vanhoover was the biggest urban setlement in all of Equestria, around two million ponies lived there after all, the number grew to become five millions just until five decades ago, and then... Manehattan began to industrialize. At first they had troubles and asked for help from the Crown, she gladly gave them the founding they required, and in just a few decades Manehattan had overthrown Vanhoover as the biggest most populated city in all of Equestria, with six million souls there, most of them factory workers, but also builders, merchants, clerks, teachers, in all but political power Manehattan became the beating heart of Equestria. But then happened the tragedy... Manehattan had followed the example of the Kirin Empire, a friendly country wich was the de-facto superpower back then, it had started to industrialize a hundred years ago, almost fifty years before Equestria, and it became such a powerful nation that even if the other "great queendoms" were to join together they would still outmatch them in everything but landmass. She had met with their empress a few times, a rather gentle and motherly mare who was more than willing to help other leaders to industrialize their countries, most agreed to a testing period of a few decades, she refused because at the time she was busy trying to help Queen Novo to deal with the worst famine her allies had suffered in hundreds of years, for ten years straight the clouds refused to rain, and even if pegasi tried their best, or unicorns used their magic, the clouds simply put, refused to even be touched, they acted in a weird way wich resembled how the everfree clouds acted. So, while she and Novo were left out, thus getting ponies and Hippogriffons out of the deal, The kirins and their sphereligns began to quickly reap the benefits of their machines, that is what inspired most of the Manehattan industralists fifty years later. But then, with no reason they closed their borders, began an aggresive policy demanding tribute and resources from anyone they could, even going as far as to destabilize the Kingdom of Griffonstone, just to take as much resources as they could, and just like it began, the Kirin golden era finished. No one is sure what happened, but for ten years their entire continent was covered in dark clouds, acid rain came from the skies and sometimes their strange technology seemed to activate, pumping out entire hurricanes of dark, pestilent clouds, just to later become inactive again. That lasted for four years before suddenly the entire continent was engulfed in dark clouds, before becoming lush and green again, whatever explorers were sent came back with news of the land being as virgin an untainted as only those lands wich nopony has ever lived on could be. It is completely unkown what happened, but some voices tell of unkown tribes of Kirins wich kept silent and roamed aimlessly, before settling around places wich once were the hubs of the former Empire, they refused to speak, and mostly led explorers to traps where they fell prey of powerful spells, just to wake up next morning in the middle of their ships, already on their way to their homelands, and their ships refusing to obey them, it didn't mattered if the whole crew tried to turn, or if they flapped their wings to create wind currents, the ships simply refused to move towards the continent. After a few expeditions it simply became impossible to do anything about this, so a sort of mystic aura formed around those lands, wich died off after a few months. However what was discovered was that their machines damaged the soil and the skies alike, poisoned the waters and plants, killed animals even, it is because of this that both She and Novo decided to take special care of their own flowering industries. By making sure that only Manehattan and a few selected cities could experience the massive industrial growth, while also giving artisans a way to keep in the competition via tax breaks, loans, lifting debts and others, she was able to create a balance... And judging by Raven face as she finished telling her this small tale she was right in her choice of not revealling to everypony this truth, it did took a long while for most to forget about the Kirins after all, today, most people simply think of them as some sort of lost continent or mystical legendary civilization... Anyway, she really needed to stop her small history talks, specially with the whole economy facing the threat of losing its balance with the attack on New Horseleans. The economic efforts must begin, at once! First of all, she had to made sure that everypony involved in the attack is safe and healthy, wich means that the Canterlot hospital and the Blue Horseshoe can deal with that easily, she just needs to deal with whatever noble may want to charge extra costs for what is essentialy state-sponsored medical services, something wich had happened more than once, however she already dealt with this. Currently Cadence is leading the medical efforts, her husband meanwhile is collecting information about the battle from whatever survivor he could find of the battle, thankfully a recluit had managed to sneak past the griffons and warn the garrison of the Tenochtitlan Basin, in the process she also met Daring Do and fought off some sort of dog-creature called Ahuizotl. The second is make sure whatever the creature Twilight brought keeps alive, it seems to know a lot about the unkown, considering it had fought off griffon pirates and hipogriff soldiers all alone until they managed to drug him, that creature could have really useful information, however it also was, a living being, it was imperative to make sure nopony died because of this, Equestria was a safe haven to everypony after all, even those who aren't a pony at all. The third and upmost important is kickstarting the recovery of New Horseleans, by giving the Treasury the order to deliver a few thousand bits to the local treasury of New horseleans they can start the rebuilding early enough to restart the trade routes with only a few months lost, she was sure it would be way harder than what it may look due to the risk of another raid, however she had a nice idea in mind. Asking Raven to tell her about the recent revenues Celestia found out exactly what she wanted, until recently the fishing industry mostly fed the hipogriff and griffon minorities at the western coast, however recently an small business led by hipogriff inmigrants has started to take a hoofhold of small but promising revenues around fishing on the east coast. This was exactly was she needed, by giving them an good loan and some tax breaks in exchange of them settling on New horseleans she could give an small boost to the population of new horseleans to help them recover from the disgusting loss of life of the raid. Hipogriffs despite being similar to griffons looked more like ponies than griffons, while lots of griffons became hunters and bounty hunters Hipogriffs usually chose to become part of their town's guard, or to become police officers, just like griffons were more than eager to fight back against whatever threathens their home towns, Hipogriffs are more than eager to protect their fellows, together they laid way for some pony settlements in the uncharted deep south of the west coast. With Hipogriff settlers on new horseleans, the townsfolk would feel way more safe than they would feel with extra guards, after all if you know that your neighbour is more than ready to fight alongside the guard to protect you, you would feel safer than if only the guard was ready. On top of that hipogriffs tended to flock together, that's the reason why most ponies had never met one, they did concentrate on the deep south in the west, by having some of them settle on the easter half of the deep south she could even create a sort of healthy competition bewteen their fishing business wich would create jobs, integrate them more in Equestrian society and repay Novo for all the years of alliance bewteen Ponies and Hippogriffs. Then again the average pony/hippogriff didn't even knew about this alliance, mostly because the voyage bewteen one continent to the other is expensive, dangerous, and really long... And if what Twilight said is true, then there are more griffon and hipogriff countries out there, the hippogriff she met seemed honorable despite being a zealot so, having hippogriffs on new horseleans could be the key to actually archieving a dialogue with this new country. Obviously she needed to protect her little subjects, it wasn't just sending them to the wolf jaw and praying the wolf will talk with them, she needed to give extra funds to the guard there, perhaps by sending enough bits to maintain a five hundred strong pony garrison? Or... she could finally give an use to that old friend of hers. "Raven, could you please call Lord Albatross?" Celestia asked as raven nodded and left. It didn't took long for a young stallion to appear, he gave a respectful bow to her at the door and she answered in kind inviting him to enter the room, Raven following after. "Good Afternoon Princess Celestia, It is a honor to be here" He spoke in a polite, truly respectful manner, not a single trace of disdain or fear, akin to a foal who spoke to its professor. "Good Afternoon Lord Albatross, the honor is mine" The Stallion took seat to the side of raven as both of them looked at the Princess who used her magic to close the door. "Excuse me if i'm wrong but, as far I do concern your family is currently having some troubles with the merchant ship consortium, Am I Right?" Celestia asked and Albatross seemingly embarassed nodded. "Y...yes... we are currently in a harsh debt after my father's lawyer failed to win the case" Albatross looked down and Celestia smiled a bit before standing up and gently giving him a hug with her wings, the Stallion semeed surprised at first, but quickly hugged back with his own wings, on the verge of crying... "Calm down young colt... rest assured that such a debt won't be a problem..." She said and the Stallion eyes opened up as if they were plates, while Raven seemed surprised too. "D...d...do...do you mean?" "Yes... I finally found you a good job" Celestia smiled as she broke the hug and using her magic she lifted the map of New Horseleans alongside a feather with ink. "Tell me, your mother's business was mostly focused on building ships for the guard, Am I right?" "Y...yes... even today we still have all of the qualified personnel and equipment, we even have some machines we bought from Manehattan" He spoke while he looked at the map and his eyes widened upon noticing how the feather wrote something over an area on the eastern half of the town. "Could you, perhaps, be interested in working directly for the crown?" He smiled widely as he saw the words in the paper and with a quick but full of respect and gratitude bow he answered up. "Yes!, I will gladly help you on this project!" He said as the looked at the map, the words "Albatross Royal Guard Shipyard" wrotten in a fairly big area on the east... a rather big project, and by Faust, he felt like a colt again...