Princess Celestia goes out on a whim for an ice cream cone and discovers just how shaky her own personal finances are, leading to a fiscal catastrophe that could threaten the status of the entire nation.
Featured on Equestria Daily with two stories by Bad Horse called Sisters
Now with readings from the Living Library Players and joehighlord.
Editing assistance by Bad Horse
And a review by Paul Asaran
And a Spanish translation by Kiwi.
And a Chinese translation by way of Nova Twinkle.
Chapters (1)
Done in one afternoon, and lightly editor-ed over the next few days. If you...um...make that when you see errors in it, please email me and I'll fix 'em. And no, I'm not loaning you any money.
"The most powerful force in the Universe is compound interest."
-- Albert Einstein
If you liked this story, check out Luna's Lottery Lunacy by Estee.
That was great, I'm beyond happy I stayed up late.
It's nice to see a happy story in this recent sea of complete downers.
I'm no gambling man, but if I had to say something it would be along the lines of
InB4 Feature
Because that was great :rainbowkis:
Sadly I'm not a stickler for grammar so no help there
I'll fav this and hope it gets the praise it deserves!
Pretty good story, pretty hilarious at times too! Great job.
Would it be okay, if I made reference to this story in one of my future chapters? Nothing major, more or less it'll consist of Celestia attempting to purchase something and realizing she doesn't have any bits on her, which gains an eye roll from Luna and "Again Sister? you really need to start paying more attention to your funds."
I'll provide a link at the end of the chapter to your story as well.
1111310 Oh your bad.... I like it...... Soap
ah, Economics. such a glorious, glorious mess of a system.
i wonder if Discord would enjoy the stock market.
I don't often read the stories that aren't featured, but this is the second good story I saw so far!
1113747
How much you wanna bet, Discords accounts are in perfect order, it makes sense in the manner that it doesn't make any sense at all, thus sticking to Discords Nature, or maybe it isn't and that's why it makes sense.
I know next to nothing about economics, but this:
had me and my sister rolling around the floor
Haha, this is really great! I love the idea of Celestia squandering her money away... and then going on a book tour to raise funds? It would make for a silly sequel
You asked for grammar help, but you don't really need it. There's just some wonky capitalization in a few places.
1113682 Funny you should mention gambling, that shows up in the second chapter of Concept Art
Glad you enjoyed it :)
somehow when i read the stock exchange bit i thought of the move Trading Places.
loved it time to dig though your other stories and favorites
This was extremely well written and quite light hearted. It got a bunch of laughs out of me when I really needed them.
I look forward to reading your other works.
As a student of economics, This has my endorsement. Absolutely hilarious, well done!
Now I feel dumb for knowing so little in economics. Well done, a nice little story.
I love numbers. I understood most of this without an economics background... probably because I took marketing in Grade 11 and business as part of my computer programming course last fall, and have always enjoyed reading the finance section of practically anything.
Interesting. At first I'm tempted to consider this in terms of how much of the plot might have been cribbed from a non-pony-related story and had the names changed, but the closer I look the more it seems to fit perfectly with what we know of the Equestrian government. All this charitable giving matches what we know of Celestia's personality, as do the one-bit-per-year salary and general optimism and lack of concern for her own finances, and the thousand years of interest on Luna's personal finances* grows from a circumstance which is fairly unique to FiM. Even the panic among ponies would seem fairly out of place in most other contexts- where else is the government so thoroughly entwined with an individual that a failure of personal finances could be conflated with a national debt? In the end, I find myself commending your originality, and the meticulous thinking with which you devised the consequences of the problem you've created, as well as its eventual solution (and the clever stinger joke).
*This is the one quibble I do have: why would Luna have been drawing a salary while trapped on the moon? Leaving aside the issue of whether Nightmare Moon and Luna were the same entity, neither of them were fulfilling the duties of a princess at the time. Also, why does Celestia employ the same pony to handle her personal finances as those of the government? That seems unnecessarily confusing.
1117711 "Also, why does Celestia employ the same pony to handle her personal finances as those of the government? "
That's the catch, she has never had anypony handle her personal finances in centuries, being as her entire personal assets consist of one now-empty chest. The Exchequer would be her natural choice to call, he's the pony she has dealt with in determining the spending of Government Money since he was hired, (and his predecessor, and so on), and note that he knows Celestia has no personal funds (because he's competent at his job. Just a little rules-bound.).
Note that there are real-world parallels, one of the first things an ex-president has to start doing is remembering to carry his wallet again.
Oh, and noting the general lack of spine in Equestrian politicians, who would go to Celestia and say "Excuse me Princess, may we have your permission to quit paying your sister since you exiled her to the moon?" (besides, it would spoil the joke :)
LLLLLLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
LOL this was damn good. That damn bureacracry...
1117711
Bureaucracy, probably. In all the confusion and rebuilding efforts and so forth, nopony remembered to cancel it.
Don't worry, the government will get it back in overdue book fines.
1114006
It was the Dukes! It was the Dukes!
Here, good sir, have a thumb.
It obviously points up!
Oh my!
This is very interesting!
GJ!
This is a good story, and you should feel good for writing it. Brought a smile to my morning. I clicked on it on the site sidebar based on title alone, and for once wasn't disappointed. Here's to hoping my little upvote contributes enough of a bump to get it featureboxed.
Also, not to detract from my compliment with a nitpick -- but for Luna's suggestion when Celestia says she's broke, you want "chirurgeon" (also sometimes "chirugeon").
Love it. We need to hear more about banking crises of Equestria...
Interesting future direction, are bits pure gold therefore tied to metal prices or is there some sort of backing to them? (Twist, they're backed in paper. Or copper).
Like the conflict between the princess as a person and institution, reminds me of a lot of the weirdnesses in the British crown system.
>>Campisi
wow at least one other person saw the movie
Sweet, except for the peppermint candies
"But with numbers in front of them. And commas."
1113801 That broke my brain.
1140328
Then my jobs done here.
1113747
I'm surprised the stock market hasn't set Discord free on its own yet!
Luna the loan shark
FYI: Bad Horse has a pair of stories called Sisters which if read along with this story make a trilogy (which was featured on EQ Daily , yea!!) Many thanks to Bad Horse who gave me the confidence to add my story to his. He's not all bad :)
1111310
Good story, excellent quote.
Liked this one a lot. Funny how finances work, ain't it?
So, basically, Luna wins: She's bought the entire Equestrian economy and all of Celestia's debt for five bits and a stick of apple-flavoured gum when the stock market crashed.
This one is going to have both of Twilight Sparkle's eyes twitiching.
I actually laughed out loud for a good minute on that ending line, which is something that's only happened a handful of times on this site.
Well done!
And soon after, Celestia instituted a Sun Tax. Or sold the movie rights to her story (the salacious version), or released a new line of "Princess' Finest" socks, or...
Expertly done, author!
This was such a wonderful treat, with interest. XD
HILARIOUS! A great short read.
MOAR!!!!
I like the idea of celestia using the sun to run a protection racket to gain money, then pardoning herself if her guards try anything.
Oh finance, you so crazy.
I'm surprised a bunch of ponies didn't start donating to their princess
haha, I love this!
though, it sorta scares me to venture into the real world now...
anyway, faved. Deservedly so.
Celestia should just declare,'I am the state!' and be done with it.
1150094
'Could you patent the sun?'--Jonas Salk
That's not so much a "Slice of Life" as it is a "Comedy".
I mean sure, the staff at Studio B will probably introduce monetary issues into the show eventually, but...
...
I just contradicted myself.
Really, Celestia would have used a setup similar to the British royal family. Basically, the government gets all the revenue from the royally owned lands, the royal family gets a fixed annual salary. The government actually comes out ahead----