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// Debt Collection 
// Story: On the Road to '63 
// by niBBoi 
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A radio was turned off as Daybreaker scanned a piece of paper. The report sat on her desk, and it held within it good news from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Daybreaker couldn't help but feel relief and a little bit of pride. After two months of tedious work, it was finally done, and she could relax a bit knowing that mountains of money, goods, and materiel would start flowing into Equestria soon. It was good to see that all of those investments into other nations had paid off, and while it would damage Equestria's relations with them in the short term, it was well worth it in order to continue fueling her country's increasingly voracious military industry as well as keeping smaller businesses up and running to maintain at least a semblance of normal living in the cities and the countryside.

The endeavor took quite a bit of back and forth. Some - like the Hippogriffians - were easy enough to persuade to pay up and return interest on loans that were already overdue for a long time. Nevertheless, there was one incident where Daybreaker remembered hesitating a little to confront an international charitable organization based in Mount Aris. For years, they had been a clear ally of Equestrian Harmonist ideas in Hippogriffia, and while Daybreaker no longer believed in some of the naïve ideals of what she formerly preached as Harmony, she still felt bad about seemingly betraying a group of kindhearted people who had done nothing wrong against Equestria. Maybe the mare still had some sympathies for the old Harmony she once believed in, but Equestria's woes and needs took precedent, and soon, a compromise was reached where the charity would only have to pay back a fraction of the loan in return for urging local Hippogriffians to join Equestria's growing foreign volunteer corps or donate to the Equestrian government.

However, most other governments and businesses had to be persuaded with threats of severe legal repercussions, a complete cessation of any future Equestrian aid, or straight up force. Foreign companies operating on Equestrian soil that were putting up resistance folded almost immediately, and states such as Saddle Arabia even offered her a hefty cut of the nation's oil production in exchange for extensions and modifications on certain deals and agreements on top of all the money they finally relented to give back in the end. And even then, there were still those who spat in the face of Daybreaker's ambassadors and ministers. Stubborn fools like a certain group of young and upstart executives of a new shipping company in Vedina even dared the alicorn ruler herself to come over and force them to pay up on their loans taken from Equestrian banks as if they thought that a foreign territory separated by water would keep her away.

Daybreaker wished she had the foresight to bring along a photographer with her so she could have framed a picture of the stupid griffons choking back on their words and put it on her desk afterwards. Vedinian officials who were almost begrudgingly sent in to keep things civil and make sure relations between Equestria and their country remained intact were also fun to watch as they looked on in embarrassment while their fellow griffons inadvertently exposed themselves to a myriad of illegal financial activities in front of a foreign leader and her diplomatic entourage.

The incident caused quite a bit of laughter among people back in Equestria when the press began reporting on it, and even now, a chuckle came out of Daybreaker's lips as she looked back at the amusing memory, but the mirthfulness soon passed as her eyes gazed over at a bottle of cider left unopened in her glass drinks cabinet.

Daybreaker sighed. It was such a shame that Granny Smith declined on a contract to supply the Equestrian army with food from Sweet Apple Acres. Daybreaker even had the officials that were visiting to explicitly tell her that the Apple family farm was being offered a deal no other farm in Equestria was getting and that it was Daybreaker's way of supporting the Apples during such hard times, but it was no use. The old mare wouldn't budge, and she not-so-politely told the officials to scram.

Oh well. Perhaps one of those days, people like Applejack and her family could finally see that what Daybreaker was doing was for the good of Equestria. For now, however, Daybreaker just had to contend with the fact that some of her citizens were scared of a necessary change and felt like they were owed something other than all the things she was working so hard for to give to them. It wasn't such a difficult task anyway. She understood her little ponies' frustrations, and she had already told herself that it would take some time before everyone accepted the realities of an Equestria at war.