Spike walked through the Dragon Village by Garble's side. They were in a large volcano. There were huge buildings carved out of stone along the walls of the volcano. Shops, a school, a hospital, restaurants, government buildings, ect pretty much anything you would imagine being in a town only dragon sized.
There were also hundreds of caves used as houses. Strangely there were no doors at the entrances. Looking into the caves as they passed them they each had a lake and a waterfall of their own. Each lake was filled with the cleanest hotspring waters and large fish that occasionally jumped out of the water before diving back in. Some of those fish were as big as 30 feet.
Along the walls outside the caves were more waterfalls pouring out into a mote around a pit of lava at the bottom. Steam rose up from the pit and the waterfalls. The village looked absolutely amazing and the hot steam felt good against Spike's scales. The waterfalls and mote looked pony, errr "dragon", made. In fact the lakes looked dragon made to.
As Spike was beginning to understand the cave entrance with the lake was just the front yard or some kind of basking area based on how many dragons were laying around enjoying the steam. Further in looked more like an actual home only... much bigger and carved out of the stone.
"The basking area," Garble suddenly explained after noticing how curious Spike was about all the homes, "Is where dragons keep most of our food and is a great place to relax, good setup for naps.
"We have our actual homes in the tunnels behind that. My parents... our parents were given the home after they were married off to each other and I inherited it after they passed... most of the furniture and stuff is too big for me so I mostly just stay in the Basking area, the hoard room, or my room... we have a nursery for you to. With furniture about your size... I have a lot of hatchling books I enjoyed when I was your age in there to,"
Spike hesitantly nodded. He was partly excited to have his room, partly embarrassed that it was a nursery, and partly worried how long he'd have to stay here. Twilight would be worrying about him. Spike didn't want to leave Garble but he missed Twilight. Spike just didn't want to tell Garble that. He was worried he might hurt his feelings again. After all, Garble had been searching for him his whole life. It crush him if Spike said he didn't want to leave with him... that might even be a lie on Spike's part... He did have a lot of fun with Garble before the incident with the Phoenix egg.
"We're not at the same place all the dragons migrated to," Spike noted, thinking Twilight probably wouldn't be able to find him. He wanted to stay with his new found brother but he couldn't bare the thought of never seeing Twilight again.
Garble snorted, "Once every 500 years Dragons gather from nests all over Equestria for mating season,"
"Mating season?" Spike blinked.
"Well... that's the closest word for it. Basically it's when Alphas trade unmarried and unattached dragons to other nest too strengthen bloodlines or trade goods. I was kind of worried my Alpha was going to trade me since orphans are usually the biggest bargaining chips at these things but luckily he likes me. He only made me go since the rest of the nest was going to be gone. He even arranged for me to have a bloody Night Fury as my mate. The guy is currently packing all his things from his nest. He should be here in a couple days,"
"He?" Spike blinked.
Garble rolled his eyes, "Moron, all dragons are boys. We can just get pregnant to. Ponies are just too stupid to realize how pointless it is to have more then one gender,"
"Oh..." Spike really didn't know what to say to that. Maybe ask how dragons get pregnant. Twilight had explained to him that boys put seeds in a mare's belly but didn't explain where the seeds come from. He theorized they were pumpkin seeds because of how big a mare's belly would get but Twilight wouldn't confirm it. Besides Garble was likely to just call him an idiot for not knowing. So Spike searched for a topic to change to, "So... you're married?"
Garble scuffed, "Of course not stupid," calling the hatchling an idiot anyway, "I'm still only a Rookie Dragon. Toothless is just going to live with me because the Alpha wants him to but we won't actually marry until we are old enough to have eggs of our own.
"Normally a nest wouldn't be willing to part with a dragon breed as rare and powerful as a Night Fury but they're a very poor nest. They don't have much food and WAY too many dragons to feed. A lot of their dragons got traded off to other nest in exchange for food. We're lucky and got plenty of lava fish and gems of all kinds here so we can afford to trade food for new blood instead of our existing members. We also lucked out and got a very nice Alpha.
"Too bad for Toothless as he's an orphan to so he was one of the first to go. Usually dragons only get traded off if they volunteer for it or if their parents agree to it but orphans belong to the entire nest so-" Garble shrugged.
Spike really wished he had some parchment. Twilight would flip when he tells her all this. She loves learning new things and ponies know absolutely nothing about dragon culture.
###
Garble took him to the bottom of the volcano were several baby dragons were playing in the lava around one massive dragon. It was a huge white dragon, bigger then any dragon Spike had ever seen.
Garble bowed but when Spike just stood there. Garble whacked the hatchling upside the head then forced him on his knees.
"Lava Frost," Garble spoke well still bowing, "I'd like you to meet my little brother, Spike,"
The big dragon smiled, "Garble, you found him. I'm happy for you hatchling,"
"Thank you sir," Garble smiled back.
"Where was he?" the great dragon asked.
"The ponies, my lord. I was right. They had stolen him as an egg and raised him," Garble growled.
The dragon hummed, "The ponies you say, I will see to it that they are punished for this,"
"No!" Spike yelled getting up
Garble growled and forced Spike back to a bowing position.
"Let him speak," said Lava Frost.
Garble reluctantly let go and Spike stood up again, much to Garble's irritation.
"Sir," Spike said, "The ponies didn't mean to kidnap me. They thought I was abandoned. They raised me right and loved me and I love them. Please don't hurt them,"
The large dragon hummed again, "Very well, I will take no action against the ponies but I will be having words with Celestia. She should have informed the Dragon Lord of your discovery,"
"She did Sir," Spike informed, "He said a 'Wingless runt' wasn't worth the trouble,"
The mighty dragon growled, "Sounds like something that lazy ass would say. Very well," The Great Alpha nodded his understanding, "Garble get to class, I will watch the hatchling for you,"
"Thank you sir," Garble nodded, obviously angry at what he just heard.
"I thought you were taking me to 'daycare'," Spike asked as Garble got up.
"This is Daycare," Garble informed.
"But I thought this was the Alpha you were talking about?" Spike blinked.
"Who else would be trusted to care for the hatchlings well the grownups work," Garble looked at him like he was stupid, "Now be good, I'll be back in a few hours. And remember, you promised to eat the fish,"
Spike turned green at the thought.
"A dragon never breaks a promise," Garble insisted before knocking Spike into the lava, "Have fun,"