Chapter 4: Las Pegasus
A heavy fog covered the area, making it difficult for Matthew to see anything. However, he could hear taunting laughter from somewhere nearby.
"Where are you?!" he shouted. "Show your face you coward!"
There was a sudden explosion and moments later, something flew out of the fog and landed in front of him. It was Twilight Sparkle, only now she had dozens of bruises and blood was dripping down from her nose.
"Twilight, who did this to you?"
But Twilight was in too much pain to answer. Matthew pulled out his paintball gun and shot in the direction Twilight had come from. He then fired off several shots.
"You're such a bad shot," cackled the voice. "Let me show you how you really shoot."
A beam of energy shot through the fog and nearly got Matthew, but luckily he was able to dodge it. Before he could say anything though, there was a pop from behind him and he felt himself getting kicked to the ground.
"Who are you?" he asked crossly.
"Come now you worthless human, surely you remember the mare that broke you. Here, maybe this will help," and he felt something pound down hard on his back, breaking it once again.
"Too bad they didn't listen to you, maybe then you would've been prepared for this." The dark figure raised her hoofs and slammed down for one more blow.
Matthew woke with a start and looked around him. Instead of being in a fog covered area, he found he was onboard the friendship express and that his human and pony friends were asleep.
"Wow, what a nightmare," he thought to himself, "maybe I did have too much to eat for dinner last night."
His eyes then looked over towards Starlight Glimmer, who was still at the front of the coach. He narrowed his eyes angerily, for he knew the figure in his nightmare was her.
"Don't worry, I'll be prepared for any of your tricks," but he thought that only to himself.
Some time later, the train's conductor made his way through each passenger coach saying; "Next stop, Las Pegasus. Please make sure you have all of your belongings!"
"Geez, scream that into my ear why don't you?" groaned Patrick.
Applejack groaned and turned a little too far. She rolled off the seat and with a thump, hit the floor. "I'm okay," she said out loud, "I uh, meant to do that." Her friends laughed and some rolled their eyes.
Matthew though wasn't laughing, his focus was still on Starlight.
"Hey everypony, there's Las Pegasus!" cried Rainbow Dash.
Everybody and everypony ran to the windows and looked to see the wonders of the city. Matthew and his friends were amazed, it seemed to be just as big as their world's Las Vegas, even to having colorful lights. The only differences was that it was more like Manehatten and had very little else in common to Las Vegas.
"Once the train stops, I suggest we get some rooms," said Twilight, "we'll need somewhere to rest in while we look around."
Everypony and human nodded in agreement. Before they stopped though, Twilight pulled Fluttershy aside to speak with her, "I trust Matthew and I know he's always got our backs, but I am worried that he'll let his temper get the better of him. Will you help make sure he doesn't hurt Starlight or do something he'll regret later on?"
"I promise you Twilight, I'll do my very best. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," she waved her hooves about in tune to the Pinkie Pie Promise.
"Great thanks."
At last, the train pulled into the main railway station. Everyone got off and started to walk off into the city, well all except for Matthew. He was looking at the structure as it reminded him of the british railway stations, and he was looking at the trains.
"I knew there was more than one train in Equestria," he said to himself.
"Hey Matthew, are you coming?!" called Rainbow Dash, "we can't stand around admiring the city."
"Huh? Oh right, I almost forgot." He snapped back to his senses and ran to join the rest of his friends.
Like in Ponyville, residants of Las Pegasus were surprised to see the Princess of Friendship and her friends walking down the street with four strange looking creatures that can walk on two legs. Some even asked of what the humans were, but they got the same answer that the residants of Ponyville got before.
After some walking, the eleven of them reached a hotel, which was very big with five levels.
"We only have three rooms," said the hotel manager. "There's a big concert coming up in a couple of days, and it's been bringing in more ponies than ever before."
"Three rooms?!" exclaimed Patrick. "Uh, maybe we should try another hotel."
The hotel manager shook his head, "I'm sorry, but all the other hotels are full. I know that cause everypony that comes here often says that."
"Then I guess we'll take the three rooms," said Twilight.
Once they had the keys, they headed up the stairwell towards the rooms on the fifth floor.
"Okay, here's how the sleeping arrangements will work," said Twilight. "Fluttershy, Rainbow, Ryan and Emily, you will get the one room. Pinkie, Applejack and Patrick, you'll take the second room, and the rest of us will take the last room."
Everyone agreed to the sleeping arrangements and went into their rooms. Rainbow and Fluttershy gave up the beds to Ryan and Emily while they slept on extra blankets and pillows. They didn't mind at all, especially Rainbow who sleeps just about anywhere. Patrick offered to sleep on the floor while Pinkie and Applejack took the beds.
"Now what about us?" asked Twilight out loud.
"There's a chair in here, I can sleep in it," said Matthew. "I sometimes sleep in chairs when I'm on the road."
"Why do you do that Darling?" asked Rarity curiously.
"It's mostly due to me being just a little bit tired from filming trains all day, that and shopping for items in my collections. It does take up alot of my energy." Starlight was about to enter the room, but Matthew blocked her, "and where do you think you're going?"
"Twilight said I could sleep in here."
"I'm sure she meant she, Rarity and I will take this room. You can sleep outside."
"Matthew!" snapped Twilight. "That's no way to speak to another pony. Starlight is staying in this room with us, and that's final."
"Fine," he groaned and rolled his eyes. He stepped aside to allow Starlight in. She looked up to him and saw him point two fingers at his own eyes, then swing the fingers at her. She gulped and went to a small corner of the room where she would be far away from him.
Meanwhile, far away from the hotel, a lone pony was walking up to an old rundown building. As he walked up to the doorway, a green light shone around him and he changed from a pony to a changeling. He then made his way into a makeshift throne room where the Changeling Queen could be found.
"Did he make it to the castle?" she asked.
"Yes indeed your highness," answered the Changeling, "and he did attack one of the guards." Chrysalis smirked, but it soon faded when she heard; "but he was captured and taken to the palace dungeons."
"I see, they were probably just lucky to capture him."
"Your highness, should we send some of our best to get our messager?" asked one of her guards.
"No, it's better to leave him where he is."
"With all due respect your highness, what if he tells off where the secret weapons are? Celestia could send some of her own guards to find them and stop us."
The smirk returned to Chrysalis' face, "they won't be able to. He doesn't know where they are, I only entrusted the location of the weapons with a few changelings, and that messager was not one of them."
"But what of our location your highness? He knows where we are."
"He only knew of the city we're in, not the actual hideout. Do not worry my Changelings, we will not fail this time, cause even if Princess Celestia sends her prized student after us, we'll just beat her like we did last time. She was so weak," she said with an evil chuckle, "they're all weak, and they will fall to our might. We will finally have our revenge!"
"Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!" chanted the changelings.
"Nothing will stop us. Now get back out there and do not let on that we are here. If any of you make a mistake, I will give you a severe punishment you won't forget."
"We won't let you down your highness."
The first changeling headed for the door, changed back into a pony and walked back out into the city.
"You better not," she snarled, "we cannot fail, not this time."
The next morning, Twilight, Matthew and their friends all gathered in a small dining room for breakfast and to work on a plan. Like the night before, Starlight kept her distance from Matthew.
"Finding one of those...you know whos," Twilight said to the group, "won't be easy, so that's why I vote we split into several teams so we'll have better chances to find them. Rainbow Dash, you will go with Patrick and Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy, you'll be joining Matthew, Starlight and myself. Rarity, you will go with Applejack, Ryan and Emily."
"Sounds good and all Twilight," said Rarity, "but even if we find anything, how are we suppose to keep in contact with each other? We can't just use pony signals, that'll just alert the changelings."
"I have just the thing," smiled Patrick.
He brought over his backpack and pulled out several headsets. "These things are wireless and will allow us to talk to each other from a few blocks away. All you have to do is press on the blue button and you'll be able to talk to us, then to hear us, just let go of the button."
"Good thing you brought those along, I left my backpack back in the hotel in Quebec," said Ryan.
"Patrick, are you sure those things will work from a few blocks away?" Matthew asked.
"Sure I'm sure, some of my buds from Edmonton and I tested these things out before I went to meet up with Ryan and Emily. Heck we even tried them out in a blizzard, and you know how bad signals get during a blizzard."
"Do I ever," Matthew muttered.
Patrick handed each head set to the six ponies and his three human friends. Next, Twilight pulled out a pair of sunglasses and gave them to Rainbow Dash.
"Uh Twilight, I already have a pair of sunglasses."
"Perhaps, but these ones have an enchanted spell on them so you'll be able to see the you-know-whos without using unicorn or alicorn magic."
"Awesome," smiled Rainbow Dash.
Twilight next turned her attention to Rarity, "Do you remember that spell I taught you on how to find them?"
"Of course Darling, I just hope it'll work the first time around."
"That's all we can do is hope. Now let's finish eating and get going. We'll meet up at the hotel's resturant. Agreed?" Everybody and everypony nodded in agreement to that, even Starlight.
Upon leaving though, Starlight kept her distance from Matthew again. Fluttershy saw this and went to walk beside her.
"It's better to search a city with a friend," she smiled.
Starlight smiled, at least the ponies were willing to trust her.
The seven ponies and four humans searched throughout the city one block at a time, but they weren't having any luck finding changelings. They only found unicorns, pegasi or earth ponies, who of course were surprised to see humans walking around.
"I wish they would stop looking at us like that," Patrick said into his headset, "it makes me feel like I don't belong here."
"It's just cause there have never been any humans here Patrick," said Twilight in response. "At least not to my knowledge, you can ask Princess Celestia or Princess Luna next time we see them."
"You know what, I might just do that."
After a great deal of searching, the group returned back to the hotel and sat down at the outdoor resturant. Starlight kept her distance again, but this time, Applejack joined her.
"We searched several city blocks and found none of the Chan...er, you know whos," Rainbow Dash said, noticing everypony looking to her.
"Maybe it's my spell," groaned Twilight as she looked up to her horn, "maybe it's not good enough to track them down."
Matthew grabbed the sunglasses and put them on. He looked to a crowd of ponies, none caught his attention, except for one. "Oh no, I'd say your spell works fine Twilight."
He pointed to one pony. Twilight's horn lit up and she looked, sure enough she could see threw the disguise.
"It is one of them," she gasped.
Being careful not to draw attention, Matthew, Twilight, Starlight and Fluttershy followed the disguised changeling while the others stayed behind. The disguised changeling looked back several times, but they were too quick as he never saw them.
"Must be the sun playing tricks on my mind," the Changeling thought to himself.
He soon turned down an alleyway. The small group followed and hid within the shadows. A green light shone brightly and within moments, the disguise was gone and the changeling could be seen.
"You never seize to amaze me Twilight," commented Matthew.
Even Starlight was impressed. Moments later, they heard the buzzing sound that only changelings could make. Two guards appeared in front of the undisguised changeling, then she arrived.
"Your highness," said the changelings and bowed to her.
Twilight's expression changed to an angry glare, and through her gritted teeth, she muttered; "Chrysalis."