Author's Note
the Dragon; Spike's POV
The Discovery: 1
”Time to clean up the basement, Spike!” Twilight prompted in her kind voice as she was looking down on me due to her being taller than me.
“Oh, okay. I’ll just put on the regular apron!” I responded, and scurried off to dress up for my work.
“If you like, I can ask Owlowiscous to remind you at lunchtime!” she offered.
“Thanks, Twilight!” I responded.
It is still feeling unfair to see her grow, just because she is a Princess now. Alicorns apparently keeps growing. Oh well; I will grow larger as well, just much slower than her.
So much work to do; dusting, sorting, mopping. This is a large castle, not just the old library. I still miss the place, even after the promotion that came with moving into the castle. Back then I had merely been her senior assistant in the library. Now I am the librarian, while she is the Princess. The main problem is that she doesn’t have a court doing all these every day tasks like cleaning up the basement.
Hay, even Cadence have a court of Ponies doing all these things. Celestia and Luna have had their castle sett up for centuries. Our Shire is just a year or two old. We haven’t had the time to establish ourselves yet. Or, so they keep telling me.
Dusting shelves sometimes gives me an itch in my nostrils, causing me to sneeze. You know what happens when a Dragon like me sneezes or gets the hick-up? In a library with books all over the place, it is highly inconvenient; since I breath fire.
Breathing fire can be convenient now and again, like when you need to light a camping fire and don’t have any regular camping gear to relay on. I guess a Unicorn could light the fire, I know Twilight can. Yet; she is an Alicorn and the element of magic to begin with; that isn’t a fair comparison.
Brushing, mopping and polishing the floor is tedious and boring, but it has to be done. I guess it falls in my lap, as the second in line. Nothing to do about it. I can’t even ask Owlowiscious to do any of these chores. Thankfully; he can at least pick up the books Twilight need, even when I am soundly asleep in the middle of the night. Or rather, particularly at these times at night. He is a nocturnal Owl, after all; which is one of the reasons why Twilight invited him as my assistant. I had resented it at the time, now I have grown used to it. In fact, I am appreciating it, I have more than enough to do as it is.
This castle was given to Twilight, by the tree of harmony. As of late, we have learned that the tree actually do answer questions. As unexpected as that was, when the map showed up in the room.
The first time we noticed that the tree actually is aware of us and answers our questions, was at the first meeting in the throne room. After a short debate, Princess Twilight Sparkle asked the one question. She needed to know why we are in this castle, in the outskirts of Ponyville. This is when the map showed up, even if I personally missed it. The map has sent us of to this or that place, all the way throughout Equestria.
I know this castle is large, but down here; it is huge beyond my description. How does the tree even have room for all these long, empty halls; not to mention the large room in which we have the library, her labs and all the other things she keeps hidden down here. I can go along with a research library and the research lab, I guess; but some of these rooms just are creepy. Yet, why do we have a dungeon down here, in the first place?
Now I had found yet another room, in what I had thought been a dead end; where nothing more should be. As I open the door marked with a flame, I entered the small room. On the inner door, there is obviously a new apron to me. What is not obvious, is that the apron is a glistering black; and made out of a special rubber I have never heard of. As if we don’t have rubber in Ponyville, when Applejack and Rainbow Dash had a good rump with that, when they were in The running of the leaves? Now, that was fun, when Pinkie Pie had me pulled up in her balloon, letting me co-comment the race and the event.
There is a hanger that is just right for me, to the right of the door; which incidentally would be behind the outer door when I enter the room. I noticed this, only after I had closed the door behind me, while in the room. Now is when I also noticed the inner door, behind which I found what is to be a special dungeon and my inner sanctum in which I could be free to play.
Once I had opened the door, I found a large book.
“The Dragon, the Apron and his Sanctuary!” it is titled
“Sorry, unless it is in the Comics format, I am not reading this book; as useful as it may be!” I stated.
Yet, I opened the book, just to confirm I was mistaken.
Of course, the first image on the first page is of me, and wearing the apron. The chock of it all? Not really, this was intended for me, and for me to actually learn more of the Apron I had just found.
On the second page, I read a series of images of me; while I wear the apron, while I work in the castle. The first detail I noticed, is that I obviously is down in the basement while I wear the new apron. When I am going up in order to work on ground level, I was to change into the old apron I had been using before. How curious. Well, maybe not.
