//------------------------------//
// (Chapter 2) Back Door 
// Story: Galaxy Express 999: Pegasus Line 
// by Metro A-5 
//------------------------------//

	*Click*

"Whoa! Nice timing Stacey. The attendants didn't even catch a glimpse of us sneaking on here." said Henry as he closed the door and dusted his pants off. 

Stacey gave Henry a glazed view. "Look it's only a matter of time before they call the royal guards in and put that crowd in the lobby. Let's just get a quick look around then get out of here. I'm already getting a bad feeling about this." Stacey looked out a window. The station master was waving his arms frantically trying to keep the growing crowd at bay.

The two began searching through the dim car. It was mostly all boxes. Only the area around the doorway had space to move about, there was however a small aisle up the middle between all the towers of boxes. Henry began quickly checking the boxes to see if any of their tops were lose. Stacey on the other hand was merely trying to read the labels on them. None of the symbols looked nothing like the Equestrian alphabet. 

After awhile Henry clapped his hands together and started to walk to the exit where Stacey was still trying to read. "Okay your little treasure hunting pep talk you gave before hopping on here is starting to lose its effects. Face it, we can't get into any of these boxes the other door at the end is locked and you haven't said one thing since you started looking at the markings. Let's just get out of here and cut our losses." Henry opened the back door and looked around. "The crowds gone man. I'm gonna head out. You with?"

Stacey looked at the box then out the window. "No I'm gonna stay for about five or ten minutes. I'll meet you later if I find anything cool, alright?" Henry waved and hopped off the car and left the station and Stacey continued to look at the writing, but started to think of something else. "Why the heck does he call me Stacey? I know Star-Crosser is not the best name to have in casual conversation, but I'm a guy. He could have spent the thirty extra seconds to come up with a more masculine name. Really, Stacey!?"

With a sigh and a shaking of his head Stacey stood up and began to open the door until something outside one of the side windows caught his eyes. Stacey snapped behind one of the boxes that covered most of the view and slowly edged his head to the side, just so he could peak his eye around the corner to see the platform. "Oh no!", he thought. "Of course it would be her!" It was unmistakable. Her blue hair stood out tremendously against the white platform, making it extremely obvious on who it was. Why you!? Why now Luna? 

Stacey smacked his head against the box. "Out of all the royal officials it had to be her." In reality it was unfortunate. Stacey's parents worked in the palace, which allowed him to get into all kinds of adventures and what not. But every time something went wrong she ended up being a victim. This often put the two of them at ends whenever they were around each other. 

Luna began moving toward the train which sent a scare into Stacey. "Aw crap! If she catches me in here.... Oh I'll never hear the end of it!" He began to weigh his options. "If I go out back and she catches me there, she wouldn't know I was on the train. But on the other hand I could try to wait here and sit this one out, but I don't know how long that would be. 

Stacey looked out the window and noticed that Luna moved toward the front of the train. He glanced at the back door and made his way. He held his breath and slowly turned the knob, but his heart quickly sank when it didn't turn all the way. "No....NO!" Stacey started jiggling the handle hoping it would turn all the way, but the door stayed shut. Stacey looked to the side hoping to climb out one of the windows but they were nearly all completely covered by boxes.  

Tsssssssss!!!!!!

"What was that!? thought Stacey as he whipped his head around trying to find the source of the noise. He could feel his heart rate speed up. The door at the other end of the car was the only other way out but was already locked. Stacey ran to the other end of the car and moved the door knob to check. It was still locked. "Shoot!" said Stacey under his breath. "This is not going to end pleasantly."

Crrrrank.....Tsssssssss

The car jerked a little bit nearly knocking Stacey off balance. 

Click

"Was that the door?" Stacey grabbed the handle and turned it. This time it went all the way and the door glided open. Stacey hoped that he would be able to slip out from the train in between the cars, but the space was in cased in some kind of mini tunnel. "This was probably so passengers can't fall out." thought Stacey as he opened the door to the next car. This next car was absolutely different then the rear-caboose car. It was very well lit and had open booths with its seats wrapped in dark green leather. 

"I guess that last car was for storage." said Stacey out loud as he ran his hands over the seats. All the windows were blocked out with something but Stacey was a little too preoccupied to investigate. He quickly paced over to the other end of the car and open the door and jumped to the next train car. 

It was exactly identical to the previous one. Same seats, same colors, and the windows were all blocked. "I guess i'm in third class." Stacey commented. "I'm sure theirs a way out of here. If I just keep-"

AHWOOOOOOOOO            

"NO! This is not good!" Stacey ran to the other door and tried to open it. The handle turned but the door was jammed. "C'mon......C'MON! OPEN DAMMIT!"

AHWOOOOOOOOO

Stacey hit the door with his hand and began propping his legs on the door frame. He grabbed the handle and pulled as hard as he could. He could feel the door budging under his force. 

Pop!

The door came unstuck and the door was thrown on top of him. The door felt heavy...a little too heavy. It soon became clear why. An all to familiar voice came from up top. "Oh my goodness is someone under there?" 

Stacey tried to catch his breath. "Huff....Huff Three guess who your highness."

The princess picked up the door. "I'm really sorry I was... Star-Crosser! What are you doing here? And you better have a good reason too!"

"Well you see Luna I was-"

"AHWOOOOOOOOO-Crrrrank-Tsssssssss

The car jerked, knocking Luna against the wall. She looked at the ground and began to touch the floor. "We're moving," she said softly. The car began to tilt upwards. Luna grabbed Stacey's shirt and shoved him into a seat and sat next to him. "Hold on to your seat." Luna said as the force of the train pushed the two back into the seat. "We're going for a ride."

The train whistled in agreement. 

AHWOOOOOOOOO-WOOOOO-WOO-WOO