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.