ERarity and the Curse of the Magic Money Card

• MLP: FiM
• Slice of Life

Rarity gets a credit card. Sweetie Belle does not approve.

• Rarity
• Sweetie Belle

Silent Whisper · 2.1k words  ·  30  2 · 780 views

By Silent Whisper

Summary:
Rarity has a very bad shopping problem and it is up to Sweetie Belle to stop her and set things right.

First Thoughts:
This story hits home so much, as I was not only raised by shopaholics but am kind of one as well (I've gotten better over the years! :P ) so seeing Rarity and Sweetie Belle go through a lot of the things I have seen myself and my mother do, (as well as my roomie but enough on myself for now ;) ) and talk about with so much spending, made for a nice little short. I'm sure I'm not the only one this hit home for, and that is a good thing. It seems this kind of thing tends to only be talked about in hoarding type shows, and by then it is too far gone. We need more like this before it gets too bad.

Did I like it?: Yes! it might really hit home for me and remind me to be careful with my spending (which isn't a a bad thing!) but we all need that reminder sometimes. Rarity and Sweetie's interactions were also so sweet and on par with their characters.

What I didn't like: Too short. I kind of want to see these other scenes that were talked about. Like Rarity and Sweetie talking to Applejack and going over to take down Flim and Flam once again! It might be a little too on the muzzle for some readers on the problems of overspending/not budgeting your bits wisely, but this reviewer thought it hit the notes just right.

Now for the meat of the review:

The heart in this story is strong. You can clearly see the love that Sweetie Belle and Rarity have for each other, the care Sweetie has that Rarity takes care of herself and doesn't let stress, anxiety, or similar problems take control of her. This sisterly duo is adorable and well played. Reminded me a lot of the talks I had with my own mother about overspending, from both the spender's point of view and the one worried about the overspending. 9/10

Characterization was done well. Sweetie Belle was her adorable, caring self and doing her best to help her big sister out of a bad habit. Rarity I felt was a wee bit out of character, overall great but I feel she might not canonically have fell for the 'scam of on sale items' so wholeheartedly. (But then, we do see her devour dozens of tubs of ice cream when she is devastated/heartbroken, so turning that from unhealthy eating to unhealthy spending is not too far off. As such, only a tad bit off character.) 8/10

The Story/Concept was good, I don't think I've seen many others about the dangers of overspending and trying to stay in a budget, especially discussing the feelings and reasons why someone does such things. Be it anxiety, depression, or as simple as spending something on themselves makes them happy, among other reasons, this really should be explored more often in stories. Of the MLP characters, I do think Rarity was the right choice for this. She is for sure the drama queen of the show, and with the stress we often see her under in many of the episodes that focus on her, I can see her being one of the ones with mental disorders because of that pressure. I've worked clothing retail/retail in general, and that is bad enough! I can't imagine how much more stressful it is when the clothes you are trying to sell are ones you created! 9/10

Now my overall score and final thoughts.

I enjoyed this story, it was a nice short showing a big problem even we non-Equestrians face today- budgeting, put together in a cute, sisterly care short to help us put a face to these situations. Though I would love to have seen more into the story, like how they ended up dealing with the problem or how they handled Flim and Flam and their special store, how it went leaves plenty to the imagination, which can be good.

Silent Whisper has put together a nice short that is sure to make its readers question their own spending and budgeting habits. Are we in the same situation as Rarity, or are we able to control ourselves? I hope you all can enjoy this story as much as I have, and if need be, that it will help.

Score:
Heart: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Story/Concept: 9/10
Overall: 8.6/10

In conclusion, I will leave you with Silent's words in their author's note:

For the record, my point isn't that buying things for yourself is bad. It's just smarter to budget these things. All good things can be done to too much of an extreme.

To Silent Whisper: I hope you keep writing and working on topics like this that makes us think and compare what the characters are going through with our own lives. (I know I could have made this review a lot longer if I talked of all the things it made me think of on my own life, but I'd rather this be more about you and your story. It's a review about the story after all, not my own life.😅) Great work, and I look forward to more of your stories!

To the Reader: This story very well may make you think a lot about what is going on in your own life, with how similar or not you may be to Rarity. Or if perhaps you are on Sweetie Belle's side of the story. I think a good portion of us have been on one side or the other sometime in our lives, or will be if you haven't yet. Go, read and enjoy!