The hall I now found myself in was much narrower, much less clean, and sparsely lit with damp lights overhead. There was no longer any art or potted plants, just cold stone that endlessly extended in front of me. The creatures prodded me forward and had me stop next to a large wooden bin on the side of the hallway, there they reached down and unclasped the manacles around my hooves, tossing them into the bin. It seems there was no longer any point to me being chained up now that I was in here.
“I suppose it would be too much to expect that the slave quarters are as well maintained as the rest of the castle?” I sarcastically asked the creatures with me.
And as I had learned already from my short experience with them they were very good at ignoring others.
I huffed in annoyance and walked down the hallway, I didn’t know how far I had to go or what my personal lodgings would be like when I found them but hopefully they at least had real beds for their slaves. It seemed counter-intuitive to not at least make sure your slaves were in good enough shape to work.
With any luck they had a nice bathroom and a mirror too. I need to see how I look already.
I came to a turn in the hallway that opened up into a large circular room. To my left in the middle of the wall was a set of plain wooden double doors, while to my right immediately opposite that the room extended to another gate of iron bars, beyond which I saw another creature sitting at a desk and then yet another set of iron bars, closing them off from both me in here and whatever that part of the castle was on the other side. The creature at the desk had their back turned to me but they looked a bit different than the others I had seen. Thinner, more lithe, a female one of them perhaps? Did she look over the female slaves? I wasn’t sure if I should talk to her or try the doors but considering she was behind more locked bars and wasn’t paying any attention to me in the slightest I figured the doors were the best bet.
I took a few seconds to tidy up my mane before going to the doors and pulling them open. I really wish I had a mirror and some mascara to apply but the situation is a bit too unfortunate for that.
“Well, I guess this is where I’ll be staying.” I couldn’t help but voice my thoughts out loud as I surveyed the large room and its many occupants in front of me.
It actually was a rather nice room, the walls and floors made of a well-polished white marble with numerous ferns to pretty it up, it was large enough to comfortably hold a few hundred ponies if necessary as well. There were a number of benches and fluffy chairs to sit on and in the middle of the room were dozens of pillows and blankets to use. On both sides of the rooms were more doors that I assume led to actual bedrooms and more private areas.
And then of course there were the other slaves who were here.
Many ponies, but also griffons, hippogriffs, a few young female dragons, and many creatures who I recognized from Klugetown and other places but did not know the names of. It seems my captors had no single preference when it came to who they enslaved.
“Um, hello there.” I waved, always would like to make a good first impression.
I didn’t get much of a reaction, a few glances, a few raised eyebrows, but most simply ignored me and went about their business beforehand. Either just resting or chatting with each other. Obviously this wasn’t the friendliest group and if I was a little less peeved myself I’d probably understand that their situation probably led to them not having the best manners. As it was though I was vaguely annoyed and insulted that I received such a cold welcome. You’d think they’d be more receptive, the slaves should stick together and help one another should they not?
But instead I was just standing there unsure of what to do next until I heard someone call out to me.
“A new arrival huh? Well, welcome to your new home.”
I turn to look at the voice that spoke to me and saw a pony, a unicorn with a white coat just like me, but she had a yellow mane and tail with a single orange streak going through it, blue eyes just a shade lighter than my own, and a Cutie Mark of a sunrise. Her mane was rather pretty but it didn’t look like she did anything with it, a shame, with a little care and the right shampoo and styling she could really be something.
Oh I’m getting off-topic.
“Well at least someone is polite enough to say hello.” I said to her.
“I just happen to be the most recent one here before you, figured it’s the least I could do, nobody gave me much help when I first got here.” The pony grumpily looked at the rest of the room, some of the occupants at least had the shame to embarrassedly avert their eyes.
“Thank you for that, my name is Rarity by the way.” I told her, fluffing my mane as I did. Because yes of course I have to.
“Daylight Gleam, pleased to meet you.” She held out her hoof for a shake which I graciously accepted. “So how’d you end up here?”
“Well I was, and still am I suppose, a diplomatic envoy meant to open up relations with this country.” I was smiling proudly at first when I said I was a diplomatic envoy but as I finished up my face fell, there is simply no possible way I’m going to be able to do my job. And I don’t even know if I want to do my job anymore. Yes, yes, friendship is magic and all that but really. These creatures were. The. Rudest!
“Bad luck there.” Daylight Gleam said as she smiled awkwardly at what I was supposed to do. “So what happened? Although I can guess that it’s probably similar to what happened to me.”
I sighed and rubbed at my temples. “About a day out from this island our ship was accosted by one of theirs and some of these creatures captured us. We were chained up and imprisoned in their ship and eventually brought here.”
Daylight Gleam was nodding along as I explained what had happened to me. “Yep, just about the same thing happened to me.” She put a comforting hoof over my shoulder and started to walk us to the door on the right side of the room. “Come on, there’s some baths to tidy up in through here, and the beds too if you wanna get some rest after.”
That sounds absolutely wonderful.
“Thank you, again.” I said as I walked beside her. As we walked through the doors I decided to ask her the obvious question. “So you were also attacked by these creatures while out on a boat?”
She grimaced, her eyes wandered a bit before she decided to settle with looking at the ground. “It’s, uh, kind of a dumb story. You see a little while back my two idiot friends decided to get married-”
I couldn’t help it, at the word “married” my eyes lit up and I squeed in delight.
“Married! Oh how wonderful, what was the ceremony like? How was the wedding dress? Do you perhaps have any pictures of it?”
“Woah, hold on now!” She pushed me away from her and started shaking her hooves. “It wasn’t that big of an affair or anything, you need to calm down.”
I giggled in embarrassment, she was right, I just got a little over-excited there.
I wish I was married.
“Sorry, sorry. But, um, you were saying then?”
“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes at me. “As I was saying, my two friends decided to get married and they were going to have their honeymoon be a romantic cruise. Well they invited me along, the three of us have been lifelong companions and they said it just didn’t feel right to leave me behind. I felt a little embarrassed and I really didn’t want to be a third wheel but a cruise also sounded like a fun way to relax too so I decided, what the hay?” She sighed as she continued on. “Unfortunately, my friends are idiots, they missed the cruise’s departure and I was stuck, absolutely alone, on a romantic cruise for couples. One unfortunate storm later that blew us off course and we get attacked and enslaved by these guys.” She finished as she waved a hoof in the air, gesturing at the castle around us.
“I’m terribly sorry, that’s a rotten bit of bad luck yourself.”
She shrugged. “I think it’s my punishment for spitefully wishing something bad would happen to all the lovey-dovey couples on the cruise.” Daylight Gleam looked me in the face. “Oh yeah, you called them “creatures” didn’t you? You don’t know what these things are yet do you?”
My eyebrows rose. No, no I did not know just what exactly these creatures were.
“I’m afraid I don’t, they haven’t been the most talkative of creatures I’ve met in my life.”
“Heh, that’s the truth.” She smirked. “But anyways, these things are called Trolls. This whole island is their kingdom.” She looked up a bit at my horn. “So how good are you with magic by the way?”
Now I just raised a single questioning eyebrow. “I’m alright I suppose, I’ve never considered myself particularly skilled in magic though. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering, I was gonna say not to get any funny ideas if you think you’re pretty strong. Magic doesn’t work on these guys.” She shrugged as her eyes narrowed, seeming to think about something. “Learned that the hard way.”
“Magic doesn’t work on them? That’s quite unusual.” Although now that she mentioned it I was reminded of what happened back on the boat, it really was like my magic just didn’t do anything to the troll.
“How do you think the trolls managed to maintain their independence despite being so close to the Storm King’s old domain?” Daylight said as she pushed open another door, leading us into a surprisingly opulent looking bath. “Here we are, I’d suggest cleaning up and getting to rest pretty quick, there’s probably gonna be plenty of work for us all tomorrow.”
I groaned in discomfort. “Ughhh, please don’t remind me.” I made sure to drag out the groan, she had to know just how opposed I was to all of this after all.
Daylight Gleam just giggled at my dramatic flair though. “Sorry but there’s not much you can do about it.”
I pouted a bit but as I looked around the bath my mood lifted a little. There were a few bubbling tubs off to one side, meaning that we at least got hot water on demand, and I saw shelves of combs and brushes that should work moderately well to maintain my mane with. Although unfortunately it didn’t look like there was much else in the way of mane care around. A series of sinks and one long mirror stretched along the opposing wall, I walked towards them to test them out. A single gold (obviously painted) faucet stood at each sink with two knobs beside it, a quick turn gave me either cold or hot water to wash my hooves and face with.
“Could be worse.” I grumbled satisfactorily.
Peering down I opened up the cabinets under the sink and was rewarded with stacks of soap and towels of all sizes. Looking back over at my companion I asked if she would like to join me while I took a quick dip.
“Miss Gleam? Care to join me while I freshen up?”
The only other slave who I had a friendly rapport with just shook her head though. “No thanks, I’m already freshened up myself. I’m going to be heading off to bed, see you tomorrow morning.”
I let her go and decided to take a good look at myself in the mirror. Ugh. Unacceptable. I looked decidedly average, still quite good for most but not nearly good enough by my own standards. Unfortunately I could do no more than frown, it would be best to clean up a little bit first so I turned around and sunk into one of the baths.
Mmm, now that felt good. Oh it worked wonders on my joints and my hooves after being cooped up in that cell and forced to wear those chains. Now it still couldn’t compare at all to Ponyville Spa but it was still a lovely feeling compared to everything else I had to deal with the past day.
I spent entirely too long in the polished tub, almost falling asleep, before I managed to pull myself out and dry off. A… short… time later spent brushing and combing my mane and I was out of the baths and ready to get a good night’s rest.
“This. Is. Unbearable!”
I complained to Daylight Gleam as I relentlessly scrubbed at some unknown stain in the white carpet beneath me. No matter what I did or what combination of cleaning materials I used the stain simply wouldn’t go away. Now I would like to say that I was rather confident in my cleaning abilities, mostly when it came to clothes yes but still, however this was not the type of hard work I was made to do. And furthermore I was rudely woken up, completely interrupting my much needed beauty sleep, by some trolls and pushed along here with nothing but a small bowl of thin gruel for breakfast so I was already in a foul mood from the start.
Apparently some soiree was held here last night, it was the chambers of someone called Duke Tulepule and now we were being forced to clean it up. This castle was absolutely massive, Daylight Gleam had told me that the King and the rest of the royal family lived far away from where we stayed in the slave quarters while numerous other lords and nobles lived inside and close to the castle as well. A bit of an odd arrangement to me, not like how it was in Canterlot and the royal palace at all but to each their own I suppose. And they loved their parties. From what I heard it was nothing but party after party and the slaves were always being made to clean up afterwards or occasionally serve as waiters and waitresses during the party.
At least they didn’t put on any new chains. But then again why would they need to? What would I even do? Where would I go? They didn’t even bother putting chains on the griffons or other creatures that could fly. And so we were still all stuck here with nothing to do but obey.
Horrid.
“Yeah it’s what I’ve been stuck doing since coming here too.” Daylight said with resignation.
“I simply cannot believe that this is what those despicable trolls are going to have me be doing!” I huffed indignantly. “My talents could be put to far better use!”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Uh, you seem more upset that the work isn’t to your liking than the fact you’ve been enslaved.”
“Darling. Please.” I responded to her. “It is the principle of the matter. It is a gross misuse of me to simply have me be a… a maid! I have so much artistic skill to offer! They could have me doing anything and yet here I am cleaning up stains! It’s just disgraceful.”
“Cleaning duty is better than farm duty at least.” She shrugged as she sprayed some kind of solvent on the couches she was attending.
I looked back at the wicker basket I had lying beside me, full of not just rags and sponges but also bottles with cleaning solutions in them. Although having no idea what they were I didn’t know what would be best to treat this stain. And I still had no idea what the stain itself was so at best I would just be randomly attacking it! How do they expect me to clean like this?!
Sighing and rubbing at my temples as I pushed the basket away I decided to sit back for a second to relax. Looking around at the décor I was somewhat disappointed with what I saw. The drapes were a pretty purple color but utterly plain with no special trim or detail on them, there were numerous vases of flowers arrayed around the room but in such a… practical and mechanical manner. It was too calculated, there was no flair or spontaneity. Even the flowers in the vases were arranged too perfectly to be pretty, every arrangement was exactly the same with how they were put together too. I was just sad looking at it all because it could be so much better. With just a little creativity this suite could be so much more, I can already picture in my head how I would spruce things up if I had the chance.
Small chance at that though.
Even the only painting in the room was similarly disappointing. A mere portrait of who I assume to be Duke Tulepule himself. The painting was well enough of course on a technical basis but that’s all it was. Where was the real art?
Drab. Droll. Dreadful.
If I was at least somewhere pretty this would be a lot easier.
“Yoohoo, anybody home?”
I was snapped out of my musings by Daylight Gleam poking me in the shoulder. Shaking my head I got back up and levitated a rag to the stain I was attempting to work on.
“Yes, yes, sorry. I got a bit distracted thinking of some things.”
“Just don’t let the trolls catch you slacking off. And we really do need to get this room looking spotless by the end of the day.” Daylight said as she affixed me with a somewhat worried look.
I felt a bit bad and a little embarrassed that she felt the need to look at me in such a way.
“I’m going to go gather up the sheets from the bedrooms, you keep working on that stain alright?” She said to me as she walked on by.
“Yes, of course. I’ll find some way to get rid of this.” I responded as I gave this decidedly stubborn stain a glare. I wonder if Twilight knew any magical cleaning spells?
Grabbing one of the random bottles of liquid in my basket I decided it might as well be the best place to start. The blue liquid sloshed around a bit as I pointed the squirt nozzle at the rag I was levitating and pulled the trigger. Now that my rag was wet with… whatever this was, maybe the stain would finally come out. I tried using both my hooves this time and really scrubbed at it, I wasn’t letting this dumb stain beat me even if this whole situation was absurd and unfair!
Oof, now I was sweating. I think I overexerted myself. My body was not made for this kind of work. Where was Applejack when I needed her?
I wiped a bit of sweat from my brow and looked over the other cleaning supplies I had. Grabbing two of the other bottles I poured a little bit from each of them onto the rag and started using my magic to grind the rag into the stain. I don’t know what I’m doing but I’ll make it work. I made sure to go in concentric circles so not even the smallest little dot on the outside of the stain would be left over. This may not be my preferred work but my attention to detail misses nothing! It took a little while longer and the liquids I had squirted onto the rag had become a frothy foam but at last I had seemed to vanquish the stain.
Unfortunately now as I held up the rag it seemed like the area of the carpet I had been scrubbing was a slightly different shade than the rest. Oops.
“Well the stain’s out.” I see it as a success.
“Rarity? Are you finished?”
I looked up to see Daylight Gleam walking towards me while levitating a massive amount of sheets in front of her. Were we going to have to wash all of those ourselves too?
“Here, darling! I took care of the stain but let me get all of this out of your way.” I replied to her and gathered up the bottles I had been using into the basket.
“Thank you. I’ll take these sheets down to the laundry, can you go around the bedrooms and the rest of Duke Tulepule’s chambers and just fluff things up? Make it look nice and all that you know?” She asked me without looking in my direction as she carried the sheets to the front door of the Duke’s chamber.
“But of course, now that is at least certainly something I can do. This place will look far better than it was even before the party once I’m done with it.” I said proudly. And it was true, I’d make sure to tidy everything up perfectly.
“Uh huh, good luck. Once you’re done just talk with the troll waiting outside and they’ll direct you wherever you need to go next. See you later, Rarity.” She said as she pulled open the door with her magic and walked out, sheets and all.
Now as I was left alone I trotted over to the bedroom she had come from. I hadn’t seen inside the Duke’s room before now and I was wondering if perhaps he had a slightly different décor from the rest of the chamber in there. Perhaps something a little more personal or expensive for his private viewing? But as I peeked in my hopes were dashed. Same old same old. A plain bed, the same drapes along the window, and at the foot of his bed was a table with the same kind of vase and the exact same flower arrangement as every other. Oh how I wished to rearrange those flowers into something more aesthetically pleasing! However I knew that would likely end poorly for myself.
Instead I fought back my urges and tidied up. The table that held the vase was at least nice, mahogany I think, as I dusted it until it was sparkling. On the far wall from where I came in there was a large wardrobe, it must be for the Duke’s clothes, or his wife’s maybe. Was he married? I had no idea. I wanted to peek inside to see what kind of clothes a duke wore here but again perhaps that was a bad idea.
Oh but I just had to!
I pulled open the wardrobe with an ecstatic look on my face. What goodies awaited?!
It was full to bursting with various clothes hanging from one rack, I giddily giggled as I pushed through them, seeing everything the Duke had to offer. Hm, it was mostly rather plain coats and undershirts. Function before form I suppose. Maybe dukes were expected to wear a standard outfit. Perhaps it was considered crass for any of the nobility to not wear certain clothes. I felt up the material of a few of the coats, it was high-quality to be sure but in the end that just means it was wasted in my opinion. Like everything else here it could be so much more. A pity.
“I’m finally inspired to do something great again after seeing all the wasted potential here and yet I haven’t any opportunity to create.” I said to myself. What a sad turn of events this has been. My creativity has been sparked but what could I do about it now? How I wish I had a sewing machine in front of me.
After pouting for a bit longer I finished up my cleaning and got ready to leave Duke Tulepule’s chambers, making sure that his clothes and everything else were exactly like they were before I had started snooping around. I was tired but I still had to carry my basket of cleaning supplies, I just hoped that the laundry Daylight Gleam had gone to was close by, or that there was some sort of lift to make going throughout the castle easier.
Exiting the chamber I looked to my side to see a single troll that had been standing outside the whole time. He must have the patience of a royal guard. I believe Daylight had earlier referred to him as one of the overseers of the slaves.
“Excuse me, I’ve finished up my work.” I said to him. “Could you direct me to where my companion went to?”
His head and the beady eyes in it slowly turned to look at me without any change in expression or emotion. “Change of plans, you go back and rest now. You’ve been switched to kitchen and farm duty tomorrow.”
I forced the biggest, fakest, smile possible onto my face. “Lovely.”