Nightmare: An Equestrian Tragedy

by Meep the Changeling

Constant Disagreement

Dining Hall, Castle of the Two Sisters - 13st of Solar Dawn 4101 RH

1,057 Years Ago - The Late Renneighsaunce

Soup. It’s simple. It’s good. Everypony likes some form of it or another. A good bowl of soup can completely change your outlook on a day.

Or at least, it could for me. And at least it could today.

I’d just had to spend several hours explaining to some prissy noble mare that no, I do not spy on her dreams to steal her family fortune. Apparently being half of the Crown, half of the force that legally owns everything within this nation, means I desire to rob my tenants of what is technically my own property which they rent. From me.

I don’t consider the nation my property. But legally, it is. I own half of everything.

How in the deepest pits of Tartarus can you present a legal case as she did and not know that your wealth is the Crowns, and you exist as its servant to assist the Crown in serving the nation and her people?

I was getting too old for this nonsense. Ponyfeathers, a nine second old foal was too old for this nonsense. This sort of arrogant self serving idiocy would never have happened if Celestia had allowed me to found various institutions to keep the nobility in line!

“Oh, that’s right,” Celestia said from across the table. “The Base Needs Decree went into effect today. There will likely be nobles complaining about it. Just brace yourself, it will be fine.”

Base needs Decree? I searched my mind for several long moments, trying to recall anything about that.

Nope. Nothing. Not one thing. This was happening all too often…

“I don’t remember being told about this Decree,” I informed.

Celestia frowned. “I know you didn’t help draft it, but I told you. I must have. I’ve been working on it for forty years now.”

Forty years might seem like a long time to the average pony. But to us… Not so much. Forty years is an amount of time that can slip past you because you've devoted yourself to a single hobby or goal.

“I’ve been developing better weaponry for our battlemages for the last thirty or so years,” I said calmly trying not to be upset at her and assume the best. “If you did tell me, it had to be before then. I can’t remember any details.”

Celestia frowned, her expression betraying the fact that she realized she hadn’t told me. Again. Hopefully it wasn’t a major change to policy. It usually wasn’t.

“Er, well how about I tell you about it now?” She asked.

“Please do,” I said, pushing my soup away from myself slowly.

Lunch was over with.

“Well, you were right,” Celestia began.

I felt my eyes nearly pop out of my head.

Me?

Right?

Her admit me being?

I steepled my hooves in front of myself on the table. “About what, dear sister?” I asked in a tone that was perhaps a bit more aroused sounding than it should have been.

But then again, it was VERY nice to hear her say I was right about something.

“The two of us can’t keep an eye on every problem caused by the nobility,” she explained, thankfully ignoring me accidental display of joy. “Unfortunately at this stage of Equestria, your knights idea will not work. Implementing such a thing would likely cause a civil war. And additionally, it’s not all nobles just a few.

“Some of my assistants found out that a few provinces have been underpaying their workers. Forcing them to buy their goods exclusively from the noble houses who employ them. It’s effectively slavery, and it needs to not only stop, but not be possible.”

“I fully agree!” I said firmly. “Let me have the houses names and their heads shall be put on display as an example while your Decree prevents such evil in the future!”

“Unfortunately,” Celestia admitted sadly. “We can’t do that. This was and still is a perfectly legal thing to do. Each of the Houses applied for an adjustment of the laborer’s standard wage for their province and got the lower amounts approved. There are valid reasons why a province can’t afford to pay the national average wage. I can not abolish that system. However I have fixed the problem. It no longer matters if anypony is underpaid for their work thanks to the Basic Needs Decree.”

“How so?” I asked tentatively.

“From this day onwards,” she began, “the Crown, through several financial institutions and trade networks, will use a Royal Trade Company not only as an employment program for those who can not find work, but also as a means of income to pay each citizen a-”

I jumped up from the table in shock, knocking my chair over in the process. “Pay each citizen? What is this nonsense?” I demanded.

“It’s not nonsense!” Celestia shouted defensively. “I’ve worked it out. The last twenty years have been setting up the various banks and trade agreements. Every citizen gets payed a small sum every month. It’s not very much, but it is enough to provide one pony with survival rations and a small sum for shelter.

“This means nopony will be working for subsistence anymore. Everypony can eat and have shelter. Now they work not to live, but to gain the funds to have a better life. Nopony will starve. I thought you would like that!”

“Oh! Oh, thank goodness,” I sighed in relief. “I thought you meant every citizen was being given currency. But if it’s a food rations and shelter voucher-”

“No. It’s bits,” Celestia corrected. “It allows for-”

I closed my eyes tightly as I tried to contain my outburst to the minimum levels.

“It allows for addicts to forgo food and purchase drugs!” I exploded. “It allows for a stallion to not work and drink themselves to death. It allows for mares to never work because they simply have more and more foals to receive the payments! You’ve just destroyed our entire economy and labor force!”

“I have not!” Celestia shouted back, ears laying flat. “I have put YEARS of study and thought into this plan. Nopony will make enough to be happy, ONLY enough to live on. What’s more, our little ponies ENJOY working. They enjoy being useful. All this will do is take those who are already being lazy out of the workforce, increasing production by removing delays and keeping foals from starving to death.”

“Bandits are going to have a field day collecting the wagons of bits heading to every village!” I retorted.

“Not at all! We changed to a Neighponese style banking system four years ago? Remember?” Celestia exclaimed rolling her eyes.

Now that she mentioned it, I did remember that. That had been another argument… And I was still getting used to the new banking system.

I even still had my reservations about allowing ‘money’ to be transferred by simply sending numbers between banks and then sorting out the actual coin on paper. That seemed like an invitation for fraud…

“Fair enough, we have. But you still just singlehoofidly brought our nation to ruin!” I protested.

“I have not,” Celestia said again, pushing herself back from the table as she got up and began to leave the dining hall. “I try and do something for the peasantry for your sake and you just scream at me! I’ve ran this kingdom for over two thousand and seven hundred years! I think I know plenty about how the world work’s, Luna. This decree will help more than it hurts, and that is a good thing.”

“You’re wrong!” I called after her. “And when we have to pick up the pieces of this mess I will expect a groveling apology!”

---

Night Court, Canterlot - 8th of Solardusk 17 EoH

Present Day

Luna paused, noticing Lyra shaking her head slowly.

“Yes,” Luna chuckled. “I was wrong about that one.”

“I’ll say,” Lyra agreed. “Sure some ponies never get a job, but most of us want more than you know… Fortified oats and like, a tiny room that barely fits a bed with no possessions. You probably don't like the other civil welfare laws though, do you?”

Luna shook her head quickly. “My point is not that all of her ideas and policies were bad,” Luna explained, hoping to clarify her message. “My point is that we disagreed venomously and frequently on many things. I fully admit I was wrong about a Basic Income policy. I also like most of the welfare systems we have today. The entire point of a nation is to best serve the people who live in it.

“Honestly, if I had not been banished and gotten to see how that Decree improved the lives of subsequent generations I would have apologized to Celestia for that outburst. But again, the point is that right or wrong, we… We conflicted over lots of things. Our ideas for governance don't really align well. They never have.”

Lyra nodded sadly, ears drooping. “And since you fought a lot in a place that has servants... And Celestia had all of the real political power to do things. Then that means-”

“Oh yes,” Luna interrupted with a nod. “I was just about to get to how the peasantry thought of me in those days…”

Comments

[smolbep]

So, what folder in the group should this be placed in, or should I make a new one for it?

[Meep the Changeling]

7535903 I put it into beta. If you want, you could make a 'historic tales' folder or something.

[Mitch H]

Ugh. Basic income. The technical monaritists and the Friedmanites love this concept, but it offends something intrinsic in the ideological construct of your standard interlocator. Probably something purity-oriented, that's the usual non-economic go-to for objections against pure utilitarian solutions like this

[Meep the Changeling]

7535963 And yet, remove the power of corporations to be the only means of sustenance for people, and you greatly improve social happiness. When you are free to look for a better job, and you truly don't need that corp to exist, they hold no power over you and must behave better to attract employees, forcing them to put their employees first, and thus improving the lives of everyone and not just the CEO. I believe that most people hate the idea because it would make things more even, and most people have that mentality of "Yeah the system is rigged but that's why it will be AWESOME when I run this thing!"

But ponies? Ponies care way too much about one another to have any hangups about providing the most basic bare subsistence shelter and food for everyone. They are not humans, they should have different values and moral leanings than humans. Because having non-humans be humans in costumes is boring.

[Zurvan]

[Perpetually Confused]

7535990
Yeah, but I've seen this done elsewhere, and it reeks of politics.

You manage to pull it off quite well, but most people ham fist up it up me to titillate my hate gland.

[Meep the Changeling]

9746747

You manage to pull it off quite well, but most people ham fist up it up me to titillate my hate gland.

To be fair, most people probably havent' spent a very, very, very long time on their code of ethics and tried to see what can realistcly be done to achieve it. A Basic Income is something that's possible for humans to achieve and maintain, and I believe it would be for the good of all. Tests show that people still seek employment with one (Example:I would HAPPILY work in addition to my disability pay if I were allowed), it can be achieved via a hard rewrite of our tax code (which it needs anyways) along with the establishment of trusts and other banking systems that would be good to have anyways, and it would increase the general liberty of everyone.

I don't think many people can realy argue with a BI system when the data is fully presented. After all, while some poeple would blow it on booze, who cares? That just means the local economy is getting a stimulus package and the people who brew beer, the people who grow hops, and the people who grow whatever grains were used, along with the bottlers, and so on, all make money they otherwise wouldn't have.