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

Twilight and Matt are sneaking into the mine in the night. When they get near, the purple alicorn and the swordsman quickly knock them out, then Twilight wears golden armor and a mask while Matt quickly wears a black cape and a mask to cover himself. The purple alicorn also casts a spell to hide her wings. The duo starts going inside the mine. 

Going inside, there are many ways to go. The duo sees a guard sleeping on the table. Twilight wakes him up. The guard opens his eyes and sees a guard with a black robe creatures. The guard looks at Matt and asks. "Who is this guy?"

Twilight explains. "This guy wants to buy some ..." she coughs. "Goods in this mine."

"Oh... okay then. Follow me," The guard then points at Twilight. "And you, you should guard the wagon right now. Those ponies we caught will get away from it."

Twilight lies. "Sorry, I got lost when I was buying some food. I am on break."

"I will show you."

The guard leads the duo to a tunnel. Stepping into the tunnel, there are plenty of wagons inside, all of them having guards in front of them. Twilight and Matt peak a little and see there are all ponies inside these wagons. Matt slightly kicks at Twilight. The purple alicorn nods and ready. The guard points at the wagon, which does not have any guards around. Twilight stands in front of the wagon while the pony guard leads Matt to the auction room.

When the pony guard is gone, Twilight's horn glows and starts forming the magic circle on the roof of the room.


Matt follows the guards to a room. Inside the room, many creatures are sitting in there while a pony is slamming a small hammer and yelling. "500 bits, sold." The others clap as one of them is taking the paper. 

When he is trying to sit down, one of the guards gives him a paper and says. "Here, fill your places so we can transport the goods to you."

Matt nods and starts filling out the paper. The guard looks at the paper, then looks at him for a bit. Matt throws them a small bag of money. "Any trouble?"

"No sir." The guard takes the bag. "Enjoy the auction."

Matt is watching the pony who slams the hammer and starts announcing another wagon. This time is number thirty. Matt takes a sip of water and takes a deep breath. 

Matt taps his neck and whispers. "You hear me Twilight?"

"I can hear you," replies Twilight. "How is your place?"

"I'm good. They are making an auction about the wagon, do they have any numbers?" 

"They have. It has one hundred numbers with one hundred wagons. And all of them have ponies inside with some items."

"How many ponies are inside?"

"At least four. Some of them have seven."

"I see. It will be a long time until this auction is over. They are calling number thirty."

"I think you should join the auction and calls a wagon." Twilight is walking through the wagon room. "This place is too huge."

"That's why they have a total of ten tunnels. Anyway, good luck. I'm out."

Matt cuts the signal and stares at the pony who is calling a 'two hundred bits' to a pony. Matt raises it into three hundred bits, makes the pony angry, and raises it into three hundred and fifty bits. The pony on the stage looks at Matt as he sits down and sighs. One, two, and three, he slams the small hammer and decides the number thirty wagon is sold for three hundred and fifty bits. 





Diana is staring at the mine from the cloud. It is dark there since the mine was in the jungle. Diana taps her magic circle but doesn't have any replies from the two. Suddenly, two pink hooves wrap around the black cat. Diana quickly pushes Pinkie Pie away. Diana looks at her and sighs. "Don't do that again."

"Okie." Pinkie puts her face near Diana's face. "What are you doing?"

"Just some watching." Diana face paws. "I regret bringing you here."

"Aww... you don't have to do that." Pinkie bounces around the black cat. "I'm sure that you will enjoy my party."

"No thanks. I'm fine with it. You can hold the party after we're done."

"Okie." Pinkie smiles and bounces back to the wagon. "You should buy an airship to travel around."

Diana grumbles and closes her eyes. She is waiting for Celestia's guards to come soon. The purple dragon comes to the black cat and announces. "Princess Celestia's guards start 
coming to here."

"Too long." Diana looks at the sky. "Why didn't she send her guards sooner?"

"Because the captain here is working so..."

Diana huffs. "Wow, lazy alicorn. Anyway, how is Sunset?"

"Just fine. Rainbow Dash is trying to make her remember but she got tired so... she sleeps."

"That's fine." 

"Also..." Spike takes out a pistol. "What is this thing? I found this thing left on the table. Rainbow Dash is going to pull the trigger but I stopped her."

Diana takes the pistol. "It's just a failure weapon because its creator can't use it by the way."

"What is it?"

"Just imagine this is a small crossbow with can shoot like many times in 3 seconds." Diana aims the pistol at the mine, but she spins it. "And these 'crossbows' require a good speed."

"Wow, why is this a failure ?"

Diana smiles. "Did you find that this 'crossbow' is heavier than its looks?"

"Yeah..." Spike rubs his head. "It's like a ton inside."

Diana shakes her head and puts the pistol into her dimension pocket. "I won't show you how it does. It is too dangerous."

"So... how is the situation down there?"

"Nothing is reported. I will stay here to watch them." Diana points at the wagon. "You should come back to the wagon and do the housework."

"Fine," Spike grumbles and takes a broom to clean the wagon.




Matt is nearly asleep at the auction. Two hours inside an auction is just boring for him. This wagon is number seventy and the auction continues without any break. Matt looks around and sees two guards glancing at him. Matt taps his neck. "Twilight, is everything ready? I think I am watching."

"Ready. You should get out of that room before they will call some guards."

"I know what you mean. Wish me luck."

Matt cuts the signal and leaves the room to go outside. When he is walking, some guards are following him. The swordsman walks into a room. Inside the room, there is nothing around. The swordsman takes out his broadsword from his dimension pocket, much to the guards' surprise.

Matt glances at them. "Shall we start?"

The guards start charging at Matt. The swordsman quickly slams the sword's fuller at the first guard's head, then he punches the second one. The third one is going to thrust him but Matt ducks and pays back with a punch into his stomach. The third guard coughs and tries to get up but Matt slams his sword's pommel into his head to knock him down. 

Matt gets up. "Hitting with the fuller part is harder than I think."

When Matt is going to leave the cave, the bell is suddenly ringing. The swordsman looks around to find somewhere to hide but it's too late, many guards are already surrounding him. 


Twilight hears the bell and sees all of the guards in the room are equipping themself with one of the wagons. Twilight's horn glows and the magic circles are shining, then many purple clouds of smoke are coming from the magic circle. When they meet the guards, all of them are sleepy, then fall to the ground. 

Twilight checks one of them and he sleeps. "Wow, some protection spells in front of the wagon doors and windows are not bad." 

The purple alicorn opens all of the wagons as fast as she can. The ponies inside the wagon come out, then they look around and see all of the guards are sleeping. When they see Twilight in gold armor with a mask, some of the fillies and colts hide away from her while the ponies are still cautious with her.

Twilight is taking a weapon and looks around. One of the ponies asks. "Who are you?"

"My name is Twilight..." Twilight stops and thinks a little while, then answers. "I mean... Lavender Flower. I will get you out of here."

"Really? How can I trust you?"

"Not quite. But I promise." Twilight takes the halberd and asks. "How long have you been here?"

"Uhmmm... about two weeks," one of the ponies is shaking. "I… I am being tricked when they said about an easy job but has a high salary."

Twilight facehoofs at the response, then she opens the weapon storage and quickly knocks the guards in there. Twilight sighs 
and looks at the weapon for a while, then she turns to the ponies. "Here, take the weapon."

"Wha... what? We... we don't know how to use the weapon."

"It's now or never." Twilight takes a peek outside. "Look, I am alone so I can't take anyone here to get out of here. But... eh... if you stand up and fight for your freedom, you can get your freedom, or stay here and be exported."

The crowd is silenced for a while when they hear that. After a while, they are murmuring with each other. Twilight is watching them and peaking outside at the same time. Suddenly, one of them grabs the weapon and wears the armor, then steps forward to Twilight.

"Are you crazy?" Asks one of the ponies

The pony retorts. "Look. Mrs. Lavender here is right. We can't wait for someone to rescue us. If I were you, I wouldn't stick here and wait to be transported."

The crowd is looking at each other. Twilight is waiting for their response. After a while, many stallions are wearing the armor, taking weapons and shields. One of the ponies asks. "Where is the exit? We need to get out of here."

Twilight commands. "First, check the wagon to grab some food to eat. If there are none, we have to get out of here as soon as we can."

The pony starts searching the wagon and ties the guards. Twilight commands two of the pony guards outside with her.





Diana is playing rubik with her magic on the cloud and still watching the mine. Suddenly, the rubik can't be pinned. Diana stands up and sees the guards coming to the mine. Diana creates a fireball. "The climax is here." Then she snaps her paws to make the fireball disappear.



 

Captain Hour is collecting the bits to leave the mine. For her, these bits can make her life without worrying about money. When she is collecting the bits in the chest, a guard rushes inside her room and panting. He reports. "Captain, we have troubles."

"What's wrong?"

"A creature is causing the disturbance. Our tunnels to transport the wagon to the cities are blocked by an explosion, and the hostiles are trying to escape from our mine?"

"What?" Captain Hours slams the table. "How can they escape?'

The guard continues. "They are led by guards. We are trying to stop them but all of the hostile have our weapons and armor, and I can't see her face so..."

"Command all of the soldiers to block the exit, then we will get out of here." Captain Hours closes the chest. "I will share your half if we can go away. Meet me in Manehattan."

"Yes madam." 

The pony guard clicks the button on the wall, then she starts 



Matt is figuring out how to get out of this situation. The room has only one door which makes the swordsman quite annoyed. The guards are raising their shields and spears, then slowly walk toward him. Matt smiles and runs into them. The guards are thrusting their spears quite high. Matt slides under, steps on their shield, and jumps high, then slams his broadsword into the ground, causing a very strong gust that is enough to make the guards break their formation and fall. 

Matt runs away from the guards. He taps his neck. "Twilight, are you ready?"

"I am already near the cave mouth. We are fighting but the guards are too many. I'm afraid I can't take them out." 

"Hold on. Give me about 2 minutes. I will get there."

Matt runs to the cave mouth as fast as he can. When he gets there, the archer guards shoot arrows at Twilight's shield while many ponies are raising their shields to protect her and themself. The ponies try to throw the spear but it is blocked by their shield. Twilight tries to blast the archers but they dodge immediately. 

Matt raises his broadsword, then slams it into the ground. An earthquake is making everyone confused, then an earth shaped like a sword rises into the middle of the guard's formation. Taking a chance, Twilight quickly teleports into the middle of them, then creates a gust around her, knocking many archers down.

Matt raises his broadsword. "Everyone, their formation is broken. It's time to charge. Freedom is waiting for you. " Then he runs into the archer and slashes many of them. The hostile ponies follow him and charge. The guards are trying to fight but it's no use. Twilight, Matt and the hostitles are successful running out of the cave.

When they are out of the cave, the hostiles start hugging each other and crying. Suddenly, some of the guards are landing in front of them. This time they have many cannons and weapons. Twilight and Matt are ready to fight against them. The hostiles are raising their spears immediately.

One of the guards asks them. "What are these ponies?"

"Should we have to answer?" Explains Twilight as she lightens her horn. "These ponies are suffering inside this mine."

"Oh... I see." The guard drops his weapon. "We mean no harm here. So, can we lower our weapons and talk?"

"Maybe." Matt lowers his broadsword. "What do you want?"

"I came here to investigate the suspicious mine from Princess Twilight Sparkle." The guards look at the ponies. "I bet these ponies are enough proof to catch those dirty guards." Then he turns to his guard. "All right, soldiers. Make sure those ponies are safe. We have a lot of things to do." 

The soldiers start surrounding the hostile pony, then raise their shield outside. The hostile pony is surprised. "You... you mean no harm?"

"As long as you don't harm us, we will be fine. Plus, if you cooperate with me and my soldiers, we will make sure that you will go home safe and sound."

The hostile ponies are happy when they hear that, they drop the weapon and shield while the soldiers start checking their wounds and start getting information from them. Matt and Twilight leave the group alone but the soldiers stop them. Matt frowns. "What do you want?"

"Your face." The soldier coughs. "You two are suspicious enough when wearing those masks in this suspicious place."

"You don't need to know." 

Twilight creates a purple smoke around. When the smoke faded, the duo disappeared. The soldiers are shocked for a little while but their captain tells them to work like normal.




Captain Hours is running away from the mine with a big chest by the secret tunnel. She has collected enough money to get away from Equestria. Suddenly, a black flame wall is rising in front of her, making her surprised and falling.

"Going somewhere?" The captain hears the voice from nowhere. She looks around and sees a familiar black cat is stepping closer to her, this time having the black cape and black mage hat. Diana shakes her head. "You know how to make the party go off."

"You are just a little cat. How can you stop me?" The captain is trying to move but she can't. She feels something is holding her hooves. Looking down, the captain sees there are many shadow hands holding her hooves. "What... why can't I move?"

"Sorry. But I am not talking to a dirty mare." Diana taps the staff on the ground. "You should go back where you belong."

The shadow is larger and larger. Soon it surrounds the mare. Captain Hours are trying to get away but the shadow hands are too strong for her. When the shadow disappears, she finds that she is next to the ponies. One of the ponies points at her and yells. "Hey, this is the ponies who captured us."

Many guards quickly surround the mare and capture her.