Ice
Ice
Admiral Biscuit
The hotel was huge. Peach Melba had never been in any building so big. Sure, there were palaces in Equestria which were probably as large, but she’d never been in any of them.
She couldn’t help but explore. In the lower levels, there were rooms everywhere, some which she could enter and some which she couldn’t. She knew that there were even more rooms hidden, service rooms beyond nondescript service doors, kitchens near the restaurants, and closets for every purpose. She had read every sign and tried to figure out what rooms were meant for, the ones she couldn’t get in. Things like ‘Janitor's Closet’ were easy to understand, while rooms with names like ‘Pratt’ and ‘Lombard’ were less understandable.
Peach had figured out that there were more elevators than she could find, too. There were four main elevators, and two more in the parking garage—which were numbered seven and eight, suggesting that there were at least two which weren’t meant for guests.
Above level six, there was less to explore. She’d figured out that all the floors with guest rooms had a similar arrangement, although confusingly none of them featured a thirteenth or fourteenth room: they just skipped right ahead.
One of her exploratory trips led her to a small room near the elevators. Just an alcove, really.
On one side of the room were two humming machines with big advertisement pictures on them. She knew what those were; they were machines you could put money in and get drinks out of. You had to push a button with the drink you wanted on it, and it would drop down into the littler cabinet at the bottom, which was really too small to get a muzzle into, and the bottles were slippery and hard to get out without a unicorn to help.
There were similar machines she’d seen that offered all sorts of snacks, visible through a glass front, and most of them had a door which unintentionally served as a hoof-trap.
The machine on the opposite wall didn’t have any advertisement on it, nor did it have a slot to put money in. It just had a button that said ‘push for ice,’ so she did.
The machine grumbled and rattled, and then ice cubes dropped out of it and into a waiting bin below.
Peach stuck her nose in the bin. The bottom was too far down for her to reach any of the ice that it had dropped, even if it hadn’t slid out of view into the guts of the machine.
She stepped back and pondered it, trying to wrap her head around what its purpose was. Back in Equestria, she got ice four times a moon for her icebox, although it arrived in a big block rather than in little chunks.
They had a glass-faced icebox in their hotel room, although she couldn’t figure how ice was supposed to get in it. It was built into a cabinet, and there weren’t any access doors she could find, although it stayed cold all the time. Maybe the maids kept it full when they came by and replaced towels and bedding; maybe there was something that only they could access. There was a locked door in that wall which might lead into some sort of narrow access space, although it seemed unnecessarily large for such a purpose.
If she had some sort of bucket, she could catch the ice in it. She had her suitcase, and her saddlebags, but she decided that neither of them would be a good choice for transporting ice.
Then she remembered that there was a silver bucket in her room. Bottlecap had told her that it was supposed to be used for champagne, which she thought was silly. All the champagne she’d seen so far had been served in slender glasses called flutes which weren’t hoof-friendly at all.
Regardless of what the bucket was supposed to be used for, she went back to her room and got it. It fit into the maw of the machine and when she pushed the button, the machine happily filled her little bucket with ice.
It was clear that somewhere in the hotel, probably down in the basement where guests weren’t supposed to go, they had an ample ice supply. They might chip it down and carry it up in the hidden elevators, and the maids could get it to refill the glass-faced iceboxes as needed.
That thought gave her pause. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to be in here; maybe this room was for the maids only. But if that were the case, why didn’t it have a door? Surely it was meant for the guests.
Peach put the bucket on her back and walked down the hall to her room, deep in thought. Sometimes in the late summer and early fall, ice got expensive. If ponies hadn’t cut enough off the ponds in the winter, supplies got low and it had to be imported from cloud cities—pegasi could make as much as they wanted up in the clouds. She probably didn’t need ice, not here in a hotel that catered to every whim, but the thrifty part of her insisted that since it was available right now, she ought to stock up in case she needed it later. In case they ran out.
The glass-faced icebox couldn’t keep much ice. The lid should have been on top, and she could have piled it full. However, she knew that ice would keep for a long time if there was a lot of it, especially if there was something insulating to put overtop.
🧊 🧊 🧊
By the time the machine had finally run out of ice, the bathtub was nearly full. Peach dragged the blankets off one of the beds and into the bathroom, tucking in the ice to protect it. The other bed was plenty big enough to share with Bottlecap.
They’d have to figure out what to do for showers, but that was okay. She was sure one of the other ponies in the hotel would be happy to share for a few buckets of her ice.
A great way to keep food fresh for longer is to keep it cold. That’s easy if you live in the Arctic (or Antarctic); just put it outside.
Springs and in some cases wells were used historically, which was great if you had a spring or a well. If not . . . winter was cold, winter had ice, and the idea of harvesting the ice and keeping through the summer actually turned into an industry for decades. It would be cut from lakes (usually) in the winter, stored in an icehouse which in simplest form was a room dug in the ground and heavily insulated, and distributed year-round by an iceman.
Fun fact, 7-11 started out in 1927 as an icehouse storefront (if you didn’t want to pay for delivery, you could go to the ice store).
Houses had iceboxes, which were sort of like fridges except that they had a refrigerator section, a frozen section, and an ice section. And while it might seem inconvenient to have to put a new block in your icebox every week or so, unlike modern refrigerators, ice boxes kept working during a power outage. Physics!
Even after mechanical refrigeration became common, lots of industry had been built around standard-sized blocks of ice, and railroad cars in the US continued to be kept cold with blocks of ice well into the 1950s and possibly the 1960s.
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Cool facts, bro.
That's a lot of ice she's pilfered.
Though, in the grand scheme of things, it's not too bad.
When I saw the chapter title, I was worried that the ponies had somehow frozen the pool or something.
I’d like to imagine some random guest just hearing hooves coming, ice machine, hooves going over and over again until madness sets in.
I feel like while ice could still be a desirable commodity in Equestria, the supply and demand for it would be very different to pre-modern Earth. There's no need to stock up from winter or have it delivered from afar because pegasi can fetch it when they want, and some unicorns are probably able to make it themselves.
I think it would be something bought as needed, rather than stockpiled.
And so, time for the hotel to find the HOW TO PROPERLY USE THE ICE MACHINE instructions list. The one with it in both pictures and words, with plenty of 'NO's on it. The ones that hotels had to put up when ice machines became a thing AND you would have people do weird things with what they saw as free unlimited ice.
Also, the hotel will likely have some of their staff by the soda & snack machines to assist the ponies once they get enough complaints about it. Hopefully before somepony breaks either their hoof or the machine trying to get a cola or a candy bar.
Have you used Peach Melba in a fic before? The name seems familiar in a "I recently Googled that pony" way.
Who's a silly pony? You are, you are!
Man, this story really begins to show how weird ponies are.
10418844
Only comparatively to humans. I'm sure we do things the ponies would find ridiculous, too.
10418849
“Why do you spend so much time looking at a screen, human?”
“I’M DOING MAH JOB”
Historically, there were ice factories from 1868 when the world’s first commercial ice plant opened in New Orleans, Louisiana. IDK when they started doing home deliveries but they kept it up until post WWII sometime.
An icebox was like a giant ice chest with a few holes in the bottom to let the water drip out. You just had to empty the drip pan every now and again.
Oh no. I suspect that this convention is going to be very expensive for the hotel to host.
10418849
We got a good example right here, skipping the 13th room for no reason!
Silly mare, they will find that ice you silly silly girl.
So is this story an anthology, or what?
That reminded me...
Courtship:
"Or if it were early spring, he might gift her a mouthful of sticks, suitable for a nest."
...I have a number of questions. :D
"and where he was decent at catching fish in shallow streams"
"and while he was decent at catching fish in shallow streams"?
"exotic balck shiny"
"exotic black shiny"?
Ice:
No particular comments at the moment, but I enjoyed it too. :)
(I'm posting both on this chapter because I think a comment being on an earlier chapter may contribute to FIMFiction not giving a reply notification, and while I don't know that you'll be replying to this, I thought I'd take this step just in case. :))
10418649
Well, as the chapter said, they can have pegasi make ice on demand, but it's more expensive, at least in some places. I imagine that expense would vary quite a bit with location and climate.
10418849
All those tasty plants in buckets out on the veranda and poolside, but you're not allowed to nibble. Madness!
So...when do we get to see ponies discover karaoke at the bar? One of the musically inclined ones going over to tickle the ivory at the ubiquitous piano all the big hotels seem to have tucked in the corner as well?
...Frighten the humans with a spontaneous hotel-wide heartsong as nearly all the ponies start singing together like some Disney musical come to life?
Ice machine is different to the small commercial one for bars Ive seen. That one you open the front door and have the hopper at the bottom you scoop the ice out into what you want. It has a little plastic lever thats pushed upwards by the level of the ice to shut off the machine, otherwise it just keeps running, piping water and cabling electric in, pushing small lumps of ice out.
I just had a mental image of the "Pratt" door actually being a portal that leads to Kansas.
...And there are times when I think I've been living in the Great Plains for too long.
Anyone else suddenly craving a Noble Pursuit?
I'm always amazed how you manage to see things from the perspective and with the mindset of a pony.
I laughed so hard...
No, really!
Good chapters!
I, as always, enjoyed reading it.
I recall a short story in grade school that revolved around a father who was intent on getting a large supply of ice for his icebox.
It was a simple story, much like these sorts of stories you write, but the characters were so likeable and the construction of their environment told in such an entertaining fashion, it's still in my mind 30 years later.
Maybe instead they're double side elevators? One side opens to customer acessable space and the other is employee only.
10418613
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/10/27/457677.jpg
There are ice machines on every floor (Peachy does not know this). And they can make a fair bit of ice every day.
That would take a lot more effort, but is probably doable if they really want to.
10418628
Clop
Clop
Clop
Clop
Fwoosh
Clop
Clop
Clop
Clop
Door opens and closes
Repeat.
10418649
The thing is that it’s cheaper if you get it as lake-harvested. The weather makes it for free, and the only labor is mostly farmponies who don’t have anything else to do in the winter cutting it and stockpiling it in a well-insulated shed and a deliverypony to bring it around to you in the summertime. Whereas summer ice from the pegasi takes a team working in clouds (probably) to get water, put it in molds, freeze it, and then deliver it on-demand to ponies who need ice. In southern climates that might be the best option, since natural ice would have to be imported anyway, but in northern climates I’d bet you could get a good harvest off a decently small lake.
Also IRL it’s surprisingly energy-intensive to get water to change states, so letting the natural world do it for you would save bits. Or getting it from the hotel’s ice machine. . . .
10419968
Getting water to freeze is easier if you're high up. As high as the clouds, perhaps?
Even in summer, rain can start as hail and simply melt before it reaches the ground.
10418653
“Dust off those old signs for the ice machines, we’ve got a bunch of noobs in the hotel this weekend.”
In all seriousness, though, I bet that there is some of that when you have people (or ponies) unaccustomed to hotel amenities there for the first time. It’s very likely that the first time I rode in an elevator was in a hotel, for example, and even though the first time I went to the Hyatt for Bronycon, I was in my 30s, I had no idea that the elevators wouldn’t take me to a guest floor unless I used my room key to activate it.
More likely they’d put a sign on the machine to call a porter or bellboy to get the food out of the machine for them, or a warning sign about hooves getting stuck . . . maybe offer free room service to ponies to provide things that come out of vending machines. That could save money, especially if some unicorn figures out she can use her TK through the machine and lift out snacks without paying for them. Either maliciously, or because she was just unaware that she was supposed to pay and thought that the machine was some kind of food obstacle course.
10418680
I don’t think I have (besides the first chapter, obviously), but I can’t rule it out. She wasn’t in Gamer Girl or whatever I wrote before that. . .
10418832
She’s got a lock on the ninth-floor ice, though.
10418844
In some ways, I suppose. They probably think we’re weird, though, always going around in clothes even when they aren’t needed.
10418849
Like paying a premium for water in a bottle when it can be got nearly for free from a faucet, for example. Or buying clothes that advertise the company we bought them from (well, some snobby ponies might understand that).
10418850
“Are you an author?”
“No.”
“Then why are you typing things?”
10419950
Ah yes, I believe that's referred to as Royal Chess. Mainly because you'd have to be royalty to get ponies to stay in place long enough to actually have a game of chess all the way through.
Hmm, now I'm wondering about tourist ponies discovering LARP and/or Renaissance Faire. Considering Equestria, it might not be all that long ago they looked like that for real.
Bet the military-minded would get a kick out of paintball, assuming the guns could be modified for non-unicorns and enough pony-sized goggles could be had.
10418915
Commercial deliveries went into the late fifties or early sixties (for box cars). And of course you can still buy commercially-produced bags of ice, and it’s obviously a successful market since lots of stores have bagged ice that can be bought.
Or if you were smart, run a drain from it to somewhere else. We had and old-school fridge in one house I rented--old enough it didn’t self-defrost--and when the ice in the freezer was melted, it went somewhere, but we never figured out where. The floor didn’t get wet.
10418957
Probably there are worse ones. At least Equestrians are polite and rule-abiding in general.
10418967
I know, right? They don’t have a thirteenth floor, either, IIRC.
10418988
The question is what will they do about it? My bet is nothing. Maybe the maids will make a note to their floor supervisor, and they’ll decide that if a guest wants a tub full of ice, that’s none of their business.
10418992
Not strictly in my opinion, since all chapters are about Equestrians at the Hyatt. It doesn’t focus on any one character, though.
10418995
In one of Cussler’s books, he mentioned staying in a run-down hotel in Oilfield country (IIRC), and they had some suspiciously specific room rules, like no cleaning fish in the room, etc.
10419011
Pegasus nests consist of woven sticks lined with down and other soft, insulating material.
Corrections made; thank you!
I get all notifications wherever they’re posted, but you won’t get a reply notification unless I reply on the same chapter the comment’s on--at least that’s my understanding of how it works.
10419030
I know, right? Silly humans and their decorative, not-for-eating plants.
Ooh. . . .
Not ponies, but . . .
10419110
There are a variety of them; some of them have an overhead hopper and dispense ice into a glass (or whatever) when the lever’s pressed; others have a hopper on the bottom that they dump ice into until it gets full. I’d imagine that each comes with its advantages and disadvantages; I would also imagine that the ones you scoop ice out of are better for places where bar staff (or whoever) scoops it up as needed, and the overhead hopper ones are better for when Joe Average is the one using the machine to get ice.
10419119
It’s not; it leads to a conference room.
Are you in the same county as the one tree in KansasTM, or is that a few counties away?
10419459
I don’t know what that is . . . .
10419516
Years of practice looking at the most mundane of things and wondering how a pony might see it.
Thank you!
10420028
In the new Zelda game, there’s a quest involving an alcoholic beverage called the Noble Pursuit. The quest involves going to the icehouse north of Gerudo Town to get a block of ice for the drink. This chapter mentioned an icehouse, hence I thought of that quest.
10419722
Do you remember what it was called?
There’s something about stories that stick with a person . . . I remember (vaguely) one I read as a kid where the good guys tricked the bad pirates by marking lots of Xes on the map, and the pirates dug so many holes that the island sank. I think that there’s something to be said for writing simple stories that stay with a person, and I’m honored that this brought back those happy memories for you.
10419794
That’s a good thought, but none of the elevators in the Hyatt have doors on the other side.
I can’t remember where I got the elevator numbers from, but I stayed at that hotel for several years when I went to Bronycon, and probably would have noticed cab numbers (and missing cabs). I am nearly 100% certain that that Hyatt has at least one elevator for the staff’s use, and likely two.
10419975
That’s true, and I do think that if they got the water up there it would freeze on its own with little to no pegaus involvement, but they’ve got to get the water up there, and we know from canon that getting water up into the clouds involves lots of pegasi working together to make a waterspout. They’d obviously have some amount of water that got there naturally, but probably most of it would already be earmarked for weather use (and the fact that they’ve got to get more from reservoirs suggests that they tend to be short on their water budget), so that would make pegasus-formed ice more expensive.
Although that could very much depend on location and prevailing weather conditions; there might be places where they get more water than they want, and turn the surplus into cheap ice.
I think in northern climates, the natural freezing of the lakes would tend to provide an ample and affordable source; in southern climates, the pegasi might have the edge when it comes to ice making.