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// 43 - Clothes Make the Dragon 
// Story: Bind on Pickup 
// by David Silver 
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Garble immediately felt different. The new gear didn’t appear in his bag, but he was clad in it.

“Hah! Awesome!” He said as he looked down at his new gear. It was fancy, like he hoped, some kind of flowing garment and was white clothes with blue accents. He waved his arms. “It’s light, is there like some kind of new super light armor on it?” He was aware he was wearing a hat of some kind, too.

The genie looked down, folding his arms. Garble looked at him. “You know, you seemed pretty pissy before, but this is pretty sweet. Weren’t you in a hurry to go?”

The genie smiled. “I’m going to wait just a little longer.”

“... Okay weird.” Garble said, looking back at his gear. He held his arm out. There was a fancy bracelet on it, with roses and flowers. Okay kinda lame, but whatever, probably really powerful. “Oh yeah!” his eyes widened with excitement. “Let’s see what sweet kinda sword I got!” He put his hand to his side, drawing his weapon.

The weapon came out of it’s holster easily, and he raised up… a small stick. On the end there was a ball with what looked like pretty feathers made of metal around it. This was not a sword. It wasn’t even kind of a sword.

Garble reached up and plucked the hat from his head. This wasn’t a sweet hat, this was like a… diamond with frills. He wasn’t wearing the cool tunic of a warrior, he was wearing a magic dress.

His eyes open, he looked back down at himself, to realize he was wearing the sort of thing Sandra wore. He snapped his head over to look at the rest of his party. They too were wearing new gear. Spike wore an apron and a do-rag over long sleeves, and a knife and a pan were hanging from his waist. Smolder had a dress, flowing and elegant if one ignored the armored skirt at her hips, and Sandra was wearing a toned down tunic like he’d expect his class would wear.

“Hey!” He turned to the genie. “What gives?”

The genie continued to smile. “What does it look like, I fulfilled your wish. I gave your party the best gear for their classes.”

“Yeah but the wrong classes.”

“You said nothing about who should receive what gear.” The genie gestured beatifically, his arms extended, palms up. “And I have provided.”

Garble scowled. “Whatever, at least we can swap gear so it’s right.”

The genie raised an eyebrow. “Can you?”

“And why wouldn’t we?”

Sandra raised her voice. “Well, most of the really good gear in the tower can’t really be traded…”

“So!"

Sandra looked down at what appeared to be a walking stick in her hands. It was… a walking stick? Or was it a cane? She walked with it, but it made metal tapping sounds with each impact that belied that first impression. "Guys, I think there's a problem."

"That's my line." Spike landed just behind Smolder, the two arriving at the center. "Mine's not so bad, I think?" He was dressed as a ninja, a cleaver in his right hand, a dagger in the other. "At least I can move in it."

Smolder stormed up towards her brother. "You couldn't wait a minute?! I told you to never tell anyone about this!" She gestured down at the dress she was wearing, flowing, pretty, and likely arcane in nature. "And you put us both in it?! Is this some kind of twisted joke, Bro?"

The genie looked satisfied with his work, his chortle growing. "You should not be angry with him. He wished for your party to have the very best equipment I could make, and this has been made so. Surely success will follow." With a parting clap, he became as smoke, flowing back into the lamp he emerged from.

With the genie's passing, the room's features bleached white. The great pool of clear acidic goo became nothing more than colored floor. It was a big empty space with an abandoned lamp towards the center. Boring, as rooms went. Garble was left with an irate sister. "Hey, you heard him. I asked for something good, for all of us. I coulda just asked for something for me, but I tried it your way."

"My way?!" she almost screeched. "How is this--" She waved her sceptre wildly at her flowing dress, her cheeks on fire. "My way?!"

Sandra closed the distance at a light jog. "I... appreciate the effort, but I don't think it worked out."

Spike raised a finger, the motion of his hips causing the dangling pot to jangle. "What happened to our old stuff? We didn't lose it, did we?"

"Probably in your inventory," advised Sandra, grabbing her guild chain and tapping. "Yeah, still in there, thank the gods."

Smolder grabbed Garble by his new dress, shaking him by the chest. "And since when did you ever want to wear a dress? What else don't I know about you, Bro?"

"Dude, c'mon." He pushed her snarling form back. "Since when did anyone... besides those two." He hiked a thumb at Spike and Sandra. "--like wearing dresses?"

"Hey!" Spike put his hands on his hips. "It had good stats!"

Smolder took a step back, realizing she never had confessed that to her brother. Why would she?! "Nevermind! These are lame!" She raised a claw as if to tear at them, but Sandra grabbed for her hand.

"Hold up there! These aren't very good for us to wear, but they're still really good!" Sandra pulled at her cane and it slid easily, revealing a sharp sword hidden inside of it. "We can bring them back to the forge and melt them down to make way better stuff."

Garble crossed his arms. "Now, I ain't an expert or nothin' but how do you 'melt' a dress? Don't they just... burn?"

Spike's shoulders lifted with a grunt. "I dunno, but everything sure seemed to melt in there. I like that idea. We'll turn it all in and get everyone an upgrade. For now though, can we get back to the equipment that actually fits? Cookware is not gonna help me do my thing. Sandra's not going to summon better with a sword, or armor. Garble... yeah... Ditto Smolder."

Garble was looking to Sandra. "I know how to stuff a potion or something in there, but how do you do it with whole outfits?"

"That's actually easier!" She moved to where Garble could look over her shoulder. "Just press this... See, all your equipment, and you can select which one you want to wear like this..." With a soft crackle, her form suddenly became garbed in her fiery robes, her staff appearing where she could grab it before it hit the ground. "Ta da, all better!"

Spike was already fiddling with his chain, but Smolder, powered by embarrassment, was the next to manically smash the buttons and get back into her other outfit. "Oh, thank you," she breathed out, sagging in place. "I'll leave the magical sticks to you two."

Soon they were all back in appropriate equipment, but Spike looked perplexed still. "Hey, never really thought about it before, but how much stuff can we hold like that? Not... everything ever, right?"

"Of course not, silly." Sandra was heading for the far door, towards the rest of the tower. "You can only hold a few pieces of equipment per slot, and 30 miscellaneous things at a time. That's why some people wear bandoleers, 'cause what's in those don't count."

Smolder reached for her dangling supplies. "And this, right?"

"Everything on your belt is one item, and only when you put it away," agreed Sandra as she arrived at the door. "So you're set to go."

"So, like dresses, huh?" Garble was at Smolder's side as they started to move.

"No!" she shouted at him, giving him a huge shove that only made him laugh. "I do not!"

Spike waved at them from by the door. "Let's form up. Past this is either stairs, an elevator, or the rest of this floor waiting to smash us. We should be ready."

Garble lifted his shoulders. "My gold's on stairs or elevator. This room had enough in it. Speaking of that, a little healing action, eh?" He moved to press his hands against the door and it began to open without him actually pushing against it.

"Oh yeah." Spike thrust his shield up, warmth seeming to explode outwards from him before becoming a more focused green line between him and Garble, soothing the acidic injuries. "Hey, uh, thanks."

"You bein' sarcastic?" He glared over his shoulder at the smaller dragon.

"Nah. The way I see it, you mighta got away with it if you had tried to be greedy, but you tried to do something nice for all of us. So, thanks, really." He tapped his guildchain. "Besides, when we melt all this down, we'll turn it into an actual upgrade for us all. We still got something."

Smolder roughly elbowed her brother. "Sure, that was good, but you could have just waited a minute."

"That stupid whatever it was was getting impatient like he was just gonna go and give me nothin', so I made a dang wish." He shrugged and marched forward. "Also, I win the bet."

Beyond the door, stairs reached up towards the ceiling in a tight spiral. Spike flew ahead, shield vanishing in the act. "Going up!"

"Spike!" Spike stopped at the voice, because it didn't come from inside his head, but audibly to his right. The others also turned to look at it. "Can you hear me?"

Smolder blinked with wide eyes. "Headmare Twilight?"

"Smolder? Oh, it's been too long. Is Garble there too?"

"Yeah... Ha, figures." He slapped Spike on the shoulder. "Your pony princess must be worried about you."

"Pony princess?" Sandra approached the floating voice. "Um, hello? We... haven't met."

"Hello to you as well. Who am I speaking to?"

Spike hiked a thumb at Sandra. "This is Sandra. She's the one that brought us here, by mistake, and now she's our friend and part of the team. She's been working really hard to get us back home."

Sandra colored, remembering those few moments when she first saw what would become her dragon friends. "I'm so sorry... I had no idea! They... your dragons... have really helped me out. I... am not the same person."

"They aren't my dragons," gently corrected Twilight. "Spike is my dear brother. Smolder is a student of mine... Huh, I suppose two of them are my dragon if you tilt your head the right way. I have no claim to Garble, but I'm glad to hear he's alright too."

Garble prodded the point in the air the voice was coming from, but there was no yelp in response. "So, you just checkin' in on us or what?"

"In part, yes. Also, I'm Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you, Sandra." The voice sounded friendly and female.

Sandra was peering at it with some bit of wonder. "Are you... a horse demi-human, or... an actual horse?"

"While ponies do share some anatomical similarities to equus ferus caballus, our genetic common point diverged countless moons ago," explained Twilight in full teaching mode. "Did you say human?"

"That's what I am," offered Sandra, a hand moving to point at herself, not that Twilight seemed able to see her any better than any of them could see Twilight. "So you're... like a horse... but not."

"Ponies are like horses, but very much not," agreed Twilight. "For one, horses have a difficult time having conversations about their taxonomical place in the world."

Garble took hold of Sandra by the shoulder and shoved her aside. "Yeah, whatever. We're kinda busy right now. We got a tower to crush. You need somethin'?"

"The connection seems better, whatever you're doing. I feel I can do something soon. I'm still working on it. Be careful, please."