//------------------------------// // Faith and employment // Story: Faithful Devotion // by Silent legion //------------------------------// Walking out the front door I began my journey of employment. I remember helping my dad chop wood for the winter months, a city like this though wouldn't need chopped wood. I remember that big city's like this have some recreational places. Thinking about it didn't Mythic says that his eldest brother was a librarian? That gives me an idea. I could go to a library, the knowledge there should be enough to help me carry on in this land, sadly I don't exactly know the layout of this city and that, unfortunately, brings me to have to talk to the locals. Walking up to a random pony (a mare by the looks of it) "hello could you please point me in the direction of the library?" I said politely as possible. She looks at me and then points her nose up and hurry away with a "hmph". It dawns on me that this being the capital of the nation, probably has the worst this species has to offer. Finding one with enough decency to tell me where I need to go would be hard if I didn't have a trick up my nonexistent sleeve. Walking up to another posh looking pony I say in a most elegant tone of voice my whisper would allow. " Hello, dear madam but could you tell me where the library may be? I wouldn't want to waste more of my time, I have many more important places to be." She looks towards me and says "well if you must know, it's further down the road, you can't miss it." smiling I nod to her and make my way down, nobles work in funny ways. If you act important they think that you are, a useful trick that doesn't take much thought. After a few minutes, I finally see the place. It looks quite old, to be honest, but it seems like the perfect place to work. Walking in I see a batpony, I thought they only get up at night with Mythic being the exception. Regardless of that fact, I walk up to him, he notices me and looks up smiling, saying "hello are you here to browse our selection?" I smile back "yes I am but I'm also looking for some kind of employment, I was hoping I could work here? My names silent oath." I say while walking over. He looks at me saying "steel shelf here, we currently don't need a full-time employee but you can come over every three days to organize any misplaced books, the pay isn't the best but it's the best I can do." I don't even need to think about it, work's, work. Smiling I say "that's perfectly fine, when would I be able to start?" He raises his hoof, obviously wanting a hoof bump that I reciprocate "you can start tomorrow, it'll save me some time, I can pay you 12 bits per hour and you might only be working for perhaps 3-4 hours each time, is that fine?" he asked Happy I even have a job I smile "that's perfectly fine. I just wanted to find something to do. Is it ok if I stay here a bit and look at some books?" "Of course, the library is open for a majority of the day," he says Perfect, with a quick "thank you" I make my way further into the building. In the section I'm currently in I see a lot of books based on magic casting, intrigued, I grab a few with my mouth and place them one by one on a nearby table, I really don't like using my mouth for everything. Opening the first book it talks about using magic to force a blast of energy that would impact the target with blunt force, used by the guard to incapacitate lawbreakers. The spell seems interesting but I don't know how to use it. With my lack of spellcasting knowhow, these books are useless. The only magic I know are those that were given to me by my lord, like my lord they are powerful but are also most likely unheard of in this world and drawing attention to myself is not good. Putting that book aside I absentmindedly reach for another one, looking down at it I realize I've made a mistake "So you're a Unicorn" I whisper the title out it's a small book that looks very colorful obviously meant for a child. ... ... I open the book... As expected it's a children 's book but the name of one of the chapters grabs my attention "how to use your magic" quickly looking around spotting not a soul I flip to that page. Reading the chapter is an enlightening experience. It tells me how to use my magic. All I have to do is basically force my will into a spell with sufficient energy, too much and the spell can backfire or be stronger than expected, too little energy and the spell will just fizzle out. A new spell I like is levitation, apparently, it's a very basic spell for a unicorn. All one has to do is imagine their energy encompass an object and simply lift. It takes energy to lift it but once it's lifted by your magic it no longer takes energy to keep it afloat. The more energy you have the bigger objects you can carry. Figuring reading the interesting parts of this book would be all I need until I come across the word "cutie marks" a cutie mark was something every filly and colt received at some point in there lives and is used to show what their special talent is once they figure it out. When it appears it shows up on their flanks. Looking down at myself I can see what looks like my mask but it has chains wrapped around it forming an x on the mouth the slits for the eyes are curved in a way that it can be taken for being happy or sad. I haven't really put much thought into the markings on ponies but now it seems tied together. Why do they get these marks though and if it's to show a special talent then why is mine so vague? All questions that don't seem to have answers. After spending an hour or three practicing levitation and learning new spells I get bored and leave bidding goodbye to steel shelf and making my way back to mythics hours. Finding my way back wasn't too hard I open the door and walk in, the house looks the same as I left it and I go to inspect the massive chair in the main room. It LOOKS comfortable with its furry appearance sitting down I feel the texture and it feels amazing. It's like I was being absorbed into it. This wasn't my proudest moment but I was akin to a dog laying on my back and just kind of moving in small motions I'm not aware of how long I was doing this but I hear snickering and my blood runs cold. Looking up I see him standing at the doorway with a few bags in his mouth and a massive smile on his face. It was at exactly this moment that I could honestly say that I was ready to die. His sudden appearance caused me to let out an embarrassing noise similar to a mouse before I feel the blood rushing to my face. I give a quick thanks to my lord for fur not letting it shine through and just kind of stare at him as his smile gets bigger and bigger, now I wasn't the manifestation of all things manly but as he started to laugh at me I could feel my ears point down. The only thing I could think of was 'why! By the Lord's name, how could I have not heard him! He was encumbered! Was the relaxing chair that much of a sirens song?' "What are you doing with the couch?" he asked amidst laughter. So this thing was called a couch? Whatever this requires my attention "It's very comfortable I was just laying here and didn't hear you come in," I said in what could be considered poutingly "I-its fine, h-have you n-never been on a couch before?" he said while trying to contain his laughter, possibly due to seeing how embarrassed I was by being caught, good man, it didn't help much though. I responded with "no I've never been on a couch before, while on the road I would just sleep under a tree or something." that something usually being the church, it had fine bedding but nothing so comfortable as the couch, it was even better than the bed I slept in yesterday. "Oh ok, well I brought home some groceries I'm not exactly sure what you'd like but you seemed to like the salad so I got some of that and stuff to make spaghetti and the like." "Thank you, I did like the salad, also I went to the library to inquire about a job and to do some studying," I said to him while rolling off the couch. His ears perked up when I said library and he spoke "oh, did you see my brother steel shelf? He works there as part owner." I pause and came to the realization that mythic did say he has a librarian brother but I figured he was somewhere else. "Yeah, I met him he gave me a part-time job at the library every three days. He seems like a cool pony." I continue with "would you happen to know if there's a training yard around here? I want to try some new things I've been picking up." His ear twitches as he put the bags on the table "training yard? The only one around here is the guards but I don't know exactly if they'll let you in to use the dummies." That's fine I could just ask them tomorrow the only problem being "do you know where they are?" I ask "Of course, the guards are posted at the castle if you walk up to it you'll see one in no time if you do it at night they might see you before you see them," he says with a smile That almost sounds like a threat.. Or a warning. Either way, I'm sure it'll be fine the guard is there for the protection of those they watch over I look over to mythic and ask "is there anything you want to do? We still have.." I look over to a nearby wall clock "6 more hours before its too late." thinking about it we forgot about the whole 'couch' thing and I'm kinda thankful for that "Hey, you're right!" he said, "we can play some board games or we can go clubbing!" he exclaimed while smiling CLUBBING? For a bunch of ponies especially one who didn't want to leave a 'daypony' out to walk alone at night clubbing an animal seemed a little too vicious for one of their caliber. Perhaps I should stay away from beating anything "how about a board game? Those are always fun." they weren't "do you have anything in mind?" I asked. He seemed to think it over before his eyes lit up "marenopoly!" he yelled before in a flurry of speed he disappeared upstairs leaving me wondering what on earth he was up to. After a minute of weird crashing noises coming from his room, he came back down with a box depicting a fancy mare with a monocle and a glass of wine surrounded by gold "I loved this game as a foal and I'm sure you will too" he slaps it down in-between us before unpacking it pulling out a flat unfolding square with various markings on it and what looked like little metal pieces of everyday items and lots of gold pieces that didn't clink together announcing them as fake "Ok so this is the game I'll explain it to you in a minute when I finish unpacking, trust me you'll absolutely love it!" he said smiling like he was about to split his face. If he's having this much fun at the prospect of playing the actual game must be amazing.