Instant Regret
Rainbow Dash needed to raise money and she had the perfect plan. She brought a NFT of a red ape in a dress. Had she seen that dress design before? Nah, probably not. Now came the part to find a buyer and sell it for above its original price to make a profit, hopefully. The earnings would go toward helping Fluttershy build her ideal animal sanctuary. It was surely such a genius move and proof Rainbow could think big like Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer. Although not a competition, Rainbow was sure to really make her mark. She would indeed make a mark, just not in a way she expected.
Days passed and no higher sale deal came up. In fact, the value of Rainbow’s NFT was rapidly declining. What happened? Did she make a mistake? But surely no one else had to know about this. She just had to play it cool because this wasn’t a lost cause quite yet. The lucky break will come, it must! She just had to keep playing the long game, as much as that wasn’t her style.
She arrived in front of the horse statue at Canterlot High. Applejack was there first and waved at her rainbow hair friend. “Dash, somethin’ bothering ya’?”
“Err... I’m just nervous, is all. Not that I have any reason to be, considering I’m the Rainbow Dash and all, who only ever makes solid plans!”
“Come on Rainbow, what is it?”
“I can’t keep the truth from you, can I?”
“Nope.”
“I might have saved up a lot to buy ownership of an image.”
“You did what?”
“Take a look.” Rainbow pulled out her cellphone to show Applejack the NFT picture.
“Bag pardon? What in tarnation is this? No offense sugercube, but this is what you paid for? A tacky red ape in a dress with clashing art styles?”
“Yeah, an NFT.”
“Oh, now that makes a lot more sense.” Then suddenly, Pinkie Pie jumped out of the bushes next to the other two.
“Hi ya Dashie and Applejack! Oww... what’s that? A red ape in a dress? It’s almost funny how out of place the two are.”
“Rainbow brought this.” Applejack clarified.
“You what?”
“It’s okay girls, I just need to find the right seller and I’ll make a profit off of this.”
“Do you even know what a NFT is?” Applejack questioned.
“A non fudgable treat?” Pinkie asked?
“I dunno.” Rainbow stated. Twilight Sparkle arrived seconds later.
“Hi girls, what’s going on?”
“I’m talking to Rainbow about a NFT she brought.” Applejack answered.
“A non-fungible token.” Twilight informed.
“Non-fudgeable token?” Pinked asked.
“It means I own this picture.” Rainbow smiled.
“Are you sure about that?” Pinkie asked. “I’ll open the URL on my phone and save the image. I have a copy now!”
“Rainbow, you didn’t buy ownership of this art.” Twilight began explaining, “You only brought a receipt in the blockchain to say you have it.”
“Blockchain? I didn’t know what it was, but it sounded cool and fancy.” Rainbow replied.
“Blocking chains?” Pinkie asked. Twilight adjusted her glasses.
“It’s a system to make sure each NFT owned contains a unique signature. It makes no regards to ownership of the image or other forms NFTs might come in.”
“But, I can still sell this for profit, right?” Rainbow started to sweat.
“It’s not looking like it. Based on the original price, the value tanked in a matter of days.”
“But that makes no sense. The buyer said it was popular when I brought it. It even had a few sales already before it came to me.”
“That may have been insider trading.”
“What’s that?” Rainbow questioned.
“Usually selling and buying between one person, pretending to be two or more people to artificially raise the value of something.”
There was a noticeable scream for a moment, coming from Rarity’s arrival.
“Is that red ape wearing one of my dress designs?! And being sold for actual money? I did not approve my designs to be sold like this! My images are for promotional purposes on my website showing what my clothes will look like before you buy them. And to pair my design with such an awful looking cartoon! This is the worst possible thing! Who made this NFT? I’ll destroy them!”
“Wait, are you telling me I got scammed?” Rainbow asked, her hands shaking.
“I’m afraid so sugarcube.” Applejack confirmed. Fluttershy then arrived.
“I heard some of what was said. How bad are NFTs?” Fluttershy wondered.
“They’re really harmful to the environment,” Twilight responded, “They emit lots of energy to mint an NFT. Content theft is rapid among NFTs, just like whoever made these apes put on designs from plainly different images, like Rarity’s clothing line. And they don’t even protect the artwork.”
“So, I’ve been played for a fool?” Rainbow questioned. The others nodded. “Look, I’m really sorry about this. I didn’t research it much. I saw a way for me to get a lot of money to help out Fluttershy. The rest of you raised money to help and I blew it by trying to make even more money.” There was a moment of silence. “Well, what now? Can I get my money back?”
“Unfortunate, we can’t do much,” Twilight informed. “It’s such an unknown legal area between countries, we can’t force the law to return the money.”
“This red ape is an attack on the eyes!” Rarity complained, “It looks to be randomly generated by a computer.”
“That’s because it was Rarity. It’s how they can claim they’re all unique. That’s why they look so terrible, they have to be generic enough so other pieces for the ape can fit without looking too out of place.”
“Look on the bright side Dashie. You won’t make this mistake again.” Pinkie assured.
“The students at Crystal Prep are probably making it rich through NFTs.” Rainbow commented.
“After they reformed, I don’t think they would intentionally buy NFTs knowing they harm the environment, would they?” Fluttershy wondered.
“If they’re even aware. Ah might have an idea who’s been profitin’ from these,” Applejack noted. “But ah don’t have any proof yet.”
“Let’s try puddling, that’s where the proof is.” Pinkie added.
“That’s just a figure of speech sugarcube. There must be a website with an about page and contact information.”
“I’ll go look,” Twilight volunteered. “Strange, I can’t really find anything, at least at first glance. Whoever set this up has really gone out of their way to stay under the radar.”
“So, that’s that?” Rainbow asked frustrated. “Whoever did this is getting away with it so others can also get duped?”
“Actually, I might know a way.” Twilight called up Sunset Shimmer and explained the situation.
“I know this is morally questionable and I thought I would never do it again after I stopped being such a bad girl,” Sunset clarified, “But I’ll hack to find the address and owners of this website. What’s that look Twilight? Right, you haven’t known me when I was a bad girl. Hacking helped me to keep tabs on and control students better, but that’s all behind me. I won’t leak this information to publicly dox whoever’s address I find. You did call me for help after all.”
A couple of hours later, Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack arrived at a shop in town named Everything-U-Ever-Need. Applejack knocked on the door and moments later, two men answered.
“Ah should’ve known, you two! Flim and Flam!”
“What’s the problem Applejack?” Flim asked innocently.
“First off, what happened to The Flim Flam Brothers' Everything-Under-The-Sun Emporium?”
“Image issues,” Flam answered. “Word of mouth ruined that business, so we simply rebranded, and the sales returned.”
“Amazing what people will pay for if they think its unique,” Flim added.
“It’s quite an effective business model.”
“I think someone is just jealous we’re making bank with honest work.”
“Ah am not!” Applejack proclaimed.
“You sold me an NFT!” Rainbow snapped.
“Those things?” Flam asked, “We simply couldn’t turn a blind eye to the massive profits you can make with cryptocurrency. It’s just the latest craze and well, someone has to be on top.”
“Not our fault most buyers will remain at the bottom of the pyramid. You don’t get to the top without breaking a few, some... a lot of eggs.”
“I want a refund!” Rainbow demanded.
“You see, that’s not how this works.” Flim revealed, “You should be glad you own a one-of-a-kind image. Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Not even a little bit and you know it!” Rainbow criticized.
“Everyone is a critic. You played and lost the game,” Flam beamed, “Too bad, so sad. You can always try again or cut your losses.”
“We’re running a perfectly legal business here.”
“With stolen artwork from me!” Rarity reminded, “I never would have approved of such a thing.”
“But you see, you already did,” Flam insisted, “With or without your permission.”
“I’ll make this simple,” Twilight offered, “Return all the profits you made from NFTs and cease making more, or I’ll make sure your reputations are broken beyond repair.”
“Why should we fear a high school student like you?” Flim mocked.
“Because we found out you’re behind this scheme already. What else do you think we’re capable of?”
“Well, we do know Applejack has been a thorn in our operations,” Flam answered, “And we’ll hate to continue to have her as an enemy.”
“The jig is up!” Applejack claimed.
“Fine, we’ll stop what we’re doing, for this operation anyway.” Flim mentioned.
“Come on brother, we still have a shop to run.”
“But this process will take time, we can’t give everyone’s money back right away.”
“Just see to it you’re making progress,” Applejack prompted. The four Rainbooms walked away.
“Were you bluffing Twilight?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah. I’m not Princess Twilight and even if she was here, she can’t use her magic. My actual plan would be to get the higher ups at Canterlot High involved if the brothers kept this up.”
Later that night, the Rainbooms were hanging out at Pinkie’s house.
“What have we learned Rainbow?” Rarity asked.
“Don’t rush into a really expansive purchasing decision?”
“Good answer darling.”
“So, maybe I can offer to have my voice sold for a program. This would allow anyone to type up words to have my awesome voice say them. No way it could be abused, right?”