“Spike... Spike!”
“Mhhhhhhmmm... 5 minutes... Twilight...” Protested Spike, head spinning from the late night he had. Twilight scoffed and lifted him out of his bed with her magic, making spike shoot awake and follow that with a groan. “Twiliiiiiight... Why can't I just sleep in for a little longer? I don't ALWAYS have to wake up when you do, you know.”
“One; yes you do, and two; because of this.” Twilight said as she put Spike down, pulling up the letter that Spike had coughed up the night before. It was the end of the winter wrap-up and there was quite the party over at Pinkie's to celebrate. “You passed out at the sweets bar and I had had to carry you home. On the way you burped this up... along with a couple pounds of sprinkles.”
“ahhh-hehe... sorry.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “What? I can have fun sometimes too y'know?” She couldn't help but laugh at her little... well, not so little anymore brother. He was still spike, but he had grown out of his baby dragon stage and grew about a foot and a half, his scales started to become pointy and harden. His wings started to grow in too-which according to him, hurt a lot.
“I wanted to open it with you, we haven't been able to read a letter together for a while.”
“Cool, let's open it up Twi!” Spike said as he sat next to his sister. Twilight opened the letter and began to read.
“My faithful student Twilight,
I am sending you this letter to inform you of the arrival of the Grand Dragon. He will be coming tomorrow afternoon to discuss matters between dragon and pony relationships within Equestria. He is expected to stay for 3 to 4 weeks and as such, his ability to look after his son, Cobalt, will be reduced dramatically. I have told the Grand Dragon that Cobalt is able to stay in Ponyville with you and I have informed him of Spike. Cobalt is only a few years older and I'd imagine he would feel much more comfortable around a dragon rather than Ponies in Canterlot. Cobalt should be arriving tomorrow afternoon, the Grand Dragon has told me that he is a little shy because he's considered an anomaly due to his rapidly growing wings, so he might need some time to adjust to everyone. There's nobody I would trust this to rather than you Twilight, I know you'll do well.
Princess Celestia.”
Twilight's jaw dropped, she couldn't believe what was about to happen. In a dash she started running around the library, muttering to herself as she looked around for a book. Spike took the letter in his claw and read it over again, dropping his hand to the side once he finished and staring out the window.
“A...a dragon my age...? I'm going to meet a dragon my age?”
“FOUND IT!” Exclaimed Twilight as she put the book on the pedestal and opened it up.
“Found what Twilight?” Said Spike, snapping out of his stare with a jump as he walked downstairs and next to Twilight.
“The history of the hierarchy of Dragons.” She said factually as she started to flip through the pages.
“Why would you look for that book?” Spike asked scratching his still groggy head “Didn't Celestia give that to you like 2 weeks ago?”
“Yes, she said I might need it in the future, I just never knew when. This must be why!” Whilst Twilight rifled through the book, Spike couldn't help but think about Cobalt again. A dragon his age? He'd be meeting a dragon his age for the first time in his short existence. What would he do? The only interaction he's had with other Dragons is they either almost killed him or Bullied him and then tried to kill him. So he wasn't too in the know of what to do.
“Aha! Here we are! 'The Grand Dragon is the Alpha male for all Dragons in Equestria. He Governs over all dragon affairs, including: Territory, Sectional Hierarchy and Breeding.' Wow, this guy sounds powerful.” She looked to spike, who was in a locked stare. She shook her head and kept reading. “'The Grand Dragon is also the only dragon allowed to interact with Ponies for political discussion. This is to minimize the possible recurrence of the Great Dragon/Pony war that happened 748 years ago. Since then, Dragons and ponies have attempted to improve relations. The current Grand Dragon; Nitrius Sai-Delhan Sertingue, is attempting to rekindle the Dragon/Pony Relation that ruled over Equestria for close to 1500 years prior to the war, when Pony poachers decided to poach eggs from Dragons. Nitrius will attempt to speak to Princess Celestia for 4 weeks, because the dragon/pony relation has recently slumped considerably.' Wait WHAT!?”
Spike snapped out of his deep thought when he heard Twilight's exclamation. “Wh-wha? What's wrong Twilight?”
“The book... it's definitely hundreds of years old, but look at this: This is the whole itinerary of what's going to happen over the next 4 weeks! How does the book know that?”
Twilight looked through the book and noticed every page after that was empty. The final page had a strange seal with a Dragon circling a Crest, all sections within the crest had a different magic symbol.
“I...I know this symbol. I read about it when I was at the Canterlot library. It's a magical dragon rune that allows altercation of objects by the caster's will, it's extremely difficult and powerful magic. That must mean that this book is constantly updated. Which means... whatever happens in this summit will determine the next chapter of this book!” Twilight looked in fear at the book as it turned back to the page she was last on. New writing began to appear on the page quickly, turning from idle scribble into the same font as the book. Twilight slowly started to read the writing as it appeared. “'Today, the summit shall start... The Grand Dragon will be speaking with Celestia and the returned Luna to determine the course of action... to the new discovery of possible returning Dragon egg poachers.'”
Spike looked at the book in a strange feeling of disgust. “Ponies... are hunting dragons... again?”
“I don't know spike, but that can't be our concern right now, we have to prepare for Cobalt's arrival. I need you to go get Rarity and Fluttershy, I'll get Dash, Pinkie and Applejack, and I'll notify the Mayor of what's happening.” Said Twilight as she walked out the door in a hurried step. Spike looked at the book and sighed, turning and walking out the door.
~~
“*knock Knock Knock* Rarity? It's spike.” Rarity walked downstairs and opened the door.
“Oh, hello Spike, I did not know you were visiting today or I would have made a spot of tea.”
“Oh, that would be great, thank you, but I'm here to call you to the Library. There's a dragon coming to stay with us for a few weeks and we need to prepare.” Rarity looked at him and smiled.
“Well this is definitely something to discuss! Shall we be off immediately or...”
“We have to pick up Fluttershy along the way.” Said spike with a slight blush appearing on his face. Rarity nodded in understanding.
“Ah, well it is good that you came to me first, Spike. Fluttershy is not at her cabin at the moment, she just passed by on her way to the market, we'll find her there.” Spike nodded and followed Rarity, suddenly liking this outing a lot more as they headed out to the market.
The market was busier than usual today, ponies were shopping for the freshest produces to restock after the winter. After walking around with Rarity for a few minutes, Spike noticed Fluttershy at a stall near the centre.
“There she is Rarity, c'mon, let's go get her.” Said spike as he walked over to the stall. “Hey Fluttershy!” Fluttershy jumped a bit but quickly relaxed after figuring out who's voice it was. She turned to see Spike and Rarity next to her and she beamed a gentle smile.
“Hey Spike, hi Rarity, you guys in the market for supplies too?”
“Ahhh, not quite, Fluttershy.” Rarity started, “Twilight wants us to go to the library to prepare for the arrival of a dragon, right Spike?” Spike nodded, which made Fluttershy's smile quickly turned into a look of terror as her knees seized up and she started to shake violently.
“A...Aaaaa.... d-d... Dragon!?” She spat out before darting behind the stall, making the cleric jump in surprise. Spike shook his head and walked up to her.
“It's okay Fluttershy, it's not a big dragon, it's one my age. He's going to be my size, not fully grown.” Fluttershy peeked out from behind the stall at spike.
“Y-you sure?” Spike nodded in agreement and helped Fluttershy up. “I-I guess... we should get going now then?” Spike again nodded in approval and the three walked back to the library.
~~
“What do you mean the entire fate of Equestria depends on this summit!?” Dash exclaimed in a mix of anger and worry. “Can't there be another way to talk this out? Maybe, oh I don't know, something that DOESN'T sound like the worst idea ever?”
“I have to agree with Dash on this one, Twi. This sounds shakier than a house of cards in a hurricane.” Applejack added. Twilight could only hang her head in semi-defeat as she walked back to the book.
“I'm sorry girls, I don't like this either, but I have no control over it. Sure I'm a princess now, but I'm not Celestia, I didn't even know this was happening until this morning so I can't interject either. The only thing we can really do is wait, and prepare for this new dragon coming in.” Twilight turned at the sound of the door opening up as Fluttershy and Rarity entered, followed by Spike who closed the door behind him. Twilight made a notion to both ponies and they both gathered in the circle. Spike walked around the 5 ponies and stood next to Twilight.
“Look, girls, I know how dangerous this seems, but right now we have a more pressing matter. The dragon that's supposed to be coming should be here within the hour and I don't know what to expect. We just need to make sure that everyone's prepared.” As Twilight was about to continue, Pinkie started to jump up and down frantically.
“OH OH OH! Does that mean we get to have a welcoming party? I LOVE welcoming parties!” She said excitedly. Twilight couldn't help but smile.
“Sure Pinkie, but it'll have to be once he's settled in, Celestia told me he's a little shy.”
“Uh huh! Uh huh! Got it! I'll go get started for the 'After-he-meets-up-and-settles-in-superultramega AWESOME welcoming party'!” And with that, Pinkie did a back flip out the open window and disappeared. The other 5 and Spike all looked on with a slight concern.
“...does she ever sit down?” Spike asked rhetorically, which made Applejack turned to Spike in attention.
“You know, you're the only other dragon in Ponyville Spike, how do you feel about all this? I reckon it's probably sittin' with you a little strange?” The others looked at him and shared their gestures in approval to Applejack's question. Spike looked at them all and then to Twilight before sighing and looking down to his feet.
“I... I don't know, Applejack. I'm happy that I'm going to meet another dragon, especially one around as old as me.... but... I don't know. Last time I tried to hang out with dragons it didn't really work out so well, you guys saw that. He's probably going to know all this stuff about dragon culture that I could never know. I just hope that it isn't a flop of an encounter.” Twilight put her wing around his shoulders in comfort and spoke to him softly.
“You know, Spike, you might not know that much about dragon culture, but he's coming to -Ponyville-. You've known Ponies all your life, and it's going to be really confusing to him. You both have something the other probably doesn't, so maybe you can use that to your advantage?” Spikes ears perked up as he looked at her and nodded, a small smile breaking. “Good, now, we have a lot to do before his arrival and not much time to do it. I will assign every-pony a task so things go by quickly, let's get this done!
Twilight assigned everyone to their task. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack were in charge of letting every-pony know what was happening, Rarity was assigned to making sure everything was in top condition for when Cobalt arrived. Pinkie already had her task, of course, and as for Spike and Twilight; they had a lot of cleaning and preparation to do in the library.
The city was abuzz with duty, everyone was ready for the arrival. All they had to do now, was wait.