At Your Service

by Doctor D

Misery with company, The Most Negative Mare in Equestria!

“Alright then, ladies!” Dusty opened up the early morning assembly giving stern looks at her maid squad, minus Doozy. “I promised not to let the shouting yesterday go undiscussed, so here we go. One at a time, what happened? Gleam?”

“:D” Gleam just smiled widely like an oblivious kid.

“... Right. You’re off the coffee for a week. Again. Glimmer?”

“Well, I vaguely remember something about Clumsy over here breaking a window and losing yet another bucket.” Glimmer explained, not even trying to hide an insulting undertone.

Mirror just looked down shamefully. “... It was an accident. Th-the window was slippery...” She tried to explain herself.

Dusty sighed and shook her head. “How many buckets has it been now?” She asked rhetorically. “I don’t think even Goldie keeps count anymore. Right. Blaze, you next.”

“I got a big bowl of soup dropped on my head!” The imposing mare shouted, apparently still mad about it.

“Breathing exercises, Blaze. Have you been doing them?” Dusty asked calmly.

“... Well, no. But-”

“Blaze, you know what Psyche has told you.” Dusty said as if scolding a child.

“You leave my therapist out of this!” Blaze yelled.

“Not until you start following his advice!” Dusty rebuked.

Blaze growled, but a look from Dusty made her at least try to collect herself. “In… out… in… out...” She said as she breathed slowly.

Sighing again Dusty turned to the last item on her list for now. She gave the glasses wearing mare a stern look. “Mirror, you really need to start being more careful.” While she spoke firmly she did so in a gentle manner. “I know you are new here and you are nervous to meet the standards asked of you, but you really need to get your act together.”

Mirror fidgeted with her hooves and cast a sullen look at her boss. “... I’ll try.”

Dusty gave Mirror an encouraging smile and a pat on the back. “That’s all I ask.” She took a few steps back and cleared her throat. “Now all you get your bearings for job distribution… and for Celestia’s sake get Doozy out of bed!”

A few looks were exchanged between the maids, but only Dusk spoke up. “If I try that, what are the odds of getting slugged?” She asked in her monotone.

“Oh yeah,I think the chances of Doozy slugging you in her sleep are pretty high. Like, whopping 20%.” Dusty noted with dripping sarcasm.

“Fine.” Dusk said flatly and headed for Doozy’s room. “Say hello to my new black eye when I get back.”

With Dusk gone momentarily, Dusty got back on track. “Anyway, all of you get prepared while I go get Luna Dial.” She said and turned.

“Yes, Ma’am?”

Dusty yelped and jumped back a good few feet due to surprise. Luna Dial had been just behind her, just standing there like the perfect image of elegance. It was highly disturbing that not only had dusty not noticed her arrive, but judging by the looks neither had any of the other maids.

“O-oh, Luna Dial! Seem you found it here on your own. Really surprised me.” Dusty managed to say, pushing aside the surprise. There was work to be done! “Well, why don’t you get in line with everypony. We were about to distribute the duties for this day.”

“Of course, Ma’am.” Luna Dial said and moved to the end of the line, which was currently next to Mirror. Just a few moments later Dusk walked over to her other side, followed shortly after by a shambling Snoozy, who seemed to be sleepwalking.

“I was successful. Sadly, no black eye.” Dusk reported. “A tragedy.”

Dusty ignored the comment and went straight to business. “Well, now that our initiate is here, I will distribute your tasks for today. First off, Blaze, kitchen.”

“Wha- why is it always her?” Mirror asked. “I’ve wanted kitchen duty for weeks...”

“Mirror, darling,” Dusty started sweetly “We don’t want first time to happen again. Do we?”

Mirror looked downcast. “B-but...”

“No buts. Blaze, kitchen!”

Blaze gave an affirming grunt, though it sounded mildly displeased.

“Second, Glimmer, Gleam. You can start by going over accumulated laundry, then move to help out in the garden.”

Gleam nodded happily while Glimmer sighed and rolled her eyes “Fine.”

“Okay then, Mirror, your duty for today is to clean the upper floors. Take Snoozy with you.” Dusty ordered, adding a hasty “And please, tread with care”

Mirror nodded with a sad expression. Snoozy murmured something that sounded like “... aye-aye...” while still seemingly sleeping.

Luna Dial blinked. That left…

---

…

‘This is… unbelievably awkward.’ Were the thoughts in Luna Dial’s head. Sure, there were some others, but that one took more foothold.

Luna Dial tried to concentrate on the task, mainly cleaning the windows of the lower floors. She scrubbed with a moist cloth till a window was spotless. Normally this would be something of a routine but…

The mare next to her, working on her own window for some reason had Luna Dial on edge. She could not understand why, but for some reason Dusk’s silence and almost utter disregard for her existence was off putting.

It had been a few hours and the gothic mare had not uttered a word, least of all looked at her.

It did not help that Dusty was just standing behind them, all but breathing down their necks.

‘This should not be a real issue. This is nothing you haven’t done before. Keep calm and keep doing your best.’ Luna Dial rationalized.

She dipped her cloth into a bucket of cleansing agents mixed with water. While doing so she took a moment to glance at Dusk. The dark mare’s purple eye were fixed on the window and portrayed nothing. It was like looking into a blank slate for information.

Raising to wipe the window with the wet cloth, a lone drop of water left the cloth and approached the very expensive looking red carpet that adorned the hallway.

In an instant the world turned monochrome. The water drop stopped mid-air, frozen. So had the entire world, except for Luna Dial. The mare did a smooth movement as she spun around a full 360 degrees, nabbing the water droplet off the air with her hoof before returning to her original position.

The color returned to the world as everything moved again, Luna Dial continuing what she had been doing, wiping the window clean. Her observer remained none the wiser to this event.

‘It feels sort of odd to use that again. A little extreme, but no carpet gets drenched on my watch.’ Luna Dial thought with a small grin at using her power again. But she felt uneasy for some reason, and by mere gut feeling she subtly glanced to her side.

Immediately all of her senses told her something was off. Dusk, who had ignored her almost the entire day thus far, was glancing straight on at her. Her expression was unreadable, but for some reason it sent bad vibes all the way down Luna Dial’s spine.

Dusk finally looked back to the window after a brief moment that felt like an eternity, and for the first time since the morning, she spoke. “Your uniform is nice.”

Luna Dial, caught off guard stopped what she was doing for a good five seconds before gathering herself to take the compliment. “Well… thank you.”

“I wonder if I’d get profits if I took pictures and sold them in Japony to weirdoes who’ll do unmentionable things with them.” Dusk monotoned, ruining the mood.

“... That’s...” Luna Dial tried to answer the statement. Unfortunately, she got nothing.

“... Then again,” Dusk continued, looking at her own petite gothic dressed figure for a moment “my pictures would be abused even more.”

Luna Dial blinked and tried to focus more on the windows. “Alright, I don’t think I know how to talk to you.” She said as pleasantly as possible to not cause strife.

“That’s okay.” Dusk said nonchalantly. “No pont wants to talk to me anyway. Why would they?”

Luna Dial could not help but feel a bit of sympathy. Maybe it was just how negative the mare sounded, or how little she seemed to care about it. “I’m sure there is somepony who talks with you.”

Dusk answered with a brief unreadable look her way but said nothing.

Dusty for her part was more than surprised. She looked between Luna Dial and Dusk with a warm smile on her lips. It was rare to see Dusk participate in a conversation, but never had she seen her initiate it.

But then everypony was distracted by the sound of breaking glass and could see a dark shape fall down from a nearby window, along with a yell of “No!” from the upper floors.

Luna Dial blinked, Dusty groaned and facehooved and Dusk just did not care.

“You two keep doing what you’re doing. I need to go see what’s wrong.” Dusty instructed the maid and maid initiate.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Luna Dial answered while Dusk merely nodded in understanding. Dusty quickly trotted around the nearby corner and used her in-depth knowledge of the castle layout to find the nearest stairway up.

So the two oddly dressed maids were left to their lonesome. For the first minute or two it was akward silence and window scrubbing, until Dusk broke the silence.

“It’s kind of extreme you know.” She said, never breaking eye contact with the glass window. “For a single drop.”

Luna Dial tensed up. She knew! How she knew Luna Dial could not even begin to guess but that sentence was too specific to be a coincidence.

But much to her relief Dusk merely shrugged. “Whatever. Doesn’t involve me anyway.”

Luna Dial mentally sighed. The less of an issue rose from this, the better. She had no intention of letting this knowledge spread. She started speaking calmly. “Miss Dusk, could you-”

“Not tell anypony?” Dusk finished the sentence without missing a beat. “Don’t see why I should. Wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

Luna Dial, for the most part, was relieved to hear this. “Thank you, miss Dusk.”

For a while there were no words, but they could clearly hear some chatter from the upper floors. Dusk opened the window she was working on partially to listen in.

“Mirror, what did I tell you this morning?” They heard Dusty berate the spectacled mare as nicely as she could.

“B-but this time it wasn’t me, I swear!”

They could hear Dusty groan loudly. “Mirror, for Celestia’s sake… wait. Where is Snoozy?”

“I-I tried to stop her, but she leaned into the window and- and-” Mirror whimpered in a panicked tone. Hearing this Luna Dial came to some very disturbing conclusions.

And so did Dusty. “WHAT?!” The head maid screamed and from the sound of it hurried to the broken window.

Dusk opened her window more and peered up… Then pulled back without a word or change of expression. Moving to another window she briefly gestured at the open one. Catching the hint, Luna Dial peered up as well.

What she saw… was both very odd and, to her relief, not what she had imagined.

Above them, maybe two-three floors up, just outside the window frame dangled the emerald coated pony with just one hoof… Who was, as far as Luna Dial could see, as surreal as it was, still asleep!

“Everything alright up there?” Luna Dial asked from Dusty, who was in the process of hoisting Snoozy back up to safety.

“Yeah, I got this!” Dusty answered and pulled Snoozy’s snoozing form indoors. Taking her word for it, Luna Dial closed the window, but not before hearing something about a bucket.

Dusk had already moved on to a new window to scrub. “You seem really calm about this.” Luna Dial noted.

Dusk glanced at her for a second before going back to her work. “It does not concern me. Not unless I’m the one falling out of a window to my horribly painful death. That or I’d be crippled for the rest of my life. Oh, the sorrow. I doubt anypony would care.”

Again, Luna Dial was not completely sure if the mare was being serious or not. She did know that she did not like what she was hearing if she did mean it.

She trotted closer, placing a gentle hoof on Dusk’s shoulder. The mare froze on the spot as if she was not expecting anything like that. “I would care.” Luna Dial told Dusk as earnestly as she could.

Dusk for her part continued staring at the window, expression never changing. For a moment her eyes looked at the faint reflection of Luna Dial in the glass, but said nothing.

Luna Dial let go and went to finish up the window she was working on when she was stopped.

“Wait.” Dusk said, now facing her. She gestured at the long hallway. “If this is taken care of we’ll get to take a break. Maybe get something to eat from the pantry, if it’s not poisoned. Then we’d just die, or get sick, or get fired for getting sick” She then gave Luna Dial a meaningful glance that expressed nothing but definitely said something. “Head Maid will be here in a few. Time is of the essence.”

Luna dial knew very well what this mare was asking of her. Smiling softly she closed her eyes.

Head maid Dusty came around the corner. “Sorry about that, it seems we lost yet another… bucket...” Her words stopped as she looked at the hall, her professional Maid Eyes telling her something that by any means should be impossible.

The whole hallway, from beginning to end was spotless and shining radiantly, every window pristine and good as new, with Dusk and Luna Dial standing by the end of it. The level of work was… perfect. There was nothing else to describe it.

Luna Dial bowed at her future boss while Dusk just stood there, looking as dead inside as ever. “Welcome back, Ma’am.” They said in unison.

“But… How… I was gone for...” Dusty tried finding the words but every time her brain just shut down.

“The boss is broken.” Dusk deadpanned out of left field.

“Yes, it seems so.” Luna Dial replied.

“The pantry is this way. Let’s try not to trip on the stairs and get our necks crushed.” Dusk said, simply turning and walking away. Unsure of what to do, Luna Dial glanced at her near catatonic superior and with a sigh followed the gothic dressed mare.

Author's Note:

We get to spend time with Dusk, who is as depressing as she is weird. An accident almost happens and guess what? Dusty has a sharingan for all the filth in the world. No joke.

-Doctor Demeter

Comments

[SolemnBlade]

Teh lolz

[Wandering Eye]

hehehe, This was quite amusing to me! compared to working in the Scarlet Mansion, i wonder how sa- *cough* Luna Dial would like it here, should the story continue.

[Bryce98]

I'm losing my mind in anticipation of something warranting the use of "Luna Dial"'s abilities.
You know which ones I'm talking about. The knives and the watch.

Maybe find a changeling posing as one of her fellow maids? Blueblood getting what's coming to him? Anything that would make her use the watch, like keeping Pinkie from making a mess if she ever arrives.

[XYZDreadnought]

I wish I noticed this story hasn't been updated in 4 years before reading it. A real shame because this looked like it was going to be a rather fun story. Now I will never know why she is in Equestria, what happened the Scarlet devil mansion? is she being missed?

Unfinished stories like this make me sad, because it reeks of wasted potential.

[Arstotzka-Pon]

8665648
Agreed....

[sobianca]

ditto