The Hotel

by Skijarama

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad, Original Character, Mystery
Length: 17013

"How long have I been here? How long have I been here with everything I need to survive... and despised every waking moment of it? How long have I lived in this hotel with no way out?"

Against all knowledge, possibility and explenation, there exists a hotel. A three story building of luxurious design, it's halls are filled with kitchens that never run out of food, an indoor waterpark that always functions, an arcade full to bursting with state of the art game machines and several rooms with the finest quality of beds one can imagine. It seems like a paradise, a place for a perfect dream vacation. But there is a catch...

Nopony who has entered has ever left. They are trapped within the walls. Windows are unbreakable, the fire escapes lead back to the lobby, the front entrance is sealed and cannot be opened. To make matters worse, nopony even knows how they got here...

And Twilight Sparkle is the newest arrival.

EDIT: This got featured the same morning I posted it. What a wonderful surprise to wake up to!

Published 2018-01-17 09:50:06 UTC
Last updated 2018-07-20 01:24:42 UTC

A New Guest

What happened?

This was the first of many questions Twilight Sparkle would ask this day, and it would be one of only two to go unanswered. She felt groggy and confused as she began to stir beneath a warm and fuzzy blanket. The mattress beneath her was soft and molded to fit her shape perfectly, not even squeaking as she gradually woke up. With a small wince, she opened her eyes, trying to recall what had happened to her last. She didn’t recognize where she was, though it strongly resembled a hotel room, and a luxurious one at that.

There was only the one bed, queen sized, dominating the center of the room. Along the inviting green walls were numerous pieces of furniture. Name a desk, a few chairs, a bookshelf and a dresser. There was a small coffee table with a couple of finely carved wooden chairs off in one corner. On the wall to her right was a tall window, letting in streams of pale sunlight. Curtains hung in front of them, diluting the light and blocking her view of the outside. Next to the bed on either side were end tables, one holding a lamp and the other holding an alarm clock.

5:32 PM.

Still dizzy and disoriented, Twilight cautiously slipped out of the bed. She reached a hoof up to her head and took a deep breath. “Where am I…?” she mumbled, thinking back. She remembered all of her friends getting their cutie marks switched when she recited an old and incomplete spell written by Starswirl The Bearded. She recalled watching them trying to do the jobs of others, only ever failing and bringing misery to themselves and the ponies around them. She remembered making use of the elements of harmony to restore them to who they were supposed to be. She remembered returning to the library and finishing Starswirl’s spell. She remembered a flood of light and color. She remembered meeting with Princess Celestia in some kind of magical pocket dimension.

She remembered Celestia telling her that it was time to fulfill her destiny. She remembered another flood of light, a surge of power…

And then she awoke here. Twilight blinked and rubbed a hoof over her face. “What happened…? She spoke her repeated thought aloud before slowly and shakily making her way for the window. She pulled the curtains aside and peered out of the window, trying to figure out where she was. Her eyes widened, her ears stood to attention on top of her head, and her breath hitched in her throat.

There was nothing. Just… white. Just a white void beyond that window. Slowly, Twilight backed away, her heart rate increasing. “What in the world?” she stuttered out to herself before turning and spotting the door on the far side of the room. With her breath swiftly coming in more and more panicky gasps, Twilight hurled the door open with her magic and sprinted out.

The hallway she stepped into was long in both directions, left and right. There were more doors along the walls, each one with a number next to them. The carpet was blue and of the finest quality. The walls were an inviting green with yellow lines making up simple yet intricate and abstract patterns, breaking up what would otherwise be a very monotonous hallway. Support beams ran up the sides of the wall, crafted in a very artistic manner from richly colored wood and finely polished. Light fixtures hung from the ceiling, illuminating everything in a bright but warm glow.

“Princess Celestia?!” Twilight called out nervously, her words echoing around her in the empty hallway. There was no answer. A bead of sweat began to form on Twilight’s brow. “Rainbow Dash?!” she tried again. And again, there was no answer. Slowly and with a tremble in her movements, Twilight gradually made her way down the hall, her teeth chattering as her anxiety built up even more.

This place very strongly resembled a hotel. If it was, where were the ponies in their rooms asking her to be quiet, or checking to see what the problem was. It was all too silent and Twilight felt her mind going into overdrive. “Somepony?! ANYPONY?!”

After a time, Twilight came to a dead end. The only thing that decorated this wall was a window. Her ears fell and she turned around again to gaze down the hall she had practically been galloping down. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her frayed nerves before trying again. “Rarity? Fluttershy?” she called out, trying to keep her fear under control. “Applejack? Pinkie Pie?”

Once more, there was no answer to be had.

With a sigh, Twilight turned around and looked out the window again. She propped herself up on the sil to get a better angle. Just like last time, there was nothing beyond this window but an empty white void. “Where am I…?” she whispered, a shiver running down her body.

For a good minute she just stood there, looking out the window. She tried various angles and strained her neck to make sure she was actually seeing through the window and not just looking into a pale screen. As she was able to spot the sil of another window to the sides and above this one, she deduced that she was indeed seeing out the window.

A slow creaking noise reached her ears. Twilight yelped in surprise and whirled around, her horn flaring to life. What she saw caused her to lean back in mild confusion before relaxing slightly.

It was a mare, maybe a little older than Twilight was. She stood in a doorway to Twilight’s left, having opened it only enough to look out. She was green in color with a darker green mane and tail. Her mane was pulled back and tied into a ponytail. Her eyes were a vibrant shade of purple, looking into Twilight with pity. “...Are you new?” she asked, her young voice sounding empty and disimpassioned. Her eyes looked Twilight up and down, analyzing her.

“New?” Twilight echoed while looking around in growing confusion. If nothing else, she was glad that there was somepony else here. Maybe they had answers. “What are you talking about? What is this place? Where am I? Who are you?”

The mare’s eyes lowered and closed. She exhaled softly and shook her head. “I’m sorry…” she managed before closing the door with a soft click.

Twilight blinked and recoiled slightly before cantering up to the door and knocking softly. “Please, can you tell me where I am? I don’t know how I got here.”

“I don’t have any answers for you.” The mare answered, her words muffled by the door. “Please just go. I’m sure the others will want to meet you…”

“Others…?” Twilight breathed before glancing down the hallway. She hesitated and then turned her attention back to the door. “Can you tell me your name, at least?”

“It’s Kale Sow.” The mare, now identified as Kale, answered. Her voice carried an edge of finality to it. Twilight knew she would get nothing more out of her right now and backed away from the door.

“Thank you.” She said before turning and beginning down the hallway once more. She made sure to take note of the room she had awoken in and it’s number. 317. Gradually, as she went, she lowered her gaze slightly and started trying to figure out what had happened to her. The last thing I remember was Princess Celestia telling me that I had proven I was ready and then casting some sort of spell on me… could it be that she sent me here? Wherever here is.

As she pondered her situation, a new voice cut through her thoughts. “Oh my… I was right.” it was a young, lightly accented voice. Twilight looked up and saw two other ponies approaching her from the hall. One was an old and grumpy looking stallion with a dull red colored coat and a mane and tail of gray, betraying his age. His eyes were a vivid orange. On his flank was a cutie mark depicting some kind of weird contraption made up of scrap and rusty parts with a hammer lightly tapping against it’s side.

The other pony, the one who spoke, was a bright orange unicorn that looked to be only a little younger than Twilight was. His relatively long mane and tail were evenly split between a deep, rich red and a brighter shade that was almost pink. His eyes were a deep shade of violet, his brows furrowed in a mix between elation and pity. His cutie mark was of a red crystal, possibly a ruby, with an ancient rune in front of it. It had been him that spoke. He turned back to the old red pony with a small smile.

Said red pony gave him no chance to answer. “I never said I doubted you, boy. I just didn’t want to be dragged along for your little adventure. I’ve seen it all before,” he grumbled out, his voice a rough and gravelly one. He turned an irritable eye on Twilight and then humphed. “If you wanna show her around and explain the situation, be my guest.” he then turned and began to trot away, leaving Twilight and the orange unicorn alone.

The unicorn in question sighed. “Ugh… I hope you can forgive him. He’s always like that, the crotchety old fart.”

“Who are you?” Twilight asked simply, her eyes narrowing slightly. “And where in Equestria am I?”

The pony cringed and closed his eyes, looking for the right words. “Ah, well, my name is Topaz Rune, and that ancient charmer that just left us is Rust Bucket. As for where you are…” Topaz shook his head and opened his eyes, looking into Twilight’s own with that same look of pity that Kale had given her. “...Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” Twilight asked, confused. “What does that mean?”

Topaz looked down and frowned. “...I don’t know what this place is. None of us do,” he then looked back up to Twilight. “And none of us know how we got here, either.”

Twilight just looked at him, not sure what to make of any of this. She shook her head and put a hoof to her head. “I… I don’t understand.”

“None of us do,” Topaz said in resignation. “And to be blunt, we all gave up trying to understand.”

Twilight took a long, deep breath. “Alright… alright, okay… how many of you are there?”

“Well, until just a few minutes ago, there were five of us. Now there’s six.” he said matter of factly. Twilight looked at him disapprovingly.

“I have no intention of staying here. I have to get back to Ponyville!” she snapped before starting forward. “How do I get out of here?”

Topaz stepped aside, his eyes shifting with a trace amount of unease. “...You don’t.”

“What the hay is that supposed to mean?!” Twilight demanded, spinning around to glare at Topaz. “Is somepony going to stop me?”

“No, no, it’s just that… gah… how do I put this lightly…?”

Twilight growled before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Put what lightly?”

Topaz ran a hoof through his mane and looked at Twilight with eyes that bespoke a sorrow and pity that made her pause, a chill running down her spine. “...Have you met Kale Sow, yet?”

“Huh?” Twilight asked, caught off guard by the change in topic. She found herself quickly enough, however. “Yes, I have. She didn’t say much to me. Why?”

Topaz put a hoof on his chest and closed his eyes. “...Kale has been here the longest of any of us. She’s… been here for over three hundred years.”

Silence.

Twilight felt a twitch in her eye. “Wh-what?” she breathed out, before shaking her head. “No… no way, that’s impossible! She looks only as old as I am! What kind of twisted joke is this, huh?!” she began yelling before turning and breaking into a gallop for the end of the hall.

Topaz couldn’t help the heavy sigh that left him. “You won’t find a way out, miss. There isn’t one…” he breathed before looking at his hoof, studying it. “No matter how much we wish there was…"

The Front Door

This isn’t right. None of this is right! Twilight thought to herself while frantically galloping down the spiral staircase that she had found at the end of the hallway. I’m not staying here. I have to get back! A second door presented itself after a few seconds and she wasted no time in shoving her way through. Beyond the threshold was a large hallway. It’s roof was significantly higher than that of the previous hallway Twilight had been in, and the entire length felt spacious and open. To her immediate left was another stairwell leading down another floor with a bright and flashing door labeled ‘ARCADE’ next to it. Meanwhile, to her right was a pair of double wooden doors. Further down the left side of the hall, there was a massive archway that looked to lead onto a balcony, possibly overlooking another room. Mirroring it was an enormous window that permitted a limited view of sophisticated playground construction, by the look of it.

Two large windows cut into the otherwise immaculate surface of the wall on either side of the fancy double doors, allowing Twilight to see past them and behold the absolutely marvelous looking restaurant inside. There were at least a dozen circular tables, each one covered with a fine white cloth and surrounded by four immaculate chairs, each. At a glance, it appeared to be empty.

Then came the dark teal pegasus mare who trotted into view, gazing out the window curiously at Twilight, presumably after having heard Twilight’s abrupt and forceful arrival on the floor. Their eyes met. For a moment, both remained still before the mare’s light blue eyes widened in shock while a hoof shot up to cover her hanging jaw. Twilight shook her head, mostly to herself, and resumed her journey. As she continued down this spacious corridor, she hooked a left and galloped out onto the balcony. As she had predicted, it overlooked a lobby fit only for the finest of establishments. The floor was covered in a lush red carpet, artistic patterns were deftly carved into the richly colored wooden walls, and a long reception desk made of what looked like mahogany spanned the left side of the room.

Twilight didn’t care about any of that, though. What she cared about was the front door. Seemingly made of glass and structurally sound wood. Long beams of pale light streamed in through the door from the empty void outside. With a grunt of effort, Twilight leaped off of the balcony edge before catching herself in her magic to slow her decent. She thought, for a moment, she heard the doors of the restaurant slamming open behind her.

The second her hooves met the carpet, she resumed her sprint. Her horn sparked to life yet again, trying the handle. When it didn’t budge, like she feared it wouldn’t, she grit her teeth and screwed her eyes shut, picking up even more speed. With a shout, she hurled her shoulder and the entirety of her weight against the door in an effort to bash it open and get outside.

The impact was jarring, and pain exploded across her shoulder. Twilight gasped as she crumpled backwards to the floor, her good hoof reaching up to her now very sore shoulder. Jeesh! What is this door made of?! She thought while writing on the ground. It hadn’t even given a little bit to her slam. Fearing for a moment that it might have been one to open inwards, she took a look. A frustrated groan slipped out of her when it dawned on her that the hinges of the door allowed it to swing both ways.

“Oh my… excuse me? Miss? Are you okay?” a mare’s voice called from overhead, sounding concerned but also shocked. Twilight groaned again while gradually sitting back up.

“I’m fine!” she snapped, her horn sparking to life again. Yet again, the handle wouldn’t budge under her efforts. Her face contorting with agitation, Twilight stood and tried instead to work her magic into the mechanisms of the lock itself. She bit her lip before her magic flickered out. The lock rejected her magic outright; there was no way for her to dissect it from here with what she had.

The teal mare from earlier set down gently with a few flaps of her wings a few feet away, looking at Twilight with a sympathetic look on her face. “...You're new arrival, aren’t you?” she asked softly, one of her hooves gently poking at the carpet.

“Not for long,” Twilight replied before marching up to the door and trying the handle with her hoof. As before, it didn’t budge. “I’m leaving. I’m going home!” she grit her teeth and pulled on the door as hard as she could.

The mare sighed gently. “I’m sorry… but we’ve all tried that door more times than I care to count. You’re not going to get out that way.” she offered before stepping forward.

“GUH!” Twilight shouted in frustration before backing away from the door and glaring spitefully at it. “Well, what ways have you tried?”

The mare shied away from the ire in Twilight’s voice. “Um… all of them.”

“Then how are you still here?!” Twilight asked, backing away and scowling. “If you’ve tried everything you’d have found a way out by now!”

The mare paused before sighing. “Well… we can get outside, sometimes, if there’s a fire. We use a fire exit in that case. But they just send us back here in the lobby while the hotel’s fire alarms and fire extinguishers do the trick. Outside that circumstance, however, the fire escapes don’t open.”

Twilight took a deep breath. Then another, and then another. “That can’t be… this can’t be happening… my friends! Princess Celestia! I have to get back!” she said, her voice quiet and unsteady. She went to go for the door again before the teal mare’s hoof gently put itself on her chest, stopping her.

“Hey… my name’s Sweet Breeze. What’s yours?” the mare asked, shrinking away slightly. It was only now that Twilight paused to actually examine the pegasus before her in more detail. Her mane and tail were long and elegant, despite being a little unkempt. They boasted the colors of bright mint green with strips of pale blue. Her cutie mark was of stylized swirling lines, similar to the lines used in old pegasi artwork to depict intense winds. Along these wind lines were flower petals, drifting along in the breeze.

Twilight sighed before slowly sitting down on her haunches, taking another deep breath, trying to get her rampant nerves under control. “I’m… I’m Twilight Sparkle.” she finally managed to say in a low mutter.

“It’s nice to meet you, Twilight,” Breeze smiled softly. “Uh… would you like to meet everypony else? Since, you know, we’re probably going to be around each other a lot.”

“I don’t plan on staying here… but sure,” Twilight finally relented before getting back up. “Maybe some meeting and greeting can help me calm down and think.”

Breeze smiled warmly. “That’s the spirit! Uh, have you met any of the others yet, by chance?” she asked curiously while turning to lead the way.

“Uh… I met Kale Sow, Topaz Rune and Rust Bucket.” Twilight said after a moment of thought.

Breeze cringed. “Rust Bucket, huh? I’m sorry.” she said, though there was a very slight hint of mirth in her voice when she mentioned the grouchy stallion’s name.

“He wasn’t pleasant.” Twilight deadpanned, shaking her head in exasperation.

“You get used to it. He’s a crotchety old pony, to be sure, but he means well.” Breeze replied before beginning out of the lobby at a slow trot. Looking past them, Twilight noted that the lobby sort of split into a t-intersection. On the wall directly opposite to the front door of the hotel was a pair of sliding glass doors. Past those, Twilight could see a large and truly impressive waterpark. To the right was a wide and very spacious path that ended in a thick wooden door. There was a golden-colored plaque labeling it, but they were too far away to really make it out. As they turned down the left hall, Twilight noticed another restaurant in a food-court layout off to left side. It looked significantly cheaper and more casual than the fancy place she had seen on the second floor. Meanwhile, to her left, was what looked like a hobby shop. Numerous shelves were stocked with boxes for models, all to scale, that one could assemble. There seemed to be painting and drawing supplies as well, among other things, but they were moving past it and for the spiral staircase headed back up before long.

“So…” Breeze began awkwardly while they ascended the stairs. “I overheard you mention Princess Celestia back there. Do you know her?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, I’m her personal student.” she answered simply.

Sweet Breeze gave an impressed whistle. “That’s got to be the most impressive sounding occupation out of everypony here.”

“Not really. I mainly run the library in Ponyville and help out across town with all sorts of things. Organization, sorting, planning. One time I was asked to give a lecture on magic for the local schoolhouse, but that’s hardly a common occurrence.” Twilight answered somewhat dismissively. Her ears fell somewhat as she thought back on her teacher, how delighted she had seemingly been before Twilight awoke here…

“Hey, it’s more impressive than my old job. I was a gardener in Cloudsdale.” Breeze answered while they reached the top of the stairs. Ahead of them, Topaz could be seen stepping out of the stairway that went up to the rooms. He locked eyes with Twilight for a moment, before the latter looked away.

“Tried the door?” he asked gently, to which Twilight merely nodded.

“I was just taking her to meet Daymist. You gonna come with us?” Sweet Breeze asked politely, nodding to Topaz.

“Of course. You know where he is, then?” Topaz asked while falling into step next to the two of them.

“Yeah. He was playing around in the water park, flying around the waterslides and stuff. It’ll probably be a lot easier to get his attention from that balcony there.” Breeze replied while the three of them made their way for that fancy restaurant.

“Makes sense,” Topaz nodded before looking to Twilight regretfully. “I’m sorry, by the way. None of us asked for this and I know it’s a lot to take in.”

Twilight didn’t answer right away, her eyes still glued to the floor.

“...What’s your name?”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Topaz stopped, his eyes going wide and his jaw hanging open. “Oh, THAT’S why you looked so familiar!”

Twilight stopped as well and looked over her shoulder at him. “What?” she asked, bemused.

Topaz shook himself a bit. “Ah, right. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m actually a crystal pony,” as he said this, Twilight noticed the distinctly sharper edges to the reflections of the light in his eyes, as well as the reflective quality of his mane and coat being far greater than her own. “You and your friends came to the empire just after we returned to Equestria. You’re… ah… Spock? Was that his name? What was he, again? A wyvern?”

Twilight blinked. “Uh… you mean Spike? He’s a baby dragon.” she said with a raised eyebrow.

“Right, right! Sorry… been here for thirty years myself. Some details of home are a bit… well, they’ve faded with time-”

“Thirty years?!” Twilight asked in a raised voice, her jaw hanging open. “You mentioned that Kale Sow has been here for centuries! How is that even possible?!”

Topaz winced and looked away. It was Sweet Breeze who answered. “We don’t know… I’m sorry. What we do know is that we don’t age here. I mean, I’ve been here for about seventy two years myself. I was twenty three when I came in and my body hasn’t aged a day.”

Twilight felt her brain kick into overdrive once again. “How… how is any of this possible…?” she whispered to herself, zoning out.

“Well, uh… if it makes you feel any better,” Topaz began with a small smile growing on his face. “We do have a library. I can show you around it in a while, if you’d like.”

Twilight blinked before looking back up at Topaz, a small shine returning to her eyes. “Did you say a library?”

Author's Note

And the story continues!

Fun fact of the day: this story concept was actually taken from an old forum RP I set up over on the MLP brony forums some time ago. It kinda fell flat after a while due to personal issues on my end, but I saw how much potential for character driven storytelling there is with such an abstract environment, so I adapted it for here on Fimfiction.net after a time.

Do let me know what you think, and keep in mind that I am very open to suggestions for potential plot events, scenes or even arcs if you want to suggest anything. :P Even if I don't use a suggestion, it may well inspire something else in me to keep this mystery engine chuggin' down the tracks.

Also, here's a map of the Hotel.

The Waterpark and Library

After letting her take a minute to calm down her sudden onrush of excitement, Topaz and Sweet Breeze led Twilight the rest of the way to the water park. They passed briefly into that fancy restaurant Twilight had noticed earlier before taking a sliding glass door on the left-side of the room out to a balcony overlooking the part itself. To say it was even more impressive with this vantage point would be an understatement. There were four different sections with varied structures that allowed for all sorts of water-based fun. A large wave pool, a veritable jungle-gym with an enormous water-bucket hanging over it, constantly filling up with water at enough of an angle that it looked like it would routinely tip over, spilling it’s contents all over the playground-esque construct.

There was also what had to be the largest waterslide Twilight had ever seen. It was at least three stories high, with several different sets of stairs leading up to it. Last but not least was a far more mellow area, mostly housing a few floating pads made of buoyant foam, brightly colored with foal-friendly faces plastered on them. Twilight couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows in near-awe at what she was looking at.

“Daymist! Can you come over here, please?” Sweet Breeze called loudly, lifting into the air on her own wings as she did so. After a moment, Twilight spotted somepony flying at them curiously. As he drew closer, Twilight felt her ears droop.

“He’s just a foal…” she breathed, a hoof coming up to her chest. Indeed, Daymist was little more than a foal, though he did have a cutie mark, which took the shape of a sunrise casting rays of light through a thick cloud of mist, which itself was parting over a pond or lake.

Daymist himself had a bright yellow coat with a short purple mane and tail. His eyes were a very bright blue, and were boring into Twilight with an almost ecstatic shine to them. “OH MY GOSH!” he yelled in delight before giving his wings an extra surge of strength. He rocketed to the balcony and landed on the rails right in Twilight’s face, grinning widely. He wobbled a bit, but steadied his landing and then held out a hoof. “You’re new? A new pony? Wow! I haven’t seen somepony new in, erm…” he looked at Topaz. “Uh, Topaz? How long have you been here?”

“Thirty years.” Topaz replied with a slightly dry look entering his eyes.

“Thirty years!” Daymist continued before leaping from the railing and wrapping his forelegs around Twilight’s neck in an uncomfortably tight hug. “It’s so good to meet somepony new! I’m Daymist! What’s your name?”

Twilight wheezed.

“Daymist! Personal space!” Breeze chastised the excited foal before prying him off of Twilight.

“Oh! Sorry, miss!” Daymist continued, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly before setting down on the ground. Twilight took a deep breath before smiling warmly down at the little guy.

“It’s okay. You’ve got quite a strong set of hooves for such a little guy,” Twilight pointed out with a small giggle before lowering herself down to his eye level. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you.”

Daymist walked in place with a big grin. “Nice to meet you, too, Twilight! Yeah, I know I’ve got strong hooves. I’ve kinda been working on them for, uh…” his face scrunched up in thought. He looked up to Sweet Breeze. “How long have I been here again? I kinda lost track…”

“Fifty four years now.” Breeze commented, a solemn note in her words. “Hard to say for sure the exact date you showed up, though. You hid in your room for a while when you first showed up.”

Daymist shrugged. “Eh. I woke up in not my room with strangers talking outside. I just did what mom always said and didn’t talk to the strangers.”

“And then you got hungry and asked us to feed you.” Breeze pointed out with a small smirk.

“From what I’ve been told, he begged more than asked.” Topaz added, his own smirk appearing.

Daymist blushed horribly. “Wha- GUYS! You’re supposed to make me look cool when new ponies show up!” he wined, sitting down, crossing his forelegs and looking away with a childish huff.

“We are making you look good, though,” Sweet Breeze continued before ruffling his mane with a hoof. “We’re showing Twilight just how adorable you are.”

Daymist snorted. “I’m not cute…”

Twilight couldn’t help the small giggle that bubbled it’s way up from observing the display. “Well, you all seem like good friends.” she commented with a smile.

“We’ve been stuck together for a long time, Twilight,” Topaz nodded along while sharing a smile with Sweet Breeze. “We’ve had to learn how to get along and make the most of all of this.”

“Sweet Breeze is like my stand-in mom!” Daymist pointed up at Sweet Breeze with a big grin. He then pointed at Topaz. “And you’re like stand-in dad!”

Topaz frowned. “I still don’t like that nickname, Daymist.” he deadpanned with a roll of his eyes.

“I do! So there!” Daymist countered before fluttering into the air and landing on top of Topaz’s head, snuggling into his mane.

Topaz’s whole demeanor became disgruntled. “...Are you ever going to stop doing that?”

“Not while you’re still so much bigger than I am!” Daymist sing-songed before nibbling on his mane. Sweet Breeze outright laughed at seeing that before coming over to pry the odd foal off of Topaz’s head.

“Why do you bit his mane like that?” she asked once Daymist was back on the ground.

Daymist lifted a hoof and poked Sweet Breeze on the tip of her nose. “‘Cause it makes you poonies laugh. I gotta make my own entertainment somehow, you know.”

Twilight felt herself relax a little bit, watching them banter back and forth. If I’m as trapped here as they keep saying, at least the company isn’t so bad. She thought. As that thought crossed her mind, however, her smile disappeared. But I’m not going to stay here. I have to find a way out.

“Topaz?” she eventually asked, causing the other three ponies to go silent. Topaz looked up to her and nodded.

“Yes, Twilight?”

“I want to see that library you mentioned. You said you’d take me there, so…” Twilight gestured vaguely as she spoke.

“Ah, right,” Topaz nodded, his tone growing serious again. He looked down at Daymist, then up at Breeze. “I guess it can’t be helped. I’ll see you two later, okay?”

“Go ahead, Topaz,” Breeze assured him gently before smiling at Twilight. “I know this is all a lot to take in, Twilight. But you're not alone here. Remember that.”

Twilight wilted slightly, then nodded. “I will. Lead the way, Topaz.” she finally sighed. Topaz nodded silently and led her out of the room through the sliding glass door.

“Bye, miss Twilight!” Daymist called after hey, waving happily before striking up discussion with Breeze as the door slid closed.

Twilight and Topaz walked out of the restaurant and back out into the hallway in silence. They took a right and began down the same hall Twilight had leaped off of a balcony from a little while ago. As said balcony came into view, Twilight couldn’t help but look over at the front door of the building. Her ears fell against her head. Topaz noted her solemn composure and slowed down until they were side-by-side.

“You feeling okay?” he asked gently.

Twilight shot him a dry look before looking directly ahead again.

“Stupid question, I know,” Topaz nodded. “Still, it’s just common courtesy to ask, right?”

“I guess…”

“You miss your friends, I take it?”

Twilight stopped and looked at Topaz with a quizzical look. She mouthed like a fish for a few seconds, trying to form words before looking down and sagging. “Yeah… the last time I saw them, they were looking back in fear and surprise. Something was happening and… I don’t know if they know what’s happened to me or if I’m okay…”

“Well, for what it’s worth, Iwoke up here after getting absolutely hammered at a party my roommate was throwing in our university dorm room.” Topaz replied with a slightly amused smile. “When I first woke up, I asked the traditional question: What the hay did I do last night?”

Twilight’s lips twitched with a small ghost of a smile.

Topaz kept going. “I spent the next week or so thinking it was all a hangover dream or something. Took me almost breaking a leg coming out of the waterslide to figure out that this wasn’t a dream, but real. Or real enough that breaking a leg in a waterslide wouldn’t be enough to snap me back to that soggy couch in my dorm room.”

Twilight snorted in amusement as the two continued walking for the door on the other side of the hall. “Heh. Sounds like you’re arrival was funnier than mine.”

“We all have our ‘arrival stories,’ actually. It’s kinda become a tradition with the others to share those stories with the newcomers on a night after they show up. A way of breaking the ice, getting the newcomer to feel more comfortable around us. I mean, we’re stuck together now, so it only makes sense.” Topaz explained with a little grin appearing on his face.

“Hmm… sounds like fun.” Twilight noted, though she wasn’t entirely sure if she meant it or not.

“Rust Bucket’s arrival story is hilarious, I’m telling you that right now,” Topaz said leadingly before winking at Twilight. “But that can wait until tonight. Uh, that is, if you want to hear our stories tonight. You can wait, if you want. It took me two weeks to decide to hear everypony out.”

Twilight shrugged. “Might as well. Though, that does remind me; how do you all know what time it is in here, anyway?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

“Ah. Well, aside from the clocks on the walls in the bedrooms, we can actually tell just by glancing out a window. That emptiness out there changes brightness along the time of day, so if it’s the middle of the night, the sky’s gonna be near pitch-black.”

“Convenient.” Twilight mused thoughtfully.

“Hey, so’s the literally endless supply of food and water in this place, the water park, the arcade. This place is freaking luxurious!” Topaz exclaimed while gesturing around. “We just can’t leave is the only real inconvenience about this place.”

“Endless food?” Twilight parroted, pausing by the library door with a raised eyebrow.

Topaz chuckled dryly. “The food in the restaurants is quite literally endless. Open up the fridge and the ingredients for what you want to make are all right there.”

Twilight blinked, then opened the door to the library with a light push of her hoof. Looking inside, she felt her heart swell with excitement and joy. “Oh… oh wow! Look at all these books!” she squeed before galloping into the room. There were rows upon rows of shelves, each one reaching up the rather high ceiling and positively crammed with books. “Wow! This is just as big as the Canterlot Library!”

“There’s a downstairs floor to it, too.” Topaz commented with an amused smirk. Twilight looked back at him with wide eyes and a hanging jaw.

“I… I can’t even… there are no words!”

Topaz laughed openly and closed the door behind him. “Nope, there are plenty of words. It’s a library. It’s full of em.”

Twilight pouted at him. “Oh, hardy har.”

Topaz shrugged innocently. “So, what do you want to look at first?”

“Anything and everything that might tell us about this place,” Twilight continued with an eager grin on her face. “With this many books there has to be something! A reference, maybe!”

Topaz wilted slightly. “Ah… uh, well, I can’t help you there. We’ve all searched this place top to bottom hundreds of times. The selection of books does change on occasion, but, ah… we’ve never found anything about this place, I’m afraid.”

Twilight’s elation gave away a little. “Oh…”

“I’m sorry.”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “No, it’s fine. It was a silly thing to hope for, considering everything else I know about this place.”

Topaz winced before slowly trotting up to Twilight, who was now absently scouring the shelves. “Well… aside from getting out of here, is there anything you want to look at specifically?”

Twilight shrugged. “I dunno…”

“History, maybe?” Topaz offered with a slight spark entering his eye.

“What do you know about history?” Twilight asked, a little more sharply then intended. She flinched back, looking timid.

“More than you might expect,” Topaz commented before lifting up one of his hooves, letting Twilight once more see the sharper edges on his body and shinier surface of his coat.

Her eyes lit up with realization. “You’re a crystal pony… you were there!”

Topaz gave a rather enormous grin. “Yes, I was.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she reached out with her magic. Topaz yelped in alarm as he was suddenly yanked towards her. “Tell me everything!” she demanded with a large grin. She then dropped him and looked over her shoulder. “Wait! I need a notepad! Does this place have notebooks?”

Topaz pointed down one of the aisles. “Third shelf, aisle twelve.” he mumbled, a little dizzy and stunned from the abrupt movement.

Twilight squealed happily while galloping down said aisle for a notebook. Topaz shook his head as he got up. “Heh. Excitable little thing, isn’t she?” he commented quietly to himself before following Twilight at a casual pace, curious to see what the coming days would be like.

Author's Note

King Cocoon Said:
"I have a bad feeling about Daymist. Not bad as in "Uh-oh, this is gonna be the antagonist of the story", but more like 'Is my heart gonna be broken because we learn that Daymist is just a child?'."

Not a suggestion per se, but I'll take it. :derpytongue2:

Arrival Stories

“Wait, wait, are… You’re serious?” Twilight asked disbelievingly while struggling to contain her laughs, looking at Rust Bucket like he had just grown seven new heads in as many seconds. The aptly named stallion leaned back and grunted dejectedly.

“Yes, I’m serious. Couldn’t sit right for a week when I got here. Can we please be done with my story now?” he grumbled out, trying to look anywhere but at the assembly of four other ponies that were sitting around the campfire with him.

It was night time, now, and Twilight, Rust Bucket, Daymist, Sweet Breeze and Topaz Rune were all seated inside of the water park, which was not fully active right now. Aside from the wave pool very gently moving in the distance, everything was still and silent in the enormous chamber. The light outside, like Topaz had pointed out, had dimmed to the point of being total darkness. As the water park was one of the only places in the entire Hotel with little to no flammable material, the group had set up a fireplace in the middle of it all. Combined with the sounds of the wave pool, it created a very gentle, relaxing ambiance.

“You kinda skimmed over the Puckwudgies part!” Daymist pointed out with a teasing grin on his face. “You need to tell her more about the Puckwudgies!”

“You listen here you little sh-” Rust Bucket seethed, pointing at the kid, then faltering at the harsh looks everypony else was giving him. He lowered his hoof and scowled. “...For the love of… Why did I agree to come to this stupid meeting?”

“Because Twilight needs to feel more comfortable, you know?” Topaz replied simply, smiling over at the unicorn in question, who shrunk down a little under the attention. “Plus,” he continued, looking at Rust Bucket a bit more firmly. “Weren’t you the one to start this tradition?”

Rust Bucket snorted. “Yeah, but if I’d known every time it happened I’d have to go on about the freaking Puckwudgies, I’d have never started it. And besides, I started it because Kale and I were the only ones around when I showed up. We needed to get to know each other if we wanted to avoid killing each other.”

“So you’ve said,” Sweet Breeze commented before shrugging her shoulders noncommittally. “Well, you’ve given your story, Rust. If you want to go, you can. None of us are gonna stop you.”

Rust Bucket snorted and shook his head. “Nah. I’m here now. Might as well spare my rickety old legs the pain of climbing the stairs a little while longer.”

“Actually,” Twilight suddenly cut in with a curious frown on her face. She lifted herself up a little and looked around. “Now that you mention her, where is Kale? Shouldn’t she be here?”

Nopony spoke for several seconds, and the once jovial mood instantly plummeted into a somber one. Twilight looked around at them all for several moments before slowly lowering herself back to the ground. It was Daymist who broke that silence. “She’s… sad... all of the time.”

“Can you honestly blame her?” Topaz asked solemnly, shaking his head and lightly pulling on the collar of his vest with a hoof. “She’s been here for three centuries. Hay, she’d been alone for an entire hundred and fifty years before any of us ever showed up. That much time on her own…”

“And being away from her son,” Sweet Breeze continued, looking down into the fire. “...She didn’t take it well, I heard.”

“It broke her,” Rust Bucket bluntly summarized, his eyes glazing over as he thought back on it. “Heh. I barely really remember it, it was so long ago, but when she first saw me, she thought I was a hallucination, that she’d gone mad or something. She didn’t think I was real for a good long time, telling herself that ‘she’d finally cracked.’ Ignored me for weeks… Took me deciding to stop trying to talk to her that got her to actually communicate with me.”

“Wait… she has a son?” Twilight choked out, looking at them all with wide-eyed shock and her ears drooping against her head.

Nopony spoke, plunging the entire room into silence yet again. A wave gently crashed somewhere in the background, echoing softly in the enormous chamber. Daymist shook himself slightly, though it was Sweet Breeze who spoke. “Uh… yeah… she does.”

“Did would probably be more accurate by this point,” Rust Bucket grumbled, idly poking the floor with a hoof. “I doubt that even if the little trotter’s still alive outside of this stupid place that she’d even recognize him…”

“Rust!” Topaz scolded with a harsh glare. “Come on, that’s uncalled for!”

Rust grunted and said no more, opting to look into the fire. Before any of the ponies there could say anything else, somepony cleared their throat, and everypony but Twilight went rigid. All eyes turned to the new arrival, and just at the edge of the firelight was Kale Sow, looking at them all with an unreadable expression. “...Sorry I’m late,” she managed to say in an equally tired and unreadable voice before trotting up to sit down directly across from Twilight.

“Kale?” Breeze asked in disbelief, looking at the green mare with confusion in her eyes. “I thought you weren’t coming? You… didn’t come to mine.”

“Or any of ours after Rust,” Topaz furthered, a curious look also in his eyes. “...What changed your mind about Twilight?”

Kale ignored Topaz and looked directly into Twilight’s eyes as if searching for something. “I… don’t know, really…” she sagged and looked down at the stone floor under her hooves. “But… locking myself in my room all the time… It’s a good escape, but…” she glanced up at Twilight again. “...it doesn’t do the ponies who have to share this place with me any good.”

“Can you try and be happy while you’re here?” Daymist asked hopefully, standing and trotting over to Kale. “Because I don’t like it when you’re sad.”

“None of us, do… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile in my entire time here,” Topaz nodded along slowly. “And let me tell you… it’s not a good feeling.”

Kale sighed and looked away towards one of the distant windows on the back wall, near the large water slide, studying the darkness beyond the frames. She scoffed. “I’m so… tired and sick of this place...” she said bluntly, closing her eyes. “The fact that every time I wake up in the morning without hearing my little boy’s eager voice asking about breakfast before he runs off to school is enough to make every morning miserable… The fact that I wake up to find that my husband isn’t sleeping next to me makes the bed feel like the frozen north’s coldest blizzard… it’s taken a toll on me, and it shows. And you all hate seeing me like this, don’t you? You wish there was something you could do but you know that I’m beyond help.”

“Hey, I never once believed you were beyond help,” Sweet Breeze rebuked with an almost offended wince. “Kale, it’s not a good feeling that you won’t let us help you, even though we want to.”

“What would it change?” Kale demanded, looking into Breeze’s eyes with the most emotion Twilight had seen in her so far. “Would it bring my little boy back to me? Would it let me wake up to my husband’s loving embrace? Would it let me leave this stupid Hotel if I let you ponies try to help me?!”

“Hey, hey,” Topaz quickly stood up and gestured calmingly to Kale Sow. “Easy. We understand… you don’t want our help... But, uh… this isn't the time to talk about it, okay? Can we just…” he glanced down at Twilight, who was now looking awkwardly down at the floor. Sagging, Topaz slowly sat back down. “Can we get back to the arrival stories? Please?”

“Oh, can I go next?” Daymist asked, eager to lift the mood around the campfire. Nopony seemed to object, and with an excited little chortle, he lifted into the air above the campfire with a quick buzz of his wings. “So, it had been a perfectly normal day! I had gone to school, had a good lunch, aced my tests and went home! I played hoofball with my dad in the backyard for a little while, ate some dinner and went to bed!”

“Riveting,” Rust Bucket muttered under his breath, just loud enough that everypony heard him

“At least I didn’t have a Puckwudgie stuck to my-”

“Kid!” Rust barked, his cheeks tinting a little red. “I will invent a clobbering device and clobber you with it if you bring that up again!”

“Heh, sure, whatever you say, Wudgiebutt,” Daymist shot back before doing a little backflip in the air while launching back into his story. “So, there I was, waking up the following morning. But it wasn’t my bed I was waking up in, oh no, it was a stranger’s bed! I remembered what mom always said; don’t talk to strangers. Being in their bed, I figured I’d probably overstepped that boundary a little bit. No idea where I was, I decided to bravely explore my new environment to find a way back home to my bed. School would be soon!”

Daymist gave a dramatic wave of his hooves over the fire, almost reminding Twilight of Rainbow Dash whenever she told campfire stories, except smaller and cuter. Relishing the approving looks of the rest of the ponies present, he kept on telling his story. “So I went out of the door and found the long hallway with all the rooms. All alone, nopony around, just me. I tried to find stairs, but when I did, I heard voices talking! Strange ponies in a strange environment: Stranger danger if ever I’ve heard of it!”

Twilight held up a hoof to her muzzle to try and stifle an amused little laugh, resulting in an adorable snort. Everypony looked at her with a mixed assortment of expressions ranging from mildly disgruntled from Daymist to deeply amused from Topaz to slightly offended from Breeze. Now blushing a little from all of the incoming stares, she smiled bashfully up at Daymist. “Sorry… uh, continue.”

“...That was not one of the sounds I heard,” the pegasus colt in question continued before doing a little twirl over the fire, the wind generated by the movement making a few fading sparks circle around him on their journey upwards. “But stranger danger is no joke, so I ran back to the room I had woken up in and his myself away from who I thought were the bad guys. I heard them talking to each other, on the way, one of them mentioned dinner, and it clicked!” he gave his wings an extra hard flap to make the flames distort and billow out. “I had been foalnapped by a cult of cannibal ponies, and I was next on the menu!”

Sweet Breeze burst out into a fit of giggles. “Yeah, sure, we’re all cannibals. Next thing you’ll tell me is that Twilight is a literal worm that eats books like a clothes moth!”

“Was that a bookworm joke?” Twilight asked with her cheeks puffing up in irritation. “I feel like that was a bookworm joke.”

Topaz chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “Eh heh, I may have told them about how excited you were in the library earlier…” he admitted, not quite willing to meet Twilight’s gaze.

Twilight frowned and smacked him on the back of the head.

“Hush lemme tell my story!” Daymist wined, crossing his forelegs over his chest and pouting pathetically.

“Sorry, sorry,” Topaz, also chuckling slightly after the smack he had just received, gestured at Daymist. “Keep going, bub. We’ll be quiet.”

“Speak for yourself,” Rust stated snidely before also going quiet.

Daymist groaned in frustration but went back to telling his story regardless, with that little bit of extra flare to try and make up for the decidedly not-macho pouting he had been putting on display a few seconds ago. Of course, Twilight already knew the rest of the story, more or less. Daymist hid and hid and, despite his best efforts to spin it like he was being cool and brave and stuff, it was clear that he had just been afraid. Eventually, hunger had forced him out of hiding and he had asked the others to feed him; which they did.

And around they went, each one telling their story. Sweet Breeze’s was pretty short-lived, as she didn’t exactly try to add much narrative flair to it like Daymist had done. She was content with a simple retelling of the events. As seemed to be the trend (with the exception of Rust Bucket), her story more or less amounted to a regular day in her life, then waking up in this hotel after going to bed.

Topaz, of course, had already relayed most of his story to Twilight earlier, and so only gave the highlights; how his roommate had thrown an impromptu party in their university dorm room and, after a few dares from some of the party attendees, how Topaz had gotten absolutely wasted. He admitted to losing memory of the night somewhere around the time he got trapped in a closet with a guest he didn’t know. He at least recalled managing to thump down onto the couch in the aftermath to get some sleep, and then he woke up in the Hotel.

Kale Sow, much to everyone’s disappointment, abstained from contributing her story, citing that ‘she didn’t want to talk about it until she knew Twilight better.’ In fact, aside from being there, Kale Sow was remarkably quiet the entire time, barely offering any commentary or thoughts on what was going on.

And eventually, everypony’s stories were done. Then, all eyes fell on Twilight. Topaz nudged her in the shoulder with his elbow. “This is the part of the night where the newcomer tells us about what they were doing before they got here.”

Twilight made an ‘o’ with her mouth and stood up from her resting position. “Okay, I can do that. Kinda wish I had some notes prepared or something, but…” she took in a deep breath, let it out, and began. “I woke up one morning to discover that the cutie marks of all of my friends had been… switched. Moved around, altering their destiny’s and their true selves. Ponyville, our home, was falling into disarray, as each of us had a big part we played in the town. Rainbow Dash was the head of the local weather teams, but when Rarity, the fashion designer in the town, started trying to do her job, the sky was covered in square-clouds making checkerboard patterns and depositing random weather types all over the place. Frostbite on top of your sunburns is… it was painful, I heard.

“And that was only the beginning of the problems. The local Apple Family, Sweet Apple Acres was falling into chaos because Applejack had just kind of run off and left Pinkie had taken her place. Rainbow Dash wasn’t cloudbusting, having taken up residence in Fluttershy’s shack and upsetting the local wildlife to the point they were prepared to cook her alive in a really big cauldron! It was just one piece of chaos after another... I eventually discovered the source, but couldn’t see a way to put things right, at first. Luckily, my baby dragon, Spike, gave me the pep talk I needed. I brought my friends what they needed to remember who they were and restore their true selves, and spent a good long while putting things right. Once everything was saved…” Twilight paused and looked down at the floor beneath her. “...I mentioned that I’m Princess Celestia’s student, right?”

Everypony slowly nodded their heads in acknowledgment.

“Well, the Elements of Harmony did something. I don’t know what, but when they did it, I saw my friends' faces filled with shock and horror, and then I was waking up in a strange, star-filled abyss. Princess Celestia was waiting for me there, congratulating me on doing something that Starswirl the bearded had been unable to do. She said it was time for me to ‘fulfill my destiny’ and cast some sort of spell on me. I was engulfed in blinding light and…” she sighed and gestured around. “I woke up here.”

“That’s rough,” Topaz said in a quiet voice, slowly nodding while his eyes flicked away from her to look into the fire.

Twilight nodded and lowered herself back down onto her belly, also looking into the fire.

“Yeah… it is…"

Author's Note

Fun Fact of the day: This story was last updated two months ago.

First Night

Twilight eyed the door of room Three One Seven hesitantly, one hoof resting on the handle with an uneasy and hesitant look on her face. It had been maybe an hour since she had recounted her story at the campfire in the water park, and after that, Sweet Breeze had busted out a bag of marshmallows and some improvised sticks. Nopony had expected this, but nopony, even Rust Bucket, complained. Even Kale Sow had taken part in the surprise dessert, though as always, her expression had remained solemn and reserved, and her input to any and all conversation had remained minimal at most. The group had then started chatting amongst themselves idly, mostly answering some more of Twilight’s questions about The Hotel and what they knew about it, which was admittedly not a lot. They also spent some time recounting some of the events that had transpired during their time here, but Twilight found herself unable to really retain a good recollection of the stories due to numerous things. Between how tired she was and the fact that she was still trying to really wrap her head around everything that had happened in the last seven hours, she eventually excused herself from the campfire and made her way back to the room she had woken up in.

She had taken her time on the way over, just taking in her new surroundings and contemplating them. Now that she really took the time, she realized that the place was absolutely gorgeous. She remembered thinking that Rarity would absolutely love the designs of the place, even if she would likely be repulsed by the fact that it was more or less a prison.

Now, though, she looked at the door leading to the room she had awoken in, biting her lower lip and shifting her hooves occasionally with deep-seeded discomfort. She really didn’t want to sleep in that bed; all of her instincts and every one of the neurons in her brain were shouting at her to try the front door again, or look for another way out; but everypony had already made it perfectly clear that there were no ways out that were within her immediate power to find. She sighed and gently turned the handle of her door, pushing it open, while mentally resolving that she wouldn’t give up. She’d go back to the library tomorrow and do some research, try to learn new spells, maybe something to help her learn more about this place, if nothing else. The door creaked softly as it swung out of her way, revealing that the room on the other side was just as she had left it, save for being smothered in a thick darkness due to the hour and lack of illumination from beyond the window. With a quick flick of her magic, Twilight hit the light switch, and the room was illuminated by warm, golden light from the chandelier over the bed.

“Excuse me.”

“GYAH!” Twilight jumped in surprise as the voice of Kale Sow spoke up from directly next to her. She turned and groaned at the green mare. “Kale! Ugh, don’t do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

Kale shrugged absently. “That’s nothing new, really.”

Twilight tilted her head. “Wait… what?”

“Forget it. Look, I want to talk to you before you go to bed,” Kale said simply, putting on a firm frown. Twilight paused and studied Kale critically. She seemed to be determined like she had a goal and was determined to see it through… a near one-eighty shift in demeanor from the almost silent, brooding green pony on the other side of the campfire.

“Uh, what about?” Twilight asked curiously all the same, not one to dismiss the approach.

Kale lowered her eyes and sighed. “Look… Twilight, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay, Twilight…” Kale ran a hoof over her face in mild frustration, as if he was having a hard time getting her thoughts in order. “...You… I… ugh, it’s been so long since I really tried to talk to somepony like this...”

Twilight’s ears lowered a bit, and her eyes shined with sympathy. “Take as long as you need. I’m listening.”

Kale grimaced before standing upright. “...They’re right, you know. About me almost never showing my face… I don’t want you to think that they’re playing it up, or exaggerating it for some reason. They’re not. And…” she looked away and leaned against the frame of the door. “...That is one of the things I’m most ashamed of about my time here. Rust Bucket… Sweet Breeze… All of them… I’ve hidden away from them, tried to forget they exist, tried to make them forget that I exist...”

Twilight noticed that Kale was starting to tremble, just slightly, and went to interrupt her, but Kale kept going.

“We’re all stuck here. We’re never going to get out, I know that now… a big part of why I’m so secluded is that… for a long time… I didn’t believe that” she looked into Twilight’s eyes again. “It does damage, Twilight. Telling myself that I could get out someday broke me in more ways than I ever tried to count… Every day, I woke up and told myself ‘just one more look. I’ll find something.’ I’d go and I’d look for a way out, a way home, and every single time, I came up empty-hooved. Those repeated failures… like I said, they broke me.

“And so, after Rust Bucket showed up and we got to know each other a little... I hid. I locked myself away and didn’t show my face for long stretches. And my hiding left a bitter taste in the mouths of everypony else that has come here. The few times I came out of my room to eat or stretch my legs, they only saw a broken, somber and reclusive mare who had no hope, and no passion left in her soul…” Kale slowly reached a hoof up to her chest and took a deep breath. “And while they are absolutely right, that does not mean that it’s fair of me to make their time here worse by… being so…” she shook her head and put her hoof back on the ground. “...by being Kale Sow, the three hundred year old recluse who hides away in room Three Fifteen.”

Twilight blinked and shifted a little uneasily, not quite sure what to make of Kale Sow’s long-winded exposition. She looked down a little before speaking. “Not to be rude, but why are you telling me this?”

Kale didn’t answer straight away, instead stepping around Twilight and stopping by her side. “I went to the assembly at that campfire tonight because… for once… just for one stupid time… I didn’t want to leave the new pony with a rotten taste in their mouth every time they saw me… So I showed up, I participated… and I’m going to tell you this right now,” she looked sideways at Twilight and, for the first time since they had met, a small ghost of a smile appeared on Kale Sow’s face. “The others that we’re trapped with? They’re good ponies… Let them make your time here worth something, okay?”

“What about you?” Twilight asked, shifting to look into Kale’s eyes directly. “Why don’t you let them in? I mean, it sounds like you could really use a few friends… but you’re shutting them out.”

Kale sighed and shook her head. “...I’d love to, really… But I don’t think that’s a good idea… I… Don’t want to get into it.”

Twilight shifted slightly, contemplating the other mare’s words. Eventually, though, she put on a small smile of her own and gave a slow nod. “Alright. I’ll keep your advice in mind, Kale. I still plan on looking for a way out, but if I can’t… well, I’ll make the most of it.”

Kale’s smile returned, though smaller than before. “Heh… I figured you’d say that. Optimistic on arrival…” she turned and resumed her journey down the hall to her room. “Just be careful what you’re optimistic about, alright?”

Twilight said nothing, simply watching as Kale trotted away down the hall. Then, with her thoughts swimming, she stepped into her own room and closed the door behind her. For several seconds, she just inspected her surroundings, not entirely sure if she wanted to go to bed just yet. After all, Kale’s little ‘confession’ had left her mind far more active then before. Her eyes settled on the desk, and a thought occurred to her. She made her way over and began to pull open the drawers with her magic. A happy ‘aha!’ escaped her mouth when she found a small stack of parchment situated next to an inkwell and quill contained within.

Eager at the possibility that sending a message to Spike might be able to bypass this Hotel’s walls due to just how unconventional and customized of a spell as it was, she quickly set about writing down a message.

Spike,

It’s me, Twilight. I’m writing you to let you know that I’m okay. I don’t know if this letter will actually be able to get to you, though. I’m trapped inside of some kind of magical Hotel, and it seems to exist in it’s own little pocket dimension. I don’t know what this place is or why it exists at all, but I plan on figuring it out and getting home to you as soon as I possibly can.

How are the girls? Are they doing alright? I know that the last time I saw them they looked like they were scared and shocked by what the Elements were doing. Let them know I’m not hurt, okay?

I’ll write again soon; assuming this letter actually reaches you. I don’t know for sure if it will, again, due to the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a conventional way in or out of this Hotel. We’ll see, I suppose… if it does reach you, though, write me back, okay?

Yours,
Twilight Sparkle.

She scrutinized the letter one more time to ensure it said what she wanted it to say, then rolled it up into a scroll before lifted it up and put the sending spell into motion. The scroll was smothered in grey smoke and green sparks and, for several seconds, Twilight’s eyes lit up with the hope that it would actually send.

Then the smoke and sparks faded away, and the scroll dropped back down onto the desk, unsent and now slightly charred. Twilight looked on at the scroll for several moments, and a heavy sigh escaped her lips. “Of course not…” she muttered before rising from her chair and turning around for the bed.

She almost jumped out of her skin for the second time when she saw somepony else standing there, a stallion. He was a pale brown color with a messy, dirty blond mane that hung in messy spikes in front of his narrow, grayish-blue eyes. A small smile appeared on his face, his eyes narrowed just slightly with scrutiny.

“Wha… who are you?” Twilight asked, still shocked by the new face. He didn’t answer, simply leaning back and grinning at her with eyes that shimmered with a cool, calculating curiosity.

Twilight blinked.

And the stallion was gone.

“Huh?” Twilight blinked again, then looked around her room in confusion, looking for the mysterious pony. But he was gone, vanished from sight. An uncomfortable chill ran up and down her spine, making her coat stand on end. The look he had been giving her… it was chilling, now that she imagined it again. “Who… was that?” Twilight parroted her earlier question, her mind now reeling with new questions. However, when nothing presented itself for several seconds, Twilight eventually conceded that whoever she had seen was not coming back.

With a slight tremor in her steps, Twilight trotted over to the bed and pulled the blankets back before sitting on the mattress. She looked around for several minutes, just thinking about her situation, the ponies she was trapped with and, above all, her friends…

“Girls…” she whispered, reaching a hoof up to her chest. “Spike… Princess Celestia…” a few tears began to well up in her eyes. Already… already she missed them. The last looks on their faces before she had appeared in that strange void with Princess Celestia… she so badly wanted to go to them, to tell them that she was okay, that they could go back to life as normal. But as of now, there was no way for her to do that...

Wiping one of her forehooves over her eyes to get rid of the tears, Twilight settled under the covers and turned off the lights with a quick burst of her magic, plunging the room into near-perfect darkness. She sniffled, closed her eyes and tried to relax.

It didn’t come easy, but eventually, sleep came to her. Her dreams, sadly, were just as empty as the void outside the Hotel...

Construction Project

Day 8.

The slowly increasing light beyond the window of his room stirred Topaz from his restful slumber. Cracking open his eyes, he slowly sat up and stretched in his bed while scratching an itch on his side with one hoof. Glancing around, he observed his room, which was much like all the others in this building; save, of course, for his own personal knick-knacks and touches that he had added over the years. Mostly history books that he had studied in his spare time and journal books that he had filled up with his thoughts and ruminations. One of them was mostly just pseudo-mad ramblings he had written down in his fifth year… that had been a fun time. With another stretch to relieve his stiff muscles, Topaz slid out of bed and went to the small but functional bathroom that accompanied his little space. He needed a shower.

In short order he was standing beneath a stream of warm water, his eyes closed and shampoo lathered up in his mane. He sat on his haunches and worked his hooves over the large mess of hair, his thoughts wandering as he worked. Specifically, his thoughts wandered to Twilight, and how her first week here in The Hotel had been. His face twisted with a small frown as he recalled the few times he had seen her since she first arrived.

So far, Twilight’s routine had consisted of waking up, grabbing some food from the downstairs restaurant, and then vanishing into the library for hours on end. She had welcomed company, though she insisted that whoever was in the library with her be quiet. Once she had gotten her fill with pouring over books on numerous subjects, ranging from magic to engineering and geology, she would then return to one of the restaurants, grab some food, and then go back to her room, where she would stay for the rest of the night.

From what Topaz knew of her, he could only assume she was trying to cope with her new surroundings. He couldn’t blame the mare, in all honesty. She was probably still having thoughts of finding a way out of here. With a small sigh, Topaz rinsed the remaining shampoo out of his mane and then focused instead on pouring some over his coat, using a brush held in his magic to spread it around and work up the lather.

Maybe thirty minutes later, Topaz stepped out of the shower, relieved and relaxed. After a quick session with a towel to dry himself off, he grabbed his signature vest from the door handle of his room, put it on and stepped out into the hall. There didn’t seem to be anypony else there right now, unsurprisingly. Although, as he was trotting for the stairs, he couldn’t help but notice something odd about room three seven one.

It was open.

With one eyebrow rising beneath his mane in curiosity, Topaz gently nudged the door open a little more with his hoof and peaked inside. Aside from the bed being a complete mess, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Well, that would have been the case, were it not for the mound of notes on the desk. His curiosity only ever growing, Topaz trotted up and looked at the sheet at the top of the pile. His face slowly scrunched up at it, and his brain did a backflip trying to make sense of what he was seeing. “What… is all of this?” he asked under his breath.

“Oh, hi Topaz!” Came the voice of Twilight from the doorway, making Topaz jump in surprise. He looked up, ready to apologize profusely for trespassing in Twilight’s room, but he paused when he noticed how… frazzled she looked. Her mane was messy and there were a few bags under her eyes. Also, there were some grease and oil stains on her chest and the tips of her hooves. Her horn sparked to life and the top note from the mount drifted over to hover in front of her face, held in her magical aura. “Aha! Here we go!” she declared triumphantly before turning and galloping back down the hallway.

“...What?” Topaz asked dumbly.

Now thoroughly confused, he glanced at the pile of paper and then broke into a brisk canter to follow Twilight down the stairs. Now that he was looking, he could see several pairs of hoofprints on the floor, all of them dark in color due to oil and grease. “What the hay is that mare doing?” Topaz muttered under his breath, picking up the pace a little bit. After a couple minutes of moving in silence, he came out of the stairwell onto the second floor. He could hear voices up ahead, and some kind of weird mechanical hum. With his curiosity growing to unbearable levels, Topaz made his way for the balcony and looked down on the lobby.

In the very center of the large room was some kind of odd mechanical contraption. At its heart was a large metal box with numerous light bulbs, no doubt acquired from the hobby shop, jury-rigged by wires into the top surface of said box. Out of said box were four tall metal beams, each one covered in wires and smaller light bulbs. At the top of each was a different type of gem, one of which was being tended to by Sweet Breeze at that very moment. Each gem had several metal ‘pedals’ opening under them, looking almost like flowers, and each one had a turning knob just under them on the beam. Jutting out of the front of the box was some kind of control station, with buttons, levers, and a black display screen with numerous colorful lines running across it.

“It’s beautiful, ain’t it?” Rust Bucket asked casually from behind Topaz, making the crystal pony turn around to face him. Rust Bucket had a few long metal beams balanced carefully on his back with a crooked smirk on his face. “I dunno where this hotel found her, but that Twilight girl is a gosh darned genius.”

“What are you guys doing?!” Topaz asked incredulously, looking at the machine again. “Why are you guys doing?!”

“Twilight’s making a machine,” Rust Bucket shrugged, pointing the mare in question out with a hoof. She stood up from under the control station, now with even more oil and grease on her face. “And she enlisted all of our help to make it.”

As if to emphasize that point, Daymist came flying up to Twilight from somewhere under the balcony, a notepad held in his hooves. He showed the notebook to Twilight, and he grinned widely, saying something to him with great enthusiasm.

Topaz blinked, and Rust chuckled at his stunned silence. “What’s the matter, Topaz? Feeling left out?” the old pony snarked before clearing his throat and waving. “Hey! Twilight! I got the support struts you wanted from my room. Where do you want them?!”

Twilight looked up, her horn already sparking to life. All four of the metal supports were lifted effortlessly off of Rust’s back and floated down to affix themselves to the vertically standing metal poles with the gems, providing further stability. “Right here. Thanks!” Twilight waved at him.

“So… what is this thing even supposed to do?” Topaz asked, turning to Rust one more time.

Rut shrugged helplessly. “Something to do with magic and dimensions or something. I dunno. I’m just happy to be making something new,” he explained before brushing past Topaz to head for the stairs leading down to the first floor.

Topaz watched him go, then, with a confused groan, cantered to head downstairs as well. A couple minutes later, he stepped into the lobby and saw Twilight talking with Daymist while looking at his notebook again. Deciding he didn’t feel like waiting for this discussion to be over, he cleared his throat, drawing Twilight’s attention. She smiled at him happily. “Oh, hi Topaz!”

“You said that already,” Topaz deadpanned before pointing at the machine. “What is this thing?”

“Oh, this?” Twilight asked casually before thumping one hoof into its side, making a loud thunk sound. “This is a reality-composition scan and analysis device, or RCSA,” she explained with an enormous grin.

“Okay… what’s it-”

“Do?” Twilight finished for him, her head tilting a little to the side. “Oh, I’m glad you asked! See, this thing will let me take measurements of the fabric of the reality we’re in,” she began before cantering over to look very closely at one of the screws along the side, her grin never fading. “See, while I was doing my research, I had a theory. With how time doesn’t seem to pass here, food just appears, and the doors and windows are literally completely indestructible, I thought that maybe we’re in some kind of pocket dimension!” While she said this, she drove her hoof into the nail and a rattle in the machine that Topaz hadn’t noticed yet suddenly went quiet.

Twilight continued.

“I know that seems obvious, and really, it is, in hindsight! But it got me thinking: if we want to find a way out of here, we need to know what here is! And if we’re in a pocket dimension, it is safe to assume that the normal laws of physics won’t apply in quite the same way. Like with our lack of aging or the literal creation of something from nothing with the food,” She rambled while cantering over and poking one of the poles. “So, with this device, I can take readings of what types of energy are making up our environment!” she pointed at the gems at the tops of the poles. “Different types of gems and stones interact with magic in different ways, so I went to Sea Breeze and she let me borrow a few! Those gems will take measurements, and their exposure can be adjusted with those flower-pedals.”

“Um…” Topaz muttered dumbly, but Twilight ignored him.

“Once we have measurements, they’ll be displayed on that screen on the front, and then I can start figuring out a way to get us out of here!” Twilight continued while trotting up to the screen and pushing a button or two with a manic half smile. “After all, if you wanna know how to solve a problem, you need to know what the problem is, right? RIGHT?!” She leaned over to look at Topaz from behind the control station, one of her eyes twitching sporadically.

“...Right?” Topaz tried weakly. Twilight squeaked in giddy (or psychotic) excitement and ducked back out of view again.

“What did I tell you? Genius,” Rust Bucket chortled from not far away, having been listening in. Topaz looked at him incredulously, which earned a shrug from the old inventor. “Hey, I said she’s a genius, Topaz. I never said she wasn’t completely insane.”

“I heard that!” Twilight called from the other side of her RCSA.

“Good for you!” Rust barked back before shaking his head.

“So… when is it gonna be ready, then?” Topaz asked, eyeing the machine skeptically. Twilight centered around again, the tips of one loose strand of her mane having mysteriously become singed.

“Just a moment. Sweet!” Twilight looked up at Sweet Breeze. “Can you get away from the gems, please? We don’t want you getting scorched or zapped or kersplatted or anything!”

Sweet Breeze nodded and let herself fall down to land next to Topaz, who she then smiled warmly at. “Hey, Topaz. Sleep well?”

Topaz snorted. “Even if I hadn’t, I’d be wide awake now either way.”

“Great!” Twilight chirped before trotting over to the control panel. “Just gonna run a quick test to make sure it’s all working right…” she began to push a few buttons, and the low hum of the RCSA swelled into a much louder mechanical rumble. The four gems at the top of the poles flickered with different colors of light for a second before Twilight gave an adorable, if worrying, squee. “YES! All systems show green! Scanning Hotel NOW!” she pushed a button.

The rumble of the RSCA increased even more, and the first gem began to glow a bright red. Touching a few dials on the panel, Twilight closed the pedals on the other stones, isolating them and letting the first stream of information flow into the machine. She studied her display screen for a moment, her smile gone, replaced with the most intense, analytical glare that Topaz had seen in thirty years. One by one, she turned the dials, opening up each of the gems casings, closing up the others as she did so. The second gem was yellow, the third was green, and the fourth one was blue. Finally, after a solid minute or two of just taking measurements and fiddling with dials, Twilight closed up each gem and studied the display screen heavily.

Curious, Topaz slowly circled around to get a look at the screen, though he was careful not to get too close to Twilight. When he looked at the screen, he frowned. It was just a messy kaleidoscope of the four colors of the gems, fluctuating and dancing about with no clear pattern. Not that he could see, anyway. After a few more seconds, there was a small metallic creak from the RCSA.

The screen suddenly went black, and an ear-splitting drone sounded from the entire machine, making everypony but Twilight cover their ears. She winced, but otherwise just looked at her screen with an unreadable look. A few more seconds passed, with that loud noise never letting up, before the screen suddenly lit up again with nothing but ocean blue. Grey letters appeared on the screen.

UNKNOWN_ERROR.

SHUTTING_DOWN_SYSTEMS.

Then, the noise stopped, the RCSA powered down, and everything went quiet. Everypony looked on at the machine with a wide range of expressions. In the case of Topaz, it was confused and uncomfortable. With Daymist and Sweet Breeze, it was disappointment. With Rust Bucket, it was a somber, but unsurprised look.

And then there was Twilight’s face.

Her eye began to twitch.

A lot.

Topaz took a few steps back. “Uh… Twilight?”

A small sound escaped Twilight, then. It was something between a cough and a sob. With a slight tremble in her movements, Twilight turned to look at Topaz. There were fresh tears threatening to breach her eyes. “I… I don’t u-understand…” she muttered in a weak voice. Before anypony could say anything else, her horn lit up and she vanished from the room in a flash of light.

Cheering You Up

Day 10.

The door to room Three Seven One loomed in front of Sweet Breeze like an angry manticore, and made her feel about as nervous. She momentarily looked back down the hall, muttering to herself under her breath. “Just knock and say hi! Ask how she’s doing! Why is this so haaaard?” she hissed to herself before taking several deep breaths to calm herself. She knew why this was so difficult, she just didn’t like it.

Ever since Twilight’s contraption broke down, the unicorn had sealed herself up in her room and refused to come out except for food, which she only did when all the others were asleep. It had gotten to a point where once lively meetups in the arcade or water park became somber and subdued whenever the topic of the purple bookworm came up. Everypony felt bad for her, knowing all too well how disheartening it was to be stuck in here with no way out. But despite all of their experience, it never got any easier to comfort newcomers.

Still, they were going to try their best. And for the plan they had concocted to work, Sweet Breeze needed to knock on Twilight’s door and coax her out of hiding. This task was far easier said than done, as they had all heard Twilight’s voice through the door in passing. She had been shouting, crying, or furiously muttering to herself as if in some kind of mad craze. Were it not for their own experiences proving the contrary, the other guests might have feared that she was steadily going insane. But no, she was just having a meltdown. A very long meltdown.

With one more deep breath, Sweet Breeze managed to martial her thoughts and knocked on the door four times. There was a moment of silence before she heard movement on the other side of the door. It was then slowly pulled open just enough for Twilight to peek her face out. Sweet Breeze cringed involuntarily when she saw just how haggard Twilight was. Her mane was a complete mess, her eyes were bloodshot and had dark rings under them, and there were more than a few spots where her fur had gone untended and rampant. Twilight eyed her visitor curiously before opening the door the rest of the way with a quiet sigh. “What do you want?” she asked sharply.

Sweet Breeze wilted at the tone of Twilight’s voice but managed to find her own words quickly enough. “O-oh! I was just wanting to check in on you. You’ve been really down lately…” she explained carefully, watching as Twilight sluggishly dragged herself back into the room.

Twilight snorted derisively. “Down? Oh, no, I’m not down,” she replied in a sarcastic drawl before flopping back onto her unmade bed and staring blankly up at the ceiling. “Why would I be down? There’s no reason I should be down. I’m only stuck inside a magical hotel in a pocket dimension that completely defies all the known laws of space, time and magic. I have no way of checking in with my friends outside, no way to say ‘hey girls, how are you? I’m fine, I’m just trapped in another world with no way of knowing if any of you are okay or handling my sudden disappearance well and for the love of Celestia help me!” She then lifted her head and drove it into her blanket again with a disheartened whine. “Yeah… I’m just great.”

Sweet Breeze looked away and didn’t say anything, her wings ruffling awkwardly on her back. Twilight eventually let out a heavy sigh before sitting up and shooting the other mare an apologetic look. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t take out my stress on you...” she mumbled out, rubbing a hoof over her face.

Breeze merely shook her head, managing to look at Twilight again. “N-no, you’re fine. I get it… none of us really know what all’s happening outside if anything. We’ve… we’ve all had our own little crises over it,” she replied in understanding before adopting a gentle smile. “But you can’t sulk in here all the time. Uh… maybe you could come on over to the upstairs food court? Maybe go for a swim in the water park? I mean…” she winced a little and reached a hoof up to mess with her mane. “...Have you looked in a mirror lately? You’re… kind of a mess.”

Twilight looked down at the bed, then at the fur along her forelegs. She gave a heavy sigh before sluggishly pulling herself off the mattress. “Sure…”

Not exactly an enthusiastic response, but oh well. Breeze would take what she could get at this point. The two left room Three Seven One behind them, with Twilight closing the door on their way out. They then trotted down the hall for the stairwell, an awkward silence hanging in the air between them. Sweet Breeze would occasionally glance over her shoulder at Twilight to make sure she was still there, noting the increasingly thoughtful look on the scholarly mare’s face each time.

“It just doesn’t make sense…” Twilight finally said, breaking the silence and drawing a curious hum from Sweet Breeze. She stood a bit taller and spoke more clearly. “This place, I mean. I’ve been trying to figure it out since my machine failed. Everything about this place defies everything I know about magic. The food that just spontaneously pops into existence with a thought, the light outside the windows, the doors and windows being indestructible, the lack of a power source for all of these electronics, especially in the arcade…”

“I mean, it is magic, isn’t it?” Sweet Breeze pointed out with a small shrug.

Twilight shot the other mare a dirty look. “Yes, it is, but magic, no matter what form it takes, has to follow the same laws as everything else. You can’t just make something out of nothing, the material has to come from somewhere. I mean, you don’t just make a sword out of thin air, you don’t just will an apple into your hoof. The sword needs steel, and the apple needs an apple tree, which itself needs a seed. But the food we find in the refrigerators just… pops up.”

Breeze raised an eyebrow at Twilight, prompting her to continue.

“I’ve checked it with my own magic when getting my dinner these last two nights. If the matter were coming here from somewhere else, there would be magic of some kind for me to trace or notice. But there was nothing. I wanted an apple pie, and boom, apple pie in the fridge. Same with the electricity…” she glanced up at one of the lights as they passed. “I tried following one of the wires last night, and I couldn’t find a specific source. There’s no power generator, there’s nothing outside; the electricity just begins at the outlets, and it makes no sense.”

Sweet Breeze finally put on a small smile, slowing down so that she was side-by-side with Twilight. She then poked the other mare in the side, making her jump. “You, Twilight Sparkle, need a hobby,” she teased lightly.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

Breeze just rolled her eyes with a small laugh. “Twilight, do you think we’ve all just sat around doing nothing since we came here? We have hobbies. We learned new skills just because there was nothing stopping us. I mean, I started dabbling with gems and jewelry about five years ago, even though my special talent is in flowers. Daymist started studying math, Rust Bucket invents things, and Topaz keeps a collection of journals he uses to write about the things happening in here.”

Twilight blinked, the gears in her head turning a little. “Daymist started studying math?” she asked, somewhat surprised. In retrospect, though, she supposed she shouldn’t have been. The little guy did help her with her calculations on her machine. She had just been a bit too enthusiastic at the time to really care about what the others were doing, so long as it helped her.

Breeze nodded happily. “Mm-hmm! He said it was so that he could ‘skip all of his math classes’ when he gets out of here,” she said with an amused chuckle, giving her head a slow shake. “The little guy’s made it all the way to Calculus.”

“What?!”

Breeze laughed outright at that, the two of them having reached the stairwell. “Yeah! Amazing, right? I’m surprised that he’s stuck with it for so long.”

Twilight’s eye twitched, and her facial expression made it seem like her brain was about to fizz out. “B-but… he’s TEN!” she exclaimed in shocked protest, a hoof flying up to her forehead. “There’s no way he should be able to-”

“Twilight,” Sweet Breeze interrupted with a nudge, making Twilight stop. Breeze just shot her a small smirk, then a playful wink. “Technically, he’s sixty-four, remember?”

Twilight seemed to stop responding, despite continuing to trot alongside her. Sweet Breeze gave a tiny giggle of amusement before they finally came to the end of the stairwell and out onto the second floor. The two made their way over to the food court, and Twilight peered in through the window. Her brow furrowed when she saw that the lights were out on the other side.

Sweet Breeze pushed the door open and Twilight followed her inside, her mind turning back on at about that point. She squinted through the darkness with her lips pursed together. “Uh… why is it so dark?” she asked, about to turn around and look at Breeze.

Click.

“SURPRISE!”

“Wah!”

Twilight yelped in alarm and flailed backward onto her rump when, all at once, the lights were turned back on and a bucket full of makeshift confetti was dumped on her from overhead by a now snickering Daymist. She shook her head and blinked the stars out of her eyes before her gaze rested on one of her hooves. The confetti, as it so happened, was made up of several tiny scraps of paper that had been given color by colored pencils. She blinked a few times before studying the scene in front of her.

There was a large, white banner suspended from the roof with the words ‘We’re here for you, Twilight’ written on it in big, bold, friendly red letters. Below that, all of the booths and tables had colorful balloons tied to their legs, adding even more flamboyance to the room. To top it all off, though, were the three other ponies standing ahead of her, giving her warm, hopeful smiles with party hats on their heads.

Except for Rust Bucket. He was currently pulling his party hat off with a disgruntled grimace. “Can I take this off, now?” he asked in a flat tone.

Daymist shook his head, shot back over, grabbed the pointy object from the older stallions hoof and placed it back on his head like it were a national flag and he was claiming it as his territory. “Nope! Ya gotta wear the party hat at that party!”

Rust Bucket groaned.

“Wh-what is all this?!” Twilight asked in a stutter, looking around with wide, bewildered eyes.

Topaz chuckled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head. He then stepped forward and helped her up “Well, uh, we saw how upset you were getting, and… well…” he trailed off and looked at the others.

“We wanted to make you feel better,” Daymist piped up with a tinny buzz of his wings. “You’re no fun when you're sad. So we got together, grabbed some stuff from the hobby shop downstairs-”

“-And decided to throw you a bit of a party,” Sweet Breeze finished, putting a hoof over Twilight’s shoulders. “What do you think?”

Twilight looked between all of them with wide eyes, just taking it all in. These ponies did all of this… for her? A small smile gradually appeared on her face, tears coming to her eyes. She choked down a tiny sob with a disbelieving shake of her head. “You know… this kind of reminds me of something Pinkie Pie would do…” she mumbled before wiping a hoof over her eyes and smiling wider. “Th-thank you…”

“Stop crying,” Daymist said flatly, flying up and shoving another party hat on Twilight’s head. “And start dancing! We got the Jukebox!”

Twilight blinked and looked over. Sure enough, there was a vintage-style jukebox placed against one of the far walls, ready to start blasting music at a moment’s notice. Her smile only grew and she gave a slow nod. “Alright… sure.”

Daymist grinned and rotated in the air to smile at Rust Bucket. “Hit it, Rusty!” he ordered while pointing at the old grump with a hoof.

“Kid, don’t call me that ever again,” Rust Bucket shot back, although he did stroll on over to the Jukebox. He pushed a button and some very lively, it old-timey music sprang into life from the speakers. Rust then satisfied himself with sitting down at one booth near the center of the room and watching everypony else set about enjoying themselves.

Naturally, the first thing that happened was Daymist flew to the fridge and came back with a brand-new chocolate cake with the frosting making a smiley face on the top. Some cake was eaten, along with some other delicious foods, and in general, Twilight had to admit that she had a good time. The party carried on for a good few hours, and eventually, some party games starting being played.

The one that stood out to her the most was when Twilight challenged Daymist to a ‘math-off,’ which she described as being ‘a duel of wits between two highly educated mathematicians, to see which one was the quicker thinker.’

To her shame, it was a tie.

After rotating through several games, Daymist suggested that they should all head over to the arcade and play some of the game machines there. There were no complaints, and soon enough everypony was heading in that direction. Even Rust Bucket, to everyone’s surprise. He had explained that he wanted to ‘put Daymist in his place’ without having to invent the clobbering device. Twilight and Topaz were the last to leave, having hung back for a second to turn off the music.

As they were heading for the door, though, Topaz came to Twilight’s side with an envelope floating next to him in his magic. When Twilight saw this, she came to a stop and shot him a curious look. “What is that?” she asked, pointing at the envelope.

Topaz wilted just slightly, a solemn look on his face. “Um… It’s from Kale. She asked me to give it to you since she didn’t come to the party,” he explained simply while passing the envelope forward. “I don’t know what it is.”

Twilight took it in her own magic, eyeing it with a newfound curiosity. She gently pulled it open and withdrew the contents. Inside, she found a letter and a lavender stalk made out of pieces of folded purple paper.

The letter read as follows.

Twilight,

I’m sorry I didn’t come to your party. It’s not really the type of thing I could contribute anything meaningful to, you understand. I’d just kill the mood. But I don’t want you to think that I don’t care about you or the rest of them. They’re probably lavishing you with gifts and gorging you on cake and food, and I wanted to give you something, too. So I made this lavender stalk out of paper. I gave it its color myself, and I had Topaz run a few durability spells over it yesterday. I didn’t tell him what it was for, but do me a favor and give him a hug from me, okay? My way of saying thank you to him for helping me out.

I hope you like it. Enjoy your party.

-Kale Sow.

Twilight lowered the paper and examined the lavender stalk a bit more closely. Like Kale had said, it was incredibly sturdy for being made of paper, and had been colored a rich shade of purple just somewhat darker than her coat. There was a small hairpin carefully worked into it, practically begging her to use it. With a small smile, Twilight used the pin and set the creation just behind her ear, then looked at Topaz with her smile growing.

The stallion raised an eyebrow. “Hang on, didn’t I help Kale make that?” he asked in surprise, tilting his head to get a better look. He then let out a startled yelp when Twilight launched herself at him and tightly hugged him around the neck. A few seconds passed before she let him go and nodded for the door.

“Let’s go. The others are waiting,” she said in a content voice before trotting past him. He gave a slightly dumbfounded nod and followed her out, not entirely sure why she had hugged him, but decided that complaining about it would be a bad idea.

Author's Note

I apologize for how long this story is taking to update; this one is a lot more freeform than other stories I work on, and as such, I don't really have any specific plans for it aside from the ending. But the road to get to that ending could go any number of ways, and with the only driving force being the characters inside the Hotel, I need to make sure that I can come up with stuff for them to do.

As such, if you have any ideas for things the characters could do, feel free to leave them down in the comments. Might give me the inspiration I need to kick this sucker back into gear.