“I should probably leave now,” muttered Golden. Every last convention-goer stared at her with the glee of seeing a real pony for the first time. The disguised changelings posing as staff members, VIP’s, and guests were starting her way, not bothering to hide their expressions of malice.
Golden stepped off the stage and scooted towards the door, passing tables of merchandise. She was trying to think of a way out of this situation, but it looked like she might have to do something desperate.
Her eye fell on a table where a plethora of premium pony plushies lay. She grabbed the biggest one and held it up so everyone could see. It was a nearly life-size figure of Luna.
“Nobody move or I rip the head off this plushie!”
The bronies stopped in terror. The changelings stopped in confusion. In fact, the only one who didn’t stop was Nicole Oliver. She took a few steps forward, raising her hands. “Please reconsider. There’s no need to get violent. That doll never did anything to hurt anyone. It’s destined for the auction to benefit local charities. Please let it go.”
Golden hesitated. Nicole kept walking forward. She reached out to touch the Luna plushie. “Please, take me instead.”
Golden was too surprised to resist as Nicole took the plushie from her hooves and slipped her own neck into Golden’s chokehold.
“Nobody move or Princess Celestia gets it!” Nicole called.
The changelings paused, quite unsure if she was serious.
The staff members watched the unfolding standoff.
“Alright, we really need to do something!” Skandranon insisted.
“Like what?” Sonya asked.
“Well, how should I know?” Skandranon threw up his hands. “Maybe we could use this crazy dream to our advantage and help Golden!”
“Like how?” Dusty broke in.
“Wait, it’s a dream, so how do we know what will happen?” Phillip asked. “Is any of this real? How do we know for sure?”
Sonya, fed up with arguing, decided to take matters into her own hands. As the group of advancing changelings chose to ignore Nicole’s questionable threat, Sonya ran forward to intercept them. Outstretching her arms, she aimed for the changeling in the lead and shouted, “Hadouken!”
The others had barely noticed Sonya’s first move, but they too would find themselves joining the offensive. Phillip followed Sonya’s form, diving into the fight to meet a changeling just off to the side of Golden. Leon and Dusty had materialized wooden polearms and leaped forward. As for Skandranon and the rest of the attackers, the mass of humans drove to meet the aggressors and end the standoff.
The lead changeling barely realized what had just happened before his head was smashed against the floor. Another was struck to the ground by Sonya’s follower. Two more screamed in pain as wooden poles met their vertebrae and smacked them down to size. The rest were soon swooped upon by the attackers and a huge spontaneous battle broke out in the middle of the convention hall.
The use of fists was the norm throughout the gigantic brawl, especially after wooden poles and 2x4s were splintered or shattered to pieces. Nothing like a thorough smack to the head to put down a changeling.
However, as more of the enraged staff members copied Sonya’s use of high energy fireball-like projectiles, the tide began to definitively turn in favor of the human army. The seconds ticked, and the knock-out count soared. And just as the last posterior was dropkicked and the last changeling bit the dust, the world began to change.
At first it was just a slight difference, but as the victorious staff members celebrated their lopsided victory, small pieces of the sky began to flake away. It took a moment, but eventually they noticed when the roof of the convention center was suddenly dematerialized.
The staff looked up as one, seeing bits of atmosphere falling gracefully like unholy snow. Quite a few jaws dropped immediately. What they saw was out of this world - literally.
The walls of the building soon began to repeat the same pattern, trickling away into to the void that was simply nothing. Victorious chants had turned into shrieks of that terror that only a character like Rarity could match, and the scene had once again become one of chaos in the attempt scramble back to the safety of hotel rooms. But the block of rooms surrounding the convention center started its fade into nothing, trapping them in the middle of an assured doom.
Sonya looked down at her hands and shook them upon instinct. Half of her forearms were already lost by the time she managed a yelp for help. And just like, the world went dark.
***
Sonya woke up to feeling like she was swimming. That was true to the extent that she was covered in liquid. It just happened to be inside a green, gooey encasement. Her first frantic instinct was to find a way to the surface and she found herself making contact with material that absorbed her blows at trying to break out. She cocked her arm back and forced it up with all her might, bursting through. She could feel fresh air rushing around her fist.
More rounds of punching and a final kick tore a hole in the sleeping cocoon before she pulled herself out. She breathed hard, sucking in the real oxygen that she needed compared to whatever had been in that god-forsaken liquid she was just in.
Sonya looked about the room and thought it to be void of friendly life until she caught sight of a friendly face: Golden Gates.
A black insectoid form lay in front of the pegasus, twitching from receiving a thorough beating to the head with a roll of newspaper.
“Golden?” Sonya peeped. She’d put herself in a defensive stance just in case she would be attacked in some fashion, but there were no more changelings to be seen.
The pony had a small smile on her face as she dropped dropped the crumpled remains of the San Francisco Chronicle on top the changeling’s head. “Ah, you’re finally awake. Glad to see that you’re out of your watery grave. This boy decided it was a good idea to wake up at the wrong time.” She stepped away from the changeling and let Sonya see what was really going on.
“Wait a minute,” Sonya shook her head in disbelief. “This is just another whacked-out dream, isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid I can’t say so. You should really take a look outside, though.”
Sonya turned towards the view of the landing strip of SFO, watching as a jumbo-jet of the United Airlines fleet landed on the tarmac and rolled off out of her view. Golden wasn’t pleased with her choice. “The other outside, Sonya. The courtyard.”
“Okay, okay. Geez.” Sonya warded off the pony as she went and opened the door. Everything seemed to be order, despite the turn of events that’d happened within the room. Behind them was the changeling just beat down with newspapers, but out there, it looked perfectly normal. No signs of cheese legs roaming around the halls.
However, Sonya caught a gurgling sound coming from behind a nearby door. It sounded like someone waking up to find themselves in a cocoon and not liking it one bit.
As if on cue, the door opened and a slimy Phillip stumbled out. He blinked blearily at Sonya. “What just happened?”
Sonya fumbled for words, but Golden stepped up. “Changelings kidnapped you and put you in a dream state along with the rest of the staff members of the convention. You just managed to fight your way out, and now here you are. I helped you wake up because these changelings are attempting to tap into the love that your convention-goers have for ponies and the community alike. So far, they’ve been successful, but they can easily be driven out if-”
“How do we know that this isn’t some giant ploy that you’re in on? You could be a changeling in disguise!” Another muck-covered staff member appeared outside of their door a few rooms down the lane. Other people making similarly accusing statements began to appear.
Golden held up a hoof, managing to silence the chatter. “I could either give you a long and boring explanation about why I’m here, or I could simply tell you that I’m just trying to stop it, because people are pretty cool.” She grinned. “I would even venture to say twenty percent cooler.”
There was silence for a few seconds. Sonya said, “Well, I guess we kind of are.”
A chorus of agreement went through the crowd. It died out quickly, however. They were all covered in cocoon sludge and most of the changelings were still running loose. Nobody was in a good mood.
“We should go,” Golden prodded. Sonya bobbed her head in agreement and the crowd moved down the hall, following the pegasus. Golden stopped in front of a window and pointed. “Have a look.”
The window faced the courtyard and the mayhem therein. Small fires burned among scattered debris and panicked convention-goers attempted to flee. The entire building and the decorations the staff had worked so hard to set up inside were stained, battered, and disrespected. It was clearly obvious that someone done goofed.
“My beautiful con…” Sonya gasped.
“Changelings are not very good at organizing events,” Golden noted. “They stuck the lot of you in a collective dream and tried to take your place. As you can see, it went terribly.”
“Wait, changelings?” Bryan said. “Like...what was rumored to have happened at that other convention?”
“Rumored? A friend of mine was there!” Leon said.
“We just need to take care of our own problem, and then we’ll get into the history,” Golden said.
“Well then, let’s not keep ‘em waiting.” Dusty flapped his arms free of the muck and hit the elevator button at the end of the hallway. The slight grimace on his lips didn’t compare to the anger-filled words that they all would have for the first changeling they drilled into the ground.
The staff pushed into the elevator as the doors opened, shoving to get everyone to fit. The light, pleasant music made the situation seem less dire than it was. Everyone crowded close, trying to pack every last one of them in. Golden was forced to crowdsurf up near ceiling. She grinned sheepishly.
“All right, we’ve been through this before,” said Skandranon. “We go in there and kick ass, just like last time.”
“Er, this is probably a good time to mention that we’re out of the dream now,” said Sonya. “You can die here.”
Skandranon blinked. “This isn’t just another level of dream like Inception?”
“I’m afraid not,” Golden replied from above.
“So...what’s the new plan?” Bryan asked.
The elevator descended in silence.