Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat

by David Silver

220 - Hot Off the Press

Silver awoke and freshened up before heading for his office to be struck in the face by a paper. Normally, said paper would be waiting for him to read if he got bored, just sitting on his doorstep.

Grumbling, he took the paper off with his magic and began scanning over it. He saw Filthy Rich's photo in one of the articles right on the front page and that captured his attention.

Interview With Human John Smith Brings Surprising Conspiracy to Light!

Silver raised a brow as he settled at his desk. He recognized that name and the picture attached. It was one of the humans he had spoken to before.

The article went into detail about how pyramid schemes worked and why they were terrible to be in unless you were near the top. Silver nodded to himself as he skipped a few words. He knew what a pyramid scheme was. It went into terrific and bloody detail about how Filthy Rich had started the idea and launched it.

It mentioned John Smith tried to dissuade the rich pony, but was met with a stern rebuff for his efforts. Was that the Filthy Rich he knew? Diamond Tiara's father seemed an alright guy, though he hadn't been on screen much. Silver muttered to himself as he took a batch of nuts and shoveled them in his snout as he read.

It made it clear that AmNeigh was such a pyramid scheme, and the one they were talking about. AmNeigh... Silver leaned back a little, trying to remember where he had... "Oh, the foal!" He remembered the smiling face of the lunar colt he had bought a little something from. Well, he had just bought a little thing. It was hardly much of a loss if it made the colt happy for a day, which it seemed to.

"I wonder," said Mr. Smith during the interview. "What exactly the princesses are doing about this? Why aren't there laws already in place to protect against such predators?"

Silver tilted his head at the paper, "Because it never happened before. Should we have laws about space-faring aliens, just in case?" Despite his words, he knew other ponies would not think the same way reading the same words. There was no way the article wouldn't create a storm of trouble through Equestrian society.

He set the paper down and wondered what he could do about it. He was ambassador to humans, but no human involved had done wrong or really been wronged, outside of being reportedly turned away. He was nominally a prince! That meant something, right? Perhaps going to the source might be wise.

Silver hopped down from his chair and spread his wings, even if it was an abortive motion that started again the way Rainbow had shown. He would fly to Ponyville if he had to, and find out the truth of things. But first... He hung a sign from the door that declared his absence for the day. He also looked for Rainbow, which wasn't hard.

"Hey there, cadet, you ready to get flying?"

Silver saluted as best he could. "I am, and I have something specific in mind."

"Oh?" She raised a brow. "It's not normal for the student to give lesson plans to the teacher, ya know."

Silver gestured out of the castle. "There's something going on, something big. I need to get to Ponyville to check it out. I could take a tr--"

"--But you'd rather fly." Rainbow waggled her brows. "I like the way you think. Alright, you have breakfast yet?" When he shook his head, she pointed to the dining room. "Take care of that, then meet me out front. No point trying to fly on an empty stomach, especially not so far."

She streaked past and he went into the dining room to fuel up.

---

Samantha went out to check on her salesmares, only to find the first not at her usual place. Samantha looked around with some confusion, but she knew the unicorn and where she lived, so she went there. Perhaps they had taken ill? She should have put trackers on them all, but they were not her subjects. They were her salesponies, which was a different classification.

She knocked gently on the door. "Amethyst? Are you there? Do you req--"

The door swung open almost violently. "Are you here to rub it in?!" Her words were angry and stressed.

Samantha blinked. "Do you require lotion?"

"No!" She shoved a paper into Samantha's face with her magic. "Look!"

Samantha was good at reading. She took the newspaper in her own magic as she sat and began to speedily consume the paper and the article presented. She felt a tumult of emotions play over her.

Amethyst seemed to see it. "You really didn't know, did you?"

"I... thought I was going good." She looked up at Amethyst. "I was talking to ponies, and doing good things."

Amethyst's anger flipped at Samantha's collapse. "You really didn't know... Look, it wasn't you, promise." She took the paper with a tug of her magic and threw it down. "I can't believe we fell for it! I almost went to those extra classes too..." She grunted then looked Samantha over, realizing. "Oh..."

Samantha shrank a little. "At least I saved other ponies' money..."

Amethyst advanced and hugged Samantha tightly. "You were a great salespony. Look, I have to decide what I'm doing with my life now that AmNeigh is busted..." She heaved a sigh. "Thank you, again... If not for you, I'd be in debt instead of just broke."

Amethyst closed the door behind Samantha much more gently than she had opened it.

Samantha did a mental tally of her workforce. She imagined many would be the same, but some wouldn't have read the paper. For both of them, she had to go. It was her responsibility. She nodded to herself as she got to walking. She would see her time as an AmNeigh agent through its proper end.

While the unicorn mare was angry, the lunar ponies she visited ranged from furious to flat out tears when she visited each. She didn't know how to address those feelings, not directly, so she asked. "How can I help?"

The lunar mare blinked at her as if she had asked a ridiculous question. "I thought I had a job, a purpose... something I could... do... I thought I belonged to something. Seeing you, and the others." She fished out a photo and showed it. It displayed Samantha before her workforce smiling. "I thought we were a family, but it was all built on lies and smoke. I have nothing." She waved a hoof at the ratty apartment she lived in. "I got a little hole in the wall. I got debts. I got nothing..." She sank on herself. "Nothing..."

Samantha felt her jaw working. She wanted to offer comfort, to produce the bandaid for this wound, but did she have those tools? She didn't understand ponies. She didn't understand why they did what they did. She saw the tears, she knew her... friend... was sad, but what did that sadness mean? She wanted to heal her friend, to apply a splint or cast that would allow things to mend... "We don't have to change."

She blinked softly at Samantha. "You're the one that brought it to me! AmNeigh is a scam, a lie, a fraud!" She was shouting at the end of it, trembling with fury instead of sadness, but the sadness was there, the depth to the sheen of fury that raged through her.

Samantha reached out, placing the flat end of her hoof against the lunar's chest. "We're still family."

She smiled. "Thank you..." She closed the door without another word, and Samantha was left in the hall of the low-grade apartment, unsure if she had helped at all.

She went down her list. All her salesmares knew that they would not be working for AmNeigh anymore, well, except one.

"I know what I'm doing," defended a lightly-colored pony. "If you do the numbers it's obvious." She rolled her eyes. "You didn't know what you were part of? Moron." She slammed the door in Samantha's face.

Samantha felt a new pain. It was one thing to not understand ponies, which she didn't, but she had failed at math? She went to a small cafe and sat down. She pulled out her sheets and figures and began to work them out, not from the view of being the best salespony, but where the money was going. She followed those trails, and they all led upwards. Whoever at the top profited most from this. Is that why it was called a pyramid scheme? It was all laid out for her in black and white. The numbers didn't lie. They couldn't. She understood numbers better than ponies.

They hadn't lied, but she never asked the right question.

Samantha shoved the papers off of her table in a sudden fit of anger. What was she angry at? Certainly not the paper itself. It spoke the truth. The numbers had no choice. They neither loved or hated. They simply were.

There were two ponies she could be angry at, however! Moonbeam and the Flim Flams! Make that three... Unless they were scammed too? They were higher up the pyramid, but not the top. They would know who was above them, and she could at least see what emotions they displayed. She was not the best at seeing them, but she could try.

She gathered her papers in her magic and tucked them away before she got to trotting.

A new thought came to her. She would be entirely unable to repay what she had borrowed from Silver. Her actions became a golden rule violation, poof, just like that. She would not want to be borrowed from and not paid back. Surely Silver would be angry with her, and for good reason. He had expressly forbidden her from just this.

She thought she was smart... Smart enough to learn, and to prove him wrong. Someone was proved wrong, but it wasn't him at all.

She sagged against a light post, breathing hard as the situation weighed heavily on her. She would have to face proper punishment, later. She would keep her head up high and accept whatever was proper. She would apologize and hope he didn't hate her. That he didn't hate her for being sneaky, or stupid, so stupid... Tears fell from her eyes as she lamented her foolishness. For a moment, she knew what her crying salesmares had felt.

She pushed herself upright and got walking with renewed determination. She would get answers.

---

Night played with the foals. With Silver on-duty and Samantha off doing, hmm, Samantha things, it fell on Night to be on foal duty. There were worse fates. Clear was banging on her play piano, attempting to make something that approximated music. Night smiled faintly. She could swear her daughter was getting closer to something, but she wasn't there, and it was a loud mess that tried the patience of any adult that heard her.

Morning was busy with his collection of tricks. Displaying maturity for his age, he pulled things out carefully and usually one at a time, but he couldn't read and often played with the objects he pulled free with disregard for what they would be used for. He made a trick on his own, producing a rubber ball from behind Night's ear."Ta Da!" His first words. Did those count? It didn't matter, he was proud, and so was Night. They hugged, and all three enjoyed lunch together.

Lunch was a welcome reprieve. None of them could reach their toys and invent new ways to make uncomfortable noises with them.

Night made a note to have a discussion with her stallion about never buying a toy that made sounds in the future.

Author's Note:

This chapter... It was kind of heavy. AmNeigh is revealed as the huge typo it is.

Comments

[Bernkastel988]

Adorable

[Morphy]

Yeah, the "avoid toys that make noise" rule is a pretty big one that new parents never get told by the older parents. And it's usually the older one that buy those same noisy toys for them. I suppose that falls under the rule; parents of the parents get to spoil the kids rotten before handing them back.

p.s. I feel Samantha's pain of betrayal, embarrassment, and folly. While I never participated in a pyramid scheme, I was swindled by a scam for quite a bit in my younger years, back when the internet was Netscape and a few clumsy websites. It's one of those very hard life lessons that you read about all the time but never expect it to happen to you, until it does.

[Timothy48]

It sounds to me like John's main purpose in AmNeigh was to create division and hatred amongst ponies. That and make a bunch of coin on the side to fuel his future operations. I wouldn't be surprised if his ultimate plan was to break apart Equestria from the inside, and then present himself as some kind of savior, here to pick up the pieces and put them back together the way he thinks they should be, with him at the top.

[Boulder]

"I... thought I was going good." She looked up at Amethyst. "I was talking to ponies, and doing good things."

Should that be 'doing'?

She wanted to offer comfort, the produce the band-aid for this wound, but did she have those tools?

to
Sad to see her taken in, but I'm glad she understands what it means to those it hurt, including herself. Hope trying to follow it up on her own doesn't get her in more trouble, should be seeking Silver's help. This could all rebound back on Silver too since she's his (& Luna's) responsibility as well.

[Daremo]

Rainbow had showed - Rainbow had shown him

expressly forbade - expressly forbidden

*****

Heavy feelings, but events continue to progress and life continues.

Perhaps Samantha will learn that what she has built is a network of (mostly) friends and that their trust and shared experience can be turned to other goals now that they've been brought together. Networking is magic too, maybe not as strong as friendship, but still beneficial.

*****

He hung a sign from the door that declared his absence for the day.

What happened to his official duties being on hold while preparations for the coronation were underway?

Chapter 202:

You are relieved of your duties as ambassador while you learn the proper steps for the ceremony and until it is complete.

[David Silver]

7368741 Inner thought typo fixed!

[David Silver]

7368760 Doesn't mean he should become missing, or that people won't come hoping for a word.

[Amethyst Blade]

Samantha is going to get to the bottom...or the top of this scheme...I'm not sure if you will continue this little arc Because looking at the comments, no one seem to catch the part about her wanting to go and ask Flim Flam in who is at the top.
I only hope she succeed and End that John Smith Rightly.
image.spreadshirtmedia.com/image-server/v1/compositions/1008104584/views/1,width=280,height=280,appearanceId=2,version=1444249482.png/end-him-rightly-black-t-shirt_design.png

[Snow]

7368735 Eeeyep. And of course the dream catchers to keep from getting caught which miraculously will somehow work.

Still hoping he just ends up dead in a gutter with no appropriate fanfare or buildup. That's my favorite way of dealing with would-be chessmasters. They mean nothing, they amount to nothing, they become nothing.

[Amethyst Blade]

7368855 Remined me of a story about some great soldier that survived all the battles he's been through but died of car accident.

I personally, Love how would-be chessmasters die in a stupid ways.
You can be as cunning as you like but Lady Luck only need to dislike you and you're out.

[Booster Spice]

Vide is doing Time Computers I see.

Take everyones money, promise a service, then when he reaches market saturation, declare himself bankrupt and move all his money and warehouse store to alternate locations that the auditors dont know about.

Rinse and repeat.

In the case of Time Computers and their various renaming, they only got caught the 5th time. When the auditors moved within less than 6 hours.

Maybe Samantha should research Creative Accounting, its use, analysis and detection.

Then automate it.

Silver will be chasing an unraveling skein, with the lies all leading to it being Samantha because she broke the chain.

[Alzrius]

7368855 You know nothing about John, Snow.

[xonxt]

At this time I kinda wish this story took a detour from all the relationships and harems and domination and gender swaps, and got back to all the magic stuff, inventing new magics, all the "spells are like programming". You know, the "wizard hat" part of the title. Even for a tiny little bit.

[Bernkastel988]

7368972 Well he's growing up and evolving with his new relationships he will probably go back to that when it all settles. And some pretty magical ponies are joining the herd so the new magic will probably be really cool

[harts fire]

if it looks to good to be true it more than likely is.
a good chapter.

[Shadow Lance]

7368763 how is a pyramid scheam bad?

[cosmic flash]

And when is Agent Smith going to get his comeuppance? What a dick.
Smith reminds me of this guy from Futurama:

[Shadow Lance]

7369116 the only ones that don't profit are the ones at the bottom which is why you need to higher more people

[Snow]

7368960 Don't really care either.

[Alzrius]

7369153 Yeah, you know I was making a Game of Thrones joke, right? (e.g. "You know nothing, Jon Snow.")

Hence the trollestia smiley.

[Alzrius]

7368854 She'll need to move fast; my guess is that the Flim-Flam Brothers will head for the hills once they hear about this newspaper article.

For that matter, Filthy Rich is likely to catch some serious hell from his fellow ponies. I have to wonder if Diamond Tiara will be bullied at school because of this (though that'd be some poetic justice, even if it's not her fault). More than that, if things get bad enough, I wonder if Spoiled Rich will simply leave her husband.

[Not so New Brony]

Hmm, guess money wasn't what this John Smith was after though I feel that discrediting Filthy Rich wasn't the goal, only a means to further his agenda, whatever it may be

[tsaukpaetra]

John is playing a serious game, who wants to bet he's still four steps ahead? Cunning little
In any case, Silver and Co. Start investigations. We don't think there's enough evidence to indict Smith yet, but he will slip eventually... Right?
Keep going! ;)

[Vutava]

Whoever at the top profited most from this.

was at

7369119 You have to remove the "https://youtu.be/" part to make the link work.

[Cursed Quill]

I see someone knows how to make a frame-up.

[Cobalt Comet]

Based on everything up to and including this chapter John Smith = Ass hat.

[David Silver]

10853559
No argument there.