It would be dawn soon, yet it felt as though the night would stretch on forever. Gosling stood on the battlements, exhausted, and taking a bit of a break. The cooing of pigeons could be heard below, they too knew the dawn was coming, and they waited for the rising of the sun. Passenger pigeons, playthings of the nobles, who used them for pigeon racing. Now the birds were being used for communications once more, and the many pigeon races, one of the favourite pastimes of the nobles, had kept the birds in shape for service.
Already, the birds were being enchanted, just like in the days of yesteryear, with aversion spells, protection spells, augmentations for speed, and attunements that allowed them to fly to the location desired with pinpoint precision. For whatever reason, the nobles of Canterlot had kept these practices alive and well. Their pigeons, once the pride of the Equestrian Empire, had been the primary means of communications, along with the pegasus pony express routes, both civilian and military.
In his guard training, Gosling had taken a history course detailing the service of the birds. He understood their purpose, their function, and there was a part of him that was pleased to see them return to service. The signal corps once had its own massive flock of pigeons, but with the coming of the telegraph, the birds had been retired, and with them, many jobs involving the birds had vanished.
It had been the end of an era, the retirement of the birds and the entire logistics wing dedicated to supporting them, in very much the same way that the invention of the train had changed everything. Gosling reflected upon all of these changes as he looked up at the stars, struggling to keep his eyes open and remain awake. He was witnessing yet another massive change, and when the sun rose, it would shine upon a very different Equestria.
The scent of coffee and tea tickled his nose. Below him, many of the nobles and citizens of Canterlot prepared for the coming morning. Seeing all of these ponies working for the common good made Gosling happy and gave him hope. There was quite a buzz below as Princess Cadance was expected soon.
Princess Luna would be departing soon for Manehattan, Gosling didn’t know what was up, but he knew that something big had happened. He knew that he would find out in time. As for Celestia, she was sleeping. She needed sleep, she needed rest, even with the crisis going on. Truth be told, Gosling needed sleep as well. He was waiting for the dawn, and when it came, he would go to bed, but he had promised to remain with the nobles throughout the night.
They were his army, and he owed them that.
Hearing hooves on the stone, Gosling turned his head and saw a weary looking Shining Armor approaching. He wasn’t wearing his armor, but he was wearing a cloak draped over his back for warmth. Gosling gave him a nod as he approached.
“So, Shining, any news?”
Eyelids sagging, ears drooping, Shining Armor came to a halt beside Gosling. He yawned, shook his head, and flicked his tail. He drew in a deep breath and then replied, “A major battle was fought in Manehattan. Princess Luna is going to deal with the aftermath.” He shook his head, looking sad. “From my understanding, Luna lost some ponies she knows. I don’t know them, but she seemed quite shaken by the news. Four unicorns did battle with one of Mister Mariner’s agents. Luna said they died with a stiff upper lip.”
“Four on one? And they still lost?” Gosling’s ears stood up.
Shining Armor let out a sigh. “There was help. Mariner’s agent was aided by changelings. Strange changelings. If the report is to be believed, free changelings of independent mind.”
“Was this agent captured?” Gosling asked.
There was no reply from Shining Armor, not right away. His back drooped and his tail sagged. He let out another sigh, this one made him sound quite weary. “This agent poured poison down her own ear rather than be captured. There was a fierce battle, I don’t know everything that has taken place just yet. I do know that one of the changelings was taken alive and he is being brought to Canterlot.”
Hearing Shining Armor’s words, Gosling discovered that he was too exhausted to be filled with fury, or anger, or anything really. He was tired and had trouble mustering any sort of emotion about the situation. He was almost asleep on his hooves. He let out a disgruntled whinny, which was all he could do at the moment. Faced with a bleak feeling of despair, Gosling nudged the subject over to something else.
“Think we’ll be able to fix all of this?” Gosling asked.
“No,” Shining Armor said without a moment’s hesitation. “Mister Mariner knew what was he was doing. He has exposed all of the cracks in the system. He has shown us that the great nation of Equestria has hooves of clay.”
“I don’t understand.” Gosling really didn’t understand. Things seemed as though they could still be fixed, but it would take some doing. Also, some unpopular acts would have to be done. “Can’t the Sisters just make things stay the way they are? I’ve been thinking about it. Why not just seize his property? Take the apartments, the factories, the everything, and just force it to stay open. Keep the workers working—”
“Gosling, it isn’t that simple,” Shining Armor said in a weary voice as he shook his head.
“Help me understand, so I’m not so stupid about it. I want to help. If I can’t understand it, I can’t help.” Gosling saw Shining Armor looking at him in a strange way and he wondered what Shining was thinking. “Why can’t the Sisters just keep the factories going and why can’t ponies keep their jobs?”
Shining Armor closed his eyes and stood there for a moment, his barrel expanding and contracting as he sucked in the cold night air. It seemed darkest and coldest right now, before the dawn. “Gosling, even if the factories stayed open, how would the workers get paid?”
“With money?” Gosling replied.
“What money?” Shining Armor’s eyes opened. “Whose money? All those millions of ponies that Mister Mariner employed, how do you propose we pay them? If the Sisters were to pay their wages, they would be bankrupt before the month is over.”
Hearing Shining Armor’s words, Gosling’s ears drooped. “What about taking Mister Mariner’s money to pay them?”
“Gosling, here is a little secret. The money in this country, it is all a lie.” As Shining spoke, his eyes glittered and the corner of his mouth twitched. “In fact, pretty much everything you think you know about wealth and prosperity is all crap. It’s all a lie, a clever deception, and it is one fostered by the Sisters.”
“What?” Gosling took a step backwards.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Shining admitted. “So, let’s start with the good old days. A long, long time ago, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna owned everything. They owned the land, they owned the ponies, they had all of the wealth. The nobles had a little bit too. But wealth was a physical thing. The wealth that the Sisters had was the wealth of the nation. So they protected it, nurtured it, they made sure that it grew, because if it grew, the nation grew with it. Are you with me?”
Gosling nodded.
“And so it was for a very long time. Equestria’s wealth was real. It was a physical thing. And for a long time, this was enough. Equestria grew quite wealthy under the just rule of Princess Celestia. Princess Luna was banished at this point. With all of the wealth, there was something of a revolution. The ponies of Equestria wanted some of it. They wanted to own land, be wealthy, and to have something to show for all of their hard work. Princess Celestia advised against it, because even then, she knew the consequences.”
As Gosling stood watching, Shining Armor took a deep breath, and then continued.
“There was a revolution of sorts, and Princess Celestia, not wanting it to turn into a bloody civil war, allowed it to happen and she gave her subjects what they wanted. Wealth.” Shining Armor spat out the last word as if it had a bad taste. “And for a time, everything was okay. A new merchant class sprang up and their money rivaled the nobles. The merchants weren’t like the nobles though, they didn’t have centuries of wisdom regarding wealth and how to care for it. The merchant class was only happy if their wealth grew and kept growing. It was a reckless contest among them to see who might make the most coin.”
Gosling tilted his head to one side, this didn’t sound so bad, in fact, it sounded pretty reasonable. He was himself a firm believer in making money, and he liked earning extra pay with hard work. He wondered how this could be a bad thing.
“The merchant class grew and grew, and with them, guilds. Soon, a major problem became apparent. A big problem that none of the now wealthy peasants had even thought about.” Shining Armor shook his head in disgust. “There is only so much wealth… and the more one has of it, the less there is to go around. Land is a finite thing, so are resources, and wealth has to be backed for it to be valuable. With all of the new wealthy peasants and landowners, physical wealth in this country became spread thin. Suddenly, everypony was poor, including Princess Celestia. With the new merchant class having so much money, suddenly, her vast holdings weren’t worth as much, and neither was anypony else's.”
“Huh?” Gosling’s mouth fell open.
“It all comes down to availability, Gosling, and the more ponies that have wealth available, make it harder to come by for those born in poverty. Wealth has gravity, it consolidates if you aren’t careful.” Shining Armor gave himself a shake and began adjusting his cloak, spreading it over his back and neck.
“I don’t understand,” Gosling said as he turned away from Shining Armor. He felt stupid for not seeing the problem, and still felt that wealth was a good thing, though he was starting to feel some doubt.
“With the merchant class now having money, and the guilds, everypony felt entitled to ‘finding their fortune.’ It became a big part of our society. Young ponies left home and were told to find their fortune. Everypony was entitled to a certain amount of wealth, or so they thought, if they worked hard. And this is where everything goes wrong.”
“How is that a bad thing?” Gosling asked. “You work hard, you get paid, you make money, and life gets better.” He was a firm believe in this himself, and Gosling was proud that he made as much money as he did at his age.
“No.” Shining Armor shook his head. “Nope, life gets worse, the lie gets bigger, and the problem festers, growing larger.”
“Explain.” Gosling’s eyebrow arched.
“None of Equestria’s money is real,” Shining Armor admitted in a low voice. “That’s the problem. For everypony to be wealthy, nopony can be wealthy.”
“What?” Standing there, stupefied, Gosling’s mouth fell open.
“Mister Mariner is a billionaire. But I can assure you, there are not a billion coins in Equestria. I’ve been inside the Canterlot Royal Treasury. There are no coins in there, no gold bars, no piles of gems. Inside of the Royal Treasury, all you will find are books, Gosling, ledgers. With the millions and millions of ponies we now have in Equestria, and with all of them making money and wanting to live comfortable lives, real actual wealth vanished a long time ago. None of the money is real. It’s all make believe, Gosling, numbers written down on paper, and none of it is actually backed by anything, like how it was back in the old days. Ponies like Mister Mariner and others can’t become billionaire barons… nopony could. The resources aren’t there. But to hold them back… would be considered tyranny. A pony has a right to make their fortune.”
Knees now knocking, Gosling felt as though the rug was being yanked out from beneath him.
“Ponies like Mister Mariner have more wealth and resources than the Sisters do. Mister Mariner is Equestria… and ponies like him. He is part of a vast machine that creates imaginary money and spreads it around to ponies, money that is worthless, meaningless, and has no value. And with but a soft touch upon its brittle clay hooves, the empire could crumble.”
And Gosling could say nothing.
“So, here is where the Sisters stand… seize his assets? What assets? A set of numbers in a ledger somewhere? If the Sisters do anything, anything at all, if they move to seize his fortune and it causes a panic among the other rich and privileged, what do you think will happen if a bunch of wealthy ponies all suddenly decide to pull their money out of the bank? Money that doesn’t exist? All of these ponies, with all of this imaginary money, and all of them wanting to pull their so called wealth out of a system they no longer believe in… and then what happens?”
“I don’t know,” Gosling said in a hoarse whisper.
“This country falls into anarchy, that’s what happens.” Shining Armor’s ears angled forwards over his eyes. “Now we are held hostage by the lie, it has grown, gained power, has become a terrible monster that threatens to devour us all. Even the Sisters live in fear of it, it rules Equestria through fear and keeps us all too divided to battle against it using tactics such as social class and wage disparity.”
“But it isn’t real,” Gosling whimpered.
“We made it real by choosing to believe in it,” Shining Armor snapped. “Ponies want to believe that they can grow up and be millionaires or billionaires. Mister Mariner came to this country broke, with nothing to his name. He worked on the docks, saved, scrimped, bought his own business, and then began to buy the businesses of others. He gives hope to others that they too, can do the same. But for this hope to exist, we have to continue living the lie that the wealth we have is real.”
“So… in order to achieve the Equestrian dream, you have to be asleep?” Gosling asked.
Shining Armor nodded. “More or less. None of this is real, Gosling, and with recent events, all of this could come toppling down. Nopony wants to discover that they have nothing and everything they believed in was a lie.”
Gosling nodded. “Not a good feeling… not a good feeling at all.”
As Gosling spoke, the first rays of pink appeared upon the horizon...