Travelers or Nomads?

by bigmacbush

Volume One: The Beginning of a Tale

------- Chapter One: I travel alone, no longer -------

Though I have always traveled alone, I felt as if I needed a few friends in my life. Perhaps being a nomad did not help, having no real place to call home; and no "real" home equals to having fleeting friendships. Now that's not to say I never had friends, I just never knew them long enough to call them "friends", they were more ponies I just knew, and have now forgotten along my travels. Throughout my travels I have met a few ponies willing to come along, but they did not have the heart to leave what they called "home". However some were, I met a fellow stallion, whom of which I am still unsure of; being named Crazy Bread and all, and another named Smiley, who never said much, but smiled whenever he could. They chose to join me on an adventure. An adventure with no real end or story, but I'll tell it anyway.

------- Chapter Two: Visits of Strange Detail -------

Some time after my two companions joined, we debated about exploring caves, or searching and exploring ancient ruins with what we had, or finding a local town and resupplying on food and such. We chose the town option, though I never personally liked visiting towns; mainly due to mares giving me looks I was all-to familiar with.

We went shopping and we were sometimes "given" food to us instead of bought, strangely the other two were bitter about this, despite this being their idea and all. Filling up our saddlebags with supplies, I contemplated whether we should get a wagon or stick with the saddlebags, not knowing whether they'll agree with the notion; I ask. Turns out it was a good idea, since with three of us we'll need more room for supplies and more along the way. We've traveled for a few days before deciding on what we should do, either searching caves or finding nearly destroyed ruins for possible treasure.

It was already late, so we decided to camp out first and foremost, Crazy was still not used to camping, and Smiley, well he smiled either way, even while resting he still smiled. Tomorrow was another day, one we'd much later regret, and hope to forget.

------- Chapter Three: Ruined by the Ruins -------

In the morning we decided to check out the ruins, be it for artifacts or treasure, I don't even remember what it was for. Turns out these ruins were ransacked quite a bit of time ago, although some of the remains seemed to have been picked bone dry. Ignoring the remains of other adventurers or thieves, we still searched and found the reason of the remains, turns out the ruins also housed many quarry spiders, they're like normal spiders but huge and extremely dangerous.

Hoping we wouldn't attract it's attention, we sneaked away slowly. Which was a bad idea since we backed up into a nest nearby, alarming most of them. Now I have been through this sort of thing before, but it wasn't nearly as deadly as this. Running as fast we can, we left, only having a few of the faster ones following us as we ran.

After getting a safe distance away from the ruins, we grouped up on the few that kept us with us, getting scratched and bit along the way, but it was nothing a couple of medicinal herbs couldn't fix. After the exhausting fight, I asked if the others packed any weapons of sort, not surprisingly, they did not. After keeping an eye for the quarry spiders throughout the night, in the morning we decided to find a town nearby with a forge, hopefully with a good blacksmith or I'll make them weapons myself. We did find a town nearby named Ponyville, hopefully they'll have what we need, otherwise it's back to the road for us.

------- Chapter Four: Mine ore stay -------

Upon arriving in Ponyville, I asked Crazy to look for provisions, and Smiley to find a place to stay if we need to spend a few nights here in town. After wandering and asking around I did find a forge, however it was mainly for horseshoes, but I could make this work. After meeting up with the others I asked what sort of weapons they would want to use, hoping for something not too heavy or they'll have a hard time carrying them. Afterwards I head back to the forge, hoping to fix up my blade as well as make them something, turns out the forge recently ran out of ore and the next delivery of ore will arrive in a few days.

Begrudgingly I decide to go mining myself for said ore, after asking where the nearest mine was, turns out it's quite a distance away, well being a pegasus helps with long distances. Deciding to leave in the morning we met up at where we would be staying a couple of nights, wasn't bad, nice beds and nicely decorated room, before going to bed I asked what sort of weapons they would want, Crazy Bread wanting a staff, despite not being a unicorn; to each their own. Meanwhile Smiley wanting a array of daggers makes this somewhat easier since they require similar materials, tomorrow I leave for the mine, alone. I wonder what they'll do in town? Oh well, probably nothing important.

Leaving with a satchel big enough for a couple of chunks of ore should be enough, they seemed to have something similar to oak back in town so the base of the staff is good. Hoping for something somewhat dangerous in the mine, I was disappointed to find nothing worth fighting, oh well whatever makes this trip easier for mining. Returning later than expected, got pretty sidetracked gathering gems for magical enchantment, fortunately I dabbed into that for a while a few years back, I'm a bit rusty but oh well. Decided not to make the weapons that night, shouldn't wake up sleeping ponies especially the blacksmith at this hour. Woke up at an unusual time; eleven o' clock, must be from the exhaustion from a few nights back and the lack of tent. Later the same day I made the weapons we needed, they came out decently well, could've done better; but oh well it's been a few years after all.

The other two have taken a liking to this town, strange as it may be; then again I haven't been around the whole time, so I asked what happened during my calm escapades. The stories they told we're quite a spectacle, but believable; I see why they like it here.

------- Chapter Five: Occasional Real Estate -------

After yesterday's events I decided to check out a couple estates, since I own a few homes here and there, though I rarely check on them. Ponyville seems to have a rather... robust history.

I found a nice home, empty for now of course until I get furniture, which is next on the list. Considering the things I find on my travels, it's no surprise that I have a lot of bits lying about and some interesting things to keep as personal favorite treasures. After getting new furniture, I checked on Crazy and Smiley, to see if they were ready to get back on the road, unless they want to drop some stuff off before leaving; or get combat training, either way I'd help.

Crazy seemed to want to learn magic, strange since he's a earth pony, but makes sense; with the staff and all. I happened to have a few ancient magic tomes, which took time to find but whatever he's patient, after I gave him the tome, he got right on it. He had told me he was a quick learner after all.

Later I asked Smiley about his daggers, apparently Heavy Levitation was not his forte, so many small daggers worked out for him. Again later I decided to ask them if they wanted to live together or have their own places, either way it'll involve renovations or looking for close by housing for the two of them.

After deciding to move in, it took roughly two weeks to renovate the house for the three of us, including an armory, library, a forge (work in progress), and a couple of extra rooms for future furnishing. The week after the renovation we decided to go back on the road, searching for and exploring the more unknown parts of Equestria.

---

------- End of Volume One -------

Author's Note:

This is something I wrote on a whim, I never planned for this to happen, it just happened.
Also, constructive criticism is always welcome.