Gambling Away the Twilight

~Welcome to Las Pegasus, the greatest city in the sky.~

"More like second greatest." huffed Rainbow as she looked at the sign. The train station was a grand affair, much larger than the small stop in Ponyville. The tall colonnades created a majestic atmosphere in the hall, the arched windows between them admitted rays of golden sunlight into the large cavernous space.

"How d'you reckon we get to Las Pegasus Boulevard from here." asked AJ.

Rainbow Dash looked at her. "McCarran Station is only a few minutes from the Bridleway by carriage. They will have some outside." She motioned for her friends to follow her.

"Hang on girls I just need to check I have all my bags." said Rarity looking suspiciously at them. "I feel that I might be missing something." She began to count the bags opening each one as she went along.

"Y'know, we are only here for four days Rare. I don't think seventeen bags are really necessary." uttered Applejack.

"Ooooohh this is so exciting. I can't wait to get to our hotel, I wanna see if we get little chocolates on our pillows." squealed Pinkie bouncing up and down.

"Okay, they're all here. We can go now." said Rarity picking up her bags in a magical grip.

The group trotted out of the door. Sure enough there was a line of carriages waiting outside the station. They walked over to the first available one.

Twilight spoke. "Hi, were going to Celestia's Palace." The lead stallion of the four who drew the carriage nodded and the group climbed in whilst Rarity attached her bags to the roof.

Once they were all inside the carriage drew away and began to pick up speed. The rolling clouds of Las Pegasus flew by them as they cruised along the skyway. Suddenly there was a jolt as they lifted off the clouds and flew over the numerous cloud houses that made up the Las Pegasus suburbs.

They could see the Bridleway in the distance, the numerous hotels and casinos towering above the other buildings. They were all vying for a place at the window to get a view of the cloudscape.

"So, room grouping. Who goes with who? There are three rooms each with two double beds." said Twilight. "I have done some initial grouping but if you want to change it then that's fine with me."

"Uuuumm, who is going with who then?" whispered Fluttershy.

"Well, Pinkie, you are with Applejack." -the two whooped.- "Rarity, you are with Fluttershy." -the two mares exchanged smiles.- "And Rainbow, that leaves you sharing with me." The Pegasus shot up suddenly.

"Say what?" she enquired.

"I said you will be sharing a room with me. If that's okay with you." Twilight answered.

"Oh, that's fine I just wasn't listening ad I heard my name." said Rainbow. That makes it easier, but so much harder. Ugghh why does this have to be so difficult.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a squealing from the window. "Oooohhh, I see it! I see it! Celstia's Palace." The group again piled to the window.

And there it was, Celestia's Palace. The Hotel was in all of it's grandeur, the columns stood tall and proud amidst the many sculptures that adorned the façade. The fountains in front of the doors spouted rainbows, several other carriages were stationed outside the hotel.

"Hey you guy's, there's the cloudesium. That's where were gonna see the Cirque de Celestia." said Rainbow, pointing out the structure just next to Celestia's Palace. It looked much like the cloudesium in Cloudsdale but was smaller and had a roof.

They began to descend to the surface of the clouds, the soft whiteness coming closer at every moment. The carriage swooped down to land in front of the entrance to the hotel, bouncing softly as is hit the clouds.

There was a fairly large crowd in front of the hotel. Ponies leaving, ponies arriving. There was no shortage of passengers needing carriages.

A porter trotted over with two luggage trolleys in tow. He gasped when he saw the number of bags on the roof of the carriage, he motioned for another porter quickly who came with another two trolleys. "Let me take your name ma'am so I can have your baggage sent to your room."

"My name is Twilight Sparkle." she said.

"You're bags will be up soon after you  in your room ma'am." he said making a short bow before attending to the luggage.

"Thankyou." -she turned to her friends.- "Lets go and check in, then we can settle into our rooms."

The group walked through the large doors and into a very extravagant lobby. The ceiling was painted to look like the night sky. Twilight noted that it looked right and she silently congratulated the artist in her head.

The floor was made of spotless white and green marble which Rainbow could see herself in. She marveled at how they could get marble to rest on the cloud. There was a long desk with twelve ponies seated behind it. The group made their way over to the nearest available desk.

"Hi, i'm Twilight Sparkle. We would like to check in." she said cheerily.

The mare at the desk didn't seem to show such enthusiasm. In fact she looked very bored. "You have three rooms booked. You're on the twelfth floor, rooms 12:10,12:11 and 12:12. The elevators are over there." -she pointed towards the casino.- "Have a nice day."

The group took their room keys and trotted off towards the elevator. They were well away from the desk when Rarity spoke. "Well, I think she was rather rude."

"Don't be like that." said Applejack. "I mean, being a hotel receptionist ain't exactly the most glamorous job in Equestria."

"Well I would expect it is easier to get a good job in Ponyville. Everything no matter how small seems so important." said Twilight.

She pressed the button for the elevator and the one to their right opened almost instantly. They all piled in through the doorway only to find themselves in a rather spacious area. The elevator was so large that twenty ponies could easily fit in it.

"Floor twelve." said Twilight as she hit the button. There was a whirring noise as the elevator slid up the shaft.

"So who has which rooms?" asked Rarity.

"Well you and Fluttershy have ten. AJ and Pinkie have eleven. So Rainbow and I have twelve." replied Twilight. "They're all the same so it doesn't matter."

~Ding~. The doors slid open and the group walked out into the hallway. There was a sign pointing the way to the rooms.

"Looks like were this way girls." said Twilight.

They walked down the corridor and reached their rooms. ten and eleven were close together and the occupants of those rooms went in to explore their new rooms. Rainbow and Twilight were left to walk to their room alone.

As they neared the doorway Rainbow spoke. "So. Ummm... Twilight. There was something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh. Really what is it?" replied Twilight.

"Oh. Ummm... Don't you think it's interesting that they don't have a thirteenth floor in these hotels."

DAMNIT