The vibrant rays of the morning sun shone brightly through the windows of the "欢迎来到我的旅馆! Motel" in Chineightown, Manehattan.
Having to nearly crawl out of bed in the early morning with a different time zone is not exactly Silver Shill's cup of tea, especially when he had been up late the night before. Just finding a cheap motel in of itself was a challenge, but the low cost of the room came with a price.
The room's appearance itself was a clear sign that it was inside of the cheapest motel in all of Manehattan. The bed was nothing but a plank of wood with a yoga mat on it. And to Silver's dismay, the mat smelled used. Very used.
Also in the room was a candle, a small bedside table, and Chineighse memorabilia spread throughout. It looked almost as if it was some kind of Chineighse dungeon.
"Well, what did I expect from a place that charges less than a bit per night?", Silver asked himself as he stretched himself awake.
As much as he wanted to lay around and come up with more complaints for his stay, Silver had such a busy day ahead of him that missing out was certainly not an option for him.
"7:46 in the morning! Oh man, I gotta leave now if I wanna get to Bridleway in time for auditions!", he spoke to himself as he quickly refreshed and made himself presentable for the day ahead.
Silver brushed his teeth in the motel's only bathroom, which was at the end of the hallway and open for all guests. Rinsing his face off after taking care of his teeth, Silver Shill stared into the cracked, graffitied mirror at the identical stallion returning the stare in the reflection.
He took a long, deep breath before thinking about his plans.
The idea of even trying to get a job at Bridleway was far-fetched, but trying to join the cast was absolutely out of the question for him.
"What do I think I'm doing?", he regretfully asked his reflection, "I can't join the 'Hinny of the Hills' cast! This play is huge, and I can't even imagine somepony like me trying to join it. Me? Singing and dancing in front of th-thousands of ponies daily! I can't perform, I have absolutely no experience! Come on, what the hay was I thinking with this?"
The regretful stallion hunched over the sink as he tried to figure out another alternative. Theatre performance was most definitely not his strong suit. But then again, Silver himself was unsure as to what any of his strong suits even are.
Unfortunately, no play meant no Coco Pommel. If silver was to actually get a role in the play, then he believed he and Coco would be able to work together and see each other everyday. If he did not get any role due to his lack of skill and experience, then he would have blown his chances of ever seeing Coco again. Not getting any part would also entail loosing, yet, another career.
Silver's dilemma nearly triggered another nervous breakdown as he sulked against the sink while contemplating.
Luckily, Silver perched up as he reached a sensible conclusion.
"Wait a minute, whoever said that I had to become an actor? There's a bunch of other jobs there I could try to get! I could be a janitor again, a stagehand, who knows? I could even make costumes with Coco! Boy, would that sure be great?"
Feeling a lot more relieved after coming to conclusions, Silver felt prideful enough to leave the motel and get moving to the theatre.
Silver trotted his way down to the motel lobby. The lobby shocked him when he entered, as he was too exhausted the previous night to take its appearance in.
Chineighse memorabilia was scattered all over the lobby. Lanterns hung from the walls, bamboo plants were growing out of pots, and dragon designs were presented all over most of the items.
"Huānyíng lái dào wǒ de lǚguǎn!", excitingly exclaimed the pony behind the counter. The pony, a smaller stallion with a crimson coat color and short black mane, gave Silver Shill a large, hospitable grin.
Silver was unsure as to what he should reply.
"What the…", Silver confusingly pondered to himself, "What in Equestria does that mean? I don't speak Chineighse! The closest I have was glancing at the menus when I was a busboy at that one Chineighse restaurant in Baltimare."
However, the pony at the counter did not seem to notice Silver's baffled expression, as he seemed to be clearly waiting for a response.
"Um, good morning,", Silver nervously started as he walked up to the desk, "how are you doing?"
It seemed as if the desk pony was trying to work a response as he pulled out a translation dictionary from one of the desk drawers.
"Er, ah, I… not… talk… um, speech!", he crudely yet confidently replied without his grin leaving once. His response took Silver by surprise at first, but Silver was soon to realized that the stallion had meant he could not speak his language.
Silver Shill couldn't help but wonder what the pony had said when he had walked in the lobby, and proceeded to ask the desk pony just that.
"Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you tell me when I walked into the room?"
However, the red desk pony seemed to be furthermore confused by Silver, only replied with more confusing Chineighse, "Shèmiǎn?"
Silver let out a sigh as he realized that this was going to be much more difficult than he had initially thought.
The stallion cleared his throat before speaking to the desk pony in a much more understandable and basic tone, using only key words.
"What… you… say… when… I … got… in… room?", Silver asked as clearly as he possibly could.
The desk pony seemed very anxious to figure out what Silver was trying to ask as he proceeded to pull his translator dictionary back out and look up the words that had just been told to him.
"What… you… say… when… I… got… in… room?", he clarified.
Silver, growing impatient, replied, "Yes, 'What… you… say… when… I… got… in… room."
"What… you… say… when… I… got-"
"What you say when I got in room!", impatiently repeated Silver Shill.
After a short while of flipping through pages of the book, the desk pony had an "aha" moment as he realized what Silver was asking him this whole time. After flipping around in the book a little while longer, the desk pony spoke up.
"When you got in room, um, I… said, 'Welcome to my motel!'", the pony confidently said as he pointed to the motel's logo on the wall behind him, which was made up of a cluster of Chineighse characters. He tapped on the logo, signaling that the phrase on it is what he had said to silver when he walked in.
"Wait a minute,", Silver started, "so you're saying that your motel is called the, 'Welcome to My Motel! Motel'?"
The desk pony enthusiastically nodded as if he understood what Silver had said. "'Welcome to My Motel!' is… all… me… understand… in… language! Only… talk… in Chineighse!"
Silver Shill had no choice but to eye the desk pony with a blank face. But then realization struck, and Silver realized that he had to leave if he wanted to get to Bridleway early.
"Well, um, nice to meet you, but, I, uh, gotta go."
The desk pony was confused until Silver walked out of the motel and waved, only for the desk pony to wave back.
Silver took a large gulp before making his triumphant march to the theatre.
"Okay now, Bridleway, here I come!"