A Bridge Between Brothers

by Rammy

An Oasis

ബഐബഐബഐ Spike ബഐബഐബഐ

Ponies thought that because dragons were fire breathers and swam in lava that they didn't need water, not true. We need water and right now both Garble and I were in bad need of some water. My mouth was so dry from lack of water the past four days that my tongue seemed to be forever glued to the roof of my mouth. I knew that Garble was doing worse. He was too 'manly' to admit but it was clear if we didn't find a water source soon... I would gulp if I had the saliva to do so.

Unfortunately, neither of us knew the first thing about finding water in deserts and we had been fooled by mirages several times already. So when I saw a patch of pale green in the distance to our right I was skeptical. But with our mounting desperation to find water we had to try so I tapped on Garble's shoulder to get his attention and pointed in the direction of the spot of green I saw.

"I see it." Garble rasped, his flight path already shifting towards it.

It wasn't long before I could start seeing individual palm trees. So far so good. I noted. My hope rose a bit more as we got closer and it was looking to be less and less of a mirage but an actual oasis. But we had been here before... Garble nearly collapsed as he landed at the edge of the oasis knocking me off.

"Is it really there?" Garble whispered out, panting hard. Even if it wasn't I had a feeling that Garble was going to need to rest before we could move on.

"It had better be really there." I grumbled as I picked myself up and dusted my scales off. I walked up and knocked on one of the palm trees, sighing in relief. Not a mirage. Now to find the water...

As I walked through the grove with Garble right behind me I realized that thee oasis was larger then it appeared in the air. This was good because there was a large amount of water here.... somewhere... It could be difficult to find depending on how long their roots grew and if the water reached the surface or not. I could send a letter to Twilight and ask... At any rate we would at least have shade...

It wasn't long before we broke though the trees and almost stumbled right into a large pool of water. I was tempted to rush ahead to the pool of water but Garble seemed leery. I just hope that his leeriness was just that and we weren't about to have trouble.

"There is a dragon here." Garble hissed, suddenly putting his arm out with his metal claw in front of me. Not that the metal claw would be helpful but the dragon may not know that...

"Uh, do dragons hoard water?" I whispered out, tensing slightly. Please say no. I know Twilight won't be able to help me escape this time and we are basically out in the open in the middle of the day. No trees, underbrush or darkness to hide in discounting the oasis of course but it was not that big.

"No... I mean why would any dragon want to hoard water!?"

"Garble we are in a desert which has very little water..."

"Uh..." Garble rubbed the back of his head with his free arm. "Good point..."

"No dragon would dare..." A soft spoken voice suddenly called out.

Both Garble and I tensed up even more. I slowly eyed the trees along with Garble, trying to find whomever had spoken. The problem was I could see no one. I tried to sniff for any hint but that was no help either. I just had no idea what I was smelling. I was really jealous of Garble's skill with his nose. I mean sure I could smell just as well but that didn't mean I knew what I was smelling and where is was... unless is was something to do with cooking.

Garble suddenly groaned.

"Garble?"

"Great another namby-pamby... are you sure you were the only dragon to live in Equestria? Discounting H.K. of course..."

"I'm sure..." It was one of the first things Twilight and I looked into when I first really wondered about dragons. According to census records going back at least four hundred years I was the only one. The dragon in the Everfree Forest apparently didn't count as the forest was merely a protected state of Equestria and not part of Equestria proper and the dragon in the mountain had to be evicted due to smoke right after he moved in. "But, I don't understand..."

"I didn't notice it before..." Garble sniffed some, "but there are scents from at least a dozen different dragons all several hours old... with one exception..."

Garble casually gestured to a particularly dense grove of palm trees. I looked over and could see a dark scaled teenaged dragon hiding in the deep shadows. From the body language of the dragon it appeared he was hiding out of shyness or fear. Oh great, a fluttershied dragon... Wait a dragon being shy? Okay... Now I'm really confused and a bit annoyed. Why didn't I find this dragon over Garble and his cronies? Then again if he is as shy as he appears...

"Is it because of some ruling of Dragon Lord Torch?"

The dragon in the trees didn't speak up in response but slowly shook his head side to side. Definitively a fluttershied dragon... It was odd, though, as I thought that Dragon Lord Torch was the leader of the dragons.

"Meh, probably wasn't something that was need a ruling by the Dragon Lord..." Garble dismissed the situation, kneeling at the waters edge and cupping some water.

"I thought he was like the ruler of dragons or something... Wouldn't this be something he would rule on?" I asked. I wasn't quite ready to risk drinking the water, unlike Garble.

Garble snorted. "Do you really think Dragon Lord Torch would have that kind of time or have patience to being dealing with shit like this all the time? He would not tolerate whinny dragons who always needed him to deal with their disputes... not that any dragon would... It's probably a just an oath made by the dragons that live near by."

"But what about the Migration? I would guess that at least some dragons would pass through here. Wouldn't he have to make a ruling about that?"

"I don't think the Migration would go through this desert... too little water and not enough prey. Besides that, everydragon would be too busy trying to impress females to fuck." Garble shrugged as he took another drink.

"Wait, are you saying that..." I could feel my face burning with embarrassment as I fought vigorously to get ride of the images assaulting my mind. I don't need that again! Ugh. I had to take notes, NOTES when Twilight decided I needed to understand 'the Parasprites and the Breezies.' "Was that why you were there?!"

"What?" Garble looked at me, horrified. "No."

I raised an eyebrow at that. I didn't take Garble as one of those types... if the Migration was about that and he wasn't there for that... and he was horrified at my suggestion...

"If you are thinking what I think your thinking I will flambe you right now and damn be the consequences."