//------------------------------//
// Head to the North of the city 
// Story: Around A World: Equus 
// by Dragon Shimmer 
//------------------------------//

Twilight is walking into the mall with Matt. Matt wears a black robe and black hood to hide himself, but his outfit still catches attention. Matt prays that this attention will be over.

Twilight looks at him and shakes her head. The purple alicorn reads the paper. Currently, three criminal organizations are emerging, according to the police.

First one is Tartarus of Dragons. They are aiming to kill all of the dragons. Since they are working in the North of the city, police must ban all dragons from going there.

Twilight sighs. "Looks like someone hates dragons."

Matt gives her a smirk. "Dragons ... who doesn't hate them?" Twilight glares at the swordman. With his hands, Matt covers his face. "Okay okay, stop looking at me like that."

"Now we will go to the north of the city." Twilight points at the taxi wagon. "We will go by taxi."

"But why can't the police catch them?"

"Because they will disappear whenever the police come." Twilight flips another page. "Even in the police station, they still disappear."

"I see. Let's go."

Matt and Twilight are heading to the taxi but the horse pulling the wagon runs away. Matt and Twilight sit there and wait for another one. To gain information, they read the paper.

Even after fifteen minutes, the duo is still waiting for a taxi. Matt leans against the bench while Twilight is reading her book. 

"Twilight?" The duo turns to the voice and sees the white unicorn staring at her. The white unicorn hugs the purple alicorn. "Twilight, where have you been?"

"Uh... just some journey, Rarity." Twilight bucks at Matt's leg hard. "Someone 'invites' me and Spike to this quest in some unexpected means, so I have to follow them."

"I...see." Rarity smiles and looks at the human, who is trying to hold his pain. The white unicorn asks. "Why did you have to cover yourself like that?"

Matt answers. "Well, we have to go to the north of the city for... some work."

Rarity nods. "That's lucky, I'm going that way too." Rarity waves her hoof on the road. "Taxi."

A stallion with a wagon stops. The trio starts climbing up the wagon and heads to the north.





Spike wakes up in the abandoned building. Last night, things didn't go smoothly when the guards noticed them. Spike takes a peek outside and sees many ponies standing side by side. After five minutes, the purple dragon sees a luxurious wagon coming to the harbor.

Spike ignores them and tries to wake the blue dragon up. He is immediately hugged by the blue dragon. Spike huffs. "Wake up Icey."

Icey whispers. "Five minutes, Dad. I don't want to get up."

Spike rolls his eyes and casts a waterball over Icey's head. The blue dragon grasps and wakes up immidiately, then she glares at the purple dragon. Spike raises his claws and explains." You litterally hug me."

"Liar." 

Icey folds her claws and turns away. The purple dragon takes out a map. "Now, we will go to Lunar Harbor."

Icey points at location named 'Sungaze Bridge', then passes through Lunar Harbor to Nightgale Bridge. "We will proceed like this."

"I see." Spike takes a peek outside and sees the guards going inside the building. "We have to go right now."

"Get it."

Spike and Icey fly off the 'Sungaze Bridge' after rushing to the balcony.  They are chased by some pegasi. They even shoot arrows at them. Spike catches one of the arrows, then throws it back to them. One of the wings of the pegasus is stabbed by the arrow. He falls down, causing other finches to stop flying after him.

The purple dragon flies as fast as he can, leaving the blue dragon behind. Icey speeds up and tries to follow Spike. 



 

Twilight, Matt, and Rarity stop at the building. When Twilight and Matt look up at the building, they see pony mannequins wearing pony clothes. The swordsman huffs and follows the pony duo inside.

There are many clothes in the building, and there is a teal pony with orange hair standing in front of the counter. When she sees Rarity, the teal pony with a black blouse runs and embraces her. Twilight and Matt turn around to check the customs. The teal mare releases Rarity and asks. "Rarity, what are you doing here?"

"Oh darling, I'm just here to check out my new shop." Rarity waves her hoof. "Is anything here okay, Sassy Saddle?"

The teal mare turns away. "Not okay. Everything is a mess."

Rarity tilts her head. "What's happening?" 

"In this shop, there is a mannequin that suddenly moves around." Sassy lies on the counter and yawns. "It makes me can't sleep every night."

Rarity grasps. "Really?" Sassy nods. Rarity huffs. "Okay, I will stay here with you tonight."

"Thank you so much Rarity, but I'm afraid that you can't do anything." 

"I'm fine." Rarity waves her hoof. "Let me handle this, okay?"

Sassy nods and returns to the counter. She walks to Twilight and Matt, who are watching the clothes. Rarity asks the duo to helps her with these walking manequinns. 

Twilight and Matt agree. Twilight asks the teal pony some questions. After thirty minutes, Twilight asks Matt to enter inside the room so they can talk with each other. The purple alicorn takes out the paper. "Well, Sassy said that she met this issue about a week ago. Because of this, most employers have to quit their jobs."

Matt asks. "So why is that pony still here?"

"Because she doesn't want to lose a job." Twilight shakes her head. "And no one will accept her for this job."

"Wow, really." Matt takes the broadsword. "Anyway, we will set a trap. This can be related to the pirate we just met yesterday."

"I thought so." Twilight opens the door. "We should look around to set the trap."

They wander around the building to analyze it, then set up some traps and wait for the one who controls the mannequin.





Aangra is tapping on the table. He looks at the gray unicorn, who is sitting on the burning chair. The gray unicorn is trying to get away from the chair but the chains are too tight for him. After fifteen minutes, the chain releases him, and the gray unicorn falls down. 

Aangra sighs in frustration. "Not only do you fail this mission, but also mess with someone that you shouldn't mess with."

Chalice is trying to stand up but the cold water are falling from the sky. Screaming out loud, the gray unicorn faints. The guards take Chalice out of the room. Aangra sighs and turns to the yellow Abyssian. "I hate that annoying old mare."

"Stop lying." The yellow Abyssian smiles and gives him a paper. "Anyway, Queen Nova wants to meet you."

Aangra nods and stands up and leaves the castle, then he and the crew head to the ocean kingdom under the water. When they get there, a guard leads him to the meeting room. He sees the hippogriff sitting on the chair. Aangra nods and sits at the chair beside her. 

Queen Nova starts to ask. "How did you know the Storm King could find us?"

"Not goona lie, it's just my feeling

" Aangra grins. "I am just fighting against them to keep them away from here."

Queen Nova glares at him, then she sighs. "About the deal, I accept it."

"Nice to meet you, Queen Nova." Aangra raises his claw. "I hope we can work together."

Queen Nova smiles and shakes his claw, then she commands the guards to lead him outside.



 

Sunset is reading a book while Diana is lying on Sunset's head and resting. Today business is so bad like yesterday when the ponies kept running away from the wagon. Sunset sighs and looks at the sky. Diana pats her head to calm her down. 

"Excuse me." A voice from below catches their attention. Sunset looks at two ponies with black clothing and punk-style manes. They are all wearing masks. Sunset feels weird when their coat doesn't match the normal pony coat. The first pony asks. "Do you have any cakes for sale?"

Sunset is going to answer but Diana puts her paw on her snout. She answers while her eyes are still closed. "We will sell them for any pony."

The second pony orders. "Then, can you get me some eyes cake? I love that design."

"You won't get them." Diana opens her eyes. "Because you are not ponies."

In the course of countering, the ponies are slashed by the sword of the black cat. The ponies' heads fall off, and everyone is surprised. A police runs to her and tries to catch her but the black cat jumps on his head and lands on the victim.

The police points his horn at Diana. "You are under arrest for murder."

"Murder?" Diana turns away. "Your eyes are just decorated, aren't they?"

As the police officer looks at the victim, he is surprised. They do not have blood. After checking the victim, he discovers they are just manniquins. The police are trembling. "Those...aren't real?"

"A normal pony would ask nervously when she sees our wagon." Diana turns her attention to Sunset. "Let's go Sunset, we should close now."

Sunset tilts her head. "For what? This is not the time."

"To raid a mage." Diana grins. "This one will have a heart attack."

Sunset nods and closes the wagon. After locking their wagon, Sunset starts following Diana to the controller of mannequins.