To Lily’s relief, the wood-and-peanuts atmosphere was banished completely once behind the door, cutting her off from the smell of humidity and equine debauchery.

Magical lighting illuminated the hall which split off into two directions, numbered doors lined up on both sides. The walls, ceiling, and floor were lined with gaudy pink shag carpeting, giving the small, pink mare the unwanted mental image of the diagram of an intestinal tract she’d been shown in school. Suppressing a nervous laugh at the thought of asking Goldie if they were going to carry out their conversation inside her colon, she allowed her newfound friend to continue speaking non-stop as they walked down the hallway.

“Bit of a change of scenery, eh?” Golden Harvest chuckled at her new friend’s reaction to the decor. “It might look silly, but yeh come to appreciate how it feels when you wind up on the floor!” she said as she fished a key out of her saddlebag. “We don’t always make it to the room in time, and the ponies who run the Bucking Bronco were sensible enough to accommodate our more impatient fillies.”

Teeth clenched, Lily lifted a hoof instinctively at what lurid tales the floor might be hiding as she waited for her cuddly, orange friend to work the soft, odd-numbered toes of her inner hoof around the handle. “I’m sorry to ask, Golden, and don’t take this the wrong way, but I have to ask: Why are the mares that come here so... wildly aggressive about sex? Is that… normal?”

Golden Harvest looked down at the floor, guiltily before turning to face Lily; the door partially open. “Not outside the bar, nay. I cannae think of any other fooler I know who does this sorta thing in public, but most fillyfoolers I know are very sexually active — much more so than straight mares. Multiple partners with consent from the others in the herd, hours spent every day getting gussied up. The unicorn mare you saw back at the bar about to face the mob is in an open relationship with each and every mare in Equestria, even those to whom she’s never met as she put it! Her special relationship is even given recognition by the bar’s patrons themselves, who will initiate sex with her at any given time. I’m very sorry yeh had to see that. We do get a bit carried away...”

“I’ve never done any of this before with even a single pony…” Lily muttered miserably before her inhibitions could kick in. An icy wind, shut out by years of convenient distraction, whipped unfettered through the window in her mind. I’m alone. Even now in this bar with over a hundred mares inside of it.

“Lily, there’s no expectations with me,” Golden Harvest nickered gently, smiling as she opened the door. “Shall we?”

“Thank you, Goldie.” Lily followed her inside and looked around; the temperature dropping at least fifteen degrees from the outside hall. Well, at least it’s not the colon I was expecting! Blue and pink striped wallpaper, which reminded Lily of somepony she’d met, lined the walls. Pink curtains were drawn against a single window set high against the outer wall. An old-fashioned four-poster bed, it’s dark blue veil withdrawn exposing clean white linens topped by a pink and white checkered blanket. Instead of a bedside table alarm clock, a fancy burled walnut wall clock tick-tick-ticked away the time on the opposite end of the bed. A door off to the side lead to a bathroom complete with a shower, soap, mane and tail shampoo, white towels, and toiletries. Looks nicer than some motel rooms I’ve seen! Lily rubbed her chin, a nagging suspicion growing in the back of her mind.

While Goldie excused herself to use the fillies’ room and take a quick shower, Lily grabbed a bottle of water from the ultra-modern magic-powered refrigerator that was capable of keeping things cold without the need of an icebox. She took a cool, refreshing sip of nearly freezing water, and sprawled out across a bean-bag pony chair fashioned in the image of Pinkie Pie: Party aficionado and certified hide and seek champion of Ponyville. She’s always watching… somewhere… Lily shivered, thinking of several unexplained events that had occurred while working alone at night inside the greenhouse.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily spotted it; the barest flutter of pink from the direction of the window. Not content to haunt the greenhouse, Pinkie was going to follow her to the very ends of Equestria! Before more extreme methods of exfiltration such as smashing through a wall could be considered, Lily spied the curtain on the window was now fluttering nonstop, as if pushed by the winds of a very small pegasus. Or a very large Breezie. One can never be too certain. Paying more attention to the window, she noticed in a rather vague, back-of-the-mind sense that no light filtered through the lightly-colored veil. Weird...

Before Lily could pay the curtain any more mind, Lily’s thoughts were broken up by Golden Harvest’s return. She’d adorned herself in a shower robe, her mane wrapped in a great white turban formed from no fewer than three separate towels to dry her mane. Her hooves were capped by four white woolen slippers. As Lily wondered if they were standard issue for guests, Golden Harvest plopped down on a bean bag chair of Twilight Sparkle. “Whew! Ah feel sober already! Lily, you should take a shower too. Trust me, yeh’ll feel a lot better after simmerin’ in that hot box of a bar.”

Lily arched an eyebrow at her friend. “Showering in somepony else’s place? I’m not sure how I feel about this…” she offered in a nervous air, tempted but still very ill-at-ease in her unfamiliar surroundings.

“Well it’s not me name on the deed, but that hasn’t stopped me!” Golden carefully unwrapped her amber locks from their fabric prison before hanging the towels from a solid, carved oak chair facing one of the outer walls.

Lily gave her a confused look as she glanced at the towels before covering her mouth which a loud gasp. “Goldie, they’re moving too!” Sure enough, the towels on the chair began to flutter in the breeze.

“Right you are, dearie! We get air-conditioning in all the rooms. Seems a waste of time to go all the way back to the bathroom when I have a perfectly good vent here.”

“Air… conditioning.” Lily looked around the room uneasily, unable to shake a growing feel of queasiness that was as much in her mind as her stomach, a certainty that something simply wasn’t right her surroundings. “That’s fancy…”

Golden Harvest gave her a worried look. “Lily, are yeh feeling alright? You look like yeh’ve seen the Earl of Hades himself!”

“I’m…” Finding a sense of clarity in her paranoia, Lily began to take in the room in detail as Golden Harvest trying futilely to win back her attention. It was clearly far more modern and much larger than what she’d walked into earlier. It had been dark earlier when she and Roseluck had entered the old-fashioned building, but neither had noticed on its dimensions. But as she retraced her steps in her mind, things weren’t adding up. She’d heard of such technology existing inside the commercial towers of Hoofington and a few of the other major cities, but Ponyville was an earth pony town without the infrastructure or unicorns present to sustain environmental control. Indeed, she and Roseluck lived inside a house with Daisy that was lit by kerosene lamps and heated by a wood-burning stove. “This isn’t…” she could neither say she was fine nor explain her unease at that moment, to Goldie’s increasing consternation.

“By Celestia’s solar dock panel, yeh’re scaring me, Lily! What’s wrong? Out with it!” Golden Harvest protested with a hoof to the side of her lavender seat.

Lily turned back to face Golden Harvest with a start at the orange mare’s harsh tone and slightly obscene reference to their ruler, the other earth pony mare relaxing somewhat at finally earning the right to her fickle friend’s attention. “Goldie… what do you know about this place?”

She smiled at that. “Ahh. Well, this place is really somethin’ isn’t it?” Golden Harvest laughed, dispelling the tension in the room. “Reckon yeh’ve never seen a place like this in Ponyville before, have yeh?”

Lily Valley shook her head, looking guilty at her own ignorance. “I don’t get out very often. I mostly stay at the flower shop while Roseluck and Daisy go run errands and shop. I’m from out of town; Hoofington.”

Golden Harvest’s eyebrows disappeared into her thick, orange mane. “That’s a long way! Well not as far away as I came from but… We can talk about me later. So yeh’ve never been around and seen Ponyville.”

“Nope,” Lily shook her head again. “I came here looking for a place to stay after leaving my hometown. I… I really don’t want to talk about that place.” Images of smoke-filled skies came to mind as her heart began to sink.

“It’s okay, Lily. Yeh don’t have to say anythin’. I know that complicated feeling yeh get about yeh’r hometown. Trust me. We’ll both talk about that when we’re ready.”

“Thanks, Goldie. You’re super-nice. You’re just like Roseluck and Daisy.” Finally relaxing a bit, Lily explained how after coming to town with barely a bit to her name, the two hired her on the spot to help run the shop. “There are times I wonder, you know? Like, how did I get here? Back home I was an outcast, that weirdo pony who stares at things…” A trickle of moisture formed in the corner of Lily’s eyes. “And I come here, feeling like I haven’t got a friend in the world and there she is, R-Roseluck, looking out at me with a smile, water bucket in hoof. It’s like she was my friend before she even knew who I was…”

Golden Harvest slowly walked over to her friend, head bowed and placed a reassuring hoof on her back. “Oh, Lily, that’s so wonderful! We are so blessed to have one another in Ponyville! Finest friends a pony can ever have.”

Golden’s smile faltered a bit as Lily explained Roseluck’s apparent snubbing of her affections.

Golden Harvest sighed. “I cannae say I know the mare as well as you, but between you and me she seems like a bit of a mess in terms of knowing what she really wants.” Golden chuckled sadly at her own quip. “She reminds me of meself, actually…”

The two shared stories for what seemed like hours ranging from the mundane to the terrifying, recalling tales of destruction, rebuilding, and the inevitable lesson that always came out of each trial Ponyville faced as the two drank ice cold chocolate milk, much to Lily’s surprise and delight. Realizing how off-topic they’d run, but far from disappointed, the two brought things full circle back to the bar itself.

“Now this building here is an achievement.” Golden Harvest gestured towards her fancy four-poster bed. “It’s off the grid and powered by generators that run on magic imported from Canterlot. I was one of the first ponies to become a member, meaning I have a place to live here. Reasonable rates, but sadly we can’t house everypony. How would we even be able to stay with jobs and responsibilities? But we come and go. Often with a friend to keep us warm through the cold winter nights.”

I guess generators makes sense… But does it really? Lily pondered before her train of thought was derailed at the thought of another mare’s fur pressed up against hers. A thought so heady and yet so… shameful. “How do ponies get together like that? How do they bring themselves to trust each other with their own b-bodies?” Lily flinched as she spoke the last word as if expecting a whip to come down across her back.

Golden Harvest considered the question, carefully. She’d started dating around the same time as the rest of her class and had been with stallions and mares alike, not to mention griffin tiercels and even an eagless. But that was what life was like back in the Gryphon Kingdom; neither gender nor species mattered there. She reflected on how lucky she was for it and then in turn how unfortunate Lily was. She clearly hadn’t had any experience with anypony at all and had sunk into a deep depression from it.

“You remember how Roseluck accepted your friendship without question before? Well, Lily, that’s kinda how it will be with your first sexual experience. It will just happen. But that won’t happen until you stop setting yourself up for failure; until you let go of your pain and put yourself out there. Believe me filly, I know all too well about letting those ponies go. And you know what? It doesn’t hurt any less today than it did three years ago. And the year before that. And the year before that…” Golden Harvest’s voice started trembling as she wiped her eyes with a hoof. “And when you meet that special mare, chances are you’ll face that day yourself when you have to let her go.”

Recognizing her new friend’s sorrow, one she had thought only existed in herself, Lily embraced her, the latter briefly too stunned to return the gesture. “I’m sorry, Goldie. I know I’m being selfish. I know everypony else has problems too. If I’m to be perfectly honest… I just haven’t cared that much for a long time. Thank you for giving me the time of day. May I call you… a friend?”

Golden Harvest hugged her back, happier than she’d felt all that miserable week. “You may, Lily. I think we both needed that very much. And yeh can talk to me whenever you wish.” The two separated, their smiles turning somewhat bashful. “Well… it’s pretty late. Do yeh want to sleep here for the night? Wouldn’t want to send you out into the night alone.”

Lily couldn’t prevent her imagination from running wild anymore. For years she’d refused to even consider the possibility of having sex with another mare — except the absolute safety and comfort of her own lewd imagination. But faced with the very real possibility of climbing into bed with an actual mare, the sounds of Goldie’s moaning filled her subconscious interspersed with the duo sloppily kissing, their muzzles coated with musky mare juices and the effervescent scent of two fillies making sweet, sweet love. Oh, she wanted it badly, but not now. Not after she’d bared her soul to her. Not so soon after winning her over as a friend. “I’m… not sure I should…” Lily’s stammered as her face said no, even as the stirrings in her inner walls said yes.

‘Hey, I didn’t say yeh had to sleep in me bed!” Golden replied with mild indignation. “I’m not that easy, filly!”

“Oh… hehe. Right. Couch it is!” Lily gave her friend a toothy grin, her libido crashing into the ground at terminal velocity. Did she really have to deny me that quickly? “Talk to ya tomorrow?”

“You betcha, Lily! Sweet dreams.” Golden Harvest passed the diminutive mare a blanket and pillow from her bed before drawing the curtains around her bed.

“Goodnight, Goldie.” Accepting them gratefully, Lily gave the clock on the wall a passing glance, 10:30. Had they really spent so much time talking? Lily smiled, thankful to have a friend to spend her time with and laid her head on the pillow. She blacked out instantly.

*****

Lily awoke to the sound of a loud bang.

Artificial lighting provided by the elegant wall lamps had been dimmed, casting the room in semi-darkness. “Who dimmed the lights?” Lily muttered to nopony in particular. Groggy, and feeling distinctly unrested, she climbed off the couch to go fetch some more water when her eyes were drawn back to the pink-shaded curtain over the room’s sole window. Bright, white light now filtered through which cast itself over the landing to the bathroom. Lily could even make out details inside the darkened bathroom; shapes of shampoo and conditioner bottles exactly where she’d recalled them and the online of a large vanity mirror.

Golden Harvest was fast asleep. Her deep, rhythmic breathing filled the room.

Lily swallowed hard. She wasn’t asleep all night. That much was clear. In fact, far from rested, she felt more exhausted than ever. And she’d definitely heard a loud bang that only she had reacted to. The time! Lily's eyes darted over to the clock which had gone silent, stopped dead in its tracks at exactly 10:30. Maybe it just needs to be re-wound? I hope?

Across the room behind her veiled bed, she knew her good friend would be inconvenienced — perhaps even outright angry — by waking her up now. Lily looked out to the lone entrance to the room. She could leave now, but without having said goodbye to Golden Harvest and making a bad impression. Then again there were the local fillyfoolers which might be roaming the halls. Lily whimpered aloud, quietly grabbing a chair out of the tiny kitchenette and wedged it under the doorknob before retreating back to cover.

For what seemed like an hour there was only dead silence and the sound of the lovely earth mare’s slumber as Lily had settled with trembling under her blanket until Goldie woke up. Another loud thump, punctuated by Lily’s whimpering. This time she was able to discern the location of the sound as coming from the bathroom, behind one of the walls. No response from Goldie. “That mare sleeps like the dead. Which is what we’re both about to be!” Lily muttered before biting into the hard part of her hoof as she considered the nasty possibilities. More time passed without incident.

One thing was certain no matter how she would implement her strategy. “I need to get the buck out of here!” she spoke aloud with a newfound strength and resolve. Steeling herself for the worst, and conceding she could always wake up Golden Harvest in an emergency by screaming her head off, Lily crept out from beneath her blanket fort and made her way past the window-lit landing into the bathroom.

Fumbling blindly in the darkness of the bathroom she found a switch to turn on the lights. Tiles still wet with humidity around the bathtub gave Lily her first clue; she hadn’t been out for very long at all. Even the mirror retained the barest traces of fog around the circular edge. The memory of the window loomed largely, but she’d worry about that later. Ponyville had more than enough concerns for her to deal with on a good day, and this was certainly not a good day for Lily Valley.

A visual inspection of the walls revealed no signs of damage from the loud impacts she’d heard, but an unbroken seam in the off-white painted wall adjacent to the bath between the square piece of drywall and four wood panels. Whoever painted the room had simply painted over the noticeable gap between the paneling and the rest of the wall. Lily surmised a magical fuse box or cluster of wires. It was large enough and at the right height for a small pony to shimmy through. Lily concluded it was something to do with maintenance ponies in gray uniforms for sure. “But then why isn’t there a crack in the paint for when they opened it to do maintenance? Ugh!I’m going to die horribly!” Lily’s ears drooped, but she kept looking, determined to solve the mystery of Golden Harvest’s scary bathroom.

“Maybe if I tap on it, it will sound hollow?” Lily continued, talking to herself. Somehow the sound of her own voice made the entire situation somehow less terrifying to her and she’d taken to talking to herself when she was sure she was alone or otherwise unnoticed. ‘It’s not crazy unless you respond to yourself’, she’d heard other ponies say. And Lily would insist she’s not crazy if you asked. Not one bit. She gave the drywall between the wood panels a quick jab with her hoof. The drywall fell back immediately into the void. The old paint job hadn’t been up to the task of keeping it sealed for much longer. “Oh, horseapple sundaes!” Lily shrieked, before whirling around to see if Golden Harvest had heard her exclamation.

Goldie continued sawing logs as if nothing had happened.

“This is an emergency alright! There’s something very weird going on. Or maybe I’m going to be paying the bar for a new wall? Oh, buck me sideways!” Lily poked her head through the hole, deciding that she could literally patch things up in the morning with her friend and that there’s no reason to wake her yet. Lily poked her head into the opening. It was another room, though this one was mostly unfurnished. Wall lamps similar to ones in Golden Harvest's suite lit the nondescript room. The carpeting was old and dusty, the air thick with humidity — Lily supposed it had been closed off for some time and might have been so dank due to steam from the neighboring bathroom working into it. A nearby window, in the same general location as Golden’s, was similarly veiled by a pink curtain. A four poster bed sat bare, stripped down to the mattress. The bathroom door on the opposite side of the room was closed.

Eyes fully adjusting to the semi-darkness, Lily could make out objects left behind by the previous occupants atop the musty couch and kitchen table: a clear plastic tumbler, a small stuffed and absurdly effeminate-looking and completely unconvincing dragon figurine, a CB radio with attached microphone, an empty glass bottle of Sparkle Cola, and an old typewriter. “I guess the last pony who had the room didn’t clean up properly and now it’s unusable. They could have at least remembered to take their stuff! Probably a city pony who did this. Bunch of jerks…” Hazarding a chance at alerting anypony lurking in the hallway quietly, Lily gave the doorknob an experimental turn. It was locked from the other side.

“What in Tartarus?” Lily tried the bathroom door as well with the same result. Lily turned in the direction of where she made her entrance. The drywall laid exactly where it had fallen. Relieved that at least she hadn't walked into a trap, hopefully, she checked the closets and under the bed which took nearly no time at all, the room being so small as it was. Whatever made the noise wasn’t there. “I’m not crazy, darn it! I know I heard something!” Whinnying angrily, she looked back at the CB radio. The Flower Trio actually had one of those back at the house. Roseluck or Daisy would carry one with them on long deliveries to alert other caravans of difficulties along the highway or even call for help. It was a terrific way for foals to yammer at absolute strangers about nothing, too.

Lily reached out to touch it. “Eep!” The object gave off a musical tone when touched. Lily dove beneath the bed trembling with her forelegs over her two-toned yellow mane. Then silence. When no monster or otherwise came to finish the job, Lily cautiously made her way out from under the bed. Nervous energy coursed through her body. The hair on the back of her neck stood straight up and her tail twitched irritably, thwacking against the legs of the bed as she frantically searched for a justification. “Enchanted, m-maybe?” Lily listened for signs that somepony had heard her, but again, nopony came. Summoning great willpower she jabbed at the device again with her hoof. The tone repeated itself, the sound emanating from the radio itself like a bell. Again, silence. Lily turned her suspicion to the rest of the junk in the room.

Touching the other four objects in the room, each produced its own distinct tone; The five musical notes: E G B D and F Lily had learned on her first day of music class. “A puzzle, maybe? Who set it up, and why behind a locked door?” Lily supposed it was far past time to go back and wake up Goldie, but the mare was now more curious about the sounds than afraid. The fear was becoming almost exciting. There was no obvious way to tune the enchanted objects to produce a different tone, that Lily could discern. With nothing to lose, Lily fired away with the first and most obvious tune that popped into her head.

E-D-C-D-E-E-E Mare-E had a little lamb
D-D-D-E-D-G Little lamb, little lamb
E-D-C-D-E-E-E Mare-E had a little lamb
E-D-D-E-D-C Her fleece was white as snow

The bathroom wall crackled and sparked with magical fire, the image distorting and returning before disintegrating into nothingness, disgorging a winged creature, bound by the legs and wings by rope out of where the door once stood. Falling forward out of the illusion onto the dirty carpet, the darkly coated stranger sent up a plume of dust.

Lily’s legs trembled in the murky darkness, made no better by the dust in the air. When after the dust began to clear, she saw a pair of yellow, gleaming cat eyes scanning the room from the filthy carpet. Its body was equine, but uncannily so with long, tufted ears like a bat. A thestral! Lily recognized from reading about the accomplices of Nightmare Moon in school. Beneath its bonds appendages where pegasus wings would normally be pressed against the coiled threads which tore free within seconds, sending the erstwhile prison tumbling to the floor.

Lily could make out its form in vivid detail. Its leathery brown bat wings flared angrily over its round pony body, covered in a dull brown metal suit of armor from the neck down that matched his wings and the decrepit carpet beneath them. Now free, it’s eyes focused on the terrified mare before him, who let out a bloodcurdling shriek.

Certain she and Goldie were as good as dead, Lily Valley’s mind decided on the most painless means of passing; the room fell away entirely as she collapsed in a faint.

Author's Note

5/23/2018 Grammarly edit complete. This chapter was almost perfect to start. I guess that hiatus between 2 and 3 really did me some good.

12/11/2018 More editing. I like this chapter a whole lot. Very mysterious and all that.