A dragon a Dozen

by Cobaltin

A Race to Remember

Both Cobalt and Dash lined up to the starting line as 1:50 rolled out. Surrounding them was a strangely large crowd that happened to hear all about it, thanks to a certain pink mare that “accidentally” told everyone in town. Cobalt was clearly in distress about the large grouping; every ounce of his being screaming at him to fold his wings and run away. He held his head low and looked around frantically as everyone cheered around him. Dash noticed Cobalt’s distress immediately and decided to speak up.

“Hey, you gonna be alright? I wanna win fairly, not by default.” she said with a cocky but playful smirk. Cobalt looked at her and rolling his eyes, chuckling as he did.

“You’ve got quite the confidence for a Pegasus. Good, I like a challenge.” Cobalt said with a mischievous snarl. He turned away from Dash, sighed heavily and grunted; slowly building up the courage to lift up his head high as he resolved through his fear of the crowd enough to slowly but surely open his massive wings. A collective gasp and awe following his gesture was emitted by the crowd. Idle chatter started erupting about his massive wings; one of those conversations was a kid saying ‘He looks so cool!’ Cobalt blushed and smiled proudly, It felt good to have people LIKE his wings for a change, it felt empowering--it felt safe.

Meanwhile, up in the clouds, Spike watched from the railing up on roof of the Colosseum, which was to serve as the finish line and where more Pegasus’ gathered to watch. He got up to the top and could see the two as they got to the starting line. As he continued to graze the crowd, his eye caught a small group that was standing at the very edge of the crowd on a hill. He had to squint to see who it was but eventually got around to seeing that it was Twilight, whom was looking over the race with the rest of his friends. He sighed and looked down at his feet as his heart slowly started to sink once again.

“Oh Twilight, if only I had a little more patience. I wish I could take it all back…” Spike laid his arms on the fluffy cloud railing and dragged his head back to watch the race as he settled it onto his arms.

“Take what back?” A familiar voice said behind him. Spike jumped and turned, breathing a sigh of relief to see Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo all up at the top with him as they exited the stairwell.

“A-Applebloom? Sweetie Belle? How did you guys get here?” Spike asked in a mix of happy surprise and confusion as he walked up and hugged Applebloom closely.

“Well, Scoot said you were up here, so I did that spell that lets us ground ponies walk on clouds and she flew us both up here.” Sweetie Belle explained almost proudly as she gave Spike a hug. “Where have you been, Spike?”

“I… I’ve been with Cobalt at the temple.” Spike said quietly as he looked down at his feet. “Sorry I didn’t tell you, Bloom. It was kinda last second…”

“Oh don’tcha worry about that, Spike. We’ve only been together for 3 days. You expect me to keep tabs on you ALREADY? Shoot, I barely do my chores back at the orchard. What does concern me is why was it so short notice?” Bloom said as she put her hoof on Spikes shoulder. Spike looked up at her with a pained expression, which only made her worry more.

“Twilight and I… Got into a disagreement.” Spike started quietly again, barely looking up at Applebloom as he tried to pull his words together. “Well, more like full blown shouting fest, really. She wasn’t happy with how I was acting since Cobalt had come around and called him a bad influence. So, I…” Spike stopped as he tried his hardest not to start crying in front of the three, but to no avail. He slowly collapsed, sat down, held his head in his hands and cried quietly as he practically stared holes into the coliseum roof. Sweetie belle and Scootaloo both looked at each other, unknowing what to do. Applebloom, however, sat down next to Spike and leaned against him softly.

“Go on, Spike, we’re listening.” Applebloom said quietly as she wrapped her hoof around Spikes shoulder.

“I just, I was so mean, I-I-I made the books go everywhere… I crushed her spirit.” Spike spat through his violent breaths as hot tears started streaming down his face. “A-And the worst part is, the more I think about it, the more I realize just how much I must h-h-have tormented her and made her afraid and I jus-By Celestia she probably hates me.” Spike couldn’t contain himself, he stuttered and cried hard as he leaned back into Applebloom, who was rubbing his back and letting Spike hold his head on her shoulder. She let him get it out and waited until he calmed down enough for her to speak. She spoke to him softly and calmly to try and ease his emotions.

“Spike, you know me and my sister fight all the time, right?” Bloom said with a caring expression.

“I do too. The fights I have with my sister are LEGENDARY. People think there’s a murder going on sometimes because we yell so loud!” Sweetie interjected with a chirp.

“Exactly. We all fight with our siblings, it’s going to happen. I’ve said stuff to my sister that made me feel horrible afterwards, but at the time, I just wasn’t thinking. It doesn’t matter that you’re not from the same parent, or the same family, she’s your sister right till the end. You’ll both be mad for a bit, upset even. But, it’ll always turn out alright in the end.” Applebloom nuzzled Spike’s cheek tenderly, which made him look up and crack a small grin. Bloom smiled and nudged his nose. “Wow. I know it’s a bit of a weird thing, and completely off topic, but... your eyes are so pretty when you cry.”

“R-Really?” Spike responded with a hint of embarrassment as a light blush crept across his face. Bloom responded with a nod, which made his blush only intensify. “Gosh… thanks, Bloom.” Spike looked up at her and smiled more before he leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. Bloom, taken by surprise, glowed red with blush as she brought her hoof to her mouth in surprise. Both of them stumbled into a hug and held close for a moment before being interrupted by Scootaloo.

“Hey, guys? Not to ruin this tender moment, but the race is gonna start! C’mon, I need to see this!” She said enthusiastically as she zipped to the edge and looked down at the race.

“Hey, Wait up!” Sweetie belle shouted as she ran after her, leaving Spike and Bloom to each other.

“Shall we?” Spike said as he got up slowly, helping Bloom up as he did so.

“Let’s.” Bloom replied with a grin as they walked together back to his seat and sat there together.

~~

“Alright you two,” Boomed Spitfire as she walked up to the starting line. “Here's how the race is going to work. You’re going to start with takeoff and immediately go into low level flying until you reach the end of the road. If you fly above the trees, you have a 3 second penalty. Once you get to the end of the road, you’re going to climb straight up at a 90 degree angle until you reach the marker cloud. Then you’re going to do a high altitude slalom around the cloud pillars and then dive back down towards the starting line, which will act as the halfway mark,” She said firmly as her hoof followed the racing line. Dash followed Spitfire’s hoof as she visualized herself going through the course. Cobalt, on the other hand, closed his eyes and just listened, his ears perked up high as he payed attention

“Here’s where it gets interesting,” Spitfire continued as she sported a grin and adjusted her glasses. “Once you get to the halfway mark, you need to do an inverted S back up to the next marker and into what I like to call the gauntlet. It's 15 randomly moving clouds that bounce between two wall clouds. The clouds are made intentionally thick, so going though it will slow you to a crawl. The last part is a straight ahead sprint to the finish. First one to the Colosseum wins, got it?” Both of them gave their own gestures of approval before getting in a ready position. Spitfire turned and nodded to the flag bearer as he got between the two racers and lifted his flag. Dash spread her wings and got into a pouncing position. Cobalt did about the same but angled his wings straight up and closing his eyes before breathing heavily.

“3…” Cobalt focused intensely as the sound of the cheering crowd slowly started to fade away, the instructions from Spitfire going on over and over in his head as I visualized his route.

“2…” Dash started to flap her wings quickly as she dug herself into the dirt, edging her body forward ever so slightly. She could see the first marker as she gazed straight ahead with feverous attention.

“1…” Cobalt slowly opened his eyes, the Red and Yellow slowly being replaced by the electric blue as he grinned slightly.

The Pony with the flag lifted it up and waved it down, signalling the race to start. With the notion, both Cobalt and Dash took off with an insane amount of speed. The turbulence from both their pass-by’s caused the flag to rip right off the pole and send the Stallion flying back onto his flank as he looked back in amazement.

Cobalt and Dash were pretty much tied for the low-level flying, Dash having a bit of a lead because Cobalt couldn’t flap his wings fully to get his full speed. Dash noticed this as she looked behind her and decided to make as much of this as she possibly could and started taking more and more of a lead on him as she reached the end of the road. Cobalt didn’t pay attention to the fact that she was taking the lead, focusing only on the point where he had to go vertical as he quickly followed behind her and made such a sharp turn up that the wing from his wings blew leaves out of the trees that followed the road and made a huge stir in the water.

Spike, Bloom, Sweetie and Scoot all watched and cheered as Dash climbed vertically at an impressive speed as she started to head towards the marker. Cobalt, only a few seconds behind her, started to close the gap as he used every inch of space he had to flap his huge wings. By the time Dash got the the first marker, Cobalt was pretty much next to her again as they got to the cloud pillars and the 3rd part of the race. Dash and Cobalt went in different directions to start their slalom; Dash starting from the right and Cobalt starting from the left. This is where Dash knew she could get a nice lead on Cobalt because she had more maneuverability than he did and it showed right away as he started to slow down to take the slaloms at a slower pace than she did. Dash started to gain a decent lead of 2 pillars ahead of Cobalt as she zipped through the pillars with little difficulty.

Cobalt saw that Dash started to get a lead and started to use short but powerful bursts of energy to suddenly turn and gain speed from his natural aerodynamics. Even with his efforts, Dash managed to get a 5 pillar lead as she exited and began her dive to the halfway point. As Cobalt got around his last pillar, however, he kept his sharp turning line and went inverted as he suddenly plummeted from the sky. He gave a long exhale as he curled his wings so that they made a whistling sound. The whistling got higher pitched as his speed dramatically increased

“He’s Millitary alright.” Spitfire said as she took off her glasses. The soldier next to Spitfire cocked her head at her remark.

“Ma’am?”

“Look at his form; that’s a Dive Bombing maneuver. Wings curled to make a whistle to scare the troops on the ground, body completely streamline… It's all so crisp. And, if he’s from the unit that comes to mind, you and this crowd are in for a very loud treat,” Spitfire said as a grin slowly crept across her face.

“Alright, just a split-S and a gauntlet left, and I have the lead. I got this!” Dash said to herself as she gained more speed from her dive. As she got about halfway to the halfway, she heard a faint whistling sound behind her that very quickly gained intensity. She looked back and was startled as Cobalt dove right past her; the turbulence from his large frame almost knocking her out of the sky. Dash quickly collected herself, however, and shot down after Cobalt.

Spitfire, Spike, the Crusaders and the crowd watched in awe as the diving dragon dove faster and faster, the whistling sound getting louder and louder… and then, silence. Cobalt opened his eyes as the whistling went quiet, folded his wings completely and straightened his tail. As he did, the eerie silence was shattered by a massive boom that shook the earth as he broke the sound barrier. Everyone covered their ears as the sound washed over them, some even being blown back by the massive force of the sonic boom.

“He is! Whooooohoooo!” Spitfire shouted ecstatically as Cobalt corrected his descent and went from perpendicular to Parallel to the ground, extending his wings fully out and blasting past the midway mark and the crowd in under a second. The massive tornadoes of turbulence kicked up all kinds of debris as they ripped through the crowd a few seconds behind the dragon, bringing the loud boom from before with them. Dash couldn’t believe what she just witnessed as she passed the midway mark almost 5 seconds behind Cobalt. She flapped her wings as hard as she could, but it did nothing for her. She couldn’t match Cobalt’s speed.

Spike and the others stood up and nearly fell over the Balcony as they all watched Cobalt start his Split S, barely losing any bit of speed as he got to the peak of his maneuver within seconds.

“Did… did he just?” Scootaloo stuttered as her eyes were welded to Cobalt as he quickly approached the cloud Gauntlet.

“Yep, he went supersonic!” Spike said proudly as he held Bloom tight.

Cobalt watched the clouds bounce randomly, knowing at his speed, one hit could nearly snap his wing off. He looked behind him to see Dash just finishing her Split-S and charge towards him with increasing speed. He looked back at the gauntlet and viciously studied the movements of the clouds to choose his angle, knowing he would only have two options, slow down and possibly lose his place and the race, or bolt right through it and risk breaking his wings. After a second of thinking, Cobalt flapped harder and decided to go for it. He slowed his breathing down to and heartbeat to a crawl, making everything around him seem like it was slow motion as he began to roll sharply to the left, narrowly missing a cloud as he continued his roll. He closed his eyes and relied on his hearing as he whizzed by the clouds, barely missing all of them as he performed his maneuvers, being followed closely by an increasingly fast Dash as she zipped through the gauntlet with relative ease. The crowd watched the dragon twist and turn at impossible speeds through the gauntlet; gasping and reacting every time he just barely got by a cloud.

As he neared the exit, he opened his eyes to a cloud right in front of him. He quickly spun upside down and arched his wings as far back as they would go, curving his whole body around the cloud and taping it with the emblem on his tail as he cleared the gauntlet and darted to the finish line. The crowd erupted in cheering as they both raced for the finish line. Cobalt with a small lead over Dash as she tried hard to catch up. Up at the Coliseum, Spike, Bloom, Belle And Scoot all cheered in excitement as it was pretty much anyone’s race. Bloom took a quick, confused gaze at the crowd on the ground as a sudden silence started to creep over and was soon replaced by screaming and terror.

“Guys, look down at the crowd!” Bloom shouted as she leaned over the railing, pulling Spike with her.

“GAH! Bloom, whatcha talking abo- wait… guys, c’mere!” Spike shouted back to his friends. Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle zipped over to see what the commotion was about. Both of them Gasped together as they all watched the crowd scatter in fear and the Wonderbolts on the ground suddenly taking off to the west. Spike followed the line that they were following and saw that there was a massive disturbance right at the edge of the crowd. Spike didn’t have to squint to see that the chaos was caused by a huge dragon that started attacking the crowd. Spike’s pupils shrunk in a rush of adrenaline and fear as he watch the dragon narrowly miss a group of people with it’s large burst of flame.

“We gotta do something guys!” Scoot said as she started to fly off. Sweetie Belle quickly grabbed Scoot’s hoof and held on tight.

“Whoooooaah there! We can’t go down and fight that thing!” Sweetie Belle stated worriedly as she pulled Scoot back to the ground

“Then what can we do!? The wonderbolts need help!” Scoot shouted as she got back onto the railing and watched. Out of nowhere, Spike let go of Bloom and started to run for the closest part of the stadium to Dash and Cobalt, who still didn’t notice.

“Wha-SPIKE WAIT!” Bloom said as she started after Spike. “Spike, What are you doing!?”

“We have to let Cobalt and Dash know, they can handle it!” Spike said quickly. He turned back to the two racers, who were rapidly approaching. “COBAAAAALT!” Spike shouted loudly, hoping to get Cobalt’s attention as they neared the Coliseum. The crusaders all quickly looked at each other and then started shouting with Spike, Flailing their hoofs in the air, Sweetie Belle shooting sparks from her horn and Scoot flying up to be more noticeable. After a few seconds of trying to get their attention, Spike realized that this wasn’t working. He looked down at his feet and grabbed the railing hard, inhaling deeply and growling as he did. Applebloom instantly took notice of Spike’s strange behaviour and stopped her flailing.

“S...Spike?”

“RRRGGGHHH, COBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!” Spike shouted out, his shout changing to an ear piercingly loud roar that seemed to shake the entire stadium. At that point, both Scoot and Sweetie Belle stopped what they were doing, and all three mares covered their ears as Spike screeched at the top of his lungs.

Cobalt perked his ears as the sound of his name pierced through the loud wind blowing by him. He looked up to see Spike pointing down at the ground frantically and looked to see what was going on. Upon noticing the large dragon on a rampage, Cobalt quickly leaned back and used his massive wings to stop himself dead on a dime. Rainbow Dash started to power forward, seeing Cobalt suddenly stop. But she turned to see what Cobalt was looking at and immediately stopped right next to him.

“Oh this isn’t good…” Cobalt said dryly as his gaze fixed on the large dragon as it started to get near the city.

“Oooooh Ponyfeathers…” Dash cursed under her breath as she watched one of her wingmen get knocked out of the sky by the large dragon’s tail and go shooting into the ground.

“Dash, you need to get your guys out of there, tell them to concentrate on getting everyone to safety, I’ll take care of the dragon!” Cobalt shouted as his gaze quickly shifted to Dash.

“Are you crazy!? You can’t take that thing by yourself!” Dash said worriedly as one more of her friends got hit by the dragon, his flame clipping their wing and sending them spiraling to the ground.

“DASH, HEY, look at me!” Cobalt shouted in a deep, authoritative voice. Dash shook her head and listened to Cobalt. “Ponies aren’t going to listen to me, they’ll listen to you guys, and I can’t attack with so much air clutter, I’ll turn you all to black ash! I’m not asking, I’m telling you: GET THEM OUT OF THERE.” Cobalt uttered again assertively. Dash looked down at her wingmen as they struggled to stay in the air and then back at Cobalt.

“Roger!” Dash said firmly. Cobalt nodded and started after the dragon.

“Get everyone to the west, use the buildings for cover and don’t be stupid! I’m gonna go tell that dragon the good news!

~~

“EVERYONE GET BACK!, GO!” Spitfire shouted at the crowd as they tried to control the situation. She looked back up as another Wonderbolt got injured and had to pull out. “Dammit, we don’t have enough people here to take care of this! Where is our backup!?” Spitfire watched helplessly as she tried to direct the crowd to the city. Just then, a glint of blue shone against the cloud background and it gained her attention as she squinted to see what it was. “Dash!”
“Ma’am, we need to get out guys out of there and concentrate on getting the crowd into the cities!” Dash said quickly as she narrowly dodged a jet of flame.

“Soldier, in what universe does that make sense? If we don’t stall this big guy, there won’t BE a crowd to evac!”

“Ma’am, Cobalt’s coming in to-” Dash was cut off by a faint sound of whistling coming from behind them. Both of them looked in the direction of the sound and watched as a little silver dot made a nosedive towards the dragon, large bolts of electricity radiating from it as it gained speed and closed the distance. “Ma’am, we need to get all of our guys out of there, NOW!” Spitfired gave dash a quick look before turning to one of the passing wonderbolts.

“HEY! Get everyone out of there, we’ve got a heavy strike coming in!” Shouted Spitfire as her attention quickly directed back to the crowd. Emerging from it was Applejack, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkiepie.

“There you are, Dash! What’s going on!?” Applejack shouted through all the commotion.

“There’s no time to explain, we need to get everyone to the west side of the city! I could really use your help, girls!” Dash said as she got to a higher position and started shouting directions to the crowd as they massed into the city centre and started heading west.

“You heard her, girls, let’s round ‘em up!” Applejack shouted as they all started to run into the city to give directions to the crowd. Applejack directing the strays back towards the west, Pinkiepie shouting directions from her convenient speaker cone that she happened to pack that day, Rarity and Twilight using their magic to show the crowd where to go and Dash, Fluttershy and Spitfire leading the way at the front.

Cobalt zeroed in on the dragon in his dive as he collected every bit of static electricity that mustered up from the friction of the air rushing past him. As the rest of the wonderbolts hightailed it and helped the crowd get to safety, he emitted his electric bolts and spun himself into a rapid spiral. His body stretched out as his spinning got more intense.

“Not today, you charred-tooth son of a Bierkna!” With a blinding flash, Cobalt shot forward at near the speed of light, the whistling from his wings emitting at a deafeningly loud pitch as he smacked his horns into the large dragon hard, pushing him back hundreds of feet as Cobalt stopped himself and slammed onto the ground. The large dragon fell back from the huge force and grumbled in a bone shatteringly deep tone as he fixed his attention to Cobalt, who at this point stood up and screeched loudly at it.

“Haitkhrienje, Kui Nuitn Jeitn Kei Vaiei! (Hatchling, do not get in my way!)” The dragon stated loudly to Cobalt as he got into an attacking stance. Cobalt snarled and jumped out of the way as the large dragon blew a column of flame at him.
“Eiuioi khuissh Kei Teihhietuihei! (You cross my Territory!)” Cobalt spat back as a massive bolt of electricity shot from his mouth and hit the attacking dragon head on, causing it to tense up and shake. “Eiuioi KAIHEI Khuissh Teihhietuihei uihf thei Airphai Khaijuina!? (You DARE cross Territory of the Alpha Dragon!?)” The large dragon gave Cobalt a confused look before he laughed loudly.

“YOU!? You, the Alpha!? You will burn knowing your pathetic trick was useless!” The dragon said with a snarl as he started after Cobalt. The dragon jumped and slammed his claw right down where Cobalt was, making him have to flip out of the way. As he got his feet back on the ground, Cobalt whipped his arm out, causing multiple bolts of electricity to twist around themselves and make a twitching whip. Cobalt spun round and smacked the large dragon with the whip, knocking the dragon’s head back and cutting his face.

“Yes, Me! Was your nose hit too hard by your shell or did you not think of using it!? I swear by our Great mother I will put you down if you continue to rampage!” Cobalt snarled as he slapped his tail against the ground, a large bolt of lightning shooting down from the heavens as he did. The large dragon, enraged by Cobalt’s insult, charged after him and went to go jump on him again. Cobalt immediately got on all fours and growled as he mustered up every bit of electricity as he could from the air around him. The large dragon, however slammed his foot down on Cobalt, chuckling evilly as he dug his claw into the ground.

Spike could only watch as the large dragon stomped on his older brother, a feeling of sadness and rage creeping upon him as he was sure the dragon had killed him. Everything in his body wanted to tear that dragon apart. Bloom was very aware of Spike’s silent rage and held her coltfriend tight in an effort to comfort him.

“Ohhh, Spike… I-”

“Don’t… that dragon’s gonna get it. Wait, what’s that!?” Said spike as he caught sight of a bright glow, followed by a massive explosion that knocked everyone back with a huge shockwave. Spike flew back and hit the cloud ground hard with a loud ringing in his ear. As he slowly lost his battle to stay conscious, he looked up to see a hazy figure of someone, or something, standing above him. He tried to speak, but could only muster up the strength to whisper “Wh-Who are…”

And suddenly, everything went black.

Author's Note:

SO, this chapter's circled entirely around the race. I wanted to get a couple different perspectives and experiment with a bit of a different approach to writing, which takes longer but makes the editing a lot easier. However, I MAY have an assistant writer. Once this last little bit of story gets posted, expect to see his help dotted around my chapters <3

also, CLIFFFFFFFHANGERRR.

Comments

[Cobaltin]

4014232 Ah, I didn't even notice this question, it didn't show up in my inbox, sorry ^^; No, Spike isn't half-siren like his brother. But he does have something that's going to be revealed much later in the story so do stick around :3

[Cobaltin]

3988047 I have, Twice actually <3

[DARKPHANTOM13]

Nice to see you back. And Colbolt has proven that he isn't a pushover to Dash and to that dragon in a minute.

[SageBrony07]

I would love spike to enter a power mode in a fight. Light how Colbat went lightning wraith, spike could do something similar. Thanks for the update.

[The Maniac]

4402504 can you update me when the chapters are updated plz

[DanvilleBengal]

I can't help but think that even though Cobalt's got his hand full with a dragon attack, we are about to see a version of Spike that no pony or dragon would dare to attempt to stop.....and we know that he's got wings as well. Not only is Spike gonna go Draconic (and possibly scare the hell out of all ponies if they didn't scare him already), I could see a little bit of a crash course so Spike can fly as well and help his brother.

.....also it's just too damn early to give Spike a marefriend already, in my opinion. He's still heartbroken because Rarity rejected him, and it just seems to me that him suddenly liking and courting Applebloom just reeks of rebound relationship. With that said (l'm still mad at it because I'm a die-hard shipper), I do hope that Spike is able to find love with someone, whether it's with or someone else. And it is a heartfelt one as well---I think after heartbreak, Spike deserves somepony to mend him and help him heal.

.....Random thought: Rarity you're despicable . Not only did you break his heart, you had the nerve to give him the chance to give him hope with "You have to learn more about the world and love before you are ready to date somepony". That's true, but it just doesn't feel right: With that statement, she basically lied to Spike. We all know that Spike had no chance with Rarity at all, so why did she do that?? Even if somehow Spike succeed to show Rarity that he is a viable courter, Rarity will still not date him for one reason for another. Almost calling for a "Rarity marries Silk" event...

[Dragon of Shadows]

With the notion, both Cobalt and Dash took off with an insane amount of speed.

please stand by while time and space are repaired. (they were going so fast that they broke time and space)