Of money and conspiracies

Thousand years before...

Celestia breathed heavily as her body moved gracefully around the battlefield, the beautiful white armor, now soaked in blood shined in the sunlight as the battle went on. Her helmet was simple and practical, with visor covering the whole face, the armor was light and comfortable, it allowed free movement while still being protective. Not as protective as the heavy armor of Celestial soldiers, but it was enough.

"Celestia!" She heard the angry scream of her sister flying towards her. She easily blocked her sister attack with a magic shield.

"You still have to learn a lot dear sister!" She said trying to hit Luna with a spell from her horn. "You don't inform the enemy about your position by screaming her name!"

Luna was hit by the spell but recovered very quickly. She smashed the ground with her hoof. She was wearing black heavy, she had no helmet and her long, blue mane waved in the wind. Her whole armor was limiting her movement, but protecting her from the hardest of blows at the same time. And the most particular thing about it, was that it was filled with hard, sharp as knives spikes, to make the enemies stay away. It was obvious that the armor was a little too heavy for Luna as her steps were a little slower and more heavy.

"It doesn't have to be like this sister!" The younger sister screamed to her sibling.

"Yes it doesn't have to be like this." She said with a serious look on her face. "You can give up and let the ponies have their freedom."

Luna spit in the ground with anger.

"Your idea of freedom is corrupted Celestia, it's just an another kind of slavery!" She screamed with all her might in her royal voice. "You are just a tyrant! You've never given my any power, you've never agreed to try out my ideas! You only think about yourself, and no one else!"

Celestia looked at her sister, which startled Luna a little. There was no anger in her eyes, she was calm, yet sad. Her expression showed great sorrow.

"I see how it is then." She said with a deep voice. "You won't change your mind will you?"

"Over my dead body." Answered Luna.

"So be it." Said Celestia rushing at her sister, reading a deadly spell. As Luna did the same, clashing in the middle of the battlefield.

Now

"Twilight... wake up, we've got to talk." The white alicorn spoke calmly to her student, laying on a set of beautiful, colorful pillows.

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, she looked around her, and only then she understood that she is in the Canterlot castle.

"P-princess have I fallen asleep again?" She asked as she straightened her wings.

"Yes it seems so Twilight. It seems you don't have time to rest lately." Celestia said looking trough the palace window. The castle was rebuilt in the last year. Now it looked more like a Neighrabian wonder from afar, the style that royal sisters grew pretty fond of, it was a way to celebrate Twilight's coronation. The alicorn still couldn't believe that it was built all because of her.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no." The mare panicked running around. "I still have so many duties! Now my whole plan..."

"Yes... you still need to get used to the royal way of life." The sun goddess said calmly. "But it seems that I can't really help you or make it less painful for you."

Twilight looked at Celestia with sadness in her eyes.

"I barely even have time to meet my friends right now, and that's when I stay awake during nights, doing my duties." She said wandering her hoof around. "Will it ever change Princess?"

Celestia  rose her wing, covering Twilight with it.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but that almost never changes. You will have a lot less time as a princess, that is sacrifice needed to be made for your nations." She says walking away from the young Princess. "Of course, this will be a long time, since I and Luna are still here, able to rule instead of you when you are learning."

Twilight has shaken in fear. She began stuttering, unable to form sentences.

"S-still? B-but you-u are im-m-mortal, aren't-t you?" She asked looking at the white alicorn in confusion. "Y-you ar-re gods aft-ter all..."

Celestia smiled at her and responded.

"Yes Twilight, we are Gods, but do not be mistaken. We are not immortal, it's true that we can't die from the old age, but even a God can be killed. And when one God dies, an another must take it's place." She said giving Twilight a meaningful stare.

"That would never happen!" Twilight said vigorously, smiling. "Everypony loves you Princess, you and Luna. Nopony would like to see you dead! And even if, you are one of the most powerful beings on the planet! The truth is you're only training me just in case!"

Celestia giggled at her's ex-student statement.

"Yes, maybe you're right. But it' better to be safe than sorry." She said hugging the purple alicorn. "Now come, we have yet a lot to learn."

She walked across the corridors of the new castle, passing next to beautiful animal statues, clear, white as snow marble fountains. As the wind blew at the newly built bower at the top of the highest tower. As royal guards bowed to Twilight and Celestia, looking at them from Balconies and towers. Then they entered the treasury, where all the goverment money went. The truth was, it wasn't really that big, as the government in Equestria didn't play much role in the economy. The tax were low, and there were no more expenses than necessary. And it all worked well. The treasury was not like the one in the old castle, instead of giant pile of gold, only thing that there really was, was a big machine keeping track of the amount of money that the government owned.

"What do you know about Capitalism Twilight?" Celestia asked the purple pony.

Twilight thought about everything she learnt about the system and answered.

"It's an economical system where which free market plays main role, ponies are free to trade, work where they want,  own property and so on. It's the system which we currently live in. The opposite system is communism where no free market or private property exist and everything is divided into the society."

"Yes, that is true." She says taking one banknote from the machine. "As you know we limit social healthcare and social education to the minimum to limit the expenses. Is that a bad thing to you?"

"Not really." Twilight answered without thought. "It doesn't seem to be needed besides some rare cases. And even then, the citizens of Equestria seem to be gaining money to afford for the private healthcare."

Celestia smiled.

"Yes, and I see that my efforts from over thousand years ago were worth it." She said with a bit of pride in her voice. "It's good to see that all bad, eventually ends well."

"What do you mean?" Asked Twilight.

The white alicorn sighted deeply and began her story.

"It was thousand years ago as me and my sister Luna defeated Discord. It was a great victory, but it cost the nation a lot. The reign of Discord  has put Equestria into chaos and anarchy. It was time of death and suffering, we needed to reform the country. Then came two ponies, two great philosophies, which brought the two opposing ideologies. Both me and my sister had contrary points of view, and stood on the sides of each philosophers. Something that seemed like a minor disagreement, soon turned into great war that spread trough the whole nation, bringing it again into chaos. It was a war which I have won. I defeated my younger sister on the battlefield. I forgave her for all she has done, but stripped her from the power. The next years were the worst of Equestrian history. I was trying to implement a new system trying to avert the crisis, and it took long to implement. Do you know what happened then?"

"As I remember... that was the time when Nighmare Moon has been born."

The expression on Celestia's face changed from wide smile to a deep sadness, as she remember the banishing of her sister.

"Yes, the sight of suffering ponies led to great anger and sorrow in Luna's heart. As it slowly changed her into Nightmare Moon. I banished my sister with great sorrow, as I felt was my biggest defeat." She stayed quiet for a second and then came back to her story. "After this... unfortunate incident I began rebuilding the country from the scratch. That's when I noticed first problems with the free market system. Even if I considered it to solve a lot of national problems, it obviously didn't solve every of them. Well nothing is perfect one could say, but I didn't want to agree with this. I couldn't get my mind of that, that some of my subjects were still dying and suffering. So I fixed it."

She finished her story with a serious and mysterious tone.

"B-but how?" Asked Twilight. "It doesn't seem that there would be a sensible way to do so."

"Yes, at first it seemed that there is no clear option out of this problem. But I found one." Celestia looked Twilight straight into her eyes. "It was so simple... but listen Twilight I can't tell you about it right now. It's something that I want to keep secret for the sake of national security."

"Um, yes Princess I understand. But I cannot help but to be curious about this."

Celestia giggled  and answered with one sentence.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you Twilight, I'm really happy about that."

The white alicorn levitated the banknote with her magic, and shown it to Twilight.

"When you look at it, what do you see Twilight."

"It's just a banknote dear Princess." Twilight answered confidently.

"No Twilight, this little banknote, this little scrap of paper is a lot more than meets the eye." Celestia said with a serious tone. "This dear Twilight is a tool, a tool that gives power. This little banknote is what ponies give their trust in. And who has the trust, has the control. We are not only rulers Twilight, we are guardians, guardians that need to ensure, that this power is not  misused."