Odder than the lighting, though, was what was on the shelves: There were your standard bottles, boxes and beakers, sure, but mixed in there was a wide variety of stranger objects. An empty cage sat on a shelf near a small pile of tacks in a glass box, while two wheels from a scooter and a broken screwdriver sat above a bone large enough to take up an entire shelf by itself. Every item had a tag attached with some simple instructions followed by, "Follow directions precisely. Satisfaction guaranteed. No duplications, no exchanges."
A crease in the rug caught one of my hind legs, making me stumble. When I'd regained my balance, I went to straighten the rug, but the crease was gone. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. Even the decor was strange.
After a few more minutes of walking, with occasional stops to examine some of the more curious items on the shelves, I came to an intersection. The shelves continued off in the other three directions, sitting in rows parallel to the corridor directly ahead and perpendicular to the corridor on my left and right. In the center of the intersection stood a counter with a bell on it and a chair behind. There was nopony else in sight, but I tried ringing the bell anyway. When nopony responded, I walked around behind the counter and sat down in the chair. It seemed I had a lot of waiting to do today… or tonight, I guessed. Did time exist here? I'd never thought to ask during my travels.
At length, my curiosity about the floating lights got the better of me. I lit my horn and tried tugging one down with my magic. At first, it came down without resistance. But, when it was still a couple meters above me, it jerked itself out of my magical grasp and sprang back to the ceiling like a rubber band that had just been shot. When it rejoined the other lights, the orbs around it moved like ripples fleeing a raindrop hitting a pond. The waves disappeared past the tops of the shelves and into the dusty distance.
Maybe leaving the lights alone was a better idea.
Just then, the protesting squeak of old hinges sounded from down one of the corridors. "What in the—," somepony who probably never took her airs off exclaimed. "What is this dirty, disgusting place? And why is it in my house!?" I took that as a cue to see what the fuss was about.
A pink pony with a purple mane and a diamond ring on her flank stood in front of the open door to what I assumed was her house, gazing around with her mouth open. Frustration grew in me as I realized that the first pony I'd seen in here had found the place I'd spent moons searching for by accident. "Shut the door, would you?" I called over. "That is, if you weren't born in a barn."
Her head whipped around to glare at me. "How dare you talk to me like that, lowlife!" she sneered. "I'd never dream of going anywhere near a barn, much less being born in one!" She turned her nose up and gave a brief huff of indignation. Apparently, this mare's cutie mark was more an indication of her personality than her special talent… if she even had one.
I rolled my eyes and pushed the door closed with my magic. It immediately faded away, leaving a blank wooden wall. The mare jumped when she looked at the wall. "H-Hold on! How am I supposed to leave now?"
"Well, that depends on whether you find what you're looking for. If you can't find it anywhere else, you'll probably find it if you look in the Last Place."
A confused look came over her face. "Why in Equestria would I bother looking for things I've lost when I can simply replace them?"
I fought the urge to facehoof. "It's not just the stuff you can see, dahling."
"Don't call me that," she growled, scowling at the smirk I gave in response.
"So, you're totally satisfied with your life?" I asked. "You don't feel like you're missing anything?"
"Even if I had, I wouldn't tell a lowlife the likes of— where do you think you're going? Nopony turns their back on Spoiled Rich!"
While she was in the process of insulting me again, one of the orbs of light had floated down from the ceiling and into the space between a pair of shelves. Judging by her reaction to my turning to follow it, she herself couldn't see it herself, but I paid her no mind as I gave chase to the light. If anything, it would probably be nicer conversation than this Spoiled Rich.
Up ahead, the light stopped at muzzle level in front of a thick, frost-covered glass bottle with a tag attached to its neck. Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew the frost should've melted long ago, but that was drowned out by the ongoing realization that the rules just didn't seem to apply here. "Wipe bottle clear of frost," the tag said. "Follow directions precisely. Satisfaction guaranteed. No duplications, no exchanges."
I grabbed the bottle off the shelf with my magic and I brought it to the main corridor. However, when I stepped out from between the shelves, Spoiled Rich had disappeared. The sound of a squeaky door opening and closing reached my ears again. Spoiled Rich must've found another way out of the Last Place.
With a sigh of neutrality, I let the bottle fall from my magical grasp and smash on the ground, scattering shards of glass across the floor and rug. The owner of this place could clean it up, as far as I was concerned. Served him right for making me deal with his clients.
Taking care to avoid stepping on the glass fragments, I returned to the center of the Last Place and sat behind the counter once more.