Chapter 4: Different kind of hunt
"Done and done!" Soarin happily announced, as he put the quill away.
Times like these he really envied unicorns for the ability to write with their magic, as he was getting wing-cramps from writing just one page. Technically one hundred pages or so, though all of them now resided in trash can, aside from those crumbled all around the Golden Oaks library. It wasn't the first time he had to write a resume, yet it never got easier over time, for some reason. Especially now that he had to add another item to an already impressive list.
"Well, I never expected this!" said Prince Blueblood, reading through a long list of personal experience. They tilted their heads as they read along.
"How old are you again?" asked Shining Armor.
"Well, I had to do something in between training for Wonderbolts auditions." Soarin shrugged. He did mentioned it took him several tries to get in and it wasn't unreasonable to suggest that he worked somewhere before, but seeing a list of around several dozen positions made them feel a bit uneasy.
"Let's see here," Shiny started checking them out "waiter, bartender, bartender (different bar), courier, courier (different company), weather patrol assistant, cleanup crew, courier (different company), waiter (different restaurant), construction assistant, mailpony, lifeguard... geez, that's quite a range!" he announced, still in he middle of the list.
"What can I say?" Soarin shrugged "Guy's gotta live a little."
"I'm afraid to ask," Blue started "how long did any of them lasted?"
Soarin scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.
"Well, you know... some stallions are okay with spending their lives with a single mare, but I'd rather go and explore. Experience the unknown, search for new territories, taste the life..."
Blue deadpanned "You couldn't keep any of them?"
"Weeeeeeell..." Soarin blushed "some of them were only seasonal and the other..."
"Fine, whatever." Blueblood hoofwaved. If there was a question he didn't need answered, it was one of them. Shining Armor kept on reading.
"...let's see what else is there... supermarket cashier..." his eyebrows rose as he read the next one "a fashion model?"
"Technically, that was a part of Wonderbolts contract. Not that I minded."
"I see. Hmm... what exactly is a 'nightclub entertainer'?"
At the sound of it, Soarin's eyes widened. He swallowed, while giant beads of sweat covered his body, not unlike what he felt like during his earlier conversation with Flitter. Blue and Shiny tilted their heads as Soarin's blank stare reached the floor.
Hoofstomps sounded everywhere in the dimly lit large room, where the only source of light was a giant spotlight, now pointing at the curtains in the back of a long catwalk. The audience was starting to get impatient and hushed murmurs could be heard around.
"I... I changed my mind! I can't, I just..."
"Soarin, my sweetheart," the businesspony patted his back "you don't think of letting me down, huh?"
"B-but..."
"Yeah, chap," said another, fast talking high pitched male voice "ya dun'wanna break da deal, dont'cha? That woulda made da boss unhappy."
"Shut up, Choco! Think of it this way: if you go, I will be happy! If you don't," short pause "I won't. And when something doesn't make me happy, I let Choco take care of it. So the question is, who do you want to make happy? Me... or Choco?"
Soarin gulped and took a peek at the small earth pony, playing around with a switchblade, smiling widely. Reluctantly, he sighed and went towards the stage.
"Good boy." the businesspony smiled. Choco groaned, disappointed.
"NOW, THE MOMENT YOU ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO THE BIIIIIIIIG-S!"
The curtain unfolded, revealing a crowd full of mares, stomping and squealing in delight, as a ripe, well built pegasi with unlimited charm entered the stage, dressed only in a parody of Wonderbolt's uniform, though a few sizes too small and tight. He forced a million bits smile on his face, knowing that only two ponies won't be happy tonight. One was Choco.
"...never again, never again, never again..." Soarin chanted repeatedly, sitting down on the floor, hooves covering his head. His friends watched in terror, too afraid to come even one step closer.
"You know," Shining Armor started "on second thought, I don't want to know!"
"Why did you even write this... argh, never mind!" Prince Blueblood facehooved and crossed out said entry.
One rewrite and a relaxing cup of hot chocolate later, Soarin was ready to go, happily packing a bunch of copies of his resume into saddlebags. Leaving the past behind, Soarin, along with his two friends, crossed the entrance and went out into Ponyville brimming with confidence.
"Alright, time for a job hunt!"
Prince Blueblood stopped and turned Shining Armor, who was following him.
"And where do you think YOU are going?"
"Uhm, help Soarin find a job?"
"And who will clean up this mess?" asked Prince, pointing behind Shining. The library was covered in scrambled paper, quills, ink stains, overturned books and one empty mug that once had hot chocolate in it. Shining Armor was about to interject, but Blue beat him to it "Also, it's still opening hours, somepony has to watch over the library."
"But..."
"No buts and get back to work! And it'd better be spotless when we come back!" that said he magically closed the door behind him. He waited for a moment to make sure that Shining Armor wasn't going to open the door regardless to follow. When he made sure his little servant/friend/slave was obedient, he smiled and followed Soarin along.
"Aren't you a little too harsh on him?" asked Soarin.
Blueblood chuckled "You know what's harsh? Being left to die by your very own friends!" he giggled maniacally "...It's a little payback for yesterday. Besides, what's the point of having an assistant if you can't order him around once in a while? I'll apologize later, now let him suffer!"
Soarin rolled his eyes and smiled. If they weren't friends, he would object to that, but it reminded him too much of his happy bonding time with Spitfire to be sure of their good intentions.
"If you say so."
Shining Armor had an urge to open the door and give Blueblood a piece of his mind... but stopped himself when he realized that he did have a good point. He was still a servant, hoofpicked by Princess Celestia herself to be an assistant to her nephew. He could rant about their friendship all he wanted, but making this place presentable was indeed in his job description these days. He first grabbed a random, overturned book lying on the ground and scanned the title. "History of Conjuration, years 136 - 320". He carefully put the book back on a shelf, making sure it was properly placed right there with the rest of the set.
As he stared at giant shelves full of books, he wondered about his sister. She would've loved this place, that was for sure. To him, living in place filled with hundreds of tomes was already becoming a norm, but to Twilight Sparkle, that would've been a dream come true, especially since her dorm room was too small to fit even the smallest bookshelf. He wouldn't be surprised if she became a librarian after graduation. A bit of a waste of talent, but his family always valued passion over status, to which he could relate.
"Alright, let's do this!" full of motivation, he started his work.
Not counting his half hour lunch break, Shining Armor took almost entire day organizing and cleaning the library. It shouldn't have taken this long, but he used this opportunity to practice some more advanced telekinesis techniques and tried to arrange five books at once, all into different corners of the room. Whenever Twilight or Blue did that, it looked so easy, but after few failed attempts Shiny was already getting headaches and had to go back to the old fashioned way, one book at a time.
By the time he was done, the door opened and Soarin went through. Shining Armor trotted towards his friend with a smile.
"Oh hey, how did..." he paused, as Soarin completely ignored Shining, grabbed a blanket with his teeth, walked on the couch and curled himself in the blanket in fetal position "...it go?"
Prince Blueblood entered the room right after him. Shiny looked at him and just from the look of his face, this wasn't a happy experience.
"He didn't get any?"
Prince hesitated before answering "Well, to be fair," he stopped to think of a good way to say it "there wasn't really anything to be had. The message board at the Town Hall was pretty much empty and a list of community workers was already full for months in advance. We tried asking around, but so far nothing."
The two librarians exchanged a look, then watched Soarin, as he shuffled under the blanket and mumbled something incoherent, though it sounded a lot like a whine of despair.
Blueblood coughed and walked to the the couch. Once there, he hesitated for a moment, but eventually did raised his hoof and patted, what he hoped was, Soarin's back.
"Don't worry, there's always tomorrow. I'm positive we'll find something!"
"Nope, sorry sugarcube," Applejack shook her head "as much as Ah'd love ta help ya, there ain't no way."
Prince hummed. He took a look at the hundreds of trees around, each growing at least a hundreds of apples by itself. And there was even more behind the hills.
"Really? All these apples are harvested by two ponies?" he asked, suspicious, while Soarin waited on the side, letting Prince do the talking. He inspected one of the trees and experimented trying to buck them, but something went wrong and only few apples ever fell of, no matter how hard he tried. Even if he wasn't anywhere near Big Mac's or Applejack's level, he was still a seasoned flier after rigorous training. There was a trick to it, he just didn't find it yet.
"Eyup! Jus' like every year since Ah got mah cutie mark, it's been only me an' Mac. Jus' give us two or three weeks and we'll be done, lickety split!"
"And the profits from that work are...?"
"Jus' enough every year to pay da bills, get new tools, fix da fence, buy da food, get Applebloom new school books, raise a new barn..."
"New barn?"
"Don' ask. Anyway, da point is, we're barely makin' enough for ourselves. Not ta mention, there's always a risk of some disaster or plague destroyin' our harvest, so we gotta 'ave some emergency funds. We can't afford to hire any extra help 'round."
Prince hummed again. She was definitely not lying, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was off. He knew full well how ridiculous Big Mac's strenght was and if AJ was even half his level, harvesting wouldn't be such a big deal. Obviously, he knew little of commoners and their way of life, but to think that all these apples were barely enough to tend a single family of four ponies, it sounded unreal.
"That doesn't sound too..." he searched for a word, preferably the one that wouldn't hurt anyponies feelings "... efficient."
Applejack huffed and her eyes narrowed. Apparently, some feelings ended up hurt anyway.
"Well no offense mister fancy pants, but when Ah need an advice on how ta use a fork at a fancy restaurant, or if there's an ancient evil elder god tryin' to eat da sun, Ah'll be sure to call ya right away. Meanwhile, let da farmers do da farmin', okay?"
Blueblood groaned and rolled his eyes, but before he could go on to explain himself and inform her that Fancy Pants is an actual pony in Canterlot, they were interrupted by a sudden crash. They did noted that Soarin was a bit too quiet and now they found out why, as the light blue pegasus tried to crawl out of a giant pile of apples.
"What in tarnation?" asked Applejack, as they approached the pile.
"I..." Soarin raised his head to look at confused Blueblood and Applejack "...found... the trick!"
And then he passed out.
After one short visit at the hospital, they reached their next destination. To think that just yesterday it was in ruins, Sugarcube Corner was already all renovated and crowded more than usual. Mostly because Cakes couldn't find a way to stop Pinkie from throwing a "We are back and better than ever" party, which at least attracted more custumers in the middle of the afternoon.
"Sorry, but we're not looking for any new workers," explained Mrs Cake, in the middle of serving another batch of cookies on a table "but if it's any consolation, enjoy the party!"
Soarin sighed deeply. Another one down, but at least he got some treats on the go for free. A single muffin wasn't able to solve his problems, but at least it couldn't make them worse... unless it gave him cavities later. He shook out of the morbid thoughts and took a bite to try and stay positive.
"Hi Bluie! Hi Soarin!" like any other day, Pinkie Pie was attending her guests with unpony speed, masterfully balancing a tray of treats on her back "Hope you're having fun! Have a fortune cookie!"
"Thanks, Pinkie." Soarin grabbed one.
"Much appreciated, Miss Pie." Blueblood levitated one for himself.
"You're welcome!" and she disappeared in the middle of the crowd. Blueblood rose an eyebrow, as she left without saying a word. He expected a different reaction.
"Mine says 'Too bad, keep on trying'." announced Soarin, reading his fortune from a cookie. Blueblood hummed and crushed his cookie to read his as well. His jaw dropped.
It said 'Call me Pinkie!'
His eye twitched as he watched the piece of paper, dumfounded.
"How...?"
"Are you sure you can't hire anypony more?" asked Soarin.
"B3," announced Rainbow Dash, not even bothering to get her head from the desk "this is a government funded institution, it doesn't work like that."
"Missed," answered Thunderlane, yawning, as he sat on the other side of the table "we can't hire ponies on our own. The ministry just sends us a proper candidate whenever there's a need to refill the ranks. A5."
"Missed," replied Rainbow Dash "I only get to pick from a short list of approved candidates. But other than that? Nope. E2."
"Missed."
"And the next recruitment drive will be in...?" asked Blueblood.
Rainbow Dash chuckled and rolled her eyes.
"When one of us retires, gets fired," she shrugged "or when I become a Wonderbolt!" she smiled widely saying that, prompting Thunderlane to roll his eyes. The irony wasn't lost on Soarin- switching jobs with Rainbow Dash seemed like a cool idea. Too bad the next Wonderbolts tryouts were almost a year from now.
"IF you become a Wonderbolt!" teased Thunderlane, smugly smiling at his manager "Oh, and A6."
"Hey, if he could, than I might as well get a uniform already... No offense. Missed."
Thunderlane shot Rainbow Dash a glare, to which she just shrugged. Everypony knew why he was fired, what's the point in hiding it? 'Subtlety doesn't make you a winner' , so claimed Spitfire herself in one of many interviews.
“No, it's okay,” Soarin sighed deeply and fell heavily on the couch “That's true.”
He took a better look at the office room. They weren't kidding whenever they said that this branch was tiny, as this room was probably smaller than his current bedroom (though he had to note that Flitter's house was rather huge itself), barely fitting a desk, currently occupied by Rainbow Dash and Thunderlane, playing Battleclouds in between a mess of notes and documents. He sat right next to them on a small couch, looking at the wall full of maps and diagrams, including one for this weeks weather, which was all sunny and cloudless. Each shift only had two ponies working at the same time, just in case of an emergency which never came. No wonder he wasn't needed, they barely had work for themselves here.
Thunderlane and Blueblood exchanged looks and eventually Thunderlane took of his chair and walked to Soarin. He coughed before saying.
“Look, we'd be more than happy to hire you and I bet you'd be very high on the list, but there just isn't a way. I mean, this branch was originally made for just four ponies, but we made a petition to create a new workplace so we could hire Cloud Kicker permanently. We had enough trouble pulling that one of, I don't think they'll ever agree to it again.”
In response, Soarin just nodded, only occasionally sighing and looking more miserable every minute. Thunderlane scratched his head before saying the next thing, his last resort.
“How about Horsefield?” he asked. Soarin's ears perked.
“Horsefield?”
Horsefield was a so called 'big sister city' to Ponyville, founded at about the same time, but unlike farming town of Ponyville, it was a lively, industrial city full of various companies and factories. It wasn't nearly as big as Manehattan, but it was on its way. A lot of his new friends from Nirvana, including his new pupils, were living there.
Thunderlane continued.
“I mean, it's not uncommon for citizens of Ponyville to look for work in Horsefield, especially in the paper factory. It's about an hour flight away from here, the pay isn't great and it's not very gratifying, but it's better than nothing. I worked there for few months before my predecessor transferred to a different branch and I was hired here. Thankfully.”
This was the first actually possible idea he heard about today. He never really considered working outside of Ponyville, much less in Horsefield, but it was something. Hard work for minimum wage, far away from home wasn't very high on his list, but he had little choice in that matter.
“It doesn't sound too bad, I guess,” he shrugged “It's not like I'm going to prison."
"Yeah, in prison you get your own bed and three meals!” added Rainbow Dash, chuckling at it. It only earned her death glares from Thunderlane and Prince, to which she just rolled her eyes and turned away. With her out of the way, they approached Soarin, though neither did anything. After exchanging glares and waiting for the other to take the initiative, Prince finally was the first one to pony up and coughed before saying.
"Okay, that sounds like a plan B. Now, come on!" he lifted Soarin from the couch, grabbing the tail with his magic and heading towards the door, pulling a depressed pegasus along with him "We haven't seen entire Ponyville just yet!"
Thus the two were gone, leaving only bored out of her skull Rainbow Dash along with her second in command, currently rather irritated, Thunderlane. His piercing glare said more than any words he could now tell to his boss. She just sighed at it.
"Don't look at me like that. We both know he'll end up in that factory anyway. If there was work in Ponyville, then Cloud Chaser would have taken it long ago."
Thunderlane could tell her a lot what was on his mind and how he felt about insulting his friends, especially in times when they were most vulnerable, but he only needed to say one thing to feel satisfied. He smiled smugly as he said the magical words.
"A1."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow and lazily shifted her eyes at her board. Her jaw dropped as she found the last, lone cloud that avoided detection, until now. She muttered something crude under her nose, flipping her game board from the desk, sending all of it's small components flying on the ground, while she crossed her hooves and pouted for the rest of the day.
That evening, right before she has gone to sleep, Rainbow Dash realized her one and only critical mistake.
"Wait a sec, that wasn't even his turn!"
'Quills and Sofas' didn't have a vacant spot for another employee. Neither did the 'Aloe and Lotus Spa'. Or 'Flower Trio' florists. Or that 'whatsitsname' restaurant from yesterday. Or a grocery store. Or the post office. Or Carousel Boutique (this one Blueblood refused to enter, for some reason, so Soarin was doing the talking this time). Or anywhere else, for that matter, as they came to realize by the evening of traversing the entire town, ending their journey far from Ponyville, in Nirvana. And no, they couldn't hire him as well, despite him having plenty experience in this kind of business. Needless to say, it didn't surprise Soarin in the slightest and destroyed the rest of the confidence he held onto through the entire day. Now that he had none, he was free to sit at the counter, slam his face on it and just feel miserable.
Prince Blueblood, who kept him company along the way, had hard time figuring out what else to do and his options were severely limited. The least he could was buy him a drink, which Soarin had no intention of refusing and downed the whole glass of whiskey in one gulp. Prince hesitated over his own drink and after few minutes of silence, decided to take some drastic measures.
"You know, now that I think of it," he started talking. Soarin just stared at his empty glass "I could hire another pony for the library," he announced, but Soarin still didn't react. Blueblood coughed and continued "I mean, my stipend is big enough to cover two ponies and I would have more time for my studies and Shiny could use another free day once in a whi--..." he cut in the middle, interrupted by Soarin's hoof smacking the counter.
"Stop! Just... don't!" Soarin interjected "Look, I get what you're trying to do and I appreciate it, I really do. But... this is something I have to do myself."
"But, I'm just trying to help!"
"You already did. You helped me more than I could ever ask for and I couldn't be more grateful, but..." he tried to find some way to describe his feelings, but after a short pause, Blueblood just nodded and didn't try to press the issue any longer. Soarin sighed with relief at that, slowly coming to terms with the prospect of paper factory. At least it beats being unemployed, even if he was in for some of the bad moments in his life. There was still a hope something would come up in the meantime, but that was a matter of months, if not even years. So long as Flitter and Cloudchaser were fine, it would end up all right.
"Bartender, one Golden Rainbow for that handsome gentlecolt. My treat." said a female voice at his left. Soarin barely stopped himself from delicately declining, when he noticed... her "Normally I would ask what a lonely, cute stallion is doing here tonight, but I see you have a company. Hello there!" the smiling blonde maned, tan coated mare waved to Prince Blueblood, before returning her attention to Soarin.
"It's you, umm..." he stopped mid-sentence when he realized something crucial.
He still didn't know her name.