Around A World: Equus

by Dragon Shimmer

The festival

Spike stretches his body and yawns. Yesterday was a good sleep for him. When he just goes to the main room, he sees Twilight sleeping on the sofa. Spike sighs and takes the blanket to cover her. Diana flies to the table and opens the map. The red dot is still inside the mine location.

Spike is going to sneak away but Diana pulls his tail and asks. "Going somewhere?"

"Uh, wake Sunset and others up?"

"You know what to do right? I will claim the reward later."

"Fine," Spike grumbles and prepares some scrolls. "See ya. Good luck with your horror-looking cake."

"But it's not that bad, right?"

"It's good, but the look is so terrifying so I wonder how Matt can eat your cake. Well, at least you can enjoy it beside Pinkie Pie's cake." Spike pats her head. "You two should participate in the cake festival to see who is better?"

"I'm good. I am not going to be a champion of the cake or something."

"How shameful!" Spike opens the door. "Anyway, good luck," and he leaves the wagon.

Diana turns around to watch the map and sees the familiar blue pegasus watching the map in amazement while the pink pony is trying to touch the object on the map.

Pinkie Pie bounces to the black cat and asks. "Hey, Diana. Are you going to join the cake competition in Cloudale?"

Diana is surprised. "Wait... what? Today"

"Of course." Pinkie Pie hugs the black cat and points at the blue pegasus. "Rainbow Dash confirms it."

Rainbow nods and decides to be silenced. Diana answers. "But I am not going to participate in this festival."

"Oh, but your cake is so delicious." Pinkie Pie takes the pony's head-shaped cake and eats it. "Despite it is like coming out from a horror story."

"But..."

Pinkie Pie takes her paw and drags the black cat out of the wagon. Rainbow Dash doesn't know what to do today. Suddenly, a sound is coming from somewhere, making Rainbow Dash fall to the ground. The blue pegasus sees a phone ringing and playing music.

The noise makes Twilight grumble and wake up. She picks up the phone and throws it away. "No please, I wanna sleep more."

Matt comes out of his room and slowly takes the phone, which makes him feel weird. Looking at the screen, he sees the alarm clock ringing. Matt shuts it down and sits on the chair while Rainbow Dash just stares at him. The swordsman sighs. "Don't ask about this thing?"

Rainbow Dash blushes. "Uhmm… I just want to ask where you and Twilight were last night."

"Just investigate a suspicious mine, and free some ponies inside." Matt rubs his eyes while Rainbow just floats in the air amazed. Matt pokes her head. "Nothing big at all."

"You and Twilight have an awesome adventure." Rainbow puts her face near Matt's face. "I just want to do that. I want to join your group."

Matt points outside. "Ask Diana. She is the leader in here." Rainbow Dash gulps when hearing that name. The swordsman makes a cup of coffee. "Besides, we have everything we need. Food, weapons, maps, etc..."

"But..."

"No but. This journey can cost your life. It is not like some famous novels that you read before." Matt takes a pan and an egg. "And I doubt that you even read a book."

Rainbow glares at him and then leaves the wagon. Twilight yawns and stretches her body. The purple alicorn sees the swordsman, then quickly leaves the wagon to follow Rainbow.

---

Pinkie Pie drags Diana into the festival. Inside the festival, there are plenty of shops that have cakes in many shapes. Most of them are very beautiful but Diana just simply doesn't care about that. Pinkie Pie shows her two tents with many kitchen tools inside, which makes her surprised.

Diana asks. "Where did you get these things?"

"In my mane." Pinkie pulls out a bag of bits from her mane and bounces into the tent. "Come on Diana, time to show you something."

Diana sighs and follows the energetic pony inside the tent. Flour, eggs, etc... anything for cooking is prepared inside them. The black cat is surprised. "How can you find these things?"

"It is in my head. Now..." Pinkie Pie pulls out an apron. "I will sell this tent. Of course, you can decorate anything you want in this tent. You have to fast because the festival will begin in 2 hours. "

"Uh... okay..."

Diana looks back at the pink pony but she is not there anymore. She is inside her tent and brings out some decorations. Diana looks at her tent, then she thinks about what she can do with her tent. The black cat flies back to the wagon to grab some tools.

---

Spike is heading to the mine. In front of the mine, many guards are guarding the mine with some fences. Looking at the 'keep out sign, the purple dragon sighs in frustration. A guard walks to him and says. "Hey, this place is secured. Don't you read the sign?"

"Oh sorry. I am just curious about this place."

"Curious, huh?" The guard glares at him. "You are so suspicious."

"Hey, don't accuse me like that."

"Then why are you here?" The guard taps her halberd. "In the place, we just secured."

"Uhmm… I just walk through. So... I will go away."

The guards turn to the others. "Hey guy, we have a suspicious dragon here? Get him"

The pegasi guards jump from the bush and surrounded him. All of them point the spear at him. Spike's claws are on fire, then slam them into the ground, creating a fireball surrounding the purple dragon. The unicorn guards quickly cast shield spells for the pegasi while the pegasi raise the shield and slowly walks to the fireball.

The fireball exploded and created smoke. When the smoke has faded, they don't see the purple dragon anymore. "Find him. Don't make him get away.

The pegasus guards start flying high to search for the dragon while the others just search on the ground. Spike sighs in relief as they don't know he is already in the mine. The purple dragon walks inside the mine to find the way to the memory shard. He creates a fireball and flies around him. 'Some spells can be fit in this situation.' He remembers when he learned magic with Sunset

Getting inside the main room, he sees many guards securing two wagons. The purple dragon sneaks through the guards while using the wagons. When he successfully goes sneaks through the guards, he takes the crystal ball and taps on it. The map is revealed. The red dot is under him. The purple dragon decides to follow the map to the red dot.

After a while, he finds a room with two guards guarding the room. Spike throws a rock aside to distract them but they don't seem to make any movement. The purple dragon feels annoyed and throws a rock again but the guards are still there. 'Oh.. someone trained them like this? Let's see about this one.'

The purple dragon creates a fireball in his hand and throws it through the guards. The guards are surprised and one of them is in the corridor where Spike is standing. Spike denotes the fireball, making the cave rumble. The guards quickly head to the explosion to check if someone will be hurt. Spike takes a chance to enter the room.

Inside the room, there is a long stair. Spike sighs and flies down the stairs. Opening the door, he sees a familiar coral pony sleeping with her halberds. Spike tries to sneak through her but halberd is flying toward him. Spike ducks and looks at the coral mare.

The coral mare takes another halberd. "Sometimes an intruder is a familiar dragon, right?"

Spike steps back. "Eh Coral Blade, I am not coming here to fight."

"Oh... you aim for this room." Coral Blade taps the halberd on the door. "I'm gonna warn you. There are many weird light balls inside."

"You are not gonna stop me?"

"Why should I? If I am trying to stop you, we are not talking much like this." Coral takes back her halberd. "Besides, not even a guard can defeat a dragon."

Spike rolls his eyes. "Sure, 'normal' guard. Where is she in this room?"

Coral Blade counters. "The one who is talking with a 'normal' dragon."

"Fine."

"Here you go."

Coral Blade throws him a shield. He catches it and slowly opens the door.

---

"And done." Diana steps back and watches her tent. It is a black tent with some red stripes. Diana also decorates her tent with a big skull with some red paint. "I like this. Now let's scare some poor ponies"

The black cat is going inside the tent and starts making the cake. Many ponies outside are looking at the tent and feel uncomfortable when staring at it. After 1 hour, the black cat comes out with some small cakes. The cakes are shaped like a pony being hanged, making everyone around feel scared. Diana set the board with the 'horror bakery' tent

The festival starts and everyone is enjoying the festival, but when they see Diana's tent, they stay away as far as possible. Diana just sits on the chair and reads the newspaper while Pinkie Pie is having a lot of customers to serve as there is a long line waiting for her.

Suddenly, a brown old stallion is coming to her. Diana sighs. "What do you want, Pepper? If you want some licenses, can you give me some?"

"Not helping, kitty." Pepper takes a neckache shaped like a red magic circle in the middle. "What is this?"

"Cake. Chocolate around with strawberry string. 3 bits."

"I wonder how you can make this complex shape." Pepper puts on 3 bits and teases. "I will give it a try. Are you trying to summon a small demon by this?"

"And that small demon can have some eyes around." Diana plugs the wooden stick into the eyeballs. "At least it is edible. Here is your eyeball candy, want some?"

"No thank you." Pepper smiles nervously, "If it is good, I can make you some license."

"Say about small soldiers."

"At least my face is not like those cakes." He points at the pony head that sticks in the graveyard. "It is too real, honestly, just like you see it every day."

The old stallion eats the cake. Suddenly, he is falling to the ground. The ponies around are shocked. The old stallion stands up, takes a small bag of bits, and puts it on the table, then he takes all of the magic circle's neck ache and walks away.

Diana takes the bag and starts counting. It has 51 bits in it. Diana rubs her head in confusion, but then she creates a clone and commands it to go inside to make some cakes.

After 30 minutes, there are just some customers buying some of her cake, not because the cake is good, it's just that she is too cute for some ponies who like cats. Diana stretches her body and lies on the table, she sees Pinkie Pie bouncing in front of her. The black cat sighs. "See, no one is gonna buy it. How about you?"

"Well... I sold it all and tried to find some material to buy next." Pinkie Pie takes an eyeball and puts some bits on the table, then she eats it. "Hmm... love the taste of mango inside this cake. Even it has some red cream inside this cake."

"Thank you." Diana sighs. "But why do you drag me here?"

"Duh... There is a cake competition with a big reward." Pinkie pulls out the poster from her mane. "The prize is an airship."

"Wow... but no one's gonna eat my cake." Diana huffs and leans on the wooden pole. "They just come here to pat me or something."

"Don't be so negative." Pinkie Pie taps the cat, then she takes another eyeball and puts some bits on the table. "Someone will recognize your delicious cake."

"Thank... I guess."

Pinkie Pie bounces to her tent to prepare some of the material. Suddenly, a lot of ponies are running. All of them have a bag of bits. Diana just rolls around as she knows they come to find Pinkie Pie.

"Hey, do you have some cake?" A voice is yelling behind the black cat. Diana stands up and sees the ponies holding the bag of bits in front of her. One of them yells at her. "I need some eyeball cakes."

"Oh... how many?"

"A lot. Those cakes are so delicious."

All of the ponies agree with this sentence. Diana stands up and sighs. "Make a line please, this will be long."

The ponies are making a line to wait for their serves. Diana smiles and she starts selling her cake.