How Twilight Learned to Love the Burden of Military and Civil Maintenance
Twilight Sparkle knew today was going to be a great day!
The sun shined brightly through the stained-glass windows of the high tower of Canterlot Castle. Twilight watched as the entire room was lit up with dazzling hues of gold and orange. Between great marble pillars hung tapestries bearing her cutie mark. Every facet of the room was steeped in grandeur and tradition.
It took all of Twilight’s will not to squeal with joy.
She could not believe she was here, in the Chamber of the Royal Council! A place where the course of Equestrian history had been decided upon countless times.
And now it was hers!
She let out a giggle as she leaned back against her throne. Alongside it were several other chairs surrounding a large oaken table, of which she adjusted continuously. She was not too arrogant to admit that she was somewhat nervous.
She just wanted everything to be perfect for her first-ever council meeting as sole Princess.
Her obsessive movement of the furniture was abruptly interrupted as the doors to the chamber swung open. She quickly adjusted herself to a more regal posture as the first member of her Council arrived.
Fancy Pants, the Minister for the Economy, entered and bowed before her. He seated himself in the space to her immediate right. Chancellor Neighsay, the Minister for Education, followed, glaring at Fancy Pants for taking optimal seating. He settled with the chair closest to Twilight on her left. Raven Inkwell, Twilight’s Head Civil Servant appeared shortly afterwards, alongside Sir Witte, the Minister for the Interior.
The final attendee drew the most attention. Tempest Shadow, the Captain of the Guard, moved with heavy and deliberate steps, her eyes ever forward, oblivious to the less than pleasant stares she received. She sat as far away from the other councillors as possible.
“Good evening everypony,” said Twilight as her voice cracked. She coughed and started again. “I mean, I am honoured my loyal ministers have decided to attend the first of what I hope are many productive sessions.”
“The pleasure is ours Princess, we are honoured to be at your disposal,” said Fancy Pants, a murmur of agreement sounded out amongst the table.
“Well, I suppose we should get down to the small matter of running the country,” Twilight said with a smile. “We should start with the most pressing concern, the Coronation.” Twilight looked to Fancy Pants. “While I’ll be the first to admit it was a bit of a disaster, I presume the guests were at least satisfied?”
“Ah, of course Princess,” Fancy Pants replied. “The foreign representatives were overjoyed to be invited.” He proceeded to draw up a thick set of papers. “Though perhaps it would be more prudent to address the expenses of the celebration.”
“Of course,” Twilight agreed. “Hopefully things were not overly dear.” Her ministers exchanged some anxious looks amongst each other.
“Unfortunately Princess, the Coronation was an extraordinarily costly affair,” he sighed deeply. “The stress upon the treasury was already greatly strained by the repairs to the castle.” Twilight frowned. “It will be necessary to borrow to cover the expense.”
“Borrow?” asked Twilight with concern.
“Yes Princess, perhaps your brother and Princess Cadence would be willing to front us another loan?” He adjusted his monocle. “One hundred million bits would suffice at least in the short term.”
“One hundred million bits?” Twilight gasped, her head slamming back against her throne. “I c-can’t ask them for that! Are you crazy?” Twilight stopped herself. “I mean,” breathed Twilight. “I believe this course of action is ill-advised.”
“But P-Princess, the Crystal Empire has already loaned us substantial sums previously,” he stammered. “Surely another hundred million would not be presumptuous to request?” Twilight’s eyes bulged out at the implication.
“How much money do we owe them?”
“Well Princess, we owe the Crystal Empire roughly seventy-five billion bits,” said Fancy Pants.
“What!? Are you telling me the Crown is seventy-five billion in debt?” demanded Twilight.
“No, Princess.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” said Twilight as she exhaled in relief.
“The Crown is six hundred billion bits in debt.”
“T-this is im-impossible,” sputtered Twilight, her mane sprang up in several places as her once calm demeanour dissipated before an oncoming panic attack.
“Princess, if I may,” Raven spoke softly. “Princess Celestia was a wise and gracious ruler.” She fiddled with her glasses nervously. “However, she had...archaic concepts related to market economics. I fear many amongst the previous administration felt it improper to challenge the Princess on menial matters of government economic policy.”
“I warned the Princess that those Dragonfire Zeppelins were never going to be the future of international transport,” murmured Sir Witte. “Our investment went down in flames. Quite literally.”
“I refuse to believe that Celestia bankrupted this nation,” hissed Twilight. “She is intelligent, kind, beautiful and her smile makes me feel all tingly…” She shut her mouth abruptly as she realised she may have said too much. “Umm, what I mean is even if this is true, are you seriously telling me you didn’t interfere once to stop this madness?” Her wrathful gaze fell upon Fancy Pants.
“Princess, I am but your humble servant,” said Fancy Pants. “It is not my place to question Crown policy but to implement it.”
“This is a disaster,” moaned Twilight. “We need an immediate review of our financial situation.”
“Perhaps in the future Princess, but we must deal with the urgent concerns affecting the wellbeing of the nation,” protested Fancy Pants. “We will have to borrow again this quarter, or we default.”
“And we’ve borrowed from every nation under the sun, so our options are limited,” sighed Sir Witte.
“If we were not to borrow how much could we realistically pay?” asked Chancellor Neighsay. Fancy Pants grimaced.
“Half? Maybe less.”
“Of the debt?” interjected Twilight.
“Oh no, not the debt, but the interest on the debt.”
“Ughhhh,” cried Twilight as she slammed her head against the table.
“Uh, Princess? Are you well?” asked Raven with trepidation.
“Chancellor Neighsay!” shouted Twilight suddenly as she bolted upright. She sported a wide smile, in drastic contrast to her earlier downtrodden expression. “I would hear your report.”
“Princess, I still have more to say,” complained Fancy Pants. “We still need to address the-”
“I will return to this issue in due course, minister,” said Twilight evenly.
“But Princess-”
“I SAID I WILL-” boomed Twilight. She stopped, catching herself, and proceeded to offer the stallion a small smile. “I will return to your concerns in a moment Fancy, Chancellor Neighsay if you would please?”
“Unfortunately Princess, I also do not bring good news,” said Neighsay. His appearance was strained, and he surprisingly looked pale, despite his white coat. “Your educational reforms have not had the intended effect.”
“But my proposal to do away with the archaic systems promoted by the EEA was received positively!” objected Twilight. “The establishment of my cooperative student groupings allowed not only for more friendship focused lessons but also for greater input into the syllabus from the students.”
“Yes Princess, your proposal was quite revolutionary.” Neighsay’s eyes narrowed. “Too revolutionary.”
“What?”
“How can I explain this to you Princess, without causing upset?” Neighsay tapped the table lightly. “Your reforms, while doing away with the constrained and inflexible curriculum, have only helped radicalise the student body.”
“Radicalise?” repeated Twilight numbly.
“They refuse to attend classes and march on the streets in protest against, and I apologise in advance Princess, I am merely quoting what they speak of.” He pulled up a page before him. “The Imperial-fascistic state and its capitalistic system of government that seeks to oppress the working-class ponies of Equestria.” There was visible discomfort around the table, no more so than Twilight, who winced. Neighsay paused to collect himself, a bead of sweat ran down his forehead. “Headed by the depraved despotic dictator Twilight Sparkle.”
“I see their alliteration skills have at least not been affected,” huffed Sir Witte.
“I’m not a dictator,” Twilight whined. “A dictator centres all political power with themselves, often sharing that power amongst a small, loyal clique of followers to carry out their commands. We can all agree I’m nothing like that.”
Twilight spared a glance at her very privileged Council.
They did not meet their Princess’s gaze, some coughed lightly, others found the floor suddenly very interesting. After several more moments of silence and Twilight furiously blushing in embarrassment, she continued.
“Umm ah…moving on…who’s next?” She tried to steady herself by looking to a familiar face. “Tempest.”
“Yes Princess?” answered Tempest.
“I am glad you accepted your position,” said Twilight with notable appreciation in her voice. “I understand this transition has not been easy.” Tempest nodded curtly.
“I am honoured Princess to be your shield that guards the realm,” she said formally. Twilight scowled, they were still working on her overly formalistic manner.
“Your report Captain?” The lines of Tempest’s mouth tightened significantly.
“Per your request, I have conducted a review of Equestria’s security,” said Tempest evenly. “Consequently, I believe the Royal Guard, at present, are in a completely unacceptable state.” There were audible gasps around the table. Twilight blinked rapidly in surprise.
“E-excuse me?”
“If I may speak freely, Princess?” Twilight made no objection. “The Royal Guard is no more a functioning armed force than your friend Pinkie Pie is a qualified accountant.”
Twilight sighed sadly. Pinkie was terrible with numbers. She initially thought a calculator was a curator for calendars.
“Training is slack; experience is absent, the General Staff is full of either dithering old fools or inexperienced colts from the noble class,” said Tempest. “Considering its current state, I would not trust the Guard with raiding a pantry, let alone defending the borders of our country. I mean the Storm King’s forces practically just walked into Canterlot.” Twilight reeled as if struck. “It will take a decade to get the Guard into a reasonable fighting condition.”
“B-but, my brother was Captain of the Guard?” stated Twilight incredulously. “He never mentioned problems like that being present!”
“Princess Twilight, with all due respect, your brother, is an excellent soldier and diplomat, but a commander he is not,” snorted Tempest. “I fear your brothers’ position may have had more to do with his relationship with a member of the Crown and the Crown’s favourite than the merit of his command.” A collective ‘oooh’ sounded out from the Council, who quickly fell silent before Twilight’s dark glare.
“I resent the implication Tempest,” said Twilight heatedly. “But I guess I can’t fault you for your honesty. Afterall, I taught it to you.” Twilight sat with her head bowed.
Equestria was not just a mess.
It was an absolute disaster.
No wonder Celestia was so desperate to reform the Elements of Harmony. Her eyes fell upon the only minister still smiling, Sir Witte.
“How about you?” Twilight rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Let me guess, the real Grogar has returned, and his undead armies are currently picnicking in the countryside.” Sir Witte let out a hearty laugh.
“Afraid not Princess, but I do have good news for a change.”
“Really?” she asked all too eagerly. Sir Witte nodded before waving a bashful hoof.
“I am happy to announce that Your Majesty’s popularity ratings have never been higher.” Twilight beamed. Well, at least she was liked. “Assassination attempts on the Crown are down twenty percent.”
“Assassination attempts?” whispered Twilight, her smile immediately vanished.
“Oh yes, all the time,” he dismissively chuckled. “Celestia was famous for the number of assassinations she survived.”
“S-she never said anything about that,” gulped Twilight.
“Oh no, it’s not public knowledge, national security and all that good jazz.” Sir Witte’s joyous nature related to his work was not shared by his fellow ministers who appeared uncomfortable. “It seems that you have inherited your mentor's proclivity to being at the centre of such attempts. I mean we foiled one just this morning.”
“Wait a minute, this morning? Why wasn’t I informed?” Twilight felt like she was going to get sick.
“Oh well, you are being informed right now.” Witte scratched his chin. “I believe it was the old poison in the coffee cup, a classic one that.”
“But you said I was popular,” snapped Twilight, a headache thoroughly now present. “Why would ponies want to kill me?”
“Oh, ponies love their Princess,” Witte said with mirth. “But you are also potentially the most powerful being on the planet. Not a surprise someone out there wants you done in.” He threw a file down on the table, containing several mugshots of ponies. Twilight did not know many of them, but much to her horror, there were some she also knew very well.
Who knew the Quills and Sofa’s Salespony had a vendetta against her?
“Ah, even the assassins love you Princess,” continued Witte. “I’ve never seen them so remorseful about attempted murder before.” Witte smiled happily and leaned back, clearly satisfied. “I take these as positive developments.”
“Oh sweet divines, what have I got myself into?” cried Twilight to nopony in particular. She began to wonder if now was a wise time to consider running away to a monastery.
Yes, that sounded nice, she thought. Living out the rest of her immortal life surrounded by peace, quiet, learning and most important of all, books. But then again, she supposed she had a responsibility to fix a mess that was not entirely her fault.
Afterall had that not been Celestia’s training?
“Princess, if we may return to my briefing?” queried Fancy Pants, cutting off any further thoughts of sudden abdication.
“Sure, why not,” said Twilight glumly.
“Well, before I was interrupted, I was about to announce that our current budgetary crisis may soon be partly relieved.”
“Truly?” asked Twilight in surprise. “W-well go on!”
“Well, it is envisaged that Equestria can pay off half of its outstanding debt thanks to the dowry payment for the upcoming wedding,” he said. Twilight’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“Wait a minute, dowry? Wedding?” Twilight looked bemusedly at her Council. “Who is getting married?”
Stony silence greeted her.
“I thought she knew,” whispered Neighsay under his breath to Raven, who began to slide slowly in her seat.
“Who?” asked Twilight again to no response. “Who?” she repeated, her tone now laced with worry. “Who?” Sir Witte was the only minister with a non-evasive reaction. He sported a wide, creepy smile and nodded his head toward her. Twilight’s jaw dropped at the realisation. “Oh no, no, no. Oh sweet Celestia NO!”
“Yes?” whimpered Fancy Pants. Twilight slammed her hooves furiously upon the table.
“Married!? I can’t get married! I mean I’ve never even-” Twilight gasped for air, as she began to hyperventilate. The room started to spin. “Who?”
“Prince Saladin, the heir to the Saddle Arabian Kingdom,” muttered Raven, only the top half of her head visible. “I assure you he’s meant to be a wonder of the world, a beautiful poet of legendary renown.”
“It also helps that he’s fabulously wealthy,” blurted Neighsay out bluntly.
“I can’t marry this, t-this Prince!” roared Twilight, her shadow loomed over her frightened Council. “I don’t even know him!”
“Celestia had assured us you were well aware of your engagement,” said Fancy Pants meekly.
“What?” The fire from Twilight’s eyes disappeared.
“Celestia explained that after your Coronation, your wedding would be in a month,” bumbled Fancy Pants. “To not overburden the coffers. Thus, the need to borrow in the short term.”
“I never agreed to this,” said Twilight with an eerie sense of calm. “Celestia is mistaken. I don’t consent to it, and I order you to ensure this monstrosity does not go ahead.”
“Princess?” Raven's voice was but a whisper, her tone so low it could have been mistaken for a mouse’s squeak. Twilight turned her head slowly, her heavy gaze settling upon Celestia’s former secretary.
“Yes?” said Twilight coldly.
“Umm, t-technically you have already accepted.”
There was an audible groan as the table strained under pressure. Raven continued.
“D-do you remember when the Princess and the Saddle Arabian ambassadors visited Ponyville some years ago? Just before your ascension?”
One of the windows in the room cracked.
“You put on a show for them? Do you recall?”
The room rumbled. Stone and wood churned violently.
“The purpose of their visit may not h-have been clear to you, b-but your display was a popular Saddle Arabian Courtship ritual. Albeit the use of animals was non-traditional, but the intent was all the same.”
The room became suddenly very chilly as if it were winter, despite the fact it was midday in Spring. Raven’s voice was barely audible at this point, but to Twilight it may as well have been thundered from the heavens.
“Y-your display was an indication of your intention to court. The ambassadors came to examine the potential match, a-and w-were extremely impressed.”
The windows shattered. The castle groaned as it vibrated violently.
“Saladin is very i-interested in c-consummating the m-”
“Please shut up Raven,” said Sir Witte, still displaying a smile, though significantly tenser. Fancy Pants had already fled the room. Neighsay hid behind his seat.
“B-But the sequence for the display was given directly to me by the Princess,” said Twilight quietly not entirely addressing Raven. “She said I was providing the entertainment. That it was essential that I complete the entire routine without fault…”
Twilight’s eyes widened in realisation.
The castle shuddered, stones fell from the ceiling, crashing around the frightened Council. The sky darkened, and the light dimmed within the room.
“Umm,” squeaked Raven, thoroughly terrified.
“Run,” said Tempest.
Celestia sighed contently as she sipped from her fruity drink. She lay upon the beach within her striped hammock. The sun was shining, the water glimmered a beautiful blue. A perfect day if there ever had been one.
“Ah, this is living,” said Celestia. She sported a sun hat and thick black sunglasses.
“Indeed, it is, sister,” agreed Luna, bathing in the midday sun.
“Paradise,” declared Celestia, gesturing with an outstretched hoof. She was content to lay out until the sun left the sky, thoroughly enjoying the peace and tranquillity of her retirement.
She was suddenly disturbed from her relaxation by the distant rumbling of far off mountains. The wind abruptly picked up into a fierce gale that blew Celestia’s hat away into the water. Upon this storm, a voice full of despair and anger could be heard crying out a singular word.
“CELESTIAAAAAAAA!”
“Oh no,” whispered Celestia, her eyes wide. She bolted upright from her hammock. Luna looked to her sister, her face full of fear.
“Does that mean?”
“Yes,” answered Celestia grimly. “Come, Luna, we must leave quickly. I heard Abyssinia is lovely this time of year.” Celestia gathered her things. “She will soon be here.”
“Sister, Twilight is a dear friend,” pleaded Luna. “Perhaps, it would be prudent to appeal to her better nature and ask for forgiveness?”
“Twilight is a wonderful mare, Luna,” said Celestia with a paternal smile. “I love her with all my heart. She is kind-hearted, generous and wise beyond all measure, no doubt you feel the same.”
The roar of the wind picked up as the sun turned a bright scarlet red. The clap of thunder boomed ever louder, and with each passing moment, it sounded as if it grew closer to Silver Shoals.
“But let us give her a hundred or so years to cool off.”
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Silly ex-princess celestia, their is no where you can flee too that SHE won't find you.
inb4 someone takes this unserious comedy fic way too seriously and goes on a mile-long tangent about how it shows why everything past Season [NUMBER] sucks, starting a massive flame war that distracts from the fic itself.
...All jokes aside, this was pretty funny. Have a thumbs up!
:)
10260779
The death will not be swift. it'll be long slow, and filled with work, I hope Celestia like serving fries with that shake
I can honestly get behind everything but two of these. Twilight getting married off like that, and Tempest being what she is.
Incompetent as she is, even Celestia isn't that stupid.
And I literally nothing good to say about the edgy red and black unicorn being in this at all. I was hoping for more originality if Tempest was going to be in the story.
Guess I'm hoping against hope that fans aren't as unthinking ninnies, as I hoped more would be.
I still love the story.
10260788
All tangents are welcome!
Thank you
Tiny typo:
than
I genuinely want a full fic on Twilight fixing the mess now.
10260823
Cheers for the spot on the typo
10260825
If this is popular enough I'll do a follow up chapter, maybe
I love everything about this. Literally everything! Although, now, I fear Celestia will have a whole new set of assassins after her. Most of them wearing guard armor...
10260855
Celestia better run because there is no where to hide from the book horse!!! 
You are way too kind!
The next day, Twilight hands Saddle Arabia their unpaid sunshine bills with 1000 years of interest.
I really want a sequel or follow up that focuses on Twilight trying to unfuck Equestria.
Got a grin from me.
Poor Celestia's gone mad if she thinks she'll get away from Twilight that easy.
~Skeeter The Lurker
10260802
Valid criticisms aside, there's a huge number of ways you could have made them without being a dick.
Also:
That's just uncalled for on this fic, much less any other fic on here.
~Skeeter The Lurker
10260831
Gimme. Gimme gimme gimme gimme GIMME GIMME GIMME!
10260802
Who pissed in your oats? It’s fine to have an opinion, but that was just toxic.
well if I was the book horse i would...
get a check list going...
get a list of expenses and income going...
Fire half the guards (stallions or mares, whichever)
power down the windmills (did they disappear after that episode?)
get a representative of each city (got to dispel the dictatorship vibe)
Stop all parties funded by the crown unless attached to a holiday
assass-- *ahem* encourage a certain Prince to go away...
I'm sure there is much more that could be done... getting on top of the interest is key here
please, make a sequel on how twilight fixes the flaming train wreck of a country celly left along with the arranged marriage. because I have only this to say about Celestia, "(censored) gonna die".
10260831
Run Celestia. Run before Twilight arrives and takes her righteous vengeance on you
Hilarious story. I was actually hoping for Twilight to learn more about the nation's other woes.
Davenport? Davenport's tryin' to assassinate Twilight?
Heck, and all I managed to do in my stories involving him are (checks Carnation's first chapter) okay, give him motive to wanna assassinate Twilight. Guess my room to talk's currently alight! right now. Much like this story.
Shameless plug aside, your story's amazing for all it manages to do in less than 4K. Like:
- Become a hot-trending story (I mentioned this right?)
- Place Fancy Pants in a positive and -dare I say it - endearing light
- Goodness that courtship ritual trick (I was within inches of thinking that Trixie might have a hoof in it too at the point in the story I read it.)
- Still managed to keep Celestia, basically a kingdom - wrecker who let Equestria's Favorite Alicorn holding the saddlebag, a sympathetic character, (which I'm pretty sure violates a law of physics, well done god)
- Brought a smile to my ol' grimdark-lovin' quarantine survivin' face.
Have a star, all the likes I can carry, and my heartfelt thanks for fringing your amazing collection of tales to my notice. Here's to many more.
This is gold.
The reality of nation running in a nutshell. It is never pretty or organized... it just is.
But what about the cake budget?
10261229
Redistribute it into the hayburger budget; Twilight's the one in charge now, not Celestia.
:P
10261229
The Cake budget is a lie!!!
10261219
Holy shiznit, Day 8 is a devious doozy!
10261219
Discord: I am crashing this world’s economy...with no survivors!!
10260831
I'd very much enjoy a follow up chapter, either just Twilight fixing things or seeing Celestia's punishment. Or both, that might be fun.
10261303
I'm suprised obviously at how well the story is doing, and to be honest I never anticipated I'd write a follow up! But I will consider it. I just want to make sure it's worth writing and not deride from the story itself.
10261312
Celestia totally needs to get her just deserts for letting this happen. And it is her fault I feel. Luna wasn't around long enough.
Could be wrong of course. But I always saw Luna as the smarter of the two.
"Welcome, delegates from around the world. Well, I guess you're wondering why you've been called to this conference. It's really quite simple. Up until now, you've all been freeloading on Equestria raising and lowering the sun. Those days are, quite literally, over. Unless and until the attendees at this conference agree to prepay for a one-century subscription to a reasonable day-night cycle, the sun will not rise again."
"Er, um, how much will that subscription cost?"
"Six hundred billion bits, plus a transaction processing fee equal to all costs incurred in the holding of this conference. Drink all the wine you like, gentleponies, you're paying for it."
Humphrey?
Humphrey.
Cue scene of fury turning to sorrow as Twilight asks Celestia why she would do something like this.
Maybe Celestia thought that the one sort of friendship Twilight hadn't explored was romance, and didn't seem to have any plans in that direction, so by setting up the marriage to a handsome, eligible stallion, who was also insanely wealthy, she could provide that and deal with some of the money problems.
Twilight makes a speech about Celestia using her, just like she always had. Nightmare Moon, snoring dragon, Discord, Sombra, throw Twilight Sparkle at it, always justifying it as a lesson, or for her own good. The pony she looked up to, trusted ,loved even, didn't make Twilight a Princess because she was worthy, but becuase it would allow her to duck out and dumped her problems in Twilight's lap, making everything she's done one more Xanatos Gambit by Celestia.
And as always, Twilight has no choice but to go along with it, since it will bring down Equestria's debt to something that's still insane, but less insane.
She tthen goes back and starts figuring out how to fix the economy. Pension most of the Royal guard, or transfer them to something that will actually make money, such as guarding caravans. Except for a cadre hand picked by Tempest Shadow of the few competent ones (there must be some) to keep the assassination attempts from succeeding.
If there are rare materials that can be sold in export, use her new power over astronomical bodies and understanding of astronomy to find asteroids rich in those materials and draw them out of the sky, soft landing them for processing.
Bring in the leaders of the student protests, say basically., 'You don't like the way things are run? You think you can do better? Here's a list of the problems we currently have, you try and come up with answers.' And hand them a brief with the current issues.
Set up meetings with the identified assassins and ask them why they thought she needed to die, then try and resolve things.
Use the reduction in debt to leverage funding for sponsoring new art, music, movies from Applewood, tourism. Use Equestria's cultural capital to generate foreign revenue.
Gather improvements in technology from beyond the mirror and either sponsor inventors to develop them within Equestria or create magical equivalenets. Magic mirrors linked through switching hubs could start the equivalent to the mobile phone, radio, television, better recording technologies to deliver the movies, music and such that you already started creating.
You already have arcade games, and you know just how much money they can earn from the mirror world. Doing something similar, being the leader in these technologies took Japan from a defeated, bankrupt nation to an economic super-power, so it should be workable here.
Provide weather services to other nations, you have all those Royal guard pegasi going begging, get them retrained as weather ponies. A Womderbolts foreign tour might also generate revenue, since they're useless as any kind of fighting force except for Rainbow Dash, who has more combat experience than the rest fo them pout together.
There are plenty of ways to turn this around, she has an entire nation of savants in every concievable field, all she needs to do is find ways to apply their talents to produce things the other nations want.
Lol, I can imagine Twilight catching the sister and giving them an ultimatum: marry the prince in her stead or work retail till they pay the dept off.
Thanks for the wonderful story!
Needs a sequel with Cadance calling in Equestrias debt. Because the Crystal Empire will rise again!
This seemed very similar to my story about Equestrian military incompetence called "The Advisors" when it got to the part about the royal guard. A great short story overall though!
Nothing like foisting off economic collapse on the new sucker^W monarch to wear the crown
10261353
And don't forget. If you don't pay up, we'll give Discord free reign over your nations! Don't worry though! He's reformed!
10261423
And there’s the real reason the Crystal Empire vanished for one thousand years; not because of Sombra, but as part of an intricate scheme by the former royal family of the empire!
hostilefriendly economic takeover of Equestria with the proceedsToo bad Sombra took over right before the time travel spell kicked in…
I feel that people are unfair to prince saladin, all he did was accept a proposal.
Also, obvious solution is to just let the students seize power. Equestria will no longer exist and all the debt will default automatically. Then just throw a counter revolution in 20 or 30 years once everyone's forgotten about it.
10261353
Delegates: “You can’t do this! We had a deal!”
Twilight: “I am altering the deal, pray I do not alter it any further”
I am quite sure Cadence would be all too happy to help Twilight in this affair, and as the Princess of Love she might even have a domain to punish her now that she is no longer an ruling monarch. Twilight's virtue being sold off without her knowledge is an insult towards her too since Twilight is part of the royal family.
And if one wanted to be petty about it, Celestia has left Twilight in charge of Equestria, one wonders... what is she proud off and can those things be liquidated and or razed to the ground.
I know it is supposed to be lighthearted, but this is very deep betrayal.
If you plan on continuing this, make sure you do plenty of research on economics. Pulling a whole country out of debt is a big quest to go on, Twilight!
If you're going to continue the story, let's talk about that is not over yet
* Cozy's parents are demanding a explanation for turning her daughter in stone, along with a angry mob of ponys who don't understand to reason
* the levels of corruption in the kingdom, specially in Ponyville, who Twilight doesn't know
* The Wonderbolts program is shutting down for a anonymous call mention that they involved with a bit laundering
* and lastly, but not extremely, a secret agency that work for Equestria, discovered the events of Spring Breakdown, cause a world conflict between Equestria and the human world's secret organizations that preventing all the events to be showing to the world and blaming the rulers for ineptitude of not punish Sunset for the events
10261864
lets not forget twilight getting revenge on celestia and luna i mean after it is explaned to the prince that celestia got twilight to put it on for him there could be a bit of wiggle room to say that celestia was the one who wantind to start a marrage after all what prince wouldent want a beutifull alicorn wife who no longer is tyed to a throne and can definetly go live with him.
Nuts, I was going to write a long post examining each of these points in extraordinary detail, analyzing and critiquing them with absolute seriousness in terms of their political, social, and economic dimensions. It would have been a lot of fun...for me, I mean; hopefully for everyone else too.
Oh well. I guess you'll just have to use your imagination.
*ping* "You've got
maildebt!" I will never not read the title like that.10262057
That may have been my intention with the title
You brought this upon yourself, Celestia