Opportunity had showed its ugly head when Discord fell asleep snoring on his bed. Quietly Angel bounced past the draconequus towards the door and In one expertly crafted motion he was able to open it, by using a conveniently placed stick that had a rubber hand on the top of it. Quickly and silently he made his way out of the room.
Angel raised his arms in accomplishment then paused as he swore he could hear "We are the champions" playing somewhere in the distance. Still, Ahead of him were a multitude of challenges awaiting him. First, was the conundrum on how he would get down to the lobby, where the pony who had the translator lived. 51 floors up and it wasn't like he could just take the elevator as there were ponies guarding the elevator. They had Walkie Talkies as well to communicate with any other guards that would be patrolling during the night.
"Holy nuggets. Are you telling me there are ponies guarding the ELEVATOR! This hotel is stupid. Why would there be ponies guarding the elevator?" He was originally planning on using the stick with the hand on top of it to press the button in the elevator and get to the bottom floor, but unfortunately that idea was out the window.
There was also the potential problem of ponies just wandering around the halls. If he was seen, surely they would alert someone who worked at the cursed hotel and he would be sent back to his room. While normal hotels wouldn't have done that sort of stuff, it was clear to Angel this was no normal hotel and they wouldn't take kindly to animals scampering around the hotel.
He had to get creative with this one. "Oh wait of course the stairs! Duh. Wow, I'm kinda stupid." While yes once again under normal circumstances the stairs would be a perfectly usable alternative it turned out that there were not only ponies guarding the elevator, but also the stairs.
"You know I wonder if jumping to my doom is an option."
Angel looked down from the 51st floor to see many more floors, the inflatable whale and a water slide connected from the lobby to the 36th floor.
"Ew, water. Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
The only option left were to somehow distract the guards. He picked up the stick that had a hand on the top of it and threw directly at one of the guard's face in frustration.
"Ow! What in Equestria?" Guard number 22 picked up the object and gazed it confusingly. "What is it?" Guard number 89 asked.
"Looks like some sort of device. Sure it's simple technology, but we need to be safe. You might wanna grab your shotgun Guard number 89, we're going to blow this tech to smithereens."
"Sure can do Guard number 22!"
"Hey guards! I need youu at the 52nd floor right noooow!" Angel looked up through the middle section to the floor above and saw the pink pony with the one black dot for a cutie mark named Rosa. The guards rushed to push the elevator button and scurried into the elevator itself leaving the elevator utterly defenseless when they left.
"Well that was convenient." The guards were foolish enough to drop the stick allowing Angel to pick it up and use it again to press the elevator button down to the lobby floor of the hotel.
"That was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be. Guess these guards are just idiots. I wonder if I can get some food on my way down to the first floor. What's the most mouth-filled food I can eat? Ah yes, maybe I'll have some Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechy."
The elevator did not seem to think the way any normal elevator would think as instead of making its journey to the very bottom floor, it instead decided to halt on the 36th floor. Angel hurriedly bounced and placed himself up on the top right corner expecting to find more guards entering the elevator, but none came. "There's no way. No. Your kidding me." The elevator had completely broken.
"Guess I'm not having Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechy now."
"Oh Celestia have mercy on me. Ok, maybe I can get out if I press the emergency button. No, that'll be to risky. Surely the fixing pony will probably find a way to open the elevator door and see me." There was indeed another button that stated underneath "In cases of emergency press button to fill room with water." Of course there was no way Angel was going to go for that option so instead he shifted his head up and realized he could escape through the vent on the top of the elevator.
Now there is a joke I can make here, but I don't want to appease the simpletons reading this story. Vents aren't funny and I suggest you fix your broken humor.
You know this reminds me of the time when me and my brother got stuck in a elevator. Me and my brother sat stuck in that terrifying thing for hours. And for as much as my brother annoys me... I'll give him props for attempting to comfort me during that period of time. Of course most of those times instead of comfort it was just pure frustration from his lack of actual ability to comfort, but at least him making me frustrated was able to distract me from the horror that was the elevator.
Oh my god I got off track again.
ahem
Angel picked up the stick, leaped to the wall of the elevator, then kicked his legs off of the wall to barely make it to the vent. Hanging on he took the stick and started to beat the vent attempting to make the lid of it fall to the ground. It was no use, neither the stick nor Angel had enough strength to take the lid off from its place. Just right when he was about to give up a lone screwdriver fell from the vent.
Angel squinted his eyes through the open lines and was barely able to make out a cyan looking color and a faint glow of another color encasing the chain that kept the elevator from falling. He blinked and the cyan color disappeared. Dropping down he picked up the screwdriver. "Ok, that's suspiciously awesome."
Angel had already had a bad feeling towards the humongous hotels, but this just sent a shiver of uh oh this ain't something that should be happening right up his spine. Of course it wasn't the screwdriver that sent this feeling, no that was quote on quote "suspiciously awesome," but it was the faint colors he saw that sent the feeling. There then was the very idea of the hotel being so gigantic. Why have it so huge to the point where you can't even see the top floor from the lobby? Granted that's how it is for most hotels anyway, but it felt like to Angel that you could practically hide anything within these walls.
Soon the screws on the vent were unscrewed and Angel was on top of the elevator. Unfortunately for Angel there was only one way left to go and that was up. The faint glow was still grasped onto the chain of the elevator. Angel did not think about it to much, after all he had lots of climbing to do. "Well when you've hot rock bottom there's only one way left to go... and that's up." For some reason Angel had a faint feeling like he was quoting a line from a bad movie. No matter what movie it was though he had the desire to start singing "I'm still standing... on my four quadrupedal hooves."
For-
I thought I heard something, but no.
For the first time in Angel's life he actually kind of wanted Discord to be here with him. He would have got him out of this situation only for Fluttershy, but at least he would've been out. Floor after floor he climbed, it felt like hours. His tiny paws and arms were draining. He didn't know how much he could keep on going. He had to do this... for Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechy "I'M ALMOST THERE! AHHHHHHHH!"
...
"I've climbed up one floor."
"I swear this elevator chain is cheating." Conveniently for Angel the elevator door for the 37th floor had opened. In reflex Angel slide down the chain in case there were guards. Any second longer they probably would've looked through the elevator door and see Angel down the shaft, but surprisingly no such guards appeared. Begrudgingly he pulled himself up the chain once again and reached the open door. Hesitantly he jumped out.
"Guess they were to lazy to hire enough guards for every floor," Angel shrugged.
Knowing guards still lurked around every which way, he darted to the nearest dark corner. Catching his breath, he thought about his next plan of action. He knew about the possibility of using one of the many water slides that were present. Perhaps if he could reach one it would take him further down and closer to the first floor. "Yeah, heck that. I'm not going down one of those cursed things. I don't want to ruin my perfect fluffy tail, after all water is just if Tarturus was liquid." Angel gave his perfect fluffy tail a smooch.
He scampered around making sure not to get caught by any of the ponies that wandered the halls. He eventually found one lone water slide, but along with this water slide came another alternative. An alternative way riskier than just sucking it up and riding down the water slide.
Meanwhile back at the room Fluttershy and Discord were sleeping in. Fluttershy shifted the door to her room quietly making sure not to wake the draconiquus. Gathering her courage she opened the fridge door quickly hoping it wouldn't make to much noise.
Wincing from the inevitable noise it did make she slowly unraveled the noisy foil covering up some brownies each room in the hotel had and got one. She closed the door while her eyes were closed and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Ooo! I didn't know we had brownies!'
"EEP!"
"Oh no, did I wake you up?"
"No. It was quite fun watching you slowly try to get those brownies."
"Alright then. Um, good night."
"Hey, wait. I've been thinking. It's about Angel."
"Angel? What about Angel? Did something happen? Is he ok?!"
"Relax he's fine. I'm just a little worried is all."
"What do you mean worried?"
"Of course you know about our little rivalry."
"..."
"I think he's biting off more than he can chew. Like how you can't bite into a big huge brownies and chew and swallow it all down. I feel like he's going to hurt himself."
"I thought you didn't like him?"
"I actual have no feeling towards him what-so-ever! I just like messing around with him. I can sense that he take our rivalry a little more serious than that though."
"So... you don't hate him?"
"Nope!"
"You know now that I think about it, I've been a little worried about him as well. I've noticed he hasn't been able to do many things without me. I'm worried he'll try to do something he can't accomplish by himself."
"Like trying to take down a chaos god."
"Take down chaos god?! I wouldn't say something like that. He might not like you that much, but he's the same way with everyone. I don't think we have anything to worry about with that, but he has been trying to be more independent."
"I'd say... in fact he left the room quite a while ago."
"That sounds like him, leaving the- DID YOU SAY LEAVE THE ROOM?!"
"Yeah. Such a poor soul."
"He could get hurt!"
"Fine, let's go inform someone about it."
Straight across from where Angel was standing was Rosa carrying a rope that was the perfect length to slide down all the way to the lobby area. Rosa paced back and fourth throughout the food court, which was on the 37th floor. Rosa placed down the rope on one of the tables occupying the food court, then decided to steal some savory food from the court. This was his chance to accomplish his goal, without any of that dreaded water shenaniganery.
Here's another reference for the food court of this floor.
God these drawings are so horrid. I kind of find them funny though...
In a quick burst of speed he made it close to where the rope was set down, ducking under multiple tables in the process whenever Rosa would look up from stuffing her face in food. He was so close he could practically taste the sweet, rough, and unpleasant taste the rope would provide.
Eventually he made it under the table where the rope sat proudly and as soon as Rosa turned her head back to food given down from the gods themselves, Angel jumped onto the chair then the table snagging the object of desire. Immediately he bolted out of there making it-
"YOU! :0"
Angel looked back realizing Rosa had seen the rouge bunny and was rapidly charging her magic. She shot out a beam of magic but missed as it deflected off a table that Angel had ducked under. "You know, looking back... this was a stupid idea wasn't it?" Angel thought to himself.
Beam after beam Rosa missed as Angel kept dodging by ducking under table after table. Eventually he slipped into the kitchen of the food court, where many chefs would prepare the meals. He sped in then out now carrying a chefs hat on his head and an arrange of marine food, from octopuses to small sushi.
SQUEAK SQUEAK
Is what Rosa heard as Angel threw any sort of marine food he could find towards the magic mare. "By the power of Blue, I COMMAND THEE TO SIT!" Rosa began charging her magic even more and this worried Angel. There was no telling what this mare was capable of.
"I certainty hope I don't misjudge my magical power and end up killing youuuuuu." Angel heard that.
Rosa finished charging her magic and in just one instance a thick cloud of smoke enveloped Angel.
"What's going on?! What are you doing?! Am I going to die?!"
Soon it was all over...
The magic spell I mean. Angel had closed his eyes during the spell and when the it finished he opened them back up.
"AGh! Cough Cough WhAT tHe hECk?! COUGH ...I mean, what the heck. Oh my Celestia! I'M NOT DEAD!" Angel was far from dead, but soon would be dead in the heart as directly in line of sight Angel could see a water slide. Along with this sight were two simple observations. One, the food court was now out of sight and two, there were three identical looking guards sprinting at him.
[Insert "Oh shi-" joke here]
"I knew I was going to hate this place," Angel stated.
One of the guards pressed a red button that was placed on one of the walls. A loud screeching noise hollered throughout the whole hotel alarming more guards to transfer themselves to wherever the alarm was called. Angel frantically moved his eyes in all directions seeing no way out. It was either total mission failure or going down the water slide and getting his perfect fluffy tail wet. With no other options he made his way to the water slide.
"Alright, so now the alarms have been sounded probably waking everyone in the hotel causing lots of panic and I have two guards chasing me at the moment, most likely lots more in the span of a couple of minutes. Why is this hotel so bent on not letting anything roam these halls at night? I mean jeez, I'm able to grab some Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechy from the fridge at midnight at Fluttershy's cottage."
In a desperate escape Angel rushed to the water slide barely outpacing the guards in hot pursuit. Ponies began to burst widely out of their rooms in panic over the constant loud ringing of the alarm thankfully causing the guards to slow down a bit. More guards burst out from the stairs attempting to nab the agility filled bunny.
Angel made his way to the water slide, but upon approach he came to a screeching halt. "Come on you son of a carrot god. You're doing this to finally potentially get Discord out of your life forever. Forever! Just don't think about it. HUP!"
Angel held up one of his fingers and spit out a raspberry as he leaped into the slide only to be met with a comedic bonk sound as he found that the entrance had been blocked with magic.
"Oh THANK CELESTIA I DON'T HAVE TO GO DOWN THAT THING! Oh wait a second, that's right, total mission failure."
Slamming his paws on the magic barrier he found no such luck in escape and instead he backed up with his back against the magic barrier leaning and hoping some last minute luck would help him out. He could now see that Rosa, the pink pony with a singular dot as a cutie mark was also in the fray of the crowd and locked eyes with the bunny. With guards and now Rosa with her own magic equally closing the distance between Angel and the cold clutches of the hotel staff, Angel gave up.
I believe this is a part where my brother would say: *Welp pack it up boys! Story's over!*
But in a convenient stroke of luck the magic barrier dissipated and left the slide able to be traveled in. Angel was another hesitation jumped grandly and slid down the slide narrowly missing the hooves of his pursuers. The guards quickly followed sliding down to the slippery water slide as Angel did. The water slide did not have a top to it to make sure ponies would stay inside the slide and not fall to their doom, so Angel had to be very careful with his movements. The guards were catching up and with every turn he could feel his body gradually getting close to falling off as well as his tail getting closer to being the exact opposite of perfect and fluffy.
"Hey do you hear that?" Guard number 96 said.
"Do you mean the noise of the ear piercing alarm or the sound of the rushing water of the water slide we are currently sliding on? Or maybe the collective screams and panic of numerous ponies screaming their heads off in the hotel?" Guard number 45 responded with.
"No it sounds like a extremly high pitched squeal... like a little girl crying over her ice cream that fell on the floor."
"I'm willing to bet it's the bunny we're chasing."
"Wait we're chasing a bunny?" Guard number 67 asked.
"Shut up short-term memory loss Steve!"
Floor after floor every creature on that slide was rapidly approaching the lobby floor. Angel was getting extremely close to the lobby, however the ponies right behind him were even closer to him now taking swipes at the bunny. Angel took a swift left, then right dodging their hooves occasionally getting distracting by the cold liquid making the ride unbearable to stay on. "He's approaching the ground floor on the water slide!" One of the guards bellowed into his Walkie Talkie.
"Wait... why are we on a water slide?"
"SHUT UP STEVE!"
In a matter of seconds several of the guards surrounded the exit of the water slide.
Now I don't particularly interrupting the story as you have probably noticed. That's what my brother does. And even though I have indeed interrupted the story before and right now at this moment, but I want to say something. I know you only want the story, and I do to. But sometimes my brother makes it difficult. His personality is almost infectious at times...
But honestly... with as chaotic as the first two chapters were, trying to get my brother to stop. I think I've realized something. I have become increasingly bored with this chapter. I just seems devoid of the same personality. I simply just don't like it. It's been my job for a while to narrate the stories I have been given and you could say this is out of left field, but this is the truth. Even this action scene is such a bore. No matter how cliche it sounds I think I've started to come to terms with my brother's personality.
He just makes the story more fun, more weird, more unique. Maybe that's just because he lacks experience.
With experience does come professionalism and with professionalism comes a lack of personality. It's common knowledge and sometimes I think I forget about that. So I believe whenever my brother does come back and as much as it pains me to say it... I will allow him to narrate the story with me. He brings things to this story that I lack.
All it takes is one action to get the ball rolling. A leap of faith.
Just how like Angel took one last leap of faith off the slide. Heh, see what I did there.
Already being somewhat high up, about the height of the second floor he leaped off the slide barely being able to grab onto the inflatable whale hanging from wherever the ceiling was to this gigantic hotel. You should have remembered this detail from earlier as it is the same whale that greets every guest who dared to look up once from the lobby floor.
He struggled to get up, but nonetheless he did it. He crouched down and sat in the middle of the whale causing him not to be seen. He then used his teeth to cut the rope holding the whale up and bounced safely to the ground. And in the middle of the commotion that was happening on the lobby floor upon jumping off the whale it was nearly impossible to spot him in the midst of the commotion. Soon his small little body entered the room he had so desperately worked hard to achieve getting to.
Room number 13.
He opened the door and closed it.
"Holy CELESTIA! Did I really just do that? Hoo wee! I'm sure glad there isn't any ponies in this room, due to the wide panic in the hotel."
At last the mood was calm and tranquil, so he calmly and slowing took his time to calmly search for the bunny translator somewhere in the room. Then he realized the guards might start searching every room, so he decided to be the fastest bunny alive and not be the speed of a snail being cooked alive. Still calmly of course.
In a couple more moments he spotted the translator placed on top of a counter top. He jumped up and nabbed it. On his way down he did a celebratory dance of cockiness as he got closer to the exit, also putting on the new technology that he had been graced with. "HA! No one can stop this piece of work."
In fact he was right, no one could stop this piece of work, right up until the moment where he was swept up from the ground by a pony. I bet one of you reading this called it didn't you? You're not that smart. Angel didn't care who picked him up. He was wearing the translator and no pony in their right mind would take something that someone was wearing. From an outsiders perspective, it would seem the translator was in complete company of him. Finders keepers, as they say.
But then it hit him. He had not heard the door open, therefore whoever this was, was not a guard.
"You made it?!"
Angel looked in confusion at the pony that had him in their clutches. The pony was in fact the purple unicorn, that wore a dress that he had seen earlier. The same pony he had seen enter room number 13.
"Listen, I'm very impressed you were able to make it here and I congratulate you, but you really shouldn't have made it down here. How did you even get down here anyway? You know that's a great question to test out this translator with," The purple pony said.
Angel took a few moments to respond and opened his mouth. "Well I just kinda did it," Angel responded with.
"Holy moley... That's amazing! Still you must've had help, which is not good. You need to give me the translator back."
"Hold on. Help?! Who helped me! I shall kick the pony who tried to help me! Why I outta-"
"That doesn't matter now. What matters is that your fluffy paws and perfect tail hand me the translator."
"While my tail is perfect and fluffy... well was, I worked to hard to get this translator. Besides, I need it. It doesn't really seem like it, but I'm doing this for a very good reason."
"I admire that a lot, I really do! But still- Actually, you're a bunny. I can just take the translator off myself. Hold still please!"
Before the purple pony could gain ownership of the translator Angel bit the hooves that were keeping him in place allowing him to escape her grasp. Angel bolted out the door going straight towards the guards guaranteeing ownership of the translator. And just like he thought, the guards did not take off his translator.
About an hour had passed. The alarm was shut off and everything had been cleared up. Ponies returned back to their rooms and Angel was taken into questioning by some of the guards. Thanks to his new bunny translator Angel was able to tell them that he simply got out of his room, because he was looking for the bathroom. And since he was a small bunny and all, he got spooked when he saw two strong and capable ponies running straight at him.
Rosa eventually entered the room where he was being questioned. Angel froze up in fear, but she simply picked him up and walked over to Fluttershy who was sitting in the lobby in a state of panic. "Do you think Angel is safe? What if this is my fault! Oh Discord, you don't think this is my fault, do you? Oh my Celestia! There he is! Angel!"
Fluttershy took Angel out from Rosa's hooves and gave him a huge hug. "Oh please never do that again! I was so worried and I thought you would have gotten hurt or something worse!"
"You sound like a cliche mother figure right now Fluttershy," Angel had responded with.
"You can talk now?! What did you get up to during the night?!" Fluttershy questioned.
Discord gave an expression of surprise and then of curiosity realizing he could now speak to anyone. Then he laughed at the "cliche" thing Angel had just mentioned.
"I found the translator when I was searching for the bathroom."
"You were searching for the bathroom? I thought we had a bathroom in our own hotel room," Fluttershy wondered.
"Uh, it was broken. Yes," Angel responded with.
"Really. I used it last night and it wasn't broken at all!" Discord claimed.
"So it was you who broke it!" Angel said.
"What! No! I can smell a liar!" Discord said as his nose popped of his face onto his claw doing a little dance.
"Discord, relax. The point is that he is okay. Besides you haven't been very truthful yourself mister! You promised you wouldn't use chaos magic in public and yet you did and you've had multiple times in the past where you've lied. I'm not saying you're lying right now, but I trust Angel with this more than you."
"Your literally saying I am a liar! Eh, whatever. I'm pretty tired right now anyway. Let's go back to sleep."
"Uh, Discord it's daytime right now," Fluttershy exclaimed.
"WHAT?! aGAiN?! Someone's gotta check on the two alicorn sisters."
"Discord. The passage of time is going completely normal. Maybe we should get you to a doctor sometime."
"Oh Tarturus no."
"Guess we should probably leave now. It's about time we go to the convention. After all I am really excited!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'll get us there with all of our personal belongings including the jeans that I totally didn't just put on right now in a jiffy."
"HOLD UP!" Rosa, who was still standing right beside them, shouted out. "I have something for Angeeeel. And ANGEL only." Rosa pulled out a slip of folded paper from her mane and handed it to Angel. "Don't let them read it." Rosa whispered carefully to Angel.
Angel shrugged and carefully opened the folded piece of paper. On it was a note that read "Your welcome." He folded the paper back up wondering what the message meant.
"So what does it say? Is it something perhaps a little inappropriate for ages 17 and below?"
"Discord! As curious as we may be Rosa said it was for Angel and ANGEL only, so we should respect her wishes."
"Ugh, fine. Rosa is weird anyway. Whatever she wrote is probably about the color blue. Teleporting to Sanctuary Garden Con in 3, 1, 2."
"That's incredibly mean of you Disc-"
"Now."
And just like that the three were teleported to the convention.
Upon this short journey Angel had he was able to accomplish his main goal. While his main problem of figuring out who he was without Fluttershy remained, he had to admit after all he had done that night, he was feeling a little bit better. After all he pretty much achieved a successful heist and action sequence.
There was still much to figure out, but even being able to jump into water and brave some of his fears was enough to get Angel to at least consider he had made some progress with his problems. Did that mean he finally had a plan to stop Discord? Nope.
Now all that was left for Discord was to confess his feelings for Fluttershy and let Fluttercord become a reality once again. Discord had a plan for this, like how Angel was working on a plan for him. It was indeed last minute as Discord's original plan had been sidetracked after the convention and speech shenanigans. It could've been easy for him, due to him being the one who originally planned for this day for only him and Fluttershy to spend together.
But a lot of the times things don't turn out the way you want it.
Even if the story sets up to be that way.