“Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine and fifty!” said Twilight Sparkle, dropping her bits into her saddlebag one by one. She had spent the morning counting them out one by one while she waited for her Big Brother Best Friend Forever Shining Armor to wake up, making sure that she had enough. She didn’t want to go to the book store and be left without enough money. That would be silly, and embarrassing. Especially in front of Cadence, who was looking after her today. Her parents were away, and it was just her and Shiny and Smarty Pants and Cadence.
“Oh, Smarty Pants, I can’t wait!” she exclaimed to the little doll, swinging it around, “I’ll have pur-, purch-, bought a book, all by myself! And Mom and Dad will see that I can totally have a bigger allowance so I can by more books.”
“Alright, alright,” grinned Shining Armor, as he trotted down the stairs, “Don’t get ahead of yourself, bookworm. We still have to wait for Cadence.”
Just as he said that, there was a knock at the door.
“We’ll get it!” cried Twilight, dragging Smarty Pants off in her magical grip, racing to the front door. A short moment later, Shining heard the inevitable chant of ‘Sunshine, Sunshine’ begin.
******
Twilight Sparkle skipped down the street, her saddlebag tight against her side. It had been a present from Mom and Dad, as an early birthday present, because Twilight’s birthday would happen while they were away. Twilight had been wearing it whenever she had to go out, as it was embroidered with her brand-new cutie mark.
Unheeding of both Cadence’s and Shining’s calls for her to stay close, Twilight Sparkle skipped on, having memorized the path to the bookstore. A left, then two rights, and another left, and halfway down the street, there it was. Twilight’s third most favourite place in all of Canterlot-Canterlot Books.
The bell tinkled as she pushed the door open, and began walking the stacks of books. There had to be every book in the world here, there were so many. The only time that Twilight had seen more was when Princess Celestia had taken Twilight on a tour of the castle’s library.
But Twilight didn’t know if that library had the book she wanted-the book store did. She knew this because she had been coming here every day for the last ten days, looking at it, and the fifty-bit price tag. She had been carefully saving her money, waiting for the day that she could finally pick up the book, take it to the counter, and with her own money, pay for it.
The bell tingled twice more, as she heard Shining Armor and Cadence enter the store, but Twilight was only after her book. She rounded the last corner to where she knew it would be, looked up at the third shelf and...
It wasn’t there.
Her book wasn’t there. Twilight thought about crying, but she couldn’t, because she was a big girl, as her parents told her, and she wanted to be mature about this, and she was going to be Princess Celestia’s personal student, and she didn’t think that Princess Celestia would want a pony who cried over everything. So instead, she trotted up to the salespony.
“Excuse me,” said Twilight, in her best grown-up, mature voice, “but do you have any more copies of ‘The Schools of Magic’? I would like to purc- buy one, please.” Twilight levitated her fifty hard-saved bits up to the salespony.
“Hang on, little one. Let me check out back,” said the sales pony. He returned a few moments later.
“Sorry, kiddo,” he said, “all sold out. Sold the last one yesterday. I’ll have some more in next week.”
“But-it was supposed to be my book,” murmured Twilight, sitting down.
“And I’m real sorry to tell you this, but you don’t have enough money. The book costs fifty-five bits. You only had fifty.”
“My book,” whimpered Twilight, tears beginning to leak from her eyes. She wouldn’t cry. Not in public. She was going to be mature about this-she was going to be Princess Celestia’s personal student. She didn’t notice when Shining Armor’s magic eveloped her, lifted her onto his back, and they began the trek home. All she could think about was her book. It was going to be a present for herself, a real sign that she was more responsible. She had to get the book today, because tomorrow was her birthday, and the book store was closed.
****Time****
The next day, Twilight was woken up by Shining Armor shaking her.
“Happy Birthday, Twilight!” sang Cadence and Shining, as Cadence bore a cake at the end of Twilight’s bed. Twilight glared at the cake. She rolled over, and pulled the covers up over her head.
“G’way,” grumbled Twilight. Shining Armor sighed, and levitated a wrapped package up.
“Don’t you want your presents?” asked Shining. Twilight poked her head out of her blanket cocoon, and reached out with her magic to grab Shining’s present. Carefully, and maintaining what she thought was a proper grumpy-face, she pulled the wrapping paper off, to find a book.
Pulling the paper down more revealed the name of the book: The Schools of Magic.
Twilight leapt out of bed, crashing into Shining Armor with a hug and a giggle, and all was right in her world.