“Ugh to we have to go now?!” moaned a bright orange and purple spiked dragon, flapping her wings high in the sky above the desolate rocks, volcanos, and magma, that she called home.
“Yes Smolder, we do have to go now” responded a taller cyan dragon, looking down at the orange one with a frustrated demeanour as she pulled her along. “It’s going to take us less than a day to fly to Ponyville, and I don’t want us to end up late to the opening day of the School of Friendship because some dragon decided to sleep-in the entire morning.”
It was only a week earlier that the Dragon Lord Ember announced that the rulers of Equestria have opened a school and requested all the other leaders to nominate a young member of their nation to attend, and then it was not long after the announcement that Ember decided to nominate Smolder. Of course, she was not too happy with having to leave the Dragon Lands, especially after her mother accepted the decision and her older brother decided not to argue over it.
Now she was being judged for not being woken up by her brother in the morning and now must be dragged away with no questions asked. As far as Smolder was concerned, this was not fair, and she was not going to take it lightly.
“Do I at least get to say goodbye, Dragon Lord Ember?” she asked.
Ember answered back. “You already said goodbye to your mother.”
“But there are other dragons here in the Dragon Lands, isn’t it ‘unfriendly’ to leave without saying goodbye?”
Ember’s immediately wanted to provide a retort so they could leave soon after, but she would end up rubbing her eyes, groaning in further frustration with smoke coming out her nostrils, as she internally could not help but agree that Smolder has a point. She imagined if that purple pony were with them, TwiStar or whatever, she would argue that it would be bad to make someone leave their friends behind without saying goodbye. Then she imagined if it were her changeling friend Thorax, he would say something about having the other dragons share their feelings is better for every dragon instead of just dismissing them in favour of her own.
As she looked around the rocks of the dragon lands, she observed the height and direction of the shadows. The short dark patches coming from the jagged rocks indicated to her that it was past midday, and with her best estimate on distance and flight, figured she could allow a bit of time if Smolder would cooperate as a compromise.
“Fifteen minutes.” Ember answered. “Go see whoever you want to see, make your goodbyes short, then we go. Got it?”
Smolder returned with a smile for the first time all day, she responded with a short “Deal!” before she swooped down and briskly flew off.
Knowing what little amount of time she was able to get, Smolder didn’t waste any of it in the search for dragons she wanted to see. Like others in the Dragon Lands, she was not keen yet tolerated most of them, if they could tell a good story, be competitive, or could take a good prank well, they were good to hang around with. If she saw one of these dragons she tolerated, she would swoop down and quickly rattle off something along with the likes of “Hey, heading out, Dragon Lords orders, see ya!” before going off to the next dragon.
She finally made a stop at one of her favourite spots in the Dragon Lands, the lava rapids. Knowing how long she’d probably be away in Ponyville for, she knew the one past-time she’d be missing would be hanging out with the older teenagers, finding a board and surfing down the lava from the top of the steep mountain to the bottom. Luckily for her, some of her favourite surfing crew were at the top: Fume, Clump, Charcoal and Backdraft, all getting their boards ready for an afternoon surf.
“What’s up doofuses?” she called out to them, the four dragons all turned around and looked up towards Smolder, wings flapping with her hands on her hips as she was stationary above the quickly flowing lava. “Did ya think you wouldn’t see me today?” she followed with a sharp grin.
“Hey Smolds!” the large brown dragon, Clump, called back, the rest also smiled back in return. “We thought you’d already be long gone by now!”
“Yeah, off to stay with the ponies for a year!” the slimmer purple dragon with blonde hair Fume chimed in, and quickly followed with a mocking tone. “Looking forward to learning about fwiendships and magics and being cute and silly?”
The rest of the dragons laughed amongst themselves, except for Smolder who turned to folding her arms and glaring at the purple dragon while a small amount of smoke seeped out from her jaws. Fume noticed but wasn't threatened by it, even felt confident enough to fly towards her and place a hand on her shoulder. “Nah, I kid Smolds. It’s gonna suck not seeing you around the Dragon Lands for a while.”
Smolder in turn, could not help but look at Fume and how his blonde hair covered his eyes, something the dragon would deliberately fashion every morning. Her face transitioned back to a smirk as she prepared her comeback. “Well Fume, with your haircut I’d imagine you’re already used to that” she retorted before giving a light punch to the gut.
The other dragons just laughed harder as a result. Even as Fume slowly made his way back to ground to recover, he could not help but chuckle as he felt it was warranted.
“Well Smolds, are you gonna join us or what?” Clump offered.
Smolder shook her head. “Nah, haven’t got time I’m afraid.” She looked around the top of the rapids and could not help but notice that someone was missing. “Have any of you seen my brother?”
The rest of the gangs dropped their smiles, “Garble?” They looked at each other, a few giving shrugs towards one another before turning back to Smolder. “We haven’t seen him all morning, we thought you’d know where he is.”
This was strange for Smolder, she did not see her brother when she woke up, nor in their mother’s cave, nor when she did her quick fly around. He knew what was happening today, and it was not like him not to be found, or even not to be seen by the gang they both hang out with. That is unless…
“I think I do.” She nodded. “See ya around, don’t slack off while I’m gone!” and after a quick salute, she flew off once more to find her brother.
The good thing about how rocky and desolate the Dragon Lands is that if you wanted time only to yourself, there are plenty of places to hide. Caves were the easiest spots to find dragons hiding in, but there were some crevasses, valleys, and spaces between rocks that could easily be common for one dragon and a veiled secret for every other dragon.
Smolder knew that if she wanted to find her brother, he had his own hiding spot. Fortunately, she also knew that she was the only other dragon who knew where it was. After passing an array of tall cylinder-like rocks and around a few triangular and pyramid-like ones, she made it to an area that was surrounded jagged and pointed features, except for a few flat and round ones shaped out like seats.
Sure enough, she made it to the right hiding spot, finding a red freckled dragon with spikes and a crest that matched in colour to Smolder’s scales. She recognised immediately that it was Garble, sat on one of the rounded rocks, huddled with his head covered by folded arms and not making any sounds.
“Hey Gar-Gar…” Smolder nervously called out to him. Garble’s ears perked up, and slowly moved his head up from his arms to the point where his small gloomy yellow eyes emerged staring directly at Smolder as she made her slow approach to him.
He responded with a slightly muffled and despondent “Hey sis…” before lowering his head downwards again.
It was not uncommon for Smolder to see her older brother feeling down like this, but in most cases, he would have a set of drums beside him. They were his favourite thing to play with, hitting them to a beat with his hand and uttering some deep phrases.
“I thought you’d be practising your beat poetry at the moment” she remarked. Beat poetry would usually make him a little upbeat even on his down days. She spotted the drums poking out from a small space between to rocks a few metres away, appearing as though he has not bothered to take it out.
“What’s the point?” he responded rhetorically. “It’s not like anyone’s gonna hear it…”
Smolder’s suspicions that he would be down about her leaving had been with her for days, but at that moment it was cemented to be worse than she imagined. All she could do was try her best to reassure him.
“You know… I’ll come back, I’ll always wanna hear what you’re working on.”
Garble’s eyes emerged above his folded arms again, brooding as he stared towards his younger sister’s optimism. “Do you have to go?” he asked.
She quickly answered “Yeah. This is the only amount of time I could buy from the Dragon Lord before we head off.”
Garble’s expression remained unchanged. He followed up with another question “Do you want to go?”
This time, Smolder could not give an immediate or confident answer, her silence being less assuring by the second. “Not really…” she answered, looking downward, and rubbing her arm uncomfortably. “But I thought… maybe you could help make it easier to give it a chance.”
A long breath could be heard from Garble’s direction, and he raised his head further so now his face was in complete view. “Or maybe… there is a chance you won’t have to go at all. All I need to do is grab that sceptre from Dragon Lord Ember, and then I can give the orders around here!”
His confidence in his plan did not last long as he heard Smolder snickering to herself, at least instead of returning to his downward state he was now focused on glaring a hole into his sister instead, smoke emitting from his nostrils.
Smolder received the glare and was quick to compose herself. “Sorry. I am sorry. Yeah, it is a good plan, let me know how it goes!” She did not intend to make fun of his brother, but she could not help but be amused at his attempts to scheme for power when most of the time those plans failed.
He decided to brush it off, the whole situation was already difficult for him when he could talk to his sister, who was standing right in front of him, but did not want to come off as all mushy. “Hey Smolder…” he spoke with a slight break in his voice. “Remember the Gauntlet of Fire, when I tried to become the Dragon Lord?”
Smolder remembered the morning when he started glowing and getting excited that the Dragon Lord was calling him, although for her it was a memory of jealousy. She remembered not feeling well and being left alone for most of the day, so along with itchiness, indigestion, and struggling to speak properly, she had to miss out on a big occasion for the entire dragon kingdom. Despite that, she could not help but smile as it was also a big and happy occasion for herself in the end.
“That was the day I got my wings. I was so excited, and I wanted to show them off to you, so I looked around and…”
She stopped talking the moment she recognised the position Garble was in now, was the exact same position he was in that day, huddled on that rock in the same hiding spot.
The thought of Dragon Lord Ember and her Bloodstone sceptre momentarily took Garble back to the Gauntlet of Fire, where the old Dragon Lord Torch retired, and all the other dragons raced for the sceptre to take over. He could remember being so close to the sceptre he could have grabbed it, had it not been for Ember holding him back so the little purple twerp, Spike, would take it.
Not only that but Spike gave up the sceptre to Ember anyways, although not before giving the humiliating order to hug other dragons on the way home. Garble ended up finishing Smolder’s sentence for her. “…you found me here, because I didn’t want to tell mom I didn’t become the new Dragon Lord.”
It was not looking hopeful if Garble was bringing up other downward moments in his life, Smolder tried to think of memories to lift his spirits, the times they played games together, his poetry, how he introduced her to the gang and initiated her, but his own mind was set.
Not that she felt easily defeated. “Thankfully, I have had plenty of experience with cheering up a big brother. Been refining a process since I was little.” She remarked, cracking her knuckles as she prepared for the daunting task.
“Step One: Get through to them.” She began to move her hands under and through Garble’s crossed arms.
“Step Two: Get them to open up.” She then pulled Garble’s arms towards her and slightly outward to create a small opening.
“Step Three: Get close.” She squeezed her head and arms through the gap between Garble’s arms and chest. Now Smolder looked like she was being held in a warm embrace, with Garble’s head resting on top of her own.
“Last step: Stay and remind them it’ll be okay.” Although she could not see it, she could feel from where she was resting that Garble gave a subtle smile.
The two stayed in that embrace for a short while, no words were spoken, and no feelings felt other than Garble’s chest as he breathed in and out, no other sounds apart from crackling rocks and the flow of lava in the distance.
“Since we were on the subject, you could spend some more time with mom…” Smolder suggested, Garble looked down at Smolder looking confused as if to respond with why. As far as he knew, their mom was rather solitary, if you did not know why you were visiting, she would want you gone.
Smolder could sense this and did not agree. “You do not need a reason, just say you want to see her. I’m sure she’d appreciate the company as much as you would.”
Garble blinked. “I guess… but what if she didn’t.”
Smolder chuckled to herself. “You won’t find out by staying here, that’s for sure. She was fine when you eventually told her you weren’t the new Dragon Lord, I’m sure she’s fine with an occasional visit.”
Garble sighed. “Fine, I’ll go say hi to mom more often…” Another moment of silence passed, Garble now giving a more defined smile now as he could recall how many times he held onto a small orange dragon over the years, he knew it was something he wanted to make the most out of. Although, he could not help but notice how much the same orange dragon was helping him cope with stuff more than the other way around.
“You know Smolder, you need to remind me more often that I should be making us even on the whole supporting thing…”
Smolder chuckled. “We don’t have to be even on moments like this…”
“Well, that shouldn’t stop me from actually BEING your big brother.” Garble remarked.
“We have, what? Hundreds? A thousand or so years? I think you have enough time for that.”
At that moment, a loud call for Smolder could be heard from the distance. Both her and Garble could recognise the voice from miles away. “Smolder, are you done with your goodbyes? We have to go! You don’t want to see me when I find out we’re late tomorrow!”
Smolder started showing her frustrations as the calls slowly got louder and more frequent. “Okay Dragon Lord Ember! I am almost done! Jeez!”
Garble started to loosen his grip, although he could not help but feel her sister grasping onto his arms, and see the rear side of a sour face. “Smolder, I think you need to go. Better not get in trouble with the Dragon Lord.”
Smolder in turn knew it was time to leave, but now she had one more good moment with her big brother and could not help but make it last just a little bit longer. After a long breath, she had let go, stood up, and had her wings spread out. She was ready to go, but not before turning around to see Garble with a grin on her face. “See ya around, Gar-Gar. Don’t forget to have those deep words ready for when I come back!”
As she lept in the air and flapped her wings hard to soar into the sky towards Dragon Lord Ember’s voice, Garble smiled as he looked up and onwards. “See ya around… sis.” He then stood up to pick up his drums, before returning to his seat to pat them down, letting his mind race in the search of those next deep words to write.
