Arrival
Convention Hotel
Admiral Biscuit
Chapter 1: Arrival
They came to Baltimore from all over, arriving by various means. Some of them flew, some took airplanes, and many arrived by train. A few took buses—chartered, if enough were clustered geographically, or Greyhound otherwise.
A few arrived by car, and one arrived by boat, sailing into the Inner Harbor and mooring at the docks just below Federal Hill.
The first group gave the hotel staff pause. They'd known about the convention, of course, but they hadn't really been prepared for the first pony who bumped her muzzle on the revolving door, paused long enough for it to hit her in the rump, and then darted forward and out, casting a wary glance backwards at the contraption.
She looked around the lobby, taking in the little alcove with computers that anybody could use. The long open fireplace on the opposite wall, currently not lit in deference to the humid July day.
One of the clerks motioned for her to come over, worried perhaps that she might set hoof on the escalator. It wasn't proper to think she wouldn't expect the stairs to move, but it was clearly obvious she hadn't expected the door to feed her into the hotel.
A few other patrons, the clerk noticed, were also studying the pony, while trying not to be obvious about it. That was understandable, and if their staff meeting was any indication, soon they would have plenty of ponies to goggle.
The mare made her decision, and with a flick of her tail, she clacked over to the desk.
When she'd arrived, she hooked her forehooves on the desk and pulled herself up, just enough that her head stuck over the top. “Hi! I'm Bottlecap.”
“I'm Kaia.” She hesitated for a moment; normally her script would have her asking if the pony—if Bottlecap—had a reservation, but she probably did. “Is your room reserved under 'Bottlecap?'
“I hope so.”
Kaia's fingers danced on the keyboard, and found no reservation. Frowning, she tried again, this time just entering 'Cap' in the field for the last name. Still no result. Comma 'Bottle' did provide a result: Pony, Bottlecap. Gender tagged 'prefer not to say.' Already, she had an inkling how the day might wind up going.
“Do you have any form of identification, Miss?” She wasn't entirely sure if Bottlecap was all one name or two and didn't want to risk offending her guest. “And a form of payment.”
“Certainly.” She ducked her head down and came back up with a passport, visa, and credit card all held between her lips.
It only took a moment to enter the relevant information into the computer. The visa, she noted, had her name listed as Bottle Cap, while the passport simply said Bottlecap.
She passed the cards back. “Do you have a floor preference? You're booked for harbor view; we have rooms available on the sixth through fourteenth floors.”
“Might as well get a good view, I guess.” Her ears turned for a moment, then focused back at Kaia. “Maybe not all the way at the top, that might be something a pegasus would prefer. How about nine? I like nine.”
“Of course. I can put you in room 918.” While she finished up with the reservation and the programming of the keys, Kaia briefly explained the amenities of the hotel—the exercise room, the rooftop bar and pool, the restaurant on the third floor and the twenty-four hour convenience store on the second. Without even the slightest condescending tone, she also explained how the room key needed to be used to move the elevators to guest floors. A pony might not know.
“Do you have any luggage? I can have a porter bring it up.”
“Just my saddlebags,” she said. “That's all I need.”
“I—it says here that your room is reserved for two. Is the other guest here?” Unlikely; there weren't any other ponies in the lobby yet.
“No, she had to take a late train.” Bottlecap glanced over at the elevator bank. “If they don't work without a card, how's she going to get in?”
“I can put a note in the computer, and when she arrives, I can call your room, or have a porter escort her up, whichever you prefer. Or if she wants, since you're already checked in, she can just call you and you can come down to meet her in the lobby. That's what a lot of people do at conventions.”
“Can you make a key for her and set it aside, so when she comes she can just let herself in the room? I might be napping.”
“Of course.” A few more keyclicks. The key wouldn't be created until she actually arrived, of course. “Let me make sure, the reservation says Melba—“
“Yeah, Peach Melba.”
Whoever had been entering in pony names hadn't understood which fields first and last names should go in, Kaia noted. That was something to mention to the rest of the staff; besides the hassle of looking up reservations, ponies might be insulted by people getting their name wrong.
“It's all taken care of, Bottlecap. Enjoy your stay at the Hyatt Regency hotel. If there's anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable, please let us know.”
“Thanks!”
She turned and made her way to the bank of elevators. There was already a car parked at the ground floor, and from her post, Kaia could see her enter, and after a moment, the elevator began its ascent.
Meanwhile, the revolving door disgorged another pony, this one a unicorn.
•••
They came from all over, arriving by various means. Some of them flew, some took airplanes, and many arrived by train. A few took buses—chartered, if enough were clustered geographically, or Greyhound otherwise.
Some of them had bags and bags of luggage, others only had saddlebags on their backs. Some struggled with the revolving doors, although the porters and valets out front quickly realized and directed them through the doors beside the revolving door.
Most of them passed through the lobby the normal way, the exception being the fliers.
Kaia saw him when he glided down the escalator; he was a light yellow with a spiked grey mane and she was certain if he'd checked in, she would have noticed him. The fact that he came up to her desk and asked for a key was a good indication he hadn't, and she wondered if he'd come in the back way. That was where buses stopped, and maybe he'd gotten on the elevator and ridden up a couple floors before realizing that that wouldn't get him where he needed to go.
It didn't occur to her until much later that many of the pegasi were landing on top of the parking garage and making their way down from there, nor did she realize until much later that they weren't riding the elevator down from the sixth floor; they were jumping off the balcony over the 300 club and gliding down from there.
Admittedly, it was the most direct route to the lobby.
•••
As the afternoon went on, the reception area overcame its initial struggles. The three desk clerks on staff used their downtime to check through all the various reservations and made notes on what possible variant of the pony’s name might have been entered. Everyone had gotten over the shock of seeing unicorns levitate things, and the entire staff had been treated to a pony family, complete with two adorable foals and an only slightly less adorable teenage daughter. They didn’t know for a fact that she was a teenager, but the way she rolled her eyes when her younger brother and sister excitedly rode the escalator up and then back down again implied it.
Things had almost fallen into a routine, then a zebra arrived with an entourage and a regal bearing. Said entourage had a suite and technically there were more ponies than the room was supposed to have.
Ponies were small, and more of them could fit in a suite. She found one that was next to an unoccupied room, just in case, and put a note in the computer to not sell it right away. Just in case they decided the suite wasn’t big enough to fit them all.
As soon as they tromped off to an elevator and crammed themselves inside the cab, she turned to Miriro and whispered “Do you think she’s royalty, rich, or some kind of celebrity?”
“She didn’t have enough stuff to be rich,” Miriro said. “I heard ponies had princesses and queens and stuff, so I’d bet she’s royal. Plus, she had one of her entourage do the transaction for her. That’s how you know. A rich person wants to be seen tossing around the wealth; royalty can’t be bothered.”
•••
Every time they thought they’d seen it all, a new guest arrived. A pair of bird-lions soared down majestically from the sixth floor, and after they’d checked in, Miriro and Kaia debated what they were. It was incredibly rude to ask a guest what their race was, and both of them assumed that that extended to species. Miriro thought they were griffons, while Kaia vaguely remembered her boyfriend mentioning a Shirdal which kind of fit their description. It was something to ask him about tonight.
There were ponies with cloven hooves, jagged horns, and leonine manes and tails; there were bipedal lizards, bird-horse hybrids—hippogriffs, which they both knew from Harry Potter—and even a strange bipedal cat who reminded Miriro of Fonzie. Kaia had no idea who Fonzie was.
By the end of their shifts they had concluded that there was simply no logic to Equestrian names; some of the guests only had a single name, some had two—likely first and last, but that couldn’t be assumed—and a few had more, such as Jonquilla Redder van de Narcissen.
The usual routine for guests was to check in, wash the dust off in their rooms, and then leave their rooms again and do things. Said things varied from group to group and individual to individual; none of them knew quite what to expect from the Equestrians. Would they be demanding guests? Entitled guests? Would they come down to the lobby and mingle, or would they prefer to stay up in their rooms? Were they partiers or not? Complainers? Kaia could read most of her guests by the time the check-in was complete, but she had little luck with the ponies. Most of them were friendly and patient, which was a good sign. Some of them needed specific instructions on how the keycards worked and how the elevators worked, which was not as good a sign. And any number of them came into the lobby from the most convenient entry-point, which was also worrisome. The sixth-floor patio’s door wasn’t locked from the outside, because why would it be? A large number of winged guests arriving via the patio was a valid reason to re-think security on that door.
Ponies had come back down from their rooms, mostly grouping on the second floor, but a few clusters had established themselves on the first. One group was trying to figure out the computer, which luckily for her was outside her area of responsibility. A lizard was rummaging through the plastic jewels that surrounded the potted plants, but not causing any harm. And every now and then a pony entering the hotel would get caught in the revolving door despite the best efforts of the valets and porters.
There was no rule that said she had to leave the hotel premises at the end of her shift. Usually, she did; it was un-American to hang about at one’s workplace when the shift was over. But ponies had also discovered the bar, and some of them were taking advantage of it, and she was genuinely curious to learn more about the hotel guests, so she took off her name tag and joined them.
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Love this idea, and this is an adorable start. Hope to see more!
Oops.
I always look forward to seeing more of these stories.
Ponies on Earth + Novelty Factor is always a fun combo. I'm looking forward to seeing where this story of yours will go.
Im wondering how many not Spike dragons there are by now, given all the hatchlings? The closest thing to the plastic decorations, for dragons at least, would be various sulphur allotropes found around the volcanos and hotsprings etc of the lands?
Given Spike ate Baked Bads, we still havent truely come to an effective canon consensus on what Dragons can and cant eat, as Im going to have to go for only Dragon Sneeze trees and similar, very rare magical items can affect them, due to lava swimming mainly?
Kirin? Thats going to be costly on the extinguishers and sprinklers if theres any idiot prankers in the place. Oh. Its a convention.
Better get the airport tenders parked round the corner.
Given the ultralightweight build of such buildings, all spaceframes and float floors, one Yak would be lucky not to end up in the Lobby when Stomping on the Roof.
Those revolving doors can be a real problem especially for mobility scooters etc. Seen designs where the vanes are sliding doors. In high load, or emergancy? They lock the shaft and slide the vanes open, leaving the door fully open, as well as opening the bypass and even the emergancy doors either side. UK buildings apparently dont get designed for UK weather or loads.
If the flyers are landing on the patio, someone needs to put up a redirection banner or sheets behind the door glass with directional arrows etc?
Main thing though. Call in ALL the maintenance teams. The toilet facilitys alone are going to get hammered. And thats even before the Frats.
Absolutely delightful! I'm breaking my previously ironclad rule about never-ever reading incomplete fics.
(I'm also nearly done with a "Flurry Heart Family at Disney World" fic, so my brain is SO in this story-space...)
My mom has two words in her first name and she has this problem all the time.
Your stories are interesting. They're nothing jarring, nothing that really POPS out...but yet it's so pleasant and relaxing to read. It's almost like slice-of-life ASMR. We replay an experience that many or us have gone through before (checking into a hotel), but in the eyes of the pony character.
Love the premise, and a great first story for this not-a-contest.
They have to take a shower, right? I can't wait to see the look on the plumber's face when they're called to fix a drain clogged with giant wads of pastel-colored fur.
Kaia has no goddamn taste.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Looks like I stayed at this very hotel for a work conference.
I'm pretty sure the ponies aren't there for the same conference I attended.
10403375
Yeah, the Muppets were awesome.
Come in, come all, prepaid over all!
Promising. Proceed further!
10403375
To be fair, that program aired 1974-1984. This is probably before she was born. It is possibly before her parents were in grade school.
How much do YOU know about, say, "Howdy Doody" or "Roy Rogers"?
10403479
I can't imagine anyone doesn't remember that video on the Windows 95 disk to show off the new Media Player features.
The paragraph about buses is in there twice.
10403501
You're texting to one. I went from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98.
Never went online until 2014 & never even HEARD of it until now
10403479
Plenty, actually.
~Skeeter The Lurker
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10403515
You are either older than most Bronies or
Were they on Nickelodeon?
10403519
Nah, mate, I'm in my 30s (as of writing this) with a family who had great appreciation for the classics.
That and the wonders of all access satellite, and then cable. 500+ channels and most the good stuff were classics.
I mean, you just can't find that kinda writing very often these days.
~Skeeter The Lurker
10403315
Thank you!
And you shall!
10403316
Correction made; thank you!
Thanks! It’s for a not-a-contest (not my not-a-contest), so there’s every possibility that other people will produce works, too.
10403340
It is, isn’t it?
Possibly not well for the hotel
Although ponies are more likely to behave than college students.
10403346
I dunno, probably a few.
Just keep pools of lava around. Heats the place, you can cook dinner on it, and it keeps non-dragons from trespassing where they shouldn’t.
When dragons play ‘the floor is lava,’ it literally is.
Probably anything carbon-based is safe for them.
Presumably, reformed kirin that don’t get all flamy at the drop of a hat. Presumably.
Heh, I hadn’t even though of yaks. Yeah, that could be problematic.
That particular Hyatt has a revolving door and at least one normal door next to it, and at the lobby level it’s also got a back entrance with normal doors. There is also a second-floor exit that leads to overhead walkways to the convention center and across the street to the inner harbor.
Could be there’s a pony up there directing traffic. Probably sitting at the bar, sipping on mojitos, and pointing all new arrivals in the direction of the front lobby.
Yeah, you ain’t kidding.
10403350
Ponies at Disney World is a great genre. I’ve got one section in one of my stories of ponies exploring Disney World, and I was thinking of writing a story about ponies working there, but haven’t done it yet. Too many other projects.
10403360
I could see that. A lot of government documents are set up for the naming conventions of the native population and have trouble accounting for anything that doesn’t fit in that category.
Now that you mention it, I’ve seen (but not studied) my cousin’s birth certificate . . . she was born in China, so most of her birth certificate is in Chinese, as you’d expect, but she has a typical American name . . . they might have had some trouble with that (or that her father was a Jr., I don’t know if they do that in China).
Thank you! That’s sort of what I aim for with most stories. Something comfortable, pleasant, and relatable, and with cute ponies doing cute pony things.
I would assume most of them would, yeah. IRL equines don’t shed a lot AFAIK, except when they’re switching from winter to summer coats. So it might not be so bad . . . of course, there are a lot of ponies. Down might be an issue from the winged Equestrians.
And never mind the showers, imagine what’s gonna happen to the pool.
Nice story!
Whenever I’m traveling, I do sometimes wonder how I’d react if there was a pony either staying at my hotel or on the same train as me. It might be something I write out eventually.
10403375
(Honestly, though, Fonzie is kind of a cultural thing . . . I’ve never seen Happy Days, but I know who he is and what he looks like.
10403425
You shoulda stated there for Bronycon
You say work, so probably not. Later chapters may or may not reveal what conference they’re at the hotel for.
I was expecting a one-shot. Glad to be disappointed =D
10403459
Thank you! I shall
10403507
Yes, it’s supposed to be.
10403531
Still better than a little league team.
10403544
Thank you!
You should. Chance meetings with a pony are always fun stories.
One of the things I often do is consider how a pony would view something. Could be a news report, a day on the job, something I come across while shopping, whatever. For pony/human fics, that’s good mental practice, I think.
10403350
I have the same rule, and I also broke it for this one.
10403529
Just joined the group.
10403554
Also, your avatar is adorable
Oh they think the have it bad... How much trouble is the Hotel hosting the Yaks and Buffalo going to have? I assume this one is hosting Ponies, Zebra, Kirin, Griffons, Hippogriffs, Dragons and Abyassians. That leaves Yaks, Buffalo, Changelings, Diamond Dogs, Minotaurs and the Deer(though they might just take over a park). So one hotel's biggest concern is Fire(Kirin and Dragons!) The other structural damage (Heavyest and most rowdy race with Yaks, and Diamond dogs dig!)
I imagine they'd probably get weird looks if they asked him to try jumping a shark.
Just wait till they notice changelings and/or diamond dogs coming up from the freight elevators or storage access.
"Your basement was very confusing."
"Wait, you came from the basement? How'd you get in there?"
"Uh, the basement entrance, of course."
"We don't have an entrance down there..."
"... You do now, I guess."
There’s something so wholesome about well meaning people engaging in wild culture clash.
10403560
As often as not, they have those at the Trotcon hotel. I never had a problem with them, but then I look like a sasquatch awkwardly stuffed into human clothes who’s seriously considering wrecking up the place.
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10403592
There aren’t any nearby local parks to take over, sadly. Not in easy trotting distance, anyway (that I’m aware of). Yaks (and buffalo) seem more budget-conscious, so perhaps at the end of the convention one wing of the Holiday Inn is going to be well-smashed crater.
This story isn’t going to go the route of ‘Equestrians totally destroy human building,’ although that would be fun. Not to say that they’re going to escape unscarred, though, both physically and mentally.
10403620
And yet, Vinyl Scratch can jump a shark.
10403625
“Foundation? What’s that?”
<wall cracks ominously>
So, legit.
Human mapping is generally done of the surface (obviously). Marine maps do concern themselves with depth, and tend to have limited coastal details (you’re in a boat, you don’t need to know the streets in the town). Aviation maps concern themselves mostly with airports, controlled space around airports, and tall things that you could bump into. If ponies do comprehensive surveys of Equestria, they would have to have some way of denoting Diamond Dog warrens and other underground features which are of concern to ponies. Likewise, they would probably have some way of denoting cloud cities and other aerial features.
10403656
There really is.
10403665
Are you?
10403683
I’ll let you be the judge:
3.bp.blogspot.com/-M0abNkotEmM/UDZej_Qc8GI/AAAAAAAAGFQ/oKf861VjKD4/s1600/Sasquacth+has+coffee.png
And thus the chaos begins. I pray for mercy on the hotel staffs’ souls.
10403696
Two days after the ponies arrive, the entire hotel staff calls in sick.