When a Quill is needed

by Nagagon

Rating: everyone
Tags: Spike, Comedy, Random, Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1224

Twilight breaks her quill and decides to buy a new one, only to get caught up in planning.

How do you buy something you require in a time of need? Here's how Twilight goes about buying a quill.

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Part of the SALT Colab project ran by RavensDagger. Also, my first upload ever.

Published 2012-05-18 13:24:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-18 13:24:01 UTC

Only Chapter

Snap!

“Shoot!” Twilight Sparkle stared at her quill, the writing end hanging by a thread, before falling off.

“No problem, I just need another one,” said the purple unicorn, throwing the feather in the trash bin next to the table. She trotted to the storage cabinet of her library and started looking for a quill.

“That’s odd, I swear there were some here,” she wondered while opening cabinets and drawers. Suddenly, she remembered.

“That was the last quill....” even worse, she forgot to buy more earlier that week. She’s always so organized, she hated to slip up like that. She looked at the clock. 5:30.

“I still have time to buy the things I need. But first,” she levitated a scroll and piece of charcoal “I need a LIST!” she said, puffing her chest, her mane blowing in the invisible wind. Twilight placed the scroll and charcoal on a table. She wrinkled at the dark tool. She HATED using charcoal, basically because it made her feel like a filly in magic kindergarten. Just this once Twilight, you’ll have your quill soon enough.

“First off...,” she checked a small box on the scroll that said: ‘start list’. “Check. Okay, what do I need? Well, a quill for starters, but one is not enough. Fifteen quills should be good,” she said, writing down the number and item “What else?” she looked at the room “Since I’m shopping, might as well buy everything I need. Let’s see...,” she started walking around the room, list and charcoal in toll, writing as the items came to mind “I have forty-three scrolls, so just seven will do. Oh, and ink! Ten more bottles should do nicely,” finally, she came to a halt and looked at the list. She ran the charcoal over a box entitled: ‘check all necessities’.

“Perfect. But it’s not enough...,” she resumed her stroll, checking every place for things she might need to buy. After that was done, Twilight pulled the scroll and checked the box written: ‘review list’. “That’s more like it. But now comes the financial part,” said the purple unicorn as she approached a table and emptied a bag of bits on top of it.

“Let’s see... The quill was two bits each last time. So I need thirty bits for the quills,” she said, placing the same amount of coins on an orderly pile. “And the scrolls were five bits each, so thirty-five for that and for the ink, four bits per bottle, so forty...,” as she placed the coins for the bottles on the pile, Twilight paused for a moment. “But that is only for the small bottles. What if I bought five medium sized bottles, would that be better?” Twilight levitated an Abacus from the shelf and started counting to find the best possible solution.

“EUREKA!” screamed Twilight, finally finding her answer. She puffed with satisfaction at her perfect solution. Her bag of bits was placed on the table and a triumphant smile was fixed on her face.

“Let’s see now,” said Twilight as she raised the list and her charcoal “List? Check. Reviewing the review of the list? Check. Solving a financial problem using my brains and arithmetic? Check. Now th-- Ah... Ah... ACHOOO!!” a sneeze? That was odd. Was she coming down with a cold? As she wiped her nose, Twilight remembered: She hadn’t taken a bath since the day before. This is probably why I sneezed, I must have germs all over. Blushing at her carelessness, the lavender unicorn headed towards her bathroom, towel at her side.

Twilight opened her bathroom door, letting out the steam as she exited the hot bath. Twenty minutes, no more, no less. Her sense of timing was simply perfect. However, a sudden draft made her shiver. I should probably wear something warm.

The purple unicorn walked up the stairs towards her wardrobe. She wasn’t one to dress up, but having just taken a shower it was better to avoid unnecessary dangers. She pulled a purple and violet scarf around her neck and levitated some boots towards her feet. She wrapped herself around a coated saddle to keep her back and belly warm. Twilight looked at herself in the mirror. Nothing fancy, but pretty warm. She was now ready to go out and buy those--

“What are you doing?” asked a sleepy male voice.

Twilight turned around to look at Spike. The baby dragon was rubbing his eyes and holding a blue blanket. He let out a yawn.

“Oh Spike, just getting myself ready to go out and buy quills.

“Why in Equestria would you want to do that?” he asked, raising a brow.

Twilight rolled her eyes “Because I’ve broken my last quill and I hate using charcoal to write.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“Spike, don’t procrastinate. Why wait if I can buy it now?” she said, lecturing him.

“I don’t think you’re gonna buy anything now.” said the purple dragon as he raised his claw and pointed towards the clock on the wall. Twilight looked at it and her jaw dropped.

2:00 AM?! That couldn’t be right!

“Twi’, I don’t know about you, but I think the stores are not going to be open at this time.” he threw the blanket on his shoulder and walked towards his foster sister. He closed her mouth, turned around and started walking. “I’ll buy those quills in the morning.”

Twilight stood there, her eyes wide in shock. It would take a while before she dragged herself to bed and even more to actually fall asleep.

“Done.” said Spike, placing a package on the table in front of Twilight.

“Unbelievable!” said the unicorn in shock. He was only gone for ten minutes!

“Yeah, sorry. Would’ve gotten back five minutes ago, but the guy kept trying to sell me a sofa.” he said, walking out of the room.

“But.. But I... And you... I don’t... Ahhh....” Twilight’s eyes started spinning and she wobbled before fainting.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

First off, just as I promised when I accepted this challenge, a link to SALT:

http://saltblock.blogspot.ca/

If anyone is interested in writing a fanfic, go to these guys for help. SALT has been a huge help to me so far. Really, you can’t go wrong. They do an AMAZING job with proofreading and editing. They are honest and great at their jobs. Be warned, though, they don’t pull any punches. But I think that’s what you would call “tough love”.

Secondly, a big thank you to RavensDagger, the one who organized this challenge and helped with pointers. He’s the main reason I’m even on this website! If it wasn’t for his story, “Of Steam Gears and Wings”, I wouldn’t even dream of writing fics (and yes, this is shameless advertisement, but the guy deserves it). Here’s a link to his page. Go there and read his stories. you won’t be disappointed, I promise.

http://www.fimfiction.net/user/RavensDagger

And lastly, to you, the reader of course. I really hope you liked this story, it’s my first submission and it’s an exercise at that, but thank you for reading it all the way. I’ll try my best to improve my stories so you can enjoy them even more, so keep an eye out for more stuff =D

And here's the link for the artist of the cover:

http://whitediamondsltd.deviantart.com/art/The-Doctor-Is-In-292903181