21- Conventional Chaos- Part 3
The moment that the doors opened and we all stepped inside, we could tell that this place definitely had their hands full.
From the crowd that was in the waiting lobby alone, we could see what I could only assume were either confused tourists that just so happened to be in town, people who definitely seemed like they were either attendees or organizers of what we were here for, as well as staff members of the hotel that were just trying to do their jobs. I mean, this sort of thing had been planned out a few months in advance, so I wouldn’t think it would be too much of a surprise to those who were working here.
“I’m going to go check us in,” I looked over at Ryan.
“Alright. We’ll find a place to wait in the lobby,” he told me, having Luna and Gizmo follow shortly behind him while I walked over to the front desk. There was a man there in what I could only assume was about twice my age with short hair alongside a rosemary colored unicorn at the front desk. If I had to take a guess, maybe he was training her or something? There wasn’t much information to go off of and I didn't want to assume anything.
“Oh, hello. Welcome to the Hyatt,” he greeted me, “Are you here to check in?”
I nodded, holding out my phone to get the confirmation email, “Yeah. It should be under the name Axle?”
As I was speaking, the unicorn used her magic to type on the keyboard, before turning the screen to show him. “Okay. So to confirm your reservation, you booked one of the Bayview rooms on the eighth floor. Is that right?”
“That should be,” I nodded.
“And you’ll be staying for today, Friday, Saturday and also Sunday?”
Another nod in confirmation, followed by more keys being pressed as the man handed me two envelopes with keys inside them as we began to sort things out. “Okay, here’s your room keys. Checkout time should be around noon on Sunday. If you have any other questions, we can gladly answer them for you. Otherwise, enjoy your stay.”
Okay, that’s one thing out of the way. Now to just-
Bump
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t see you there-”
I turned back around briefly, only to see glimpses of what looked like purple scales and a brief amount of green. Some dragon, probably the same size as Gizmo’s friend Azure if I have to take a guess. Though, I didn’t really get a good look at them. And honestly, I was just trying to make my way back over to my friends.
“Okay, I got the keys,” I handed one of them to Ryan, while also putting mine in my pocket, “Why don’t we go see what our rooms are like first, get everything put away and then figure things out from there?”
“Why would a key need to be a piece of plastic?” Luna asked, “Shouldn’t they be metal and on a ring? Or does this establishment work differently?”
“Hotel keys like the ones we have don’t exactly work like house keys,” Ryan insisted, leading us over to where the elevators were. As we got inside, there was a scanner module or something by the number pad on the doors. So, all he had to do was put his key to the door, press the number for the floor we were going to and then the elevator began to move.
“What sorcery did you use just now?”
“Oh, it isn’t anything to do with magic really,” he insisted, looking towards Luna as we continued to ascend the next few floors, “It’s more technological. Something in Gizmo’s field of expertise I think. Our guest keys would allow us to not only get inside our own rooms, but also access basic functions like the elevator. Of course, we can’t use them to go to places that are staff only or other people’s rooms-”
Then the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. “Floor 8.”
“Oh hey, that’s our stop.” Ryan awkwardly said, almost as if trying to leave the conversation on the elevator that was going back to the lobby as we all stepped out. “So, what’s the plan for tonight now that we’re here? The fun doesn’t start until tomorrow anyways.”
“Why don’t we just drop off our stuff in the room first?” Gizmo suggested, “I don’t know about you guys, but trotting around all day has been killing my hooves.”
Well, I guess that settles it. I mean, it at least beats walking around while carrying our bags everywhere.
By the time that we had gotten the chance to settle down in the room, all of us felt a slight sense of relief… but none more so than Luna. After having to keep up her spell for most of the day to ‘blend in’, the alicorn was relieved to finally be her regular pony self for the time being as she chose to acquaint herself with one of the beds in the room. All the while, Ryan was trying to figure out what to watch on TV and Gizmo was reading a book on the bed near the window to the balcony.
As for me, I had just gotten on my laptop and connected to the Wi-Fi. Not sure why, but that brief bump in with the dragon I saw in the lobby had been stuck on my mind. It felt as if I had seen them before, but I’m not entirely sure as to where. So, I thought that a quick search on Google could help clear things up a bit.
Though, I soon realized that just simply typing ‘purple and green dragon’ didn’t get me anywhere. If anything, all I did get was either art pieces on Pinterest, some LED light figurine from Walmart or that one two headed dragon from that old PBS cartoon that I saw when I was… I think four years old? I can’t remember. Point is, it was not exactly what I was hoping for.
“Is something troubling you, Sam?”
The sound of Luna’s voice had me look away from my screen as her face was now a few inches away from mine. “Not really. I was just looking into some things.”
“For tomorrow?”
I could only shrug as I cleared the search bar and prepared to try again. “Sort of. I kind of bumped into someone as I checked us in. I thought I had seen them somewhere before, so I’m trying to see if they’re like a special guest or something.”
“Really now?” she asked, “Do you remember what they looked like?”
“Uh, not entirely,” I shrugged, “I mean, I only saw them briefly. Looked like a dragon I think. Purple scales with a touch of green and sounded friendly. That’s all I can-”
Immediately, Luna’s face froze. Not in the sense that she was cold, but more like… recognition and concern. “Luna? You alright?”
She didn’t even seem to acknowledge my question. Instead, she just said one word. “Spike.”
“Huh?”
The moment she heard me voice my confusion, Luna realized it and attempted to try and clarify things, “T-that dragon you just described… It sounds eerily familiar to somepony my sister and I know back in Equestria.”
Even though she was trying to be calm, something about the subject seemed to really throw her for a loop. Maybe it was the whole thing with her wanting to just blend in and not stand out or something, but it was really getting to her. “Can you tell me more?”
“H-his name is Spike. When my sister and I were still ruling Equestria, he was the assistant of my sister’s protege and also the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle. He’s been by her side since she hatched him and raised him since he was a baby.”
Well, that’s a name I’ve heard before. The grape soda pony that Gizmo talked about when she first moved in.
“After we retired, Princess Twilight appointed him as her royal advisor and has been that way ever since. Though, I-I don’t know why he w-would be here. I-Is he-?”
Okay, before it gets to the point that she’s going to have a panic attack, I need to step in. “Honestly, I don’t know. I only saw him briefly once. If I had to take a guess, then he either got invited here to be a speaker or guest at Babscon… or he’s just here for vacation and did not learn about what was going on here until he walked in through the door. I can do some research and look up a couple of things, but I doubt he’s here intentionally because of us.”
“P-please do.” She said, briefly sighing… but it still seemed like she was somewhat taken aback by all of this. Personally, I didn’t quite see what the issue might be. But still, I wanted to make sure that Luna had a great time.
Let’s see, Babscon special guests… no, not last year. Who are the guests for this year? Hmm. Okay, some well known voice actors, artists, writers for the series and comics… anything on any Equestrians here? Would they be listed under guests of honor or community guests?
Huh… Well, that just makes things stranger. “Okay, so… it doesn’t look like he’s on the special guest list. In fact, there’s… nothing about him on the website here. Weirdly enough. Doesn’t seem like there’s any last minute changes or surprises either.”
Still, it didn’t seem like what I told her gave her any sort of confidence. “Luna, if something does come up, we’ll be here to help alright. Let’s just be open minded.”
“I-I guess you’re right,” she said, before letting loose a light chuckle. “Thank you, Sam. Sorry if I was a little hasty in assuming the worst. It’s honestly rather silly, now that I think about it.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I assured her, before powering down my laptop and closing it, “Besides, I think we should get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow after all and we’re going to need as much energy as possible.”
I don’t know why, but no matter how much I tried to sleep last night, it felt like it wasn’t enough. By the time I was awake again, I still felt drowsy and the amount of sleep I got was minimal at best.
To be completely fair, the lack of rest wasn’t exactly Hyatt’s fault. Instead, it was because I woke up to find Gizmo curled up in the middle of the floor with our blankets and some pillows as if she constructed a makeshift fort. Even more so when she left Luna and I with just a bedsheet.
Luckily, this was not that big of an issue. Not only that, but the rest of the morning went by a little bit more smoothly. We still had enough time before Babscon got started, so all of us took advantage of that to do a handful of things to get ready. Mainly, it was to get breakfast. Though, it was also a chance for us to try and see where everything was set up, what the schedule was like and who was already here.
In addition, if we just so happened to notice the dragon from yesterday, then I’d say that’s a bonus. Especially if it can help Luna feel a bit more at ease if we learn why he was here.
By the time that we finished eating, we had roughly an hour before the fun was about to begin. Enough time for me to ‘get into character’ at least since I did agree to go as Celestia for this. I mean, when Luna went so far as to get a dress ready for you that fit you, you had to commit yourself to the bit. As for the hair, I didn’t have the time or materials to dye it, so I went with a wig that was as close as I could get to the actual thing.
At first, I didn’t think anyone would notice us as we came back down to the ground floor after changing outfits and Luna casting her spell. Boy, was I wrong.
“Daddy, look! Those two look like mommy’s friends.”
Mere moments after stepping off the elevator, I turned around to see what looked like a young filly pointing me out and racing over to us. But this filly was different compared to the other Equestrians I’ve seen… Well, ever. They were on all fours like a pony, but had draconic features and two horns on her head. The only thing close to fur that I saw was a small mane along the head and a little section at the end of the tail.
And not far behind them was the same figure I ran into yesterday. Tall purple dragon with green fins and eyes that was definitely taller than me. Alongside him was a unicorn whose fur was the same color as my dress and a purple mane that was immediately noticeable. “Crystal, what did we say about staying together? You’re going to scare your mother like that.”
The young filly looked over to the two of them, pouting a bit as her ears dropped. “S-sorry daddy.”
“It’s okay, darling,” the unicorn spoke, “It’s just much busier than we anticipated-”
Against my better judgment, and possibly Luna’s, I responded back, “Oh, it’s no trouble really. Are you here for the event today?”
“No, actually. It kind of surprised us,” the dragon answered, scratching the back of his neck, “You see, we're kind of here for a family vacation. We were going to meet a couple of friends that lived nearby. Though, we had no idea something like this was happening.”
The response sort of eased the tension Luna had slightly, but she still seemed a bit nervous. As for me, I was a little bit more focused on the young filly. “Well, we have some time before the convention starts. Does your daughter want a picture with us?”
The filly looked back to her parents, who seemed a bit surprised by that. Though, it didn’t take long for them to agree as the filly stood in between us while her parents took a couple of pictures.
“Now Crystal, what do we say?”
“T-thank you!” Crystal said, her eyes beaming with excitement. As the three of them went to the lobby, both of us started to make our way over towards what was called ‘The Party Floor’. Along the way, I looked back at Luna.
“So, was that who you were expecting?”
“… Yes and no. I thought of Spike, but I didn’t expect to see the rest of his family there.”
“Would it be safe to say that you jumped to conclusions a bit too early.”
“I… guess.”
I smiled, before putting an arm around Luna’s shoulders. “Don’t worry too much about it. That’s the fun about these kinds of things. You don’t know what’s going to happen and sometimes, that’s the fun of it. Heck, we probably made that little girl’s day a lot brighter because of it.”
Luna couldn’t help but give me a small smirk, “You know, you sound a lot like a particularly chaotic friend my sister and I know when you say that.”
“In a good way?”
Now the alicorn in disguise just rolled her eyes. “Yes, in a good way.”
“That’s what I’d like to hear. Now come on, let’s go find Ryan & Gizmo. It’s time that we have some fun.”
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There are some videos from BABScon on Youtube. Here are a couple from this year from two different bronies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG8ijiOm5j0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMWra14s88
I gotta complement on your work so far, Wordsmith. Even directionless, I believe the over arcing story is, there is still something interesting to see here.
Though, I feel this needs some critique for "Convention Part 3".
Luna being afraid is really odd because I don't think we got her reasoning why. I'll give a benefit of a doubt and say that, probably, Luna just vanished and she thought someone sent Spike to track her.
Then, her panicking fear seems to affect her speech... in a big way. She apparently stutters a lot. Once or twice, it is understandable. But in this case, it is multiple statements in roughly the same minute. Even during her explanation of Spike, Luna seems afraid he'll bust down the door and catch her.
Lastly, don't take these next few section as real critique, but rather as personal belief. The ship between Spike and Rarity is... kinda iffy when it comes to fan ship. I know I've seen a couple of Spike x Rarity content, event their hybrid foal, but my stance about them had shifted greatly when I got older.
This ship are borderline grooming or pedophillic. The only time I could say it is okay if Spike is actually physically grown, which he was during The Last Problem in the show. But that is 20 years after the end. Even then, during Dragon Dropped, it seemed like Rarity and Spike finally put the one sided relationship down and moved on. Though, I am not sure if this story would need an alternate univerde tag.
I don't have a frame of reference, but from what you described his first encounter to be, Spike seems legal.
So... I guess I could accept this.
Anyways, those are the key stuff that strikes me as odd. Still, good work so far.
Ps. I have my gripes about interspecies babies (read: hybrids) but I can't exactly force my ideals just like that. There's a time and place, and it isn't here.
11563652
The main thing that I was trying to go for was that Luna was overthinking something far out of proportion. To her, Spike was someone that seemed to bring a lot of attention with him (Especially since he's known as 'the brave and glorious' back in the crystal empire) wherever he went and she thought that if he noticed her, that attention would shift to her. Mainly since Luna wanted to enjoy the event without that many people following her around like a celebrity. Of course, since she was overthinking it, she didn't consider the possibility that he could be here for other reasons. After all, just because you're a princess doesn't mean you're perfect..
I'll take your advice going forward and I'm personally going to need a bit of a break so that I don't rush the next part. But that was what's going through my mind for this one specifically. The next one would be more focused on the days of the convention, the activities they took part in, panels and so on.