The Lost City

      “What do you mean ‘you have to go’?!” I demanded, sitting up angrily on the cloud couch. Rainbow Dash sighed, not angrily or anything like that. She seemed kinda remorseful, if anything.

“Look, Scoots,” said Rainbow Dash, with her own version of a gentle, big-sisterly tone. “You know I love ya, right? You’re awesome, and it’s been great living with you.”

“But not great enough to stop you from evicting me.” I snarled bitterly.

“I’m not evicting you” said RD, an edge of bitterness crawling onto her voice as well. “You’d have to be my tenant for me to evict you. You’d have to pay rent for me to evict you.”

“I pay rent!” I shouted, trying my best to stay angry. It was hard for me to be mad when talking to RD.

“I don’t think you get what rent is squirt,” said RD, shaking her head disappointedly. “What you’re supposed to do is pay me a set amount of money every month. We would have agreed on this amount beforehoof. Nah squirt, what you do is give me six bits every three months."

"I'm going through a rough time," I mumbled. As soon as I said it, I wished I hadn't. Rainbow punched me pretty hard in the shoulder, giving me a sort of snarling glare.

"Stop making excuses," she scolded. "I hate whiners. The reason you're going through such a rough patch is cause you're too lazy to pick up a job. Not cool, Scoots."

"Alright, geez, I'm sorry," I groaned, massaging where she hit me. "No need to get physical."

"That's your problem! You need to get physical!" yelled RD. She was getting pretty pissed, and it was clear that I should tread lightly if I enjoyed my teeth in my mouth as opposed to down my throat.

“I’m really sorry, Dash,” I said, bowing my head slightly. “I… I’ll start looking for work today. Just please let me stay.” Rainbow’s gaze softened slightly. She slid over next to me on the couch, rutling my mane gently, in the way she always did when she felt bad about something.

“Scoots, you need to start thinking about getting a place of your own,” said Dash. “You can’t live with me forever, even if that does sound pretty sweet.”

“Why not?” I asked, more for the sake of argument than anything. Rainbow saw through me like I was made of glass, but she humored me anyway.

“What’s gonna happen,” said RD, a sly grin on her face. “When you see some hot hunk of stallion and you wanna bring him home?”

“I’ll make sure you remember our pact, then slip you some bits so you can go take Aj out for the night,” I said smugly. The pact I was talking about was our agreement to make ourselves scarce if the other had a guy (or girl) over for the night.

“Alright, smart guy,” said Rainbow, significantly less amused. “I tried to be nice about this, but you have to go. This is your thirty days. Either get a job or get a housing app.” I looked around the place, trying to imagine myself leaving. I couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried. This was the first place I’d ever lived in, outside of the orphanage. This was the first home I ever really had. This was where Rainbow Dash was. I couldn’t just leave. But, of course, I couldn’t just get a job, either.

“You know why I can’t do that.” I said glumly. Again, I succeeded in pissing Dash off. Thankfully, she kept her hooves to herself this time.

“No, actually, I don’t,” she said angrily. “Even I can keep down a job Scoots, and I’m the laziest mare you’ll ever meet. Why won’t you just look?”

“I did look though,” I promised. “I looked for weeks! And I still look, all the time! There’s just one problem.”

“And that is?”

“Every place I try to work for is owned by Filthy Rich,” I sighed.

“So?” Somehow, RD wasn’t seeing the massive issue here. If I was talking to Bloom or Sweetie, though, they’d definitely get it.

“So, they’re owned by Filthy Rich,” I said. “That means, by extension, they’re owned by Diamond Tiara. If I go work for them, I’ll be owned by Diamond Tiara.”

“Really? That’s your issue here?” asked Rainbow in disbelief. “You don’t wanna work for Diamond’s dad?”

“My pride is too strong,” I admitted. This time, RD socked me really hard in the same shoulder, giving me a glare as she did.

“Pride don’t pay bills kid,” she said sharply. “Suck it up. You’re a grown-up now, so it’s time you grow up. You have responsibilities now, and you’re gonna have to start making sacrifices.” Rainbow still wasn’t getting it, which was kinda weird to me. She normally understood me perfectly, sometimes even better than the girls.

“It’s not just about my pride,” I said through gritted teeth. That mare has a killer jab! “If she finds out that I work for her dad, she’s going to lord it over me and basically ruin my entire life.” Rainbow Dash jumped to her hooves and flew through the wall into the kitchen. She returned a short second later with a pamphlet in her mouth. She spat it onto the couch and looked at me expectantly.

“Well?” she asked. “What about these guys?” I looked down at the pamphlet she’d given me. It was all black except for the writing, which was a ghostly green. In the corner was a classic, white, bedsheet ghost.

“Phantom Corporation.” I read. “The best furniture in Equestria, at scary low prices! Now hiring, no prior experience necessary.”

“Congrats, you know how to read,” said Dash impatiently. “Well? Have these guys sold their souls to the devil?”

“No, I don’t think so,” I said, studying the paper. “Hm. I think I’ll give this place a shot. Um… Do I still have to move out?” I tilted my head and batted my eyelashes, watching RD’s face morph into disgust. She hated when I did that, probably cause it always worked.

“You can stay,” said Rainbow slowly. Just as I went to jump for joy and sucker-punch the sun, she made sure she added, “If you get the job and start paying rent. And I mean real, grown-up rent, with a lease and everything. Like, ‘if you don’t pay me, you go to jail’ rent. Got it?” I nodded an affirmative, then floated over to RD’s “office” (or Wonderbolts memorabilia shrine, depending on how you looked at it), and started writing up my resume.

I put my name, my date of birth, my references (Applebloom, Sweetie, RD, and Ms. Cheerilee), my education (unlike Bloom, I finished high school. Unlike Sweetie, I didn’t start college), and, most importantly, my Cutie Mark. I was so excited when I finally got my Cutie Mark, during my last year of elementary school. I knew I would be a late bloomer, but geez, would it have killed anypony if I got it a few years earlier?

The Mark was pretty simple, just a monkey wrench crossing with hammer into an “x”. No deep meaning to decypher, no symbolic imagery, just a wrench and hammer. I loved it, as basic as it was. I always had a way of fixing stuff, mostly out of necessity. It seemed like every week I needed to tinker with that old scooter. A Cutie Mark that meant I could fix stuff was probably a really good thing to have if I was going to work for a furniture corporation.

Once I had the minor bits dealt with, like my address and contact info, I reread it about a million times, then flew my resume over to the Boutique. After begging for a few minutes, Sweetie Belle agreed to proofread it. The look on her face said I screwed up really badly, but she was more than happy to fix my spelling and grammar. She smiled proudly at me, handed me my resume, and even walked over to the Furniture stand in the marketplace with me. The girl at the stand told me that she’ll take the resume and call the main Phantom building in Ponyville and said I should speak to a mare named Alex.  Before we trotted away, I caught sight of a partial view of photo under some papers on the edge of the stand and the image in the photo was a beautiful diamond tiara, and I don’t mean the mare Diamond Tiara.

It was a golden headpiece with a bunch of gems, not just diamonds. I saw sapphires,emeralds, and some stones I couldn’t even recognize. It was one of those things that you look at and imagine your whole life with it, even though you know you’d have to work several lifetimes to ever afford the down payment.

I stared at that picture for a good two minutes before Sweetie Belle got me out of there. And, over the course of that day, I entirely forgot about it. I was stoked, really, to get back home and tell RD the good news. My resume was looking good, and the job was pretty much guaranteed.

Now, all I had to do was actually get the job.