Spike had a pretty hefty load in front of him: Both in the laundry sense and the metaphorical one. Between last night's food, this morning's food (with over four times the normal pots and pans to clean thanks to his experimentation), the sparring, and general upkeep of the surprisingly large library... He sighed and tied on a simple kerchief and apron before settling in to work.
Normally when Spike did his cleaning it all went by in a surprisingly entertaining blur, kinda like cooking but backwards and with furniture. So not like cooking at all, unless you were preparing meals for a time-reversed couchovore... Maybe that dream with Discord last night needed some more checking out? Either that or Pinkie was rubbing off on his sense of humor. That second option was a lot more palatable than the first, but maybe not by the margin most ponies would guess. Pinkie could be scary when she put her mind to it.
Back on track: Cleaning. It often went by in a blur. Today? That sort of honed mindstate kept getting interrupted by his Gamer abilities doing their own thing. The first sign of trouble came when he was elbow-deep in the literally-boiling literal actual cauldron they used for dishes that sat overnight: The sink was fine normally but Twilight didn't cope too well with residue, as a concept. So he was using their thickest-bristled scrubber and some direct clawing to peel gem'd eggs off of one breakfast plate...
And then the window opened. Not the Library window, but-
A skill, [Dish Washing], has been instantly mastered through peerless basic action honed by years of practice!
"HAH!"
"Spike?"
"Nothing, just... thorough. The system is very, very thorough."
[Dish Washing] (Passive) Lv 1 EXP: 0.00%
A technique to wash dishes. With higher mastery, you can clean absolutely any stain.
5% increased speed and accuracy of washing dishes.
For anybody else this would have been a little insult stacked up onto all the other weirdness of his new life, but for Spike this was a blessing from above and below. Even if he didn't cook for two most days and far more every week or two? His dietary tastes wreaked raw havoc on the silverware and plates. This would be a lifesaver: Literal minutes or hours of his life saved, especially if the benefits kept scaling at a consistent rate.
So that first time it was fun. But he only realized something was particularly strange however, when it happened again six minutes later after he started the
[Laundry]
and his sense of confusion only grew stronger when he began
[Sweeping]
and... Well. Suffice to say, the time between their meal and Pinkie's scheduled arrival was one box after another. Indeed, it was a complete army of them, all joined with this strange tingling and pulsing in the back of his head and neck. It was like the sensation of somebody watching you from afar amplified a thousand-fold, and it got worse with every skill he acquired.
[Mopping], [Grout Scouring], [Clothes Washing], [Clothes Drying (Draconic)], [Clothes Drying (Delicates)], [Ironing], [Filing], [Weeding], [Mowing], [Dusting], [Lab Safety], [Rune Maintenance], [Ward Maintenance], [Ward Comprehension], [Glass-Care], [Wood-Care], [Hemming], [Stitching]...
By the end of the ordeal Twilight had stopped what she was doing and started following him out of a mix of morbid curiosity and legitimate concern. The sense of outside forces impinging on him hadn't stopped growing, and he'd started having difficulty describing things: Ward Comprehension had become an Observe subskill so he would normally have treated it with more ceremony, but it felt like he was under an enormous amount of literal physical pressure...
Pressure which flew away in a moment of perfect clarity and a single, final notice.
By amassing a veritable hoard of skills for maintaining and improving the home, your efforts have culminated in the [Dragon's Den], a skill to protect your heritage!
[Dragon's Den] (Active and Passive) Lv 1 EXP: 0.00% MP: Varies
A hoard is not a hoard without a den to keep it, and the draconic race make their lairs precisely fit their comforts. For most that means safety and inhospitability to other races, but it does not have to be that way. A true den is a home and a hearth, a place to rest thy weary head and find the comforts the outside world cannot, or will not, give.
All of your house-care skills and area defense abilities are consolidated into this skill via merger.
You have greater ability to guard and manage temporary 'homes' such as campsites, hotels, etc.
You have the ability to create various wards as well as alarms and monitoring techniques.
This skill will grow based on the skills it has merged with: Their quantity, levels, and practice.
Merged Skills: Dish Washing, Laundry, Sweeping, Mopping, Grout Scouring, Clothes Washing, Clothes Drying (Draconic), Clothes Drying (Delicates), Ironing, Filing, Weeding, Mowing, Dusting, Rune Maintenance, Ward Maintenance, Glass-care, Wood-care, Hemming, Stitching
"...Spike?"
He raised a claw to make it clear he heard, looking at the screen with a touch of wistfulness.
"Yeah... Just got another 'Dragon's' skill. It's, uh, it just got to me a little."
The concern in Twilight's voice was an obvious over and under tone, composing the sub and text.
"If you're worried about the nature of your species, I'm sure we could find some avenues for getting answers-"
"No! Well not no, I mean yes, or yes but... I want to get answers on my own time. And part of that is to say I want to get answers later: We have bigger things to worry about here and now."
"Alright: I trust your judgement, Spike."
He couldn't help but smile at the pride on her face, but to avoid things getting too mushy he diverted the topic to his newly-acquired skill. Given that it directly interfaced with relatively unusual magic like wards? Twilight was interested instantly. Plus, the cleanliness appealed to her on an entirely different level.
"Think of the sanitation! Oh, things cleaner than new... I wonder how many levels it will take in Dish Washing before you can achieve laboratory sterility?"
"I think logically speaking I'm going to let that one... A lot of these, actually. I think I am going to let most of these just grow through normal usage. It'll help be a case study on the difference between grinding and sustainable practice! That, and I do more than enough of this stuff to begin with."
"That is completely fair! Do you at least want to test the warding functionality?"
"Are you kidding me!? The only real question is if I should do the entire library, or just one room."
The reply came from over his shoulder, a little higher than expected, and in a very different voice.
"Oooooh, are we planning a remodel or a makeover or a remodelover?"
Neither of them flinched but it was a damn near thing. Doubly so for Spike, since his senses had only gotten sharper over the course of the last day... So to have Pinkie Pie still be capable of sneaking up on him? That rankled him just a bit.
Of course the offending pony didn't have a single hint of malice on her face or in her heart, so he softened his mood before he even finished turning around. He had been looking forward to this visit after all, even if her method of arrival legally qualified as an ambush. Looking above her head...
[Maid of Heart]
Pinkie Pie
LVs 4, 1, 3
...Yeah that didn't really help anybody, and he's not sure why he even bothered.
"Hey Pinkie! How's the morning treatin' ya?"
He barely finished getting the sentence out edgewise before he's crushed in a fluffy pink greeting-hug, which lingered a bit more than usual before moving on to Twilight.
"Good! Great even, just sort of working off the excitement from yesterday's big feast-o-rama!"
"Not big enough to justify a -palooza huh?"
"Spike, -paloozas are legally required to have at least one musical number in attendance! I don't wanna get my ludicrous-party-license revoked again."
"...Again you say."
She swooned back with a hoof against her brow, sighing dramatically.
"The licensing board is a cruel mistress! Well, it's made up of Cruel Mistress and a few other members of the Clowning Cabinet, but-"
Twilight shook her head and stepped back from the presently-pedantic pink pony.
"I never can tell when you're joking about all of this party stuff, Pinkie."
"Laughing matters are no laughing matter Twilight!"
They all gave that one a second to itself before all of them started giggling, the kind of call-and-response cadence that felt weird until you'd been in Ponyville for a few years. When they settled back down from the outburst, Spike explained what they had actually been planning to do. Twilight, as fit her nature, watched the conversation with her serious-business expression. After all, this was the first chance she'd gotten to see Spike discussing his Gamer nature with other ponies.
Pinkie listened carefully to his explanation and found the plan to be perfectly timed, given her own 'luck' with stepping through and around Twilight's defensive barriers. Not to mention architecture in general, other forms of masonry, social boundaries, etc.
"-so I should totally be your first test-breaker!"
"Pinkie, I don't know if pen-testing an unknown ward schema is a good idea-"
"Oh come on Twililiy, when have I ever been a lover of good ideas?"
"...For about as long as you've known that trying to butter me up with silly nicknames isn't effective. Which is to say, hopefully starting now?"
"Pffthaha, silly! That'd be a causal accident waiting to happen, asking me to have retroactively loved good ideas starting at a present moment. Time just doesn't work that way!"
Resisting the urge to face-hoof with notable force, Twilight just stepped away towards the stairs.
"That... I'm going to concede the point. Have fun you two: I will go watch from a safe distance."
Pinkie shrugged while Twilight trotted away, coincidentally rubbing her mane against Spike. So it was less of a shrug and more of an extremely exaggerated head-tilt, but... Pinkie.
"Okie-doki! How big do you want to make it, Spike?"
"...Hm. Let's be pretty normal for a first test: I know a lot of wards don't like being set up in thin air-"
Twilight's voice echoed down the stairs in outrage.
"Don't like!? Spike, that is often outright catastrophic!"
"Yeah like I said, they don't like it. And I don't know if I even could ward the entire library, especially with Twilight's defenses already being in place-"
"Fat lot of good it does us when ponies just waltz in like they're allowed..."
Pinkie tilted her head again, thus tickling Spike again. He made an effort to ignore it.
"But they are, right?"
"I- What?"
"This is a public library! During open hours aren't citizens of Ponyville just... allowed to be here?"
The only reply they got was silence... Then stomping noises. Rattling, a drawer opening, magic... And the rapid skritch of a quill across scroll paper. Finally Twilight called out again:
"Thank you Pinkie! It's amazing how often we overlook things right under our noses! That has been bothering me for so long... Wait, is that how you set up that surprise party back in the day?"
"Nope! You had only just gotten into town, so I'm pretty sure the defensy stuff wasn't even up yet."
"Right, right, of course. Carry on!"
They both went to shake their heads in exasperation, but Spike decided to be cheeky and leaned over to rub his spines against Pinkie in retaliation for her sneaky rubbings. She jumped and giggled the entire way up and back down, which took far longer than gravity probably wanted.
"Spiiike! What was that for?"
"Well you kept rubbing your mane on me like you were trying to generate static, so..."
"Oh! Hahah, hehee... Whoops. Just feeling extra fuzzy this morning I guess!"
"No worries: But yeah, I think we should find an enclosed room to do this in."
That got Pinkie quiet almost immediately, although he realized (too late) that it might have been an issue of his phrasing as opposed to the pink pony getting into 'serious mode'... Oh well. They'd both said more embarassing things on accident yesterday anyways!
"Aheh... Closet?"
"I'll stay here! Wouldn't be much of a break-in attempt if I was already inside, right?"
"Pfft, yeah. The intruder is coming from inside the house... Which means they're not intruding at all. They're more like a lurker, at most."
"Well I'd hate to be accused of lurking! So get in there and do your business, and I'll try to steal the profits."