//------------------------------// // Tour, Finale: Meeting your fellow maids! // Story: At Your Service // by Doctor D //------------------------------// “What are they like?” “... Who?” Dusty asked, confused for a second before remembering her own statement second prior. “Oh yeah, them. Uhh, sorry you caught me off guard there. I wasn’t prepared for a… pre-emptive question like that, at least that fast.” “It’s fine, Ma’am.” Dusty coughed into her hoof, forgetting the incident just now on principle. “Well, to answer your question, our ranks are…” She paused and thought about what she was about to say. “... You know what, how about you see for yourself? It’s kind of weird to explain, but let’s just say we are a varied crew.” Dusty started walking and Luna Dial followed. “I suppose I can keep myself invested in the mystery a bit longer.” Luna Dial said with an amused smile. “Yeah, well keep in mind this little thing. For this week, and perhaps longer, you will be working alongside at least one of them daily so… I should probably wish you luck.” Dusty said. There was a level of grave seriousness in her tone. Luna Dial tried not to think too much about the slight dread in Dusty’s subtle warning. ‘Do not judge before meeting them. You know you’ve worked with a quirky bunch prior to this.’ She reminded herself. It took them around ten minutes to walk over to their destination. A span of ten minutes filled with utter silence, something sort of unnerving to Luna Dial, as Dusty was usually content on lecturing her ear off while they walked. When they reached a simple wooden door that lead to the maids quarters they could hear voices on the other side. “Stop messing around already, Clumsy!” “Yeah, stop being such a dunce!” “I’m sorry, it’s just that the window was slippery and- WAAAGH!”   *CRASH* “Hey, you spilled soup on me!” “S-sorry!” “EVERYONE SIMMER DOWN!” Dusty shouted as she more or less kicked the door in, causing silence like a wind the kills everything in it’s vicinity, especially spiders.  “Attention! Form a line!” At the drop of the hat every occupant in that room formed a straight line with no buts or any murmuring. Luna Dial only stood by the doorway, blinking in mild confusion and surprise at Dusty’s sudden transition from head maid to drill sergeant Speaking of which, Dusty started pacing back and forth the line consisting of seven mares, all wearing a similar maids headband as Dusty. With one rather striking exception. “Alright now. Tell me what that yelling was about?” Dusty commanded with a frightening level of authority while keeping a cheery grin on her lips. Five of the seven mares began to open their mouths, but Dusty quickly shut them up again. “One at a time! If even one of you speaks out of turn I’ll drop the Chore Bomb on your flanks, understood?” There were more or less synchronized nods, mostly. “Good.” Dusty coughed. “But lucky for you that can wait a few moments. I have someone I demand you meet.” Luna Dial could only look at Dusty with a mild expression that sent vibes that yell ‘I am weirded out’. ‘That’s… rather forceful way to put it.’ “Hey, come on over here and don’t act like a stranger!” Dusty called out to her initiate. Clearing her thoughts and putting on her mask of neutral elegance, Luna Dial stepped forward, into the room. The room was fairly simple, but spacious. There were two halls on either side, each with doors, presumably to the personal quarters of each maid. In the middle was a two story area. The lower area seemed to house a kitchen set for basic needs, while the larger upper floor appeared to be a general zone for… something, holding only some tables and chairs. She did not get a lot of time to sightsee as Dusty put a friendly hoof over her head, for some reason, earning her another odd look by Luna Dial as her mask broke for a moment. “This here is Luna Dial. She’s a new initiate who’s on her testing period.” Dusty introduced her to the mares. She let go of Luna Dial and walked over to the first mare in the line. The mare was an earth pony with a sandy coat with a long silver mane that was braided in two long tails hanging over her shoulders. She also had freckles and wore very large round glasses. Her maid headband was colored silver. Her cutie mark was a cracked silver rimmed mirror. “This is Mirror. She’s one of the newer members of this force. Only joined up a few weeks ago, so she’s still learning the ropes.” Dusty introduced the mare. Mirror smiled meekly and spoke softly. “Hi.” Dusty moved over to the next two ponies in line. The two were almost identical in appearance, were it not for the slight difference in their cutie marks, or the fact that they were different types, a pegasus and a unicorn. Both had a white coat and blond wavy mane combed to the opposite side to the other. The pegasus’ cutie mark was a set of two stars with diamonds in the middle, while the unicorn had pink hearts instead of diamonds. Their maid headbands were matching sky blue. “The pegasus is Glimmer and the unicorn is Gleam. They’re twins and work as a pair.” Dusty introduced the two. “They’ve been working here for around a year and know their stuff.” “Hello.” Glimmer said and Luna Dial could clearly sense some minor condescending tones in those syllables. “Hi!” Gleam greeted more earnestly and was swiftly poked by Glimmer’s foreleg, sharing a look with her twin. “Uhh, I mean, hello.” Gleam seemingly corrected herself, adding a layer of not so well hidden but kind of forced condescension. Dusty either ignored this or did not notice and walked over to the next mare. This mare sticked out because she was more… buff than the others. She was taller and bit bulkier. Her coat was crimson and her short and spiky mane was colored dark gray with one lone red stand popping out on the top of her head. Her maid headband was red and her cutie mark was a horse shoe surrounded by flames. She also had a mean look in her eyes and her mane was drenched in soup. “This lug here is Blaze.” Dusty introduced the glaring pony. “She’s been here for a few months and is the biggest enemy to fragile objects you’ll ever meet.” Blaze not so subtly growled at the remark, but at least tried to hide it. Dusty just grinned and added. “She also has anger management issues that she’s working on.” Blaze snapped and roared out loud and was swiftly restricted by the twins who struggled to hold her in place as she tried to assault Dusty. “I’ll break you in half! I don’t care if you’re my boss, that’s confidential information!” Dusty just grinned cheerfully and moved onto the next mare on the line. Luna Dial just blinked in confusion as Mirror joined in to try calm Blaze down, who was screaming “I’ll end you!”, as well as some unmentionable profanities and slurs. The next pony was the one that struck Luna Dial’s eye the moment she saw the line of maids. Unlike the rest she was not only a head shorter than the most mares, she was wearing a rather peculiar, white frilled black gothic dress with long sleeves around her forelegs. Unlike Luna Dial’s own uniform, the hem of the dress was short enough to show her flank. The mare’s coat was dark grey and she had a shiny dark purple mane styled in a bob-cut.  And her eyes- which were yellow but beside the point -were some of the most detached and emotionless set of eyes Luna Dial had ever seen. Instead of a headband she wore a large black bow. Her cutie mark was… a peculiar, sinister looking yellow eye. And she seemed utterly unfazed by the much larger mare struggling and roaring beside her, as if she didn’t even acknowledge the event existed. “This is Dusk.” Dusty said, and left it at that, already moving onto the final mare in the line. Dusk blinked slowly. “Hello. May we join in this duty and work until we die elderly and alone. Slowly” Her tone was so monotone and unreadable that Luna Dial was not sure if that was meant to be taken seriously or not. The final mare had an emerald green coat with a light green mane. Her maid headband was green like the grass... And she breathing softly and sleeping while standing in the line with a small bubble of snot expanding and contracting along with her breathing. Dusty just shook her head a little. “And finally this is... Snoozy. You can pretty much guess what she’s like.” Luna Dial had to agree. Even the cutie mark on Snoozy’s flank were just a trail of z’s. Dusty poked Snoozy hard, waking her up. Sadly, the snot bubble burst in the process. Snoozy looked around with a tired expression. “... ‘Ello...” She said with a yawn before and after the short sentence. With that Dusty stepped away and, since Blaze had been calmed down by now, left all the maids looking at Luna Dial. Luna Dial herself had put on her calm work face. “Greetings. I am Luna Dial. I hope we can get along.” She said with a proper bow. There was silence for a moment, but all the maids had their own opinions. ‘S-so elegant!’ Mirror though with a small sparkle in her eyes. ‘Psh. What a poser.’ Glimmer thought with a subtle glare in the mare’s direction. ‘Her outfit is pretty.’ Was the line of thinking on Gleam’s end. ‘That posh bow pisses me off for some reason!’ Was Blaze’s rather aggressive opinion. ‘... … … A bug could choke me in my sleep tonight.’ Dusk though, not contributing anything relevant.’ And Snoozy… Well, Snoozy had fallen asleep the moment Dusty let her eyes off of her and was sleepwalking to one of the rooms on the left side of the room. “Hey, no head starts!” Blaze yelled after the sleeping mare, to no effect. Dusty sighed. “Well, since Snoozy is already heading out for the night we might as well actually call it a night.” She looked at the remaining maids with a firm eye. “But don’t think I forgot about the yelling today. I’ll have that talk with all of you later. For now I want everypony up at 4:30, on the dot, tomorrow.” A sequence of “Yes, Ma’am”s, as well as a “Whatever” courtesy of Dusk, rang in the room. “Great. Dismissed!” Dusty commanded, at which time everyone split and wandered into their respective rooms. She turned and spoke to Luna Dial. “That stands for you too. Tomorrow I will come get you early. We gather in the mornings and I distribute the duties for the day. Naturally I will accompany you on the first day but you will also be paired up with one of my girls. Understand?” ”I do, Ma’am.” “Good. Now let me guide you back to your quarters. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”