Travelers or Nomads?

by bigmacbush

Side Story Two: Squiggly Draggings

||||||| Takes place after Volume Two |||||||

------- Chapter One: Fiery Expeditions -------

After hearing of the Dragon Lands, a landscape full of Dragons of varying types and sizes, I felt like checking it out, apparently Crazy and Smiley did not want to go, they had been burned many times before (both figuratively and literally).

Wearing my flame-retardant armor, I ventured out to the Dragon Lands. A few hours later I ran into a few dragons looking for a fight, calling me a little "namby, pamby, pony." I showed them what I was capable of, well I didn't show them, they were unconsious. From what I've seen, most dragons are full of themselves, but I ran into a rather small dragon, it didn't seem to have any reason to, but it just came to me.

Immediately after this had happen a few more bigger dragons came to me,

they said "Hey, little pony hand over the tiny dragon."

"Why?" I asked,

"That little dragon is a trouble maker, it goes all over the place, causing all sorts of mischief. It's probably a good idea to hand him over."

"But he was the one to come to me."

They all looked shocked when I said that, apparently he just doesn't go to anyone to relax on their head. After all of this happened, they decided that it probably a better idea to let him go with me, since I seem to have a better handle on him. Before I left I asked what was him name, according to what they told me his name was Squiggles, and he hasn't learned how to talk yet. Maybe on the way back I'll see what I can teach him, if I can teach him anything.

------- Chapter Two: Fiery Understandings -------

While on the way back home I wondered how would everyone react to having a dragon around, I'm only worried about Timby being near him so I turned to Squiggles and said "I have a Timberwolf companion at home, are you capable of breathing fire, like most dragons?"

He nodded and then shook his head because he doesn't breath fire, he shoots fireballs wierdly enough. Before getting back I had him promise to not shoot fireballs unless told to, especially so at the house as to not have to renovate the house...... again, I would rather not have to go over the last time we renovated the house for something major.

I wonder if he would like it more in the forge, so I brought him to the room, and apparently he likes it a lot, I had to make a little bed for him to sleep on, he doesn't quite have feet, so he flew with me all the way here. I know that dragons eat gems so I had to go get some for him over in the gem quarry just outside the town, over in the quarry gems just grow at an unnatural rate, they form and grow in a matter of days, though rarely magical gems form and I mine those for enchantments, it's not easy to do but I figured it out.

Upon my return I found out that Squiggles was different, first he clings his one claw to objects to hold on, secondly he eats Firestones, that'd explain the fact that he shoots fireballs, thirdly he occasionly likes to hang out in the forge or the fire I guess, overall he loves the heat more than regular dragons, even Spike doesn't enjoy staying in the forge.

Unfortunately firestones are not the easiest thing to find in the mine, I usually find them in the mine a good distance away from town, but rarely those are almost impossible to find, curious I took him along to see if he can find them on his own, Squggles just became more awesome, I told him to take me to the firestones to mine them and he's allowed to eat some of them just not all of them.

This is more than interesting development between the two of us, Timby is still a bit scared of him, maybe if they worked together for a while they'll get along.

------- Chapter Three: Collective Agreements -------

Though we all live in the same house, Timby and Squiggles have been trying to avoid each other for a while, Timby especially. The only thing I notice them having similarities about is keeping an eye on me when I go out, like they're trying to keep me safe from potential dangers, Timby nearby in a bush being the ninja and Squggles in the sky being the overwatch role in a team. Considering these two sets of skills they could be very deadly if they worked together, but they choose not do since they are both so different. It was the next day I felt like going into the Everfree to gather some mushrooms and some flora for the use of medicine, we need to restock and buying them from the hospital, they may need them more than we do, which is why I wanted to try my hoof at medicine making.

I made a mistake when I went a bit too far in, Zecora had told me to not go too far or I'll run into something a bit too much for me and my blade to cut down, when I ran into something even I didn't know about it was big and even though I had brought my blade, it wasn't enough to even faze whatever it was, I tried to run back for safety until it grabbed my hoof and pulled me towards it, I haven't panicked in a long time until then, I closed my eyes and hoped it would be painless.

As if by some miracle both Timby and Squiggles both came and started to fight it on their own, working together even, Timby binding it with his vines and Squiggles barraging it with fireballs, it had no idea what to go for first, slowly letting me go and getting me a chance to figure out how to fight it, I noticed that it's body was heating up, like iron or gold and decisively, I swung with all my might to see what would happen.

By the Princess of the Night Luna, it worked, it was just like handling ores, it cracked and chipped by huge chunks, although large spurts of flames shot out from the openings. Could this creature be a mass of firestones coming together, collecting magic to produce life? Choosing to think about it later I swung my blade at it some more hoping it would come to an eventual death, alas I was right, but it would take forever to do since it was still tough after a portion was cut open, I needed my forge hammer to do this but I didn't, so I backed away as much as I could before charging at with my blade, I did not swing, I stabbed and lodged it into its rock-like flesh, flew back and again charged at it with as much speed as I can and impaled him with the blade, hoping to impale its core, assuming it had one, luckily for us it did, killing it was nowhere near easy, but Timby and Squiggles worked together and are no longer afraid of each other.

Though bringing the ore and material back took the rest of the day, and I was exhausted afterwards and thank Luna I have a hot spring to go to upon getting home. Sadly there were no other sightings of Firestone Beasts after that, coincidence or bad luck? Oh well, not important.

------- Chapter Four: Firestoners of Enchantment -------

After what happened a few days ago Timby and Squggles have been getting along, they are no longer afraid of each other and now work together on a more regular basis.

Now with the ore that I had gotten from the Firestone Beast or whatever, I went into deep thinking mode about what design of armor I could make with it; finding no good answer, I gave the pitch to Crazy Bread and he came up with some interesting ideas for armor, even going as far as to design a set for Timby and Squiggles.

Timby's armor used firestone plates with hardened reinforced wood underneath it for Timby to be used to it, Squiggles on the other hoof uses very little amounts of lighter material so it's not too heavy for him, since he prefers to stay in close quarters and only scouts for longer travels. While making the armor I felt like giving the design a little bit of personal flair, applying a wood-like paint to Timby's set and a fiery burst on Squiggle's set.

Later I had an idea "Could these firestones be used for enchantments?" Wanting to test this idea out, I ask to borrow Crazy's staff to see if I can enhance the staff for fire magic, through time and the enchanting books I've read, there were no known enchantments made with firestones, regardless I decided to try anyway, and almost died in the process, but I managed to pull it off, the magic was enhanced and seemed about as powerful as Squiggle's fireballs

After the enchantments I went ahead to log it into my logbook to keep track of, maybe I'll experiment with it some time. I had noticed that I had been spending a lot of time in my room for book-keeping strangely enough, perhaps it's time I took a long-needed walk to refresh my brain.

------- Chapter Five: Relaxing Moments -------

It has been some time since I decided to ask the Princesses to allow me to search the more "ancient" parts of Equestria, be it for retro blueprints and possible inspirations for new ideas for the future. Although that was my plan I did not want to request that until I've calmed down and relaxed for a while, but I guess I should at least send them a letter requesting for the right to search some specific locations.

My letter will read as follows "Dear Princess Celestia and Luna, my name is Techno Sparklers and though this may be unformal I would like to recieve permission to excavate and search the remains of the residents of the land before Equestria was known to be the mainland, I will be taking notes of things I find such as ancient blueprints and materials and will use what I find for the betterment of Equestria, though if any personal requests for certain objects are subject to change based on the usefulness and potential for use in Equestria. I will hope to recieve sanction to do so."

I then went to Princess Twilight and gave the letter to Spike to send to the Princesses, I could have gone there myself but did not want to, since I want to take some time to relax, hopefully I will recieve my answer in a matter of days. Upon my walk I stumbled into Maple she was going for a walk as well,

I came up to her and asked her what she was up to "Nothing much just going for a walk, you?"

"Same here." I said

"Wanna take a walk together?" she asked me this acting a bit shyly

"Sure, why not?" I answered.

It was rather strange since most of the ponies from town were staring at us, how did this look to them? Like a father and daughter? Special someponies? I was trying to relax so I didn't think about for that long, though most of the mares looked jealous and sort of glared at Maple I don't understand why though, we're not an item, we're two individuals taking a walk together.

"Wanna go shopping for a bit?"

I asked her since I needed some things from a couple of stores myself, after shopping we went ahead and had lunch, this is nice having a pony I could casually have a chat with, we hanged out all day and had long talks throughout the day, many mares and stallions giving us harsh glares, I didn't know she was so popular around town.

The next morning she came to my room and woke me up,

"Hey, you doing okay?" she asked me sacredly, clearly she remembered what happened the last time,

"Yeah I'm fine." I answered

"I'm glad, you seemed really tense recently and I thought you could use somepony to talk to, after all, you spent a lot of time in here." I didn't know you she was thinking about me so much,

so all I could say was "Thanks for yesterday, I had a lot of fun, I never really talked to a lot of ponies, it was nice chatting yesterday, it was really relaxing and I appreciate you being here, to talk to."

After I said that she blushed and said "D-d-don't worry about it."

She ran out afterwards and I got up and started getting back to work, waiting for Spike or the Princesses to give me the response I was waiting for, moving here for good was by far the greatest thing I could do, my life has changed for the better. This isn't quite what I had in mind for my lifestyle, but I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Maybe I'll get the answer I was waiting for soon.