~*~*~*~*~
Spike woke with the sun rise, as he had every morning since he could remember.
The purple and green scaled baby dragon always liked to get a head start on the day, and was fortunate enough to always get a room facing a window; whether it was Twilight Velvet and Night Light's moderate Canterlot House, Twilight Sparkle's Canterlot Library, The Golden Oaks Library, or the Castle of Friendship, in which he now resided.
His current room, he had to admit, was his favorite, if only because it was his and his alone. The drake would always have to share one with Twilight in the past, either because he was too young or there weren't enough rooms for the both of them.
Though he would never admit it, Spike actually missed sleeping in the same room as Twilight the first few days she had given him this room, but that quickly gave way to the excitement of having a private space to call his own. And boy, what a space it was. The walls and floor were crystalline, and a large bed dominated the room. The base was made of crystal, growing out of the floor itself, then a mattress rested on that, and then his blanket and pillows.
Other than the bed, he didn't have many decorations in his room. There was, of course, the bookcase where he kept his comic books and favorite books. Other than that, a dresser held his tuxedo, among other bits and pieces that Rarity made for him over the years. And finally, the basket he had slept in when he bunked with Twilight was sitting in the corner, unused and forgotten.
Stretching, the young drake hopped out of bed, making sure to make it neatly before leaving his room.
Whistling, Spike walked down hallways and rounded corners until he found himself entering the rather large kitchen. The Palace of Friendship wasn't one-tenth the size of Canterlot's Royal Castle, but it was still rather immense, definitely earning the title of castle. Or maybe it was simply like a large Mansion. Spike wasn't absolutely certain on the semantics of building size.
What Spike was certain about, was that breakfast was going to be good. Putting on his Kiss the Cook apron, He quickly set about gathering all the ingredients he needed. A buttered pan soon rested on the stove as he poured Pancake mix in. They began sizzling.
The young drake then brought out two cups after climbing on top of the refrigerator and opened a cabinet high above the countertop, before hopping down and landing on his draconian feet. He briefly contemplated a third before he remembered that Starlight was visiting Sunburst in the Crystal Empire today.
Regardless, The fall made him lose his balance for a moment, but he quickly stabilized himself before setting the cups at the table along with orange juice from the fridge.
He was just in the middle of pulling out a basket of apples that Applejack had given them when Spike heard a soft yawn. He looked towards the doorway closest to the bedrooms as Princess Twilight Sparkle, Bearer of the Element of Magic, trotted into the kitchen; she was sniffing at the air.
"Wow, Spike! That smells really good." Twilight said as she sat at the table. She was carrying a mane brush in her magic, straightening her near midnight blue hair, the pink violet stripes sticking out near her horn. The alicorn's lavender coat almost seemed to shine from the interior lighting, and her wings looked recently preened.
Spike flipped the pancakes onto two plates, gathered silverware and syrup, and brought it all to the table, placing one plate in front of Twilight before sitting down before his own.
"Of course it's good. I made it!" He grinned, pulling off his apron before digging in.
Twilight rolled her eyes good-naturedly, a smirk on her face.
"Cool the ego, Rainbow Dash," This prompted Spike to giggle.
The two ate in companionable silence, the only sounds being the scraping of forks on plates and clinking from glasses, and also the soft hum of magic coming from Twilight's Horn as she manipulated the utensils, considering the lack of hands. Finally, Spike broke the silence.
"What are you gonna do today, Twilight?" The drake stood to go put his plate in the sink, before noticing that Twilight had finished and took hers as well. He took them over to the sink.
Twilight thought for a moment, walking over to the sink as well.
"I'm not sure. I don't really have anything planned for today. I ordered a new book yesterday so I think I might just wait for that to show up."
Spike washed his hands before grabbing a sponge. Suddenly he gasped when Twilight finished her sentence. He suddenly remembered. The newest edition of power ponies came out today, and he had to get his hands on it. He turned to Twilight who was looking at him rather expectantly after the gasp, before levitating the sponge out of his hand giggling.
"I'll go ahead and do the dishes. Why don't you tell me what you're so excited about?"
Spike opened his mouth, about to ask Twilight for some money so he could buy a copy of the comic from the book store in town, but stopped and furrowed his brow. Why couldn't he buy it instead of asking his guardian for money? He was sure that Twilight would be more than happy to give him a few bits to buy his comic, but at the same time, something stopped him.
Why did he have to ask to have things bought for him? The purple lizard frowned as he realized that he wanted to purchase the comic book himself. If Twilight just gave him money for things he wanted to buy, that only felt like he was spending HER money.
Spike realized that he wanted to feel like he earned that money, and there were definitely other things than comic books that he wanted to buy once in awhile without asking Twilight. He looked up at her and finally asked:
"Can I have an allowance?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow at her scaly assistant, scrubbing away at the plate in her magic. "An allowance? I'm not saying no, but why this all of a sudden?"
Spike leaned up on his toes, gripping the counter ledge in his claws. "Well, y'know, The new Power Ponies comic came out today, and I was originally just gonna ask you if I could have money for that, but then I realized that sometimes there was other things I wanted too and I do so many chores around here - Not that I mind - And I think I deserve one for working so hard for so long!" He took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't want to feel like I'm just spending your money."
Such a large amount of words in a single breath. He could give Pinkie a run for her money at this rate!
Twilight giggled at her assistant's antics, before mulling it over. It's true, Spike had been doing chores for her since Canterlot, and they've increased somewhat with their bigger home. Dusting, Reshelving, Dishes, Garbage, Scrubbing…
Of course, she split the load with him, working on these chores herself sometimes, but Twilight knew the split wasn't a perfect 50/50. She decided that he definitely deserved what he was asking for.
"Alright," Twilight said before setting down the clean plate and picking up another. "I agree. You've been working very hard lately, and should receive a monthly stipend to spend on whatever your heart desires." She finished the second plate and decided to do the silverware later, turning to Spike and looking him seriously in the eyes.
"I hope you'll be smart with the money, though, Spike. You know how to save and not be frivolous. I mean, of course be frivolous to an extent, it's yours to spend for your comfort, but make sure you're sure about what you're buying. Realize the importance of saving."
Spike nodded eagerly grinning, before his face was serious and he saluted. "Yes, ma'am! I know how to manage money!"
Twilight giggled. "At ease soldier," she stopped and tapped her hoof to her chin for a moment.
"I'm not sure what to give you. I've never had to dole out an allowance before."
Spike got a devious look on his face as he nonchalantly leaned back against the fridge. "I've heard 100 bits a week is the norm."
Twilight deadpanned, before chuckling and shaking her head. "That's nearly one tenth of our monthly royal stipend. You know what? I think I will go out today, Spike. I'm going to go ask our friends for their opinions. Would you stay here and watch for my package?"
Spike wilted a little, really wanting to go get the comic today, but perked up again and nodded. He could wait a little longer, especially if Twilight asked him to. Especially especially if it would get him his own money. "Will do!"
The lavender mare smiled warmly and hugged Spike before walking through the opposite kitchen doorway into the room where the six friendship thrones sat. Spike followed as she walked to the door and out, waving back as Spike waved her off.
~*~*~*~*~
"Applebloom's Allowance?" the orange earth pony huffed, wiping sweat off of her forehead before speaking in her customary southern drawl. "Now why do you wanna know somethin' like that?"
Twilight watched as Applejack walked over to buck the next closest tree. The lavender alicorn helped while they talked, picking hordes of apples off trees with her magic while putting those that didn't fall into baskets in their proper places.
"Well, Spike was asking if he could have one, and I agreed. He's been working harder than ever to keep the castle clean and tidy," Twilight spotted a stray fallen apple and put it in one of the tens of buckets applejack kept around for harvesting. "And frankly, now that I think about it, I feel bad about not paying him sooner. He does more than the fair share of chores around on top of being my assistant."
Applejack nodded and gave a grin, taking a break under the shade of the apple tree she had just bucked.
"Ah reckon that's a good idea. Hard work should always be rewarded. Applebloom works hard on the chores ah gives 'er. 's why ah pay her 20 bits a month. Ah think that's more than fair for an honest month's work."
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"Twenty bits a month? I'm not sure if that's a lot or not," she shook her head. "I'll need a larger sample pool. What does she spend it on if I might ask?"
Applejack shrugged and started piling baskets filled with apples into a nearby cart. "Don't rightly know. Whatever she wants, I don't pry. Though ah made sure she knows how important money is. Ah think she's savin' it for somethin' big," she smiled proudly. "Make sure Spike knows the value of money, Twah'. A Bit goes a long way."
Twilight nodded, helping Applejack load the last of the baskets into the cart. "I will. Thanks for the talk, Applejack. I should go find Rarity and see what her parents do for Sweetie Belle."
Applejack nodded right back in acknowledgement, hooking herself to the cart. "Right. See you later, Twah'. Good luck!"
The magical mare waved with a big smile before turning and trotting back to Ponyville proper.
There was a boutique she had to visit.
~*~*~*~*~
The walk to Carousel Boutique was a rather uneventful one, save when Cheerilee wove hello.
Twilight stood before the door and knocked.
A pitter patter of hooves came to the door which then opened, revealing a white unicorn with green eyes, and a two tone pink and purple mane. "Oh, hi Twilight!"
The alicorn in question smiled. "Hi Sweetie Belle. Is your sister home?"
Sweetie Belle nodded, opening the door wider and trotting inside. Twilight followed her in.
"You know, you don't have to knock when it's business hours," the filly had gone back to coloring in a coloring book with a marker. The colors were well chosen, and not one strayed outside the lines. Not a surprise given that Sweetie Belle wasn't that young. She and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders were around the age of 10, almost on the cusp of young adulthood themselves. "Rarity's in her room."
Twilight laughed sheepishly, before trotting for the stairs. "Thanks, Sweetie. I'll keep that in mind."
Twilight went up the stairs and paused at Rarity's room. She knocked on the door and opened it, sticking her head in. "Hello?" She smiled when she saw the mare she was looking for in front of an active sewing machine. Once she heard the voice, the mare turned around.
"Twilight darling!" Rarity exclaimed with glee.
She turned off the sewing machine and motioned her in. Rarity's pure white coat was pretty, her pristine pony hooves looked polished and pulled an air of purity, almost as perfect as her dark purple mane.. Her look turned to an apologetic one.
"I would have came as soon as I heard the bell on the door ring, but I was a little focused on finishing this dress. I told Sweetie Belle to be a dear and fetch me should a customer show. Anyway, what can I do for you?"
The lavender mare stuck out a hoof. "No, it's fine. I came to talk about Sweetie Belle actually."Oh dear, that just makes it sound like Sweetie did something wrong."Or rather, Spike." Ditto. "Or, actually, money." And that's not polite!"I mean-"
Rarity chuckled, placing a hoof on her tongue-tied friend's shoulder.
"Take a moment and process what you want to say, dear. Now, what do Sweetie Belle, Spike, and Money have to do with what you want to speak about?"
Suddenly, fear gripped Rarity, and she gave a nervous gulp, pupils pin-pricking.
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders didn't rope Spike into another cutie mark attempt, did they?"
Twilight shook her head quickly, giggling.
"No. Not since Cutie Mark Crusader Gem Eaters. I think the painful process of fixing teeth and mouth cuts with magic taught them that they shouldn't emulate or drag Dragons into their adventures."
The mare continued. "No, I'm here because Spike said he wanted an allowance, and I'm willing to give it to him on a regular basis. The only problem is, I'm not sure what's acceptable for somepon-err, one of his age."
Rarity tapped her chin with a hoof. "My my, that is a dilemma. Have you asked Applejack? I think she has an allowance for Applebloom."
"She's actually the first pony I went to. I wanted to get a broader sample pool before giving Spike a number."
While she was speaking, Twilight had already brought out a bar graph, a pie chart, a line chart, various other mathematical tables, and a paper journal to do work in. Applebloom was graphed at 20 bits across the boards, and Twilight was writing into the notebook furiously.
Rarity looked at Twilight a little worriedly. She looked around at all the mathematical charts around her, and decided this needed to stop when she saw a protractor. "Um, Twilight darling, isn't all this a bit... unnecessary?"
The mare in question looked up from her notebook. "Data is always necessary," Twilight said with a glare.
Rarity nodded with a placating expression, and raised a hoof as a sign of peace.
"Of course. Well, I wish I could help, but as far as I know, neither I nor my parents pay my sister anything. Of course, Sweetie Belle helps with the laundry sometimes, and she's always wanted to help me out, but otherwise I do not think she is as adamant about chores as Applebloom or Spike. And, frankly, she doesn't seem interested in money or buying things at all."
Rarity chuckled. "She's much more interested in anything I own. You could try and buy her make-up and she'd rather spend all day at my vanity."
Twilight furrowed her brow and nodded, plotting a 0 on multiple graphs in marker while writing in her notebook. "Twenty for hard work and zero for little work. That's quite a noticeable gap. I should find another source at the least."
"Hmm..." Rarity hummed to herself." Ah! You could ask our young Scootaloo. I don't know her parents, but I know that I can usually see her scooting around this hour of the day from my window."
Twilight smiled and nodded, packing away the graphs, charts, and notes, which was actually rather quite the feat considering she didn't seem to have saddlebags. Before Rarity could question how in the world Twilight accomplished this Pinkie worthy feat, Twilight was already walking for the door. "Bye Rarity! I'll see you later!"
Rarity sighed and put on her red glasses. A smile adorned her face as she returned to her work. "Goodbye, dear." She said to nopony in particular.
~*~*~*~*~
Twilight exited the carousel shaped building thinking a singular thought to herself.
'If I was an orange pegasus pony, where would I be?'
Her thoughts were soon answered as an orange and purple blur sped past. "SCOOTALOO!"
Riding up a nearby ramp, the pony in question did a wicked cool scooter trick that was probably a lot cooler to see than to hear it described by a narrator's monologue. Executing a perfect landing, Scootaloo, skidded to a stop and turned, coming back the way she came towards Twilight.
"Hey Twilight! Watcha need?" The daredevil asked as she got close.
Twilight smiled, already getting prepared to pull her data out of the pocket dimension she made.
"Do your parents give you money as an allowance?"
Scootaloo glared suspiciously at Twilight for a moment, hanging over the handlebars on her scooter. "Isn't talking about finances impolite? What's this about?" She accused.
Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Oh, that's just something corporations make up to get their employees not to talk about money, so that they can pay two people different amounts for the same job. It's actually a pretty big problem in most industries among the large cities like Manehatten, and-"
The pegasus groaned and put her face to her handlebars, preparing herself for a half-hour lecture
.
~*~*~*~*~
"And that's why Equestria has more communist economic roots than capitalism."
The filly's eye twitched as evil words of bureaucracies and financial working filled her brain in no apparent order, sitting a few feet from her scooter. Eventually, she noticed that Twilight stopped talking and shook her head.
"Huh? Are you done?"
Twilight nodded her head. "Do you need me to go over anything again?"
Scootaloo's face filled with horror. "NO! Uh, I mean, that was really informative, but I think I got it. Uh, why did you need to know my allowance again?"
The unicorn gave a wicked grin as she pulled out the charts, graphs and tables from seemingly nowhere
.
"Spike needs an allowance! I need to know how much to give him. Applebloom gets 20 bits a month, whereas Sweetie Belle gets 0. As you can see, results have been highly inconclusive, as there's a major gap in between the two data points; I need at least one more variable before I'm satisfied with the results. Though maybe it's not enough..."
She hummed to herself. "Maybe I should get data from EVERY child in ponyville..."
Scootaloo's eye twitched and blocked out most of Twilight's math mumbo jumbo. What she DID take away however, is that this was all for Spike. Maybe she could help out a friend? Twilight had the money to spare, certainly.
She grinned mischievously before coughing and putting on a neutral face, primping her right hoof as she did so.
"Well, my parents give me 50 bits a month, and I don't work as hard as Spike..." She lied. (1) "I think he deserves 100 bits!"
Twilight's mouth gaped incredulously. 100 bits?!? That was enough to nearly buy out the market! Even 50 seemed rather extreme for a child from her very limited sample pool. And Applejack knew her finances! Spike was obviously joking when he said the same thing. She quickly gave Scootaloo a non-amused look.
"Scootaloo... Are you lying to me?"
Scootaloo tried to look Twilight in the eye and shake her head, she really did... But the look from the Princess of Friendship proved too much. Sighing, Scootaloo lowered her gaze and nodded, tears beginning to form in her eyes as her chin wobbled.
Twilight softened her glare and put a hoof around the filly's shoulders.
"Scootaloo, forget the money for a moment... Is everything alright?"
Scootaloo managed somehow to lower her head further, sniffling as tears escaped her eyes.
"I can’t just forget the money, that’s the problem. We're... We're p-poor. I don't ask for money 'cause they have a hard enough time paying bills as it is. I don't have much... But I do get about 5 bits a month by helping Mr. Couch Feather at Sofas and Quills sometimes. I’m s-saving it up for Scooter improvements..."
Twilight looked down at the young charge with sympathy. She quickly resolved to buy Scootaloo a few toys or books or something before plotting 5 bits onto the graphs, charts and tables.
"Thank you. I know how hard that must have been to share. I can see why you wouldn't want to. You don't want to look like a charity case, do you? Got that Rainbow pride." She shook her head with a giggle, wiping her own tear from her eye. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
Scootaloo quickly looked up with happiness on her face once again. She quickly hugged the princess enthusiastically.
"Thanks, Twilight..."
Twilight chuckled and patted Scootaloo on the back until the pegasus let go
.
"Now that that's over, how about I tell you the pros and cons of socialism? You see, it all comes down to..."
Scootaloo quickly got back on her scooter and buzzed away, screaming.
(1.) Lied about the bits, that is.