//------------------------------//
// The ruined castle 
// Story: Around A World: Equus 
// by Dragon Shimmer 
//------------------------------//

Matt sits on a tree branch watching the timberwolves looking for him. Suddenly, the wolves are running away and a manticore is chasing them. Matt jumps down and watches the manticore, then he decides to walk forward to look for a safe place but falls into the hole after that.

Matt rubs his head and sees a very large crystal tree with many neck aches and a crow hanging there. 

The swordsman takes the broadsword as Diana pats his face to stop him. "This is not the thing you can raid."

"What? Look at it. I will get a lot of money if I manage to get these accessories."

Diana shakes her head. "No. Not these accessories. They are of importance to this country."

"Fine. If you insist." 

The swordsman manages to climb out of the hole. He makes marks on the tree and keeps wandering in a random direction. After 2 hours, he found a ruined castle in the forest. The swordsman draws his broadsword and carefully makes his way into the castle. There is nothing except the old banners with an old throne. Matt sits on the throne and takes a rest. "Looks like this place used to have a ruler."

"It is." Diana yawns. "After the fighting with her sister, she moved to Canterlot, the capital of this country."

"Hmm... meh." Matt takes out his lunch box and eats it. "Something like she doesn't want to look back. Hope she can meet her sister."

"She's ruling Equestria with her sister." Diana takes the fish from the boxed lunch and eats it. "After 1000 years."

"1000 years?" Matt's eyes widened. "Is she a long-living creature like you?"

"Quite." 

"I see." Matt eats some food. "I haven't asked for some information about this world yet. Can you share with me a bit?"

Diana starts talking about what she knows and what she thinks about this world. The country, Equestria, has passed through two wars in over 1000 years. One from the thunder dragons and the other from a tyrant ruler named Sombra. Matt is quite interested in this ruler since she can manage to keep a country name for over one millennium. 

After lunch, Matt starts wandering around the castle in a random direction. The swordsman sees the hall of armor. Analyzing the armor, this thing is just for short people to wear. The armor at the end of the hall is bigger compared to those he can see as he walks through the hall. 

"Hmm... weird. Who wears this armor?" 

Diana looks at the armor and guesses. "I guess that is for the Minotaur." Diana starts flying. "I forgot to tell you that this world has many creatures living with each other." Matt starts wearing the armor and it fits him. Dians scolds. "What are you doing? Being a tomb raider?"

"Maybe. This is not counted as stealing, right?"

Diana rolls her eyes and sits on his shoulders. This pleased the swordsman, who continued to explore the castle.





Applejack and Rainbow Dash are walking toward the ruined castle. "Here we are, this is the place we will show who is the braver pony?"

"Eh Applejack, what's so daring about this place? This is the place where we get the Element of Harmony." 

Applejack turns around and starts a story. "When I was a filly, Granny Smith told me a story about a legend. When Nightmare Moon was banished, not even the last bit of her magic was banished with her. Granny used to say that magic takes the form of ... the PONY of SHADOWS."

"You mean ... like a ghost?"

"No pony knows"

"Ugh... just an old legend." Rainbow turns away. "I mean, no way the pony of shadow will exist here." Rainbow sees Applejack looking at something with a scared face. "Applejack?"

"You might want to ... think again."

When the banner moves, along with the thunder sound, it indicates they're scared and are running away. Suddenly, they see armor moving toward them. "RUN!"

They begin to run away from the armor. The armor looks at them and opens its helmet, revealing Matt's face with Diana still sitting on his head. Matt is looking at them. "Weird, why are they running? I am just stopping to say 'hi' to them."

"I don't know." Diana notices the banner is moving and guesses. "Maybe this is the reason, combined with the thunder sound and your appearance."

"That's just wind." Matt puts his helmet back on. "Let's explore this castle more. I want to see if there is treasure or something."

"Sure. Loot this castle as much as possible." Diana closes her eyes. "I am preparing to sleep."

"Sleep well. Annoying cat."

Diana slaps him and starts to sleep. The swordsman takes a random direction to explore the castle. 

Twilight and Spike walk through the hall with the candles. Spike grumbles. "Do we need this? We can create fireballs to make light."

"Silly Spike, this is safer than a fireball."

"Like you accidentally burned the school with candles?"

Twilight glares at her. "Not funny. Anyway, I will read Princess Celestia's diary. Don't disturb me."

"Fine." Spike rolls his eyes and follows the purple alicorn. The armor is moving. The purple dragon decides to ignore it.





Matt is in a room that has a lot of books. From what he sees, this is a library. Matt takes a book and starts reading it. After a while, he closes the book and returns it back

"Not interesting." 

The swordsman is looking for something that is valuable. Suddenly, he accidentally clicks a button on the floor, causing the floor to open beneath him, causing Matt to fall down. 

Matt gets up and sees a hall of pony hooves wielding spears. Matt rubs his head and moves forward but sees a white hoof moving. Matt is curious but he decides to ignore it and closes the helmet. Suddenly, someone is saying. "I am not scared at all."

Another voice follows. "Me neither." 

Matt hears footsteps coming down here. The man decides to stand still in front of the room and watch them.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack run down the hall. They see the big armor in front of it. Rainbow looks at it suspiciously. "Wait, why is this armor so familiar?"

"It's just armor, Rainbow Dash." 

Applejack looks at the hall and gulps. Rainbow Dash asks. "What's the matter? It's just a dark hall with pony hooves, right?"

"Yeah."

The two move forward into the dark halls. Rainbow Dash uses her wings to cover her eyes. Matt follows them and watches their movements. Hearing a strange sound, the duo stops and turns around, seeing the armor that is there. 

Rainbow Dash is confused and scared. "Am I wrong or is this armor roving?"

"I... don't know." Applejack bucks the armor's legs and it still stands there. "Maybe we just imagined it."

"Let's go ahead."

Matt moves toward them a little bit. The pony duo immediately walked away, then turned back. Matt boos at them and the pony duo screams out loud, then they run away from the swordsman. Matt opens his helmet and laughs out loud. "Oh man, I never thought these creatures were so cowardly. Anyway..." the swordsman moves outside and looks at the stairs, and he hears the sound of some musical instrument. "Weird, someone plays opera in here. Well, lucky that I got this stair to climb up." 

The swordsman starts to go upstairs. Fluttershy manages to click a switch, then the wall spins and they roll out. Rarity stands up. "All right, flawless banner or not, I have had enough of the mysterious presence in the unexpected castle."

Rarity is about to leave the castle, but Fluttershy stops her. "But we can't leave now. Angel is still here. What if..." Fluttershy starts worrying so much as Rarity rolls her eyes and walks away.





After 30 minutes of wandering, the swordsman feels bored and wants to leave the castle. The opera is playing again. Matt sighs in frustration as he heads toward the voice.

When he finds the source and enters a room, he sees a yellow Abyssian with black ears playing the organ. Matt closes his helmet and walks toward the Abyssian. Suddenly, a force pushes him away from the Abyssian. 

"Nyan~" the yellow Abyssian stands up and turns around. She sees a very large piece of armor standing up. "Looks like I got an armored golem here. Looks much smaller than I thought""

"Who are you?" Matt asks. "And why are you in this ruined place? Sounds suspicious."

"You are suspicious like me too, golem." The Abyssian walks closer to him. "But this is the first time I have seen a golem that can talk."

"And I have a name." Matt responds, "What's your name?"

"My name is Sound." Replies the yellow Abysssian "I just came here to enjoy the moment in peace while playing a big organ like this."

"My name is Matt." Introduces the swordsman. "I came here to wander this ruined castle."

Sound giggles. "Sounds like a strong name." The Abyssian takes a lyre from the organ and starts playing it. "Sit here and I will sing you a song. I just feel like I am talking to a creature."

"Sounds good to me."

Matt watches the Abyssian sing her song with the lyre while sitting on the chair. Then after 5 minutes, he feels something strange inside of him. The Abyssian walks closer to him and puts her finger on his chin. "So, you enjoyed it?"

"I... I guess." Matt blushes. "Feeling something weird honestly."

"What's that?" Sound puts her paws around the swordsman and whispers. "Do you want me so much?" She puts her tail near his nose.

Diana yawns inside the helmet and hears Sound talking. The black cat looks at the swordsman and finds that Matt can't take his eyes away from the Abyssian. Diana slaps him and Matt shakes his head. The swordsman stands up. "No thanks, someone will kill me when I try to do that."

"Aww, what a shame!" Sound giggles. "You can make her more jealous, and she will love you more as a result."

"You can say that." Matt stands up. "It's nice to talk to you. See you again." He leaves the room. "Oh, by the way, good song. I almost lost my soul there."

The Abyssian sits down and grins. She feels this creature is so much more interesting when he doesn't fall in love, not like every male creature she used to use. Sound pulls out the medicine and breaks it, then she is teleported away.