Hello, Leon Davies here, also known as TheLeondude or just Leondude. Animator, voice actor, writer, autistic British egomaniac, Dark Lord of the Sith etc.
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Despite Celestia’s best efforts to groom her into being her successor, there are many things that she had forgotten to teach her former protege. One of which being how to propose an acceptable tax policy so she could avoid any potential riots and military coups down the line.
Yeah, being princess of all of Equestria is definitely harder than it looks.
Part of the Twilight's Bureaucracy series.
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I'm going to paraphrase this quote from George R.R. Martin (he was talking about Tolkien). "MLP: Friendship is Magic has a very medieval philosophy: that if the princess was a good pony, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it's not that simple. Lauren Faust and Meghan McCarthy can say that Twilight became princess and reigned for a thousand years and she was wise and good. But they don't ask the question: What was Twilight's tax policy? Did she improve the royal guard? What did she do in time's of flood and famine? " Fact you can probably say the same thing for Celestia.
10558325
Yet another reason retiring was a mistake.
10558351
True dat.
Or retiring and leaving one's protege, who I assume has little to no political experience, in charge of an entire country.
Luna "If ponies stage a coup, or the Royal Guard decides you no longer have any right to rule, and that you living at all is a bad idea, vaporize them. You have total command and control of the sun and moon now. Use them."
10558377
Well, that explains how Celestia remained in power for so long.
Um... I don't get the ending
- why did two guards say that?
10558382
I like to think Celestia had to resort to extreme measures at some point during the 1000 years she ruled alone. We just never heard about them.
Against normal ponies? Yeah. She wins every time. If you bother to not nerff her for plot's sake. Same could be said for Luna as well.
Twilight though? She's even more so. Celestia only had the sun's power, and Luna only had the moon's power.
Twilight has the combined power of the sun and moon. On top of her own magic. Which is already pretty OP. Give it enough time, and there won't be anything that can stand against Twilight.
Even when she's not even trying. But that's just me.
10558388
Oops. Just realized I had one guard say a year instead of "every two months".
But to answer your question, because of Twilight's new tax policy, they're afraid they won't get paid as much as they used to.
10558408
Ah, OK, thanks
This is the kind of story I've been waiting for: one that shows how being a leader is more than just ideals, but having to ensure your subjects don't go hungry.
I was hoping for more silly humor, but I think this is good as it is.
She removed the lowered tax for the poor?
That could end badly: The rich nobles will not even feel the taxes due to their wealth, while the poorest ponies may not even be able to pay it at all.
The ponies below the balcony are happy, because the citizens of Canterlot (especially those influental enough to secure a spot close to the balcony) are probably all rich nobles, who will end up paying less money than before.
But once word reaches the poorest population...
You may had just lay the groundwork for an sequel here.
Nice story!
I enjoyed reading it.
Old Tax Rate (assuming some stuff): 120.2 bits/citizen/month
New Tax Rate: 47.5 bits/citizen/month
Twilight, you just slashed taxes by almost 2/3! Sure, a lot of the ponies are happy, but the government's going to go broke with only 1/3 of the money it's used to, and you made the Chancellor of the Exchequer's heart rate nearly double in the last five seconds. Not stonks.
10558443
10558459
Something tells me Twilight's going to have to work her flank off to get to the future shown in The Last Problem.
This is what happens when you promote an (initially) asocial bookworm with no political experience to the ruler of an entire country, if not continent. Heroics do not equal competant ruler.
Erm wait she said ponies pay 95 bits correct but what about non ponies do they pay more or less how would she stop a revolut or corruption if her guards want more pay and they get bought by a outside force
10558480
Erm lol just making sure you saw my question on how she’s gonna tax non ponies
10558443
Twilight's no stranger to implementing retrograde policy. She countenanced a contract for a year-and-a-day indenture. Both her friendship school and the magic school she inherited are elite institutions (and the friendship school's purpose is to indoctrinate foreign elites with Equestrian ideals, the better to influence them). She's busted two strikes onscreen. And of course she's, y'know, an absolute feathering monarch.
Shifting most of the tax burden to the poor, while cutting taxes (thus spending, much of which goes to the poor) overall, and thereby distributing wealth upward, is perfectly in character.
Twilight could tax the hell out of the crystal empire until they declare independence.
10559018
Ah, the ole CK2 vassal levy method.
10559018
The crystal empire is both a virtual fortress and at the same time a terrible place to wage a war from
10558634
I would assume non-ponies are taxed the same.
All these responses to a story about Twilight making a tax plan, and no Nepotism Adventures? Allow me to correct that.
Anyway, cute story. Poor Twilight, really raised up more as a military ruler. Peacetime must be rough when all your ruling credentials involve blasting things with rainbow lasers.
And this is one of the reasons why making Twilight ruler of all Equestria was a terrible idea. The bulk of her life experience taught her how to be a Librarian, an Educator and even a Diplomat, but not a ruler. I mean did Celestia ever teach her anything about how to rule over people?
10560004
Agreed.
The solution to that its delegation.
Not like presidents really have to know that much tax policy.
Plus she might have received a more rounded education before being sent to ponyville for all we know.
And economics is the kind of thing one learns from books, even if it's not a question of just reading a single book.
Equestia isn't democracy. She doesn't need "her" tax policy.
10581756
I would joke about Celestia being a tyrant but I'm pretty sure that joke's getting tiresome.
10582066
Well, absolute monarchies kinda are. But what I was saying was more about that democratically elected rulers have "their tax policy" because they promised some nice things for their supporters to get successfully elected. Tax cuts for example. Something similar may happen in non-democratic case if succession is "underdetermined" and ruler candidate has to promise something to other powerful people to gain their support.
Neither of these thing is relevant in Twiggles' case.
10582066 As far as we know, it's an absolute Monarchy (or Diarchy when both Celestia and Luna were running things) and succession is elective meritocracy with the electors being the previous ruler(s).
We also know that each city or town has it's own Mayor, Council or other ruling body from 'Princess Spike'. However, while they advise the ruler, it's not clear if they hold any executive or legistlative power outside their own demenses. We also know there is a hereditory nobility, but once again it's unclear if they are purely ceremonial or have actual executive or legislative power.
As to a judiciary, we know nothing, apart from that individual towns and cities have varying means of law enforcement. Canterlot has the Royal Guard, Manehatten has uniformed police officers, Appleoosa has a sheriff and Ponyville has nothing official. We also know that Equestria has the concept of detectives from 'Rarity Investigates' and 'MMMystery on the Friendship Express', but it's private or consulting detectives, so we don't know if detectives as part of law enforcement has detectives are a thing.
We can make a fair guess that each town has it's own judicial system, since there has to be someone to judge criminals after law enforcement captures them. However, they are probably as varied as the various forms of law enforcement. But there is no suggestion of a Supreme Court beyond the Princesses, who have been seen to judge and sentence criminals who have harmed Equestria as a whole. Whether this is an extraordinary function they only perform for existential threats or whether they are also a final court of appeal for local courts is unknown.
We don't even know if there is an established code of laws across Equestria or if each town has it's own laws. Likewise, we don't know if the Princess(es) enforce a code of laws or is effectively a despot, governing by their own opinions.
This is not surprising, as a show for pre-teen girls is not likely to go into detail on governmental or legal structure. But it is annoying for nerds like us who want to world-build.
10659574
Even the princesses were the ultimate decider‘s in the rainbow Falls exchange if conflicts came up. Although one comic did have Ponyville vote for a mayor.
If we’re talking about funding, you’ll be talking in circles for how does Fluttershy earn her money. Although we have heard about charities existing so poor ponies do exist sadly
I was expecting Twilight to do something a bit smarter like have everypony pay 1% of their gross monthly income or something.
This wasn't bad, per se, but the punchline felt absolutely weak, if there's any.
Oh my
Hi there. I'm CaptainPinkiePie and I made this trope page just for you:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/TwilightsBureaucracy
10957530
I don't recall asking for a TvTropes page but thanks anyway.
yeet
10960866
Thanks.
I would have assumed that Equestrian taxes work like they did in the ancien régime. The commoners are required to spend an alloted amount of time performing various productive activities on crown lands (eg. Winter Wrap-Up, the Running of the Leaves, Tornado Duty) before returning to the commons to see to their own livelihoods. Merchants can get out of their obligation to work crown lands by paying money rents (how Rarity managed to skip out on the Running of the Leaves perhaps?) after, of course, buying a charter to operate. The aristocracy is required to feed, billet, and otherwise maintain given numbers of
menhorses-at-arms as well as to provide royalty with whatever it may request whenever a royal passes through their lands, hence why the nobility in the very un-martial Equestria is so seemingly weak and why Celestia gets a huge party thrown in her honor whenever she formally appears in town.Taxes may be as eternal as death, but, boy howdy, did they work differently before the bourgeois revolutions.
How does that even make sense? Unless half the population of Equestria are guards.
11248574
Uh...
11248574
I wouldn't be surprised.