//------------------------------//
// Sky pirates 
// Story: Around A World: Equus 
// by Dragon Shimmer 
//------------------------------//

Diana and her crewmates start sailing to Manehattan. Matt is driving the arship while others are training with each other. Icey swings her spear in an attempt to hit the black cat, but that's not enough. The cat pounces on it and kicks the blue dragon in the chest, causing her to fall. Icey's body is encircled by shadowy ropes, making it impossible for her to stand up.

Icey's body is being walked on by a black cat with a sword. The black cat stares at the blue dragon. "You have a bit to improve."

"Thanks for your torture, Devil Cat." Icey tries to get up. "If I can get this rope out, I will rip you."

"Not gonna happen." 

The black cat takes out the sword and slowly penetrates Icey's heart with it. She is struggling more furiously but the sword is already through her chest. Icey roars in pain for a while, then she stops. The rope releases Icey. The blue dragon glares at the black cat. "That hurts a lot, Diana."

"Sure." Diana points at Twilight and Spike, who are lying down on the ground. "At least your mouth is wider than theirs."

"Devil cat." Icey huffs. "With devil sword."

"Lucky that this sword can't slaughter any creature." Diana rubs the sword. "And it's not made by me," Diana says as she turns away. "Lie there for the next hour to rest, I will teach you a spell to do the next mission."

Diana flies to the head of the airship and watches the ground. After an hour, she has not seen any signal from the big city. Others get up and start resting. 

Diana flies to them and starts announcing. "Alright, we will learn the spell."

Twilight's eyes are brightened. "What's spell? Are you planning to teach something special?"

"Nah, just a simple spell." Diana pushes Twilight away and summons the board from the shadow. "This spell is called 'disturb'."

The others tilt their heads in confusion. Spike raises his claw. "You mean, you can disturb someone's work with this spell?"

Diana starts drawing a diamond and a pony, then she draws many arrows from the diamond to the pony. "It's not that way, Spike. I will give you an example." Diana starts pointing at the diamond. "Imagine this is an artifact that gives this pony power. What will you do?"

"Take the artifact." Icey huffs. "That's simple."

Diana asks back. "And what if that artifact is invisible, or can't be touched physically?" Icey and the others keep silent. As Diana spins the chalk, she draws an 'X' between them. "This spell allows you to stop the energy transferring from the artifact to the owner. Except Icey, you all know how to spot the source of mana, right?"

Everyone nods. Sunset is about to raise her claw but Diana stops her. The black cat doesn't want any work from the orange dragon. Matt asks. "So, does this one have ... you know... maximum levels?"

Diana glares at the golden haired man. "Stop playing video games already, Matt." She coughs after that. "Anyway, the 'maximum level' for this spell is you can actually stop the opponent using spells or techniques that are derived from other sources."

"That... just a disturbance." Sunset rubs her head. "I don't know if I have something in my body."



Diana glares at the orange dragon but Matt drags her away. Diana sighs. "All right. I will go inside to prepare some tools for practicing."

When the black cat is getting ready to go inside, a big black ball comes to Diana. She teleports up high and sees two airships with two different flags flying left and right at her. The left airship has a black flag with a white bomb inside, while the right airship has a white flag with a black bomb inside.

Twilight examines the ball and sees that it is a cannon ball. The airship is being hooked. Many minotaurs and griffons have already jumped onto the airship. The crewmate prepares a weapon and charges at them. 





Putting the contract in the corner, Queen Novo sighs. By looking at the white dragon's eyes, he means something serious is wrong with the dragon. The Hippogriff shakes her head and focuses on her work. 

One of her soldiers rushes into the room without knocking. He breathes heavily and reports. "My queen, our castle is under attack."

"By who?"

"By... by the Storm King."

"What? How can he find us?"

"We... don't know. They are attacking from the north."

As Queen Novo swims out of the castle, she sees the Storm King soldiers attacking the castle walls. When the Storm King discovers where the food is, Queen Novo is surprised. She quickly commands her soldiers to defend them.

After an hour, the Storm King soldiers fled the castle. Queen Novo wonders how they know where they are, but this is not acceptable for now. The Hippogrip begins to call for the soldiers to assemble.

Aangra is watching them from above with some of his soldiers. The white dragon grins and turns away. "Do it again. Make sure that they don't have any time to break." 

"Yes, Your Majesty." 

The soldiers start running away. Aangra sits down and closes his eyes. A gray unicorn with a silver mane and tail walks to him. "What are you calling me for?"

"I want you to make sure that you can capture Princess Luna of Equestria." Aangra smiles. "If you can't defeat her, you can retreat, Chalice."

"I understand." Chalice turns away. "I won't fail again."

Aangra watches Chalice leave him. The white dragon has already predicted that this unicorn will fail again, but he should see how strong the alicorn sisters are.





The crewmates are fighting against the sky pirates. They will rise again whenever one of them is knocked out. After a while, a wave of cannon starts shooting at their airship. Diana raises her paws and a dark ball surrounds her airship, bouncing away the cannon ball and encasing the remaining pirates.

A number of pirates are forced to stay away from Matt as he runs ahead of the left airship and swings his boardsword. He makes a big jump and lands on the airship. Many minotaurs are pointing swords at him. Suddenly, a wave of magic arrows fly toward him. Matt hides behind his broadsword to block the arrow. When the wave of arrows is over, Matt spins himself and then slashes at the minotaur. A tornado appears after the slash. As the minotaurs start to take cover, many of them are already inside the tornado and are being blown away from the airship.

Matt looks down and sees that they are flying through the sea. Suddenly, the tornado is being dispelled and a blue minotaur with light green horn is stepping forward. He points his mace at the swordman. Matt analyzes the mace and sees something shining inside. The swordsman smiles and starts rushing at the minotaur. The mace starts shining bright and it is on fire.

Matt swings the sword at the Minotaur. The Minotaur blocks his attack. As they grind against each other, the flame from the mace climbs into the sword. Matt gets his hand off the sword, then quickly punches at the Minotaur's face. After the attack, the Minotaur is stunted. Matthew quickly grabs his sword in midair, then swings it. An air slash flies toward the minotaur. It slashes through the barrels and the cannons on its way.

The blue minotaur rolls under the air slash, then throws his mace at the swordman. Matt steps aside to dodge it, then he charges at the blue minotaur. The minotaur raises his arm and tries to grab Matt, but Matt leaps up and the minotaur's mace is flying to him. The minotaur catches it and swings it at the swordsman. Matthew blocks the attack, then jumps back.

The Minotaur laughs. "Not bad. What's your name, creature?"

"Matthew." The swordman stands up. "And yours?"

"The name is Roger." The blue minotaur laughs and points at Matt. "See you in Manehattan. I will wait for you there."

Matt is charging at Roger, but Roger's minions start throwing smoke bombs at him. After the smoke fades, Matt finds himself with his teammates. 



 

On an airship, which has a white flag and black bombs, there is a gray griffin swinging its staff left to right. Her minions keep firing cannons at the big black balls but it is too difficult to break them. Suddenly, a purple dragon with green spiked hair flies into her and tries to grab her staff. The griffin ducks to dodge the dragon. 

The purple dragon lands on the pole, then jumps down onto the floor. The gray griffin looks at the purple dragon, then commands her minions to catch him. The purple dragon analyzes it and sees that they all resemble mannequins.s. The purple dragon punches one of them and it is shattered into pieces. No blood, no bones. He grins and breathes fire at all of them. 

The gray griffin is shocked. "No, you badass."

"Clothing stores sell them." The purple dragon forms a flaming sword. "Now give me that staff."

"No way, this staff is my life."

"Then I will take it by force."

The purple dragon is about to rush at the gray griffin. In an instant, the gray griffin slams her staff and many mannequins rise from the ground and charge at the purple dragon. 

The gray griffin is confident about the number. Around him, the purple dragon forms many fire knives. The knives start flying and piercing through the mannequin's head. Spike slowly steps forward towards the Griffin.

The gray griffin asks. "Who are you?"

"Spike the dragon." Spike swings a flaming sword and slashes two mannequins. His claws are starting to glow green. "That staff has something I need."

The griffin taps her staff. "It's not gonna work." A big magic circle is shining beneath Spike and the griffin. Spike is trying to run to the griffin as soon as possible. The griffin introduces herself. "The name is Gagel. See you at Manehanttan."

The airship and the griffin have disappeared, leaving the purple dragon alone. Spike sighs and flies back to his airship.