Words of Advice from the many worlds of Twilight

by Joe Toon

2: His name is Dusk Shine

Author's Note:

You know who this is, you know what is coming. And no, they will have no romance between them!

"So, are we going there again?"

"Yes Spike. According to the manual, the cooldown usage is only once a day. I am not passing this opportunity to see another version of myself. F-for advice of course."

"Then why not just go back and see old unicorn Twilight? She's got all the wisdom in the world, erm, in a matter of speaking."

"Well yes, she might just be the wisest version of myself but I can't just keep going back to her for advice. She could be busy giving others advice for all we know! Besides, she did give us other recommendations. Two in fact."

"(Sigh) Well I suppose if you're sure about it. Let's get this over with."

Twilight set the coordinates to the Seal: World Equis 63. And the familiar flash of light appeared.

The familiar landscape of the lone tree, grassland and river lay before them as the walked towards the only landmark.

"You know Twilight, I could never get used to seeing how beautiful this place is."

"I know, right? Although it does say in the manual that we could change the theme, but I can't figure out why anypony would want to change this view?"

While still a distance away from their destination, a teleportation spell activated next to the tree and from a purple light popped two individuals. A dragon and an Alicorn.

"That must be... wait, is that a dragon with her?"

"Oh cool! Maybe I'll get to see what I'm like in another reality!"

---

"Um, Dusk. Where are we? I am freaking out right now."

"N-no need to panic Barb. We just need to calm down and rationalise what just happened."

"Speaking of which, WHAT DID HAPPEN?"

"I don't know, okay!"

Just then, Twilight and Spike teleported in front of them, "Oh hi, you must be..."

The two were astonished to see their would-be counterparts were not what they were expecting. Likewise with the other party.

"Are you a s-stallion?"

"So what if I am a Stallion? In fact who are you suppose to be? Changelings who got our genders wrong? And on that matter, where are we?"

"Okay, that's enough!" Spike shouted in protest before lowering his voice, "You are both confused as to what is happening so let me explain. Yes, we summoned. No, we are not changeling. And we are all inside a pocket universe to have a little chat."

"Are you supposed to be me?" the female dragon spoke out, "because that was pretty cool how eloquent you are."

"Why thank you. I'm Spike by the way." he raised a claw.

"Barb. Name's Barb." she shook his claw.

"I believe our introductions are in order," the alicorn mare sheepishly smiled, "Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and ruler of Equestria.

"Wait, you're the ruler of Equestria? Well that's just great! I'm Dusk Shine. Prince of Friendship and soon to be ruler of Equestria. Maybe you can help me?"

"You mean, you haven't been coronated yet?"

"Nope," Barb began explaining, "Prince Solaris just told everypony yesterday. Apparently, he announced that him and his brother Prince Lunarius are retiring and are giving the throne to Dusk..."

"WITHIN THE WEEK! I. AM. NOT. READY! FOR THIS! AT ALL!" The Alicorn Stallion interjected with a scream then groaned as he was reminded of the situation he was before, "Night Terror Moon I can handle, Queen Ombra wasn't too hard..."

"Courtesy to me," Barb smugged.

"...Tirena may have been a challenge, Imago and the changelings were dealt by Sunburst, Soft Flash was easy when we found out he was draining magic, who else was I missing?"

"Storm Queen, Mare of Shadows, Eris when she was evil, Sunburst when he was evil, Moonlit Sky when he stole the element of magic, Trickster when he was influenced by the alicorn amulet, you (pointing at Twilight) from another dimension, does Clip and Art count?" Barb listed.

"Even compared to any one of them, I had an easier time processing a plan on what to do!"

Spike and Twilight looked at each other and smiled fondly and laughed. This was all too familiar.

Dusk could not believe his ears, "Y-you're laughing. Are you laughing at my predicament?"

"N-no, I didn't mean to. I-it's just that you sounded exactly like I did before I was coronated." Twilight took a breath from her laughter, "Maybe this was why she sent me here, to give you advice."

"Wait, who?"

"Oh, the old unicorn mare version of ourselves called the Sparkle of Wisdom."

"OH! So you met her! To be honest, we met by accident during the world-line spell that Sunburst cast on the Mega-Sign map. She was really nice to us."

Twilight stepped forward and hugged their counterparts, "You'll be fine, I promise you. Take it from a version of yourself, You've got this." She gave a small chuckle, broke the embrace and continued, "To be honest, I actually summoned you here for advice; I didn't expect to be the one giving advice."

"Wow, that is funny." Dusk smiled sheepishly, "I suppose I could try to give some. What seems to be the problem?"

"Oh, just tips on how to run the kingdom, but you probably aren't up for that considering..."

"Oh, that's easy; just ensure taxes aren't too high, government spending must be as low as possible, prioritise on national defense and basic learning, encourage the private sector but ensure they follow regulation, strengthen diplomatic ties to all our allies, extend diplomatic connections and widen the roster for diplomats and ambassadors, and focus development on magical technology."

Twilight's jaw almost hit the ground as Spike shut it close for her, "I thought you said you were not ready for the throne, yet you seem to already know what to do."

"Just because I know what to do doesn't mean I can implement them effectively. Prince Solaris knows how to talk his way through the nobility of Canterlot to get what is necessary done. I on the other hoof, have an easier time negotiating with the Yaks than the Canterlot elites."

Snapping out of his earlier statement, Twilight suggested, "Have you tried taking lessons from the Dragon Lord?"

"Dragon Lord?"

"Wait, do you mean the Dragon Master?" Barb asked, "Why would he want lessons from the Dragons when all they ever do is meditate and pray to the spirits of the land? They're just a race of monks, not leaders."

Spike and Twilight eyed each other, bewildered by such contrast to their Dragons. "Well, that is different. I guess some of our races are more different than I thought."

The familiar beeping sounded, signalling the near end of the session. "Oh dear, did we already reach our time limit? That certainly felt quicker than I thought."

"You're leaving already?" Dusk gave a worrying look, "But there is so much more I could..."

"Don't worry about a thing," Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder, "No matter what happens, no matter how impossible things may seem; always stick with your friends to the end. The Magic of Friendship has never failed me before, it will not fail you."

Dusk and Barb's smiling faces were the last things they saw before the blinding flash returned them home. "Thank you, Twilight."

Comments

[Rated Ponystar]

I am interested.

[Joe Toon]

10819554
Coming from you, I am honored.

[Blackwatch9]

10818914
That’s okay I’d rather not have to deal with inter dimensional lore and that.

[Comickook]

Love this spin on Main Twilight's meeting with Dusk Shine. Yeah. Absolutely loved them actually giving each other advice (Twilight reassuring Dusk, Dusk giving Twilight helpful pointers on running Equestria). Indeed, I liked him admitting to knowing about the practical, common sense details, but not being experienced enough with politics to implement them - though, thinking about it, putting up with those type of politics for over a thousand years would probably be a good reason for Celestia AND Solaris to wish to retire once they thought their intended successors were ready, even if not a good reason to NOT do more to prepare them beforehand. I also liked the subtle details in the universe beyond the gender-flips (such as the differences in dragon culture) - which makes me think that, in this version of Equis 63, it might be the counterpart to the real Grogar rather than Eris in disguise (which would be quite welcome; frankly that was one of the few problems I had with the finale as it seemed like the writers kind of dropped the ball on that one).

But, anyway, certainly looking forward to more of this.

[Walabio]

¿Where is the Social SafetyNet? You mentioned taxes, but not how to tax:

The fairest tax is a Polltax:

Imagine if all Equestrians paid a myriad (10,000) bits annually. That is fair. Sapients earning 10,000 bits pay all 10,000 bits, and ponies earning a myriad squared (100,000,000) pay .01% of their income. ¡It is superduper fair! Let us suppose, that a pony earns only, 5,000 bits annually, we just take those 5,000 bits and forgive the remaining 5,000 bits. ¡A polltax is the way to go!

Maybe a graduated incometax where the proportion of income taxed increases with income, but the after-tax income always increases, with increasing income, as an incentive to work would be better:

Let us define a myriad (10,000) bits as a TaxUnit. The after-tax income is equal to the square-root of TaxUnits. If a sapient earns 1 TaxUnit, the after-tax income is a myriad bits. If a sapient earns 4 TaxUnits, the after-tax income is 2 myriad bits. If a sapient ears TaxtUnit/4, the after-tax incom is half a myriad bits. In mine humble opinion, I believe that this is better than a polltax.

Salestax versus Value-Added Taxes:

We figured out in the 18th Century that taxing exports makes them too expensive for foreign markets. In the Constitution of the United States of America, it forbids taxing exports. The thing is that exports have sales tax baked into them:

The mining company sells IronOre to a SteelMill. The SteelMill sells to CarFactory. The CarCompany exports the cars. The Government does not collect tax on the exports, but the cars have tax baked into them from the sale of ore and the sale of steel. This makes our exports more expensive, thus less competitive.

VATs are collected only once at sale to the final consumer, instead of along the whole supplychain. If a product it exported, it is tax-free, thus making it more competitive.

To consumers VATS look worse, but are better:

Salestaxes are, generally, between 5%-10%. VATs are, generally, between 10%-20%. This looks worse, but products have much salestax baked into them. The final cost of a widgets to consumer including salestaxt might be 100.00 U$D under salestax; but only however, including VAT, only 90.00 U$D. Basically, despite doubling the tax because we can only tax it once, because we only tax it once, the total tax paid is lower.

[Joe Toon]

11139285
I am not going into detail about a fantasy world's tax system or how the Equestrian Government spends them (For this fic anyway).

Still thank you for this (rather) informative information. I might have some use for it in another of my fics.

[Walabio]

11139653

You are welcome.

The mother-country England had tariffs on imports and exports and wondered why people in other nations do not buy English Goods. That is why 09:05 (Section # 09 Paragraph # 05) sayes:

> "No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State."

Just as 09:05 is is a smarter way to do Tariffs, a VAT is a smarter way to do salestax because it removes baked in salestaxes like the tax from the mining company to the steelmill and the salestax from the steelmill to the carcompany from getting baked into the price of exported cars. Only collect the VAT on domestic consumers —— ¡not all along the supplychain. Unfortunately, Americans have become stuck in their ways, despite American innovations like 09:05 and decimal money.