Spring and Spanner

by CodenameOne

4 - Bits Today for a Promise Tomorrow

Chapter Four

Bits Today for a Promise Tomorrow

Saturday had come, but as Spring Blossom quickly discovered when she woke up, it had brought rain with it. She listened to the pattering of the rain on her bedroom window for a few minutes before she rolled out of bed and onto her hooves. She rubbed her face and quickly made her bed.

With no hope of playing outside today Spring wondered what her and Spanner would end up doing. She pushed open her door and looked left towards the kitchen. There was no sign of Spanner, and she wondered if it'd be alright if she helped herself to breakfast. There was a refrigerator to the left as Spring entered the kitchen, placed at the end of a continuous countertop, and she trotted over to it.

Inside was a large glass bottle of milk, like Spring expected, but there were also a few cartons of orange juice, apple juice, and grape juice. They looked new, so Spring thought that Spanner had bought them for her. She happened to like all three, plus milk, so she hoped that Spanner would be happy with her for not being picky.

Slowly and carefully Spring pulled the bottle of milk out of the fridge and set it onto the counter. She reared up onto her hindlegs and pried at the steel fastener. It was tight, so Spring pried harder. She really had to squeeze hard, her hoof straining against it. Suddenly the fastener popped open, and the bottle tipped over. Spring's heart froze as it hit the countertop, but mercifully it didn't shatter. Frantically she picked the bottle back up and pushed it away. A sizable amount of milk had spilled onto the countertop, so Spring quickly grabbed a towel and wiped it all up.

The crisis resolved, Spring turned her attention back to the milk bottle. She wiped off the milk that had ended up on the bottle itself and looked around to see if she could reach a drinking glass. It looked like they were all up in cupboards, and Spring didn't trust her climbing abilities enough to get up there, so she figured it was time to see if Spanner was awake.

She dropped down onto all fours, turned toward the hall, and froze when she saw Spanner standing in the hall, watching her. She wasn't sure what to say, or what his reaction would be, or even if he had seen her spill the milk, so she decided not to say anything.

Spanner smiled and trotted forward. "Don't worry, Spring, you're not in trouble."

"I'm...not?" Spring asked hesitantly. She trusted Spanner, she knew he wasn't a liar, but if he had seen her spill the milk then why wasn't he upset?

"No. You made a mistake, and then you corrected it. Even I make mistakes, but so long as we do our best to make it right afterwards then there's nothing to be afraid of" Spanner said, using the towel that Spring had used to wipe up the countertop a bit more.

Spring nodded, still a little sheepish with herself. She watched as Spanner pulled down a small drinking glass, filled it, and gave it over to Spring. "Thank you, Spanner" she said, and Spanner nodded.

"You're welcome, Spring. You're up early; it's only seven in the morning."

"Yeah. I kinda woke up 'cuz of the rain. I guess we can't play outside today, huh?" she asked, already aware of the answer.

"Afraid not, but there are other things we can do together. Would you like to see my coin collection?" Spanner asked, and Spring paused mid-sip. Collecting bits was called saving money, wasn't it? Unless there was something special about these bits, but Spring couldn't imagine what. Bits were bits, weren't they?

"OK!" Spring said, and was about to trot off to Spanner's room when he stopped her. She looked up at him, and he nodded toward the milk glass in her hoof. She smiled sheepishly and put it back on the countertop, and followed Spanner to his room.

It was interesting how Spanner's room was set up. As she walked in, she took note of his bed pressed against the center of the wall to the left, a nightstand on one side. At the far end of the room was a long dresser that ran the whole length of the wall, the top of it level with Spring's eyes. At each end of the dresser were two big metal stands, each of them filled from top to bottom with coins. As she entered the room proper, Spring noticed a bookshelf to her right, lined end to end with books.

"The ones I have on display are just a small amount of what I have, but they're my favorites. Here, let me show you" Spanner said. He stopped by the nightstand next to his bed, and pulled out a little metal box. From inside it he brought out a bit, like all the ones Spring had seen, and gave it to her.

"This is the current, modern bit. The one that everypony knows about and uses every day. The obverse, or front, depicts Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, standing side by side in a V-shape, a combined sun and moon hanging above them. Along the rim of the obverse are rays, like a sun. On the reverse, or backside, is a winged horseshoe, a horn coming up between the shoe. Above the horseshoe are four symbols: a star, a butterfly, a sun, and a heart.* Do you know who those represent?" Spanner asked.

"Yeah! Princess Twilight, Princess Fluttershy, Princess Sunset, and Princess Cadence."

Spanner nodded. "The Equestrian bit didn't always look like this, though. It's undergone many redesigns in the thousand years the kingdom has existed" Spanner said, trotting past Spring and heading towards the coin displays. He gestured to the one on the right end of the dresser, and motioned for Spring to come closer. "Over the centuries, the design has changed, and certain elements have been removed, added back, changed, or used just once or twice."

Spring reared up on her hinds and looked at all the coins on the rack, her forelegs on the edge of the dresser. True to Spanner's word there were a whole bunch of different designs on each of the coins. He pulled one down and showed it to her. "This one is from before Nightmare Moon, the last year this particular design was minted. The obverse depicts Princess Celestia, her wings spread and horn lit. Rays of sunlight spread out from her horn, all the way to the end of the coin. The reverse depicts Princess Luna, her wings spread and horn lit as well. The rim of Luna's side of the coin is lined with stars, to symbolize her heavens."

"What does symbolize mean?"

"It means to show, Spring. After Nightmare Moon's rise and banishment, these coins were pulled from circulation and a new design minted. The obverse of that one depicts the sun, and the reverse, the moon. Most say that Celestia herself told the mint to introduce a bit with no ponies on it, but nopony knows for sure."

"The mint is who makes the coins, right?"

Spanner nodded. "Yes, that's right. The royal mint is responsible for managing the production and circulation of gold bits in Equestria. Bits are made by feeding a large sheet of gold of the correct thickness into a blanking machine, which punches blank discs out from the sheet. The blank coins are then fed through a stamping machine that has the designs on it. The machine strikes the round, and the design is imprinted on the round. This happens twice for each round, once for the obverse and once for the reverse. The edges are scored to give them a ridged texture, and the coin is finished."

"Wow. Are coins always made of gold?" Spring asked, and Spanner smiled.

"Good question. Not always, no. When gold can't be used, or can't be found, then silver can be used" Spanner said. He pulled a silver coin down from the rack, and gave it to Spring. The design was kind of funny, Spring thought. The obverse had Celestia and Luna on it, facing each other, but Luna was upside down, so they were both looking at each other's necks. The reverse had Canterlot on it, and the words 'magia, vento, tarrae' around the edge of the coin. "Silver isn't as valuable as gold, so more silver coins are needed to pay for something that would only require a few gold coins."

"This is so cool!" Spanner said. She had thought that bits had always been the same, and had always been made of gold. Now she couldn't wait to see Patchouli on Monday and tell him all about what she learned.

"I'm glad you like it. There's more I have, squirreled away in a safe under my bed, but the things in there are more valuable. Silver bars and bullion coins and the like. These coins here on display are just personally appealing" Spanner said with a smile. He took the two old bits back from Spring, but paused as she prepared to give the third one back. "That's the modern bit, right? The one with the winged horseshoe on the back?"

Spring nodded.

"Keep it. You could keep it as a good luck charm, or use it to buy something at school if you want."

Spring smiled. "Thank you, Spanner!' she said, and looked the coin over. It was a really pretty design, and she liked it. She wondered if Spanner would give her more in the future, if he adopted her.

"Well, that's about all I had to say on the coin collection. I might have a board game around here we could play, if you'd like" Spanner said, and Spring nodded. "Alright. Go put your bit away, and I'll go see what I can dig up."

"OK, Spanner!" Spring said, and took off for her room. She put the bit on her desk and was about to run back out when Spanner trotted by, heading for the living room. She followed him out and watched him head for an end table by his couch. He pulled open a drawer, and out came a box depicting a game that Spring hadn't seen before.

"What's that?"

Spanner set the box down on the short table in front of the couch and pulled the lid up. "This is Assemble Five. There's a metal stand with 25 holes in it, and slots at the top and bottom. There's 30 metal discs, fifteen blue and fifteen green. The goal is to get five of one color in a row. What color would you like, Spring?"

"Green!"

"Alright." Spanner pulled the pieces of the game out, set it up, and pushed the green tokens over to Spring, who trotted around to the opposite side of the table. "You understand how to play?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright, here we go!"

---

An hour or so later the two of them had played a dozen or so rounds of Assemble Five, with the two of them tied for wins. Spanner slid a tab out at the bottom of the game and all the tokens dropped out, opening it back up for another round. "How about this, Spring" he said. "If you win this next round, I'll give you a reward."

Spring was pretty excited about this. "A reward? Like what?" she asked, and Spanner seemed to think about it for a moment. Spring hadn't ever played a game where the winner would get a prize for winning, so she was wondering what Spanner would think up.

"How about I let you pick the reward?" Spanner asked, and Spring nodded.

The trouble was, what to pick as her reward? She thought about asking for more bits, but truth be told she wasn't sure if she was even going to spend the one that Spanner had already given her. Candy was another appealing choice, but Spring wanted something that would last a long time. Books were cool, but flowers excited her more. Except even the flowers didn't last forever. No matter how careful she was about making sure they got plenty of sunlight and water, eventually her flowers always withered away, which made her sad. If she was going to get a reward, she wanted it to be something she could never lose or forget.

"I... I want... Maybe you could..." Spring started, unsure of how to say what she wanted to say. She wanted it more than anything, had wanted it for a very long time, but she was afraid Spanner wouldn't do it. Still, she couldn't help but want to ask him for it, and she felt bad for having such a selfish desire.

Suddenly, Spanner stood up, and Spring looked up at him. She watched as he trotted around the table and sat down next to her. He smiled, and reached down to grab one of Spring's hooves. "I know what you want, Spring, and whether you win or lose, the answer is yes."

Spring was at a loss for words, tears welling up in her eyes, and she turned to throw her forelegs around Spanner, who gently returned the hug. "Th-- Thank you, Spanner" Spring said, doing her best to keep her tears at bay. For years she had thought about, wished for it, and now that it was about to be true, she could hardly believe it at all.

At that moment Spring Blossom knew, and promised herself, that she would do her best. She wanted to make Spanner Wrench proud and happy, and to make him know that no matter what, she would be the best daughter a filly could be.

Author's Note:

Act I down! In true Who We Become style, I'm going to leave a song at the end of each act.

*I based the general design of the Equestrian bit off of a design I saw in a storyboard, just modernized and altered.

My father is a coin collector, and has a modest collection with a little bit of everything in it. I used what I've learned from him and his coin catalogs, plus a Youtube video I watched of the U.S Mint producing quarters, to describe how Equestrian bits are made.

Comments

[SevenEyes]

I liked act one, and expect great things from the following acts of the story.
The overall storytelling can be rather direct and fast at times.
That said it's still managing to be very interesting and cute.

(Don't tell Krickis, but I actually listened to the end of act music in the authors notes, and I've never done that for any other WWB story)

[CodenameOne]

10859457

I'm glad you liked the first act! Don't worry, I'll keep your secret

[Krickis]

Aww how sweet This was very nice, and the coin explanations were interesting. I'm out donating plasma now, so I can't listen to the end of act music, but I appreciate it being there and will check it out when I'm home