On the outskirts of Canterlot, a large sum of dirt suddenly burst from the ground and the brown and green dragon emerged not long after with the others following suit. The white and blue dragon was the last to come out and instantly made an ice block within the hole just to be on the safe side.
The serpentine dragon growled and turned to the white and blue one, “Fridgia, what the Tartarus!? Why did we run!? You know we could’ve taken those guys!” It yelled in a female’s voice.
“We came here looking for Aquarius, Voltina, not to pick fights with this world’s inhabitants.” Fridgia replied.
The magenta dragon, finally ripping the diamond bracelet out of her mouth, approached Voltina, “She is right, little sister. We can’t waste time needlessly attacking everything on sight.” The serpentine dragon could only grumble in response. The magenta dragon then turned to Fridgia, “Still, those humans we fought back there, they were… different.”
“Agreed Fira, especially the one I fought. She actually smelled of… pony.” Fridgia pointed out.
The kirin-like dragon spoke up, “What?! What’s a pony doing living among this world’s denizens?”
“Your question is as good as mine, Venta,” Fridgia replied with a sigh, “Finding Aquarius may not be as easy as we originally thought.”
“What do we do now sister?” Fira asked.
“For now, we should rethink our approach with our search for Aquarius lest we attract the attention of those humans again.” Fridgia replied.
“Yeah, I bet ya Terra doesn’t want to get tossed around again.” Voltina said which earned her a growl and a glare from the brown and green dragon, “What? I’m just saying.”
With that, the dragons left the frozen hole behind them.
On their way to Santa Ponyville, Scorpan and the boys stopped at a fast food joint to grab some lunch.
After the boys had their fill, Rumble asked, “So Mr. Scorpan, how are the waves lately?”
“Pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Santa Ponyville does have some of the best waves in the state” Scorpan replied. “Though just to give you the heads up, every young surfer from the west coast is gonna be there, so you boys better be expecting a lot of competition.”
“We couldn’t have it any other way uncle.” Spike said with a smile.
After a couple hours of talking and listening to music, Scorpan and the boys have finally reached their destination.
Santa Ponyville. A large seaside town where many people come to surf. While it can be quite a tourist trap with its beaches, boardwalk, warfs, local restaurants, and accessory shops, it’s still a very nice place to come to, especially during the summertime.
Not too long when they enter town, they pull up near the boardwalk. The boys got out of the winnebago with Scorpan not too far behind. He gave each of the boys some money before saying, “I got a couple places to go before we head to my place, you boys go ahead and have a little fun while I do that, ok?”
“You got it uncle.” Spike replied with a nod. Scorpan smiled before he turned and headed towards a nearby grocery store. Spike and his buds then went to the boardwalk, starting with the arcade.
"Oooh!" Button Mash squealed like a fanboy meeting his hero for the first time. "I've died and entered heaven! Space Invaders! Donkey Kong! Street Fighters! EEEEEEHHH!!!"
And just like that, Button Mash was already jumping on game consoles to mash the buttons, leaving Spike and the rest of his guy pals to shake their heads at Button Mash's antics.
"Button Mash and his games," Spike muttered, with the others joining.
"Well, while we're here, I'm gonna shoot some hoops," Rumble said, walking over to a nearby basketball arcade game.
"I call dibs on Whack-a-Mole!" Pipsqueak said as he left to play his game.
Thorax turned to Spike and asked, "So, Spike. What do you think of playing?"
Spike thought about it for a minute before answering, “You know, I wanna try that new arcade shooter they recently installed. So let’s check that out.”
“Got room for two more?” A voice called out. “I heard it’s a four player game.”
Both Spike and Thorax turn to the source of the voice and see two other boys slightly older than them.
The first boy, the one who called out to Spike and Thorax, had a light cyan and moderate opal messy hair and light sea green eyes. For attire, he wore a light green shirt with an image of three turtles on it, brown cargo shorts, and sandals. The second boy had light blue hair with amber streaks at the tips and moderate azure eyes. For attire, he wore a dark blue jacket with yellow outlines over a white jacket with a picture of a griffon on it, gray sweats, and yellow sneakers.
“Sandbar! Gallus!” Spike yelled excitedly as he and Thorax head on over to two boys and exchange fist bumps. “It’s good to see you guys!”
“Same here Spike.” Sandbar said.
“Are you two ready for the Grom Splashdown?” Thorax asked.
“Is that even a question? Heck yeah we are.” Gallus replied rather cockily.
“That’s good to hear.” Spike smiled.
“What are we all standing around for? Let’s check that arcade shooter out!” Thorax exclaimed.
The other boys nodded to this and headed over to the game.
Back over at Canterlot, one of the operators that was in the SWAT van was waiting down in an alleyway with a disk in hand. After a couple minutes, he was approached by a dark figure.
“Give this to the commander. He’s gonna want to see it.” The operator said as he handed the disk over to the figure.
The figure nodded as he took the disk and left as mysteriously as he came.
Button Mash was later playing a game of Don Bluth's Dragon's Lair. The game where the player controls the hero, Dirk the Daring, to rescue the game's damsel-in-distress, Princess Daphne, from the dragon that had kidnapped her.
Thorax, Gallus, and Sandbar stood on the sidelines, cheering for their friend.
"C'mon, Button! FOCUS!" Sandbar shouted.
"C'mon, man!" Gallus barked. "Get past this level and that sexy Princess Daphne is saved!"
"Again, how did Don Bluth get away with that?" Thorax asked, before he resumed, "C'mon, Button! WATCH OUT FOR THE DRAGON!"
But despite all his best efforts, Button lost the game, much to his dismay, as well as the disappointment of his guys.
"DANG!" Gallus grunted.
"You were so close!" Sandbar moaned.
"I told you to focus on the dragon and not on Daphne's revealing attire," Thorax chastised.
"I can't help it!" Button whined. "When I look at Daphne, she reminds me of Sweetie Belle. And when I think of Sweetie, I think I'm her knight-in-shining armor, rescuing her from the Diamond Dogs in Ogres and Oubliettes!"
"...You've got a way with the ladies, y'know that?" Gallus replied in sarcasm.
While that was going on, Spike, Rumble, and Pipsqueak were outside doing some sightseeing over at the beach.
“Wow lads, I think I spotted a blue-foot booby!” Pip said as he was bird spotting through some binoculars.
“Oh yeah, I’m spotting some boobies myself.” Rumble grinned pervertedly as he was using his own binoculars not to watch birds but girls in bikinis.
But for Spike, he wasn’t watching for any birds or babes in bikinis. No, it was the vast ocean. Ever since he was very young, Spike had always admired the sea though he never understood why. He just enjoyed the crisp smell of sea salt and the sound of crashing waves. Tuning out everything else, he just closed his eyes and listened to the ocean’s beautiful music.
After a few minutes however, Spike felt a tap on his shoulder, snapping him back to reality.
“Yo Spike, weren’t you listening?” Rumble asked.
“Huh? Oh, sorry I wasn’t…” Spike replied sheepishly.
“I said we’re gonna check out the rest of the boardwalk. Wanna join us?”
“Oh sure,” Spike replied, “Sorry, got a bit zoned out there for a sec.” He then got up and joined the other boys.
”So, Button?” Spike asked. “How’d it go? Did you uh…slay the dragon to rescue the damsel-in-distress?”
Button Mash, however, was too embarrassed to answer. That, however, didn’t stop Gallus from answering for him.
“Poor Button got roasted real bad,” Gallus chuckled.
“GALLUS!!!” Button Mash shouted in irritation.
“But if it’s any consolation, Button has gotten the farthest than anyone else who played the game,” Sandbar lightened the mood. “Take a look! It’s on his scoreboard!”
The boys exchanged chuckles, sans Spike. Thorax was the first to notice.
“What’s the matter, Spike?” Thorax asked. “Something wrong?”
“Uh…no. Nothing too serious,” Spike reassured. “It’s just… Does it always have to be dragons?”
“What do you mean?” Sandbar asked.
“Well, as Hagrid once said, dragons are seriously misunderstood creatures,” Spike commented.
“What makes you say that, Spike?” Thorax asked.
“Don’t get me wrong. Some dragons are greedy and evil, who guard treasures they stole. Like Smaug and Singe. But sometimes, we have good dragons, like Spyro, Toothless, and Sapphira from Eragon.”
“Worst movie adaptation that could’ve been better handled, with care,” Pipsqueak commented.
“Yeah. That…” Spike replied. “And sometimes, dragons are victims of circumstances beyond their control. Y’know what I mean?”
Spike’s guys all turned to exchange looks, before they turned back to Spike, “What makes you say that, Spike?” Thorax asked.
“Well, I remember watching this animation awhile back, about dragons that have gems for hearts. And that these hearts are very valuable and can be made into jewels.”
“Whoa! Really?” Rumble asked.
“Yeah, because in the animation, a knight happened upon the cave of a mother dragon, to find her baby and…”
“No, no! Don’t want to hear it!” Button Mash covered his ears, but listened anyway.
“He did the baby in…” Spike revealed bluntly.
“Oh! Spoiler alert…” Button Mash frowned.
Nevertheless, the boys were all shocked and disgusted to hear how the story was developed.
“The poor baby!” Thorax whimpered. “How could anyone do that?”
“Apparently, the knight did it so that he could win a princess’s hand in marriage. But the joke was on them, because the baby dragon’s heart, which was made into a necklace, turned her into a dragon. And the knight didn’t recognize her, so he chased her. Blah blah blah. You have to see it to know how it ends.”
Spike then looked up at a dragon plushie.
“I don’t know, guys. But seeing that sort of story just makes me realize that not everything is black and white…”
“Yeah,” Gallus nodded. “And saying that dragons have hearts of crystals is like saying griffons have hearts of gold…literally.”
“And that Klugetown was built around a giant dragon skeleton, where the inhabitants built a mining operation at its crystal heart,” Button Mash added.
The other boys just looked at him confused.
“Er, it’s from a game I play.” The nerd boy clarified.
“You and your games, Button…” Rumble said with a roll of his eyes.
Just then, Spike’s phone went off and he saw that his uncle texted him. “Alrighty guys it’s time to go. Uncle Scorpan is waiting outside for us.”
The other boys groaned. They wanted to stay and explore the boardwalk a little longer but there was always tomorrow. With that, the boys head where Scorpan and his winnebago with Sandbar and Gallus joining them.
Scorpan and the boys had arrived at the former's hut which was located right near a well-hidden beach. The place was a surfer’s paradise, very few know it’s existence and is considered a “Secret Spot”.
Spike and his guys followed Scorpan into the hut, where Scorpan whistled for his pet.
“Vee Vee! Here girl!” Scorpan called in.
Answering the call of its master was a bark. Except it wasn’t a dog. Flopping on her belly, bouncing on her flippers, appeared to be a harp seal. The seal barked happily as she came running up to her owner, who gave her a few pats on the head. Vee Vee then barked even louder upon seeing Spike.
“Hey there Vee Vee - oof!” Spike grunted as the seal tackled him to the ground who then gave him a few nuzzles. Spike couldn’t help but giggle at this. “Ok, ok. I’m happy to see you too.” Spike then gently takes the seal off of him.
Many years ago during a dark, stormy night and when Vee Vee was a little pup, she got washed ashore near Scorpan’s hut a little banged up. The old surfer looked after the little seal until she was back to full health and since then, she never left his side.
The boys went into separate rooms to change into their swimwear. They then came out with their surfboards in hand.
Spike’s swimwear is a dark purple wetsuit with emerald green trimmings and his surfboard was purple with an image of a green aquatic dragon.
Thorax wore black swim shorts and his surfboard was a light green with an image of a beetle.
Button Mash wore brownish red trunks and his surfboard was black with images of different video game controllers across it.
Rumble wore dark gray swim shorts and his surfboard was light gray with an image of a Pegasus.
Pipsqueak wore a white wetsuit with brown trimmings and his surfboard was green with an image of a parrot. It originally belonged to his adopted mother Celaeno before she handed it down to him.
Sandbar wore a turquoise wetsuit with lime green trimmings and his surfboard was neon green with an image of three turtles.
Gallus wore blue swim shorts with yellow trimmings and his surfboard was a bright yellow with an image on a griffon.
“Ain’t you gonna join us uncle?” Spike asked upon seeing Scorpan still in his casual attire.
“Nah, you boys go on ahead. I need to figure out what to cook us all for dinner tonight.” Scorpan replied.
Spike just shrugged at this, “Whatever you say uncle.” He said before he and the rest of the boys headed out with Vee Vee following suit.
The boys rushed out to the beach and began riding some waves.
Pretty soon, the boys began doing all sorts of tricks with Rumble doing a vertical while Button did a noseride. Gallus managed to perform a bottom turn without falling off his board. Pip was balancing his board on the waves with Vee Vee at the tip. Sandbar was able to successfully perform multiple kickflips before doing a kerrupt flip. Thorax did a sushi roll before doing a hang ten.
For Spike, he was just simply riding the waves and enjoying himself. Whenever he’s out in the ocean, this is where he excels at, where he belongs.
For reasons he can’t quite explain, Spike just loves being in water. He feels as if he can clear his mind and just relax. It was as if the water truly is his comfort zone, where all his problems of the present moment, his stresses of the past and future can literally wash away.
After a while, it started to get dark. The boys and Vee Vee came up ashore where Scorpan was making some Hawaiian bbq. A little later, the boys were sitting down around a bond fire and enjoying their dinner.
“You know guys, I have a strong feeling that this summer vacation is gonna be special.” Spike spoke up.
“Why do you think that?” Gallus asked.
Spike just shrugged, “I don’t know really. Call it a hunch.” He replied.
“Well either way. I can’t wait to participate in the Grom Splashdown!” Rumble said excitedly. All the other boys shared his enthusiasm.
Spike then looked back at the ocean, excited about what tomorrow brings.