Hooves drummed against metal as Maple stepped wearily forward, Valey's peach and her brief, restless sleep providing enough energy to carry on... but only just. Starlight plodded close at her side, head held proudly but exhaustion showing through, evident in the little things like how her tail hung lower, or how her legs rose a little slower than they went back down. At some point, the filly's hairband had came undone, leaving her mane lying limply across her back, its ends slightly straighter and more ragged than normal.
Maple's own coat felt sticky, as if the constant wind of the Defense Force tunnels had contained something particulate and clingy. It didn't help that she was beginning to sweat, the present tunnel obviously the source of the rising heat they had felt together in the shaft. The fiery glow that poured out of the entrance was all around her, endlessly reflecting itself off burnished metal walls, and it penetrated effortlessly through her dusty fur as if the light itself was heat.
The source of the glow became readily apparent when the corridor ended. Across a chamber constructed of so much steel grating and mesh that it would be harder to slip than to tear one's hooves off, a broad, heavily-reinforced glass wall stood... and beyond it, oblivion. They faced a vertical cavern the size of a mountain, looking down from a window near the top past the red, smoke-stained rocks to the mechanized metal beyond. A pillar of composite machines, covered in ladders and catwalks and enormous pipes of ventilation and coolant, hung from the ceiling, dominating the view. Exhaust vents belched jets of flame, obscuring the true extent of the depths with an impenetrable haze of smoke, great black shadows of moving things projected on them by brighter lights from below.
"You like?" Valey asked, shifting the weight of the fruit sack on her back and peering down through the glass. "The mines of Ironridge, mostly known as the Flame District. And they really do their best to look the part! That thing in the center is one massive drill that sends arms out sideways, letting them stripmine without having to do anything but rotate it every once in a while."
"It's... certainly impressive..." Blearily, Maple glanced down into the mines, then back up at Valey. "We're too tired for sightseeing, though. Can we please get out?"
"Yeah, yeah..." Grumbling, Valey turned to a side passage and pressed on.
If the corridors of the Water District were lined with steel and shared space with pipes, the ones in the Flame District were made of pipes, surrounding a metal mesh cage of a tunnel in which ponies could travel. It was impossible to make out the walls beyond the nest of tubes through which they walked, and the porous ceiling made Maple thankful none of the overhead pipes were leaky.
For several cycles, they pressed on: a tunnel of pipes, into another observation room and so on, gradually making their way around the circumference of the drilling pit. The entirety of the journey was done in a dry, uncomfortable heat, suggesting that at least some of the pipes around them were carrying something well past its boiling point.
Occasionally, they passed other ponies, mostly vest-wearing stallions plucking dutifully away at consoles with their wings, horns and hooves, focusing on broad console screens flashing with numbers and data. They barely gave the party a second glance, and many times not even a first... and when they did, it was fixed on Valey and accompanied by desperate innocence and blatant dislike.
The chain of rooms continued, slowly and gradually curving. Looking out the windows to the central mining pit, more were barely visible on the opposite side, tinted dark against the light welling up from the depths, likely in a complete ring. Finally, after what felt like several revolutions but was probably only a quarter lap, a wave of cool air kissed Maple's cheek. "Are we there?" she asked in eager relief.
Valey raised an eyebrow. "Depends where 'there' is. We're here, certainly. Exit's just a bit further. But unless you plan on sleeping in an alley or on a roof or something..." She shrugged preemptively, as if expecting them to say yes. "I mean, Ironridge is kind of a big city."
"We do have a hotel, but..." Maple's ears drooped. "Gerardo was the one who knew how to get there. Everything looks the same to me in the Stone District, and I can't remember any landmarks..."
"You have a hotel?" Valey blinked. "Well, why didn't you say so?" She looked back guiltily at the sack of stolen fruit, and added, "Sounds like a way better place to enjoy these than this smelly cave. Let's go find it!"
They turned right, down an upward-slanting corridor leading away from the ring. The light became progressively more natural as they passed lobbies and break rooms, the red glow fading as if by design to be replaced by bright greens, yellows and whites. Eventually, the tunnel widened... and the surface came into sight.
At least halfway up the Stone District, they stood in a broad, lowered plaza cut into the face of the mountains, bearing tiered, concentric benches and the design of an amphitheater. Valey led them along a decorated path to the rim, the moon shining brightly overhead, well past the peak of its arc across the sky. Starlight stared at it, and it glowed back, its cool light ruffling her mane like the affectionate hoof of a familiar parent. Deeply, her lungs breathed, flushing themselves of the stale, cold air of the Water District and hot, oily air of the Flame District, the long-overdue freshness doing almost more for her fatigue than the nap and the pear combined. It was good to be outside.
Far enough west that the Water District dam was cleanly visible in the distance, the trio stopped, Valey still in the lead. "So..." she mused, leaning on one hoof. "This hotel, right? Where is it?"
"If we knew, we'd be there," Starlight mumbled, too grateful at being outside to be properly grumpy at still being awake.
"No, uhh..." Valey sprang into a hover, tail flicking. "Like, better question: do you remember anything about it? Anything I could use to find it? It doesn't take much, but nothing is nothing, and it's a pretty big district. Stuff you could see, stuff it was near..." She blinked. "Whether the receptionist was particularly hot?"
"She did seem interested in Gerardo," Maple recollected. "But I'm not the best judge of that..."
"It had a pool in the first room," Starlight offered. "It was dark. Before the skyport entrance."
"Okay..." Valey licked her lips. "That isn't too far from here. Let's skedaddle, and then when we get closer I'll fly up and take a look around. Think you could recognize it from above, kid?"
Maple hissed, moving to block Starlight from Valey's sight. "If you're saying you want to take her flying, I don't trust you nearly enough yet for that. Starlight is not leaving my side!"
Grinning broadly, Valey floated backwards out into the street. "Wisest thing you've said all night. Now come on!"
"You can find it just from that?" Starlight plodded forward, deciding to waste her breath on the question.
Valey looked back over her shoulder and shrugged. "Like I said, the more info, the better. Anything else? Anything at all?"
Starlight's eyes scrunched in thought. "The mare at the front was flowery. I think she smelled like them, or had them in her mane..."
"Flower mares, flower mares..." Valey unfocused, slowly spinning upside-down and then back upright without appearing to notice. "Wait a sec. Is there any chance she was pink with a green mane, pretty well-endowed and wore a gigantic vase in her mane?" She blinked. "Or maybe just a bouquet. Enough to look ridiculous."
"Maybe?" Maple offered with a shrug. "I think I recall something like that."
"Yeah." Starlight nodded. "That sounds right."
"Huh!" Beaming, Valey did a backflip and landed on her hooves. "Her husband works for me! I asked her out once to annoy him. She didn't say yes. But she works in a hotel, so... why not check there?"
"There's a hotel," Valey said, pointing over her shoulder as she hovered along. "There's a hotel. There's one. And another. Ringing any bells?"
"I don't, no..." Maple huffed, winded from the altitude constantly shifting. "I thought you... said you knew where it was?"
"Eh." Valey shrugged. "I know the general location. It's somewhere around here."
They came to an intersection, both options leading downhill. Starlight frowned, glancing between them. "I think we should go that way," she eventually declared, pointing back close to the way they had come. "It feels better. We're too far this way."
Valey raised both eyebrows. "You sure? If you say so, I guess."
Starlight nodded. "When we found the hotel, there weren't any right below it. If we're seeing them now, and they're mostly in the same place, that means we're above it, but if we keep going, we might go too far. I think." She swallowed, hoping she was right. Maple was clearly flagging, and it wouldn't do to keep her on her hooves any longer than necessary.
"Hotel?" Valey asked, repeating a tried-and-true procedure that had been uninterrupted for at least thirty minutes. "Hotel... hotel..."
"Wait," Maple instructed, eyeing a building to the side. "I think... Starlight, does this one look familiar at all? I think this might be it!"
Starlight squinted, inspecting the building by the light of the moon. Her bleary eyes didn't make it any easier, but eventually she snorted. "Don't you have a key to check if it's right? It looks good..."
"I do..." Hesitantly, Maple pulled out a small object and slotted it into the front door. With a well-oiled creak, it swung open.
"Slick!" Valey stomped a hoof, her normally-raspy voice slightly rawer from the nonstop hotelling. "Now let's go eat this stuff in peace!"
Maple raised an eyebrow. "You're coming too...?"
"Well, duh!" Valey bounced the bag on her back, stepping through the door ahead of Maple and Starlight. "After all this walking? Why wouldn't I? You guys are fun!"
"Because we're tired and want to go to sleep," Starlight announced, well aware that she was past her limit for the day and would feel the consequences in cramps when she woke. Maple would only have it worse.
"Oh." Valey's face fell. "Well, at least let me get this stuff up there. But if you think this is the last you'll see of me, though..." She shook her head and winked. "Well, you've got another think coming."