The first day in Manehattan started off rough. After departing their train the previous night, the group had decided to head to their hotel and rest for the night. Aside from Twilight sending out a letter to Celestia informing her of the situation and ordering in dinner from the hotels room service, the night had been quiet, with everyone on guard and quiet. For most it had been a restless night, especially for Fluttershy who for the first time in years found herself sleeping with the lights on.
Even with Discord wrapped around her like a dragon and its treasure, she still felt scared and paranoid. She did eventually fall asleep but for no more than an hour before she forced herself awake, from a nightmare involving her would-be killer.
When dawn finally rose, she couldn't be happier. She was still paranoid and scared of course, but something about the night made the whole situation scarier. The Pegasus feeling a little bit better since the day before and desperately needing a cup of coffee decided against her rational side and quietly, began removing herself from Discords embrace. It took a good ten minutes of shifting and moving, several times she was sure he was about to wake up. But eventually she was out and made her way to the dining and living area of the penthouse suite. She made her way to the coffee maker and began making a pot of coffee.
A few minutes later she had a steaming cup of black coffee. Her favorite. She sighed happily and made her way over to one of the couches. She chooses one that was right against a wall, in the corner of the room. It gave her a full on view of their spacious penthouse, allowing her to be able to see if anything or anypony decided to appear. She smiled. She really had to send a thank you to the Princesses soon.
As she sat and sipped her coffee, she allowed her eyes to sweep over the room, taking in all the details, subconsciously looking for anything of threat to her. The penthouse suite was, as mentioned before quite large. It had four spacious bedrooms, one which contained the master suite and the others which each contained two beds and the standard set of furniture for a hotel room. It had its own full sized kitchen, a dining room, a living room, three bathrooms and a Jacuzzi. Plus there was a very large and nice patio which overlooked Manehattan that contained a pool. Yes a pool. It wasn't an Equestria Games sized pool; it was actually on the small side but still! Fluttershy didn't even want to know how much this place cost. No doubt it was more then she made in a year.
She felt guilty, for taking the Princesses money. She tried to say no of course but by the fourth no thank you she could tell they were getting annoyed and Fluttershy had been too worried that they would vaporize her so she agreed. The rational part of her knew that Celestia and Luna were much too nice and benevolent to vaporize her, but still.
The sound of a door opening surprised her, causing her to nearly drop her coffee. She quickly whipped her head around and was relieved to see that it was just a very tired looking Applejack leaving her room, her mane and tail all tangled and frizzy. She giggled at the sight of her friend, who in turned raised her eyebrow at her and mumbled something about models. "Coffee?" she asked, inquisitively pointing at Fluttershy's mug; The Pegasus gestured to the kitchen off to the left.
At the mention of coffee and the sound of ponies moving about, Twilight poked her head out her door and like Applejack made her way to the coffee after Fluttershy had pointed the way. Within ten minutes, the group, sans Discord and Spike, were up and awake, most with coffee in their hooves. "Oh coffee, I love you so much" said Cadence rubbing her face against the warm mug. The others laughed and sipped their own drinks. The events of yesterday were forgotten temporarily as the girls all animatedly attempted to discuss what they would be doing that day. There was talks of going to the spa, Times Square, shopping, and other things.
"We totally gotta' go hit up some clubs" piped up the cyan Pegasus, who threw up her hooves for good measure. Twilight glared annoyed at her as she barely avoided a hot splash of coffee coming from the other mare’s cup.
"While I like the idea of sightseeing, I don't think clubbing is a good idea, unless we all want to end up on the cover of tabloid magazines or worse; have our drinks spiked and then be raped in some dark alleyway." exclaimed the unicorn, who at this point was ready to grab the mug away from Rainbow Dash as multiple splashes of coffee kept falling from her cup.
"Oh please? Us on tabloid covers? Raped in an alley way? Jeez, where do you come up this stuff?" Rainbow Dash once more flung her mug around, this time causing a large portion of it to fall on the pure white carpet. Twilight forcefully took the cup from her hooves and set it on the coffee table.
"Manehattan has one of the highest crime rates in Equestria and are you forgetting who we are? Two members of royalty, the elements of harmony, throw in a draconequus and an underage baby dragon? In a night club? This isn't Ponyville, tabloids would eat that up" Cadence nodded in agreement.
"While I do love nightclubs, though I highly doubt we'd be raped, I've lived in Manhattan before, back before me and Shining started dating, officially anyway. Despite being with undercover guards in highly protected penthouse, I ended up in the papers a number of times. The press is like snakes and its victims mice, in this city. They stalk your every move and no doubt they are aware of our presence in the city." Cadence shuddered and wrapped her wings around her.
"The press can't be that bad, can they?" asked Twilight.
"Oh no, they are. If you ever go to the library and look up old Manhattan newspapers and magazines you'll see headlines involving me. Everything from what I was wearing, to who I was dating, to what I was doing, to things completely made up. I cannot tell you how embarrassing it is to get a letter from your aunt asking what the hell you're doing and then confusingly opening the paper to read: Princess Cadence! Her secret harem of stallions and her kinky bedroom activity!" The group went all silent, staring at the pink alicorn. They all sat there for a good moment before they all burst out laughing, which increased as the mare blushed and faced hoof her self for having used that particular headline as an example.
Rudely awoken, Discord stumbled out of his room which he shared with his fiancé. "Why are you guys all laughing?" he asked, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to clear his vision. The laughter only increased as the draconequus stood dumbfounded and confused.
"Why do I even bother? Mares!"
-----
Fluttershy glanced, about her surroundings nervously. All around her carriages, ponies and other creatures move about, traveling about the city. She wanted nothing more than to be hiding in a corner, but she couldn't. If she had stayed back at the hotel, her friends would have too, and she didn't want to ruin this trip for them. Besides, she would be fine right? After all she had an amazing group of friends and a wonderful fiancé who would all protect her, she had no doubt. Besides there were now several invisible guards trailing the group.
Shortly after breakfast, which was more of a buffet then a breakfast, Celestia had returned Twilight's letter. It had been quite long, taking up both sides of the paper, but the gist of it was that Celestia understood that this week was special, yet she couldn't let anyone, especially Fluttershy go unguarded. She had informed the group that she had already sent a letter to the Mayor of Manehattan, and had him assign a group of guards to oversee them during their stay. She also advised for no one to do anything rash, and that she personally would be looking into this assassinated attack along with Luna. Still even, with the added protection, she was hiding in between her friends, constantly looking over her shoulder. Normally the others would tell her not to worry, but in this situation, it was warranted.
"So, before we split off, let's go over the plan just so we make sure we know what we'll all be doing, what we should do if this psycho reappears and where to meet" spoke the purple alicorn, whipping out her list from her saddle bags. She quickly glanced at the list then, over the group, pausing briefly on Discord with a small frown on her face.
"Pinkie, Spike and Rarity are all going to check out the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks, me and Cadence, are going to be meeting with the Mayor, for appearances and also to see if we can't find more information on our...situation. And um, the rest of you, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and....Discord will apparently being going to meet with Applejack’s family.
Discord was not unaware of the tone used by Twilight, or the annoyed glance from Applejack. No doubt she was worried that he would cause havoc for her and her relatives. A part of him wanted to scream, asking why they still didn't trust him, while a smaller part wanted to cause havoc, just to spite the group. Instead he chose to ignore it for now, and focus on other things.
“One half of the group of guards tailing us will be going with Applejack and the rest, as we all can assume that Fluttershy is the only target right now, and probably needs more protection. The other half will be divided between us. If any of us run into the nut case, and we get separated from the guards, use the emergency orb I gave each of you. It will signal the rest of us, and tell us where your location is.” The group nodded and quickly departed ways, excited but tense at the same time.
What they didn't know was that the unknown assassin had overheard their entire conversation, and was plotting to take down his target, hopeful of succeeding this time around. And this time he wasn't going to be easily thwarted; this time he brought friends.