ponyville (Closed) A new place for a nap... (Ponyville)

[Ashton]

 

Jasper The Dragon

 

 

It had been a long day... How would YOU feel being gotten up early in the morning, after staying up late scouring the house, looking in every drawer, behind every cabinet, and inside every crack in the wall, to make sure nothing was left behind and everything was packed up? Jasper felt even worse than that. The dragon had never liked change --- well outside of finding some place and some (he hated to admit it) close friends who treated him like he had some kind of value. But as for moving? that ranked high on his list of "least favorite things I ever want to do" and not just because he liked to laze about, listening to his music and (another thing he'd hate to admit to) reading a good book, perhaps taking a nap part of the way through, but because when you stayed in one place, you learned all its quirks... you knew which window was going to give you the most sunlight, which floorboard would creak and wake up the whole house if you stepped on it, and just the right way to jiggle the toilet handle... and then it was gone...

 

The dragon sighed as he sat down hard, back against a tree "even all the trees feel different" he snorted, letting himself slide down a little so he was more half-sitting and half-lieing against the tree. He did have to admit, this position gave him a nice vantage point - there were enough bushes nearby that most ponies didn't see him, but the bushes were thin enough at the bottom that he could see under them and past them to watch ponies going about their lives - one other thing he liked sometimes: watching ponies. Not in a lewd sense, that idea disgusted him, and not in a predatory sense, even if he did idly wonder time to time what they might taste like... no, he just liked watching them, wondering where they were going, watching them have their little struggles - it was like opening a book to a random page and trying to puzzle out what was going on... and it didn't hurt that the quiet rhythm of their hooves and the murmur of their speech just-out-of-earshot made him feel sleepy... maybe he would take a nap while he waited for Cloudy to go find them dinner, and for Iggy to cause some commotion with her magic... after all, even if there was no magical seal of quality on Iggy's flank proudly proclaiming to the world that she loved magic too much, it might as well have been there... and he knew to enjoy the quiet while he could... slowly letting his eyes droop, then close...

 

Completely unaware that his little "hiding place" he found, had already been compromised and somecreature was about to disturb his nap before he even got it started...

[Ashton]

((Just a note to anyone who was interested in this thread/character - I added more description to his profile, should clarify some things and possibly make things more interesting...))

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo hummed to himself as he flew through the town, on his way towards the market to stock up on some supplies. Potion making was fun, but sometimes the ingredient collection part could get somewhat annoying. Oh well, there was nothing to it but to do it, and he had to do it if he wanted to continue making potions and running his shop. The diminutive dragon shrugged to himself, pausing when his path took him into view of a napping dragon. It seemed more and more young dragons were showing up in this town. Not that he minded, that just meant he could make more friends of his own kind.

 

"Howdy there, Ah'm Kojo, it's nice ta see another dragon 'round these parts." He said as he flew down and waved, not noticing the dragon had started napping until after he started talking. "Oh, mighty sorry, didn't mean ta wake ya." He apologized, rubbing the back of his head a bit.

 

(Kojo's Bio)

[Ashton]

Great... he not only had to get up early, not sleep on the way here, but now some pony was interrupting his nap... One blue-lined silver eye slowly opened and rolled to look at the voice, mildly surprised to see it belonged a dragon, even if it did seem to be a whelp. If this had been a pony he would have pretended to already be asleep or just tell them to buzz off, but since it was a dragon, and a whelp at that, he would at least say a few words. 

 

The first eye closed and Jasper sighed before opening them both "Trust me, kid, its not my choice" he said "I'd tell you the doom and gloom about growing up scalie, but clearly you already know that" he said, nodding at the green dragon "so I'll cut to the chase. When things got rough I met a gal called Iggy, she's something called a Kirin, part pony part dragon, probably why we get along, but after a long time she randomly decides she wants to study this town and its stupid forest, so I leave behind my whole comfy life there and after weeks of packing and a long road, I cant even find a good tree to lean against for a nap" he snorted, a few trails of white mist rising from his nostrils, betraying his annoyance and anger with the situation "No decent trees, no hammock, no bed, no lava surfing -or even water surfing- not even my music collection, sitting here waiting for iggy's annoying best friend to go get us dinner, and knowing that any minute, she herself is likely going to cause some kind of small catastrophe..." he snorted

 

After a moment's pause he turned to look at the other dragon fully "You can call me Jasper. That's my story, so what's your story, kid? How'd you come to be stuck in this pony-podunk?"

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo hummed slightly in thought as he listened to the other dragon speak. It seemed his size once again gave a false impression of his age, but oh well, it’s not like he expected others to know of his condition before he told them. He didn’t say anything, simply nodding along until Jasper turned the conversation towards his own story. 
 

“Ah know Ah’m small, but it’s not cause Ah’m a kid. Got some kind of condition, but it don’t bother me none. Ah grew up on a farm relatively close ta here, so Ah’m partially here ta make visiting home easier. Ah also run a potion shop, and the Everfree’s got some good materials in it, so that helped. Plus, this town is just downright friendly, and Ah can appreciate a place like that.” Kojo smiled at Jasper, hoping that answered what the other dragon wanted to know about him. 

[Ashton]

Jasper nodded absently, like he wasn't really paying attention but apparently was because he commented "You'll probably want to talk more with Iggy than me then, like I said she wants to research that nightmare forest, I'm sure you two can swap notes or something" he said "sorry to hear your stuck with everycreature thinking your a kid, but hey, I guess that means you can get free stuff by being cute or something. I'm not much for country life, not really seen a record store, or anything like that 'round here. That was one of the nice things about that Mainhattan place we live for a while, always had the latest albums from Draconica, Ozzy Ozbuck, and Iron Mareden, bet nobody here even listens to real metal" he snorted, the white mist having now faded from his nostrils as his anger at the move faded back into melancholy 

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo blinked a bit, trying to remember if he’d seen those bands around in a store. He was kinda coming up empty though, but it’s not like he was really looking for them before. 
 

“Well, not really sure if they sell those bands round here, but not like Ah’ve really looked for them. Ah’m sure there’s ponies that listen to them though.” He shrugged, settling against the tree too. “Ah’ll probably talk ta her too at some point, but for now Ah’m here with you. ‘Less ya want me ta leave, of course. Don’t wanna bother ya if’n ya don’t want me here.”

[Ashton]

"I dont want anyone bothering me right now, I want to take a nap in my bed under the window curled up in the sunshine like a cat, while listening to Draconica on my headphones... but instead I'm outside in a strange town leaning against a hard tree, talking to a runt -no offence- who doesn't know his deathmetal from his symphonic metal from his mane metal. At this point I'm just rolling with whatever life throws at me because everything has fallen apart, the only thing left from this is-"

 

At this point there was the sound of a magical explosion. without even thinking, Jasper leapt in front of kojo, mist flowing from his nostrils and less than a second later, a shield of flames protecting them... from a huge expanding dust-cloud that enveloped the town... followed by a splash of soap and bubbles... fortunately for the two, Jasper's shield kept them both dust-free and dry.

 

Jasper sighed "and there's the cherry on top... Iggy just caused a catastrophe" he said, sitting down hard on the ground "dont know if you've heard, but powerful kirin experimenting with spells they dont fully understand usually does not end well..." he explained with another sigh "no way in tartarus that I'm going to follow that mess... now I just wait to see if the torches and pitchforks come out..."

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo sighed slightly at the words he was hearing from Jasper. It was fair enough though, they hadn’t found what they had in common yet, he couldn’t expect they’d just hit it off. He jumped a bit at the explosion, blinking as Jasper shielded both of them from the dust cloud and the subsequent soapy bubbles. 
 

“Well, thank ya kindly for the shield. Much appreciated.” He smiled at the other dragon. “Feel free ta stop by my shop anytime. My potions do all sorts of stuff, from helping fix colds ta helping get ta sleep. Some can change ya for a bit. Temp wings, different colors, stuff like that.”

[Ashton]

Jasper grabbed the other dragon's tail "get your flank back here. I need somone to throw under the bus when the mob shows up with the pitchforks and torches" he smirked, though it was clear he was joking. For whatever it was worth, apparently kojo had made an impression on jasper, perhaps he liked the 'runt' or perhaps it was just hte fact that jasper didn't have any other dragons to talk to for so long, in any case he didn't seem to want the other dragon to just vanish yet "besides, the whole down is covered in dust and soap right now, wait a bit for them to clean it off" he said, letting go of kojo's tail as sitting himself back down on the spot of grass that wasn't dirty or wet

 

"I'll tell ya something funny. Your not the only one who gets confused for something they're not" he commented, "notice the scales? notice my smoke?" he paused a moment to build the fire in his belly so the translucent white mist started wafting out his nostrils, then letting it fade back "you wouldn't believe the number of times ponies immediately assumed I Was some kind of ice dragon. Lead to a lot of interesting situations"

[PyroBlaze]

"Ah wasn't really going anywhere, but thanks for the consideration anyways." Kojo shrugged, leaning back against the tree. He looked over at the demonstration, humming in interest slightly at the unusual mist preceding the flames. The small dragon nodded a bit at the words, looking down at himself afterwards.

 

"Well, not like Ah look much more like a fire dragon either. Looks more like Ah'm part plant. Works fine for me though, considering my profession and background." He shrugged again, looking over his plant-like protrusions on his body.

[Ashton]

Jasper chortled "hey that means if you get into a fight they'll just throw weed-killer at you and expect you to wither and die. I had that kinda thing happen, a dragon though I was an ice dragon, threw a fireball at me, and I just proceeded to juggle it then threw it back at them" he recalled "though if your wondering why my smoke is another color... that's iggy's fault... another one of her spells that went wrong - of course given how most dont notice it and its helped me out at least once, I dont see it as a huge problem"

[PyroBlaze]

“Yeah, s’pose yer right bout that.” Kojo chuckled at Jasper’s words, and his story about sending a fireball back. When the discussion turned toward the cause of his strange smoke, Kojo listened, nodding along. 
 

“That’s the spirit. We may be strange dragons, but it works for us.” He chuckled, agreeing with Jasper’s final statement. These things about them never really hurt them, and in fact helped sometimes, so in the end it was good the two of them were the way they were. “Who knows where we’d be if we were like normal dragons. Probably not here.”

[Ashton]

Jasper sighed "if I was a normal dragon I'd probably still be in the dragon lands where at least there's awesome lava surfing" he said, pining for just a moment "course then again, well no point in me telling you about our whelphoods"

 

At this point another strange creature was sneaking around the other side of the tree, a white hyppogryph with red and brown  feathers and tail, he held up a claw in a "ssshhhh" motion

 

Jasper rolled his eyes, clearly having heard or smelled the other creature smirking "Of course if I were back in the dragonlands I would never have met that stupid turkey Cloudy. I tell ya, life would have been 1000 times better if he had never been whelped or hatched or whatever those turkeys do"

 

the gryph, obviously cloudy frowned but before he had time to react, Jasper's tail lashed out, sending cloudy's legs out from under him, while jasper grabbed the larger creature and flipped him onto the ground, on his back "Fancy seeing you, cloudy, could never have guessed you were back there" he said mockingly

 

Cloudy growled "One day, Jasper... one day..."

 

Jasper just rolled his eyes "Kojo, meet turky-pony. Turky-pony meet kojo"

 

Cloudy rolled back over and stood up, frowning at the insult, but he turned to kojo and managed a bit of a smile "nice to meet you, kojo, I'm Cloudy Skies" he said, assuming the other dragon knew what a hyppogryph was "Good to see you've not been driven to insanity and started trying to hit Jasper with the nearest heavy object" he sighed "trust me, it never works, he's too good at dodging...."

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo blinked a bit at the appearance of the new creature. Hippogriff, maybe? At least, he was pretty sure that's what they were called. In any case, it seemed Jasper knew about their presence anyways, so he figured he may as well say nothing. He watched the stuff that happened next, a little worried they would hurt each other. Or at least Jasper would hurt the other one, but things seemed to turn out just fine.

 

"Howdy, Cloudy. Nice ta meetcha too." Kojo smiled back at Cloudy, chuckling a bit at what was said next. "Ah dunno, he seems alright ta me."

[Ashton]

Cloudy shrugged "Maybe its a dragon thing I dont get, or maybe its just from the fact I live with him so I see more of his bad side. whatever, its good to see you two are getting along. Something really needs to get Jasper off his tail and doing something other than sleeping" he snorted, this time more clear he wasn't just taking a light-hearted jab at jasper... of course given the fact that kojo had met jasper when the latter was trying to take a nap would likely lend credence to cloudy's comment about jasper being lazy...

 

Jasper rolled his eyes "So... what did iggy do this time?"

 

"no clue" said cloudy "I saw the explosion and headed back to check on her"

 

"So no lunch yet?"

 

Cloudy rolled his eyes "You know, iggy was the one that saved your scaley hide, you really should care more about her than your gut..."

 

Jasper shrugged "Iggy's never met a spell she couldn't handle, even her own broken ones, we both know the chance of her not being 100% fine are low, at worst she's probably soaked in water and covered in dust"

 

Cloudy opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by jasper

 

"Fine, go ahead and check on her, but remember that all three of us are hungry, Iggy too..."

 

Cloudy sighed "fine, I'll get your dinner, but I'm going to check on Iggy first" he said, with a few hard flaps of his wings he quickly dissapeared into the sky above the tree

 

Jasper smirked "Its easy to get under his feathers" he said "and he worries way too much"

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo listened to the two going at it, sighing slightly. Maybe it was a dragon thing, he wouldn’t really know since he grew up around ponies. Still, seemed like they were fine together, so he didn’t want to interfere. 
 

“Maybe. Just means he cares in a different way than ya. Nothing wrong with that.” Kojo shrugged, watching Cloudy fly off to find Iggy. “Seems ta me yer both focused more on what separates ya than what brings ya together. Like how ya both care about Iggy, in yer own ways.”

[Ashton]

Jasper shrugged "He worries about her too much. Yeah if she's out exploring some dangerous ruins or this nightmare forest she might be in trouble, but worst I've ever seen her do with magic is catch herself on fire --- and if you dont know about kirin, they're fireproof, I mean you get one pissed off enough and they literally burst into flames and even when they're not angry they can summon and toss around fireballs even easier than we can, so yeah, she's safe with magic" he chortled "I dont even know if she's really at risk in this forest since if anything bothers her she can burn it to cinders... I think the forest is in more danger from her" he laughed

 

"looks like they're getting things cleaned up" he said, pointing to some disgruntled pegasai bringing in rain clouds "Now the question is whether to stay out in the rain or go see what kind of disaster Iggy's made of the house in the meantime..." he commented

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo shrugged a bit at Jasper’s explanation, not sure if he got the point but figuring there was no point in pushing it right now. When the attention turned to the cleanup efforts and the question of what they should do, Kojo looked around at the rain clouds coming in. 
 

“Well, Ah don’t mind a bit of rain myself, but perhaps we should visit yer friend. Ah like meeting new folks.” He suggested, getting up and ready for the trip. “Plus, Ah’ll get ta see where ya live. Least, Ah assume yer staying there.”

[Ashton]

Jasper shrugged "saying we live there is only slightly true right now, its closer to saying we will live there, I doubt izzy's even got the wagon unpacked, much less everything set up, but I can still show you where it is" he said, pushing himself up and stretching, flapping his wings just enough to hover above the ground so he didn't have to walk in the slimy mess that he was sure izzy had made

 

"its out near the castle. I dont know if izzy planned that or not since that twilight pony was long gone before we even started looking here... 'course maybe she plans to study the castle itself, dont know and dont care." 

 

After a few minutes the two would come to a small, boring looking ,slightly rundown two story house that had its paint flaking off, with a large wagon outside filled with crates and boxes, and indeed within just a few minues they saw a kirin with a broom in her horn's glow, sweeping out a mound of bubbles

 

Jasper landed on the inclined yoke of the wagon about a dozen feet from the door where it was at least dry from being out in the sun "So I was right... you tried a little too hard and botched a spell again, didn't you iggy?" Something was different though with how he spoke to iggy, it was still a little condescending (though that was expected from a dragonlands-born dragon) but he seemed a little softer and kinder, a little more open to her. It was clear cloudy had not been kidding when he said Iggy had somehow saved Jasper, which made the kirin and dragon much closer and more amiable... though the harshness of Jasper's race still was clear it was much more subdued

 

Azure "Iggy" Ignine

 

 

 

The gold fur'd kirin looked up, a little annoyed "Jasper! Where have you been?"

 

"Where your magic is not, your dodging the question" he said giving her a knowing grin

 

Iggy sighed, hoof going to her face "yes... I tried to clean the house in a hurry so we could unload our stuff" she then noticed the other dragon "Oh Hi!" she said "There's another dragon living here? Are you Jasper's friend? you have to come by later when everything unpacked, I'd love to ask you some questions and cross-reference you and jasper to help understand..."

 

Jasper frowned "He's not a experiment, iggy..."

 

Iggy blushed a little "oh, right, sorry" she said "Lets start over, I'm Azure Ignine, Iggy for short, what's your name?" she asked the other dragon, being polite though she did seem to think he was younger than he was by the slightly silly smile and tone she spoke in --- though she tried to sound respectful none the less.

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo flew along after Jasper, humming at the news that the place was by the castle. That was interesting, but he supposed someone had to live in them. He wasn’t exactly keeping up on the housing market in town, so he didn’t know what all they had to choose from. As they arrived, he looked over the somewhat run-down place with a slight frown, wondering if he should offer help. 
 

For now though, he listened to Jasper talk to the pony-like creature, smiling as he noticed Jasper’s tone change around her. Eventually the talk turned to him, and he waved back at Iggy at her introduction. 
 

“Howdy. Ah’m Kojo, nice ta meetcha, Iggy.” He smiled, nodding to her. “Ah’m not the only other dragon round these parts, but yeah, Jasper’s my new friend. And Ah’d be willing ta help clean up, ifn ya want the help.”

[Ashton]

Iggy grinned "Your willing to help without me even asking? Jasper, are you past your trade-in date?" she grinned jokingly

 

Jasper rolled his eyes "better watch it, runt, next thing you know she'll have turned your scales into snow... or in your case probably leaves"

 

"I only did that once" defended iggy "and you were close to molting anyway so it wasn't so bad!"

 

"yeah... you have a loose definition of the word 'bad'" he snorted "Just remember even if he helps you that doesn't mean you get to test spells and potions and other weird things on him"

 

"oh I know, tha'ts why I have you" smirked iggy

 

Jasper sighed, muttering about iggy only saving him to get a free genuea pig...

 

Iggy's grin though faded, clearly that wasn't true and it really hurt when jasper said things like that... though she didn't respond... after a moment just silently passing a broom to kojo as she went to the wagon and retrieved a mop...

 

((and just to make it clear, Jasper was not at all rude when he called kojo 'runt' thats just his insensitive draconic nature thinking its a suitable nickname since its accurate...))

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo giggled slightly at the thought of Jasper’s scales turning into some kind of snow. He frowned soon after though, as they got into a small fight that ended in awkward silence. He looked between them, opening his mouth to say something, but thinking better of it. He simply sighed slightly as he accepted the broom, helping to clean up the place. 

[Ashton]

And while Iggy and Kojo cleaned, Jasper, being jasper, sat on the card and did nothing but watch... or at least that was his plan before the window above him opened up and a massive pile of bubbles was thrown out.

 

Unfortunately for the would-be "attacker", jasper had plenty of time to react and a small fireball was enough to dispel them as he glared up "You did that on purpose, turkey!"

 

Indeed Cloudy's head popped out "I have no clue what you mean, I was just..."

 

"lifting them up all the way to the window instead of tossing them into a bucket or a sink or something?" asked Jasper "you really think I'm gonna buy that excuse?"

 

Cloudy shrugged "well if you actually helped maybe we'd get through a lot faster"

 

Iggy, already upset by jasper's comment was clearly not taking this argument well as wisps of smoke were rising form her fur and mane as her eyes turned white, warning that she was about to go into Nirik rage mode......

[PyroBlaze]

Kojo tried to simply ignore the argument and focus on the work, but Iggy’s reaction caught his eye and he looked over at her worriedly. It took him a moment to remember what Jasper said about Iggy’s kind getting mad, and then the pieces fell into place. He looked back and forth between her and Jasper for a bit before flying over to Jasper. 
 

“Hey, ya might wanna cool it, Ah think Iggy’s getting upset.” He said, pointing out the kirin and giving Jasper a look that told him to be careful if he didn’t want her to blow her top. With that done though, he flew back to continue working.