Gold Wins Wars

by Verlax

Interlude : Political Letters - Hansa

Dear Deputy Tricky Steam.

In response to your earlier interpellation concerning the creation of Horseatic League, I want to assure you that the creation of the Hansa was indeed legal. I want to thank you for your hefty dose of constructive criticism and I will try to cover all the questions you raised last session.

- The creation of Hansa did not, in fact, break the 4th Paragraph of the First Chapter of the Equestrian Codex of Law. The paragraph states, and I quote, that “Equestria is a unitarian state”. the Horseatic League did not proclaim autonomy from the rest of Equestria, and uses the same Codex to ensure that the law is followed. Therefore, in light of existing legislations it is still a part of our country and did not violate the 4th Paragraph.

- Suderhoof had the right to use the 24th Paragraph of the Second Chapter of the Equestrian Codex of Law. As it stands now, the 24th Paragraph states that “In case of danger to the continued existence of the Equestrian nation, any governor or other figure of local authority in a position no less than a Mayor can introduce a “State of Emergency” on the territory of his/her authority.” This in turn means that Suderhoof had every right to do what he did, because the 4th Paragraph Chapter Eight of the Codex does not determine what exactly is considered a “danger to the continued existence of the Equestrian nation”. I suggest you contact the Minister of Justice about this and write an interpellation to him, because he is the one responsible for updating the Codex.

- It is not possible to veto local authorities on the decisions they made concerning their domains during a state of emergency, which is stated in the “Appendix to the Equestrian Domain System”. Therefore even if the creation of the Hansa does not suit our interests, for now we cannot abolish it, and even if we changed the Appendix, the “Lex retro non agit” rule prevents us from using the newly introduced law against decisions that were passed before its introduction.

However, I suggest that you contact the Minister of Justice. I also want to note that it is possible to create a special sub-commission to try and impose new legislation on this problem.

Legatus Twister

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Dear Queen Platinum

For everything you hold dear, calm your gods-damned unicorns down! I have no idea what devil possessed that whoreson Tricky Steam to do what he did, but that doesn’t change the facts: I’m so furious right now that, were it not for his diplomatic immunity I would gladly gut him. That slug had the gall to suggest that if I won’t step down as the leader of Pegasus faction, he’ll try to inpeach me in a referendum! A referendum!

I know that, in theory, you cannot interfere in Parlimentary matters, but at least try to ease the situation, because at this moment I’m overloaded with inquiries, and the accusations from the unicorn deputies aren’t helping. I cannot work properly if I have deputies banging on my door every day, blaming me for “endangering the unity of Equestria”.

Yes, I know that it wasn’t “all that legal” to actually create the Hansa in the first place, but it’s Right Judge’s fault, the complete idiot from the Earth Pony faction who wrote this chapter of the Codex. If there is anything to blame, it’s our stupid, retarded, good-for-nothing laws that need to be corrected immediately. I’m not sure if you have somepony who could try to fix this thing up, but if you have any expert in law, inform him immediately. I will give him any political support I still (despite the situation) have.

However, returning to our usual Parliament routine, I think we need to strengthen our coalition against the liberal earth ponies in their faction. While I think that in the long run the Hansa could prove to be actually useful, I don’t want to give the impression to everypony that they can create their own city-states just like that. I’m working on a special decree that would move the ability to introduce a State of Emergency from local authorities straight to the Parliament. Of course, it’s a risky decision, but at least we will put an end to the decentralization of the government. My Pegasi fraction is too small for now, so I need the full support of the Unicorn faction to secure its passing. Would it be possible for you to talk with Joust about this? He was quite amazing at disciplining his colleagues from the party. If that won’t work, I also suggest to contact Puddinghead. I heard rumors that some politicians from his faction want to make a coup d'etat, so that somepony else could take the leading chair in his faction. If we were to give him our support, we would be better prepared for the upcoming Parliamentary sessions and the passing of laws would be that much easier. However, if they will indeed try to overthrow Puddinghead during the party elections, we need to support him at all cost. While he is not a good politician, he is a loyal one. In times like these that’s far more important.

Loyal politician. What an oxymoron.

In your earlier letter you asked me what I think about your idea of forming a Supreme Court. While I’m not exactly skeptical towardthat idea, I have my worries about who exactly is going to be sitting on the Court. I mean… seriously. In the Praetorian Council there was even a motion to promote Quartermaster Cold Steel to this rank. I read the list of ponies that would probably end up there, and to tell the truth, it doesn’t look good. Maybe if we would give the Supreme Court less duties and saved more power for the government in case of revocations... For now, this idea is far too dangerous. Of course, you can try and enforce it during a Parliament session, but I can’t guarantee you that the Pegasus faction will support you.

Also I would like to note that while our government is quite stable at the moment, we need additional resources to set up the National Treasury. We have had a hard time balancing the budget and our current Master of the Mint doesn’t have any legitimation. Calculated Branch wasn’t an elected politician, and so he gives his political enemies additional arguments against his rule. What is even worse is that during the last riots he was labeledPublic Enemy Number One by the ringleaders, despite that fact they were protesting against the Legions, rather thaneconomical problems out of our control. I’m also worried that some nobles and politicians behind the scene are trying to destroy him, and use his collapse to build up their own political position. However, I think I know how to resolve this problem.

The latest survey of the political sympathies in the Pegasus faction gave us some interesting results. You are still considered the most popular amongst the the politicians ruling Equestria. In light of this, I want to make a proposal. Maybe we should make a motion of censure against Calculated Branch, and when we overthrow him, enforce another Master of the Mint that would be “nonpartisan”. In reality, he would listen only to your orders, which would give us more opportunities to pass our economical reforms and try to stabilize Equestria’s situation in a more direct way.

The problem however, is that finding a pony that would be considered nonpartisan is almost impossible. How much I would pay to have a 4th race, so that we couldn’t be accused of “favoritism”. As of right now I suppose we should try to find somepony who isn’t exactly considered to be a popular politician, but at the same time make sure he’s competent and has next to no negative reputation amongst other factions. I never expected that the hardest part of forming government would be making sure the number of ministries is divisible by three.

Respectfully

Legatus Twister

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Secretary Transcript for Parliament Session, 23/04/425 A.E
Speaker of Chamber : Red Staff
Giving Speech : Chancellor Puddinghead
Topic : Food Production and Distribution

<Puddinghead approaches rostrum, deputies calm everyone down. Guests silenced by Speaker’s guards.>

Chancellor Puddinghead : Dear deputies, Speaker, Chamber, Queen, guests, and all illegal immigrants! I’m incredibly excited to present to you my report on food production across the green fields of Equestria. Now, I should start with listing all the previous legislations on that matters, because that would bore the heck out of you all, as well as any reader of the transcript of my speech. You got all that Secretary?

<Secretary signals he noted down everything. Half the chamber facehooves. Applause from Earth Pony faction.>

Chancellor Puddinghead : Great! Thank you kindly dear Secretary! Now, where was I? Ah yes. <Puddinghead coughs> First of all, I’m proud to say that for the first time from the creation of Equestria, the Ministry of Agriculture noted an increase of total food production by more than 10% in comparison to previous year, so go us! Our researchers proved that Equestria’s soil is incredibly fertile and easy to plow, and crop production is much, much higher than it was back in the Compact lands. Right now, our two biggest crop exporters are city of Hayburg and the town of Stettin… scratch that, let’s stop at Hayburg. The last report indicates that the city was able to produce eighty six tons of crops per year, which is in my personal opinion, an incredible success. Even without mentioning the good weather, our infrastructure and government interference in local economy seems to be working well.

<Applause from Earth Pony faction, rest of chamber silent.>

Chancellor Puddinghead : However, I have to say that we simply cannot enforce this type of industry in other realms. For six months now our government tried to promote agriculture in Novigrad, but the results are… are… well… to put it diplomatically, mediocre. My ministry is not really sure why exactly crops don’t want to grow in Novigrad, but I sent a researcher team already to discover it.

<Applause from Earth Pony faction, rest of chamber express outrage, deputy Catfire from Unicorn Faction stands up.>

Deputy Catfire : Maybe that’s because there’s eternal winter in Novigrad, water turns into ice in 3 seconds flat, and single day takes up half a year, you incompetent fool!?

Chancellor Puddinghead : Hey! At least we tried!

<Speaker of Chamber slams staff four times>

Speaker Red Staff : I didn’t give you permission to speak, deputy Catfire! Sit down or I will throw you out of this chamber! <To Chancellor Puddinghead> Please, continue.

<Catfire sits down, Unicorn faction murmurs, Legatus Twister indicates she wants to make a formal request. Speaker Red Staff refuses. Chancellor Puddinghead continues her speech. Two pegasus deputies leave the chamber, leader of Pegasi Faction - Legatus Twister alongside them.>

Chancellor Puddinghead : I think that overall the main problem with our economy is the lack of good transport across Equestria. We know that Hayburg has an incredible amount of supplies but right now we cannot afford to transport them to other regions of Equestria that suffer from food shortage, especially the capital and the cities to the west. For now, we have managed only to build a few key stone roads surrounding Everfree and the neighboring settlements, but it’s clear it’s not enough.

In this situation, we decided that focusing more on sea transport would be a good idea, especially since the riverine system gives us the opportunity to reach all the cities in Equestria and use them as already existing trade routes. On that note, I would like to strongly encourage a stronger emphasis on creating our own Equestrian trading fleet that would help improve logistics.

The creation of the Equestrian fleet, however would be incredibly costly, not to mention reeeealy time consuming. For now, we have prepared a project with proper legislations for it, but more likely we will introduce it later, just after the third election to Equestria’s Parliament, so we can appoint a new budget to cover all the expenses.

What is worrying however, is that despite government funding, our grants seem not to reach their targets. I dunno why, but no matter how much money we throw to expand our skysteel and mining industries, we get no profits from them and it seems that they don’t expand whatsoever. It’s like throwing coal inside an empty chimney and not lighting it up. The government suspects that we have a…

<Legatus Twister and two pegasi deputies come back to their seats.>

Chancellor Puddinghead : …major problem with corruption in the ranks of our administration. For what we know, unicorn officials seem to favor unicorns, pegasus official seems to favour pegasi… but I really have no idea why. Both horns and wings are made of bone, right? Just pegasi have additional feathers on their bones, so really? I mean… feathers are ticklish and stuff but…

<Chairpony Joust, Leader of Unicorn Faction signals to Speaker Red Staff. Red Staff approves>

Speaker Red Staff : <cough> <cough> Chancellor, back on topic. Tea break is in 5 minutes and I want to finish this exposé before then.

Chancellor Puddinghead : Oki doki! I want to eat some sweet little rolls too, let me just summarize it quickly. The situation is under control and we do not expect more riots because of food shortages. We need to continue our efforts into expanding our infrastructure and found more villages and cities, we need to improve the logistics of Equestria by building new roads and establishing an Equestrian trading fleet, and finally, we need to ensure that every citizen of Equestria can feel that the economy of our country is getting stronger.

I think it’s a very good thing to remember that the economy is, most of all, ponies: traders, merchants, farmers, legionaries, ponies of all races and kinds. We can announce full success only if ponies of Equestria will be happy with their lives. Thank you.

<Applause from all Parliament factions. Chancellor Puddinghead leaves rostrum.>

Speaker Red Staff : I pause this session of the Parliament for one hour.

<Speaker slams his staff, pausing the session. Deputies leave the chamber, running towards the Parliament canteen>

---

Dear Chancellor Puddinghead

While trying to write next year’s budget, I’ve came up with an idea of how to at least facilitate maintaining the local treasuries of our cities. Despite our best efforts, there is a wide disproportion between certain regions: while some are incredibly wealthy, others suffer from stagnation or downright recession. After some analyses, I came to the conclusion that we could force the leaders of local autonomies to fund a special “compensatory tax” to cover up the problem of poverty in the needy territories of Equestria.

For example, look at the city of Ridge. Mayor Shabby Rich is, for all purposes, sitting on a pile of gold, while other cities are on the brink of proclaiming bankruptcy. As Ridge does not use its monetary reserves in any way (at least for now), I think it will be profitable if we could use this money to help expand other settlements.

I’m going to propose a new legislation on that matter next week. I’m eagerly awaiting for Your response.

Sincerely

Calculated Branch
Master of the Mint

PS. For the love of Celeste’, don’t enter my office through the chimney. The fate of Equestria depends on it.

---

Dear Cold Steel

I want to inform you that your last delivery reached us safe and sound, and that our Legion is as always thankful for the shipment of such fine, quality weapons and armour. However, I fear that this may be our “last” delivery.

Our cooperation has been extremely fruitious for years now, but unfortunately now that there is a bigger choice of high-quality goods from competing manufacturers, who at the same time offer their wares at lower prices, I fear our cooperation will have to come to an end. I’m sorry, but as a military official I always need to choose the best offer; otherwise I could be accused of corruption. It also means that I will no longer be able to send you information about what is happening in the Legion. It was part of our deal after all, but now our deal is, for all purposes, over. Sorry.

The Legion, however, is incredibly proud of you, and several squads decided to pool together and get you a special gift. Most of the veterans still serving here remember you from when your group was fighting in Cirra. Check the package, I’m sure it’ll be to your liking.

If you have some time, please visit us. These new kids that seem to be joining the Legion nowadays should hear some of your stories.

Respectfully.

Lictor Thunder Bone

12th Legion

---

I know. Don’t worry however, my dear Lictor. I hope that your new agreement with the Hansa traders will pay off. And I’m going to visit your Legion for sure. It seems a good idea to meet up with the boys one last time before I pass away.

Cold Steel

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To the Praetorian Council

I know that the Praetorian Council usually doesn’t deal with such insignificant things, but my Legion witnessed something strange. I need to report that the Lictor of the 12th Legion Thunder Bone, was found dead in his personal bathroom after he mysteriously vanished during his drill exercise about two hours earlier. We started an investigation on the matter, and our current theory is that the Lictor committed suicide by slitting his fetlocks. The room was completely intact and nothing has been stolen, which supports the theory. It is possible that we will discover additional clues to what happened after conducting an autopsy on the Lictor’s corpse.

The death of Lictor Thunder Bone means that Lictor Round Shield will be replacing him at the position of quartermaster and that the 12th Legion is on high alert for a week. However, given that the exact circumstances of the event are unclear, as are the motives that could lead Thunder Bone to committing suicide I feel that any and all decisions he made pertaining to the functioning of the Legion directly prior to his death should be revoked on the grounds of his possible mental incompetence at the time. One such decision pertains to the issue of supplying our troops with arms and armaments. I took the liberty of canceling the recently signed contract and prolonged the old one with Cold Steel, a dear friend of our unit who supplied us for many years now.

Awaiting further orders.

Legate Bash,

12th Legion

Comments

[Brown Books]

I am fascinated how you wrote the "letters" of the characters. Definitely gave a better feel of there situations or back-stories. This was a nice chapter! Very unigue letter format, kept things interesting and funny (puddingheads speech). I feel the story is gonna be brewing up somethin nice!

[Zennyth]

This Cold Steel seems to be shaping up to be quite the devious character....
This is certainly a story that takes a little more brainpower to absorb than the usual run-of-the-mill fics out there, but there's nothing wrong with that. Nice work so far!

This story definitely deserves more attention than what it's gotten so far, but sadly I'm not sure if the complex political and economical plot makes it an easy read for the majority of the fandom. I'm certainly no whiz with those topics, so maybe I'll learn a thing or too :).

I'm wondering how intertwined is this going to be in the PoL verse? Obviously it's in the era of 24's work, but will it have any specific ramifications with LL's storyline too?

[Verlax]

4596661

Well, I can't speak "directly" in the name of LL and 24th, but...

- Yes, GWW (shortcut for the story) will have impact on LL's writing, but it will not be really lore-breaking. Basically only three little things will be added, one may or may not be part of plot, the rest will be only mentioned.

- Also, LL mentioned something about creating more stuff around this idea, but shhh... I can't spoil anything more.

4538356

Thank you kindly for such big amount of comments. Sorry for answering them so late, lack of time. While I can't guarentee that I will publish a new chapter of GWW quickly, for such awesome readers I will try to speed up the process.

[RoboRed]

Welp, as if I needed any more reason to not trust Cold Steel...

[FancyFan]

Well Mr. Cold Steel, that timing looks mighty suspicions. Did you happen to have anything to do with this death?

[Zevski]

Poor Thunder Bone got suicided.