Meanwhile, Smolder and Gallus were busy scouring the grassy meadows, which looked very similar to the ones at Sweet Apple Acres. At least that’s how Smolder saw it.
“How do we even begin?” she groaned. “There’s just grass everywhere!”
“And a couple trees,” Gallus pointed out bluntly. “Why is your vision so narrow? Need some glasses?”
“I do NOT need glasses!” Smolder protested, punching him in the shoulder. “I just see things differently. You have no idea how it is in a home environment where everything is just basalt rock with caves and little to no plants.”
“Fair enough,” Gallus huffed, shrugging with his arms crossed. “Well, I’m off.”
“But where - ” Smolder began, but Gallus had already took off in one direction. With a sigh, the little dragon sulked and trekked through the grass, further and further from the school grounds. The grass wasn’t a trouble at all; it was loose, instead of dense or overly tall. However, an effort of peering over and into the foliage was needed to spot anything low-lying.
Smolder kept walking, eventually coming upon the top of the hill. Gazing down, she spotted a small path at the bottom, which forked into two separate directions. One snaked into the forest beyond, while the other lead west towards other mountains in the distance.
“Hmmm,” she thought for a moment. Which path to take? In most situations, she’d just fly over and pick a place to land that looked interesting. But for this excursion, she’d chosen to walk. Then it came to her. In the school library, there was a large, beautifully framed painting of a forked path leading through a field. Above it a poem was written:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Ocellus had mentioned that it was one of her favorite poems, and knew of its deep meaning relating to life itself.
Smolder sat down and pondered. The westward path looked less worn-down, and also meant less of a chance of being stalked or captured by any would-be dangers - be they mysterious beasts or criminal ponies. Yet both looked equally as inviting to explore and investigate.
“Westward I go,” she announced, and ran down the hill, tumbling a bit at the bottom before hopping back up onto her feet and taking off down the path leading to the mountains, hoping to find something before Gallus did. In between the hills there lay many small fields of beautiful flowers, their petals dancing in the wind, along with a few trees. A quick flashback to botany class reminded her that things that fall from trees end up at their base, so she began checking each tree for boards, baskets, bags - anything out of the ordinary, big or small.
Smolder then spotted it in the fifth tree that she investigated. It was high up, stuck amongst the leafy branches, a thin rectangular wooden board with wheels hanging at an angle. Her eyes widened with excitement. No one else knew of it - or had ever seen it before! Quietly she hoped that Gallus hadn’t been here before and was just waiting to pounce on the chance to “steal” it.
Still staring up at the tree, Smolder quickly tried to think of a way to get the object out of its prison of branches and twigs. Burning down the tree was totally out of the question, as she’d most likely end up burning the object itself. Fire was awesome, but was also very destructive. Many times Twilight Sparkle and her friends had advised her not to use it unless absolutely necessary, given how she’d torched a dress on her first sewing lesson.
The only option left was to climb and pull it out of the branches, it seemed. After a quick check for any sign of Gallus, Smolder flew up and grabbed the nearest thick branch. Pushing herself up into the thicket of branches, she reached out and gripped one end of the board, then pulled and pulled. After some turning and more pulling, a couple smaller branches snapped and the board came free, loose - but still within the branches. Smolder pulled so hard that she lost her footing and fell down to the ground with a thump.
“Ow!” she winced, rubbing her back. “Dragons are tougher than a tree,” she added proudly, flying back up into the tree. With a quick grab, the board slid free of the branches.
Back on the ground, Smolder set the object on the ground and sat back.
“Huh?” she mumbled, gazing at it in bewilderment, unsure what to make of it. It had rounded corners, hard shiny brackets on each end, and four small white wheels attached to them. Rubbing them with her claw, she discovered they spun fast. “Cool.”
One side was black and grey, with the large words “Almost” spread across it, while the other was black-colored, with flakes that glistened in the sunlight. Smolder rubbed the back of her fingers on it. It felt rough, strong, and gritty - a surface that you wouldn’t ever slip or lose your footing on.
Placing it on the grass, she then placed her hands on the top and tried to move them about - and realized that the wheeled board could move from side to side - both ends together. A moment of realization hit her.
“What if I stand on this and push? By the law of movement, pushing should cause me to move, right?”
The brave dragon got to her feet and stepped onto the board… and found herself rocking and tipping. With some quick wing-flapping, she righted herself. It was a completely new feeling. Every little movement or repositioning she made with her feet caused the board to wiggle or tilt ever so slightly. After a few minutes, she realized she could control it in a way, if she regulated the movements of her feet. Letting one foot lean over, she set it down and pushed. The board moved a little, before stopping abruptly and jolting, causing a disappointed Smolder to fall flat on her face.
Elsewhere, Gallus was scouring trees and looking over cliffs and down holes for anything valuable he could find. After almost an hour, nothing was to be found, until he found a thin black cylinder lying buried by moss at the base of a tree a minute’s walk into the forest beyond the meadow. Picking it up, he noticed it had a pressable tip on one end, which caused a thin shiny tip to come out a tiny hole on the other end.
“Uh, I guess this is pretty cool. I mean, you have something which can retract with just a press. But what’s with the black tip?”
Curious, Gallus prodded his talon with it, only to leave a dark spot.
“What?” he yelped in a low voice. “How did that happen?” Disappointed, he tried to rub it off with some mud. It took several tries, but it finally came off. A moment of realization hit him during a detention period, and he gazed inquisitively at the object.
“This is a… pen, isn’t it? If so it’s unlike any other I’ve seen. It’s ink is somehow built into it and you can retract the top when you don’t need to use it. Twilight’s gonna love this.”
Feeling content with his find, Gallus held onto the pen tightly and flew straight back to the school.