Around A World: Equus

by Dragon Shimmer


Into the red zone

Matt cuts the newspaper about the lost dragon and sticking them with the maps. The swordsman taps the pencil and read. Dragons are the mannequin mage's target, but it's odd that no body was found, just some shard of eggs. Starting from the smoke in the north of the city where every dragon inside will disappear.

Twilight enters inside and sees the mess. "Matt, what are you doing?"

"Just tries to be a detective." Matt points at a picture of a high building. "I have to spend all of the money to buy all these newspaper." Twilight turns around and leaves the room. Matt pulls the purple alicorn back. "Okay, I am. Most of them were found in the trash in that building."

Twilight tilts her head. "Which trash are you talking about? No one will keep this for a newspaper, except some weird ponies."

"A pony who collects old newspaper articles about important events in the city." Matt points at the newspaper. "Those are for the trash."

"Weird." Twilight rubs her chin. "I think we should meet him. He probably knows something about this case. Do you have his address?"

Matt takes out the business card. The purple alicorn finds the address on the business card on the map and sees this is the red area of the city. The red area is an area where laws and justice can't reach, a heaven for criminals.

Matt cracks his fist. "Looks like we have to leave now."

"And that's far away." Twilight feels regret inside. "Oh Celestia, we should stay in Rarity's boutique to get there faster."

It is best to wait until Spike and Icey return, they will guard this airship and take care of our crops." Matt slams the map. In addition, we might be able to get some information from them."

Twilight jumps out of the airship and talks with the police about the red area. The police try to persuade her not to come, but Twilight ignores those words.


Twilight and Matt are walking through the street. There is no pony, no traffic on it, making the purple alicorn shiver a bit. When they are arriving to the address, many creatures jump out with the weapon. One of them points at the purple alicorn. "Give us that alicorn. We will have fun to her."

Matt and Twilight look at each other. Matt cracks his neck while Twilight's horn glows purple. The group steps back. Matt takes the sword. "We are so lucky today." Twilight rolls her eyes and the group charges at them.

After thirty minutes, there is no longer a quiet street like it used to be. It is replaced by a loud scream. Behind the wall, there is a blue colt watching everything happen. The human and alicorn are actually beating the big gang. They are fleeing from them but the purple chain pull them back and wraps around them.

Now, all of the gangs are lying on the ground, some on the street light. As Matt stretches his body and holds the head of a random pony, he shows the business card. "Tell me. You know this guy?" The pony nods his head. Matt throws the pony. "Lead the way."

The pony leads the duo to the address. In amazement at the duo, the colt decides to follow them. After fifteen minutes, the colt feels flying. Looking down, he finds that he is floating in the air and heads to the duo. The colt is struggling to get out but a hand grabs his back to prevent him to move.

Matt looks at the colt. "You clearly know how to catch a rat, Twilight."

"Hey." The colt struggles to get out. "I am not a rat."

Twilight rolls her eyes and asks the colt. "Why are you following us?"

The colt turns his face away. "Because.... I heard that someone was fighting, so I was curious."

Matt drops the colt. "And why are you here? This place is not for children."

The colt rubs his flank and glares at the swordsman, then runs away and says nothing. Twilight and Matt is confused, then they see a piece of paper that read 'Wrong Way'. Matt looks at the pony and threatens him. "Are you guiding us somewhere?"

The pony stops then slowly turns around. Four eyes stare him in the face of a death stare. "Uh... no. This is the right way." He says emphatically. "Okay... I will lead you there."

Matt puts the sword on the pony's shoulder. "If a second lie is made, the swords will be your grave."

The pony slowly nods and leads them to the place they need.


Diana lies on Sunset's head and relaxing. There are no customers today so they are free. Sunset reads a magic book. The orange dragon feels so familiar for these ones. Diana stretches her body. "Another day without customer."

Sunset flips a page. "And I am wearing a lying cat." Diana turns her head away. "Three hundred bits? It's like thirty bits. Where did you get the other money?"

"Secret." Diana rolls around. "Or else we would not be able to exist today."

Sunset returns reading a book. Diana turns around when she sees something approaching her cart. The black cat sees a brown pony with yellow hair, wearing black glasses.

The pony looks around and sits down. His hooves tap the table. "Who's in charge here?"

Diana flies towards the pony. "Me. How can I help you?"

The pony looks at the hanging candy and sticky eyes for a while, then puts a bag of money. "I want you to make me a cake in thirty minutes."

Diana giggles. "Then I should prepare you some drinks." The pony nods. Diana grins. "I hope you have the guts to taste it."

Diana gets inside and makes some drinks for the stallion, then makes the cake. A disk is placed on the wall after thirty minutes by the black cat. The dish have three pony heads is stuck by the stick with something dripping red from them.

The stallion looks at them for a while, then grabs them. "How many ponies have you killed, cat?"

"More than you think." Diana spins the dagger. "If they mess with us."

The pony smiles. "You don't have to use that knife to kill somepony. These things can scare them to death."

Diana rolls her eyes. "That's why a pony fainted after seeing my cake."

The pony bites the hold's head, causing him to be silent for a while. After a while, he eats them all. The pony gives the cat the bussiness card. He leaves the duo after saying, "I'll contract with you later."

Diana takes the money bag and finds a lot of gold coins inside. The black cat hisses. "This pony humiliates me."

"At least we don't have to worrying about money today." Sunset stands up. "Time to learn some magic."

Diana flies to the orange dragon and starts teaching magic in order to recover her memory.


Twilight and Matt are standing in front of a big building. The building is collapsed, covered in rusty bricks and broken windows. Matt throws the pony away and tries to open the door, but he immediately throws his arm away when he touches the doorknob. He waves his hand from side to side.

Twilight looks through the key hole and sees something aiming at it. Ducking behind the key hole, the purple alicorn dodges the object. Twilight glares at the door. "Okay, who made these traps? I'm nearly blind because of that."

Matt kicks the door hard. The door simply spins around and slaps them inside the building. The duo gets up and sees a blue colt sitting on the floor. Matt coughs. "Alright, enough pranks? You should lead me to the pony."

The colt yelled in a feminine voice. "No way I will let you hurt my father. You two just try to kill."

Twilight and Matt are silenced for a bit. The purple alicorn will explain to the filly but the floor is broken and the duo is falling down.

When the duo lands on the ground, they see many tools around with a cart. Matt looks at the tool and tries to grab one, but he receives a kick into his leg. Matt grunts and rubs his leg. "You don't have to do that."

The purple alicorn opens the door and she sees many bucket are flying to her. Twilight stops them with magic, then tosses them away. The purple alicorn steps on the stairs, but feels something stabbing into her hoof. Twilight stands back and sees a nail plugging into the wood. The purple alicorn jumps back quickly. She sees her left hoof bleeding. "Okay, that filly is out of the hoof. I'm catching her."

Matt uses a water spell to wash Twilight's wound, then wraps a bandage around it. "This place is full of traps. No wonder that pony we caught before was scared of it."

"Okay, I will teleport us upstair."

Twilight's horn shines and the duo disappears. When they appear upstairs, two buckets flew into their faces and filled them with paint. The filly laughs at them. Twilight and Matt grab the buckets and squeeze them.

The filly is trying to run away but a purple aura surrounds her. She floats towards the purple alicorn. The filly is struggling to get out.

Twilight sighs. "We're here not to fight or hurt your father."

The filly retorts. "Liar, you are just one of those bad ponies who want to take money." The filly followed the purple unicorn. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Matt, please check the downstair." Twilight steps on the stairs. A concrete pole flies into her. Twilight ducks. "I will check upstairs."

"Good luck. Have fun with that trapper."

Matt hurries downstairs and checks the building while Twilight just brings the filly.