"I realize my mistake."

Sandra looked over from where she had been speaking quietly with Aiden, though the phoenix-owl had been not replying in any audible way. "What mistake, Spike?"

"I'm not a healer." Spike clapped his hands. "And I'm not a tank."

Garble hiked his brow from his top bunk. "Funny, I thought that was exactly the two things you did. So what are you then?"

Spike hopped down from his chair, his staff held high. "I'm in the front row. I should be the ones in their face, turning their attacks back."

Smolder tossed her dagger up and sat up, catching it as it came back down. "Sounds good to me. I'm more in the back row these days, throwing out some hurt and supporting. It's working out."

"You're happy with that?" Garble leaned over the edge of his bunk. "I thought you liked being right up in there, stabbing things, cooking them, and eating them. Not always in that order."

Smolder flashed her sharp teeth. "You know just what to say, Bro. You think I'll stop doing that? It's about getting us to the top. We have to play it smart if we want to smash that stupid dog in its equally stupid face and then face off against things that make it look easy."

"Speaking of that." Spike twirled his staff and conjured his shield in the same motion. "While I'm totally cool with you getting that big sword first, we could all use some upgrades. I motion we sell off everything we aren't using now that we're in town and do some shopping."

Sandra's hands came together in a smart clap. "Shopping! Yes, we should definitely do that. Now that you brought it up, it's basically a miracle we got so far with the equipment we had, but even more important than that--"

Smolder hiked a scaled brow. "What's more important than that?"

"We got materials, remember?" She drew out a small chunk of strange metal from her robes. "A good bit of it, from the arena fight. There are artisans in town that know how to work with it." She pointed at Spike's head. "Remember how the guild paid us for your crown? That's because it was material too, though a step removed."

Garble sat up, his grin growing by the moment. "Now you're talking my language. So we can all get our upgrade." He hiked a thumb at his sword, resting against the wall. "I'll take a pass on a weapon upgrade. Mine's already awesome."

Smolder snorted on her way towards the door. "Yeah, thanks. C'mon!" With a wave, she got them moving. All four poured out of the inn and marched determinately towards the market side of town.

Sandra pointed to a particular building, made of stone with smoke billowing from the top. "I know that smith, maybe they'll give us a good rate?" No strong objections came, mostly shrugs and alrights, so she led them onwards. A small bell jingled as she pushed open the door. "Hello."

There was a human there, but they were no burly smith. They looked like a wisp of a female with a bright smile. "Hello to you too. Sandra, it's been forever. I honestly though you'd given up." The others came in behind Sandra and the smith's eyes widened. "Are they with you?"

Sandra waved at her team. "Say hello to the rest of my party. We've made it up to the first checkpoint and we need better equipment to take down the first boss."

"The first boss?!" She danced closer. "First. Boss? My little Sandra! I thought you'd never... But here you are. You've destroyed all my expectations." She burst into airy giggles, suddenly reaching to hug Sandra, tightly squeezing the confused summoner. "Don't look like that. I'm so happy for you. So what are we doing today?"

Smolder held out a strange plasticky chunk. "Sandra mentioned 'materials' like this could be--"

"--Look at that!" The smith whipped around and snatched the plastic away. "Mmm Mmm, very nice. Obviously first level material, but first tower level material, very nice." She twirled it and examined it with obvious interest. "You have more than this, I assume?"

Spike pulled out a bit he had, more metallic, and spikey. "What can you make with it? Um... Miss...?"

"Oh! Look at me." She snatched the metal bit, grabbing it with the skill required to not stab herself with its spikes. "Just so excited. You can call me Tammy, and you're in good hands. The more you have, the more I can make, so stop teasing me and get out all the materials you have."

Garble pushed ahead of the others. "Hold on. You're just taking our stuff. Start explaining what we get back for it."

Tammy inclined her head faintly before clucking her tongue. "Dragon."

Stolen story; please report.

Garble blinked softly. "Yeah?"

"A dragon!" She twirled around, setting the two chunks of material down and finishing the spin to face him. "I've worked with dragon scales and dragon teeth and dragon claws and dragon... almost everything else, but I never had one come up and say hello to me before."

Sandra gestured to Garble, then the others. "Welcome to my party, 75% dragon by volume."

Smolder puffed out her chest with a wry smirk. "It's alright if you want to bask in our glory a moment."

"Well, since you offered." Tammy had no shame, reaching to paw at Garble, feeling his scales and face and how everything fit together. "You are so much more interesting put together! Why are people pulling dragons apart?! Say! Can you do the fire thing?"

Garble swatted her hands away with an angry snort, flames escaping his nostrils. "I'm about to give you a real personal demonstration."

"Oh, yes, please!" Tammy clapped her hands and danced away towards a large machine that occupied much of the room. "Right there." She pointed to a hatch. "Some actual dragon flames should improve my furnace's efficiency! If it works, discount for you. Only fair."

Smolder swaggered towards the hatch. "I have the strongest fire breath, let me at it."

"What are you talking about," thundered Garble, storming after her. "My fire is way better!"

"Competition?" Smolder grinned at him, a spot of flame escaping her snout. "Hey, Spike, join in. Let's see which dragon has the most puff."

"Pfft, if either us loses to Spike, they get to be his servant for a day." Garble drew in a sharp breath.

Tammy casually reached over with a foot, stepping on a pedal that caused the hatch to pop open, ready to receive the flames. Other than an annoyed grumble from Spike, there were no more words left between the three. Garble went first, gushing angry flames. The machine came to life, blinking and colorful. A meter sprang to life, growing into the yellow before simmering back down into the green as the flames ended.

"My turn." Smolder took in all the air she could, torso swollen a moment before she let it all out. The bar filled, twitching around the yellow before starting to fall back down into the green, an almost identical performance to Garble. "Hm, go on, Spike. Show us what you have."

Spike sidestepped into position, facing the hatch. He had breathed plenty of fire before! Small ones, to send letters, and big ones... Right. He captured the thought in his head, focusing on that dread instant, when so many ponies could have been hurt, when he was the only thing between them and being painfully crushed by a floating island of ice.

He could feel the fire. With a soft inhale, he stoked it, burning hot inside him. With a sudden roar he let it out, gushing into the strange machine. Its meter slammed into yellow instantly and began to show bits of orange as it pushed past, lapping just faintly into the red before it started to peter back, fading into the lower portion of yellow.

Tammy took off her foot with an excited clap as metal slapped against metal in a loud closing snap. "Oh, marvelous! Fantastic! Sandra, where did you get three wonderful dragon friends? Ooo, I can't wait to forge on this." She worried her fingers together with a manic grin. "Now, materials! Give them up. I need to get started before I explode with excitement."

Smolder and Garble were standing there, limbs loose, jaws hanging. They had been beaten at fire breathing. By Spike.

Sandra's hands came down on either of Spike's shoulders. "Wow, that was great! Alright, everyone get out all the materials you have." She began pulling out all she had.

Smolder allowed a little chuckle as she dropped what few bits she had left. "Well, be nice, Spike. I mean, Sir."

"Ain't gettin' me to say 'Sir'." Garble snorted angrily as he threw down what he had.

Spike smiled a little awkwardly. "I command you both continue being amazing dragons."

"Ooo, that's a hard one." Smolder moved over to elbow Spike. "I'll do my best."

Garble didn't accept it as easily, grunting. "I'm not taking your pity. Hey, you." He was looking at Tammy. "Here's all our stuff, so what can you do?"

Tammy was already gathering all the materials. "One moment. One moment... Let me see one of your guildchains kindly?" She happened to be near Spike and saw his dangling. "There we are." She almost pulled the poor drake off his feet as she yanked the chain over to the grand machine.

Once it was close enough, the machine made a new beep. "Open a party account," ordered Tammy and the machine was quick to obey, showing the faces of everyone in the party. "And now in we go." She began tossing the material into the center of the machine, each causing a gush of flame before sinking into the inferno.

The machine began to show which materials had been stored beneath everyone's image. On the third toss, things began to appear. "Those are things the machine knows I can make, but those are suggestions, not always the limit. With the dragon's breath in there, I'm feeling... spicy!" She didn't slow her feeding of the great metal beast. "The machine will remember what you gave me, so you don't have to do all your shopping at once. Isn't that handy?"

Smolder leaned in a bit, squinting at the little images of items. "It also keeps us from wandering to another smith."

Tammy paused, tapping a smooth bit of metal to her cheek. "I never thought of that before, huh... You have a point. Still, it has to be in there for me to do things with it, so--" And in went the smooth metal, joining its friends in the flames. "I didn't design this thing. I bought it from the last person who owned it, who got it from someone else. I don't even really know who built the furnace in the first place, but I owe them a thanks considering it's my business and all." She snorted a laugh as she tossed in the last bit of material offered to her. "Look at all those options!"

She reached out into the air and physically grabbed the image, pulling it closer and stretching it wider so it was much easier to see each thing. "So anything you see here, I can make, no problem. On the other hand... You can show some faith and describe something a bit fancier and I can give it my best shot. If it works out, fantastic! I get to add a new recipe to the sheet here. If not... I won't charge anything, but your materials will be shot."

Smolder jabbed a finger forward. "Hey, why do those boots have wings?"

"Jump boots!" excitedly announced Tammy. "With those, you can..." She trailed off, looking over her customers. "Most of you really don't need that. You have wings. They do work, right?"

Spike gestured at Sandra with a grin. "They work great, but if you could make Sandra fly too, that'd be really great."