Twilight left Sweet Apple Acres with her head held high. As she passed through Ponyville, the setting sun at her back, her gait was confident but reserved. Even at her doorstep, she exuded all the certainty she had presented with Granny Smith.
The moment the door of her library closed behind her, that visage faded. Twilight hung her head and crept back to her couch.
“First Rarity, and now Granny Smith.” She squeezed her eyes shut with sadness and frustration.
It had never been her intention to own half of Ponyville, as her allegorical boast to Granny Smith had hinted. But if things like this kept happening, she might just.
It seemed now that she looked somewhat like an alicorn, everypony wanted her to solve their problems. Twilight didn't feel like an alicorn then, and she certainly didn't feel like a princess.
Twilight didn't want a princess's problems or responsibilities, like a government. Particularly the governmental prerogative of welfare, something she feared she might become. In fact, she wanted nothing more than to lay on that couch and read her book.
Twilight looked at the book. It made her sad. Why couldn't ponies have the kind of social mobility of cutie markless species. That way, Applejack could pursue some other business when her farm failed, like painting. That way, Rarity wouldn't feel compelled to work herself half to death, and need a friend to cover for her when a fashion line flopped.
Twilight sighed. She knew her thoughts where just the frustration taking. There was no escaping responsibility, so she would do her best to work within it. She didn't want Sweet Apple Acres, but what other choice would she have? Nopony with the money to help would be as kind to the Apple family.
But Twilight felt trapped. She had been lenient on the points of the contract she had proposed, kinder than she had been with Rarity. When it came time to write the thing she would probably be more lenient still. But even the smallest stipulation pained Twilight's heart.
It was easy to be authoritative and demanding when you had the upperhoof. It was difficult to be reserved and courteous. It was easy to give things away, to let things go without a care for where they might be used. It was hard to care, to place limits, to follow things through.
It didn't feel right to hold her friends and their relatives to the words, but it was necessary.
She didn't want to just give away money that wasn't hers, even if it was for a good cause. That would invite an unending horde of sweet and greedy ponies, hoping for grants and loans. And Twilight knew how quickly a free ride turned a pony's heart to sloth and arrogance.
Twilight buried her head in hooves. There was no magic which would wash all these problems away. It was time to be a big girl and face the worst part of this whole debacle.
“Spike!” She called out. “I need to send another letter to Celestia about research money.”
-
Several days later.
“Heya Twilight.” Applejack was pulling bags of seeds out of the barn when she saw her purple friend approach.
“Hello Applejack.” Twilight said lamely. “Have you seen Granny Smith?”
Applejack pulled the last bag from the barn, and began to pile them into a wheelbarrow. “She went inta town to buy a coupla things.”
“That's what I was afraid of.” Twilight whispered to herself. Granny Smith had been quick to use the extra money from selling the farm. One could only hope it was for something important.
“Hmm?” Applejack paused her work.
“Oh, nothing.” Twilight quickly responded. She was not very good with secrets. “I'll, uh, wait for her here. Mind if I walk around a bit?”
Applejack laughed. “Nopony needs permission to look around Sweet Apple Acres. Say, what'dya need Granny Smith for. Maybe I can help.”
Twilight gulped. “I, uh, bought some apples earlier and she, uh, was hoping to, uh, get some feedback.”
Applejack cocked her head. “So?”
Twilight began to sweat. “So, what?”
“So how were they? The apples?”
Twilight hated everything about keeping the truth from Applejack, not least of all the stress that went along with it. Granny might have had a reasonable reason, not wanting to worry her granddaughter. Twilight didn't want Applejack to worry either, but not because she was ignorant of the situation, but content with it.. Perhaps content was not the right word, Twilight did not want her friend to be complacent. Trusting perhaps, trust in Twilight.
Still, Granny Smith had insisted that Twilight wait until the time was right. Twilight had grit her teeth. She did not want her friend laboring under the delusion everything was fine, when they where not. Not to say things where bad, just not fine.
“I'll let you know when I try them.” Twilight finally responded, immediately regretting it.
“Were you gunna tell her they were good without tryin them?” Applejack raised an eyebrow.
“Well, they where brown and mushy in some places.” Twilight supplied weakly, her evasion falling apart.
“But you didn't try them?” Applejack looked as if she wasn't sure how to feel.
“I'm sorry.” Twilight said, talking several steps away. “I'm really sorry.” She turned tail and launched herself into the air, flying away from the confused farm mare.
“What they hay?” Applejack watched the retreating alicorn. “Somthin's eatin her.” She turned back to the task at hand, heaving the next seed bag onto the wheelbarrow.
Twilight flew until she was out of sight, then doubled back. She settled on a cloud, watching her friend carry out her chores. She kicked herself for her graceless departure, but felt that if she had stayed any longer she would have revealed Granny Smith's secret. How long would it be, she wondered, before Applejack started seeing the signs of Twilight's ownership over the farm. Hopefully never; Twilight would give up her wings before she would accept any kind of symbology on Sweet Apple Acres.
Would Applejack even care? The family farm had been the life's work of five generations of Apples. If she misunderstood the nature of Twilight's ownership, she was likely to do something foolish. Then again, Twilight did not want to sell her friend short, as Applejack was nothing if not understanding.
Twilight sighed and rolled off the cloud, snapping her wings open to glide to Ponyville. Why, oh why did Granny Smith want to make things difficult?
There might be some element she was not suppling, something which Applejack knew.
The more she thought about it, the more Twilight became sure of it. Granny Smith had been willing to take the hit to her pride save the farm. The truth delayed promised no less disaster for the Apple family. If Granny guarded a secret, it was not not for the sake of pride or image.
Twilight did not think it right that she was deceiving her own friend for the sake of a secret she did not know. Secrets within secrets. For the burden of the lie, Twilight felt she deserved to know what it was she was protecting.
Twilight mentally rearranged her schedule as she flew. Her followup chat with Granny Smith could wait until she confirmed or cleared the suspicion.
Her magical research could also be paused until this intrigue cleared. Consequently, her research progress demonstrations with Celestia needed to be pushed back. Twilight actually hadn't made any discoveries since the last one; The time consuming business with Rarity and now Granny Smith had seen to that. Celestia would be expecting a significant breakthrough considering how much money she thought she was investing.
Curiously, Twilight did not consider her lies to Celestia to be so important. Even as her stomach clenched at the thought of lying to Applejack or that Granny Smith might be lying to her, she was incurious to how Celestia may feel about the misappropriated funds, to say nothing of the lie itself.
For Twilight, it was time now to devise a strategy, to see what Applejack (and perhaps Big Macintosh as well) could knew that Granny Smith did not want coming to light.
I totally not expecting this story to be updated so soon, nor do I expect THAT about Twilight financial situation. Now I am curious exactly WHAT the next chapter will reveal. Also, I am fine with the grammar thing since its not noticeable to me, and the overall story is quite understandable. I like it. Although I would appreciate it if you later improve the grammar. Now I am curious what solution (if any) will you make for this story.
Also, I don't mind a spin-off about Rarities financial situation, as long as it makes you comfortable in writing and continuing/finishing your stories.
I kind of have to disagree with how sad this story is. I can definitely understand if it was based on a very sad and very stressful experience, but presented here, it just seems somewhat melancholy. The realism of the situation is not lost, but with the fact that this is a fictional story with ponies as the characters, I am almost waiting for the story to jump in to magical realism. Please don't beat yourself up about how sad it seems, I think a lot of people will continue to like this story regardless, myself included. Just remember, part of the reason this site exists is for the escapism of writing.
Whenever I see a sad story about the failure in finances it always fills me with a sense of melancholy and frustration of the terrible injustice and fraud that is today's monetary system. A system that creates artificially generated booms and busts that transfer wealth from those who worked hard for their wealth to clever insiders who have not earned nor deserve the wealth.
An honest money system is supposed to facilitate efficient trade with a fungible, liquid, durable, divisible, and fair units of exchange. Unfortunately, that is not how the system we have works today.
The monetary system we have today began in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve, a central bank system which is privately owned, designed, and closely controlled by political insiders (despite it's deceptive name "Federal"). Before the FED existed there was no income tax and the U.S. Dollar was not debt based. Before the Federal Reserve, the Treasury would stamp coins out of gold and silver and also issue paper claim checks to gold and/or silver "Dollars" and that was that. There was some inflation but it always corrected itself because of the requirement of redemption with gold(See Article 1 Section 10 Paragraph 1 of the US Constitution about gold and silver). When the FED was created it claimed the right to issue all new money (Dollars) with the caveat that the newly created money would be PAID BACK WITH INTEREST all under the guise of Keynesianism, smoothing the "Business Cycle" panics that banker colluders would perpetuate to consolidate foreclosed assets. Since then, all dollars created by the Federal Reserve have been loaned to the Treasury with the expectation of repayment plus interest. So much money has been created since then that almost every Dollar in existence is owed back to the federal reserve with interest. The only way to pay back the previously incurred interest is to borrow more money! The fed can control how lenient or strict they are with issuing new loans (money = loans). If the fed were to stop issuing loans then there would exist more debt than Dollars in existence leading to the collapse of the economy! Thus the direction of the economy rests firmly in the hands of those who control the Federal Reserve and they have the foreknowledge of booms and busts and can position their assets accordingly, profiting from those businesses and people who fail during the bust.
If you think you can escape the reach of the FED by never taking a loan then think again! Before the FED there existed no income tax and since then the revenues of the income tax have matched the interest payments of the National Debt to the FED quite nicely! The monetary system has literally turned us into the slaves of those who control the Federal Reserve.
If you want a more in-depth and clear explanation of the biggest fraud mankind has ever seen then look at my user page and near the bottom there should be a section with youtube videos explaining the history and the fraud of the monetary system.
found a couple other typos!
two in one
and another one
and I think this one is an error
I knew that if I kept checking back on this I'd be rewarded. You're awesome.
And Twilight?! How could you do such a thing?
I hope you do well on your finals!
The line about Twilight not really caring about Celestia's opinion on the matter is interesting. I hope you'll expand on that as well
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I bet you felt the way I did about the flim-flam episode.
this is actually really interesting, it saddens me that it's based on a true story, none of the position in the story is nice to be in
Wow... must be nice to have an all powerful god queen backing your research without bothering you about where the money is going.
But seriously, this is really good and I am excited to see how the rest of the Apples react when the truth is revealed. Also it would be interesting to see Celestia's reaction when she finds out how Twi has been spending her research money. Also... four hundred points for making me enjoy the finer points of finances... I would give a kudos, but there isn't anypony who has done anything deserving of a kudos... Well Granny Smith for swallowing her pride and asking for help, but she loses it for not telling her grandchildren. Twi would get one for helping the Apples, but loses hers by misusing her government approved research grants.
Wow... must be nice to have an all powerful god queen backing your research without bothering you about where the money is going.
But seriously, this is really good and I am excited to see how the rest of the Apples react when the truth is revealed. Also it would be interesting to see Celestia's reaction when she finds out how Twi has been spending her research money. Also... four hundred points for making me enjoy the finer points of finances... I would give a kudos, but there isn't anypony who has done anything deserving of a kudos... Well Granny Smith for swallowing her pride and asking for help, but she loses it for not telling her grandchildren. Twi would get one for helping the Apples, but loses hers by misusing her government approved research grants.
Nice. Although, Twilight clearly needs some practice at, ah, 'improving the truth'. She could probably just hang around with Blueblood for a while.
Because -
*Ahem* - Dear Princess Celestia, I am currently investigating the effects of economic relationships upon the delicate balances of friendship. Due to the intensive nature of this research, I require more financial backing so as to provide the correct environment under which I can study this curious phenomenon.Your Faithful Student - Twilight Sparkle.
Misapropriation of funds? Nope.
O'course, now I'm curious as to why she felt the need to claim that she could probably buy half of Ponyville. Technically, a research budget isn't *your* money, so... Yeah. Why did she?
I am really interested by this original fic, and I am very eager to see how it goes in the next chapter. How will the 3 Apple siblings react ? Will Celestia find out ?
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/314/b/d/my_loader_bought_the_farm__by_the_ghost_of_razgriz-d5km65f.jpg
I patiently await the next chapter .....
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I hope this isn't abandoned.
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Over a year since the last chapter ..... Not holding my breath, personally....
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This story is on the most backest of burners it's true, but I haven't forgotten completely.
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I hope you won't end up losing the drive or interest in writing it with time passing, then.