There was barely enough time for Matt to throw a hand in front of Applejack and even less for the others to see what happening. The two front passengers slammed their eyes closed as the first violent impact came, spraying splintered wood and sunglasses everywhere. The hard crash sent a shockwave through the car's frame that cracked the windshield and loudly burst open the Blazer's airbags, blocking most of the view. The girls screamed and held onto each other for dear life with Applejack clutching onto Matt's protective arm. Rainbow and Pinkie Pie were curled up in a ball in the back, even more panicked than the others as their lack of seat belts resulted in them being tossed around.
Despite the horrific jolt to the car and the sudden yank at his neck, Matt tightened his grip on the wheel, doing everything he could to keep them from spinning out of control. Barely three seconds later, the vehicle crashed into something else and almost instantly crashed again, slowing them down further. Numerous shards of glass flew past the windshield with each smash. Soon after, the car caught something against its grill and dragged it several meters, the sound of whatever it was grinding against the floor and mixing with the screeching of tires. The car swerved just slightly, and whatever they were pushing managed to slide under one of the wheels, crackling under the weight.
A loud, sudden 'thud!' signaled the end to their terrifying ordeal, and the passengers were launched as far as their seat belts and airbags would let them. Pinkie and Rainbow slammed into the back of the middle seats, the pegasus taking the worst of it as she hit her head, despite one of Pinkie's forearms being wrapped around her. Each of their hearts – as well as their lungs – was going a mile a minute as the nightmare was over as fast as it began.
Still holding onto the wheel with white knuckles, Matt eventually let his free hand fall and collapsed into the deflating airbag in front of him, breathing just as hard as the others. Groans of pain and sighs of relief echoed around him though he didn't really register them yet. Letting out an exasperated sigh himself, he leaned back in his chair and went to pull the pillow out of the way, wincing as he brought his arm over to do the deed.
It was fairly dark in front of him, the only relatively soft light coming from overhead, most likely thanks to Celestia's late-afternoon sun. Only a couple feet in front of the car looked to be a stone fountain several dishes high though it wasn't spitting water anywhere. His eyes drifted to the accordianed hood and his spirits sank, even though he knew what to expect. He rolled his head to the side, cringing, and spied a Banana Republic staring back at him – as well as several frozen bystanders.
Tortuously turning forward again, he grit his teeth behind angered lips. Exactly what he was afraid of with the train had to happen to them.
Of course.
"Goddammit," he muttered. "Goddammit, Goddammit, Goddam–agh!"
Slamming his fist into the steering wheel wasn't helping either, especially with how badly he knew his neck was feeling. Squeezing at the nasty ache while trying desperately to hold in growling in agony, he glanced at the rear view mirror. Didn't seem to be any visible injuries anywhere. He briefly wondered if things were going to be ten times worse the girls, given how long their own necks were. AJ looked alright too, just shaken up like the rest.
"What...what happened?" Rainbow asked between breaths as she groggily checked past the windows.
Not bothering to answer, Matt glared at nothing in particular and slumped his hand onto the gear shift, throwing it in 'Park'. Shit, every time he moved either of his arms or turned his head at all, he flinched. He must have done some damage. Hopefully it was 'just' some whiplash and hopefully magic would help, even if only a little. He'd have to ask Twilight once they got out of the car.
May as well get that started. They did have a mission to continue to.
Fighting through pain, he got out and slid to his feet, not worrying about closing the door behind him. A 'splitch' came from his feet, and he looked down to see a river rapidly growing along the floor. Okay, so they did run into a fountain. Grunting to himself, he opened the driver's side back door to reveal a shaking yellow pegasus still clinging to Twilight. A hand on her shoulder made her jump with a squeak, and she looked over at him with watery eyes. He leaned in and undid her seat belt, setting it back into place. He curled an arm under Fluttershy's rump, intent on picking her up and carrying her out, when he was reminded of how much pain he was in.
The timid mare recoiled too. "A-are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just...my neck."
"If you want, I...I can fly out," she offered. "M-my wings feel alright."
He paused and weighed the option. Any help would be nice. "You sure?"
"Yeah, I...I just need a minute."
"Matt, if you want, I-I can get probably get us out a little easier right now if you're hurt," Twilight added as she popped her seat belt loose and rubbed her waist. "Picking the girls up isn't going to put a strain on my magic."
Thanking her with the tiniest of nods, he swung out and headed to the tailgate, popping it for the two in the back and moving on to the passenger side back door. Not asking for any assistance normally, Rainbow Dash glided out and landed softly on the wet tiles with Pinkie still hanging on with her eyes clenched shut. Their appearance elicited multiple gasps and murmurs from the surrounding – albeit guarded and distant – observers.
Her ruby eyes shifted around nervously, making contact with several of the people staring in both horror and amazement at her. She cleared her throat and her pink hanger-on finally got the nerve to look at where they were and disembarked, steadily lowering one hoof at a time onto the floor. Normally thrilled at the prospect of meeting new folks, Pinkie chose to walk a step behind Rainbow as she followed Matt. They had just gotten into a wreck that they would usually only watch their speedster friend get into; the party girl simply wanted to sit down.
They didn't go far though as Matt had knelt down and was picking at the pieces of the wooden bench he reasoned they must have been dragging. He looked back behind the Blazer, surveying the damage he could see under the dim light. Watches, sunglasses, and hundreds of chunks of glass and wood were thrown all over the place. Fortunately, he didn't see any people laid out anywhere. He did spot a petrified young man and woman pressed up against what was left of the watch display though. Jeez, he must have missed them only by inches. There could have been someone on the bench too.
The dozens of eyes glued to the scene weren't making things any easier, no matter how good their luck was, all things considering.
Grunting as he got back up and delicately stretching his neck, Matt opened Rarity's door for her. Seems she undid her own belt, likely with her magic. He moved onto the passenger door as a quick burst of lavender light popped up behind him, the increasingly loud gasps and cries of shock reminding him of how he reacted to such a thing so long ago. He wished he could chuckle at the memory right now.
A pair of exhausted green eyes looked up at him. Applejack wanted to wrap her forelegs around his arm and not let go as he reached across her to take care of her belt. Give her manticores, timberwolves or chaos gods any day. A purple glow took hold of her once she was free and floated her to the floor, setting her and the dressmaker down beside each other. Rarity quickly sidestepped out of the water and craned her head backward at the gawking crowds. Meanwhile, Matt picked the stetson up off the car's floor and delicately set it back atop the head of its owner.
He peeked inside and found the last of the group still as sitting as a stone. "Flutters?"
Her attention was grabbed, and with a deep breath, she nodded and slid her way across the seats. Twilight moved her to the floor as well, and with everypony finally out, Matt took the lead and hobbled to another nearby bench with the girls in tow. He fell to the seat and leaned forward, holding his head up and rubbing his temples. A.J. sat next to him as Fluttershy and Pinkie took to the other side. The rest gathered together closely on the floor, cautiously scanning over the enormous hallway and its occupants.
"Where are we?" Fluttershy asked for the group.
"Shopping mall," Matt groaned. With another gentle twist of his neck, he asked, "You all okay?"
"Eh, I smashed my head against the seat, but I've felt worse," Rainbow Dash replied.
"A-are those things talking?!" they managed to hear whispered from several yards behind them, among other things. Most of the mares subtly glanced in the voice's direction for a moment but decided to ignore it. There were more important things to worry about.
"My neck's a bit sore," the farmer said.
Rarity hissed through her teeth as she slowly spun her head. "Mine too."
"My waist has felt better," Twilight added.
Pinkie and Fluttershy simply nodded. Only their nerves were shot.
Matt sighed and pursed his lips. Maybe driving was a mistake, but it wasn't like they could do anything about it now. At least the girls wouldn't have been hurt the other way, as far as he was concerned. If only he would have thought to slow down as soon as he saw that light!
"Twilight, do you think...I don't know, do you know any medical magic to help whiplash at all?"
"Ehhh, I could probably ease the pain some, but we'll probably have to see a doctor about it when we get home."
"Could you?"
"Yeah, no problem." The unicorn took aim at her nearest friend, Rarity, and let her magic do its work. The designer moaned as the aching gradually subsided. Even if it was only going to be temporary, it felt so good.
Applejack was next, and while she was taken care of, she asked, "So, now what?"
Before he could answer, a clicking sound caught his ear. His suspicions about their origin were correct when he glanced up. A few brave souls had crept closer and had already started taking pictures with the iPhones. Most of the girls checked out their visitor when the snapshots began too, keeping their guard up at first until they figured out what was going on.
Matt groaned and answered her back. "We have to keep going. What choice do we have?"
"Are we gonna have to hoof it the whole way? About how much farther do we have to go?" Rainbow asked.
"I think a little over a hundred miles." His own neck began to glow and tingle while his friends moaned disappointedly. "Maybe...well, that Tina woman's driveway showed up. Maybe the parking lot did here too."
"What's that?"
"Where people leave their cars when they come to a place like this. If that is the case and we do find a replacement, we'll probably have to...well, basically mug the person for their keys," Matt explained with a twist of his lips. "Oh God, Twilight, that feels good."
"Heh, thanks. There's really no other way, is there?"
"We can't walk a hundred-plus miles. We need a car."
Her horn stopped glowing and they sat, relaxing for a few minutes of painless peace – all things considered – trying to clear the last several minutes from their heads. They looked again at the people around them, and most were still keeping their distance. The initial shock had worn off and now most appeared to staring simply in fascination at the odd sight. They hadn't been aggressive in any way, not that there was a reason for them to be. As long as they remained passive, hopefully no trouble would befall them.
"I was so hoping to avoid this," Matt mumbled.
"What do you think's gonna come of all this?" A.J. asked.
He shrugged and replied after a minute to gather his words. "One, if...when we send this place home, all these pictures will spread around and people will freak out and do...well, who knows what; two, the pictures will spread around and no one will care–"
"Why wouldn't anypony care? You said your species is the only one that talks and equines don't exactly look like us," Twilight reminded him. "I sincerely doubt they've ever seen anything like us if what you've told us before is accurate."
"It takes a lot for people to get worked up about stuff that didn't directly happen to them unless you're talking like a national tragedy or something. Just the way they are these days. Anyway, three, people will think this mall was pulling some kind of prank or doing a promotional thing or whatever and, again, no one will care." The girls glared at him skeptically. "I'm...hoping for the second option. Just let me handle it if someone starts trying anything funny."
A few more spectators had joined in the photographing when Rarity cleared her throat and spoke up. "As much as I usually love having my picture taken by admirers, this is starting to unnerve me a little. Might I suggest we grab our things and get going?"
"Yeah, that's probably not a bad idea."
Standing and stretching his back, Matt took the lead back to the wrecked Blazer. Anyone in the way quickly let them by, not wanting to risk antagonizing whatever the colorful four-legged things were in front of them.
The saddlebags sat where their owners' did – Applejack's was on the floor of the front seat, Rainbow's and Pinkie's were in the back and so forth. One by one, Matt grabbed them and set them gently on their backs. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much of a strain on their spines after the accident and the impromptu magical fix.
All that was left in the back once the last of the saddlebags were in place – including Matt's backpack – were the pillows, sheets and shovel that still lay on the floor in the middle of the car. Now what? They were too big to fit in their bags. Although...
"Hey Twilight, you think you could, like, conjure up a plastic bag or something?"
"Easily. What did you have in mind?"
"That stuff isn't heavy. Could probably just carry them over my shoulder."
And as he requested, a large trash bag appeared out of thin air, spooking the people nearby all over again. The pillows and sheets took on a lavender hue and floated over to him. Understanding, Matt opened up the bag and let them set themselves inside.
"And the shovel?" Twilight suggested.
He eyed the contents and curled his lips after a moment's thought. "Eh, I don't know if I want to put a dirty shovel on top of clean sheets and stuff."
"Oh, you have been paying attention!" Rarity cooed.
"Hey, give me some credit," Matt quipped. As she giggled at his remark, the lights overhead popped on and the series of showrooms followed quickly after, exposing the group to their audience in all their glory. giving their photographers even more reason to shoot. "Ah, they do have a back-up. Kind of figured."
"I think I have an idea," Applejack said. "Why not wrap my saddlebag's strap around the handle once and I'll just carry it that way."
With a quick knot, the bag was sealed tight. "That's not going to hurt your back?"
"Eh, my bag's not heavy. I'll be okay."
His eyes shifted between the rugged cowgirl and the open tailgate, and the idea played through his mind for a minute. Eventually, he accepted her plan and made his way around to grab the tool, snagging the bag off her back as he passed by her. Settling on where the middle of the shovel was, Matt managed to win the brief battle against the stubborn saddlebag without spilling its contents all over the floor. Gently, he replaced it on the orange mare's back, the shovel's blade resting comfortably on her flank and the handle up against the side of her neck. Eh, could be worse.
Matt snorted under his breath at the convenient placement. Applejack saw his reaction and wanted to shake her rump at him but instead rolled her eyes at his childishness – not that she minded his eyes drifting in that general direction. This simply wasn't the time or place for that nor had she come clean with him yet anyway. Rarity had to hold back a smirk as she watched the whole thing.
The young man took one last look at the Blazer, double checking that they had everything. As much as he wanted to grab the CDs he brought, he crossed them off the list. Wasn't any reason for them to continue the journey, and frankly, they weren't critical to the mission. He took a second to pat down his pockets. Yep, one had his wallet and the other had the phone and the list of numbers. They seemed ready to go. He sighed as he glanced over at the compacted engine. He already missed not being able to drive it around anymore.
"Alright, let's get out of here."
-----
They barely walked a hundred feet when they were already coming to a stop. Fortunately, there was a good reason for it.
"Why don't we just go back to that...err, Nordstrom's place? You said there'd be an exit there, right?" Twilight asked.
"Eh, no reason to backtrack. We were heading this way in the car, might as well keep going. Sears isn't all that far ahead, maybe um–" He dragged his finger along the floor map. "–a fifteen, twenty minute walk? Plus, we pass by a food court."
"You're thinking about food after we just got into a crash?" A.J. deadpanned. "We have food."
"We have snacks," he corrected, "and no, I'm not thinking about food now. Just saying that if we do start to get hungry for a real meal, there you go. May as well have something in our stomachs tonight if we end up being forced to walk a hundred miles cuz we might not find much to eat over the next few days if that turns out to be the case."
The farmer curled her lips. "Eh, you got a point."
Flinging the pillow bag over his shoulder, Matt and the girls marched on. Not twenty feet later, Rarity suddenly felt herself being forcefully, almost violently, dragged away from the pack by her horn. That usually meant only one thing to the mare, but no matter how hard she tried to stop her magic from taking her where it wanted, she just kept going. Several patrons jumped out of the way from what they must have thought was some kind of bizarre attack.
"Rarity, what are you doing?!" Matt hollered.
"It's not me, it's my horn!"
Having been a part of their circle, the human was well aware of what their abilities entailed. He looked ahead of where she was being taken – a Kay Jewelers – and put two and two together. A bit annoyed but still understanding of her predicament, he and the others jogged after her. They caught up with her just as she stopped herself from crashing face first into a wall, just below a brightly lit set of small display windows. Noticing their contents, Matt suspected that he knew exactly what was coming and frowned hard.
The dressmaker hopped up onto her hind legs, peered in the windows and nearly forgot how to breathe. Her eyes ballooned to ridiculous size and she covered her mouth with a hoof but the damage had been done.
"Wahahaa!"
In a flash, the posh mare darted into the nearest door. A second later, a woman was heard to scream.
"Rari... Ah Christ."
Now visibly irritated, Matt stomped his way inside. The others took a moment to get a glimpse at what had gotten Rarity so worked up. It was likely what was In the center of the case – a stunning diamond necklace, easily sporting fifty stones, with three more teardrop-shaped gems hanging from the bottom and each connected by a gorgeous rectangular ruby. Though Applejack and Rainbow Dash never cared much for such things, Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were impressed by its beauty too.
"Can we go get her now?" Rainbow groaned while the others 'ooo'ed' and 'aah'ed'.
"Err, yeah, maybe we should," Fluttershy said, blushing.
"We shouldn't be stopping to gawk at things anyway," the country girl chastised as they made their way toward the door. "We do still have a job to do, y'know."
"No, you're right, Applejack." Twilight shifted her gaze away. "Still, and I kind of hate to admit it, this is a unique opportunity to study what human culture is like firsthoof, even if it's only until we get out of here."
"What about when we get to this Manhattan place? Matt said it's supposed to be one of the biggest cities in the world back home."
"We really won't have the time to. We'll be too busy trying to determine if that odd cloud formation may be the key to all this and then finding a solution if that turns out to be true."
"We should still get a move on," A.J. grumbled, figuring she wasn't going to win the argument.
Not wanting to continue any further, she trotted ahead and met up with Matt as he stood glaring at Rarity as she giggled and babbled nonsensically at whatever jewelry happened to be in front of her at the moment. The woman behind the counter screamed again as the rest of the Elements filed in one by one; the older gentleman beside her stood motionless, his jaw and eyes open wide.
"Will you please not do that?" Matt growled at the hysterical lady. "Okay, Rarity, you've seen some pretty things. Can we go now?"
"Oh! Err...sure, I just...ooohohohoh."
Applejack sat down next to her love interest, scowling not quite as hard as he was. "Rares, you can see this kind of stuff any time you want at home."
She and the others sans Rainbow Dash proceeded to ignore her. The cowgirl glanced up to see Matt more annoyed than she'd seen him in an extraordinarily long time.
"Sugarcube, I'm with you that we need to get going and all, but you look really ticked about all this. You okay?"
Smirking, he answered, "I never gave a shit about the mall in town back home. If I ever went there, I'd only go for, like, one or two things and then I'd go right home. Rachel liked to shop."
Applejack subtly, angrily, pursed her lips at the mention of that name.
"When she didn't go with her girlfriends, she'd insist I come along even though she knew I didn't want to, and just about every time she'd somehow drag me there. Was the one thing that drove me fucking crazy about her." He motioned toward the ivory mare. "Then I see this–"
"–And it's the same thing all over again," she finished for him.
"Eeyup."
"Well, don't worry about me, shug," Applejack sighed, "I won't go checking out any shops. From what I've seen since the wreck, I doubt there'd be anything here that'd interest me anyway."
"There's probably some sporting good stores somewhere. I know you're into that stuff."
Lifting her nose in the air proudly, she rebutted, "I can control myself."
A thankful pat on the neck made it all worth it though keeping her cheeks from turning red proved difficult as Matt started caressing her. "Cool."
After a few minutes, the novelty of the necklaces and bracelets and earrings had worn off and the rest of the group had gathered with Matt and Applejack, but Rarity was still fully engrossed in everything around her. Enough was enough already.
"Twilight?" Matt said, nodding at the fashionista. "Would you, uh...? We really gotta go."
Agreeing to his unspoken request, her horn glowed and the magic took hold of the giddy designer, lifting her away from the displays and toward the door. The employees jumped away from the spectacle but thankfully didn't scream again. Eventually, despite clawing at the air in a desperate yet futile attempt to get back to the sparkling gems, Rarity acquiesced and accepted her cruel fate as Twilight carried her away. Matt took a moment and flashed the jewelers an awkward smile once the last mare exited the establishment.
"Uhhh...you have really nice stuff!"
"...Th-thank you?" the old man mumbled.
With a wave goodbye, Matt shrank away and finally left, tossing the pillows over his shoulder again.
-----
Several minutes passed by, filled mostly with Rarity still gushing over the jewelry though the occasional clothing store window managed to distract her from time to time. If nothing else, she could take some mental notes on the designs humans appeared to like and maybe put together a new line when they got home. Half the group did their best to ignore her. The people that were getting out of their way couldn't help but do just the exact opposite.
Before he knew it, Matt had found the perfect excuse to tune her out off to the right. His pace began to slow as the food court came into view and a plethora of delicious smells wafted through the air. It wasn't long that he was informed that he was indeed starting to get a little hungry.
Twilight had found her own reason for paying no attention to the gabby white mare, coincidentally at that same place. She had spotted a large, green oval sign over the entrance of a shop opposite the food court from a fair distance, and her eyes had been glued on it since. Given how many windows made up the front of the store, it was much, much larger than anyplace they'd passed. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear there were some peculiar, moving staircases inside near the front.
"Barnes and Noble Booksellers," she read to herself.
She bit her lip, struggling against herself as she pressed forward only to bump into Rarity. The studious mare hadn't noticed that Matt had come to a halt – and thus so did the others – and was staring in awe at a restaurant across the large room that he had missed terribly since coming to Equestria.
Twilight turned her attention back to the bookstore, gazing almost lustfully at it. After dragging her fellow unicorn out of her personal paradise, it would downright hypocritical of her to want to go charging into her own. She began to fidget and shuffle her hooves in place, trying to push the idea from her head. Suddenly, she heard footsteps starting to move away from them.
"Hey, where're you going?" Rainbow asked, not receiving an answer.
The bookworm spun around and saw Matt heading straight for the heart of the food court.
Pinkie sniffed the air and cracked a big smile. "Guess he wants something to eat."
They trailed a few paces behind but caught up quickly enough, leaving Twilight to look back and forth between her desire and her guide. Ugh, they had to stick together and she knew it. Frowning sadly, she galloped after her friends and met up with them after only a few seconds.
Matt didn't care how many eyes were glued to them as they filed through the aisles. His own never left their target and as he got closer, he decided what all he wanted to order. Finally, he reached the back of the line, anxiously hopping up and down on his heels.
Several trays banged against the floor as the mares joined their friend, falling from the customers' grips. The noise attracted the attention of a few of the people ahead of Matt, and they caught sight of the source of the commotion in their peripheral. They slammed into the folks ahead of them as they tried to jump away, raising their ire for only a minute until they too saw Matt's traveling companions. Eventually, a few of the workers saw them as well and froze up, some muttering their shock out loud. A few more iPhones came out, too.
"Gah!" Applejack suddenly cried out, spinning away from the restaurant, eyes wide as saucers.
Matt panicked. Was someone trying to hurt them?! "What, what?!"
She hid her face under her hat. "The...th-the number o-o-one...thing."
"Number...?" Must have been referring to the menu. He looked and nearly doubled over in laughter. Pinkie and Rainbow quickly joined in while onlookers voiced their mind-blowing surprise over talking equines.
"That ain't funny! I nearly had a heart attack!"
"A.J., do you really think that in the half hour or so that this place has been there they managed to drive back to Ponyville, find your brother, bring him back here and turn him into...hahaha!...into a sandwich? Hahaha!"
She wanted to belt him one. So badly. "Just...just order what you want and let's go, please."
With the folks in front of them stepping out of the way, only partially thanks to his laughing like a lunatic, he slowly crept up to the front of the line, not wanting to offend anyone by doing so aggressively. By now, the chubby girl at the counter had noticed the Elements and was as equally stunned as everyone else.
"Hey, how you doing?" Matt said, wiping away tears as he eventually calmed down. No answer came. He read the name tag – at least he tried to. "Uh...La...kretia? Hello?"
That got her attention, if only for a moment. She faced the ponies again and almost appeared to be asking them, "W-w-welcome to McDonald's. C-can I help you?"