While some ponies are checking in at the desk, a ruckus starts up the stairs before a stallion trundles down them. He's sporting a good amount of luggage on his back and shouting back up the stairs things like, "No. No. No more. I'm leaving. No!" He pushes his way out the door in a huff, not bothering to look back once he's out.

"Fine. Then a good day to you," PLO calls after the retreating pony from the top of the stairs. His jet-black mane is matted with sweat and his black cloak plastered against his coat. The heat is bad enough for everypony else, and his dark coloring isn't doing him any favors in that regard either. Not that his bearing would betray any hint that it's bothering him. He stands tall and proud, looking down from the second floor. "Miss Spirit, it seems that my roommate has left the premises, leaving a vacancy in the room."

Faded Glory rubs at her tired eyes as the last of the tourists heads off into town, grumbling quietly to herself. What was taking the others so long anyway? It was probably that Day Lily from Fillydelphia getting caught up in the festivities. She'd spent half the ride here going on and on about different vendors and random trivia about the town's history like she wasn't here to investigate dangerous monster attacks. Glory is so busy mentally disparaging her co-investigator in fact that she doesn't even notice her relief arrive until he taps her on the shoulder. "Yah!" She gives a light shriek of surprise and her eyes dart around for a moment before she recovers herself. "Oh, Harvestman. You here to take over?" The stallion gives a nod and takes a look around the street. "See anything interesting?" He asks, and Glory hands over a notepad with some basic descriptions of anything of interest. "A few things here and there, nothing that really stands out though." Harvestman flicks through the pad briefly, nodding again. "You look like you're about to pass out on your hooves. Go ahead and head back to the Green Lion and lay down for a bit." Glory stifles a yawn and nods in thanks, turning away to walk down the street. "Next arrival is still a while off, you probably have time to check a few of them out before then." She trudges off in the direction of the hotel, still trying to keep an eye out for anything strange despite her fatigue. There's nothing out of the ordinary until she arrives at the inn, where a there is a cart now parked out front. While this isn't too unusual itself, she makes a mental note to ask Lily what she can find out about it's owner later. She walks past and through into the blessed coolness of the inn, and takes a moment to enjoy being out of the hot sun. Her enjoyment is short lived however as she almost immediately notices the pony in thick black armored plates, looking for all the world like an evil warlord jumped right out of a storybook. She blinks and stares for a few seconds. Surely whoever is causing the strange appearences couldn't be that obvious. She rubs at her eyes again and heads for the alchemist shop portion of the inn. She certainly can't head upstairs to bed with that walking around. Glory supposes she could go get Lily to do it, but the mare was likely to focus so much on Mr Black Knight that she'd miss any other clues. Like the appearance of their former number one suspect at the top of the stairs, having apparently driven off his current roommate with his... personality. She keeps an eye on the both of them as she pretends to browse, noting the withdrawn nature of his responses. She'll have to see if she can pick up a name to get to Lily later.

As Foxtrot takes the keys and unsigned note, he shakes his head, "Not anyone I'm familiar with. I mean, not having to worry about getting rooms is a plus. But, not knowing exactly how we got these rooms somewhat warrants the opposite feeling. Still, it's just rooms to sleep in, what-" The stallion cuts himself off. He knows if he finishes that sentence with 'is the worst that can happen?' then the absolute worst thing happens. "matters is what we have to do here." Foxtrot slings his ruck sack over his shoulder again, placing his room key in one of his front pockets. The note itself is placed in the same compartment. If it's something important, privacy would definitely be nice when reading it. Besides, he has to wait for two more mares to arrive.

Serenity feels a bit sad as she bids farewell to Onyx, though she's not quite sure why.

"Thanks for the help", she says to the mystery mare with the medical bag before resuming walking. "I'm sure she appreciates it."

Broadshield continued roaming around the town of Weaver when he heard his watch go off. Looking at it, he realized that it was time for him to get to the meeting. He needed to get to rooms 204 and 205 around now, so with that, he began to make his way back. Upon arriving at the hotel, he was met with a refreshing cool breeze from the hotel AC. He immediately made his way over to the correct rooms upstairs, and decided it would be best to stand outside both rooms and wait for whoever was meant to come. In his saddle he had all of the items that were given to him in the letter from Gleam, just in case.

“What matters is that I get a chance to bob for apples and get kicked out of a bar, preferably all at once so I can save time enough to see a show or two,” Thunder corrected Foxtrot, “They better have a tiger somewhere around here. I always seem to miss out when there are tigers and stuff around.”

“Weaver doesn’t have a zoo and there are no circuses set up for the festival,” Mana pointed out, earning him a scoff, “the inn’s the closest you’ll get.”

“What are you the organizer around here? How do you know?” Wreathed in Mana’s magic, the map from the train station popped up in front of Thunder unfolded and displayed. Slowly Mana would spin it around for Thunder to see the event listings and times printed onto the back, Mana taking on an exaggerated look of surprise once finished.

“Whatever,” Thunder attempted to swat the map away but struck only air as Mana both pulled it back and folded it once again.

“You really should have gotten one of these, Thunder. We have better things to do than pick you up from some office somewhere when you get lost.” Thunder would argue but Mana would pay little attention, instead looking towards the entrance as Nivalia would arrive with his focus mostly being on the Tinder and her reaction to the heat.

“I think I’ll uh…” he began, Thunder giving up on his train of thought in the process when it became clear he was being ignored, “Go check and see if that shop they have has anything for heat stroke. Thunder can you take my bag to our rooms, please?”

“You payin’ me?”

“Thanks,” Mana stood and trotted off towards the alchemy half of the bottom floor while Thunder rolled his eyes and tested the weight of the second bag he now had to lug.

“Well, I guess I’d better get started on hefting all this crap up those stairs,” Thunder pouted, shooting the flight a glare and wondering how long it would take for Mana to notice if his bag went missing, “Pray for me.” He begged of Fox before dragging the bags slowly towards their destination.

--

“The Herbiary!” Spirit parroted back, ducking down to reach for keys but stopped short and instead went for her smaller book and flipped through the pages. She frowned as she went over the same few not twice but thrice and bit her lip as she let out an uncertain laugh. Opening her mouth to speak, she would give a relieved sigh and set the book back in its place.

“Room for two!” she said, laying out the key with a smile, “Sorry, someone scribbled it on the wrong page. I guess they ran out of space! Anyway, your room is 211. You're lucky, you get one of the balconies. 211 should have a decent view of the fireworks tomorrow night if plans don't get mixed around again. Just let us know if you need anything else, we’d be happy to help!”

--

“I can get you a pillow,” Alacrity replied, smirking at the mare and leaning on her counter, “the festival still has a couple days to go and nothing beats a good nap for a recharge, so I’d strongly suggest taking a couple of hours to do yourself a favor. But, if you’re like most, we can pep you up to finish the day without missing out on anything. That section over there,” she gestured towards a pair of shelves to the right of the shops window which proudly showed off a series of thin glass vials held by a wooden display. Signed rather beautifully upon each label was the name “Aether Alkahest” and a short guarantee of satisfaction.

“Those should be able to help,” she went on to promise, “We’ve got a few blends of caffeine, guarana and so on, everything listed on the tags in case there’s anything you need to avoid. Crystals and powdered depending on preference. Water is free while supplies last.

“I guess that isn’t as much of a joke as I thought…” she continued, glancing down behind her counter and putting just a little too much force behind her smile.

--

Meanwhile, what felt like a million bazillion years’ worth of effort later, Thunder found himself at the top of the stairs, heaving to catch his breath as a pair of other guests passed by carrying equal amounts of luggage but seeming to not be having nearly as much trouble. They gave him a curious and mildly concerned once over but were in far too much of a rush to spare anything more as they continued on.

“This is how I die,” Thunder told himself, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about the moment he decided he wanted to join the guard as opposed to becoming a Rockstar-astronaut-star(because space) athlete as he’d promised his four year old self, “from exhaustion In some country town surrounded by tourists and blankets. Honestly a little more dignified than I thought.”

No! He could do this! Shaking his head, Thunder heaved himself back to his hooves and resumed pulling as he forced his legs to carry him down the final stretch. 201 passed as he drove himself forward with determination. 202 a little more slowly. 203 after a brief stop to take a breath. 202 again when Thunder decided to quit and leave only to stop at 201 and turn back, shoving the bags past 204 with annoyance at himself for giving this key to Foxtrot and forcing himself to trek further. Reaching 205, Thunder was happy to see the number he now hated and fished around in his bag for his key, his face being shaded with horror as he for a second thought he’d somehow dropped or forgotten it aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back at the lobby. He’d swing his attention back the way he’d come with a feeling like the world was ending though this would be short lived as he would laugh with sweet, sweet relief when his hoof found the key.

“Nobody panic!” he’d say aloud to anyone nearby, “everything is fine. I found it. The festival may continue.” With a grin he unlocked his door and got to work on shoving both Mana’s stupid pointless bag and his own piece of necessary and useful luggage into the room.

"A balcony? Thats wonderful! Thank you!" Nivalia chirps with delight as she takes the key. "I'm sure the view will be lovely." With a nod she departs the desk and trots over to Tinder. Reaching into her bag, she levitates a long, thin, filled sleeve out. Marked with red stripes, she gives it a twist. The sleeve crunches and crackles as the red stripes fade to blue. "Here you go, Tinder. This should help with the heat. It's a long lasting chill pack." Wrapping it around the unicorn's shoulders, an intense cooking sensation would be felt throughout. "It should last until the evening when it gets cooler. I also got our room, and it has a balcony! I'm so excited! Whenever you're ready, we can head over to unpack."

Broadshield continues to wait for whoever is supposed to be present at the meeting to arrive. It's taking longer than expected, but then eventually he sees ponies come up the the room. The first one, eccentric as he may appear, doesn't look like he would be good to talk to, whether it was due to his dramatics or how he is working, but he safely ignores him and his theatrics, choosing to talk to him if there are no one else coming. The next pony that comes up sends Broadshield's blood running cold. Foxtrot, his own soldier who has been missing for Celestia knows how long. He maintains his calm yet focused demeanor, but now adopts a more stricter one as he looks at Foxtrot. "Good day to you too Foxtrot. The reason as to why I am here is classified, even to a fellow EQUINOX soldier much like yourself, and even one as decorated and close like you." he says. Leaning in closer to Foxtrot, he mutters "What are you doing here soldier? You've been gone for Celestia knows how long, your unit has also been wondering, and I've been forced to put them under new temporary leadership until you had hopefully returned. You have some explaining to do." he says in a calm, yet firm tone.