Of Maids and Mistresses

Twilight flipped through the pages of Mystical Mysticism, looking for the chapters she had skipped the last time she had read it; the author had included a few... interesting spells and pieces of magical theory, which she had thought to be useless and overly frivolous. Recent events had made her reconsider her stance on it, so now she was absorbing the knowledge contained within the book’s pages as fast as she could. The author had the tendency to go into too much detail, causing the chapters in question to be rather lengthy. Twilight would normally delight in this fact, but at that moment she was more interested in the spells the book could teach her, rather than the theory behind them.

And so it was that Trixie found Twilight with her nose in the book, frantically flipping page after page after page, at a speed that made Trixie wonder if she was really reading it at all.

“I have the things you asked for, T... T... wi...” Trixie gritted her teeth in frustration. Why couldn’t she say it? “Mistress Twilight,” she eventually concluded with a sigh.

“Good,” Twilight said distractedly as she waved a hoof, without even looking up from her book, “put it in the kitchen.”

Trixie nodded, as she levitated her bags over to the kitchen, where she quickly found everything she had bought a place in the cupboards or the fridge. She didn’t know what to do with the bits she had left unspent, so she just put them back where she had found them, as she felt an inexplicable reluctance to bother Twilight over such trifle matters. That became much more of a problem as she finished the task she’d been given, thus she suffered an acute case of not having anything to do.

“Uh, excuse me, mistress,” she said with a quiet voice once she’d worked up the courage to bother Twilight, “I have done as you asked, so... what now?”

The purple unicorn finally looked up at her with a smile. “You’re doing such a good job that I keep forgetting you’re not as used to the routines as Spike was, I really need to take care of you a little more, else I’ll be a terrible mistress...”

“Oh no!” Trixie quickly reassured her, feeling strangely elated at the subtle compliment. “Mistress treats Trixie just fine, and Trixie wouldn’t want to imply that you do not, but... uh... Trixie does need... instructions.”

Twilight nodded, lightly tapping her chin with a hoof as she tried to think of things that needed doing. “Well, there are some areas that could use some tidying up?”

“Trixie will take care of it right away,” she said eagerly. She really wanted to repay some of the enormous debt she owed Twilight for saving her life twice, and for providing her with a life of relative luxury. Tidying up a room wasn’t too hard--but then again, compared to hauling a wagon around the country few things were particularly hard. “What room shall Trixie clean?”

“The entire library section,” Twilight said matter-of-factly, as she turned her attention back towards her books. “Use the catalogue.”

Some enthusiasm immediately drained from Trixie’s voice and expression. “T-the entire thing?” She didn’t know the exact number of books that were present, but by her standards it could only be described as “a ton”, and most of those were--sadly enough--not currently on their shelves.

“Yes,” Twilight said, undisturbed by Trixie’s sudden and almost palpable reluctance, “there’s been some complaints from visitors, and I can’t even find the books I want to read myself anymore. We’re technically open every day, but in practice we only guarantee service about twice a week, which is why most ponies only visit during those times. I want you to stand in for me next time, and cleaning the library will help you get a grasp on where everything is, so that you can help the visitors better.”

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to... to leave me in charge of dealing with the ponies that come by? What if I-”

“You’ll do fine, love, this is exactly the kind of social interaction you need to learn,” Twilight said with a caring smile, only to continue slightly more seriously: “but you’ll need to be a bit quicker to obey if you want to be a good maid.”

Trixie had begun to drift away from her role again, but that last comment locked her firmly in character once more, and gave her a newfound sense of enthusiasm. “Yes mistress, Trixie will do her best. Trixie will not let you down,” she said decidedly.

“I know you won’t. Now, those books won’t put themselves on the shelves.” Twilight paused for a moment, and then added: “Sadly enough.”

Trixie curtsied, and then immediately went to work. Finding the catalogue Twilight had spoken of proved to be harder than she had anticipated, as it too had been buried under many weeks worth of discarded books. She eventually found it in the centre of the room along with (to her great surprise) a small table.

The catalogue was quite massive, and it contained the names of all books the library had in its possession, seemingly neatly organized in alphabetical fashion, denoting the exact placement of every book by shelf number. Trixie set out to gather all of the books haphazardly strewn about the room, arranging them in alphabetical order herself before consulting the catalogue. To her bewilderment, the alphabetical order seemed to hold up fairly well for the first few books she put back on the shelves, but the fourth book seemed to be entirely absent from the list.

She paged through the tome and past a few empty pages, until she arrived at a point where the list seemed to begin from “a” again. She scratched her head in confusion, until she noticed the words “Theory of Magic” written above the list in tiny letters. She turned back to the start of the first list and, sure enough, somepony had written down “History” atop the page. Trixie quickly flipped through the entire book, finding many more categories in the process, which seemed to be roughly split between “fiction” and “non-fiction”, with each taking up a different side of the library.

Trixie sighed; apparently the books weren’t ordered purely alphabetically, but by category as well. She assumed that made it far easier for a visitor to find something to read on the right subject or in the right style, but it did make her job a lot harder. On top of that she soon discovered that the side room and the second floor were a full-fledged part of the library as well, and to her great despair there was no shortage of unshelved books there either; she didn’t know how it happened, but most books had somehow found their way out of the room they had originated from, making Trixie walk back and forth with veritable clouds of books floating around her multiple times.

Twilight watched Trixie’s endeavours over the top of her book, an amused smile playing around her lips. She could’ve explained the layout of the library right away, of course, but she believed that letting Trixie bumble about on her own would make it sink in all the better in the long run. As the blue unicorn flipped back and forth through the catalogue looking for the correct placement of certain books, she steadily learned to place them within the right category based upon their titles as well--a skill which would no doubt be invaluable if she were to continue working in the library.

It took her several hours to straighten everything out, by the end of which she was slightly out of breath. She admired the results of her hard work, but even though all of the books were now in the right place, something was still... off.

Twilight raised an eyebrow as the other mare suddenly disappeared up the stairs again, but she decided not to say anything; it would be interesting to see Trixie’s next move. She wasn’t disappointed: Trixie soon came back with a duster in tow, which she used to start cleaning the library in true maid fashion. Twilight didn’t know how Trixie had known that they even had a duster upstairs, but it was a rather pleasant surprise; Trixie taking the initiative in such matters was undoubtedly another sign that they were going in the right direction.

The purple mare had finally finished reading Mystical Mysticism, so she was just quietly observing Trixie as the latter went around the room, dusting off every single book and all of the furniture. Perhaps she had initially been mostly interested in Trixie’s performance, but pretty soon she felt her eyes wander down the curves of the other mare’s body, neatly hidden by the folds of her uniform, and thus all the more enticing. A familiar warmth started to burn in the pit of her stomach, as she openly stared at Trixie’s plot--accentuated by her skirt as it was. Every time Trixie’s tail briefly slipped to one side, Twilight thought she could just barely make out the outlines of the other mare’s sex under the skirt, although it was probably just her imagination. Still, the short, stealthy glances had a bigger effect on her than full-on nudity would, and she finally reached a decision when she noticed she had been subconsciously moving one of her forelegs down towards her crotch: she would put Mystical Mysticism to the test right away.

She stood up from the sofa, and Trixie turned around as she heard her mistress’s hooves against the floor. “Mistress?”

Twilight waved at her dismissively as she picked up the book. “I’m going upstairs for a moment. Please continue what you are doing, love... you’ve been doing so, so well for your first day.”

Trixie’s cheeks burned as she stumbled over her words, trying to express the enormous wave of gratitude and happiness that suddenly washed over her. Twilight just winked at her and headed up the stairs, leaving Trixie alone with her thoughts. The showmare just stood there silently for a few moments, basking in the glow of her mistress’ approval, before she turned back to her work, redoubling her efforts.

It had been hard work, but Twilight’s gratitude had made it all worth it. And her earlier doubts? All gone.