Shadows of the Night

(Author's Note: Prereader: Moon_Fire thank you)

            I don’t normally experience, what many call, ‘strokes of luck’. Though, a deeper understanding of this would only come from knowing that the use of the word ‘normally’ was meant to express ‘not ever’. Oh sure some really smug person could always come up and go on about how I’d never been homeless, raped, and on and on, listing misery after misery. True, I’d had a relatively safe life, back on Earth (gave me shivers just thinking about the interdimensional distances), but I would then remind that smug jerk of a surprisingly not well known saying, “Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having all happen at once” (Paulo Coelho). Never really bothered to look that guy up, I just know that he said that, and that’s good enough for me, especially when I fit so well into that nothing category.

         But where was I? Oh yes, luck, getting in the castle had been surprisingly easy. Upon going up the servant’s entrance I asked the first pony I saw, a bright pink furred mare with dark purple hair that was busy dusting a vase of muted colors, who I should talk to in order to become employed with the castle staff. She’d been only too happy to oblige, though I think that ponies are just normally happy so the phrase “only too happy” could really only be accurate when describing ponies like Pinkie Pie (not that it’s necessarily a bad thing).

         She took me down a few corridors, a few of which I recognized from my previous nights work from the rather odd, what some fools would call, “art” in them. Though I noticed that now that I was with someone the castle seemed a lot less big. Though it was probably just the fact that she knew where she was going and thusly took the shortest route more than anything else.

         As best I could tell, we were somewhere near the center of the castle. Made sense, would be the closest way to be next to everything should an emergency require quick action. She then asked me to wait in the hall while she went in after a voice from within beckoned for her after a polite knock.

         I waited for a few moments, idly twiddling my thumbs, not that anyone’d be able to see. I started to get nervous after what felt like a few minutes passed by, but in all reality was merely a few seconds. What can I say? I felt put on the spot like some kid called into the principal’s office. It didn’t help I had some slightly subverted plans for doing so either, but hey, if I was going to get some more sweet super powers… I mean if I could make sure no one else would go crazy from having half an entity stuck in their head then I was all for it. Attempting to appease my conscience with logic aside, I was quickly asked to come in from a deep commanding voice as the pink mare left me to, presumably, go back to her work.

         As I entered the voice beckoned me to shut the door, and then to come forward once I’d completed the task. Looking around as I came forward, the room itself was rather small, and sparse. In fact the room’s only striking features were a bookcase on the left wall, a combination ornate and functional, what I could only assume to be, mahogany desk, and the white mustached grey furred Earth pony that sat behind it on a backless futon chair. The nameplate on his desk said Reginald. The pony himself had light gray fur and short cropped white mane and tail. He wore a very functional looking tux, minus, of course, the pants, his neck adorned with a small red bow-tie.

         While I don’t use this word often, he was definitely what you would call a distinguished gentleman… err, colt. His very presence, felt calm and calculated. And all the while I’d been admiring him (like the same way you’d admire a super hero, Hayate the Combat Butler, that’s all I have to say about that), he’d been sizing me up, or at least my three-dimensional puppet. As experienced as he was, he seemed a bit disturbed, especially when he looked into the eyes, being nothing for him to look into but a void rather than a soul.

         He cleared his throat, “So, Feather Wake tells me you wish to become employed with the castle staff, Mr…?”

         “Rumor sir, and yes sir.” I said, the shadow mimicking my slight head nod and closing of the eyes.

         “Any particular reason why?”

         That one took me a little bit to answer to, but I ended up just saying, “I like to keep things clean. I also rather like the quiet, which is why I came so late in the evening. I hope to be employed with the night staff.”

         “You know, most ponies prefer to work during the day, and the castle remains quiet for the most part during that time as well.” He smoothed back his mustache with his right hoof. “Is there any other reason you wish to work at night?”

         Crud, perceptive old codger! But I could still do this. I was still in control here, some. I made the shadow give a small shrug and quirked smile, “To tell the truth, I have rather sensitive eyes, too much light kinda hurts them, though on the plus side I can see in the dark really well.” I made my puppet give a small smile. Ah, the best lies have a kernel of truth, and this one had a few, but my honest enjoyment of keeping things clean didn’t stop my growing guilt at continuing the charade.

         At any rate my answer seemed to have pleased him in some way, not that I could see if his mouth turned up or down with his moustache in the way, because the interview went on from there. Just the normal spiel of questions, with a few more cleaning related ones, though I did admit that I had little way when it came to formal training. But then he asked the big one, or at least the big one for ponies, “What is your cutie mark for?”

         ‘Irony’, I immediately thought, but thought better of it than to blurt it out. I was really coming to a blank on what to say here, I needed to twist it’s meaning somehow to be cleaning related, somehow, because if that episode of the Cutie Pox taught me anything, it was that cutie marks imbued the wearer with some mastery over the related talent. I was just about to port out of their when Caligo began to whisper as I repeated, “My mark signifies my wish to control things around me. And as life is normally quite chaotic and hard to manage, it gives me pleasure to know that I can at least control the environment around me, to an extent, by enforcing a degree of cleanliness which would otherwise not normally exist.”

         ‘Thank you.’

         Reginald must have liked my answer as well because the right side of his moustache came up a few inches, and I think I saw a speckle of water form in the corner of his eye before it disappeared into the surrounding fur.

         “You are hired.” This time the smile on my puppet matched my own. “Mr. Porter?” Reginald called out into a brass looking tube he pulled up from below his desk.

         “Yes Reginald?” came the tinny, slightly bored, sounding reply.

         “We have just made a new addendum to our castle staff, please send somepony up begin the integration process and show the new blood around.”

         “Right away Reginald.”

         He then pushed the tube to back wherever it rested under his desk, and turned to me, “You are certainly a strange one. But you seem like a polite young lad, and I think you’re going to get along with us like one, big, happy, family.” The warmth of his smile was evident, even from underneath his facial hair. I was then politely asked to go wait in the hall for whichever pony was coming for me as he had some work he needed to get back to.

         I didn’t have to wait long out there either as the quick flapping of leathery-wings emanated down from the left of the hall as a royal purple coated  bat-winged pegasus rounded the corner. She then rocketed down the straightway, coming straight at me, or at least my legs, by here angle of trajectory. I gave her time enough to start slowing down, but when she got within three feet of me I blinked over to the next shadow across from the door as the sound of screeching tires emanated a mere two inches from the spot I had just occupied.

         “Jeez, I wasn’t going to actually run into you,” a very tomboyish, and definitely feminine voice replied out of the pegasus as she flung back her midnight blue hair out of her face. “You sure are jumpy though, names Twister, what’s your name?” She said as she lifted her front hoof in greeting.

         I had to kneel down so my actual hand could bump with Twisters as my shadow mimicked my movement, giving off the illusion of reality. “My name is Rumor, ma’am.”

         “Ahahaha, there’s no need to get all formal with me, that’s just Reginald’s thing, it’s just Twister, and it’s a pleasure to meet’cha. But how come your voice is so far from your mouth?” A quick ‘I’m mute and using horn like tuning fork’ explanation left her blushing from asking something that she assumed must have been a touchy subject, but she didn’t let it bother her for long. “Now come on,” she said as she took wing, “you get to have the grand tour given to you by the coolest maid in Canterlot.” Disgust began to rise within me, until I realized she hadn’t been stupid enough to claim all of Equestria under her title’s domain, so she couldn’t be too bad. I let a small smile creep over my shadow’s face as a larger one took mine. She started down the way I saw her come and I had to to shadow stride in order to keep up with her, but I think she was just happy that someone was able to match pace with her.

         Our first stop was along the sleeping quarters it wasn’t drab, but it wasn’t posh, the best way to describe it would be to call it efficient. The colors were all dark, padding along the walls to help absorb outside sounds and closable canopies for another layer of privacy. Many of the servants actually made enough that they had rooms or condominiums outside of the castle, but these were here for those who were either new like me, or just felt too tired to walk all the way down to the city proper. Next were the bathrooms and washrooms, both of which were pretty standard looking, but immaculate white tile adorned the walls and a grainy white floor to promote friction covered both so as to easily see any spots or blemishes before and after washing bed sheets and the like. We passed, Sir, Reginald’s office, which acted as a hub for the castle staff as all the brass talking pipes led directly to him. The rest of the tour was pretty standard; I was shown where all the cleaning supplies were stored, and a few of the big wigs I should ask for if things got hairy, not that they should I was assured, I wouldn’t be doing anything major till it was found out what position I would best serve in, but you know ‘just in case’.

         With all, Twister called “drab” out of the way she went on to show me the parts of the castle that were more fun. I was taken to the gardens, though apparently not the part that housed Discord, the royal throne room, of which was empty, though Twister said that it was something to do with Princess Luna trying to re-establish and continue to catch up on the political and cultural changes that she missed over the last thousand years, at which point she made a disgusted looking face and said she hated homework and couldn’t imagine being stuck doing something like that, I admit that I found her comment slightly amusing and gave a small chuckle which seemed to brighten her day… erm, night.

I must admit, the whole of the castle seemed rather impressive. The whole place was just so simple for the most part, with only a few rooms showing any signs of true decadence. The rest was just simplicity, in that it needed nothing else to show its worth. The walls were smooth, without a blemish and looked as though it were a single rock that had been carved from the mountain, the carpets were of a royal red so pure I almost felt like I could fall into them, and the art, hadn’t paid much attention to it when I came in last, but quite frankly it was beautiful, my personal favorite had been a painting of the last sliver of the setting sun over a red sun-baked landscape.

         What truly piqued my interests were the places that even the royal staff wasn’t allowed to go. It was either military clearance, or for the Princesses’ only. Those places were tucked away, and even Caligo, who’d been silent for the whole thing became noticeably active during those times.

         The tour in its entirety took up about some two odd hours, at which point it was now somewhere around eleven. Twister said she needed to get back and finish up her work, but before leaving said that I should take the rest of the night to familiarize myself with the castle as I would begin working the night shift, and should be up dark and early, because as of nine o’clock I’d be on shift, and would work a good eight hour shift, with an hour lunch break. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little at my new job schedule. She then shot off, leaving a few dust devils in her wake, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

         ‘Well, we made it in.’

         ‘Indeed, and now the truly hard part, you’re going to need to play the role, though that shouldn’t be too hard for you. And as for those niggling doubts you’ve been harboring, you needn’t worry about forgetting the places we’ve been shown, my memory is quite good and I will guide you anywhere that we need to go now.’

         That was a load off my mind, as good as I was with relative location, the castle was still pretty big, and a lot of the servant entryways were hidden behind walls so they could have quick and easy access to wherever they needed to go without having to run into anypony else. All in all though, it meant that I was free for the rest of the night. My stomach began to rumble, and Caligo redirected me back to the kitchen which was run by a kindly brown stallion with white mane and tail, named Devil Cake, he showed me to, what I could only call, the servants buffet and let me know that this was open to the staff at all hours so they could get a bite whenever they were able, though the ones that normally had the most hectic work hours were normally the day-shift servants. He gave me a smile and said he was glad I was now working on “our team” and went back to cooking whatever he’d been working on, as I helped myself to a peanut butter and honey sandwich with a tall glass of cold milk. As I began to chow down on it, I silently bemoaned that I couldn’t remember any other foods that had protein in them besides meat. But the fact that the smorgasbord that was a vegetarian Vegas style buffet certainly made up for it with all the variety I’d be able to mix into my diet.

         After my meal, I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I made my way back to the sleeping quarters, found myself an unoccupied bed, closed the curtains, and fell into a trance. I wasn’t scared of anyone finding me. I could just port out of there into some odd dark corner of the castle if anypony tried to take a peek at me.

         Back in my mind I beckoned for Caligo to send me through another wave of training till an hour before nine o’clock this coming night, I needed something to do to take my mind off of my growing guilt, and I certainly wasn’t going to spend my bed time with only my thoughts, this time.