//------------------------------//
// Suspicious mine. 
// Story: Around A World: Equus 
// by Dragon Shimmer 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow is more curious about what Twilight is doing. She wants to know what quest she is doing that is so significant that she has to close the library until it's completed. This is because Twilight is not here anymore. Too many questions are making Rainbow Dash's curiosity want to explode.

A knock on the door interrupts her. The blue pegasus is about to open the door, but a flash slams it and something hugs her tightly. She sees Pinkie hugging her tight. 

Pinkie jumps around and yells. "Dash, you have to help me."

"What is this?"

"Where are Twilight and Spike? I haven't seen them for 5 days now."

"Relax." Rainbow pushes her out. "I just met her yesterday?"

"Really? Where? They are missing a lot of fun things here."

"Yesterday, I was talking to Twilight. She is doing something in Everfree forest."

"Weird." Pinkie rubs her chin. "Twilight will never leave like that."

"Don't you see the paper in the library?"

"Silly. Coral Blade is working in the library so I didn't see it." Pinkie Pie bounces around the blue pegasus. "I think they are in Cloudale."

"How did you know that?"

"My tail is twitching and it points at Cloudale on the map." Pinkie Pie wraps her hoof around Rainbow Dash. "You should come with me to check it."

"Eh... Oh right. But... can I do this tomorrow? I have work today."

Pinkie puts her face near Rainbow's face. "No. You have to come with me. Right now."

Rainbow smiles nervously. "All right. Let me meet my boss to take a rest from this."

Rainbow flies outside as fast as she can. After telling her boss that she needs a break, his boss accepts it immediately, but she will have double work once she returns.





Matt opens his eyes and looks around, then he touches his body to see if he's alive or not. Simply, no extra bruises or something. The swordsman sees the purple alicorn looking at the crystal ball. Matt stands up and yells. "Hey, that is a terrible idea. You nearly killed me. Lucky that your levitation has some work."

Twilight smiles nervously. "Sorry. I thought you could stand on the cloud, like Sunset, since you used to be one of her teammates"

Matt counters. "And that dragon was an abnormal mage when we were with her. You should know how abnormal she is." 

Twilight nods. "I understand. Anyway... we should follow this way. The memory shard is very near."

Matt follows Twilight to the spot. They meet many ponies hiding in the trees and bushes as they travel through the jungle to find the shards. Although they feel that something is wrong, they decide to proceed nonetheless.



After a while, they meet a cave with many ponies transporting wagons. In front of the cave, there are two guards holding weapons. There are too many wagons around but all of the wagons have something like a leaf on top of them. As Twilight walks to them, she tells Matt to stay there.

When the ponies see Twilight coming to them, they are quite nervous. The wagon does not have any windows, so Twilight watches it to see what's inside. One of the ponies asks her. "Oh... Princess Twilight. I'm surprised when you are here. Uhh... why are you here?"

"I just feel weird because I haven't reported that there is a cave in Cloudale."

One of the guards starts explaining. "Well... this is a mine. And our captain is checking."

"May I come inside?"

"Eh... you can't. Because the mine is quite dangerous, so... this is not the time, Princess."

Twilight feels something suspicious here. "But I want to get inside."

The guards are going to retort but a voice comes from inside and asks her. "Well, what do we have here?"

Twilight steps back as a green pegasus with a red mane appears. Also, Twilight sees Diana approaching, but the mare does not recognize her. Diana waves her paws at Twilight. Twilight nods and turns to the mare to ask. "You must be Captain Hour?"

"That's me, Princess." The mare smiles. "You don't have to come here to check."

Twilight frowns. "Can you show me what is inside those wagons?"

"Sure."

Twilight and the captain come to the wagon together. Open the wagon, they only find mining tools and some anvils. Hour and Twilight enter the wagon to check, then they check another wagons as well. All of them are just mining tools and stuff. Twilight sighs. "Maybe I was just too cautious. Sorry for disturbing you."

"No problem, princess. You are just doing your job."

Twilight leaves the mine. Matt is about to ask Twilight for the crystal shard but she stops him and asks him to leave the mine. Having traveled so far from the mine, the purple alicorn and swordsman stop midway. The swordsman throws a broadsword into a bush. 

Twilight quickly teleports into the bush and sees a pony breathing heavily. He wants to run away but is caught by her levitation. The pony is scared. "Please don't hurt me, Princess."

"Tell me, what's inside that mine?"

"Uhmm..." the pony looks away to find some help. "No, I won't tell you."

Matt takes the sword and looks at the pony. With a smirk on his face, he climbs the tree with the pony. Twilight tries to stop him but she can't. The pony try to escape his grasps. When they are on top of the tree, Matt hangs the pony from a high ground. The pony looks down and gulps.

Matt grins. "Now tell me everything you know about that mine."

"No..." Matt drops the pony, then catches him immediately. The pony breathes heavily. "No, don't do that."

"Remember, you are not a unicorn or a pegasus. As long as you cooperate with me. We will be fine."

The pony's tears are dropping. He finally spills the beans. "Fine. That mine is a pony trafficking center." 

Twilight is shocked. "What? Really?"

"Yeah. We usually trick somepony into having a job with a high salary, then we take them abroad." The pony gulps. "Please let me go. That's all I know."

"Sure." 

Matt smashes his head to make him faint, then he jumps from the tree. Twilight is still shocked when hearing something like this. The purple alicorn summons the scroll and writes about this mine and its location, then she sends it away.

Matt looks at the mine through binoculars. "So, what will we do now? It will be risky if we do a burst attack."

"Well, how about waiting until night?"

"But we don't know if some wagons will be transported somewhere. Do you want the victim to be 'exported' to somewhere else?"

Twilight takes out the crystal ball. "Okay. We will check the area around."

The purple alicorn turns on the crystal ball. There are many tunnels around this mine. Several of them lead to places outside the city. Matt throws his arm in the air. "I take my word back. Your plan is more clever."

"Okay, we will choose somewhere to make a campfire."

"Don't." Matt turns around. "You don't want smoke spotting us."

"Maybe you're right."

"Let's take a nap. I need energy to do the job."

Matt closes his eyes and starts sleeping, ignoring the gumble of the purple alicorn. Twilight takes the paper and starts drawing the mine map.





Sunset and Spike are enjoying cooking. They have a good time in the kitchen. Spike is trying to ask some questions about magic and stuff but she doesn't know anything. Suddenly, a knock on the door interrupts them. Spike opens the door and sees two guards standing in front of the wagon.

The first guard coughs. "Sorry sir, you are not allowed to park the wagon here?"

"Why? There are no signs around here."

"Because the updated rule is here." That explains the guard. "Every wagon must have some bits to keep parking in this cloud."

Spike wonders. "Hmm... I remember that Princess Celestia didn't say anything about the updated rules of Cloudale or something related." The guards look at each other as Spike continues. "I just asked Princess Celestia about any different laws in Cloudale but... not including this."

"Uhmm... yeah. Wait here, we will... hmm... come back later. Don't go anywhere." 

The guards are leaving the wagon. Spike closes the door and feels some relief. Suddenly, a scream came from the kitchen. Spike quickly runs into it and sees Sunset struggling to take the fireball on her claw off with a bucket of water, but it doesn't work. Spike opens the window. "Just throw it away."

Sunset throws the fireball away, then she sits down and breathes heavily. Sunset looks at her claw. "How... how can I create a fireball in my claw?"

"Well... magic."

"But..." Sunset sighs. "I forgot about magic stuff."

"Don't worry. I will teach you how to control your magic." Spike pats her back. "It's just like... hm... yeah... not like that?"

Spike's face becomes blue when he remembers the training. Sunset looks at him. "You okay?"

"Yeah... sure. Anyway, I will teach you some to make sure that you don't have an accident like this."

"Eh..." Sunset rubs her head. "Sure, why not?"

"Give me a moment, okay?"

Spike leaves the wagon looking for a space to practice. He sees the two guards who are just talking to him murmuring something. Spike decides to come close and uses the cloud to hide.

"Damn," says the first guard. "That dragon knows the rules. What will you do?"

"We will leave him. That is not the right way to fight a dragon."

"You're right. How about some drinks? My treat."

"Sure, let's go."

The guards start heading to the bar. Spike frowns at the guards but decides to leave them. When he finds a suitable spot, he returns to the wagon and takes Sunset there to practice.