The drive across Svolaarei was pleasantly brief in spite of the chauffeur's concerns and Starhoof presently found herself on in the courtyard of the Grand Seaside Hotel, admiring its grand façade as bellhops in red uniforms trundled her luggage away on brass trollies. A mare in a suit guided her to the front desk where she was quickly and courteously checked in and guided to her room, a grand suite with a central living room as well as a kingsize bedroom and en-suite. Her luggage waited at the foot of the bed in a room wallpapered in rich, satin red. Both rooms had a set of massive French windows opening onto a private balcony looking across the bay where she could see the ships in the harbour and even what Starhoof supposed must be the gleaming hull of the SS Galaxy.
Feeling a strong desire to tidy herself up after travelling, Starhoof cantered gleefully through to the bathroom where she was greeted by gleaming white tiles, luxury soft towels and a pony-sized jacuzzi tub. Feeling like a little filly again, the young mare spent close to an hour relaxing while experimenting with the different jet settings of the tub and the contents of all the little bottles that lines the rim of the tub. Scented bubbles had overflowed the tub and made significant progress at filling up the entire bathroom by the time Starhoof emerged, covered in enough bubbles as to resemble the abominable snowpony. Wrapping herself in a thick, fluffy white towel she trotted back through to the living room to find an open bottle of champagne in an ice bucket next to a full glass. One of the porters must have delivered it while she was in the bath. A note on the table read To Ambassador Starhoof with compliments, the Grand Seaside Hotel. She sipped happily at the flute while intermittently drying herself off on the towel and by rolling around on the soft, pillowy mattress.
She finished the champagne at the same time as she finished brushing her mane and tail and put the rest of the bottle in the minibar fridge for later. Before leaving the room, she dabbed on some perfume and fastened on the silver bracelets with emeralds that Senator Ram had given her as a present when she became ambassador. She hadn't worn them openly until today; before she'd never really been sure she was a real ambassador but after the fiasco in the Council over the Mackonian Action she had put such fears aside. Talking with Luna had helped a lot as well. Starhoof was just as good an ambassador as anypony else in the Coalition and she deserved to have fun tonight because of it!
Taking one last look in the mirror, trotted off down to the hotel bar to await the other guests.
