//------------------------------//
// Love comes in many ways to a Dragon 
// Story: A dragon a Dozen 
// by Cobaltin 
//------------------------------//

Spike, Cobalt and the Crusaders had been at Sugarcube corner for about 20 minutes. Spike explained everything that happened up until today to Applebloom and the gang as he took spoonfuls of his ice cream. At first it took a little convincing to get her to listen to what he was saying, but she eventually became intrigued. 

“...And that’s when he showed us who our parents were. My mom was a Grand Siren! That’s like the queen of sirens or something like that! Hey, I just realized something would explain why you have fluff on your head rather than Spikes, Cobalt!” Spike exclaimed, making Cobalt smile a bit as he took another spoon of his ice cream. 

“What about your dad, Spike?” Scootaloo asked as she set aside her milkshake.

“Oh, yeah! My dad was this BIIIIIG Copper dragon, he looked like he could move mountains with his pinky claw! The book said that his element was earth and he was supposedly really smart too and… and man this is so cool!” Spike exclaimed with a jump in his seat. The gang sat there in awe, imagining what Spike was saying as he blurred it out like it was the most incredible thing in the universe.

“That’s really cool, Spike. I’m glad you know who your parents are now.” Bloom said warmly as she gave him a hug, which made him blush. She quickly realized what she was doing, to which her friends were smirking at her and got back into her seat, giggling and blushing in embarrassment. She glanced over to Cobalt, who looked like he was a little down, and decided to say something to change attention from her “Hey, Cobalt, you okay? You looked a lil troubled by something.” Cobalt looked up and sighed.

“Huh? Oh, well... I dunno. I guess this is all just a bit of a shock to me.” He said quickly to try and change the subject. To his dismay, Spike now noticed something was up and quickly shifted his attention.

“Oh no no, you’re not brushing this off. C’mon, Cobalt, What’s going on?” Spike said as he shifted over to his brother. Cobalt looked at him half heartedly for a moment, then looked back down to his feet.

“Gods, I don’t know, Spike. I-I try not to think about it, but it keeps buzzing through my head. I’m ecstatic to have you as my brother, I truly am. But, at the same time I just lost 5 brothers, 4 sisters, 2 fathers, even if I hate my current father, and a mother. We don’t even know if our REAL mother is even alive. I just… Hoikkn, it’s a lot to take in in 3 hours time.” He said with a frustrated stomp. “I think the worst part of all this… is that nobody told me I was adopted. My fath- screw it, he’s barely a father, Nitrius… That softscaled bastard has a lot to explain.” Cobalt finished with a grind of his transparent, blue-tinged teeth. Spike slumped back in his chair, his chest suddenly heavy with emotion. He never realized that this meant that Twilight, whilst obviously not his true sister, fell even shorter now because of this. He didn’t realize either how hard it must’ve hit Cobalt, he grew up with dragons. For all he knew, he was one of his family up until now.

“Cobalt… I-”

“Spike, don’t even. It’s not your fault, sweetie.” Cobalt said as he leaned in and gave his little brother a warm lick on the cheek. “Now I’ll be okay, I promised I would. I just need to sort a few things out in my mind and I’ll be fine. Don’t mind me, guys, I’m just making the mood bad. Bloom, you have some things to discuss with Spike, no?” Cobalt said with a soft grin. Bloom suddenly remembered why all this happened and blushed heavily as it dawned on her what she had to do.

“Oh… right. Well, here goes… Spike?”

“Yeah, Bloom?” Spike said as he scooted back over to her. Bloom looked at her hooves as she fiddled with them, spending a good few seconds trying to figure out what to say. Out of frustration, however, she decided to just get on with it.

“Oh, to hell with it. Spike, look, I really like you okay? I’ve been ridiculed at school for it, my sister thinks I’m nuts, I think I’m crazy, but I still really like you. I know we’re different species and we might run into some problems down the road, but I wanna at least get a chance with you. So… well, if you wouldn’t mind… going out sometime again? Just you and me?” Bloom looked up at Spike and gave him a nervous, yet hopeful smile. Spike’s face flushed pink as he took in what she was saying. Carefully, he took her hoof in his claw and sighed nervously.

“Well, Bloom… I… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to maybe try something with you. But… do you mind if we keep it at a slow pace? After what happened with Rarity and the little incident last night, I think I need a little time to see if I really want this. Hell, at this point I don’t even know if I’m straight.” Spike looked up sheepishly at Bloom, expecting to see disappointment. To his surprise, she was beaming ear to ear and blushing as red as her mane. She pulled him in for a hug and kissed his cheek, making him coo and flush an even deeper pink.

“Awww… thank you, Spike. I promise we’ll take it super slow.” Bloom said with the happiest overtone Spike had ever heard. Sweetie Bell awwed and Scootaloo gave her regular gesture of dislike to affection, but was happy that her friend got her wish. 

“Guys, I hate to break up the tender moment, but I need to get your home, Spike.” Cobalt said with a slight chuckle. “If you guys want, I’ll see if I can get you a nice restaurant out in Dragonto, I may not technically be part of the dragon hierarchy, but now, since I’m an actual ALPHA MALE, I have even more pull than Nitrius. That and I’m a lot more known than you, lil bro. But it’s okay, I’ll help you get your name out there.” Cobalt said with a mischevious smirk. Spike and Bloom both laughed and nodded.

“That would be great, Cobalt, thank you. See you later, Spike.” Bloom said happily with a kiss on Spike’s cheek.

“Aww… hehe, see you later, Bloomie.”

~~

“Damn… today was quite the day, huh Poof?” Cobalt said as they walked in the slim light that the sun still provided.

“Heh, you can say that again. Oh… please… don’t, though. I really need to stop thinking about it, my brain hurts now.” Spike said with a chuckle, to which Cobalt smiled. “It still boggles my mind how we’re brothers though, THAT much I don’t want to get out of my mind.”

“Hmhm, I agree, Poof.” Cobalt said contently as he pulled Spike in and wrapped his arm over his shoulder. “Hey, you know, we still don’t know your spirit name. I meant to ask master today, but I guess we got a little side tracked. No worries, we’ll figure it out next time we go visit.”

“Sounds good to me, Cobii.” Spike replied with a chirp. The finally got to the library just as the sun dipped below the land and the moon rose in the sun’s place. Spike knocked on the door, to which Twilight opened moments later. “Hey, Twilight! You wouldn’t believe what happened today!”

“Great, you can tell me, he stays outside tonight.” Said Twilight dryly as she pulled his brother into the library and slammed the door on Cobalt. She dragged Spike to the back of the library and sat him down before pacing back and forth angrily. “I’m debating sending his scaled hide back to Canterlot with the first train tomorrow. That little sneak, I KNEW something was up.” Twilight said in rage as she ground her teeth.

“Twilight… what’s going on?” Spike said nervously as he held his tail.

“Applebloom told me about your kiss with him last night. How dare he, how dare YOU.” Twilight spat out as she stomped her hoof on the floor. Spike quickly turned from nervous to defensive of Cobalt. She didn’t know what happened and she was already judging it.

“Hey, wait a second. What problem do you have with that? I kissed him, not the other way around.” Spike said as he stood up. Twilight looked at him and scoffed.

“I don’t care who did what. Point is, since the moment he came here, you’ve changed. You’re getting more aggressive, your attitude has gotten worse, you’re not helping me nearly as much. He’s a bad influence, Spike!” Twilight retorted as she stared into Spike’s eyes. Spike started to get angry; that was his brother she was talking about, who the heck did she think she was?

“Uh, yeah, it’s called being a Teenager, Twilight! The only reason I haven’t done this sooner is because I’m always helping you!” Spike said as he dug his foot claws into the floor.

“You would have been a lot better behaved if he hadn’t come along. You could have gotten killed last night! And the one person who got you into the situation in the first place is the one you fall in love with!?” Twilight said with a nostril flare. Spike could feel his rage building as she continued to talk trash about Cobalt.

“He saved my life, Twilight! He got stabbed by some random hooded pony who was going to kill me if he didn’t step in!”

“Yeah but where did they come from, Spike!? They must have found out where he was and got you to get to him! He’s a danger to you and a terrible influence!” Twilight said as she pointed to him accusingly.

“He’s not a bad influence, if anything he’s the opposite! He’s taken me under his wing, treated me like his own blood the second he got here, showed me some of what it meant to be dragon… He’s done so much for me in the past 3 weeks that I’ve learned more of myself than any time I’ve been with you!”

“Oh, is that it!?” Twilight shouted back “So the roof under your head, the stuff I’ve given you, the love I gave to you as a sister, that counts for nothing because he showed you a few little things about dragons!? You honestly think he could be a better sibling or something!?” 

“You bet your hide I think he could!” Spike snarled out.

“Oh yeah! Why’s that!?” She retorted louder than him. Spike, infatuated with rage, screamed at the top of his lungs.

“BECAUSE HE’S MY REAL BROTHER, YOU SOFTSCALED BITCH!”

The whole library shook as every book flew off the shelf and hit the floor. Twilight froze in fear, her heart felt like Spike ripped it out and stomped on it. She saw the pure rage in Spike’s eyes as his Pupils we’re barely visible, his face flushed red, his claws out and his body tensed up. She could see the purple aura around his claws as it faded into thin air.

“Wh...what did you-”

“I was going to tell you that we found out we’re related by blood; from the same parents. We were supposed to be twins but we got separated a very long time ago. That’s my brother you’re bad mouthing, and that’s my brother you turned your back to.” Spike said as he pointed to the door aggressively.

“I…”

“Shut up” Spike interjected as Twilight started to speak. “He would have never done what you did, never in a million years. After everything he went through today, he doesn’t even have a home left to go to.” Spike walked to the door and opened it, stepping outside and turning. “And after what just happened… I don’t want this home anymore.” Spike slammed the door, his strength cracking it down the middle as it slammed shut. He turned on his heels and started walking, not getting very far before he keeled over and threw up on the ground. Tears started streaming down his eyes as the rage settled and was replaced by an empty pit of sadness in his chest. He cursed himself with every word he could think of as he cried quietly on all fours.

“...Poof?” Said a voice above him quietly. He looked up to see a dark silhouette of a dragon- of Cobalt, above him. 

“Cobalt, I… Dammit…” Spike stammered before he puked again on the ground. Cobalt knelt down and rubbed his back softly.

“Spike, if you ever say softscale again, I’m ripping off your wings. You got me?” Cobalt said quietly as he rubbed Spike’s back. Spike only nodded as he started to cry harder.

“Cobalt… what the hell did I just do? I didn’t… by Celestia… I didn’t mean to-”

“Shhh” Cobalt said as he helped Spike up. “It’s okay, baby brother, it’s okay…” Spike slammed his face into his big brother’s chest and cried as hard as he could, hugging his big brother tightly as tears streamed from his face and wet Cobalt’s chestplate. After a good 10 minutes, Spike finally collected himself, feeling only numbness as Cobalt picked him up and held him close as he took off to the skies. Spike didn’t ask where they were going, quite frankly, it wasn’t on the list of things to care about at the moment. The last thing he remembered of that night was Cobalt humming quietly, which made him feel strangely calm as he curled himself up in his brother’s embrace and slowly dozed off.

~~

Spike slowly shifted and shuddered as he fluttered his eyes open, the world around him seeming fuzzy as he slowly woke up. It took him a minute, but he realized that he was back at the temple, thanks to all the markings on the wall. He jumped a bit as he felt shifting over him, followed by a soft grunt. He looked up to see Cobalt was laid over him, keeping him incubated as he usually did, but this time it seemed like he was tucked under him extra close. Spike groaned quietly and settled himself deeper into his brother’s body, resting his head on Cobalt’s arm, right under his big brother’s head. He laid there quietly, still feeling numb from last night. A billion thoughts buzzed through his head about last night, none of them really made him feel any better. He felt horrible for what he said to Twilight, and he wished he could take back every word he said; it made the empty pit feeling in his chest start to come back.

Spikes ears suddenly perked as he could hear faint singing coming from downstairs. He couldn’t hear or really understand what they were saying, but the sound was so crisp and beautiful that it drew him to it. He slowly wiggled out from under his brother and gave him a gentle thanking lick before tiptoeing downstairs, as not to wake him up. The singing got louder and louder as he walked down the marble steps to the main hall. He looked over to the main altar, where the singing was happening and saw that it was a choir of about 20-30 fluffy dragons singing in an arrangement, with Dax conducting them. 

He walked to the floor, slowly making his way closer to the choir as they sang. The sound travelled through the temple like a warm breeze, filling every corner and crawlspace. The sound was so perfect that it made Spike weak, the gentle singing of the choir feeling like it embraced his very soul. He sat down just as Dax cut the choir off.

“Fantastic job, everyone, I hear great improvement from last practise. Oh, hello young one, I didn’t know you were there. I hope we didn’t wake you?” Dax said as he turned around and noticed Spike sitting on one of the benches.

“Oh… n-no, I’ve been awake for a bit. I just heard now and came down to see what was going on” Spike said a bit groggily as his attention shifted to the choir. “Are… are you all Sirens?” Spike said as he scanned the choir, noticing every one of them had the Siren fluff and feathers, as well as the hybrid eyes.

“Why yes the are, Spike, good observation,” Dax stated with a smile. “This is Thei Khuiiehn uihf Atkias, The choir of Atkias. Comprised of only sirens and half sirens, both male and female. It’s the only choir that’s legally allowed to have all sirens in a choir. Would you like to hear a song?”

“Yes please, you all sing so beautifully…” Spike said as he kicked his feet excitedly, the memories of the night before melting away as the sound of the choir replaced them in his head. The sirens in the choir smiled and bowed to him before bringing their attention back to Dax, whom simply nodded and lifted his claw.

“Ubi Caritas et amor.” Dax stated as he started to count the time. The choir began to sing and the sound once again filled the air. Spike swore that the colours of the room became brighter as they sang, the sound was so crisp that Spike quickly found himself lost in the piece, it was unlike anything he ever heard. 

Dax looked back and smiled as the little dragon laid his head in his hands, set his elbows on the bench in front of him and smiled as he listened. His favourite voice range was the deep, earthy bass section, that rattled his bones every time they got louder. Come to think of it, it sounded like the bass section was sitting next to him. He looked to his side, and to his surprise saw Cobalt singing with the rest of the choir from where they were standing. He could feel the rattle in the bench as Cobalt’s voice dropped to the low bass notes and amplified the section substantially. The final note was so deep that it actually forced a burp from Spike just from the vibration. As the echo of the siren choir’s voices slowly faded. Spike sighed in pure bliss.

“That was… that was beyond heavenly.Cobalt, I didn’t know you were part of the choir?” Spike said as he hugged his big brother’s arm. Cobalt looked down and smiled gently before shaking his head.

“I’m not.” Cobalt said with a content sigh. “However, they all love to have me sing when I’m around, and they kind of force me to do so anyway,” Cobalt said with a giggle, which the rest of the choir shared briefly.

“But… you sound just as good as they do,” Spike said with a curious eyebrow raise. 

“That’s because he is a siren, young one. Well, he’s a half siren.” Dax said as he stepped down from the raised platform. Cobalt looked back at Dax with a lost expression.

“Your mother was Coltorus Ainjeiroish-Fuiiekei Sertingue, Cobalt. THE grand siren.” Dax said with emphasis. The entire choir gasped and then spoke between each other before quickly kneeling with their head bowed and a fist over their heart. Cobalt looked at the choir dumbfoundedly before a blush ran across his face when he realized they were bowing at him.

“I...I… guys, y-you don’t need to bow to me…” Cobalt said nervously, his anxiety creeping over him as the entire choir gave him their undivided attention.

“But you are Suina uihf Thei Jheaitn Kuitheihn Foiiekei, Cobalt.”

“The Sons of The Great Mother Voice have returned!”

“Jhaikei uihf Atkias, I never thought I’d see the day!”

“Thei Ruifei of Mother has not decesed!”

As the choir rejoiced in the return of what they called “The great mother’s love”, Cobalt and Spike looked at each other in disbelief.

“Master?” Cobalt started quietly, making the choir go silent. “I do not understand…”

“Your mother was the queen of sirens, my dear student. Sirens take hierarchy very seriously, and there hasn’t been a leader of sirens in over 600 years. You are the siren of the two, young Cobalt. That makes you the direct leader of sirens since you mother has not been found.”  Dax said with a hint of pride underlying his voice. 

“Still haven’t been found? What do you mean?” Spike said curiously as he leaned over to look up at Dax.

“The reason the legend says she still lives is because there has been no other Grand Siren since her disappearance. The only logical answer means that she must still be alive.” Dax replied with a big smile. Cobalt, still a little nervous of the whole idea, slowly took Dax’s hand and held to his arm tightly. 

“This… this is going to take a while to get used to.” Cobalt said to himself as he scanned the rows of beaming fluffy Siren faces as they all looked at him.

“Better get used to it fast, my student. You know how quickly sirens spread the word.” Dax said with a chuckle. “For now, how about you settle yourself in the top row and we’ll go through the songs for the summer equinox, shall we? Welcome to The Choir of Atkias, young prince.” With that, Cobalt shyly nodded, made his way around to the back row and squeezed between two young basses. They each shook his hand and said ‘Huinuoihn’, which meant ‘honor’, before turning their attention back to Dax who held his hand up once more and said “Sleep”. 

As for Spike, he settled back into his position of happiness as the choir once again began to sing, in english this time. The song was about sleep, of dreaming under the stars and the sound of the siren choir made the words turn to images as he closed his eyes and listen. There was going to be a lot to think about, and a lot to discuss later on. But for now, Spike couldn’t think of anything else than the choir that put every voice he’s ever heard to shame. It was a great way to start the day.