An eight year old Twilight Sparkle was laying on her bed pouring over her latest book. She had spent the first forth of her summer break from magic kindergarten participating in the Canterlot Public Library’s Summer Book Club. This was a big step for her since it was the first time she was old enough to go. Even though she had a college reading level since she was six. Her first favorite book was Starswirl’s Biography: Accounts from Before Equestria. She had spent days pouring over it, and it was all thanks to her BBBFF who had spent every night reading her books since she was a foal.
Now it was time to pay her big brother back. Each time she completed the little game board that marked how many hours she read, and rewarded her with prizes. She made sure to try to get doubles of everything. One for her, and one for her brother. Everything from quills, to cards that had facts about animals and national attractions of Equestria. And the big prize, A tiny snow globe with the Princess within it. It had taken her months, and constantly raiding the library to finally get past the game board for the fifth time.
As she went to the librarian in charge of the event, a grey coated mane with a white mane and tail, to get a new game piece. Looking at her she told her that she needed to talk to her family real quick and to go get some more books. At the phrase “get some more books” Twilight squealed with exuberant glee, running off to get some more treasured gems of knowledge. When she was out of sight she looked at Shining Armor, Velvet Sparkle, and Night Light, “I need to ask ... has she really been reading as much as she says she has?”
“Of course she has, our daughter spends all her day reading. We actually have to pull her away for her to go to bed or eat food. Although we still have to check her room for wake up droughts to make sure she actually goes to sleep.” Night Light said with a hint of pride in his voice.
“But the books she picks out are adult level reading material for most of them. Not that I’m complaining but is she only doing it for the prizes?” The librarian asked.
“Honestly we asked her about that and she said that she wanted to get duplicates of everything so that her brother here,” He said ruffling up the mane of an embarrassed Shining Armor, “could get prizes too. Since most of his day is spent training to enter the Royal Guard. She said that it was only fair for him being her “BBBFF”.”
“Well that’s very generous of her ... the truth is though we only have a limited number of prizes, and she blows through these game boards faster than any other reader we have. So we can’t get her anything else after this. But that doesn’t mean that she’ll leave empty handed. I’ll talk to her, let her finish what books she has, and then when she comes back we’ll give her something really special. By the way have you thought of enrolling her in Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns?”
Velvet Twilight looked over at Twilight who was using a trolly cart to move a giant stack of precariously balanced books and looking for more, “If it’s her dream to go we will be more than happy to enroll her, but we think that it’s more important that she finds her own lives calling.”
The librarian gave a nod, “Well that’s a good way of looking at things. And I’m happy to see a filly who loves books as much as she does, and I hope that this doesn’t turn her away from reading.”
When Twilight came to the librarian with enough books to build a book fort her family gave her a hug and told her that the librarian had something important to tell her. The librarian lowered herself to Twilight’s level, “Now Twilight what I’m going to tell you isn’t a bad thing, and I’m happy that you love reading as much as you do. But we are running out of prizes, and we can’t give you anymore past this time...”
She was interrupted by a crying Twilight, “Does that mean that I won’t be able to do any more reading!? Am I going to be banished from the library FOREVER!? ...”
Shining Armor placed a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and whispered, “Let her finish. It’ll be ok. I promise.” Before wrapping her in a hug giving the librarian a nod to continue.
“Well no. You aren’t banned, and you are free to read as much as you want. We, by that I mean the Library wants you to read. And as I was going to say. When you finish what you have there and come back we’ll have a special prize just for you. Then next year you can come back and do this again.”
A sniffling Twilight nodded into Shining Armor and gave a muffled sound of acknowledgment. Then together with her family she got her prizes and left with her books. Part of her sad that she was being banned from the Book Club, but a part happy that she had almost gotten Shining Armor duplicates of all the prizes.
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It was two weeks later and she had finished all the books on magical techniques, theory, and practice that she got from her last visit from the library. She was ready for today, the day where she’d see what her special prize was. After turning in her books she was met by the Head Librarian. A brown coated unicorn with blue mane and tail. With bright green eyes and a library building on his flank. Beside him was the librarian who was in charge of the summer book club.
“For being an extraordinary reader, and reading more than any other filly or colt this library has ever seen. We wish to give you this document signed by the Princess for your achievement. And a gift of one free ice cream at Moose Track’s Ice cream Parlor.” After giving her parents the parchments she bounced around the head librarian shouting, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
After getting even more books, no longer distraught about being banned from the reading club she looked at her mother, “Mommy!?”
“Yes darling? What can I do for you?”
“I want to enroll in Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns! The Princess is so amazing! Not only can she raise the sun. She gave me FREE ICE CREAM! Can I enroll? Can I? Can I? PLLLEEEAAAASSSEE!!!” She said throwing puppy dog eyes. Even though unneeded, was to adorable for Velvet not to give a small chuckle.
“Of course dear, we’ll send for the test first thing tomorrow.”
And that is the story of how Twilight got banned from a reading book club for reading to many stories. Got free Ice cream. Then entered the testing exam that lead her to being Celestia’s protege’.
-The End-
A/N: This is for those who want a more beefy version. The ending is mostly the same, but the rest is revised, expanded, and with 20% more Twilight Mental Breakdowns. But I'm leaving the other version up for those who loved the original story. I hope y'all enjoy.
It had been a week after the camping trip where Shining Armor told Twilight Sparkle that he was her BBBFF. Their relationship growing from just siblings to the best of friends, something that Shining knew Twilight needed more of. With her being the obsessive, little book work filly that she was. Ever since she went from reading picture books to reading more bigger books, she had been obsessed with reading. Anything from biographies of her favorite wizards, to anatomy, to fictional novellas.
But something was off. She had locked herself away in the families private library for days on end, and with him leaving for the Royal Guard Academy in a few months he wanted to spend some time with his LSBFF before he had to leave. Knocking on the door he waited to see if she was ready to talk about what ever had caused her to lock herself away.
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~4 Days Earlier~
Twilight was the happiest she had ever been. She had always been afraid of rejection, and with a strong need to make her family proud with her. Had never tried making friends, after all you don’t have to be afraid of rejection if you don’t ask. So she turned to books. It started small at first, her family cuddling with her in her bed, or on the couch reading her bed time stories for as long as she could remember.
Then at the age of four she started trying to read by herself, small things like the See Spot series, or What’s The Shape. But as she grew older her need to expand her reading comprehension, thirst for knowledge, and the look on her parents face when she read on her own pushed her into reading more and more complex stories. Until last year when she found her two favorite books. Star Swirl the Bearded: Accounts From Before Equestria, and most importantly The Unabridged Equestrian Dictionary: 32nd Edition. The former from his exploits, adventures, and skill. The second helped her tremendously in pronouncing the more complex words as well as opening a world of understanding.
From that day forth she had been reading with the doll her mother got her to play with and play, “School” with. With Twilight as the teacher and Mr. Smartypants as her eager student. As time passed she became increasingly introverted, and spent most of her time in the library curled around a good book, or ‘giving lessons’ to her Mr. Smartypants doll sharing the things she had recently learned.
~1 Week ago~
“Twiley, come here and sit with me.” Shining Armor patted the log seat near the campfire he recently set up. As she ran up and set her Mr. Smartypants doll with his Outdoors Adventurer’s Outfit on between them.
“So Twiley how do you like the outdoors?”
“It’s ok I guess. I mean it’s hot and smells funny, and there’s all these weird bugs flying around. But it’s nice because we are camping together.” She said with a wide smile upon her face.
“That’s good. Hey listen, I know that you really don’t go out and play with other ponies your age, and that’s ok. But I want you to promise me something.” He said as he playfully ruffled her mane.
“Promise you what?” Twilight asked tilting her head to the side as she giggled at her brother’s playful musing of her hair.
“That you’ll try to make friends, I’m going to be leaving for Royal Guard training in a few months and I don’t like the thought of you being all alone when I’m not around. I worry about you little sis.”
“But you aren’t leaving forever right? You’ll comeback and play with me still won’t you?” She asked with a small hitch in her voice as her eyes started to water.
Wrapping her in a big hug she nuzzled the top of her head and comfortingly whispered in her ear, “Hey I will never be gone forever. You are my one and only sister, and I love you Twiley. I’ll always be your Big Brother Best Friend Forever, your BBBFF. And you’ll always be my Little Sister Best Friend Forever. When you need me I’ll be there for you. I’m just going to do some training and if you want I’ll just be a letter away. Ok LSBFF?”
Nuzzling closer to him she mumbled an affirmative noise before looking up at him, “ You promise?”
“Of course I promise.”
“Thanks, BBBFF. I love you too, you are the most best big brother a filly could ask for.” She said with a grin.
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~3 Days ago~
This is the Worst thing ever! My BBBFF is leaving in a few months and I have to give him something so he won’t forget about me! But what can I give him? What about a book?
No that won’t do! What if he likes it so much that he doesn’t pay attention to his lessons, and fails? Then they’d kick him out, and his dreams would be crushed and he’d end up living on the streets. Then he’d die of a mutated flesh eating bacteria from the trash cans then eaten by cats! And because he wasn’t in the gaurds, he couldn’t protect Princess Celestia, and an assassin or a Jabberwocky, or a poisoned frog gets to her. Then she dies because he couldn’t save her then the sun falls into the earth melting everypony! All because he didn’t do his lessons because I gave him to good of a book!
What about a sword? Guard’s have swords right? No! No! No! Twilight at this point in time had eyes shrunken into pinpricks, and her little mane in a tizzy. Running around the library in panic. As her imagination spiraled out of control.
Cadets can’t have weapons. If I give him that then he’d be thrown in a dungeon, or worse! They would banish him then but him in a dungeon where they banished him too! She saw it in plenty of novels. So it could happen! Then her family would disown her for banishing her brother and she’d have to run away! Then she’d starve and fall down a well. Then she’d die from starvation and the elements and no one would know. Then when they finally used the water her decomposing body would be used by a Necromancer and she’d be a zombie slave for all eternity! It was at this point she started to fling books down from the shelves and built herself a giant fort of books. Looking for the perfect solution to what she should do so she wouldn’t be a zombie slave and the sun wouldn’t fall on all of Equestria and turn the planet into a burning rock of pain and death.
It was this scene two days later that Shining Armor found himself in. Seeing a frazzled Twilight spiraling in a way that would make their mother reaching her publishers deadlines look sane. She was looking between two books mumbling to herself her crazed expression punctuated by a grumbling stomache and large bags under her eyes. “Hey LSBFF! What’s the matter?” He asked with great concern.
Looking at him she quickly knocked the books down and yelled at him to go away as she frantically threw other books on the ones she was reading trying her best to hide what she was looking at. “Go! Go! Go! It’s a surprise! You can’t be in here yet! I DON’T WANT TO BE A SUN BAKED ZOMBIE!” She ended her little panic attack with a stream of tears and pitiful wailing.
Looking at her he slowly backed out of the room, “Ok, well ... when you want to talk about it I’ll be waiting for you with a bowl of your favorite soup.”
As he left she uncovered her books and looked at where she was last. Finally finding the perfect gift for her brother that wouldn’t, in her eyes, end with either of them dying and becoming brain eating zombies, cat food, or cause all of Equestria to collapse into a fiery ball of doom. Looking at the book titled 101 Summer Filled Activities for Foals, Colts, and Fillies.
Summer Reading Programs: These programs created in 956 CR are designed to increase interest in reading in youths by having guest speakers, authors, prizes for certain activities, and other such fun. Ever since it’s inception it has become popular in larger cities where the prizes are awarded by a mixture of books read, and hours reading. As well as special activities and fairs to increase enrollment.
“This! Is! Perfect! I can get a lot of small gifts so that he knows I love him, and he’s the best BBBFF ever in all of Equestria! And he won’t have to worry about getting in trouble. YAY! I won’t become a Zombie! And Equestria is saved!” With that and having spent days downing Waking Potions, and sleep and food deprivation she passed out on the book cover.
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With her answer found it took little convincing that at the ripe old age of eight that she should go to the Canterlot Public Library’s Summer Book Club (CPLSBC). She ran to get a cart so she could get as many books as she thought she could read for a two week period. So she could get new ones as the old ones needed to be returned. It was her goal to spend every spare moment with a book so that not only she could get some prizes for herself. But more importantly get duplicates for her brother.
It was the perfect gift for the perfect BBBFF. Loading up the cart with as many books as many books as she could push she headed to the checkout desk. Standing by her parents was the librarian in charge of the reading program She was a grey coated mare with a white mane and tail. Her Cutie Mark was a pile of books in front of a sun. Looking at the proverbial mountain of books being dragged slowly by Twilight Sparkle, her bright smile she was wearing dimmed a few watts, with a melodic, sing song voice she asked, “Hello deary. That’s quite the pile of books you got there. You must really love to read, but do you think those stories are a bit advanced for a little filly like yourself?”
“Oh no ma’am. I can go through ten pages a minuet on average. So if I get eight hours of sleep and dedicate four hours a day to necessary trivialities like eating, proper hygiene, and miscellaneous things that may pop up. Then I’ll be able to read 7,200 pages a day on average. That’s going to end up being 50,400 pages a week. So with all the books I have here I should be done in a week. Shorter if I can get more Waking Potions to get rid of the sleep problem.”
The Librarian’s jaw dropped and looked over at her parents as if to ask ‘is she kidding me?’ To which her parents gave an amused shake of their heads. Shining breaking out laughing. Clearing her throat she got a few more game sheets out while Twilight Velvet took a sack of bits from Night Light who leaned over whispering, “I told you she wouldn’t believe us and would have to get more out for our little filly.”
“Just to let you know Twilight Sparkle, you get awarded by how long you read. Not how much, although that isn’t to dissuade you from reading. It’s admirable that you would read so much, I wish that half the fillies and colts who passed through here had such a thirst for knowledge. I just don’t want you to get disappointed.”
“It’s ok,” Twilight said with a large, toothy grin, “ I love reading. That plus I’m reading so I can get a special pony something too.”
“A special somepony?” Her parent’s asked simultaneously.
“Ewww! No! That’s icky! No, it’s for my BBBFF. I’m going to make sure he gets prizes too.” Twilight said practically dancing in space after cringing at the thought of her BBBFF being her special somepony.
That brought all of her family and the librarian to give a ‘D’awww’ and a light chuckle. After she got home and her mother unpacked the weight of Twilight’s literary treasures in the library so they wouldn’t get lost. Twilight began reading with gusto. And so it was a week later that she had cleared not only her books but all four of her game pieces. Twilight laughed at the fact that each sheet was was only for 24 hours worth of reading. After looking at her game board she saw that she could get a total of twelve small prizes, and four Princess Celestia Snow Globes. Going to her parents they left for the library to get her prizes and get more books.
As she moved from her last stash of magic theory to books on science, anatomy, and non -Euclidian mathematics. She ran into the librarian whose name turned out to be Bright Tales. Who looked at her with a weird look on her face, “So you really read all those books?”
“Yep. I’ll admit after Issac Asimov’s book, Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Revised Edition I hit a bump. But After consulting my good friend Mrs. Dictionary. I was able to understand all the words I was caught up on. Then it was mostly cross referencing and having fun with a good book.” She said with a smile that threatened to split her face.
“Hmmmm ....” Bright Tales looked at her and decided to see what she remembered of what she read. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Twilight, it was that she wanted to see if she comprehended what she read, “Can you tell me what some of the things you read were about?”
“Well mostly it was on my third and fourth most favorite subjects, Astrology, and Astronomy. I also had several divination texts that told mostly how unset the future is and how when doing a divination reading that it’s important to double check your readings. I can’t cast the spells for them yet, but I took notes. Want to see them?”
“See them?”
“Uh huh!” Said Twilight as she took out a one hundred page note book crammed tightly with small notes.
Looking it over Bright Days jaw hit the floor with such force that the book isles nearest to them rattled, “Well that is very good. I’m glad that you have taken to the Library so well. I hope you enjoy these books as much as your last ones.” She said after reattaching her jaw.
And with that another week flew by, and when she went back to the Library to pick up her prizes Bright Tales took her family to the side, “Listen .... how do I say this. Your daughter’s thirst for knowledge is insatiable and that is a good thing. But we only get so many of the top prizes each year that our funding can afford. And I’m afraid that after this we won’t be able to get her any more prizes. But-” She said cutting off the protests from Twilight’s parents, “That doesn’t mean that she won’t get something. We’ll make sure that her last prize for this month is something memorable.”
“Ok, but how do we tell her?” Night Light asked his wife.
“Well we just have to tell her fast enough before her imagination spirals out of control. We don’t want a repeat of Colty Cheese’s ticket incident.” She said with a soft chuckle.
“I still don’t think they got the cheese and scuttle balls off the wall.” He replied then with a nod, “Shining Armor will tell her.” He said sacrificing his son to the monster that was Twilight’s imagination.
As Twilight was coming back with her cart of books Shining Armor walked up to her, “LSBFF?”
“Yes Shiny! Do you like the prizes I got you?”
“Yeah. There the best. Thank’s Twiley. Listen there’s something I need to tell you.” He said with a grin hoping that the friendly posture would deflect the coming storm.
Of course it didn’t work in the least. Upon hearing the words 'something I need to tell you’, her eyes grew big. “What?! They weren’t good were they! I should have gotten you something else! Did I get you too many?!” She said in a panicked voice.
“No! No! No! Their perfect. That’s not wha-” He started before he was cut off by Twilight who at this point in time wasn’t even listening to him.
“Now everything will be ruined, and you’ll hate me forever because I got you too many presents! And you won’t be able to focus on your guard training because I failed to get you the perfect gift and you’ll fail the training and the Princess won’t be saved from the giant, pony eating, tentacled, poison frog! Then the sun will crash into Equestria and we’ll all be doomed! DOOOOMMMMMMEEED!!” At this point Twilight started to bawl. With a very confused, and startled Shining Armor looking around for help while Bright Tales looked on in startled awe, and their parents rolled on the ground barely able to keep their laughter silent.
Grasping her in a hug, both to comfort her, and to muffle her wails of despair. He said said in a calm voice, “There! There LSBFF! That’s not it at all. The prizes you got for me I’ll treasure forever. No, what I wanted to tell you was something different.” He said while stroking her mane waiting for her to calm down.
When she finally stopped crying every eye on her from the Head Librarian, to random library members, the point she was oblivious to, she looked up at Shining Armor and asked, “So what did you have to say?”
“The Library can’t get you any more prizes and you won’t be able to participate -” He started to explain before Twilight pulled back and screamed, “WHAT?! I’m going to be banned from the Library!”
“No -”
“I’m going to be banned! And I’ll never going to be able to read again! And then I’ll have to be a criminal because I had to break into a library to read more books! NO! YOU CAN’T TAKE AWAY MY PRECIOUS BOOKS!”
With that she dashed into the nearest corner of the library. Her cart in tow. When she got there she hastily made a Book Fort, and placed Mr. Smartypants in its entrance with it’s pencil held like a sword. “The pen is mightier than the sword you fiends! You shall take my life but you shall never take away my Library Card!” She said loudly from her fortress of knowledge.
Her parents started crying from laughing so hard as Shining Armor looked pleadingly to Bright Tales, “Please tell her you aren’t banning her from the library. I beg you!” He stated getting on his forelegs, hoofs clasped in a pleading posture.
Walking to Twilight’s Book Fort, her soft sobs echoing lightly she laid down in front of the Mr. Smartypants, making sure she was a good ways away from the little pencil he was holding, “Listen Twilight, we aren’t going to ban you. We just are running out of prizes, but you are always welcome to get more books.”
“You promise?”
“Of course deary. We are always glad to have such a little scholar in our midst. And what he was going to tell you before you made this marvelous fortress of books was that when you get back we will have a big special prize for reading so many books. How does that sound?”
“Ok. As long as I’m not banned from the library.”
Using her magic to lift the books and place them back on the cart, Bright Eyes made sure they were how they were before the impromptu book building was erected. After helping Twilight get her books checked out she gave her a sucker to help cheer her up. Leaving behind a happier Twilight and a still recovering parents in her wake.
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And so another week of note taking, research, and other literary pursuits that Twilight viewed as fun came and went. As the week closed Shining Armor took Twilight aside and sat beside her, “Hey LSBFF. I have something I want to tell you, and don’t freak out this time. It’s a good thing I promise.”
“Ok. I’m sorry about the Library incident by the way. Ummm ... what do you want to say BBBFF?”
“It’s this. I will always love you. No amount of or lack of gifts will change that. As long as we have each other that’s all that matters. Through thick and thin. So I don’t want you to ever worry that I won’t love you any more, or see you as my LSBFF. You’re stuck with me for better or worse. After all we’re family.” He said before ruffling her mane eliciting a happy squeak from Twilight.
“Ok. I promise that I won’t forget that.” She replied with a nuzzle to Shining Armor’s foreleg.
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As they walked into the library. Twilight and Shining Armor returned her books and went off in search for more stories. As they did this the Head Librarian, a brown coated Unicorn stallion, with a blue mane and tail. With bright green eyes and a library building on his flank approached them with Bright Tales walking beside him.
It was Bright Tales who started the conversation, “This is the head librarian named Treasured Tome, and he will be giving Twilight her reward for her reading. I’ve seen the amount of notes she took last time and I must say, have you ever thought of enrolling her into Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns?”
Twilight Velvet smiled. “If it’s her dream to go we will be more than happy to enroll her, but we think that it’s more important that she finds her own lives calling.”
“Well that’s a good way of looking at things. And I’m happy to see a filly who loves books as much as she does, and I hope that this doesn’t turn her away from reading.” She replied a smile reflecting Velvet’s own grin.
“With how much she loves reading I’m sure it won’t. Well here they come.”
When Twilight got to them with her fresh selection of books the Head Librarian used his magic to lower the scroll to Twilight, “For being an extraordinary reader, and reading more than any other filly or colt this library has ever seen. We wish to give you this document signed by the Princess for your achievement. And a gift of one free ice cream at Moose Track’s Ice cream Parlor.”
With Shining Armor using his magic to show Twilight the document she glowed with glee and began bouncing around Treasured Tome singing, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
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~At the Ice Cream Parlor~
“Mommy!” Twilight practically sang with a Chocolate Mint Clown Head Sundae with Strawberry eyes.
“Yes darling? What can I do for you?”
“I want to enroll in Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns! The Princess is so amazing! Not only can she raise the sun. She gave me FREE ICECREME! Can I enroll? Can I? Can I? PLLLEEEAAAASSSEE!!!” She said throwing puppy dog eyes. Even though unneeded, was to adorable for Velvet not to give a small chuckle.
“Of course dear, we’ll send for the test first thing tomorrow.”
And that is the story of how Twilight got ‘banned’ from a reading book club for reading to many stories. Got free Ice cream. Then entered the testing exam that lead her to being Celestia’s protege’.
