Dividend Yield

By Gatekeeper Giggle

• January 23, 2015

Age: 32

Gender: Male

Species: Earth Pony

Appearance: He has dark yellow, almost golden, fur; and a dark brown mane. He always wears a fancy, expensive suit wherever he goes, and usually has a tie to go with his suit. His fur and mane is always groomed to perfection, and his hooves are usually kept polished and free of grime. He keeps himself to the highest standards of cleanliness, and usually has just the faintest whiff of expensive cologne on.

Cutie Mark: Two interlocking arrows, one of them green and pointing up, and the other one red and pointing down.

Personality: Dividend is kind and polite to a fault to everyone around him, even to ponies he doesn't necessarily like. But when it comes to matters of business and survival, he is perfectly willing to lie, cheat, extort, and even steal to achieve his aims. He is never petty or vicious, but he can be greedy and stingy at times. He is overly ambitious, and is always trying to increase his massive fortune, but not to the point of foolishness. He is slightly narcissistic, but still manages to keep a realistic assessment of himself. When not dealing in matters of business, he can actually be rather nice, and even amicable.<br /><br />As a boss, he is harsh but fair to his employees. He pays even the lowliest workers in his company enough to live comfortably, and gives them ample benefits. However, he cannot stand laziness or incompetence, and at the slightest sign of either he will demote the offending employees to humiliating, demeaning jobs. He dislikes firing his workers, but will do so without regret should it become necessary.

Backstory: When he was very young, Dividend was sent to an orphanage by his real parents for reasons unknown to him. He knows very little about them at all, as he was too young to remember much of anything. His first memories are of his adoptive parents, who are a wealthy unicorn couple living in Canterlot. They had no interest at all in raising a foal, in fact the only reason they adopted him at all was to quell allegations of racism toward earth ponies. (The allegations were true, by the way) He was cared for for by a series of inept and lazy caretakers, as his adoptive parents were far too busy socializing with friends to pay any attention to him whatsoever. He grew to despise them all. He spent most of his early childhood in nearby Ponyville, where he often stayed with his friends, sometimes for weeks at a time. His friends greatly enjoyed his visits, as he would usually do all their chores for them. Back at home servants forbade him from doing even the simplest task, so he relished the opportunity to actually do something himself for a change. As he grew older, his adoptive parents decided to send him away to a private school. They had enough money for him to study practically anything he wanted, and so on a whim he choose to study business. He did exceptionally well, even graduating at the top of his class with full honors. As he received his diploma he also received his cutie mark, much to the astonishment of everyone at the ceremony. Soon afterwords, he invested most of his leftover collage money, and got enough of a return on his investments to start his very own business. Not wanting to be restricted to one market, he bought and sold anything and everything. He did rather well, but not well enough for his new found ambition. Now that he had a small taste of success, he wanted more. He begin using unfair business practices to drive other companies under, while at the same time expanding his own business. When it became apparent he wasn't going to stop until he had a complete monopoly, Celestia herself intervened, and helped his competitors to more effectively compete with him. This nipped his burgeoning monopoly in the bud, which infuriated Dividend. He began to see his competitors as lazy and incompetent, and believed them to have done nothing to have earned their money, much like his adoptive parents. He sees Celestia as corrupt and foolish, and has sworn to see her removed from power. He now uses his vast economic power to nefarious ends in an attempt to gain total control over the Equestrian economy...