prologue:Setting up for guests
Hotel Nightfire
The alarm clock rang loud inside my room, the ringing bounced off the walls filling the room with the annoying ringing. I groggily lifted my head from my black pillow and gazed outside. The sky was dark and the stars were exceptionally bright this night. Well, time to get up. I thought as I stretched my hooves above my head and let my tentacles do the same. I then crawled out of bed, letting my hooves hit the hardwood floor. I turned my attention to my bed, which was in a state of disarray. Let’s get this of the way first. I thought as I let my tentacles extend from my back and get to work on making the bed. It took only seconds for my tentacles to spread the sheets evenly over the bed and to straighten the pillows even. Ah nice and in order. I let my tentacles retract into my body and headed to my full body mirror. As I made my way across the room, a tentacle quickly shot out and clicked my lamp on.
I examined myself in the mirror, my pure white coat slightly shining in the light of the lamp light. I tilted my head to the left and right, letting my gaze meet mine. Most ponies would say that I don’t have eyes, but I do I just don’t show them because they would laugh at them. I lift my head up and open my mouth, examining my teeth. I like to keep my teeth nice, white and sharp. No stains, inflamed gums and no chipped teeth. Perfect. I then made my way to the dresser that held my clothing. As I reached the dresser, I looked at the framed picture on top. The picture was of me and my dad on our annual vacation to the griffon kingdom. Sigh, dad.. It’s been years since Celestia banished you to the moon. The memory made me sad; I was only 200 years old when he was banished. I still don’t know the reasoning and Celestia won’t speak to me about the matter. I sighed as I returned to the task at hand: getting dressed. My tentacle’s gripped one of the many suits that I owned. It was a pitch black, button up suit. The under shirt was sown in, to make it easier to put on and to reduce time when changing.
I slipped the suit on, putting my hooves through the sleeves. I then buttoned it up to my neck, the tentacles made everything easier since I looked like an earth pony. I walked to the mirror again to see what I looked like and I looked good. I turned my body and struck a pose. Oh yeah, paint me like one of your French mare. Ha-ha. I chuckled at my own joke, and then made my way to the door. I opened the door that leads to the hallway of my house, it is a simple house: two bedrooms, two baths, a living room and a kitchen. I walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Hmm soul, carrots, milk…ooh this will do. I though as I grabbed my favorite snack: chocolate covered souls, trademark of the south Equestrian soul market.
“Ah soul market, your souls might be cheap and fattening. But I love you all the same.” I said as I hugged the bag of chocolate covered souls. I opened them up and took a nice, big soul with a lot of chocolate coating. I placed it into my mouth and started chewing the soul. Souls all was had the consistency of a marshmallow with no flavor, that’s why they usually had a flavored coating or used as filler in certain dishes to satisfy creatures like me. As I ate the souls, I glanced at the clock and nearly choked on the current soul. It was coming on 11 in the morning and I had to be at work in an hour. I hastily swallowed the soul, put the bag back in the fridge and galloped out the door.
I made my way past the few abandoned houses that lined the street I lived on. It was abandoned long ago, since the Everfree Forest was a hard place to live in if you were a peaceful pony. It was known as Evertown, but failed because lack of ponies moving there and the location itself. All in all, a really peaceful place that I have all to myself. But I digress; I was running late and on opening night too.
The place I work at is hardly known to pony kind, unless you’re insane enough to see us and live or you’re dead and have a vengeful spirit. You see I work at a hotel that caters to the kind of ponies and creatures that citizens would label as ‘evil’, ‘malevolent’, ‘imaginary monsters’ and so on. But I don’t just work there, I’m the manager. The Fucking manager: that means I need to be there ON TIME and make sure everything is in order and ready for guests. Right now though, I might be lucky to get there before the house keeping.
After rounding a few trees and jumping a fallen log, I was meet with the sight of a vertical drop and a vast valley. This was my destination, as the cliff and valley was only an illusion. See the hotel needs to be keep secret, for the safety of wondering ponies and to give the guests a little privacy. I took a deep breath and took a step forward, the illusion rippled a bit at my entry and I slipped completely into the magic bubble. I looked up at the towering building that laid down past a stone bridge.
The building was made of an obsidian black stone, which on a dark night would almost disappear. I could see that a few room lights were on, mostly on the first floor and lobby. I walked across the bridge and reached the base of the building. I opened the lobby door and stepped inside. I was meet with a cold rush of air, which didn’t surprise me since I assumed that the maintenance crew didn’t get around to adjusting the air conditioning. I crossed the carpeted floor to the check in counter and looked through the mail that came. There wasn’t much mail, just a few early reservation requests and a letter from the higher ups. I was going to take the mail to my office when I was stopped my one of the cleaning crew.
“Good night Mentracks, ready for the night? “ He was head of the cleaning crew, a rather large pony with a white coat and a blond mane. His cutie mark, or what was left of it, was a dumbbell. If I remember correctly he was in a horrible hot air balloon accident, burned his lower body and died before the medics could rescue him.
“Oh night Lead Weight, I’m ready. Question is: Is your team ready?”
“YEAAAHH, we just finished the 100th floor and I have a few of them working on making those restrooms sparkle!!!” Lead Weight yelled while flexing him massive muscles. I have to admit: He is dedicated to his new job.
“That’s great. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get something filed before we open those doors.” I said will picking up the letter from the higher ups and leaving the reservations to the check in counter.
“Yes sir, talk to you later.” He said as he turned and power walked to the elevator.
I walked to the door to the left of the check in counter, which was where my office resided. I opened the door and headed in. I gazed about the room, which contained only a simple mahogany desk, a filing cabinet and a trash can. The walls were painted a dark red, which I asked for specifically. They were going to paint the walls black, but I felt that the dark red was more inviting. I walked behind the desk and sat down in the seat. I decided to open the letter before getting to work. I used my tentacle to slice open the top of the envelope, turned the envelope over and let the letter fall out. The letter a pitch black paper that was used by the most important of evil or malevolent companies. I unfolded the letter and read the white print.
Dear Mentracks,
We, the head chairmen, have entrusted you to manage our new hotel building, located deep within the Everfree Forest. We have chosen this location for two reasons. One: Is that a majority of our clients use the dimensional portal located near that location. Second: is that we feel that it would be easier to hire someone that lives relatively close to the location chosen. We wish you all the luck needed to run our new building with wise leadership and fairness.
, Nightfire Hotel Corporation.
I finished the letter with a heavy sigh, knowing that I have a lot of responsibility put upon my shoulders. I opened up one of the compartments in my filing cabinet, took out a folder, took a pen, wrote company letters, placed the letter inside and put the folder back in the cabinet. I sat in my seat for a few minutes before I got up and went to the door. I decided that I should check on the rest of the staff. We still have an hour left until the guest start filing in. I entered the lobby once again, noticing that the receptionist was at the counter.
“Hello there.” I said to the receptionist. She jumped in surprise, nearly falling over. She was one of the many ‘humans’ that inhabited the land of Equestria. She was a tall girl, slightly taller than me, since she was a human. She had black hair and a pale face; her eyes were nothing but black circles and she wore a ragged black hoodie.
She looks at me and regained her composer. “Oh night sir, I’m the receptionist. I just started today.” She said as she started to get nervous and started to fumble with papers and pens.
“Well it’s good to have you on the staff. My name is Mentracks, manager.” I said will extending a tentacle. She took the tentacle in hand and shook it.
“Jane, Jane the Killer.” She said
“Well Jane, let me be the first to welcome you aboard.” I said as I retracted my tentacle back into my back.
“Thank you and it’s good to FINALY have a steady job.” Jane said as she turned her attention to the papers and pens.
“Well, I’ll let you get ready for the quests.” I said as I walked away from the desk, leaving Jane with her paper fumbling.
I decided to check on the maintenance crew. Knowing that if they didn’t fix the air conditioning, we will have a bunch of complaints on the first day. I walked down the hall and made my way to the maintenance office. Ok, first door on the…left. I thought as I spotted the door marked ‘maintenance office’. I opened the door and was meet with an empty office. I looked around the slightly dirt office space. There was scuff marks on the floor, papers messily stacked on the desk and filing cabinets, and a lack of head maintenance.
Damn must have missed him. I thought as I left the office and closed the door. I was about to make my way back to my office when I felt a warm breeze hit my face. I smiled. Well at least you did your job. I thought as I walked back to my office.
I sat in my office for about forty-five minutes, writing out budget forms and the like. But there wasn’t that much budgeting and files to fill out, I spent twenty of the forty-five minutes just playing with a rubber ball. I looked up at the clock on the wall, it read 11:50.
I sighed. Knowing that in the next ten minutes, the lobby will be filled with guests on vacation, just need a bed for the night, or business. I leaned back and began to think of the many creatures, monsters, villains and what not that will be staying here. I thought of the famous ones, that every living thing knew, and the not so well know ones only a couple of beings cared to remember.
My thoughts would have gone deeper, but I was torn away from my thoughts as I heard a sound that I was waiting to hear since the minute I got here.
“Welcome to Hotel Nightfire.”
Author's Note
Note: this is a exsperimental story. this may not have good grammer or shizz, but my editor demanji will help work out any kinks. thanks for reading, comment below if it's something you guys wanna see more of.
