Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
Once they'd all reached the train station and gotten settled into a car of their own (the ponies running the station had practically been falling over themselves to give her what she wanted as soon as they saw her wings and horn, even before she could ask if they could have a car to themselves), Cadance looked over the four Directors, including Onyx, and smiled. "It's good to meet my aunt's friends," she said.
Director Inkwell, who'd sat fairly close to the window, adjusted her glasses. "And it is good to meet you as well, Princess Cadance," she said. "Director Luna and Director Onyx spoke rather well of you when they informed us of your existence before we came down."
"I must admit, many of us were surprised to learn of another alicorn in Equestria," Director Quick Light said, sitting next to Director Inkwell. "And briefly offended at the notion, before Director Luna told us you had achieved that status on your own rather than through any actions of her sister."
"It was a surprise to us all that such a possibility existed," Director Honey Spice said, shooting a look at Luna as she entered the train car. The Earth pony mare had sat directly across from her counterpart so she could get a good look at the scenery as they passed. Onyx sat next to her.
Luna shrugged. "It surprised me as well," she said, claiming one of the three seats that had been rearranged so as to face the windows that Directors Inkwell and Spice were next to.
"As it did me," Celestia added as she followed her sister in, and settling herself into the farther seat, letting Cadance take the one between them. "I was delighted, of course. After Luna's departure, I had not expected to see another alicorn in Equestria until she came back to us."
Cadance immediately recognized the fib for what it was, but kept silent. Instead, she said, "It surprised me too. One minute I was confronting a sorceress and trying to reverse the effects of the emotion-draining spell she had cast on the ponies of my home village, the next I was waking up with a horn."
No need to inform them of the stellar plane she had briefly appeared in, she thought. That had been a highly personal experience.
"Aunt Celestia found me soon afterward and adopted me into her family," she continued. "While it was a dream to become a princess when I was a filly, I soon came to understand the weight of my role and sought to properly use it. With my platform, I helped further the progress to depower several hate groups and started an outreach program to the more distant communities within Equestria so we can achieve a more harmonious state of coexistence."
"Neither Director Onyx or Director Luna mentioned any of these hate groups," Director Quick Light said, shooting them a look.
Cadance nodded while internally bracing herself. This wasn't a topic she was looking forward to broaching so soon but it was now out in the open. "They exist, but they are a comparative minority," she said. "They call themselves 'avengers', and claim to be 'righting the wrongs done to Equestria by the night-lovers'. I've been working to counteract their effects as best I can ever since I found out about them myself, and bring them to justice for the crimes they've committed against innocents." She turned to Onyx. "Your own Deputy Director learned of this soon after he and I met, and I shared as much information on it as I could; I expect he'll be turning in a comprehensive report on the subject as soon as he can."
"Knowing my Deputy Director, you're right," Onyx said. "Shining Armor is most capable and detailed when it comes to handling such things."
"What I would like to know is how come that this seems to be a relatively new venture," Director Honey Spice said, staring straight at Celestia. "I do not doubt Princess Cadance has made serious progress to her work, but it is surprising that a ruler who has reigned as long as yourself has not done more."
Celestia barely hid a flinch at the clear accusation. "Regrettably, I am but a single pony. While I can do much on my own, I cannot accomplish everything or be everywhere. Dealing with such a hate group as the avengers required both a strong and delicate touch, and while I could, and did, outlaw such organizations, it merely drove them underground. As I am unable to see the private thoughts of my ponies, any I appointed to deal with them carried the minute risk of them being sympathisers, so progress slowed. With Princess Cadance, I knew no such risk existed and I allowed her to take over the operations to put an end to them."
Luna finally spoke up. "And from all I have heard, her methods have proven most effective," she said, looking at Cadance with clear pride. "This fringe group has become less and less able to spread their hate to new generations, and Ponyville in particular has rejected it and its teachings as a whole."
"While we are talking about our works," Cadance said, giving her aunts a look. "I am greatly fascinated to hear about your own works, Directors. How does one feed a population where there is not a reliable source of soil, water or other natural resources; how does one manage to provide power and energy to sustain them, and how do you keep track of it all so efficiently?"
"A lot of hard work," Honey Spice said with a chuckle. "A good portion of my dome is dedicated to farms with a rotating crop cycle of assorted food products; with a portion of our trees being an orchard for a variety of fruits while the rest supplies any of our wood needs. The rest of the Quartus dome is split with the Department of Sanitation, monitoring our water supplies. While we do produce some with our technology, we do need to recycle used water to keep our levels up; Director Luna has been able to draw in extra supplies from passing comets, but that only happens every hundred years or so when they come into close enough range."
"We have begun to expand our capacity to harvest more asteroids in orbit around the planetary system," Director Inkwell said, drawing a look from Luna. "With help from the science and transportation departments, we have launched a few tentative mining operations but we are still in the infancy stages of such operations."
"I suspect that you use an automated system opposed to actual ponypower," Celestia said, eyes darting back to her. "As the risks to your workers would be too great to justify sending them out on a system you are still developing."
Raven nodded her head in agreement. "We have a great respect for doing our part to further our nation but that is married with caution and respect for each other. We wouldn't ask them to take such risks if we thought there was a better way."
Celestia gave a hmm to that, with her pink eyes dancing with thoughts. "As the mare responsible for your resources, what would you say to having access to a greater source of them? I think all of our ponies would benefit from a trade deal."
"It is an interesting prospect, though one that has many complications, your highness," the mare said. "The means to transport goods from one nation to another does not exist yet and it would be unfair to request Director Luna to dedicate her entire time to doing that. There is also the fact that working with Equestria solely could be seen as us favouring one nation among the others on Equuis and harm our potential future trade deals with them, thus leading to problems for the Republic later on. That is in addition to the fact that we don't exactly have the means to offer monetary compensation for any goods you may have to offer."
Celestia blinked, genuinely surprised, and Cadance looked just as surprised. "But Shiny was able to pay for us when we stopped for food," she said.
Luna nodded. "When we first left for the moon, some of us - myself included - had a supply of bits in their saddlebags at the time," she said. "Pocket change, really. But what with setting things up in order to ensure as many ponies as possible survived, the idea of paying one another for what we needed was not a concern, so I just set my own supply aside, untouched, for a very long time. By the time any of us thought about using money again, it seemed so unnecessary, since we were all cooperating for one purpose, and trading favors if one of us needed something that individual didn't have the skill to create by themselves. Eventually, when I began putting my plans to reconnect with Equestria together, I dug out my old funds and divided them up amongst the four ponies whom I would be sending down."
"And what happened to the rest of those old bits?" Celestia asked.
Luna waved a hoof. "I expect most of them got melted down and the metal repurposed into parts for our machinery," she said. "Electrical connectors and the like - gold is an excellent conductor and does not corrode, which is a valuable trait in such things. Or into decorations, for those who felt the need for such things. But until just a few days ago, when I donated my old supply to our mission, none of us had used them as physical currency since we left Equuis."
"Though I expect we will need to begin talks again about setting up a currency if we choose to permanently establish contact and trade relations with Equuis," Quick Light said with an annoyed tone.
"I am aware of your position on it," Luna said to the thestral. "But we knew that this would be a possibility already with our other project."
"Of course, but it will be hard to convince our people about it," he cautioned her.
Luna nodded. "As I well know," she said, before turning back to Celestia. "There have been a few times in the past millennium when returning to physical currency was discussed, but it was always voted down as unnecessary," she explained. "Our barter system worked quite sufficiently, with ponies trading skills and time to the community in general, or to individuals in some cases, in return for needed or desired supplies."
"You mean, they can't just bribe somepony to get what they want?" Celestia asked. "They have to work for it?"
At Luna's deadpan stare and nod, Celestia looked rather pleased. "Now that is an idea I wish I could implement down here," she said. "Too many have come to feel they are above the law simply because they're rich, especially if they were born into it and didn't have to work for what they have."
"Entitlement," Honey Spice snorted. "I am a mother of four myself and I have been the Director of my Department for a long time but none of my foals have got an inch of slack from me. If you want a position, you have to prove you're qualified to hold it, especially knowing that the lives of others depend on you - if you mess up, it could cost many, and nopony, outside of degenerates, wants to be responsible for having the blood of innocents on their hooves."
Cadance saw the pointed glare that Celestia had and saw the need to try and soothe the tempers. "And you, Director Quick Light? How about your department's work?"
"Power generation and utilization is a mixed bag," the thestral stallion replied with a smile on his face. "Much of our power comes straight from the sun, collected in special panels - it's much easier to gather sufficient amounts when there aren't any obstacles in the way, and there's enough space to set up a lot of them at once. We actually used to have special power plants where some ponies could generate electricity from their magic and funnel that into the energy collectors, but that wasn't nearly as efficient for the long-term, so it's been discontinued for several centuries. And of course there are other methods. We're also responsible for keeping up all the power lines for all six domes, and making and maintaining the glowpanels and such for lighting."
Celestia still seemed a bit irked, but was calmer now. "It sounds far more efficient than what we have down here," she said. "I don't mean to make us sound primitive, but so many of our citizens still rely on candle power - too attached to the old ways. Only some of the bigger cities, such as Manehatten, are wired for electricity."
"Now that is something I'd be willing to help remedy," Director Quick Light said. "Candle power alone isn't nearly as efficient when it comes to lighting. Not to mention rough on the eyes, as Director Well Wishes is so fond of reminding me." He made a face. "The stallion is good at his job, but his attitude towards certain aspects of the past leaves something to be desired. I prefer to learn from it, while he's always saying there has to be a better way and grumbling about how primitive we used to be."
Celestia blinked in surprise. "Oh?"
Quick Light nodded. "I admit that my own focus is on technology and how it can improve our lives, but there's something to be said for life down here," he said. "We relied on magic for so long, not to mention how it kept us alive until we could get our first dome all set up, it's hard to imagine turning completely away from it."
"Yes," Celestia said thoughtfully, before she looked at Onyx. "Speaking of, one of my citizens was being rather... nosy about your Deputy Director a few days ago, and had something to say about his use of magic." She made a face. "Blueblood has been pushing his limits, and I have to wonder, what do you do with those who break the laws?"
"Manual labor, usually," Onyx replied. "They get put to work in our sanitation department, collecting garbage and other refuse for recycling. It lets them be productive and useful, while still serving as punishment." He shrugged. "It's a dirty job, but somepony's got to do it."
Celestia nodded. "That sounds like a most suitable solution for him, once there is a legal way to implement it," she said. "Though it does sound like it can be abused to create a labour force."
"We take incredible strides to avoid such a potential situation, Princess," Onyx said through a clenched smile. "My department, along with the Department of Health, takes active steps to aid any troubled individuals with their problems in order to try and prevent such a situation from occurring in the first place. Submitting an individual to community service via manual labor is generally only used when all else fails, and it isn't a life sentence for most - once our psychiatrists confirm that they've genuinely learned from the experience and changed their ways, they are free to go and return to their chosen career. Only the most stubborn proved unable to learn."
"And if they didn't?" Celestia asked.
"Then they keep at it until they do," Onyx said. "But such a thing is incredibly rare."
"I noticed that you work a lot with each other, Director Onyx," Cadance leaned forwards, seeking to redirect things away from a topic that seemed to be getting rather heated - she wasn't sure why Celestia seemed so determined to make Luna and her Directors unhappy with her. "Is that typical for you?"
Onyx nodded. "Cooperation between departments has always been key to our society's function."
"How many Departments are there, if you do not mind me asking?" Cadance said. "I believe there are at least twelve, from what Director Luna said about not bringing the majority for this first meeting."
"You guess correctly," Luna said. "I lead our Department of State; as I explained earlier, our Directors of Agriculture, Energy, Resources and Security are right here, and our Directors of Education, Health, Housing, Recordkeeping, Sanitation, Science and Transportation are all still back home."
"There is one solely dedicated to transportation?" Celestia asked, raising a single eyebrow, latching onto this for some reason that Cadance did not completely understand.
Onyx shrugged. "Aside from vehicular transport, somepony needed to be in charge of the tunnels connecting the domes. They also handle construction and maintenance of the roads within the domes."
Cadance read truth in his words, but also that he was leaving something out. She did not call attention to it though.
"I suppose transportation would become important if you wish to establish links with Equuis, Luna," Celestia said, the lack of a title very noticeable. "I must commend you on such forward thinking for the benefits of all our ponies."
Luna nodded. "As Director Inkwell stated before, I am the only one of the Lunar Republic's citizens who is currently capable of teleporting between our two worlds, so alternatives would need to be worked out for transport of goods." She sighed. "Contrary to what some might assume, I did not want to cut off relations between our two nations forever, despite the hostility of so long ago. Plans to establish diplomatic ties and formal trade, if Equestria was amenable to such a thing, and the means to make doing so easier have been in the works for a very long time."
While Luna might have a very impressive poker face, the rest of her Directors didn't and it was clear that this wasn't the honest truth at all. Or at least, not all of it. And if Cadance could see it, then Celestia did as well.
However, before Celestia could pounce on it, Quick Light let out a sigh and looked at her. "I might as well address the cockatrice in the room and the other reason why I am here," he said, shaking his head, tufted ears flicking. "How are my kind treated? We are the most noticeably different compared to other pony tribes and while a large portion of thestrals did leave with Director Luna a thousand years ago, I know not all of them were able to reach Everfree in time for the Departure."
Cadance shook her head. "Regrettably, they are the most common targets of the so-called 'avengers' and their propaganda," she said. "I've worked hard to change that; many of them serve in my personal guard now, and they hold themselves to a higher standard so as to prove they are just as capable as any others, which has helped a lot. But the majority of my work is to counter the mentality the 'avengers' have tried to cultivate over the years. I feel if you take away the reason for them to hate and replace it with logic then they lose a lot of their power."
Luna nodded approvingly. "Sound reasoning," she said. "I am not pleased that such hate still exists, but it is good to see you are working against it in such a manner."
Cadance smiled. "Sunset has also formed friendly ties and respect with many of them," she said. "And they like her too."
"Especially after that little incident in my study," Celestia chuckled, leaning back in her seat and looking more relaxed again. "They tried in vain to bribe Philomena but she told me anyway. I let them get away with it because no real harm was done in the end, despite the mess they missed."
Luna raised an eyebrow.
"Let's just say that alcohol was involved, and everypony present was off-duty at the time," Celestia said. "And that it taught Sunset a valuable lesson in never letting herself overindulge after seeing what others did under the influence." She frowned at Luna who had an eyebrow raised. "And before you ask, no, I did not set that up to teach her a lesson," she said in a stern tone. "It happened all on its own."
"If you say so, Princess Celestia," Luna said, clearly not believing it.
Cadance sighed. "She's telling the truth about this, I can guarantee it," she said.
Luna looked at her and softened. "All right," she said. "It's a good thing to have learned, at any rate."
"Out of curiosity, did Twilight ever have any experiences like that?" Celestia asked.
Luna shook her head. "She's not one for large crowds, let alone anything like what you described," she said. "Her idea of a good time is a weekend in her room with the latest new technical journals. Maybe with a friend who understands such things and can have a good back-and-forth with her on the subject."
Celestia blinked. "I see."
Luna nodded. "Make no mistake, I have encouraged her to get out and socialize more," she said. "But she does have a small circle - a very small circle - of ponies whom she spends time with, besides her brother and myself." She looked at Celestia. "I was very pleased to see her connecting so readily with new ponies down here."
That was an attack, for some reason. Cadance actually saw Celestia's wing twitch as well as a slight twitch to her smile.
"You don't say," the eldest alicorn said cryptically. "So what, may I ask, prompted you to take her as your personal student?"
Luna shrugged. "A combination of factors," she said. "Since then though, I have seen her grow into a wise young mare, with a talent for taking some of what had been theoretical work and developing it in new and creative ways. Her contributions to our science department have been invaluable, and she has a very bright future ahead of her - if she were interested, she'd be more than qualified to run for its Director, though I feel her talents would be wasted there. She much prefers hooves-on work to the more bureaucratic side of things, which regrettably take up more time than the research and development." She leaned back. "Not that Director Crystal Lace spends all her time doing paperwork, but it's still enough time away from the technical aspects that I can tell Twilight would be unhappy with it."
Whatever hidden message Luna was sending to her sister was truly putting Celestia off balance. Celestia's eyes widened and she shifted in her spot, licking her lips before she spoke, "How very fortunate for her to have such opportunities."
Luna nodded. "Learning has always been one of her favorite things," she said with a smile. "She and Sunset apparently spent quite a bit of time reviewing some of the magical texts in the library where they were staying, and she found those very enjoyable too. Not to mention the company of somepony who loved learning as much as she did."
Cadance giggled. "Sunset is the same way," she said. "It is rare for her to click so easily with another pony and I am truly happy that she is able to start making connections with other ponies."
"I hope that they can continue their growing friendship, though I suppose it will depend if we can come to agreeable terms with each other, Princess Celestia," Director Luna said, suddenly sounding more stiff and formal. "We still have important matters to address before we can officially establish relations with each other."
"I look forward to seeing what you and your followers put forth, Luna," Celestia said, slipping back into her aura of control.
"And I look forward to receiving a reasonable response, Celestia," Luna replied as the train started to pull into Canterlot.
Celestia could only give her an unreadable look, and Cadance sighed mentally. She had a feeling that while physical hostilities were not on the table, the verbal back-and-forth these two were doing was just as bad in its own way.
And she suspected she was going to be very busy keeping their verbal sniping from breaking down into full-on arguments for the next few days or a lot could suffer from these two's inability to make peace between them.
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Yeah I have no doubt the so called "Nobles" would work very hard and very fast to abuse that kind of system
I do believe that Celly has caught on to the fact that they are building a space ship
She telling Celestia that Twilight might not be Magic
Fight on Cadance
I understand that given the lunar's utopian society they don't need currency, but their hatred for it baffles me. Considering their practical outlook, I'd expect them to see it as any other tool. Yet they seem to regard it as the physical manifestation of all evil and vice.
For some reason Luna's duplicity stands out to me far more than Celestia's, even though they're both doing the exact same things and hiding the exact same things. It might be because Luna styles herself as a mare of the people, and so the fact that she lies to the people so much cuts against her public face it in a way that it doesn't cut against the stylings of a princess.
Oddly, them doing it to Cadence, their fellow alicorn, feels a good deal less objectionable than them doing it to ponies with lower rank. The one that hit me hardest was in Chapter 13. Luna is so committed to keeping lesser ponies in the dark that she can't even say Fluttershy's name without first putting on a show to convince that every single one of Twilight's new friends that she didn't already know it.
Given that her designs on all of them wouldn't have been negatively impacted in the least if she'd said Fluttershy's name and then, if asked how she knew, said something like, "I have my ways," accompanied by a sly smile, it really drives home how little she thinks of them all. She didn't have to trick them. She didn't have any real reason to trick them. She simply didn't respect them enough to be upfront about even that little tiny silver of truth. The other ponies aren't people to her; they're tools.
Given that Celestia is, as I said, the exact same way, Cadence is the best princess by default. Fortunately for everypony around any of the alicorns, Cadence doesn't merely clear that very low bar. She soars.
10804065
If your society is really adhered to a cooperative barter/favor system which relies on a very strong social cohesion then the concept of currency might come off as not only a radical change to how goods and services are exchanged but as a potential attack on the social fiber itself. That makes the introduction of currency a radical economic and moral change.
Even in our own society, the introduction of money into certain social situations is considered gauche or cold.
You’ve basically described a currency right here. Ponies do or make something, and that is then translated in some amount of worth, which they can then use to buy things. Just because it’s not given a name, and because it’s not physical but (presumably) stored in some database, doesn’t make it not money. They have a cashless society with an unnamed currency based on work hours.
If an apple is equal to 20 seconds of work, or a phone is equal to 25 hours of work, or a house is equal to ~140 days of work, it’s still currency. In the examples I gave 1 hour of work is worth $36, or $36 per hour. (Apple was $0.20, phone was $900, house was $300,000)
Edit: I f
ked up the maths a bit, just fixed it
Id really back track on this idea of ‘not using money’, you’ve only talked about it for a few chapters so it’s not too late.
10804103
For it to be money there needs to be a level of standardization sufficient to have one to one exchanges. The twenty five hours of labor you put in to get a phone needs to be equally valid four thousand five hundred apples, and the work you do for an apple needs to be equally valid for 0.02% of a phone. As described, that's not necessarily true, though. For example, in a barter economy, twenty five hours of apple picking is probably not seen as being worth four thousand five hundred apples even if, in some other job, twenty seconds work is really is enough to get an apple.
Or, shorter version, you're assuming that the credit ponies get for doing work is interchangeable.
In a barter economy, it really isn't.
Deals are made on the fly without any attempt for consistency. The thing that nets you an apple today need not be the same as what will net you an apple on any other day, nor does it have to be half of what it takes to net two apples. It also doesn't need to be the same thing that would net someone else an apple from the same vendor on the same day. Likewise, it probably won't be quantifiable the way you're trying. It generally won't be, "Work for X amount time to get Y," so much as, "If you do this job completely, and only if you do it completely, I'll give you W, Y, and Z."
Think the episode Trade Ya. The value of horseshoe equals a that of a crystal chalice which equals that of a chicken statue which equals that of a Discord lamp which equals that of an orthos, but that in no way implies that the value of a horseshoe equals the value of anything other than a crystal chalice, in fact it's rather explicitly stated that it doesn't have equal value to those things by the ponies who have the power to determine the value of those things. The transitive property of equality fails. That's barter.
10804255
The issue with a barter economy is that it's so dependant on what everyone else does and wants.
So the apple farmer needs to buy some new farm tools for his apple farm, shovels and hoes and all that, but the tool maker doesn't like apples at all, and doesn't want any. What does the apple farmer do? The person who makes the tools he needs for his farm to function won't take the only thing he makes. So the apple farmer can't farm, and the tool maker lost out on a potential sale, simply because one side didn't want what the other was making.
Or imagine you have a corn farmer that needs a new tractor. Is the farmer going to have to dump 100,000 corn on the tractor company to afford a new tractor? What is the tractor company going to do with 100,000 corn, they're a tractor maker, not a corn distributor, and becoming one temporarily till all the corn is gone is extremely inefficient. And what is the tractor company going to pay its employees? Pay them in tractor parts, in random bits of whatever they happen to get that week? It doesn't work.
Barter also only works if you know who you're talking to and trust them. Dunbar's number, the number of people you can form stable social relationships with, is 150 (could be different for ponies), so once a group of people gets bigger than that barter starts to break down. If you don't know who you're talking to, if you never even met them, don't trust them, how can you be sure you're getting a good deal? Talk to everyone you could potentially sell your product too? You can't talk to millions of different people.
Money solves all of these issues. Creating one thing that everyone can agree on how valuable it is means even though I don't know you, or trust you, we can still get what we want from each other. The tool maker doesn't want 200 apples, but he'll take 200 apples worth of money and give the apple farmer his tools. The tractor company doesn't want 100,000 corn, but they'll take 100,000 corn worth of money and give the corn farmer his tractor (and they can pay their employees consistently).
10804091
If they mostly rely on barter then their society would be functionally the same as if they had money. The only difference between banter and a currency system is that in the second there is a standardized medium of exchange that facilitates trades. Ignoring for a moment that a societal level barter economy is unsustainable, had they one it would make no sense for them to be so offended by money.
For money to be a threat to their way of life it would have to be fundamentally different and alien to their society. So like if they had an, idk, altruistic or gift economy where everything was shared without exchange and only the implied understanding of reciprocity. However, if that was the case they wouldn't hate currency either, because they would struggle to understand what it is.
Also, money would be something only historians would be aware off, not the matter of continual political debate. Actually, the fact that there is a recurring movement in favour of creating a currency implies that the idea has a not-insignificant amount of support. Further implying that TLR's economic system is flawed and in need of some kind of reform (that or the supporters of currency are either all idiots or acting in bad faith, both options would contradict what we have been told about TLR).
10804305
I'm well aware of the problems with a barter economy, my point was only that --given the subjective valuations within a barter economy-- the system described need not be a de facto currency. Yes, if there were sufficient standardization, then what Luna described would necessarily be equivalent to having a currency, but a barter economy doesn't have that standardization, so if, as Luna says, they barter --and we have no reason to doubt her on that point-- that would suggest that the standardization doesn't exist and their system is not equivalent to currency under another name.
Which actually suggests a possible reason why they might be so opposed to the very concept of money. To switch to using money, they need to assign a value to everything: the work I do is worth X, this product is worth Y, this other product is worth Z. They might not like how those numbers add up. Even if they do agree with the values given, it would still fundamentally change every aspect of their lives in ways they might not be prepared to endure.
Imagine keeping a personal vendetta from allowing both your nations to prosper, kinda cringe ngl
10804103
That's the fundamental problem. The issue isn't that they don't have money, but that they replaced it with barter. Which is nonsensical.
You already do that in barter, assigning value to objects by contrasting them to other objects I mean. As in 'you can trade an apple for two oranges, what's the value of an apple? two oranges'. The issue isn't valorization but, as you said previously, standardization.
But what you standardize is the medium of exchange, not value. That one's still subjective. The only difference is that instead of arguing with a seller whether an apple is worth two oranges or one pineapple, you argue whether it costs one or two bits.
In aggregate, the value of things will start to coalesce into a relatively standard margin of prices thanks to market forces, which could indeed concern some. Except that exactly the same thing would happen in a barter economy, so it shouldn't be that much of an issue.
10804087
I think your reading more into it than there actually is.
Luna is not dealing with the Equestria that we know. She is dealing with a potentially hostile country whose ruler has been in violent conflict before. Luna is responsible for the safety and prosperity of every life in her country. They live and die on the international decisions that she makes. What she says is important, What she doesn't say is just as critical. Politics is a nasty game, and it takes some skill to get what you need without tipping your rival, how badly you need it. In politics trade as well as political favors can be used for you or against you.
Personally I hope Luna opens negotiations with the other countries. Sending representatives to the foreign embassies in Canterlot would be wise of her.
The Monk
"Knowledge is power and power corrupts, so study hard and be evil." - Reykan
Heh, yup, that went about as 'well' as I'd expected of the sisters. I loved the subtle (and not so subtle) back and forth that was going on here. That is really well done political maneuvering and sibling jabs on display. Good thing Cadence is there to smooth out ruffled feathers and cool down tempers. But the true test hasn't even begun yet. How well is she gonna handle when you got Blueblood and his ilk no doubt PURPOSELY trying to start a conflict with the Lunar Republic for some dumb reason? Well, I guess only time and future chapters will tell.
Thank you for the enjoyable chapter!
No princess Twilicorn for you Tia
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Or at least no making her take over ruling if she can't avoid becoming an alicorn (not that she could take over ruling Equestria if she ascended, since she isn't a citizen there in this continuity).
I admit, that plotline was one of my major pet peeves when it came to the final season of the canon series, though it wasn't what inspired that particular line - I was thinking of a plotline from a show where the engineer character has a chance at a promotion, but backed out when they realized it'd be a supervising position and not one that would let them do the fun stuff they enjoy.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
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Eh, Sunset would be a better choice anyway.
Luna’s kind of pissing me off with all the shots she’s taking at Celestia tbh.