Mistaken Charity and Malevolence

Chapter 1: From not-so-humble beginnings

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My hometown of Crüzer, New Collar is quite the living example of rolling green hills, extravagant mansions, beautiful weather, and wealthy aristocrats that roamed. for ages in this place. Numerous palm trees were littered across Crüzer in accompaniment with skies free of thunderheads. The laughter of rich ponies and their friends fluttered around. Most of the time, often by myself, I took trips to the marketplace on hoof with a hundred bits from my parents to spend. The marketplace was so cool! Stores for food, grooming, apparel, tools, and whatnot stood wall to wall in the marketplace. Albeit crowds swarmed here like a bees in a hive, I thoroughly enjoyed my time here especially at the convenience store Tinkertop. Only a few days ago I was there to look at the daily newspaper. Headline stated: "The six faces of harmony", some article about six mares abolishing an evil dude named Discord. Just reading the article made my eyes roll. What a load of jabberwocky, I've heard of better stories. The owner of Tinkertop begged to differ by going on to tell me if I lived in Ponyville I'd think different but my only response was: "If I lived in Ponyville I'd think I would go back here."

Even through the paradise of a place Crüzer is, there had to be something unusual from the get-go. I didn't notice anypony who had some lack of money to do things, namely leisurely things. I was born into a family of aristocrats who swam in pools of bits and owned the most luxurious pads anypony had laid their eyes on.

Suddenly I snapped out of my anecdote to the loud voices of my parents talking to each other. It was effective enough to drag me out of my bed and drowsily trot downstairs to see them. Mom already left for work to leave just me and my dad here.

As I fumbled down the stairs my dad Richard Powers (be it ironic that "rich" and "power" was even in his name) waved to me and softly spoke, "Ah! Dust, baby, good mornin'!" He is such a jolly stallion, with his mane white as ash and a chubby figure.

"Good morning, Daddy!" He happily came up to me and patted me gently on the shoulder. He smiled cheesily and said in a rustic sort of voice, "Hey, how does pancakes and fried hay strips sound for breakfast? Mm, delicious ain't it?" I nodded quick while we made our way through the big living room to the kitchen. It was a beautiful living room at that; a marble bust of my dad stood up on a fancy pedestal beside the grand fireplace. Up there a large portrait of our family  hung on the wall: just me, my mom, and my dad. Other than those the rest of the decorations included a crystal chandelier, a white arc shaped sofa with a gold lined table in the center, and plenty other elegant décor joining the clean white carpet and sleek tan-colored walls.

But before we cooked I took a seat on the sofa. I had a question on my mind I really wanted to ask my dad, so I asked, "Daddy?" He turned to face me, "How are we so rich?" He clicked his tongue then sat across from me on the sofa looking at me with his steely blue eyes.

"Well, Dusty uh," He looked up to try to remember. "the stock market's become far much better ever since New Collar moved out the economic recession. I remember that..." Dad just kept rambling for what seemed to be hours (but was actually just 20 minutes) about the economy and stocks and such.

Eventually he gave the point with: "Welp, low stocks = less money. More stocks = more money. We have more stocks. More money for us!" I was confused. Us? What about donating to help other ponies? I tapped my hooves together and wondered aloud, "But why don't we donate some money to the poor ponies?"

"Hahaha, Dusty baby, we don't donate! This is our money, we'll be the ones using it! Besides, those poor ponies got their drugs 'n' stuff, they'll just keep on using that and I'll just leave them to that." Dad scoffed and laughed heartily. Eventually he recollected himself and grunted out, "Urgh, now how's 'bout that breakfast. I'n starvin'. C'mon, let's fill our stomachs." I narrowed my eyebrows at his greedy remark but I only waved it off since the hunger was too strong.

Nothing remarkable else happened today. But I found myself wondering, after some heavy sessions of gaming in the dead of the night inside my room, why my dad was greedy keeping our family's money just to us. Was mom like this too? Can I try to donate? How much do drugs influence the poor? It was all an endless list of questions that needed answers as soon as possible. Maybe I'm wrong. I guess I'll see how that will turn out tomorrow when I ask mom if we can donate.

Thinking of all these questions wore me out along with the exhaustion of my intense gaming. I didn't bother to clean up. I just turned everything off and flopped onto the bed. My smooth dark gray mane lied on my face while I lie on the bed for a time. Soon enough the drowsiness set in, which prompted me to turn the light off and sink under the covers into sleep. Questions, questions, questions...