//------------------------------//
// Construction Project 
// Story: The Hotel 
// by Skijarama 
//------------------------------//

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.