It had been about a week after Nightmare Night, and two ponies were reading at the Golden Oaks library. Spike and Owlowiscious were cleaning the bedroom to ensure that everypony could get a good night's rest. Meanwhile, in the living room, Lucian was reading various books. Some were storybooks, while others were magic or history books. None of them were doing much good to alleviate his current boredom, however.
Lucian sighed. For over a thousand years, he, or rather, she, had been in charge of the moon, and even that was without counting the long time she had spent imprisoned within it. Now that he was living the life of a normal pony, he had nothing to do, since all his time was dedicated to reading, or helping Twilight with her chores, or hanging out with the Doctor and Derpy. None of these were currently satisfying him. While he found them to be quite enjoyable, he felt that he ought to be doing more than simply standing around idly.
“You know, Twilight,” he said at last, “I've been thinking about getting a job.”
Twilight raised her head in surprise.
“A job? Why? You don't really need to do anything, seeing as you're a prince.”
“Technically, I’ve been exiled from my kingdom, and thus no longer royalty,” Lucian pointed out. “And the whole point of me being here in Ponyville is trying to be a normal pony so I can make friends. So, obviously I'm going to fit in better if I work like normal ponies do.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense,” said Twilight. “But what exactly are you going to do? It's not like Ponyville has any moons lying around waiting to be lifted.”
Lucian rolled his eyes and began to speak.
“Well, in case you haven't noticed, I've been around for over a thousand years. You think I haven't learned a thing or two from that many years of experience?”
“I guess that's true,” said Twilight. “Still, if you want, I could always offer you a post as a library assistant.”
“You already have two assistants, Twilight,” said Lucian. “Do you really need another one?”
Twilight tried to say something, but she found herself unable to argue against Lucian's logic. He, in turn, chuckled as he pulled on his blue hoodie.
“I'll go out around Ponyville and see if anypony knows where I could be employed,” he said. “I'll probably be home in time for supper. If not, then I probably ran away.”
“That, or you turned back into Nightmare Moon and we'll have to stop you,” said Twilight. “And then I'd have to explain to all my friends that I've been living with a gender-swapped alicorn for a month.”
Lucian laughed as he made his way towards the door. He then shuddered briefly at the thought of turning back into Nightmare Moon.
Rarity hummed a merry tune as she finished sewing one of her latest creations. It was the latest in her most recent line of autumn wear: an orange hoodie with patterns made out of yellow, red, and brown leaves across the side. As she carefully fitted it onto one of her many mannequins, she hear a knock on the door.
“Just a minute!”
As she finished placing her newest creation on its display, she trotted over to the front door. It was likely to be somepony inquiring about her newest line of fall hoodies, but it could just as easily be a pony from town with some ridiculous request. She hoped this wasn't the case. While she appreciated a challenge every now and again, they did tend to come up with tacky, undignified designs. On the other hoof, whenever her services were sought by some high-society pony, she was able to produce some truly magnificent dresses. Indeed, she often daydreamed of going off to Canterlot, becoming immensely famous, and marrying some high-standing pony.
Maybe someday I’ll meet some nice young duke or noble, she mused.
Lost in her thoughts as she was, she absentmindedly said her rehearsed greetings.
“Hello, welcome to Carousel Boutique, purveyor of fine fashion. How may I help you?”
“Hello, Rarity, it's me.”
Rarity gasped and shook her head. After a bit, she recovered her composure.
“Oh! Hello Lucian!” she said. “How are you today?”
“I'm just fine, Rarity,” said Lucian. “I... just wanted to ask something.”
“Oh, really? Well, how about we discuss it over some tea?”
“Well, that's not really necessary.”
“Oh, but it is!” said Rarity. “You're a friend, and any friend of mine deserves my generosity!”
Lucian sighed. He hadn't wanted to have anypony offer him anything, but he didn't want to offend the generous unicorn.
“All right, if you insist.”
Rarity smiled and invited him into her home.
As they sat down to drink their tea, Rarity observed Lucian closely. When he had first come to Ponyville and introduced himself, she had been more focused on trying to gain inspiration from his hoodie. She had been able to get another glimpse of him on Nightmare Night, but he had been wearing a rather tacky wolf-pony costume. Now, however, she had the chance to observe him more closely.
She had to admit, he was quite handsome. Not in the same way that most high-society stallions, like Fancy Pants, were. While he lacked the air of sophistication of a typical Canterlot noble, Lucian still possessed an air of responsible maturity, while also seeming to be full of youthful energy and ready to take on the world. She hoped she wasn't blushing. It would be quite embarrassing to be caught thinking about him.
She decided to distract herself by thinking about what she already knew about him. He was a student of Princess Celestia who was currently staying with Twilight, but aside from that, she did not know much else. The fact that he was a student of the princess, however, told a lot by itself; there was no higher honor than to be taught by the sovereign ruler of Equestria, and so it virtually guaranteed that he had a high standing in Canterlot society. In addition, Celestia only chose the best ponies to be her personal students, a fact most evident in Twilight Sparkle.
You know what, Rarity ol' girl? There's a good bachelor right in front of you. He's quite the looker. Not to mention he's really friendly and he has a lot of potential in better places like Canterlot, or even Manehattan! Why, just thinking about him makes me giddy! I MUST ask him out as soon as-'
“So, Rarity, I was wondering-”
“Oh, I was going to say the same thing!”
The white mare giggled as Lucian watched her, dumbfounded.
“Rarity? Are you okay?”
“Of course I am!” she said. “I'm better than okay! I've just finished creating a new design for my line of fall hoodies!”
“Oh really?” said Lucian. “Well, that's great, I guess. But-”
“Oh, but enough about me! Tell me about yourself! How long have you been Celestia's student? Did you study with Twilight? Do you have a special somepony?”
Lucian's eye began to twitch uncomfortably. “Well, I- are you all right, Rarity? I mean, If you're not feeling all right, maybe we can talk later or-”
“Tell me already!”
It took a few seconds before Rarity noticed the nervousness and apprehension on her guest's face. Once she did, however, the enthusiasm vanished from her face almost immediately. Replacing it was a look of remorse and sorrow.
“I- I'm sorry, Lucian.” she said. “I didn't mean to get all worked up like that. It's just that I greatly admire ponies who have managed to make their way into high society, and, you being Celestia's student and everything, I got carried away. Please forgive me.”
An awkward silence descended upon the room as the two ponies looked away from each other. It took a while before either one was ready to speak.
“It's all right,” Lucian said finally. “I mean, I understand if you got excited about my standing in society. If you ask me, though, high society is hugely overrated.”
“Whatever do you mean?” asked Rarity.
“Well, you have to do everything exactly as you're expected to, you have to say what other ponies want you to say rather than what you want to, and your opinion only gets heard if its relevant to everypony else's, because, as you may have noticed, high-standing ponies only care about themselves and how the public perceives them.”
The two ponies became silent once more, not knowing what else to say. Rarity had a strange look on her face, which may have been either apprehension or regret.
“Oh, forgive me,” she said. “I think you wanted to say something earlier?”
Lucian remembered the purpose of his visit. However, he was now having second thoughts about asking Rarity if she had any ideas on where to find a job.
“It wasn’t important. Sorry I gave you so much trouble today.”
Before Rarity could so much as make a sound, he had already left the building.
Rainbow Dash was napping on a white, fluffy cloud. While she did have certain weather patrol duties to fulfill, she was in no hurry. Most of the day's quotas had been fulfilled, and those that remained were of lesser urgency, and could be finished later.
“Hey, Rainbow Dash? Don't you have work to do?”
The rainbow-maned mare moaned as she moved, cloud and all, towards the pony who dared to interrupt her nap. As she peeked towards the ground, she saw Lucian staring at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, maybe. But why should you care?”
“Well, because you're a weather pony,” said Lucian. “You shouldn't be leaving your duties unless you want the ponies on the ground to have a bad day.”
“Yeah, whatever,” she said. “You know, I'm glad you came here. None of the stallions here in Ponyville like Daring Do, and they're never interested when I ask them if they want to read with me. And none of them are carefree, or fun loving. I'll bet you’re all that and more, right?”
“Well, that depends on whether or not you're willing to get your lazy plot back to work.”
Clearly irritated by the way the conversation was going, Rainbow decided to change the subject.
“So, what brings you this way?”
“I was looking for a job,” said Lucian.
“Really?” said Rainbow, now intrigued. “What sort of job you have in mind?”
“I don't really know,” said Lucian. “At the moment, I'm just searching.”
“You could be a weather pony!”
Lucian rolled his eyes.
“Rainbow, I'm not a pegasus.”
“Yeah, but Twilight has a spell that can give you wings!” said Rainbow. “Sure, they're lame butterfly wings, but they can fly, which is fun! Of course, if you get too close to the sun, they'll melt, and then I'll have to save your life-”
“Rainbow, I'm not going to get a weather-pony job.”
“Why not?!” said Rainbow as she sat up on her cloud. “Do you seriously want to pass up an opportunity to work with me?”
Lucian began to cringe. He could see where the conversation was going, and he didn't like it.
“Work with you?”
“Heck yeah!” Rainbow said as she hopped off her cloud and began to perform a number of stunts in the air. “I'm the coolest, fastest, most awesome pegasus in the sky, and probably one of the more attractive ones too! I even have my own fanclub! If you and I work together, you'll be able to bask in my glory! Everypony will want to get together with you, but of course, you'll just tell them that you're busy, and we'll go do some wild stunts, or form a rock band, or even read Daring Do! Am I right or am I right?”
Rainbow looked down towards the ground. However, to her surprise, there was no sign of the object of her affection.
Lucian's other attempts to find employment didn't go much better. Pinkie Pie's unrelenting enthusiasm was too much for the lunar prince to handle, while Derpy's mail company didn't need any help. The Doctor had trouble making enough money for himself and his family, and so wasn't able to assist either. Fluttershy had been perfectly willing to hire him as an assistant at her cottage, but the dark blue stallion quickly changed his mind when Angel refused to take his eyes off of him.
After a while of searching through town, he decided to swing by Sweet Apple Acres. Although he knew that his efforts would most likely be wasted, he preferred to know that he had at least tried. As he approached the farm though, he saw Applejack leaning on a fence. To his surprise, she seemed to be rubbing her left hind leg while wincing in pain. She quickly brightened up when she saw him.
“Howdy Lucian! How are you doin' today?”
“I've been better,” Lucian said with a shrug. “How about you? You look kind of-”
“What? This?” she asked as she pointed at her leg. “It's nothin’ too serious. I'll be able to buck all our apple trees just fine!”
The two ponies looked around, observing the vast orchard full of ripe apples ready to be knocked off their branches.
“Wow. That's a lot of apples,” said Lucian.
“Sure is! Me and Big Macintosh are gonna have to work real hard to finish all the trees in time.”
“Just you and Big Mac?” asked Lucian with a tone of concern. “Isn't there anypony around to help you? Especially since your leg is, well, you know.”
“I guess I might not be doin' the best I can,” said Applejack . “But I'm pretty sure we can do it on our own.”
“And you also said you could do well on your own when Big Mac got injured, or so Twilight told me.”
Applejack cringed at the memory Lucian brought up.
“Well, I don't think we'll have that much trouble getting all the apples down from their trees since we're both working together. I mean, Big Mac is a pretty strong stallion, and we can probably finish in time together.”
“Not with that twisted hoof of yours you ain't,” said a third voice.
“Darn it, Big Mac!”
Lucian turned to see the red stallion chuckling. Applejack tried to face him as well, but was unable to avoid placing a significant amount of weight on her injured leg.
“AAGH!”
Applejack cringed, partly in pain, but mostly in shame.
“Okay,” she said, doing her best to not let Lucian notice the sadness in her voice. “Maybe I ain't fit to buck any apples this season.”
“Eeyup.”
“But that means you'll have to do everything by yourself!” Applejack said to Big Mac as she went back to rubbing her hoof. “You can't do that!”
“I know,” said Big Mac. “That's why-”
“I'd be happy to help!”
Lucian had spoken before Big Mac could say anything else. Both earth pony siblings looked straight towards him, as he quickly realized what he'd said and looked away, embarrassed.
“I mean, if that's okay with you guys.”
Big Mac looked towards his sister, who seemed quite shocked, even insulted, by the idea of some other pony taking her place.
“Lucian, I ain't saying' your help ain't appreciated, but I've been bucking apples since I was a little filly,” said Applejack. “You, on the other hand, clearly have no applebucking experience. You’ll need to learn how to do it, and build up a lot of strength in your leg muscles in order to do so, which we ain’t got time for. What makes you think you can be my replacement?”
Lucian began to think about what Applejack had just said. She was clearly quite proud of her abilities, and she was a bit boastful about them, which made Lucian want to prove her wrong. On the other hoof, she had been working on the farm for most of her life, and it would no doubt be hard to catch up to her.
He then eyes a nearby apple tree. It had several ripe apples ready to be taken and be eaten. However, the tree was unlikely to relinquish its treasures easily. It was a perfect test for him.
“Well, how about we see how well I can buck some of those apples?” he asked. “If I manage to knock down enough apples, you'll know that I'm fit to work on the farm, right?”
“I think that's a pretty nice idea,” said Big Mac.
“Well, it fits, I suppose,” said Applejack. “But no magic! The point is to buck the apples, not use your fancy-shmancy hocus pocus to get them out. Or did Twilight not tell you how she screwed things up by using her magic during Winter Wrap-Up?”
“From what she told me, you were pretty much doomed even without her.”
Applejack snorted at the comment, but her brother couldn't help but chuckle. Meanwhile, Lucian had trotted up to the apple tree, hoping he could achieve his task. He was an alicorn, which gave him the combined abilities of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. However, the earth pony abilities, such as increased strength and a deep connection to nature, were the least used, as there was little need to do so in Canterlot. In fact, he often found himself questioning whether or not alicorns possessed such abilities at all. However, he knew that, if he could manage to tap into that elusive earth pony side of his own nature, he could be, if not as good as the two siblings, at least good enough to succeed.
He positioned himself right in front of the tree. It was time to see how well he could do.
“Okay! Here goes!”
He raised his hind legs, gathering as much strength as he could, and kicked the tree.
There was an incredible sound, like thunder cracking.
When Lucian looked up, he was shocked to see the tree lying several feet away, with splinters and apples littered all around it. In his embarrassment, he turned towards the shocked siblings.
“I promise I'll pay for that.”