• Published 30th Sep 2016
  • 19,904 Views, 299 Comments

How Many Princesses Does It Take - Georg



The sun has just gone out. This could be the end of Equestria. Or just a bulb.

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Economic Growth

"I'm glad we're celebrating Princess Luna's return to the throne with a new silver bit," said Princess Twilight Sparkle, trotting alongside her mentor. "I just don't understand why it took so long. And why are we going into the palace instead of the Royal Mint?"

"I didn't want to spoil the surprise while you're in public," said Celestia. "I know how you get when discovering new things."

"I do not!" protested Twilight, then immediately backpedaled. "I mean if you think it's appropriate for us to view the proofs in private before the official ceremony at the Mint, I'm not going to argue, because you know best about these things. Not that I over-react to discovering that entire sections of the world that I thought ran in some rational fashion are actually completely wacked. I mean different."

"I'm just glad to have some help with the national treasury again," admitted Celestia. "All of those golden bits across the nation and no real way to make change. I was afraid Luna would want her silver to be ten-bit coins, but she surprised me. Quarter-bits do make far more sense, and her Moon is far more productive, since it is closer."

"Moon?" Twilight's steps faltered, then she ran to catch up as Celestia made a turn into the Royal Gardens. "She mines the moon for silver?"

"Not exactly. We're almost there, and you will understand far better with some visual aids."

"Oh, of course." Twilight smiled at the thought of pie charts and bar graphs, with explanations written in large letters. Nothing was more relaxing than a long presentation on fiscal policy, and she fairly danced on her hooves as Celestia made several more turns through the garden, headed to a section Twilight had never seen before.

And as they came out from an opening in the path to see rows and rows of trees organized into a neat orchard, she realized exactly why.

"It took quite a bit of cross-breeding and alicorn magic," continued Celestia as she walked, with Twilight stumbling along behind out of pure inertia. "The original seeds from before Luna's banishment were no longer any good, so we had to cross-pollinate my trees with several wild varieties until we came up with a suitable cultivar. I had originally thought about doing much the same when you became an alicorn princess, but you were in Ponyville, and I really couldn't think of what a friendship coin would be valued at, so I put it off until later."

Celestia nodded at where Princess Luna was using a brush to gently dust the glittering silver blossoms of one of the smaller trees, most likely performing the pollination task that Twilight could not get her mind wrapped around.

"In any event, we finally used some of Princess Cadence's root stock from the Crystal Empire to get the quantity up, and they've been producing long enough for us to introduce them into the economy." Celestia tapped one hoof against the silvery trunk of a nearby tree, caught the glittering silver quarter-bit that fell out of the foliage, and presented it for Twilight's examination. "The Mint will have to polish off the stem marks and weigh them to ensure uniformity, but I have to admit, they're just as perfect as the bits Equestria's been using for a thousand years."

"Urk!" managed Twilight Sparkle as her eyes darted from the silvery orchard they were standing next to, over to the towering golden trees nearby, and back again, over and over.