Grief is the Price We Pay

by Scyphi

Acorns

To go job hunting meant the two would have to disguise themselves again, and in doing so, they both agreed it’d be smartest to adjust their disguises as much as possible so to look different from the disguises they had used to leave the Crystal Empire with, in case someone there had indeed noticed them boarding the train they had departed on. For Thorax, adjusting the disguise was simple enough, as he merely took back on the same disguise of the dark grey stallion again, still tweaked to be a unicorn with the cutie mark of a pair of books, but further refined to be slightly taller, slightly leaner, and with slightly harder edges around his snout. Of these changes, Thorax admitted that he had selected them all at random except for the unicorn’s horn, as he was finding that disguising himself as a unicorn was more useful than disguised as an earth pony or pegasus because it enabled him to draw upon his magic at will without raising immediate suspicion.

Spike, however, had to work a bit harder adjusting his disguise. Of the elements he had worn before when leaving the Crystal Empire, he chose to keep only the fedora; he opted to lose the trench coat because in this warmer climate he figured he would only get hot under it. He was also going to forgo the sunglasses as well until Thorax took them with his magic and was able to magically remove the tinting on the lenses, making them appear as regular spectacles. Wearing them made Spike feel more confident at pretending to be a totally different dragon, and Thorax commented that they made the dragon seem more “intelligent,” so Spike ended up keeping them as well.

Then, to insure that Spike looked the part of an average citizen innocently looking for an earnest pay rather than some bum off the street like he feared they both were in danger of appearing as already, he also pulled out from his bag of disguises a thin white button-up shirt with a navy sweater vest to go over it. At the bottom of the bag he also found a maroon bow tie, the butterfly wing-like ends of which were decorated with three small diamond-shaped gems on each wing. It brought back bittersweet memories of life before his banishment immediately, as the bow tie had been a gift from Rarity, a mare Spike was growing increasingly certain he would not see again. But it was with that thought in mind that led him to choosing to wear the tie as well, completing the attire.

Thus, upon insuring they were straight on the aliases they had adopted for themselves—“Thornton” for Thorax and “Spark” for Spike—they then headed out into the streets of Vanhoover, looking for any jobs they could do to earn any amount of money at all. Because of their circumstances, Spike felt urged to not be particular about what sort of jobs they pursued, but knew they still needed to keep in mind their skillsets for the jobs they applied for. Spike, of course, had the skills of bookkeeping, organization, notetaking and transcriber, as well as some cooking and housekeeping, all of which were skills he had learned while growing up with Twilight, but he wasn’t confident of how well they’d apply to the sort of jobs he could hope to get. This was all complicated by Thorax’s skillsets however, which were notably less diverse than Spike’s as they included basically just general heavy-lifting and moving things around, common tasks within a changeling hive. Spike noted the changeling also had math skills, but according to Thorax, only at an intermediate level and doubted it’d be too applicable in a job specialized in the field. He also had language skills, being multilingual, but it quickly became clear that there didn’t seem to be much demand for such a thing in Vanhoover at present.

In fact, it quickly became clear that their greater problem was not that their skills were limited or select but that the job market in Vanhoover was choosey about whom they hired. Among the first jobs they tried were various restaurants operating in the area, but even when the two had enough qualifications to meet the job requirements, they were generally turned down simply because they had no actual previous experience working in a fast-paced restaurant. At other potential employers they found that other applicants would simply win out over them for a variety of minor reasons. Furthermore, most employers only needed to hire one new employee and not two, unable to take on both of them at the same time. In such events, the employers ironically showed immediate interest in Thorax who, thanks to his disguise, appeared as a common pony, whereas Spike, regardless of his own disguise was clearly not a pony, and the dragon quickly found that Vanhoover ponies, not adjusted to seeing a dragon wandering their streets, didn’t know what to expect from Spike and were more inclined to just not take the chance, despite Spike’s assurances that he would cause no trouble. So these employment offers quickly didn’t go far.

They weren’t interested in splitting up and taking separate jobs anyway, because that meant one would have to go work it on their own while the other did likewise somewhere else. Not only did that mean it would be harder for them to be able to keep track of each other, especially if trouble arose, Spike feared Thorax wouldn’t be prepared to operate on his own in this unfamiliar land of Equestria that the dragon had realized by now the changeling really only knew so much about, and Thorax likewise feared for Spike’s safety on his own, given their present circumstances. Nonetheless, even when they relented and attempted pursue jobs separately in hopes of bettering their chances they didn’t make much further progress, still facing many of the same problems plus some new ones. Thorax nearly got a job moving cargo at the Vanhoover docks but this crumbled upon learning that due to the circumstances of the job, Thorax wouldn’t be able to actually start until the following week, and likely wouldn’t get his first paycheck until the end of the current moon, too long for their needs as they needed the funds sooner. Spike also found a possible job as a junior clerk of a small business, but it fell through when the employer made it clear that he needed Spike needed to commit to staying at the job for up to half a year to be hired, and Spike knew he shouldn’t stay in Vanhoover that long with ponies possibly coming after him soon.

There was also the problem of some of the more reputable employers automatically disqualifying them upon learning that neither of them had resumes they could offer (which led to some initial confusion on Thorax’s part as the changeling had never heard of such a thing before now, and still seemed to struggle to understand why such a document was needed). These woes were then all topped by the fact that neither Spike or Thorax were familiar with Vanhoover and its job market, and the only surefire way they had to find potential jobs was to search for businesses that happened to have signs saying they were hiring. And they found these signs were sometimes not easy to find, as with some businesses, they learned from chatter with passersby on the street, didn’t even put up signs and instead advertised that they were hiring through other means the two didn’t have ready access to. And so, after spending the rest of the morning searching unsuccessfully, the two were getting frustrated and disheartened by the time noon rolled past.

“I didn’t think job hunting would be this hard,” Thorax murmured to Spike as their wandering led them into a city park.

“I didn’t either,” Spike confessed, who thought it would’ve been easy to find short-term work they could do to earn some quick bits. It was back in Ponyville at least, which only served to make the dragon homesick for the village he couldn’t return to. He stopped and sighed, surveying their surroundings. “I haven’t seen any other potential places to check for a little bit…have you?”

Thorax shook his disguised head sadly.

Spike took in a deep breath then let it out slowly again. “…let’s take a break, then,” he suggested. “Find someplace shady to sit and think about where we want to go from here…maybe rethink how we’re approaching this.”

“Can we get a drink too?” Thorax inquired, panting slightly. Spike noticed that his tongue was hanging out of his mouth perhaps a bit too far for a normal pony, and wondered suddenly if it might draw unwanted attention. “I’m parched.”

Spike looked around the park they were now roughly in the middle of. “I think I saw a drinking fountain around here somewhere…” he said, turning around to look for it. “…I don’t see it now though.”

“We’ll split up to look for it,” Thorax suggested, walking off in one direction. “This park’s not that big, it shouldn’t be too hard to find. Whoever finds it first can point the other to where it’s at.” He glanced back at Spike. “Maybe we’ll find another job offer to explore along the way.”

Though he doubted that at this point, Spike nodded and headed off in the opposite direction, looking for the drinking fountain. After only a few minutes of searching though, he found it located to one far side of the park. In comparison to the few other public outdoor drinking fountains Spike had seen in his time, most of them in Canterlot, it wasn’t an especially fancy fountain; it was composed of a small central column with a series of spouts poking out from both sides that dribbled out clear water at a steady rate. The water then collected into one of two small basins below the spouts, one hung lower than the other so foals could easily drink too. Spike stopped to get a drink, relieved to find the water was cool and fresh then proceeded to look for Thorax.

He at first waited at the fountain, thinking that Thorax would find it on his own soon enough. But when the disguised changeling didn’t appear, Spike decided not to wait any longer and, after taking note of the fountain’s location so he wouldn’t lose track of it again, he proceeded to go searching for his friend. When he didn’t immediately find Thorax, he started to worry that the changeling had found trouble, but instead was relieved to find Thorax standing amongst a small cluster of trees, and appeared instead to have simply become distracted.

“There you are,” Spike said as he strolled up to the camouflaged changeling. He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the fountain. “I found the drinking fountain.” He studied Thorax who was gazing up into the limbs of the trees surrounding him, a faint and calm smile on his face, and followed his gaze. “What are you doing anyway?”

“Shh,” Thorax shushed softly. “It’s an acorn grove.”

Spike blinked and studied the trees again. “Well, it’s certainly a group of oak trees,” he agreed, “but I don’t know if I’d call it a grove per se…”

“No, no, it’s…” Thorax interrupted, seeing Spike didn’t understand. He broke his reverent gaze from the trees and looked at his dragon friend, suddenly hesitant. “…you’d just laugh at this though.”

“I won’t laugh,” Spike promised.

“…you promise?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Thorax raised an eyebrow. Spike shrugged.

“It’s a Pinkie Promise,” he explained. “You break it, and you’re likely to lose your friend.”

---

“FOREVER!” Pinkie Pie suddenly declared without any forewarning, startling Mrs. Cake as she stirred batter, nearly spilling it all over the floor of Sugarcube Corner. She gave her pink assistant a puzzled glare as Pinkie returned to decorating cupcakes as if nothing happened.

---

Not sure he understood, but satisfied as to the truthfulness of Spike’s promise, Thorax glanced around to make sure they weren’t at risk of being overheard, but the nearest ponies were a small gathering of foals playing kickball several yards away, nowhere near close enough to overhear. Certain of their privacy, the disguised changeling gazed up into the tree branches hanging over his head. “There’s a changeling legend,” Thorax began to explain solemnly. “It explains that, long ago, a very special acorn fell and began to grow, and from that plant sprang the first changelings.” The changeling in hiding respectfully studied the acorns hanging from the limbs of the surrounding oak trees. “It’s been said ever since then that acorns carry a sort of sacred…aura of wisdom, knowledge, and enlightenment. If a changeling surrounds themselves with that aura, it’s believed you can tap into some of that wisdom, and help be guided to where you need to be in life.” Beginning to see what this was all about, Spike let his gaze get drawn up into the tree limbs as well while Thorax continued. “Back at the hive, we have a whole acorn grove nearby, a sort of sacred place of sorts where we grow acorns and changelings can peacefully go to ponder and mediate. Some even pray. I’ve heard that even Queen Chrysalis routinely visits the grove. So when I saw this small acorn grove, I couldn’t help but stop and ponder. If anybody could use a little guidance right now, it’d be us.”

Spike stared up into the tree limbs for a long moment then glanced over at Thorax. “The first changelings grew from a plant?” he repeated with uncertainty.

Thorax grinned sheepishly and broke his gaze from the plants. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to push my beliefs onto you like that,” he apologized in good humor.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Spike said, returning his gaze up at the trees as he tried to maintain an open mind. “You’re not wrong after all…with how things have been going for us the past couple of days…I guess it couldn’t hurt.”

Thorax's grin grew in earnest and returned his gaze up to the tree limbs, silently ruminating. Spike did likewise, trying to clear his mind and, out of respect for Thorax, attempted to give this an honest try. For the first minute, the little dragon didn’t really notice anything significant. But gradually he began to be aware of the peaceful silence that had settled around them. A gentle breeze stirred the branches of the oak trees they stood among, and soon Spike had to concede that, if nothing else, it was indeed a very nice place to sit and think.

Then the breeze blew a forgotten newspaper into his face.

Thorax snorted as he attempted to suppress a laugh, ruining the moment, while Spike worked to pull the paper off his face. Holding it before him, he saw just what exactly had flown into his face with a frown. “Sheesh, at least it could’ve been the funnies,” he grumbled. “but no…”

“What page is it, then?” Thorax asked, curious.

Spike rotated the paper in his claws as he observed just what it was that he held. “The classifieds, actually,” he observed.

“The classifieds?”

“A portion of newspaper where ponies can have little ads printed in it. You know, things like yard sales, carriages for sale, and…” Spike blinked and gave the classifieds he was about to toss away before him renewed attention. “…job offers.” But then he frowned. “Aw, but these classifieds are probably days out of date.”

“Well, maybe not,” Thorax injected and pointed one of his masked hooves at the paper’s header. “Isn’t that today’s date?”

Spike blinked again as he realized the changeling was right. “But…” the dragon began, running the odds of such a lucky find in his head. “…you do realize how slim the chances of something so useful just getting blown to us like that are…right?”

The two exchanged glances for a moment. Then, grinning softly, Thorax returned his gaze to the limbs of the oak trees and the acorns hanging from them.

“Gratias balanis ago,” he murmured humbly aloud in his native tongue, before nudging Spike as he turned to leave, not questioning the event further. “C’mon. Show me where that drinking fountain is real quick, then we can head back to the warehouse to look those classifieds over in closer detail.”

Spike watched the changeling walk off, for a moment at a loss for words, before gazing up at the acorn-laden tree limbs himself. “Um…thank you,” he murmured aloud a little self-consciously. Then he caught himself. “I-I mean, gr—gratias tibi ago.”

He then scampered off to quickly catch up with Thorax, the oak limbs rustling in the breeze again as they departed.

Author's Note:

A more light-hearted and world-building chapter today. We're getting into the more "slice of life" part of the story, so these will be getting more frequent.

On the subject of the acorns, this all stems from the MLP comics (for those that don't know) which in one issue explained the origin of the changelings comes from a rotten acorn that fell long ago and grew into this wicked and twisted-looking plant. When a well-intentioned Starswirl the Bearded nailed up a sign warning about the dangers of this plant, the plant broke open and freed the changelings from within...according to the comics. Since then, I've been debating about how much of this I'm actually supposed to treat as canon, especially with all that season six has explored about changelings, but this story did give me a sort of "creation myth" vibe, and I thought that, at the very least, it could serve as a neat basis for something of a belief system for changelings. So I made some adjustments to it (originally for another changeling-related fanfic I was planning, presented in greater detail than what I give here, but "To Where And Back Again" airing messed up my plans for that completely) and stuck it here.

And since I probably won't get another chance until after the weekend, merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody. May your celebrations be peaceful, safe, and cheery.

Comments

[Bob the ODST]

Thanks for the chapter and have a happy holidays to you too. :)

[Laluzi]

I really liked the whole deal with changeling... religion, for a lack of a better word. So rarely are they ascribed any actual culture. And hey, the acorns seem to be pretty benevolent, at least.

Thanks for the update, and merry Christmas to you too!

[Fireheart 1945]

Merry Christmas, and may God go with you!

[Cross Lament]

Mention of Rarity and Pinkie just made me remember: I really, really hope Twilight is prepared to have her plot kicked up between her wings until she's sitting on her own horn, once her friends find out what she's been party to...

[Zulu 625]

Pinkie yelling "FOREVER" randomly has me Lol

[GrimmWolfDragon]

Good chapter and happy holidays to all.

[Scyphi]

7815909
Without giving too much away, they'd have to beat Spike to it first.

...don't know if that'll really be that enjoyable to read when it eventually happens, but then I also know what will happen between now and then, so...

7815555 7815573 7815627
Many thanks for the well wishes!

[Matthewl419]

Furthermore, most employers only needed to hire one new employee and not two, unable take on both of them at the same time.

I might recommend adding a "to" right before the "take" in here.

[Fireheart 1945]

7816411

[Scyphi]

7816819
Fixed.

[KiraM]

language looks Latin?ish

[Shadow of doubt]

7902370 it is latin

[Julian the Dreamer]

That last bit was poth profound and touching :D

[Cursed Quill]

augh, not that origin!… though it's at least not treated as history.

To Where And Back Again" airing messed up my plans for that completely

You're not beholden to it.

per say

per se
It's latin, after all.

[StarTrotter]

The look on the squirrel's face when he smells the changeling acorn is one of the funniest comic panels I've ever seen. Glad to see it crop up, at least as superstition. Great way to incorporate it.

[nekoparalover]

Are you religious yourself? I felt a lot of belief when it was talking about the acorns. It was pleasant.

[Scyphi]

8585196
Indeed I am!

[Vigriff]

Nice nod to the Fiendship is Magic comics.

[JazzyWaffles]

“I didn’t think job hunting would be this hard ,” Thorax murmured to Spike as their wandering led them into a city park.

As someone who has been job hunting for a year with no success and is in debt now, I feel this chapter WAY too strongly. Ugh.

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

Spike watched the changeling walk off, for a moment at a loss for words, before gazing up at the acorn-laden tree limbs himself. “Um…thank you,” he murmured aloud a little self-consciously. Then he caught himself. “I-I mean, gr— gratias tibi ago .”

He’s learning.

[JazzyWaffles]

8937822
Good news and bad news, past me. You found a job last year and you often would rather jump off a bridge than go do your job. :/

[The Weaver]

10051094
That is sooo me.

I missed this story...