Grey woke up after the best night of sleep he had ever had, having no real intention of getting up from the soft mattress, let alone out from under the silk comforter he had been provided. He would have stayed in bed for another hour, but his thoughts about his newfound luxury living situation reminded him that he had responsibilities now.
He rolled over on his right side, trying to convince himself to abandon the lovely warmth of the bed that was such a nice change from literally only stone. Thankfully, he succeeded, and threw the blanket to the end of the bed that he was not on. As he sat up, he noticed a piece of paper on the nightstand to the left of his bed, and decided it was probably important, since it wasn’t there the night before. He picked it up, blinking twice and with his eyes halfway closed since he was still groggy, and began reading what was evidently his list of chores for the day.
Good morning Grey! I had to head out early this morning, but you seemed comfortable in your new bed, so I let you sleep in. When you get up though, here’s your list of tasks for the day.
Grey snickered a little at Twilight calling his chores ‘tasks’, because they were obviously chores. He also acknowledged that Twilight was 100% going easy on him in this new job of his, and he didn’t know exactly what to make of that.
That last task made Grey smile a little, it warmed his heart that Twilight seemed to genuinely want Grey to feel comfortable in his new environment, though little did she know that he couldn’t ask for anything better than what he’d gotten. However, he concluded, time spent feeling grateful was time spent not completing his tasks for the day. He folded up the letter and stuck it under his wing, his feathers keeping it in place. He figured he might need it later, but he didn’t have a saddlebag, and this was the next best thing.
He quickly fixed the comforter and pillows he had messed up by waking up so sloppily, then pushed open the surprisingly light door to his room and made his way towards the kitchen for his first task of the day. He did figure that his tasks were a little light today, and he couldn’t get the thought out of his head that Twilight was going easy on him. He tried to ignore it as walked, before abruptly stopping, realizing he had no idea where he was going.
Spike turned the corner on his way to the kitchen for a snack and saw a gray griffon looking very confused standing in the hallway. He let out an irritated sigh. Twilight may have told him about the new guy staying in the castle, but that didn’t mean that Spike had to like somecreature else coming in and trying to take over his job. He had to walk that way to get to the kitchen anyway, so he rolled his eyes and resolved to help his new rival.
“Hey.” The dragon’s words were colder than the other inhabitants of Ponyville which, combined with the lack of warning, startled Grey. “The kitchen’s this way.” Spike’s irritated look didn’t leave his face and he didn’t make eye contact with Grey at all, he only walked forward, presumably in the direction of the kitchen. Grey didn’t really have any choice but to follow the young dragon, so he did, despite the fact that he clearly did not like him.
Spike opened the door and left it open for Grey to close, then went into the pantry to grab the two cookies he was allowed for that day. Grey slowly walked into the kitchen, looking it over to try and gauge how much cleaning would need to be done. Spike sat down at the table, and Grey, noticing that Spike hadn’t gotten a plate for his cookies, quickly ripped a single paper towel off of the roll he had noticed to his left and handed it to him. Spike may have been inclined to relax a little, if it weren’t for the fact that Grey’s smile was a little too wide. He was trying to get Spike to trust him. That didn’t prove anything on its own, but it made Spike a little more cautious with the griffon nonetheless.
Grey saw Spike’s expression shift from a moment of calm, then back to irritation, so he knew that his attempt at lowering the tension between them had failed, so he decided to just get on with his task. He needed a mop to start with the floors, which he said to himself quietly, but out loud. He didn’t know where it was, so he looked over at Spike, who rolled his eyes and simply pointed to a closet, which Grey responded to with a quiet nod.
The two of them spent the next 30 minutes in the kitchen together, Grey quietly cleaning up, and Spike quietly reading the latest issue of Power Ponies that Twilight had gotten him. Grey knew nothing about that series, and he would have asked about it to create conversation if he didn’t have a job to do. After 30 minutes passed, Spike had finished his cookies and his comic, and retreated to his room, throwing away the paper towel Grey had given him on his way out. Grey watched Spike as he left the room, sporting a sad look. He didn’t know why Spike was so irritated with him, and he was upset that he wasn’t able to lift the tension between them. He sighed, and got back to the dishes he was washing.
Grey finished up in the kitchen relatively quickly, and pulled his list out from under his wing to check what he had to do next. He still had to take out all the trash, and help Spike with inventory. He looked away from the list for a moment, then inhaled through his teeth, deciding to leave inventory with Spike for last. He left his to-do list on the table, unable to store it under his wings if he was going to use them for the trash bags, and grabbed the trash bag from the bin, needing to stay on the ground for a moment to pry it from the plastic.
Despite Grey still not knowing his way around the castle, he had a slightly more straightforward plan for getting the trash bag out the dumpster, which was to simply fly out the window. As for the other locations he had to get trash from, he was planning on just figuring it out somehow. He needed to learn the layout of the castle anyhow. It didn’t take him too long to get the first bag to the dumpster and throw it in, and while he was flying back around to the front, he was smiling to himself at the cleverness of his little trick. As soon as he got back inside the castle, however, he stopped, having realized he had no idea where the other trash bins were.
Grey was able to return to the kitchen after about 5 minutes more of navigation than the other two creatures here would deem normal. He grabbed his to-do list, quickly read over his current tasks details, then looked up from it at nothing in particular, having no clue how to get to any of those places. He picked it up and tucked it under his wing again, hoping to be able to just leave it at each of his stops and come back for it, then set off to wander the castle, hoping he’d either stumble upon his destination, or stumble into Spike, who would probably lend a helping claw.
Unluckily, (though as Grey subconsciously expected) randomly wandering around the castle did not yield the results he was hoping for. However, he did luck out after a solid ten minutes of aimless wandering when he bumped into Spike, who was on a walk through the castle. One advantage of living in such a large space was that one could go on relatively long walks inside, which was nice when Spike wanted to go on a walk but it was raining. Spike’s attention was already Grey’s, since Grey had just walked into his line of sight, which prompted Spike to sigh a little, and Grey to start speaking.
“Hey, Spike.” Grey looked just a little bit guilty. He wasn’t dumb, he could tell that Spike wasn’t happy with Grey’s being here. “I’m sure you can tell what I’m about to ask.” Spike rolled his eyes a little bit, just enough that Grey didn’t notice.
“Ok, I get that this castle is big and hard to navigate, it was hard for me and Twi when we first moved in too.” Spike started, seeming more willing to help than Grey expected, though he retained a slightly irritated look. He let out a little huff. He didn’t really want to help his new competition, but he prided himself on being as helpful as possible, and considering that Twilight seemed genuinely excited to have a friend to talk about magic with, Spike figured that helping this griffon would be doing a service to her. “Here, I’ll take you to my room. There’s something I’m gonna give you.” Spike turned and started walking, and Grey followed.
Once they arrived at Spike’s room, a 2 minute walk from wherever in the castle they were before, Spike opened a drawer and produced a map of the castle. Grey looked at it, shocked that when the castle was created by the Elements of Harmony, it also created a map. This assumption, however, was quickly dispelled by Spike.
“Twilight made a couple maps of the castle. Took her a full day.” Grey’s confusion at the existence of a map was quickly replaced with a look that said ‘of course she did’. Spike saw this look and smiled, which made Grey smile just a touch wider. “And I figure you can’t keep your stuff under your wing if you’re flying to take out the garbage, so here.” Spike went into his closet and produced a saddlebag, which Grey was grateful for, but he was also confused as to why Spike had it, but he didn’t want to risk creating any tension like there was before with an ultimately pointless query about why he had it.
“Thank you, Spike.” Grey started, continuing speaking as he put his new saddlebag on under his wings. “And since I’m here, I’ll take care of that trash for you.” Grey tucked his to-do list and his new map of the castle into his new saddlebag and walked over to the trash bin, Spike not breaking his gaze on Grey, which made him a little uncomfortable. He grabbed it and started flying off, planning on just flying out the window like last time. He almost said something to Spike on his way out, but he stopped himself, deciding that the tension between them was just going to be there for a while.
Thanks to the map that Spike gave him, Grey was able to finish with the trash quickly. He pulled out his to-do list and read his 3rd task: helping Spike with taking inventory, presumably not just of food, but also of Twilight’s writing supplies. Although his next task didn’t come with a specific part of the castle to go to, Grey was able to infer where to go, and he was actually able to get there with the help of the map, the existence of which made sense given the size of the castle, but it still made Grey chuckle a little. The location of the third task, which Grey had correctly guessed, was the library. At the very least, it was where he could start the task.
Neither the dragon nor the griffon were looking forward to having to work together for an hour, the former from a still present dislike of Grey, and the latter from his understanding of the former’s disapproval of him. Either way, neither of them were going to let a little thing like awkwardness get in the way of their day’s tasks, so Grey walked into the library to ask Spike what he should do to help, his to-do list at the ready in his right talon to prove that Twilight had asked him to help. Spike looked over at Grey as he approached, and for the first time, he took the initiative with the talking.
“Hey Grey. I got inventory handled in the library, so if you can go into the kitchen and count everything there, that’d help.” Spike tossed Grey a clipboard with a piece of paper already attached to it, which hit him square in the face.
“Ow.” Grey said flatly, trying to make it clear to Spike that he wasn’t actually hurt. He then picked up the clipboard from the floor and stuck it into his saddlebag, taking it upon himself to retrieve a quill. “Count this one, I’m gonna return it.” Spike looked at Grey. He would’ve counted that quill either way.
“Nah, keep it.” Spike’s words would’ve surprised Grey if the item that was now his was anything other than a quill. “You’re gonna need a quill anyway.” Grey smiled at that, he was glad that at least a little bit of the tension between the two was gone. That was until Spike's eyes narrowed at Grey, urging him to get a move on to the kitchen.
As Grey counted the various foods, drinks, and disposable dishware that was stored in the kitchen, he thought about how today went. It was easier than yesterday, that was for certain. But now that he was doing a task that kept him in one place, he couldn’t stop thinking about why Spike was so bothered by the fact that he was there. He was mostly clueless, but he had a few theories. But, Grey concluded, his theories would likely be far from the truth, given that he had only known Spike for a few hours. So, he simply got back to inventory, trying to stay as focused as he could on the task.
Once Grey was done with inventory, he used his map to get back to his room. If Spike wanted the saddlebag back for any reason, he’d be able to wait. He flopped onto his bed, rubbing the top of the comfortable blankets with his beak a little. He decided out of minor paranoia that he had forgotten a task to check his to-do list one last time. He looked through it, and saw the last task, which was to unpack his own suitcases. His expression shifted from a contented smile to a neutral frown, and he looked over at the suitcases he had deposited next to his new desk.
He only had books in those suitcases. He looked over at the bookcase that was in his room. He could easily unpack his books onto that bookcase. He looked back over at the suitcases, then over at the alarm clock on the nightstand next to his bed. It was only 2pm; it really didn’t take Grey long at all to get all his tasks for the day done. Well, all except for his suitcases. He just kept looking at his suitcases. Unpacking them was technically a work task, but he couldn’t force himself to just get up and put his books away. Grey just sat there, just staring at his suitcases for thirty minutes, when he heard a knock at the door.
“Hello?” He immediately recognized Twilight’s voice on the other side of the door. He panicked a little, worried that his failure to complete his last work task would get him in trouble with Twilight. He sprung from his bed and stopped on the floor, his legs extended out a little further than they were when he was relaxed. He looked at his bags, then he looked back at the door, which possibly held an impatient alicorn behind it. He rushed toward the door to greet his host, figuring that was the best course of action.
“Hello princess!” Grey said with just a little too much forced enthusiasm. He realized the potential of his greeting being too formal and backpedaled. “What’s up?” Not wanting to run the risk of a repeat of his interaction with Spike in the kitchen, he chose a more subtle closed-mouth smile. Twilight looked past Grey a little at his suitcases, which he responded to by shifting his position to block her line of sight with them.
“Hmmm,” Twilight started, which put Grey on edge. “Do you mind if I come in? I’d love to see what kind of magic books you have.” Grey’s expectation of disappointment from Twilight was shattered, which shocked him a little. He nodded to the princess slowly and turned back into his room, headed straight for his still not unpacked suitcases.
“I know you wanted me to get unpacked, but-” Grey was cut off by Twilight as soon as he started talking, she could recognize that he was scared that he was in trouble.
“I just put that on your to-do list because I wanted you to get comfortable in the castle. But I guess it’s up to you when you get that done.” Twilight walked over to Grey, who was sitting behind his suitcases and opening one of them, and sat down. “I’m really excited to have a friend with magic knowledge like you!” Twilight smiled warmly, and Grey was able to put his anxiety about him and Spike aside. Even if it was only for a while, Grey had nothing to worry about at the moment. He was truly calm for the first time in a long while.