New scale on the block

“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.

Encounter of the Dragon Kind

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The city went from bustling and busy, to very, very quiet. For a massive city like Ponyville, that was a strange thing to behold. The streets were all bare seldom the one leaving the city. Every-pony that could, awaited the arrival of the new dragon that was supposed to be there. Twilight paced back and forth anxiously, hoping everything was ready and going through every worse-case scenario in her head. Applejack stood with her family, her brother, Big Mac, staring into the distance without moving a muscle. Fluttershy hid behind the front of the crowd, the whole thought of a dragon still made her uneasy, so she’d rather NOT be in the front of the crowd. Rarity was Standing with Fluttershy to try and calm her as best as she could. Pinkie was jumping up and down in different places within the crowd for a better view and Dash was hovering above the crowd, looking out to the distant sky to see if she could spot Cobalt as he came in.

Spike just sat there, staring down the road. He still didn’t know what to make of this, everything seemed surreal. So many thoughts were going through his head at once and he didn’t know what to make of it. It didn’t concern him so much WHY Cobalt was coming, the fact that he was coming was more than enough to make his gut churn.

“I see something!” Dash shouted out from above, and anybody who wasn't paying attention was fixed on the road now. It started as a small little silver dot, but it quickly grew to a formation. Four heavily armed guards, two on each side of what looked to be a dragon. Idle chatter started to erupt from within the crowd and things quickly got loud. Spike’s heart was pounding fast, his eyes widened as the dragon and pony formation grew closer. He looked over to his sister who was still pacing and put a hand on her shoulder, turning her to the road. Twilight stopped and shared his gaze, her eyes widening and jaw dropping.

The formation came to the front of the crowd, all 5 involved within landing just a few meters from Twilight and Spike. The four Pegasus’ landed without much of a disruption, the dragon however, landed with a thud, the beat of his massive wings enough to make a small dust storm appear. The crowd went dead silent as the dragon stood up. He wasn't much taller than spike, only about a foot taller, which made him about 6 feet tall. His wings, however, were MASSIVE; one wing easily measured as long as the dragon’s body, tail and all. His scales were a soft Cobalt blue that shimmered in the light as he moved, his belly scales a much deeper shade of blue themselves. He had grey head plates and gray ears that looked a tad too big for his face, and his eyes shone brightly; one was a crimson red, whilst the other was bright gold, and his gold eye carried a green scar of a claw mark.

Cobalt looked at the crowd, and his blue scales quickly gave off a hint of pink as he suddenly realized that the grouping of people was for him. Whilst Cobalt was trying to take in what was happening, one of the guards went up to Twilight, still in awe of the wingspan Cobalt had, and bowed.

“Princess Twilight. This is Price Cobaltin Aser-Macht Derius Sertingue. Spirit name of 'Thoinkehn-Taiern'-” Cobalt interjected with a soft, but rather wide voice.

“Ahh- y-you can call me Cobalt, sir, that’s what the rest of my family calls me.” He said with the blush on his face ever-growing. The guard simply nodded and continued.
“Cobalt has been put under your care by Princess Celestia and order of Grand Dragon Nitrius. Princess Celestia has also asked me to tell you that she is not available for discussion and is unreachable until the summit has been completed.” Twilight’s face quickly turned from astonishment to worry.

“Wh-what!? But what if I have to talk to her her? What if something goes wrong or I have questions?” The guard simply shook his head and bowed.

“I’m sorry, your highness, no contact can be established until the summit is completed, Princess Celestia has put all guards on high alert and most of Canterlot is off-limits until the summit is completed, we will return in 4 weeks to retrieve Prince Cobalt and return him to the Grand dragon. Celestia’s grace upon you, your highness” And with all 4 guards bowing low, they promptly turned on their hooves and flew back to the castle.

Cobalt looked over the crowd, slightly dumbfounded as so many ponies were looking back at him.

“I… I hope you all didn’t stop your day just to see me. Terribly sorry about that.” He said lowering his head with a mix of embarrassment and apprehensiveness. Twilight looked at Cobalt one more time and sighed, walking up to him and speaking.

“Welcome to Ponyville, Cobalt. My name is Twilight Sparkle, you’ll be staying with me for the next few weeks. I’d also like to greet you on behalf of the entire city.” Said Twilight as she made a hoof gesture to the crowd behind her.

Cobalt smiled nervously, “Ahhh… thank you, Twilight. I-I sincerely appreciate the trouble you’re going through for me. I’ll be honest though, I’m not all that comfortable with discussing in front of this crowd. If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to discuss matters in a more private area?” Cobalt asked whilst twiddling his thumbs. Dash caught wind of the conversation and quickly flew in front of Cobalt, going inches from his face.

“Why you want to talk privately, huh? Got something you don’t want us to know!? Do ya!?” Cobalt stumbled back on his wings, which flared out in fear and made several ponies beside him have to dart out of the way.

“O-oh gosh I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t mean to offend I just-” Twilight put a hoof on Cobalt’s arm.

“Dash, it’s okay, he’s just a little nervous.” Rainbow Dash glared at Twilight and then back at Cobalt, who was at this point shaking in nervousness. She gave him a quick glare before backing up beside Rarity and Applejack, who at this point made their way to the front of the crowd and stood beside Twilight along with Pinkie and Fluttershy. “Alright every-pony, return to your daily routine, it’s still the new season and there’s a lot to do!” Exclaimed Twilight to the crowd. A sound of exasperation erupted from the crowd as ponies suddenly reminded themselves of the work they had to do. Whilst every-pony reluctantly went back to work, Cobalt noticed Spike, who was looking away from him with a fearful face. Cobalt walked past the ponies and up to Spike, who was kind of hoping he wasn't going to be noticed just yet.

“Hi there… are you here for the same reason too? I know there’s a couple dragons attending this summit.” Spike looked at him and only shook his head, too nervous to speak.

“His name is Spike, he’s my step-brother.” Twilight jotted in, seeing that Spike was near-petrified. Cobalt looked at her quickly and then back at Spike, understanding quickly why he was so afraid.

“Ohhhhh… I get it, you've never been around other dragons before, have you?” Spike shook his head again. After a couple seconds of silence, Cobalt took the hint that Spike wasn't going to be talking any time soon and backed away, concentrating on Twilight once again. “I… I imagine that I will be staying in your cave- I mean… well, I’m not sure what I mean, I've never been very far out of my cave before.” Said Cobalt a bit embarrassingly.Twilight smiled and nodded.

“Yes, you’ll be staying at my house, Cobalt, follow me.” And with that, everyone followed Twilight to the library. Spike stayed a bit further behind the crowd before joining in.”

“Gosh, I’m such a scaredypony.” Spike muttered to himself as he slowly followed behind the others.

“Sorry about earlier, Cobalt, Rainbow Dash didn’t mean no harm.” Noted Twilight as they continued to walk down the streets. Cobalt, feeling much more relieved now that he didn’t have thousands of eyes on him, started to open up a little.

“Heh, it’s no big deal, I guess. I just hope nobody got hurt.” Twilight smiled and shook her head.

“No, everything is alright. Oh! before we get any further, I want to introduce you to my friends. I’d like you to meet Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and of course, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight stated proudly as she pointed to each pony as she called out their names.

“Mighty nice to meet you there, Cobalt, hope we didn't scare ya too much.” Apple jack stated.

“Quite, and might I say, your scales are absolutely stunning in the sunlight!” Rarity added, making Cobalt’s face flush into pink again.

“Oh… well, thank you, Rarity.”

“Hello… Mr. Cobalt” Fluttershy managed to spit out, barely audible enough to hear. Rarity stood next to Fluttershy, putting a hoof over her shoulder.

“You’ll have to excuse her, dear, she’s awfully shy around strangers and she’s a little fearful of dragons.” Cobalt nodded and slowly leaned down to Fluttershy’s height.

“I understand your fear, Fluttershy, I’m shy too. I’m sure we can get over this together, don’t you think?” Cobalt stated as softly as he could. Fluttershy looked at him slowly and mustered up the courage to speak again.

“O...Okay, Cobalt.” Cobalt smiled warmly as he leaned back up to Pinkie pie bouncing up and down, which caught him off guard a bit.

“Hey Cobalt! Do you like parties!?” She said with a bounce in her step.

“Well… I’m not sure, I've uh… I've never been to one, I heard they’re a lot of fun though.” Pinkie gasped and froze in midair, confusing Cobalt a little.

“You… you've never had a party before?” Pinkie said whilst still in midair. Cobalt, really confused at this point, shook his head. “That’s… that’s PERFECT!” Said Pinkie as she Darted past him and headed back into the city. Cobalt blinked a few times in disbelief.

“Is… Is she always like that?” Cobalt asked, not sure how to process what just happened. Everyone nodded and made an agreeing gesture.

“Anyway,” Twilight continued “Dash, you going to introduce yourself?” Dash simply stared at Cobalt, which once again made him uncomfortable, and he looked down and away. Twilight simply sighed and shook her head as they kept walking. Cobalt noticed that Spike was lagging behind the whole time, and decided to hang back a little bit. Twilight obviously took notice of this and decided to let everyone else go ahead while she stayed back to keep an eye on things.

“... your name is Spike, right?” Spike looked up at him. “Sorry, I’m just… I’m a little more comfortable talking with a Dragon, I’m not used to ponies at all.”

“Yeah, my name’s Spike. Yours is Cobalt right?” Cobalt nodded. “I’m sorry about earlier, it’s kind of the same thing with you, only, I’ve never been around dragons before. I just don’t know what to say.”

“Well you’re doing a pretty good job so far.” Cobalt said with a slight smile. Spike looked up at him and cracked a small smile himself. “You know, you smell… different than other dragons.” Spike’s mild contempt quickly turned into anxiety.

“I do? Do I offend or something? I don’t smell anything, oh gosh I hope it’s not bad-”

“Oh no no no! I don’t mean you smell bad, just… you smell like you've been dipped in magic dust. Were you around someone when they cast a spell today?” Spike quickly calmed himself and regained what little composure he had before.

“You can smell magic?” He asked in amazement.

“Yes I can, actually, most dragons can catch a whiff of it. You smell like you've been around it for a very long time. You must have been taken in by Twilight when you were just a baby.”

“An egg, actually. Twilight hatched me with her magic.” Cobalt stopped dead in his tracks.

“She… she hatched you? With magic? Wow… your element must be magic then!” Cobalt said enthusiastically. Spike looked at him in confusion, which made Cobalt change his tone quickly. “You don’t know about elements?”

“I don’t know about anything dragon!” Said Spike in frustration, making Cobalt step back a little. Spike quickly noticed his growing temper and cooled off. “Sorry. It’s just been something on my mind for the past few years.” Cobalt loosened up and nodded.

“Well, I would like to know a little about ponies myself, maybe we could exchange information?” Spike looked at Cobalt surprisingly.

“Y-you mean it?”

“You bet I do! Now c’mon, let’s not get too far behind.” Cobalt said as I got on all fours and ran over to the rest of the group. Spike felt like the world’s weight was just lifted off his shoulders. As he started to catch up to the group, he passed Twilight, who looked at him with a smug grin.

“Told you so.” She stated proudly.

“Ah quiet you.” Spike said as he bumped his shoulder against Twilight, both of them laughing.

Spike was excited, this was the best chance he had to learn what it meant to be a dragon, something that had been plaguing him for years. He looked at Cobalt, who seemed to slowly start to open up to Applejack, Rarity and even Fluttershy, who started talking to him too. Dash didn't seem too ecstatic that he was there but she was coping. This was certainly a strange… and a little awkward encounter, but things seemed to start easing off, and maybe even getting better. All he could do was hope for the best and see what happens. Like it’s ever been any different?

Information and Incubation

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“So Dragons can actually smell something like a flower from across a forest!?” Spike asked in amazement.

“Yes, we can! As a matter of fact, we can also hear an animal moving from about the same distance. It’s evolutionary, we can hear things hundreds of times better than most other species of animal. We ARE natural born predators, after all. Alright, my turn; is it true that Pegasus’ actually control the weather?” Cobalt asked enthusiastically.

“Yeah they do, that one with the rainbow hair, you know, Dash? She’s the fastest Pony in all of Equestria, she’s the only one to have ever done a sonic Rainboom!” Spike said proudly. Cobalt gave him a slightly confused smile. “Oh, right. A sonic rainboom is when a pony goes fast enough to break the sound barrier, it causes a rainbow behind them.”

“Oh, wow that’s really cool!... Hey, about Rainbow Dash, actually-” Cobalt said, lowering his ears a little bit and getting a little serious. Spike interjected before he could go any further.

“Ahh don’t worry about her, Cobalt, she’s probably just jealous of your wings, that’s all!” that made Cobalt chuckle.

“Her awe is in the wrong place, these things are SOOOOOOO obnoxious.” Cobalt said through his chuckle. Spike was sort of taken aback by the statement.

"You don't like your wings?" He asked with confusion.

"Well... it's a love/hate relationship. I love what I can do with them in the AIR, but on the GROUND, weeeeeeeeellllll not so much." Cobalt started to laugh, Spike joined him in laughter and after they composed themselves, the now 3 hour conversation continued.

Twilight had been doing some study into the book that Celestia gave her, being intrigued by the book’s ability to update itself and of the war between ponies and dragons. Why hadn't Celestia told her about this before? Better yet, why has she never heard about it? She glanced over to Cobalt and Spike who were on their backs laughing at this point. Twilight smiled and sighed.

It had been a long time since they came to Ponyville, Spike was barely able to run at that point, though he learned pretty quickly after all those adventures. She would remember him sleeping in his little bed, letting him curl up with her when he had a nightmare, all the work he did for her, how much she thought about what would happen when he grew up… ‘when he grew up’, she thought. 8 years seemed to have blown by like it was nothing, and Spike, well, he wasn’t a baby anymore that’s for sure. She looked at Cobalt, who was only a couple years older and already a foot taller than Spike. She started to realize after his first little growth spurt that spike was going to grow fast, and her time with him would be limited before he had to move out by force. She shook herself out of the thought for now and went back to reading the book. Meanwhile, Cobalt and Spike went from laughing their scales off to rather serious.

“So… you were talking about something along the lines of me having magic as my element when we were walking here. What do you mean it’s my element? Don’t all dragons just breathe fire?” Cobalt gave him an immediate shake of his head in correction.

“Not by a long shot. Actually, whilst fire is the most common, since most dragons are hatched when the mother breathes fire over them, A dragon can have virtually any element, so long as it’s the most present element to the egg at birth.”

“What? So, you’re saying that the element that’s the most around me when I hatched is the element I’m going to have?” Spike asked, incredibly intrigued by what he just learned.

“Precisely. Actually, your element, Magic, is the second rarest element for dragons. The rarest is mine, electricity. My egg was struck by lightning when it slipped out of the nest during a storm. It was a complete accident, really, but it gave me the power of electricity and storm.” Cobalt said quite proudly, swishing his big tail slowly. Spike was dumbfounded, all this time he just thought that he was a glitch or something, but it was much nicer to know that it was actually his element. “Actually, electricity is the rarest, and the hardest to control since it’s so sporadic. However, the power it has is incredible! I’m still learning and I've got quite a long way to go, but I can summon a couple bolts from the sky when I want, also breathe lighting and flick it with my tail emblem!”

“That’s so cool! Hey… you wouldn't happen to know what I can do? You know, besides sending letters?” Spike asked with a hint of hopefulness, Cobalt beamed a smile, seeming really happy he asked the question.

“Well…” He began, “You have the ability of telekinesis; moving things with your mind. You can read minds. You use your flame to send letters, yes? Well, if you cloak yourself in it you can teleport, which means you also have magic that can affect dragons, which is powerful considering we’re naturally impervious to magic.” Spike was in awe. He could do all THAT and he didn’t even know?

“That reminds me,” Cobalt continued, “your sister must be extremely powerful to have hatched you. I’ve heard of some ponies taking YEARS to hatch dragons from eggs, your sister did it in like, 15 seconds.” Spike looked at Cobalt, then to Twilight, her face seeming buried in the book, but he could tell she was listening.

“Yeah, my sister has some wicked magic powers. She’s mastered so much, even has a couple PhD’s now, that’s like a really high appraisal for schooling.” Cobalt nodded in understanding and Spike continued. “She’s taught me so much about things, and I love listening to her.” Twilight couldn't help but smile as she kept her gaze on the book.

“Heh, yeah, it’s like my oldest brother, Nitro. He teaches hatchlings all the way up to teens how to use their element at a local hatchery near my cave. I just love to come in to his lecture classes and listen to him talk, he’s the smartest person I know… actually, I've tried getting as smart as he is recently. I really hope to live up to him one day.” Cobalt said with a glint in his eye. His mood, however, quickly changed as he continued. “He’s so supportive of me, unlike my father. All he ever does is point out what I do wrong. All I ever want to do is make him proud, maybe just once, but he always finds something to criticize me on.”

“Hey, hey, don’t get yourself in a rut now!” Spike said, trying to steer Cobalt from the direction he was headed. “You’re here with us, and you've already impressed me with how much you know, that’s gotta count for something?” Cobalt looked at Spike for a moment and slowly broke a smile.

“Yeah…” Cobalt began, “You’re right, it does. And I think you’re a very smart dragon for your age too, Spike. You may not know it, but you knowing this much about ponies makes you smarter than most of our species.” A look of bewilderment crossed Spike’s face.

“Really? Dragon’s really don’t know that much about ponies?” Cobalt shook his head admittedly.

“Apparently, Ponies don’t know much about dragons either, though, huh?” Cobalt stated, making Spike stop and think. Ponies really DIDN'T know much about dragons did they? No books, no records, just myths and encounters were all that ponies knew about dragons.

“You’re right, Cobalt, we- I mean- ponies, don’t know much at all. Actually, that book with the strange symbol is about all that we have on dragons.” Cobalt’s face went stone serious the moment Spike mentioned the symbol.

“Symbol? What symbol? May I see it, Twilight?” Twilight looked up at him and nodded, picking the book up with her magic and setting it down to Cobalt, who started to get distressed when he turned to the last page of the book and saw the symbol. “Guys, where did you get this book?”

“Princess Celestia gave it to me a couple weeks ago.” Twilight said quickly, not sure of what to make of Cobalt’s sudden mood swing. “Is something wrong?” She asked with a touch of hesitation. Cobalt looked up at her and took a deep breath.

“This book was supposed to have been in our possession. Ponies should have NEVER gotten a hold of it. You guys having this book could get me taken away from here and back with my dad because you’d know all dragon weaknesses.” Spike and Twilight looked at each other in worry and then back to Cobalt.

“Are you serious? Is there anything else this book could do?” Twilight asked with her voice becoming urgent.

“A lot. It’s older than you could imagine. This book is Pre-Alicorn time in your words, to us, it’s back when Sirens used to control the sun and the moon before Atkias, our god of life, bestowed the control of the Sun to two unicorns, named Celestia and Luna. I think you know who they are.” Twilight’s intrigue grew as she laid down on her bed to listen to Cobalt as he continued. “The dragon who created this book had been deceased for over 7000 years, but this seal on the back trapped part of his soul on earth so he could write his book from the afterlife. It’s extremely difficult magic, but thanks to him, everything on the history of dragons is written here from the time he was alive. Every new historical moment adds a page and text that is written down.”

“Wait, this book is ever 7000 years old!? That’s insane!” Spike spat out in disbelief.

“The magic in that book must be extremely powerful to hold the book together through that much time!” Twilight added. Cobalt simply nodded to both of them and continued.

“The fact that this holds all the dragon’s secrets means that whoever has this book knows every dragon secret. If this falls into the wrong hands, we could have another war on our hands with this being the catalyst to the dragon poaching.” Cobalt said with an obvious tone of worry.

“W-well… what can we do to prevent that?” Spike added worryingly, hoping that his new friend didn’t already have to leave.

Cobalt was about to continue, when he stopped and perked his ears. “...I hear someone outside the door.” Cobalt looked at the door as a silhouette darted from the window. Twilight quickly ran to the door and opened it, but it was too dark to see who it was as they ran into the night. Twilight returned inside after running and looking out into the dark for a bit, she’d have to look around in the morning to see what happened.

“There was someone there but I couldn't make out who it was, and it’s too late to do any searching, we need to start fresh tomorrow. That reminds me, it’s getting late, you two should be in bed by now.” Cobalt couldn't hold back a yawn and he nodded in agreement. “It’s also a little chilly still so be sure you’re tucked in good.”

“Tucked in? What does that mean?” Cobalt asked whilst cocking his head to one side. Twilight blinked for a moment, taken off guard momentarily at Cobalt’s comment.

“You mean, you've never had a blanket before?” Twilight asked in total confusion. Cobalt shook his head as a blush of embarrassment started to creep over his face.

“I-I don’t even know what a blanket is.”

“You've never heard of a blanket? Oh man it’s like the best thing ever!” Spike said with a glowing smile on his face. “It’s all soft and warm and it covers your body and you can snuggle it up and everything!” Cobalt became truly confused at this point with what Spike was saying.

“Is… is a blanket a living thing? How can you snuggle it? I mean, what does it even look like?” Cobalt said in his spout of confusion, seeming embarrassed to even ask the question. Spike and Twilight couldn't help but laugh as Twilight took her blanket off her bed and showed it to Cobalt, who took it and delicately looked it over, seeming almost afraid to touch it at first, but quickly realized how soft it was. “Oh… wow this IS really soft!”

“So, what do dragons do to keep warm, Cobalt?” Asked Spike as he stood up from his spot, stretching his legs and shaking.

“When I was younger, I used to huddle up to my dad, mom or oldest brother and let them incubate me. Incubating is usually done for eggs, but also for young dragons who can’t keep themselves warm yet. Whilst not as comfy, it definitely feels really nice and safe.” Cobalt explained with a warm feeling growing inside. “My brother is the best at it, even if I can incubate myself now I still let him do it every so often.” Spike listened to Cobalt with a slight envy, he got to do all this stuff as a dragon and meanwhile, Spike had been stuck doing pony things and couldn't figure out what it was like to be a true dragon. Cobalt noticed Spike looking slowly down to the ground and smiled warmly. “...Hey, Spike.”

Spike looked up at Cobalt and spoke softly. “Yeah… Cobalt?”

“How would you like to be incubated by me tonight? See what it feels like?” Spikes ears perked up fast and his tail swished quickly, his face beaming a toothy smile.

“Y-you mean it?” Cobalt nodded his head in approval. “Great! thanks so much, Cobalt!” Spike said as he threw himself around Cobalt in a hug. The notion caught Cobalt off guard momentarily, but he quickly settled and returned the hug happily. “I’ll show you to your bed.” Cobalt’s eyes opened wide.

“A-a bed? You guys made me a bed?” Cobalt said in calm elation.

“Yeah, it’s not much, just a little hay from the Apple’s farm, but it’ll at least keep you off the cold ground.” Spike said, noticing Cobalt’s strange happiness as it started to show on his face.

“Thank you so much, guys. I know you probably didn’t mean it like this, but making a bed for a guest in dragon culture is like accepting them into your family for that time being, it’s a complete honor and I can’t thank you guys enough.”

“It’s okay Cobalt, we’re more than happy to take you in.” Twilight said with a hint of fatigue in her voice as she got into bed. “Now you guys should get some sleep, we’re going to give Cobalt the grand tour of the city tomorrow.” They both agreed and walked over to Cobalt’s make-shift bed. He stepped into it, settled in and laid his head on the pillow given.

“Is it good?” Spiked asked him once he settled in. Cobalt shifted and sighed happily, nodding slowly as his wing lifted up.

“Alright, buddy, cozy on in and I’ll keep ya nice n’ warm.” Cobalt said quietly, already starting to doze off. Spike had to contain his joy as he happily crawled in next to Cobalt and settled in. Once Spike was comfortable, Cobalt lowered his wing over Spike and slowly began to raise his inner temperature. At first, Spike didn’t notice anything, but as Cobalt got warmer, so did Spike. Things also seemed to… slow down a bit and brighten. Spike looked at Cobalt who was looking at the door with a stern gaze.

“Cobalt?” Spike whispered, making Cobalt break his gaze and give Spike a warm, tender smile as he nuzzled Spike’s neck softly like he would to a hatchling.

“Yeah? What’s on your mind buddy?”

“This is amazing.” Spike mumbled as he curled up and started to fall asleep.

“Hmhmmhm, I know, buddy, I know; Sleep well.” Cobalt said in the softest voice he could. Once he was sure that Spike was asleep, and looking up to Twilight to make sure she was sleeping as well, his gaze fixed back on the window, his mind in a buzz of who was there and what they wanted.

Spike honestly couldn't really care about the suspicious figure in the window, he was too tired to think about it. What he could think about, was how much he had learned about Dragons in just one conversation with Cobalt. And this… this incubation thing Cobalt was doing to him, it felt near magical, and super safe. Maybe this wouldn't turn out so bad after all? As Cobalt finally dozed off himself, the house went quiet and the first night went off without a hitch.

Scaredy scales and dragon pacts

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Spike awoke in a dark forest, completely unaware of where he was. Last time he checked, he was curled up under Cobalt’s wing in the library. His body slowly started to come to life as he slowly got up and looked around.

“C-cobalt? Twilight? Where is everypony? where is… everything?” Spike slowly began walking through the forest, his anxiety levels creeping up as he wandered the strange forest. He stepped on a twig and a faint scream could be heard emanating from it. Spike jumped back and tightened his body in defence before settling down. “Wh-what is this place?”

“Spike.” Called out a whisper as it flowed through the forest.

“Wh,WHAT? Who are you!? W-w-where are you? Show yourself!” The whisper came again and he turned his head in the direction it was coming from. Building up the courage, he started to walk towards the whispering, the voice slowly getting louder as he did.

The whisper brought him to a clearing, where he could see the faint signs of fire, a big one. He got into the clearing to find Ponyville in flames, dragons flying over it and torching the place whilst ponies fought back with weaponry on the ground. Spike could only look in horror as each killed the other off. He only had a good 5 seconds to look before he saw a pony lunge at him with some sort of spiky thing on his hooves. He flinched as the Pony came inches from his face, then was blinded by a blue flash.

Spike shot up from the makeshift bed, panting heavily and sweating profusely. His chest expanded and contracted heavily as his whole body shook in terror.

“What in the name of Celestia just happened?” He thought aloud as he collected his thoughts. He looked outside; the sun had only risen maybe a half an hour ago. He was just about to lay back down when he realized, where did Cobalt go? He looked around the room, his body still sweating from the nightmare, and saw that the front door was slightly open. He looked back over to Twilight, who was still sleeping, and then back at the door before slowly getting up. He tiptoed to the door and went outside, putting his hand up to his face as the sun glared in his eyes. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he noticed Cobalt sitting crossed leg and hunched over on the hill in front of the library. “Cobalt? You okay?”

Cobalt straightened up and looked over to Spike, giving him a warm smile and gesturing him to come over. Spike’s body relaxed as he walked up to Cobalt and sat next to him, sitting quietly for a moment as he slowly woke up.

“So… why you up so early, Cobalt?” He asked with a hint of grogginess in his voice.

“I’m always up this early, I go for a half hour fly every morning to stretch out my wings. You don’t know it yet, but those little flappers you have on your back will be extremely sore if you don’t use them good at least once in a while.” Spike looked back at his little budding wings and flapped them a little, remembering how much they hurt when they started growing out. “You’re lucky they’re growing in normally. When these started growing I had to stay in a hospital for nearly half a year!” Cobalt said whilst adjusting and settling his massive wings, a hint of embarrassment escaping his voice as he explained.

“I think they look so… amazing. I wish my wings were like yours, I don’t care how much they’d hurt coming in!” Exclaimed Spike enthusiastically. Cobalt couldn't help but laugh, putting his hand behind Spike’s head and scritching his ear.

“You have a lot to learn about dragons buddy. But I admire your admiration.” Spike looked up at cobalt and smiled, leaning into the scritch by instinct, which felt really weird but… nice.

“There you two are, I was starting to get worried.” Said a familiar voice from behind them. Spike and Cobalt both turned to see Twilight standing at the doorway. “Wow, this is the first time spike has ever woken up before me. How did you manage that?”

“I didn’t, little hatchling did it himself. Actually, why did you wake up buddy?” Cobalt asked Spike as he turned his head towards him. Spike suddenly had a relapse of his dream, remembering the pony jumping at him. He quickly shook it off and gave him an answer.

“W-well I don’t know, I just kinda… heh, woke up.” He said monotonously, scratching the back of his head. Twilight nodded and went straight to the window where they saw someone last night. Cobalt, however, wasn't convinced and glanced worryingly over at Spike, whom noticed and quickly turned his head away from. He got up onto his feet and walked over to Twilight, who was searching through the bush under the window. “Find anything, Twilight?”

“Not yet... Aha!” She replied after Spike asked, lifting her hoof out of the bush and using her magic to lift out what she found. “A… blue feather!?” She said in surprise, stepping back slowly from the bush.

“Y-you don’t think…” Spike said in stationary disbelief as his eyes widened. Cobalt, who was still watching Spike in worry, took notice of what was happening and walked over, sitting his backside down when he got close enough to them.

“Here, let me see.” Said Cobalt as he took the feather from Twilight and put it between his fingers. he brought his nose next to it and started to sniff gently. Once he had a good threshold of scent, he began sniffing the air. “I've caught this scent before, follow me.” Said Cobalt as he got on all fours, the feral kink in his hind legs perfect for a feral position as he sniffed the air. He started to run towards the scent, which caught Spike and Twilight off guard as they started to run after him.

“Hey, wait up!” Spike called out as they ran behind him.

The city was busy as usual, everypony had something to do, whether it was buying groceries, shopping or bustling around, everyone seemed to have something to do. In all this hurry, sugarcube corner stood right in the heart of it. The once little shop quickly grew into one of the best sweets shops in the city, numerous renovations made it at least 3 times the size of what it was. At one of the outdoor tables sat Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow dash, whom were waiting for their orders.

“He’s no good, Gals, I just know it! I can feel it in my bones!” Exclaimed Dash in rage, her face red with anger as she spat out her words. “That dragon is going to cause some serious trouble and I just know it! Fluttershy agrees with me, right Fluttershy!?” Dash exclaimed as her glare fixed on Fluttershy, who ducked most of her head beneath the table.

“Oh… well, actually… I-” Fluttershy started before Applejack cut in.

“Leave her outta this, Dash.” Applejack exclaimed whilst putting a comforting hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “And you don’t know nothing. All you've ever seen of him is the first 2 hours of his arrival. Yer making a huge assumption outta no proof.” Rainbow Dash slumped in her spot and looked away from Applejack.

“Yeah well, my gut’s never been wrong before, I don’t think it’s going to stop now.” She mumbled to herself. Applejack snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Stubborn as a stump you are.” Applejack said with a scoff and a shake of her head. As she looked back up, her eye caught notice of a bit of commotion in the distance. “Hey, girls, what do y’all think is going on over there?” She said with a hoof gesture to the commotion. Dash and Fluttershy both looked towards where Applejack pointed. They watched as the commotion got closer and closer to the courtyard. Dash squinted as whatever was there was just coming into view, her eyes widening and a look of anger and disgust creeping over her face as she realized who it was.

“In here guys. The scent leads right here.” Exclaimed Cobalt as he pointed towards Rainbow Dash’s table. Spike and Twilight both walked up to the terrace and went inside. Cobalt stopped and looked around, noticing that ponies were looking at him. He scrunched up and sat down right where he was. “I… I’m too big to go in there… I’ll just wait here.” He stated as he tried hard not to curl up into a ball.

“Dash, can we talk to you for a minute?” said twilight as she walked up to the table. Dash scoffed and turned away.

“If it’s about him” She said whilst pointing to Cobalt, “I’m not interested.”

“Oh? Then why did we find one of your feathers in our bush out front?” Said spike as he pulled up the feather.

“Someone was in our bushes next to the window last night, this morning we found this feather in the bush. Were you spying on us last night Dash?” Dash immediately looked back at them with a look of disgust.

“Spy? On you guys!? Why the heck would I ever do that!? It must’ve fallen off when I was heading back home, I DID walk with you guys to your library. And I was with Fluttershy all night last night, right Fluttershy?" She exclaimed in harsh defense. Fluttershy gave a quick nod as she hid back behind the table. "I guess that bag of scales over there told you it was me huh?” Exclaimed Dash as she pushed herself from the table and stomped angrily over to Cobalt, who was trying not to have a panic attack in the middle of the crowd around him. His ears perked as he felt a little colt poking at his wing with his hoof and turned his attention quickly to the young pony.

“H-hey! Don’t do that little guy! I don’t want you to get-”

“HEY!” Dash shouted at Cobalt, stomping her hoof to the ground firmly. Cobalt, not noticing Dash up until she called out at him, jumped in a sudden spook and his wings flung open, tossing the colt in the air. Cobalt watched in horror as the little colt flailed and yelled as he kept travelling up into the air from the sheer strength of his wings. Dash’s went from angry to fearful in a split second as she watched the colt shoot up into the air. She Immediately popped her wings open to go after the Colt but was blown back by a sudden gust of wind from beside her.

Cobalt stretched his wings out and beat them once, HARD. The shock wave forcing the first few rows of ponies to stumble back as he bolted upwards with some impressive acceleration. He darted after the little colt who was still travelling up at a considerable pace and out. Cobalt knew he wasn't going to reach the flailing Colt in time conventionally, and so he started to breathe fast paced and shallow breaths. He could feel every muscle in his chest strain as he flew faster and faster to catch up with the little colt who was now falling from the sky, his tail starting to pop out little sparks of electricity which seemed to grow in size by the second.

Cobalt got to the apex of his wingbeat and closed his wings, starting to spin violently as his body shot up faster and faster. At a certain point his tail flickered and it shot a surge of electricity over his body, which started to stretch out before snapping back and travelling like a lightning bolt towards the colt, catching him just before he hit the ground and sliding hard.

“Cobalt!” Spike shouted out as he pushed ponies out of the way to get to the dragon who was curled up on the ground in a little crater his impact had made. Spike put his hands on Cobalt, who flinched and opened up to show the little colt in his arm.

“That. Was. AWESOME! I wanna do it again Mommy!” Said the little Colt as he jumped out of Cobalt’s arms and ran to his mother, who threw herself around him.

“Cobalt, you alright?” Spike asked with a hint of worry in his voice. Cobalt groaned and chuckled.

“You still want these wings? Take ‘em.” Spike laughed and helped Cobalt up just as Dash cut through the crowd and pushed Spike out of the way, knocking him to the ground.

“You see? You’re a danger to everyone here you big winged jerk! you could’ve really hurt someone there! You should just stay in the library until you have to leave,” She shouted whilst stomping her hoof to the ground.

“Dash! He just saved his li-” Started Spike, but Cobalt cut him off.

“No, she’s right. I should,-I should go.” Cobalt said quietly, trying to hold back his tears as he ran off in a hurry.

“No, Cobalt, wait!” Spike called out as he sprung to his feet. Twilight and the others made their way to the front of the crowd just as Spike started walking backwards towards a scurrying Cobalt. “I’m going after him!” Dash stood in front of him to block his path.

“Just let him go, he’s done enough-OOF!” Dash fell to the ground as Spike moved her out of the way, his strength seeming to double in his strange fit of rage.

“If it wasn't for you it wouldn't have happened, Dash. Don’t blame him for that, you scared him! Now I’m going after him whether you like it or not.” Spike stated as he began walking. He stopped abruptly and turned on his heels. “Oh and if you push me again, I’ll FRY you.” He snarled out with a flicker of green flame escaping the corners of his maw before turning back and running after Cobalt. Dash’s mouth dropped open in shock as she watched Spike run off.

“Did… Did he just…?” Dash sputtered in disbelief. Twilight walked up to Dash and gave her a little shake with her hoof.

“We… we better let them go, Spike knows the way back to the library.” Twilight said calmly. Dash took a deep breath.

“Did you hear what Spike said? What was that all about,” Asked Dash as she pointed to Spike who had just disappeared around the corner. Twilight shrugged her shoulders and was visibly concerned.

“I don’t know Dash, I've never seen him like that before. But, I can’t afford to dwell on it right now; I need to figure out who was spying on us last night. C’mon girls, I’ll need your help.” Applejack and Fluttershy both nodded along with a slightly reluctant and still somewhat shocked Rainbow dash as they set out to go back to the Library.

“Cobalt? Co-Cobalt! There you are!” Spike called out as he ran up to Cobalt, who was laying at the lake’s edge, softly sobbing into his arms. Spike sat down and put his arm over the weeping dragon, who's ears gently perked and slowly looked up to see Spike looking down at him. Cobalt wiped his nose with his arm and inhaled heavily.

“Oh, hey Spike. S-sorry you have t-to see me like this. Gods, 2 days in and I'm already a mess…” Cobalt said through his choppy breathing, giving a little ironic chuckle. “She’s right Spike, I’m a danger to everyone. Please don’t get mad at her, I don’t want you to be mad at her.” Spike slid his hand under Cobalt’s and grabbed it, making Cobalt give him a little side-glance.

“Cobalt, don’t you dare. She scared you and it made you jump. It was an accident.” Cobalt snarled and beat his tail on the ground, making a large bolt of electricity fly through the air and into the ground. Spike jumped a little as the bolt shot very close to him, but he managed to keep it cool and continue.

“Argh, you don’t get it Spike! I’m a Dragon! I shouldn't get scared from a damn pony, but ever since I’ve gotten these… Gods forsaken wings, people have bullied me, teased me, yelled at me and laughed at me. I’ve nearly killed people by doing what you just saw! I’m no dragon, I’m just a monster…” Cobalt yelled out before burying his head back into his arm and continuing to cry. Spike was at a loss for words, he didn’t know what to say to him because he never really had to deal with other dragon’s issues. After thinking for a moment, he had an idea and spoke softly to Cobalt.

“Hey, hey, c’mon now, you’re no monster, at least not like how I was.” Cobalt looked up at him and sniffled.

“Wh-What? What do you m-mean?” He asked quietly. Spike cringed a little with the memory, but he continued anyway.

“A few years ago on my birthday, I got really greedy and turned into a Giant dragon, like, HUGE terrifying dragon. Almost burnt down the entire town, over a pony too for Celestia’s sake. THAT’S a monster, Cobalt. What you -accidentally- did was just that; an accident. And besides, we all have things that scare us, you know? Crowds are not your thing, big deal. It’s okay to be afraid of something.” Cobalt glanced over at Spike with a strange sort of scowl, which made Spike droop his ears slightly. Cobalt thought for a moment on what Spike had said before he turned and rested his head on his arm, letting off a big sigh.

“Spike, why do you trust me so much? I mean - we've known each other for less than 48 hours and you’re already willing to go through all this trouble for a stranger dragon.” Spike looked out to the lake and thought about that. For all intents and purposes, he had no real reason to fully trust Cobalt at all. However, there was something about Cobalt that made him comfortable and he just couldn't place what it was.

“I… well," Began Spike, trying to understand why himself as he explained, "you’re the first Dragon I've ever been around that hasn't tried to kill me. You were so open to me yesterday and I just thought… I thought maybe I could at least be a little more open to you too, you know?” Cobalt closed his eyes as a smile slowly crept across his face. He shifted and lifted his big wing, taking his claw out of Spikes and lifting his arm, inviting Spike to snuggle up close. Spike hesitated but slowly crawled under Cobalt’s arm as it came down over him along with Cobalt’s huge wing. Spike shifted a little and then settled in, watching the lake with Cobalt in a wave of sudden and strange calmness.

“I’m glad you feel that way Spike. You know, for a dragon of your age, you sure have quite a bit of wisdom about you.” Spike looked up at Cobalt and blushed in embarrassment.

“Oh.. well, thanks… Hey, can we make a deal, right here and now?” Cobalt looked down to Spike and nodded. “I’ll help you get over your fear of crowds if you teach me how to be more like a dragon. Deal?” Cobalt smiled and gave Spike a little nudge with his nose.

“Deal.” He said as they both settled down and slowly dozed off for a nap in the warm spring afternoon.

Sweets, sexuality and Serious beats

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After the incident with Dash, the rest of the week went by surprisingly smoothly. Spike asked seemingly endless questions about dragon customs and lifestyles, becoming more and more interested in the draconian ways as he delved deeper into it. Cobalt was more than happy to explain dragon culture to who was quickly becoming his understudy, and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride and entitlement to teach the young dragon what he had missed all these years. When they weren’t studying the book with Twilight, Cobalt he would sit and talk with Spike who asked question after question. Cobalt loved the spark in his eyes as Spike would imagine the dragon world in his head.

The only thing that Spike was having trouble with, was the nightmares - or rather, nightmare. It was the same one and it happened almost every night. He awoke in the same forest, had the same whisper guide him to the clearing where Ponyville was a blaze in the middle of warfare. Just as the pony was about to jump him, a blue light would flash and he’d awake, sometimes in the middle of the night. And it seemed now that his body was out of his control, it went the same way every single time. He found it very unnerving, but he was too afraid to tell anyone about it. So, he kept it to himself for the time being.

As for the being who spied on them; Twilight couldn’t find anything else in the bush or anywhere around the treehouse that could have pointed to somepony else other than the feather. Rainbow Dash’s alibi was pretty watertight, she was in fact at Fluttershy’s the whole night helping to tend to a ferret she found injured in the field that night. To her dismay, whoever was spying on them had gotten away.

It had been raining all Saturday, and Spike and Cobalt didn’t really get out of bed that morning. Spike didn’t really care, he had a big warm dragon as a blanket who let him sleep in. Incubating was his favourite thing about dragons without a doubt, too, and Cobalt seemed damn good at it. Twilight didn’t seem to mind too much, Cobalt surprisingly picked up the slack when Spike was being lazy so it didn’t slow down any process, she just had to deal with the static as he used his storm element to move books to her. He also started to show that he had a very slight language barrier as he spoke mainly draconian tongue, but that came in handy when studying the dragon book. As for Cobalt, he figured he'd have a chance to start teaching Spike about personal dragon aspects when Twilight was having trouble looking for a book that morning.

“Hey, Spike?” He said whilst nuzzling Spikes shoulder. Spike shifted and poked his head out, yawning and snuggling in tighter. “You wanna try some basic Telekinesis?” Spike’s eyes widened and nodded enthusiastically, which made Cobalt chuckle. “Alright, alright, c’mon out then.” Spike wiggled himself out from under Cobalt’s arm and sat up next to him, stretching out and shaking down his whole body as he did.

“What are we gonna do, Cobi?” Spike said whilst looking up at his big dragon blanket. Cobalt looked up and pointed at the book Twilight had been trying to find for about a minute now.

“You see that book?”

“Yes, what about it?” Spike asked with a slow wag of his tail.

“I want you to concentrate on that book, focus on nothing but that book. That book is no longer part of this world, rather, it is just in your imagination. You are the master of the book, you can control how it moves, for it is your imagination,” Cobalt recited with a soft voice. Spike nodded and focused on the book, trying to picture what Cobalt was saying. He thought of the book in his head, trying to concentrate on moving the book. As he did, a faint green aura, much like the colour of his magic flame, surrounded the book. Cobalt smiled wide at his little underling. “There you go! Now, hold your hand out and guide the book in your mind, think of your hand holding the book, feel the weight in your mind and support it with your strength.”

Spike concentrated hard, trying to picture holding the book in his hand. the book slowly started to inch forward before it slid completely off the shelf, falling a little before spike managed to hold it with his mind. He could actually feel the weight of the book in his hand, sweat pouring down his face as his mind felt like it was going to explode!.

“You’re doing fantastic! Now, slowly and carefully move the book to your sister, Hey Twilight!” Cobalt called out as the Alicorn was still trying to find the book. She stopped and looked at them, then at the book that was right in front of her. Her jaw dropped in amazement as spike struggled to carry the book over with his mind. Tried as he might, it fell just short of where Twilight was. Spike was exhausted mentally, and a little defeated, his body slouching with both physical and mental exhaustion.

“-huff- awww… -Huff- I was… so close…. ATCHOO!” Spike suddenly let out a big loud sneeze and made a huge cloud of magic dust poof all around him. Cobalt tried hard to hold in his laugh, but he couldn't do it and was soon rolling on his back and laughing. “Hey! that wasn’t funny! … Okay maybe it was.” Spike said as he started to laugh with Cobalt, Twilight quickly joining in.

“Hahaha… okay, your new nickname is Poofer. That was adorable!” Said Cobalt as he regained some composure. Spike blushed a bright red and frowned, crossing his arms.

“HMPH I’m not adorable.” He stated in frustration, trying to hide his blush. It didn’t really work too well and Cobalt started to laugh again and nuzzled Spike’s cheek, which made the smaller dragon flail and laugh. "Alright, alright! Hehe, that WAS cool though.”

“Heh, indeed, as a matter of fact, you seem to be a natural. A lot of dragons can’t do something to that scale when they just begin learning their element. Hey, you know since I spent a lot of time watching my brother’s classes, maybe I can help you a little bit?” Spike nodded enthusiastically in approval. Just as he was going to get up and stretch, a bolt of lightning flashed outside, followed by an earth shaking thunderclap. Spike jumped in the air and immediately hid under his blanket. Cobalt, having quite the opposite reaction to it, ran to the window and smiled in excitement.

“Aww yeah! My favourite weather! Maybe one day I’ll be able to control lighting storms.” Cobalt said whilst watching the bolts come down all around Ponyville.

“If you do, please make them go away…” Said Spike, his voice muffled by the blanket he was hiding under. Cobalt turned and looked at him, a sympathetic smile creeping on his face as he walked over to Twilight.

“Afraid of thunder?” He asked her quietly. She look at him and nodded.

“Ever since he was a hatchling.” Cobalt looked at her and back at Spike, who by now poked his head from his blanket cocoon.

“H-hey, you know I can hear you guys just fine!” He said in defence, trying his best to regain his composure as he stood up with the blanket wrapped around him.

“Heh, it’s alright, Spike. We all have something that we’re afraid of, remember?” Cobalt said with a smile, which only made Spike blush again, realizing that the older dragon was quoting him. “Only issue is that well… you know, that’s my element.” Cobalt said with a slight chuckle.

Just then, the Dragon book opened up and writing started to appear on the next page. All three went silent as they watch the book scribe itself. The book finished writing its new piece and remained open as the text was transferred from scribbles to print writing. All three of them gathered around the pedestal and Twilight started to read the text.

“The conflict of dragons and ponies has reached a holding point, neither side has come to a conclusion to what can be done about the alleged dragon egg poaching. The Grand Dragon refuses the Pony’s aid in searching for the culprits in fear that it could lead to more harm than help.”

“God my dad’s such a paranoid Softscale… don’t repeat that Spike.” Cobalt said whilst face palming in shame. “I’m sorry guys I knew something like this was going to happen. He’s too damn prideful and paranoid to ask for help.” Spike put his claw on Cobalt’s shoulder.

“Hey, it’s not your fault, Cobi. You didn’t ask for this to happen.” He said in hopes to comfort Cobalt. Cobalt looked back at Spike and gave him a slightly defeated look, his body slouching as he sat down.

“I know Spike, I’m just so tired of my father’s ways. It’s going to bite him in the tail one of these days and I hope it doesn’t have a backlash effect. Anyway, I’m gonna go take a nap to cool my nerves. No need to be negative, right? Join if you want Spike, you’re always welcome.” Cobalt said in a slightly dry tone as he slouched over and walked to his straw bed, sat down and laid his head on his hands. Spike couldn’t help but feel bad for Cobalt, though he wasn’t quite sure why Cobalt was acting the way he did. It wasn’t like HE made those decisions for his father. Spike walked up carefully to Cobalt’s side and sat down. Spike looked up to Twilight and shrugged, Twilight responded with a look of confusion and concern.

“H...hey Cobalt, you… you wanna go to Sugarcube Corner? I know it’s… storming, and you didn't really get a great first impression; but I bet you something sweet will cheer you right up! I know it does for me.” Cobalt looked at the smaller dragon, sighed heavily and shifted to get up.

“Yeah, I guess it couldn't hurt. Stay under my wing, buddy. You wanna join us, Twi?” Twilight shook her head and smiled.

“I wish I could, but I have to do a bit of studying, I want to find out how the spell on the book works.” Cobalt nodded and pushed Spike on the back softly with his wing.

“Sure thing, just please be careful. Let’s go… Poofer” Cobalt said with a snicker as he lifted up his wing over Spike. Spike rolled his eyes and pushed him playfully, laughing as well as they walked into the storm towards Sugarcube Corner.

The rain thankfully started to let up a little as they got to sugarcube corner. The place wasn’t nearly as busy as it usually was thanks to the storm so Cobalt and Spike got a seat real quickly. Spike looked around at the large interior, chuckling to himself as he remembered how small it used to be. Cobalt had a little bit of anxiety because of the tightness of the place in relation to his wings, but he was determined to keep them closed good this time.

“Oh hey Spike! It’s been a while, Dearie!” Exclaimed Mrs. Cake as she walked up to their table. “My, my you’ve managed to grow quite a bit since I last saw you, dear. Oh, and who’s this? New friend?” She asked whilst looking up to Cobalt who was blushing slightly.

“Heh, yeah! Mrs.Cake, this is Cobalt, he’s the son of the grand dragon and he’s staying with me and Twilight for a little bit while his dad talks about some issues with the princesses. Hey, speaking of ponies, is Pinkie here?” Said Spike with a spark of enthusiasm.

“Oh no, dearie, she’s been running around for days now, I wonder what she’s up to.” Spike couldn’t help but snort as he knew exactly what was happening.

“Oh, I think I know. Don’t worry about it, Mrs.Cake, everything’s good.” Said Spike whilst looking up at Cobalt, who had a confused smile on his face. Mrs. Cake simply nodded and took their orders. Spike ordered his usual and gave Cobalt the same thing since he had never been there before. Cobalt looked around the room and noticed that near the back there was a DJ setup, which made him perk his ears.

“H-Hey! You guys have Raves in here?” He asked with his tail twitching in excitement. Spike looked up at him and then followed his gaze to the DJ table.

“Uh, well I don’t really know what a rave is, but we do have dance parties. Is a rave like that?” Cobalt’s jaw dropped almost comically as he slowly turned his gaze to Spike, who blushed and looked away.

“Y-you’re telling me ponies here don’t have raves!?” He asked in disbelief, his body almost seeming frozen. Spike looked up at him and laughed nervously.

“Ahhh… w-well we do, I think there’s been a couple here. It’s just… ahehe... I’ve just never been to one.” Cobalt’s eyes went from surprised to excited.

“Oooooooohhhh I know what we’re going to do before I have to go.” Cobalt said happily, bouncing up and down on the spot. Spike looked up at Cobalt with a confused gaze as Cobalt suddenly started acting like a little kid in a candy store.

“W-wait, I’ve been to some dance parties and they’re REALLY crowded, I thought you were afraid of crowds? Also, I thought you’ve never been to a party.” Cobalt smiled and shook his head.

“No, Spike, It’s not crowds by themselves, it’s the attention IN the crowds, I’m not big on attention. And I haven’t never had a birthday party, never been to one either. Raves aren’t as much of a party as they are an excuse to go nuts on a dance floor, which is a lot of fun. Besides, nobody knows who I am, I have a mask and outfit on when I DJ.” Cobalt spat out accidentally. Spike looked up at Cobalt and gave a surprised smile, his ears perking up.

“You DJ? That’s so cool!” He said whilst holding his arms in the air for emphasis.

“Hehe, yeah I do a little. Stage name’s SadistSiren and my type of music is Hardscale, I think ponies call it Stompstyle. I usually play in the big mix cities like Dragonto and Fangtreal.” Cobalt said with a hint of pride in his voice.

“Mix...cities?” Spike said whilst cocking his head in curiosity.

“Ah, right, you’ve lived here most your life. Well Mix cities are cities where Ponies, Griffins and Dragons live together. The biggest two are Dragonto and Fangtreal like I said before. The clubs in the two cities are legendary.” Said Cobalt, trying his best to make it as visual as possible with hand gestures. “Hey… how old are you?” He asked in curiosity.

“17, gonna be 18 in June.” Said spike happily, realizing how old he’s gotten.

“Perfect! You’re just old enough to come with me, I’ve got a night that I’ve got to go to Dragonto, the club’s called Black Pegasus. You interested?” Spike’s eyes grew wide with excitement.

“You bet I do!” He exclaimed with a contagious passion.

“Hehe alright! We’ll run it by Twilight when we get back.” Cobalt stated with the same enthusiasm that Spike radiated. Just then, Mrs.Cake returned to their table with their cupcakes.

“Enjoy, boys! It’s on the house, Spike.” She stated happily.

“Wow, thanks, Mrs. Cake, say hi to your husband and kids for me?” Spike said as he picked up his cupcake.

“Sure thing deary, they’ll be happy to know you dropped by.” She stated as she started to walk away. Cobalt, however, interrupted before she could get too far.

“H-hey, Mrs.Cake, do you by chance have any dance parties that you don’t have a DJ for? If so, I’d be more than happy to cover for you!” He said shyly, a slight wag of his tail showing that he was genuinely interested.

“Oh, isn’t that sweet of you! If I have any open slots I’ll be sure to tell you as soon as I can.” She said with a nod of approval before going behind the counter.

“Heh, thanks.” Cobalt responded, scratching the back of his head and blushing. Spike had already gorged himself into his cupcake, blurting out happy moans of content as he bit into it. Cobalt looked down at his and gently picked it up. He peeled off the bottom casing and took a bite into it. His ears perked up and he waggled happily after savouring the taste. “Haos on a cracker, this is amazing!”

“What’d I tell ya? Knew it would cheer you up!” Spike said as he took another bite of his cupcake. As the two were enjoying themselves, the door opened to the sound of the welcome bell. In walked Rarity, who was holding an umbrella over her head with her magic. She closed it and set it on the coat rack in the front.

“Oh darling, you have no idea how bad this weather is for my mane, it’s simply dreadful. How have you been dear?” She said to Mrs.Cake. Spike took notice of her and was suddenly locked in a loving gaze as crumbs fell off his cheeks. Cobalt took note of it and took a couple takes of what was happening, a smile slowly growing on his face.

“Oh- oh ho ho ho look who has the hots for a certain pony. Just keep it in your slit there, Alpha.” Cobalt said giving a big chuckle. “I would also make it look like you didn’t just tear a chocolate cupcake to shreds on your cheek, buddy.” He said to Spike, making a notion to wipe his face. Spike looked at him and then looked down, noticing the crumbs on his snout and quickly wiping them off, before dawning a huge blush, realizing what he just said. Cobalt couldn’t help but laugh. “Awww don’t be embarrassed, buddy, I’m just teasing you.” Spike looked back at Rarity and sighed in defeat.

“Cobalt… have you ever met somepony, or somedragon in your case, who was the most beautiful being you’ve ever met, and you just want to be with them forever? But, every time you try to get close, something brings you further back?” Cobalt smiled and sighed, looking up slightly and remembering his times back in the big mix cities.

“hmhm yeah… Met this dragon at one of the clubs I went to regularly. Oh gods the tail he had was so nice. I’d go to the rave every week just to watch him dance-”

“W-wait, HIM!?” Spike said a little too loudly, making a few ponies turn to look at him. Spike ducked his head as he realized what he did and spoke quieter “Y-...you’re gay?” Cobalt’s face went bright pink with embarrassment as his head dropped and shoulders slouched.

“Oh! N-no… I’m Bisexual. Don’t worry though, I-I don’t like you like that… if that’s what you’re worrying about.” He said with his face going nearly entirely pink.

“Heh, no it’s not that, I just… I’d never figure you to like guys. It’s cool though, I have no issue with that.” Spike said happily, which made Cobalt sigh with relief.

“A-anyway, I eventually got the nerve to ask him to dance. We danced and… wow was it good. He brought me back to his apartment after and… well I wanna keep it in MY slit so I’m going to stop there.Let’s just say his moves weren’t limited to the dancefloor.” Spike’s face was frozen with his mouth slightly open, blush raging across his face. He was almost embarrassed he now knew that Cobalt has had sex before. Heck, he was still trying to understand how he just found out he liked boys.

“W-well that’s… wow.” Spike managed to sputter out. Cobalt looked away with his blush raging and a blissful smile decorating his rosy cheeks, obviously lost in his own little world. Spike looked over and jumped in surprise to see Rarity right next to him, which caught him off guard. “OH! H-hey Rarity! What are you doing here?” He asked with the blush on his face staying stubbornly in place.

“Oh, just a little shopping for a get together I’m having tomorrow night. Hopefully this dreadful rain lets up, wouldn’t want it to be ruined. You, Twilight and Cobalt are all welcome to come, dear.” She said happily, looking up to Cobalt and him, who were both sort of blushing. She looked at both of them and gave a confused smile.

“Oh...oh dear, am I interrupting something between you two?” She asked with a slight hint of confusion and embarrassment. Cobalt and Spike looked at each other with eyes wide open and then to her before bursting out in laughter. After Cobalt managed to gain some composure, he spoke to her.

“Ooh no no no no no no no Rarity, he was just trying to cheer me up with some sweets, we’re more than happy to attend, thank you very much.” She couldn’t help but laugh at her mistake and nod in approval.

“Very good, it’s at 6:00pm, nothing formal, just a friendly congregation, if you will, ta ta.” She said as he trotted to the entrance with her cupcakes in one magic bubble and umbrella in the other. Both Cobalt and Spike finished up their cupcakes and got up to go, Cobalt putting his wing over Spike as they walked home. There was a lot that they learned about each other today, a lot to take in as well and they were both very tired, time for a nice dragon nap.

Nightmare of the Dragons

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Spike awoke in the dark forest again, the faint sounds of rustling in the distance. He walked around aimlessly before he heard the whisper again. Everything seemed the same: The whisper, the sounds of devastation, the screaming and the horrific scene. Just before the pony went in for the kill, the blue flash exploded and he shot up, sweating profusely and hyperventilating hard enough for his chest to expand to twice its size.

It happened again, the nightmare happened again. Every time he closed his eyes, it happened, and he was losing sleep over it. If not for the incubation stuff that Cobalt did wit him, he wouldn’t be sleeping at all. He looked up at Cobalt, whose silhouette was looking down at him with a worried expression on his face. Spike couldn’t take it anymore, it all finally started to get to him as he couldn’t help but start to cry, snugging in as close as he could to Cobalt and burying his head into his chest.

“There there, Spike, I gotcha. It’s alright buddy.” Cobalt said as he held Spike close to him, letting him cry quietly as he rubbed his sweaty back. Spike couldn’t move, he could barely breathe. Every night this happened and he couldn’t take another second of it. “What’s going on, sweetie? You were tossing and turning like mad.”

“I...I-I-I… oh Ponyfeathers!” Spike said through his choppy breathing, trying to compose himself as best he could.

“Shhhh sweetie, don’t get too loud, we don’t wanna wake your sister. C’mon, you’re a big boy, deep breaths.” Cobalt said quietly, petting Spikes head slowly to calm him down. Spike nodded with his face still buried into Cobalt’s chest before pulling away from it. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally was able to speak.

“I’ve… I-I’ve been having this nightmare… every night I have It… I-I-I Just…” Spike said as he started to tear up again. “I wake up in a f-forest. Everyone’s g...gone and I’m all alone. I hear a wh-whisper and I follow it to Ponyville on fire a-a-and dragons and ponies killing each other. Th-then A pony goes to attack me and… every time he’s about to get me th-there’s a flash of blue light and then I wake up.” Spike said quietly, tears still streaming down his face. Cobalt’s expression went stone cold serious as he hugged the smaller dragon close.

“That’s… Spike, it’s a blue flash?” Cobalt asked him with a serious tone. Spike became confused by Cobalt’s reaction and showed his confusion on his puffy eyed face as he gave a litte nod. Cobalt’s ears dropped and his lips tensed up, Spike could feel Cobalt’s heart beating harder and his breath get deeper. “Spike… I’ve been having a dream too. I wake up in Ponyville on fire… and your sister told me that you fell off my back just a few moments ago, and I have to go find you. When I do, you’re at the edge of a forest, and you’re paralyzed. You don’t notice the Soldier running after you. So I do that electric slingshot thing when I fly and just before he hits you, I hit terminal speed and everything goes light blue…” Cobalt’s was a mix of puzzled and shocked as he thought over what was going on.

Spike stopped crying. He went from frustrated and scared, to downright terrified. Cobalt was having… the other end of the dream!?

“Spike,”Cobalt started, trying to figure out how to explain this to the younger dragon, “This isn’t a dream, this is a… a premonition. A glimpse into the future, if you will. This isn’t that uncommon, but something this vivid… the Gods could be trying to tell us something.” Cobalt said dryly, still trying to piece together what was happening.

“W-Well… what do you think it means? Can we do anything about it?” Spike asked fearfully, hoping that Cobalt was wrong with what he saw in the dream. Cobalt seemed defeated and shook his head.

“I don’t know, Spike. I do, however, know someone who can help us. Don’t worry about it for now though. As of now, there’s nothing we can do. Try to get some sleep, buddy.” Cobalt said quietly. Spike sighed heavily and growled quietly, looking up at Cobalt.

“I...I don’t think I can, Cobi. I just… I don’t think I can bring myself to have that nightmare again.” Spike said, the visions of his nightmare flashing back in his mind, making him shudder and breathe heavily. Cobalt paused for a moment, thinking about what he could do. His ears perked up as an idea crossed his mind.

“Hey… want me to sing you to sleep?” Cobalt said with his whispering enthusiasm. Spike blinked and looked up at Cobalt, cocking his head slightly.

“You sing?” Spike asked with a curious tone. Cobalt nodded happily and shifted a little bit.

“B-but… what if you wake Twilight up?” Spike said quietly as he looked over to his sister, who shifted under the covers. Cobalt looked at her too and his ears started to droop a little. However, they suddenly perked as he got another idea. He put his nose against Spike’s which caught the little dragon off guard, making him flinch. “G-Gah! w-what are you-”

“Shhhhhh, shut up and just close your eyes.” Cobalt said with a slight chuckle, closing his eyes. Spike hesitated; was Cobalt trying to kiss him? What the heck was going on? He eventually figured Cobalt probably wasn’t intending to do anything bad and slowly closed his eyes, hoping his hunch was right. He opened his eyes back up after a moment and he was sitting on what looked to be water, or at least it flowed like water under his body. Above him there was the stars and the moon. But there wasn't just the stars that he could see at night like normal; it seemed like the entire sky was lit up with billions upon billions of stars. He was in awe, it looked so beautiful.

“Spike.” Rang out a familiar voice from behind. Spike turned his body towards the voice, and he saw Cobalt sitting there just behind him. Cobalt smiled and patted his lap, to Spike nodded and sat down on it, leaning back into his body as Cobalt loosely wrapped his arms around Spike. “My Spirit Teacher sang this to me because I had sleeping troubles when my wings started growing in. It’s called a... lullabye in your language, we call it a ‘Suinje Uihf Heistn’ or ‘Song of rest.’ This song is older than most of your civilization, it pre-dates the princesses, back when sirens raised and lowered the sun and moon. The lullabye is called ‘Sieheina Kairrn uihf Niejhtn’, which translates to ‘Siren Call of Night’.”

“Just sing it darnit, I’m getting tired just listening.” Spike said jokingly, laying back and curling up in Cobalt’s lap. Cobalt simply smiled gently and started to sing.

Sleep now my young one now ends the day
The siren's sweet aria hides the sun
darkness won't hurt you no matter how deep
the sparkle of stars will keep you safe

Rest your heavy eyes in peaceful rest
I watch over you as I would of my life
Sweet tender serenade dance through the trees
Harp on my heart strings to lull you to sleep

Sleep under gentle skies swooning so slow
let your heart beat to the sound of the wind
Know in your heart I will never be far
Sweetie my tender my Hatchling of light.

Know in your heart I will never be far
Sweetie my tender my Hatchling of light.

At first, Spike couldn’t help but shoot his eyes open in amazement. Cobalt’s voice, unlike his quiet, soft-spoken talking voice, was so deep and warm. On top of that, wherever he was transported to, had a very sweet echo. As Cobalt sang on, Spike started to feel very groggy, like the song had some sort of… magical power over him. He didn’t even make it to the end of the short lullabye as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

As Cobalt finished the last of the lullabye, he looked down at Spike who was snoozing softly. Still keeping the gentle smile he had on earlier, Cobalt closed his eyes and breathed in heavily. When he opened his eyes again, they were back in the library and Spike was still nose-touching with him, he was asleep. Cobalt slowly pushed Spike’s nose down to the bed and positioned himself over him to keep him warm. As Cobalt went to fall asleep again, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of brotherly pride to the younger dragon, something he’s never felt before, and he liked it.

“Juiikh Niejhtn, Bhuitheihn” He said in a whisper. “Good night, Brother.”

“Ready, Poofer!?” Cobalt called out to the other side of the field.

“Ready! AND MY NAME’S NOT POOFER!” Spike yelled back at him, face showing the slight signs of a blush. Cobalt laughed at Spike as the young dragon got flustered, then dug his feet into the ground. With a big breath he took one of the rotten apples from the bucket with his static levitation and started to charge his power. Once he was satisfied with the force he let it snap over to Spike, who was waiting to catch it.

The rotten apple hurdled towards him at an impressive speed as he tried his best to focus on it. He brought his hand out as the apple started to have Spike’s magic glow, trying to picture it in his mind. The apple did start to slow down, however, it wasn’t strong enough to stop it completely, and it ended up splattering on his chest. Spike looked down and saw the mushy mess on him, showing his disgust in his facial expression as he quickly pushed it off his scales. Cobalt couldn’t help but laugh at Spike as he looked a lot more dramatic than he thought Spike was trying to be.

“Hehe, don’t worry, buddy, you’ll get the next one.” he said through a snicker. Spike looked at him dryly and rolled his eyes.

“Hey! When I asked for your help this mornin, it wasn’t to make a mess, now get movin’ boys!” Applejack said as she walked out of the barn. They both were groggy that morning when she knocked on the library door. She asked for a little help with the harvest this year because Applebloom needed to tend to Granny smith and Big Mac was busy doing some legal work in New Mane city. Both of them were happy to help, they needed something to get their minds of the nightmares they were both having anyway.

Applejack tipped up her hat and gave a gentle grin to both of them. “There’s a pint of fresh Apple cider for both of you when yer done.” She said with a stern but friendly tone. They both looked at each other with ears perked and excited smiles as they both took the barrels of good apples into the barn.

“Hey, Cobii, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” Spike stared as they both place their buckets at the back of the barn.

“Shoot, poof.” He said as they walked back outside for the next buckets.

“It’s about your name, your middle name, specifically. I was wondering why it sounded so… strange.” He asked innocently. Cobalt gave him a dirty look at first but then remembered that Spike never knew about dragon culture, which made him blush a bit in embarrassment.

“Ah.. yes, well, A dragon’s middle name is called a Spirit name, and it’s comprised of two words.” He began as he set down the next bucket with a grunt and went with Spike to go get another. “One word comes from Haos, the God of the elements; the other from Atkias, the Goddess of life. The language is very very old, it was the stuff that I was speaking last night.” Cobalt stated while he picked up the next bucket, helping Spike pick his up with his tail as he pushed it up into Spike’s arms. “They’re translations of the old language to current dragon tongue. My ACTUAL middle name is ‘Thoinkeinh-Taiiern, which means ‘Thunder-Tail’.” He said whilst setting down the bucket and wiping the sweat off his brow. Spike looked at him with a slightly confused look, not understanding some of what he was saying.

“I...I think I understand. But why do you have the middle name?” Spike asked curiously. Cobalt simple gestured him outside to the buckets as he began walking outside. Spike followed him closely. As they picked up the next buckets, Cobalt spoke again.

“Well, When you’re born you get the names from either a Deity lead or a Spirit Teacher. It’s a way to identify your element and symbolizes your connection to the gods. Often times in the temples, they refer to you as your Spirit name, it’s a very sacred name.” Cobalt explained as they continued to work. Spike was fascinated by how the names worked in the Dragon culture, realizing that he has heard of something like this before.

“Oh cool, so it’s just like ponies!” He said with enthusiasm. Cobalt looked at him and gave him a confused smile. Spike grinned embarrassedly and chuckled. “A pony gets their cutie mark when they figure out what their purpose is, a lot of the times the cutie mark has to do with the name of the pony, so I just thought it resembled it a little…” Cobalt stopped and looked at him for a moment before giving him an impressed nod.

“That’s actually pretty cool, I would benefit from that immensely.” Cobalt said with a chuckle.

“Heh, makes two of us.” Spike added. They both shared a laugh and continued the task of bringing the apples into the barn. As they worked, Spike got his first real glimpse at the strength of Cobalt. Cobalt’s muscles seemed to tense pretty powerfully but not strain, much unlike Spike who had to take the smaller Buckets in. It didn’t look like Cobalt actively worked out, but the natural muscle on him was impressive, he couldn’t wait to be like that.

Once they had finished and ran it by Applejack, they both went inside to have that drink of apple cider. They were greeted by a wagging Winona as they headed inside, Applebloom took note of them and walked over to the door to greet them.

“Well howdy boys, lookin’ for that cider my sister poured for ya?” They both nodded in approval. She smiled and looked over to granny smith, who was sitting with a quilt on the couch. “Granny I’ll be back. I’m just gonna show them to the kitchen.” She stated in a shouting tone, making Cobalt and Spike cringe.

“What? Oh… oh okay deary, I’ll be here.” Granny said as she went back to her quilt. Apple Bloom took both dragons to the kitchen and sat them down, sliding the glasses towards them. Cobalt decided against chugging it down once he had a taste, he couldn’t let something that good go to waste. Spike, having drank the Apple family cider before, gulped it down in seconds, showing his appreciation with a loud burp that made Apple Bloom giggle.

“Ugh, that was incredible. Hey, I gotta use the washroom, guys I’ll be back soon.” Spike said quickly as he got up and stretched and walked to the washroom. Cobalt nodded and continued to drink the cider. He looked down at Apple Bloom and his eyes widened as he noticed her loving gaze at Spike as he walked down the hallway. Taking a couple double takes, he set the glass down and looked at her. She quickly realizes his change in attention and looked away from Spike, a gentle blush growing on her.

“Were… you staring at his tail?” He asked her with a slightly mischievous grin. Apple Bloom quickly put her hoof on his mouth as he said it.

“SHHHHH, not so loud. I… I’ve had a little crush on him for a couple years now. I mean, look at him!” She said whilst using her other hoof to point to Spike. Cobalt looked over at spike as he stretched out and burped again, sniffing the air after and coughing at his breath. Cobalt grinned from ear to ear in an attempt not to laugh.

“Heh, yeah he’s a keeper alright.” Cobalt said with a sarcastic tone. Apple Bloom couldn’t help but laugh too at Spike.

“Heh, well he has his quirks, but he’s super sweet and… ugh I dunno, it shouldn’t be right that a pony likes a dragon, it just don’t mix.” She said looking down at the table. Cobalt gave her a surprised look.

“Where did you hear that?” He asked her, lifting her head up with his tail. She looked up at him quickly before looking away again; Cobalt could almost feel her shame.

“Some… girls at my school found out I liked him and told me that. My friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell told me it’s nothing big but… gosh I don’t know.” She said with a hint of defeat in her voice. Cobalt put a claw on her shoulder gently, which made her look up at him.

“Whoever told you that has a smaller brain than a fly. Don’t be afraid to love someone sweetie, take it from the male who’s been bullied for years because I had a boyfriend.” Cobalt said softly. Apple Bloom looked and him and giggled.

“You like boys huh? big deal, so does my best colt friend, and he’s the sweetest feller you’ll ever meet!” She said proudly. “Say… does that mean that you like Spike that way? I mean, you two seem to get along like that.” She said as her expression turned from happy to curious. Cobalt’s ears perked up, then sank as he started to blush.

“Oh, n-no, hun. I don’t like him like that. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he has some great traits, but… I don’t know, he doesn’t feel like someone I could date.” He said whilst scratching the back of his head. She smiled and nodded, figuring she shouldn’t prod any more than that. “Hey, you know, we’ve never officially met, and yet you’re willing to tell me all this stuff?” He asked her, hoping it would change the topic of the situation. She looked down at the floor for a moment, as if to give it some thought, then she looked back up to him and spoke.

“Well, my sister seems to think you’re trustworthy, and she wouldn’t be goin around pretending she did. So if she trusts you, then I trust you too. Besides, it’s not like I can hide an obvious gaze.” She said cheerfully, giggling slightly at the end of her explanation. Cobalt chuckled along with her.

“Heh, you’re right there.” He said in approval. She put her hoof on his claw and looked up to him.

“Hey, don’t tell him about this. I don’t think I’ll ever ask him out, but I don’t think I would want him to know I have these feelings anyway, alright?” She asked him with an undertone of desperation. Cobalt understood and gave her a solid nod, just in time too, Spike walked out of the washroom.

Spike and him went back outside to go continue the day’s work, before Cobalt left, he turned back and gave Apple Bloom a smile, to which she returned before he walked back outside.

Author's Notes:

Alriiiiight so we get more into the character descriptions, and start to see a little more into Cobalt, I want to get him good and set up for the next few chapters because a LOT is going to happen!

Oh and yes, Cobalt speak a different tongue AND SINGS. On record it's called "Mhalotian" and it's an ancient dialect that dragons all used to speak. YES I HAVE A GUIDE TO IT, here it is :D As for the song, I will be posing that at a later time so look out for it! :D

ENJOY <3

Mhalotian Dialect:
(letter - pronunciation)
A-Ai
B- bh
C- kn
D- Kh
E- Ei
F- Hf
G- je
I - Ie
L -Rn
M- Ka
N- Na
O – Ui
P- ph
Q- Qu
R- hn
S – Sh
T – Tn
U – oi
V- Fn
W- Vh
X – Xih
Z – Zuh

Transition Letters

after n (I.e tn)= A
After i (If a vowel comes after the I [i.e. Ui]) = N

*C=C+K, V=F, W=V, F=H

*If a consonants is in the beginning or middle of a word (I.e. Dragon) There will only be ONE letter of pronunciation. If it's at the end of the word, it has all letters of pronunciation. (Dragon/d-r-a-g-o-n = Dhraigoina/ D-hr-ai-g-oi-na)
**Verbs have all letters of pronunciation at all times. Two verbs together get 2 I's (look = Hl-oii-kn), if two of the same consonants are used, they get set up like this: Hill = HieRRN.

*Words with 3 letters of pronunciation (i.e Z, M, N etc.) Will have 2 letters of pronunciation instead of 1 (i.e. Z (Zuh), will become Zu in a word). The only time this changes is if the letter has a vowel letter in pronunciation before an actual vowel (i.e. Dragon will be D-hr-ai-g-oi-na)

*All H's WITHIN a word are silent

High-speed, Heartbreak.

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The day was blistering hot for the two dragons and by about 3pm, they decided that they needed a break. Applejack gave them the go-ahead since the dragons actually managed to get her ahead of schedule, and Big Mac had returned to give her a hand anyway. They decided to go to the lake near the orchard to cool their scales, which felt like they were on fire with the heat. Once they got there they noticed Fluttershy, who was sitting at the water’s edge and enjoying a salad she had in front of her and every so often giving a little bit to Angel, who was sitting next to her.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” Spike exclaimed cheerfully as he walked around the brush surrounding the lake. Fluttershy jumped at his exclamation but quickly calmed herself when she realized who the voice belonged to. She turned her head towards Spike and gave him her usual smile with a hint of nervousness behind it. Her ears and expression. however, quickly dropped as she saw Cobalt follow up not far behind him.

“H-Hello, boys… Wh-What are you doing here? Weren’t you helping Applejack at the orchard?” She asked timidly, trying not to make eye contact with Cobalt or Spike.

“Well, Applejack let us take a break because we got her ahead of schedule. So I figured that we’d come to the lake to cool off.” Spike said cheerfully, looking over at the lake and seriously wanting to jump right in. Cobalt put his claw on his shoulder and chuckled.

“Heh, you can go in, I can’t. Well… unless you want a couple trillion volts surging through your body” Cobalt stated as he flicked his tail, which made a bolt of lightning fly out and hit a tree. Fluttershy, Angel and Spike all ducked as the bolt flew out, and Cobalt blushed and chuckled nervously. “Hehe, my bad, anyway, it’s cooler here and well, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone since I didn’t get my morning fly in today,” Cobalt stated as he slowly spread out his massive wings. “I can fly fast enough to Cool me down with these wings so I can cool off and get a good stretch and workout in as well.”

Fluttershy looked up at Cobalt as he spread himself out and stretched. She started to shake in nervousness and scrunched up a bit at the sight. As for Spike, he got a first good look at the massiveness of Cobalt’s wings up close. The muscles all moved so smoothly and together; the main joint muscles looked bigger than his arms. His Platinum-Cobalt Blue scales shone magnificently in the hot Midday sun and the deep Sapphire blue membrane cast a dark shadow over them. It was a magnificent sight to see. He looked back at his stubby wings as he flapped them, and sighed in disappointment; they did grow out a little more since Cobalt first visited, but they were nowhere near as massive as Cobalt’s. It made Spike very envious, despite Cobalt telling him otherwise, Cobalt always spoke of his detest about his wings, how they’ve really only caused him trouble ever since he got them. To Spike, the amount of dislike Cobalt had for his wings was strange, he thought his wings were beautiful.

“You done staring?” Cobalt said in a joking manner, “You’re starting to scare me a little, Poofer.” Spike caught himself and looked away, which brought his attention back to the lake. He quickly ran towards it and jumped in, his scales almost sizzling as they touched the water.

“Aaaaahhhhhhh! ooooh sweet Celestia, relief! I thought I was going to combust with how hot my scales were” Spike stated as he leaned back and let himself float in the water.Cobalt chuckled and shook his head, doing so made him notice that Fluttershy was in a bit of a tizzy from his size, which made him blush. He got down on all fours before laying on the warm grass. He laid his head on the ground next to her and spoke softly.

“You know, I’m not going to hurt you, Fluttershy. In fact, like I said when we first met, I’m shy too.” He said whilst settling his wings back into his body. Fluttershy looked up at him timidly, which gave Angel enough room to jump over her hooves and stand between Cobalt and her. Angel put his paws up like a boxer and started hopping around, giving Cobalt’s nose a few punches. Cobalt didn’t really feel them, however they did make him sneeze, which sent Angel tumbling back towards Fluttershy. “Ahehe… uhh… sorry lil guy.” Cobalt said with a cautious Smile. Angel gave him an upset pout and horse-kicked his nose before sitting back down next to the salad bowl and picking out a piece of carrot.

“Oh, sorry… Cobalt. He doesn’t like people making me all nervous.” Fluttershy stated with soft smile as she looked down at Angel. Cobalt chuckled a bit and lifted his head up.

“Heh, feisty lil guy, huh?” He stated, to which Fluttershy gave him a nod of approval, still a little nervous around Cobalt’s size. His ears drooped a little and he sighed heavily. “Well, we’ll work on this a little later, Fluttershy. Right now I need to get in the air before I catch fire.” He said as his wings shot open again. Fluttershy, a little more at ease, nodded and even managed to build a little smile on her face. Cobalt smiled back and noded, then walked away from them to take off. As he got into position and leaned into the ground, his tail was hit by a splash of water, which made him electrocute himself and spasm. He looked over to the culprit, Spike, who fell back into the lake laughing. He looked straight ahead as a mischievous smile crept over his face.

“Wanna play like that, do ya?” He said to himself as his wings bent back and he jumped in the air, flapping them hard. The blast of air was strong enough to push Angel into Flutteshy as she covered her face with her wing, and it also pushed Spike deeper into the lake. Spike’s eyes opened wide as he watched Cobalt climb up into the air faster than anything else he’s ever seen. He watched as he climbed higher and higher… and then stopped. Cobalt backflipped over and folded his wings in a circle as he dove down to the other side of the lake. Spike could hear a screeching noise coming from the wind passing through his wing circles. The pitch got super high and it was followed by a loud BOOM that shook the ground as a blast of white air passed over Cobalt, who had just broken the sound barrier.

Cobalt adjusted his body so that he could arch over the lake. Dropping in on an angle, he felt the air pass over him as his supersonic descent made him fall towards the edge of the lake. He extended his wings only when he was just about to hit the ground and he angled them so that the updraft cause a stir in the water. Spike watched as Cobalt got closer to him at incredible speed. Cobalt passed like a blur a few meters above Spike before flapping hard and climbing back up to a comfortable height. Spike watched as he climbed up; Cobalt looked like he didn’t even lose a bit of speed as he continued on. Spike’s attention quickly shifted, however, to the sound of rushing water that sounded like it was getting closer and closer. He turned his Head and jumped back in fear as a wall of water from Cobalt’s air rush crashed on to him, pushing him to the shore and a good 15 feet away from the water’s edge.

Spike coughed and laid on the grass, breathing heavily from the rush he just got. His eyes gazed at Cobalt, who was cruising at supersonic speeds around Ponyville, the Sweet apple Acres and the lake.

“Spike, are you okay?” A voice called out in a familiar tone. He looked up to see Fluttershy and Angel looking over him, Fluttershy’s face looking like she just witnessed a murder.

“That. Was. Awesome.” Spike said as he shot up from the grass and watched Cobalt as he came in for a landing about 50 feet away from them. Cobalt stomped his right foot on the ground first for balance, kneeling with his left to solidify and putting his hands to the grass to hold himself up. He shot up quickly, knocking of balance a little and using his tail to correct it before running over to Spike and Fluttershy.

“Heh, you alright, Poofer?” Cobalt asked through heavy breathing, his body Sweating profusely. Spike nodded and coughed up a small fish. Cobalt looked down at it, back up at Spike and fell back in laughter, quickly followed by Spike and even Fluttershy giggled a little. They all composed themselves after a minute or so and Spike bounced on his tail in excitement.

“How did you do that!? The only person to go that fast is Dash, and she even needs to WORK to get to that speed, you looked like you didn’t even bother to reach it!” Spike said enthusiastically. Cobalt looked at his wings and flapped them slightly.

“Well,” he began, “I’m probably 3 times her weight to start. On top of that, my wing-to-body ratio is a lot larger than hers and I have a more flexible body to angle myself better. Dragons have had wings long before pegasus’ even existed, so we’ve got a couple millennia of evolution ahead of them.” Cobalt stated factually, almost seeming proud to explain it. Spike kept his big smile as he looked back at his small wings.

“Will I ever be able to fly that fast?” He asked with hope littering his tone. Cobalt gave him a neutral smirk and kneeled down to his level, putting his claw on Spike’s shoulder.

“With the right amount of practise, anything’s possible. I didn’t learn to fly like that overnight, buddy.” Cobalt said back to Spike, which made him grin ear to ear with joy.

“You should totally race Dash someday, Cobii, that would be an awesome race!” Spike added as he used his hands to gesture his excitement, which made Cobalt smile wider.

Cobalt looked up to the sun and noticed it had started to go down. He figured it was about 4-5 pm and they should get back to be on time for Rarity’s get-together. “Well, buddy, it’s getting late now and we have a get-together to go to. Are you coming as well, Fluttershy?” Cobalt asked as he peered over Spike’s shoulder. Fluttershy nodded timidly and started to pack up her stuff.
“Oh, yes I am. I should get going though, I still haven’t gotten ready.” she said as he put her empty bowl in the satchel that she had with her, leaning is as Angel got in the pouch on the other side. “I’ll see you two at the get-together.”

“Bye, Fluttershy!” Spike and Cobalt said in unison before they headed back to the orchard themselves.

Spike and Cobalt made it back to the Library by 5:30, which gave them just enough time to clean up a bit. Cobalt couldn’t really shower, but he had this neat little trick where he slapped his tailpiece against his scales soft enough that it wouldn’t make burn marks but powerful enough that the electricity burned out all the dirt under his scales.

The walk was rather uneventful, it was a quiet evening compared to last week, restaurants had their regular volume of customers, stores and offices were just starting to turn on their lights as they shone bright against the windows of neighbouring shops. It was all sort of calming to Cobalt; the bustle and sounds of the city reminded him of his home in Dragonto, even though it wasn’t nearly as big. Spike still couldn’t get over how much Ponyville had changed over the years, the small town quickly grew into a massive city of over 5 million Ponies, and of course, one dragon.

“Hey, Cobalt?” Spike started quietly, still sort of mesmerized by the lights.

“Yeah?”

“What’s it like in Dragonto? Is is like this?” He asked with quiet wonder.

“Yeah, it is. Picture all of this, but 3 times bigger. Dragonto has a population of 15 million, all ponies, dragons and griffins. There are skyscrapers over 70 stories tall, and The West-Wyvern Tower is the tallest structure on the planet, almost a mile and a half tall.” Cobalt said in a nostalgic tone, mentally watching images of his home dance in his head. Spike couldn’t believe it, he could barely understand the size of Ponyville, a city as big as Cobalt was explaining… it was godly in comparison.

“Twilight, can you imagine that? A city THAT big?” Spike said to his older sister as he turned to her. Twilight simply smiled and shook her head.

“I can’t say I could, Spike. It’s definitely something to behold.” She added to her gesture.

“Hey, I should bring you two sometime! You’d both have so much fun! I know the city like the back of my hand too!” Cobalt said enthusiastically. Spike looked up at him and shared in his enthusiasm with his frantic nodding. Twilight, however, didn’t seem so up to the idea, and Cobalt caught onto her dismay pretty quickly. “You think so, Twilight?” He asked her with a concerned face creeping over his face. She looked up at him and gave him a Puzzled look.

“I… I don’t know if I could, Cobalt. I have a lot to do during the day because of my princess duties, and without Celestia and Luna to help me now, I’m busier than ever. I barely managed to scrape time for this get-together. Maybe you and Spike could go sometime, Maybe.” She re-uttered for emphasis. Cobalt’s ears drooped with disappointment as he looked away.

“I...I understand, Twilight,” is all he muttered as the three went silent. Thankfully, it wasn’t for very long because they reached the Carousel Boutique shortly after the conversation ended. At the door was Rarity who was smiling and waving them over.

“Good evening, dearies. I do hope you’ve all made it here alright?” Rarity asked with her usual optimism.

“Yes, we got here alright, Rarity, how have you been?” Twilight said happily, her tone sounding a little tired.

“I’ve been wonderful, dear. I just finished an entire line of Spring clothing for the runway show in Canterlot next month and I believe it’s my best work yet!” She said with a gentle stop of her hoof. “And how about you, Cobalt, have you been enjoying yourself in Ponyville so far?” She said as her attention shifted. Cobalt gave her a quick nod in approval.

“Yeah, everyone for the most part has been nice to me.” He said cheerfully, pushing away the earlier conversation quickly to get rid of his icky feelings.

“That’s wonderful, dearie, I hope it stays that way. And you, Spike? How have you two gotten allong? Err… Spike?” She said as she looked at Spike who was giving her a blank stare. Cobalt looked down at the love-struck dragon and bared a toothy grin as he tapped Spike’s butt with his tail, giving him a shock and making him jump.

“AIE! OH… I’m uhh… It’s been good… uhh, Rarity.” He said whilst giving an annoyed glare at Cobalt, whose face was flushed red with laughter as he tried hard to contain it. Rarity blinked and shook her head.

“Well, I’m glad you two are getting along, now come on in, everyone, you’re just in time for tea!” Rarity stated happily as she moved from the doorway to let them in. As they walked in, Cobalt started to get his feeling of nervousness again as he saw Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Big Mack, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell sitting in the main room, talking and laughing idly. Spike took notice at how Cobalt’s body started to freeze up and immediately shifted his attention to him.

“Hey, Cobii, you okay? You and I can stay here until you’re ready to go in?” Spike said as he gave Cobalt a reassuring smile. Cobalt looked down at him and sighed deeply. He grunted, shook his head and replaced his scared expression with one of cautious determination.

“No, let’s do this… slowly though, okay?” He said quietly and dryly. Spike nodded in understanding and grabbed his hand.

“One step at a time.” Spike said reassuringly, letting Cobalt start walking in at his own pace. Cobalt gulped and took the first step, then the next, and he eventually got a slow pace going as he finally entered the room.

“Ah! There they are! Are you alright, boys?” Rarity asked as her attention, as well as everyone else’s, shifted to the two as they walked through the doorway. Cobalt’s pupils tightened and his breath got short as everyone’s attention shifted to him. Spike felt Cobalt’s grip tighten on his claw as his nervousness increased. Spike decided to take things into his own hands.

“Yeah, we’re alright, he’s just a little nervous around crowds is all.” Spike said as he looked up at Cobalt and patted his arm. “It’s alright buddy, they’re friends. No need to be afraid.” He said quietly, trying to ease Cobalt into the group. Cobalt looked down at him and gave him a gentle smile.

“Oh, pardon me, dearest, I hadn’t the slightest clue.” Rarity said in sincere apology.

“I-It’s nothing t-to be sorry about, Rarity… I, uh, I should have s-said something earlier” Cobalt said with a nervous chuckle.

“Nonsense, you should feel welcomed by the host, dear. Do not fret, though, we are all elated to have you in our company.” Rarity stated with powerful confidence. “Now, you two find a spot and I’ll fetch you a spot of tea. Back in a minute.” She said before quickly disappearing into the kitchen. Cobalt watched everyone return to their conversations before he gave Spike a tender nuzzle on the head.

“Thank you, Spike. I don’t think I would’ve lasted much longer with everyone watching me like that.” He said quietly whilst a pink blush flushed over his face. Spike smiled brightly and blushed too, flattered from Cobalt’s gesture.

“Aw, it’s nothing big, Cobalt. I mean, what are friends for, right?” he said whilst giving Cobalt a playful punch on the shoulder. Cobalt chuckled and nodded before finding a place with Spike to settle in.

The night went on really well after that. Cobalt could feel Dash’s glare at him every so often, but he didn’t really pay much mind to it as the night went on. Everypony had many questions for him, Pinkie skillfully asked about things that she would include in her welcoming party that revolved around Cobalt’s favourite things, Fluttershy asked a couple questions about his diet and was surprised to find out he was a vegetarian. Even the crusaders, who by now were more over just a band of friends now that they all had their cutie marks, asked a lot of questions. In fact, Scootaloo asked the most questions out of all of the ponies there, most of them being about his wings and how fast he could fly. Which brought up the topic of what happened today.

“Hey, Cobalt, since those wings are so huge, I bet you can fly super fast!” Scootaloo said with serious enthusiasm. Before Cobalt could answer, Spike shot in.

“Yeah, he can! Actually, today he broke the sound barrier!” Spike said with a strange amount of pride. Everyone shared their oohs and aahs, even Dash had to take notice of the conversation now.

“YOU broke the sound barrier? I thought only Dash could do that!” Scootaloo said with awe as she looked up at Cobalt, whose face was a bright pink with embarrassment.

“W-Well… I-” He started, but he was quickly cut off by Spike as he continued.

“Yeah! It was so cool! I said that him and Dash should race sometime too, that’d be so cool!” Spike said with a bounce.

“Me? Race him? Ha! I could reach the finish line before he’d even flap those giant bat wings.” Dash said with an overpowering confidence.

“I dunno, Dash. Cobalt is really, really fast!” Spike said in response. “I think he’d win!”

“Guys!” Cobalt said loudly to get their attention. He quickly reverted back to a quieter tone when he realized it caught everyone’s attention “I… I don’t really feel like racing…” He said with a nervous undertone. Dash scoffed and laughed.

“Why, afraid you’re gonna be too embarrassed by a PONY you scaley chicken?” She said whilst standing up. Cobalt’s expression changed quickly from one of fear, to one of anger.

“Know what? Let’s do this. Time, day, place.” He said with a smirk. Dash was brought back slightly from his sudden change in mood, but she quickly shot back with the details.

“Cloudsdale, next week, 2 pm sharp. If you’re not there, you forfeit. Deal?” She said with a mischievous smile.

“Deal.” Cobalt said powerfully. Just as Dash settled back into her spot, someone knocked on the door.
“I’ll get it, dearies. One moment.” Rarity said as she got up and went to the door. Everyone started to talk idly about other things as things settled back into calm discussion. Cobalt took the time to talk to Spike.

“Hey, rockhead, what was that for!? You know I don’t like the attention!” Cobalt said with a hint of fear in his voice. Spike looked up at him and smiled.

“Hey, I told you I was going to get you out of your shell and we’ll work on some things slowly, but you need a big breakthrough first so that you start getting some confidence. Besides, it’s about time Dash’s ego was deflated a little, I can barely breathe in here.” Spike said with a snort and chuckle. Cobalt couldn’t help but giggle at his remark and nudge him with his shoulder. Just then, Rarity returned into the den with a strange pony that nobody’s seen before.

“Everyone, I want you to meet Silk Stallion. He’s the reason I’ve brought you all here tonight. See, him and I met at last year’s Runway show and, well, we’ve started going out as of a few weeks ago.” Rarity said affectionately as she nuzzled under Silk’s chin. Cobalt looked down at Spike with a surprised and pained expression as he could almost feel Spike’s heart implode. This was going to be a long night.

Old wounds, New scars and a Love interest

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“D...Dating?” Spike said in a quivering voice as his ears dropped fast. Both Twilight and Cobalt looked at each other from the corner of their eye, knowing what was going through Spike’s mind as his breath started to shorten and his eyes were slowly losing their battle to hold in his tears.

“Yes, dearest, for about a month or so. I was going to tell you all sooner, I just never had the time, my schedule being so busy and such.” Rarity said with a blush as she explained with a tad bit of embarrassment. Spike could feel everything in his body go heavy, his heart felt like it was going to fall apart and his throat had the mother of all lumps in it.

“I met her backstage,” Silk started with his low voice, the slightest hint of an english accent in his pronunciation. “Her and I were rushing to get the models on the runway when we bumped into each other. The moment I saw the spark in her eyes, that magnificent flowing mane and her perfect stature, I knew she was someone I wanted to see again” He said proudly, making Rarity push him playfully before giving him a peck on the cheek.

“I gotta go.” Spike said dryly as he got up and stormed out , giving Silk the dirtiest look possible as he walked past him. Spike walked out and slammed the door behind him, leaving everyone in a bit of a surprised state.

“...hold on, If you’ll excuse me” Cobalt said as he quickly got up and tip toed over everyone before going outside to catch up with him. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, the only person to really know that Spike still had any feelings for Rarity was Twilight since he told everyone he wasn’t looking for anyone at the time.

“Was… Was it something I said?” Silk said whilst scratching his head in perplexion.

Cobalt looked around outside for Spike, but it was too dark to really see anything particularly far in the distance.

“Spike!? Where are you dude!?” Cobalt shouted out as he sniffed the air, trying to catch Spike’s scent in the air. After walking out to the town for a couple minutes, he caught the sound of a quiet sobbing. He ran in the direction of the sound and caught Spike walking slowly with his arms crossed and his back slouched. “Spike… c’mon man, I smell another storm coming, we should go back.” Cobalt said softly, trying to calm Spike down. Spike turned to him with his eyes puffy and full of hate, his breathing choppy and deep and his claws blaring out and razor sharp.

“Screw. That. I’m not going back in there” He said with a dry tone, his voice quivering with emotion. Cobalt sighed heavily and frowned.

“C’mon dude, you knew that this could happe-”

“You know what? I don’t care! I don’t care that I knew, I don’t care that I should have known, I don’t give one damn hell about that bull! I worked for 10 years to try to get her love and I got… I got shit! This bastard walks in for 5 minutes and she’s bending to him like she’s his lap dog for pony’s sake! It’s not fair. It’s not fair! AAAAARRGH!” Spike screamed out at the top of his lungs as he kicked a trash can in the street, making it fly a few feet into the streets, the content within spilling everywhere.

“Spike, hey, c’mon man, you can’t act like this just because you didn’t get what you wanted, you’re not a feral. Now c’mon, stop acting immature and get back to the house.” Cobalt said whilst putting his hand on Spike’s shoulder. Out of rage, Spike turned around with his claw out to push Cobalt’s claw off his. In doing so, he accidentally hit Cobalt in the jaw and got under the scales, ripping his hide. Cobalt pulled back and snarled in pain as he held his hand over the wound. Spike, realizing what he just did, dropped his angry feelings for ones of fear as he watched the blood drip through Cobalt’s fingers.

“C...Cobi, I… I ju- I…” Spike stuttered as he held his claws over his mouth. He walked back slowly before turning and running away. Cobalt caught Spike’s reaction out of the corner of his eye and his attention quickly turned from his gash to Spike.

“S-Spike! Spike, wait!” Cobalt said as he ran after him.

Spike’s breath grew heavy as he kept running, he didn’t dare look back to see if Cobalt was following. He couldn’t even believe what he just did to him. Spike was almost certain that he just ruined any sort of closeness that he had with Cobalt. As he ran, the rain began to come down again, the storm swell seeming even stronger than the one days before, the thunder booming out in the distance as it drew closer. Once he was sure he lost Cobalt, he finally took a look at where he was. He wasn’t familiar with this part of the city, though it didn’t really look like a nice place. The lighting wasn’t very good in the storm and the rain was starting to get worse. Spike figured that he had to find shelter before things start getting really bad. As he walked down the sidewalk, he thought about what just happened, what he did to Cobalt and how he acted around Rarity. He didn’t notice the shady figures that had been following him for the past 20 minutes.

Spike got to a dead end on the road, he had to turn around and go back, maybe find a main road and go from there. It was then that he saw that he wasn’t alone. 5 dark figures stood only 15 feet behind him. They were all ponies with dark hoods, the water dripping from the seams as it poured down harder. Spike’s heart started to race as they came towards him, more of them coming out of the shadows. They surrounded the end of the street and cut off his only escape; Spike was trapped. The group shifted and one of them came forward, a bright red stripe decorated the hood as the figure spoke in a strong female voice.

“You made our job easy, dragon. We were prepared for a much more daring event, but you seemed to have let us catch you with little effort.” The voice said through the pounding of heavy rain. Spike gulped and breathed heavily as the crowd surrounded him.
“Wh-Who are you!? What do you want with me!?” Spike said with a squeaky voice, trying to muster up the courage to speak. The pony laughed loudly, which brought upon the laughter of the rest of the group before she spoke again.

“Stupid hatchling! You think you’re brave for talking to me?” She said before she ran towards him and pushed him up against a brick wall; her hoof moving up to his neck as a blade slid out of her sleeve. “You’re a coward, just like your empire and your princesses. Now, where is the book?” She said with a louder tone. Spike was terrified at this point and was shaking violently at the pony’s demand. “SPEAK, or you are of no use to me!” She said with the blade pressing harder against his soft neck scales.

“I...I d-don’t know what you mean! I...I know a lot of books!” Spike spat out through his shivering. The pony growled in frustration as she pulled his head away from the wall before slamming it back, making him scream in pain.

“Fool! I mean the Dragon book, the Prophecetic! Where is the Prophecetic!?” She stated powerfully. Spike drew a blank momentarily before he remembered what Cobalt was saying about how important the book was, and how bad it would be if it fell into the wrong hands. He then thought about what he did to Cobalt only a little bit earlier and figured that he owed Cobalt for what he did, even if he was facing a possible death.

“K...Kiss my tail, I’m not telling you!” He said through her choking press, the hoof on his chest preventing him from breathing properly. The hooded pony stayed silent, her mouth still slightly visible as she smiled with a toothy grin.

“Then you will die.” She whispered to him, the blade pushing into his scales, which would have easily broken the blade or at least dulled it if they were a little more developed. But since he was still growing into them, that wouldn’t be available to help him now. Just as his scale were about to give, a bright flash of lightning struck in the distance, which was followed by thunder and a strange whining sound. The pony looked up into the sky as she heard the noise, which was followed by another whine as it echoed eerily through the city. The pony whispered under her breath before she looked back. “The storm siren.” She said in her whisper as she looked frantically in the sky.

Spike looked up to see what the noise was, but couldn’t make anything out. The eerie whine was getting louder and louder as a quiet whistle started to draw closer to them. He knew that whistling sound from earlier that day, and only one thing he knew made that noise. Another flash of lightning followed by thunder came around before a dragon slammed into the street, the ground cracking and buckling beneath him as a large splash of rain water flew out in all directions. The dragon got up and opened his eyes, that shone a bright blue. Spike could make out the look of a scar on the dragon’s right eye and knew immediately who it was.

“Cobalt!” Spike whispered quietly as a smile crept over his face. He saw that his attacker wasn’t paying attention and managed to wriggle himself free enough to bite her hoof, which made her yell and retract her hoof, which let Spike slump to the ground before pushing back on all fours to get away from her.

“Why you little- get the storm siren! I don’t care if you kill him! I’m going after the hatchling!” She stated as she ran off to chase Spike. Cobalt’s attention switched to the goons that had surrounded him, the blood still dripping from his chin from Spike’s swipe.

“You’re a stupid lizard, dragon. It’s 25 against one, the odds are hardly fair.” One of the goons stated. Cobalt looked at him and chuckled deeply, his voice had dropped heavily and split into two tones.

“Oinhaiiehn Huihn Euoi, PREY.” Cobalt snarled out before his claws shot out and he slammed his tail against the ground, making a lightning bolt shoot down and strike the ground. One of the ponies jumped out at Cobalt, the blade in his sleeve sliding out as he went in to stab him. Cobalt heard his jump in the rain and smacked him hard with his tail, sending him flying into the wall and breaking his spine as the bricks cracked and gave in. The rest of the ponies looked as the Pony laid lifeless on the floor before they turned their attention back to Cobalt. “Next.” was all he said before the ponies charged at him.

Cobalt Flipped over the group as they went in to stab him with their blades. His tail smashing down on a pony and electrocuting them. He then spun around and slashed two of them with his razor sharp claws. They looked like hot knives going through butter as they sliced through both of them without hesitation. one of the ponies managed to get a good stab at him, but Cobalt quickly kicked him hard and knocked him out. He turned and breathed in heavily, the sound of static filling the air as a bolt of lightning cut through the mob and turned a couple ponies to ash. The rest of the attackers started to back off as their numbers were cut considerably.

“Fall back! Fall back! This isn’t over, scales!” The goon called out as he watched the survivors run off before following them with a slight limp.

“You’d do best not to tempt me, Suihtn Skiena.” Cobalt mumbled under his breath with a snarl as he sniffed the air, catching Spike’s scent and running to it, his breath heavy with rage as he followed the trail.

Spike kept running as fast as he could; he heard the sound of hooves following closely behind him as he tried to get away. He could feel his breath strain hard as he kept running but his adrenaline allowed him to keep going, but he didn’t know the area very well and soon caught himself at another dead end, his assailant not far behind him. With heavy breath and straining muscles, he looked up to the pony, who cut him off from any escape.

“You’re out of luck, dragon. I’ll give you one last chance to save yourself. Show me the Prophecetic, or it’s your life!” She yelled as another blade slid from her other sleeve. Spike trembled softly but managed to scrape enough courage together to speak.

“Buck you, mare.” Spike said through his heavy breathing, knowing what was to come after his decision, he closed his eyes and looked away. The pony laughed and lunged at him, going in for the kill. As she came ever closer, the world around Spike slowed to a crawl, his short life flashed before his eyes as he accepted his fate.

“Not so fast!” Called out Cobalt as he smacked his tail against the pony, which knocked her out of the air. She hit the wall and screamed in pain before getting up slowly and turning to Cobalt, who looked little of himself at that point. His eyes were acid blue and shining brightly, his scales turned burnt black and sparks of lightning were falling out of the corners of his mouth. When he spoke, the ground shook from the deep base in his voice, and the higher pitch made Spike cringe in pain as it pierced his ears. “Get away from him or I’ll crisp you, soft scale!” Cobalt spat out as he extended his large wings, whose membranes showed patterns of lightning bolts. Spike could hear the sheer hate in Cobalt’s voice as it rang through the air.

“You underestimate me, Storm Siren. Now fight!” The mare said as she lunged at Cobalt. Cobalt moved to get out of the way but couldn’t get away fast enough, the right blade struck his side and gave him a big gash. He roared out loudly as he felt the blade tear him open. He followed her attack line and slammed his tail on the ground, the shockwave enough to push her onto her back which allowed him to spin around and claw at her, striking a hit that tore clothing and drew blood. The fight went on for only a little while longer before Cobalt ended up right in front of Spike. He looked back to him to see Spike cowering in absolute fear as the mare got closer.

“Spike, cover your ears.” Cobalt said behind him in a stern voice to Spike, who complied and covered his ears tightly. Cobalt breathed in deeply, as to take a breath to breathe his lightning, but this time a low rumble emanated, followed by a blood curdling roar that shook the ground with the low base, and shattered glass with a high pitch, banshee-like scream. The attacker suddenly dropped to the ground and screamed loudly as the noise only got louder. After a few seconds, Cobalt stopped his roar; his breath heavy and with a faint snarl on every exhale.

“Leave, now. Or I will end you, peasant!” Cobalt spat out loudly. The attacker got up and seemed to stare him down, before turning and quickly disappearing into the storm. Cobalt watched as the flashes of lightning and heavy rain covered her escape; once he was sure she was gone did he calm himself down.

Cobalt’s body changed back to its regular colour and his eyes shifted back to their gold and red hybrid. At this point his injuries started to really show themselves, most notably the gash on his side that was bleeding pretty bad. Cobalt winced in pain as it brought him to his knees, his hand holding his injury as it seared in pain.

“C-Cobalt! Sweet Celestia, you need to get to a hospital!” Spike cried out as he saw the damage the pony had done. Just as he finished his sentence, a bright light shone out near them, catching both their attentions rather quickly as they watched the light get closer. Once it got close enough, a face emerged from the darkness, allowing both of them to relax a little as they saw it was twilight and Rarity, who went looking for them.

“Oh dear goodness, what ever happened to you, Cobalt? And how did you both get down to this end of the city?” Rarity shouted out as she acted repulsed to Cobalt’s injuries.

“Not now, guys, I’ll explain AFTER we get him to a doctor! Twilight, think you can teleport us?” Spike said authoritatively. Twilight simply nodded as a purple aura surrounded all of them, the rain being pushed away by the bubble as her teleportation magic snapped them from the edge of the city to the front of the hospital.

“...And then I got cornered by the hooded mare and I thought I was done for, she asked for the book again and I said no. Just when I thought I was done for, Cobalt came in and saved me. But, that’s when he got the gash in his side.” Spike explained to Twilight with a heavy tone; his body shaking from the fear and anxiousness of what just happened. He had a blanket around him to keep him warm and an ice pack on his head because of a minor concussion he got when the mare slammed him against the wall.

“I’m just glad you’re okay- that you’re BOTH okay. Things could have gone much worse.” Twilight said calmly, trying to get Spike to stop shaking so violently. “But… at least now we have some sort of lead to who was spying on us before.” She said with a bittersweet tone. Spike couldn’t think of that right now, his main focus was about Cobalt. He felt it was his fault that all this had happened and it made him sick.

“I’m back, darlings and I brought everyone along. Has there been any updates on Cobalt’s status?” Rarity asked with a slight urgency in her voice as she walked up to the two in the waiting room along with everyone from the get-together.

“The doctor said he should be fine,” Twilight started, “They thankfully had a few dragon surgeons that were nearing the end of their shifts when he came in. They said he should be okay to see tomorrow morning. Spike doesn’t want to leave here though, he doesn’t feel safe. I’m going to stay with him.” Twilight said as she put her hoof on Spike’s shoulder. Spike looked up and gave a half-hearted smile before looking back down on the ground and shaking more.

“I… Rarity, can… Can we talk please? In private?” Spike said with a shaky voice as his eyes looked up to Rarity. Rarity immediately looked at him and nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course, dearest, come.” She said with a gentle sympathy as she turned to the neighbouring room and gestured. Spike slowly got up, looked at everyone and then walked into the room with Rarity, shutting the door behind them as they did.

“Now, is there something you wish to discuss?” Rarity asked innocently, not knowing the spark that caused all the events that unraveled. Spike looked at her and sighed; sitting on a chair and looking down before speaking.

“I… I stormed out because of your boyfriend” he began, trying to word it so he didn’t sound like a total douche. “I mean… it’s no secret I had a crush on you. But, well… I was lying when I said I wasn’t feeling it anymore. It was just because I was tired of being teased by everyone because of it. As a matter of fact, I think it got stronger. When you showed us your new boyfriend… I kinda felt like all I tried to do to get you to like me didn’t matter.” Spike explained, small tears beading at the corners of his eyes. Rarity looked at him for a moment before giving him a warm smile and placing a hoof on his shoulder.

“Spike, I… I figured that you still had feelings for me, dear. I never doubted that they didn’t go away either,” Rarity started gently. Spike looked up at her with confusion.

“So… why didn’t you ever react to it?” He asked with the lump in his throat ever-growing.

“It’s because I knew it wasn’t going to work out, dear. You must understand you’re very young, and because you’re young you still have a lot to learn about the world of love. Simply letting you get your wish would be completely irresponsible to me. I would stop you from going out there and experiencing the world. You must understand as well, because you have such passionate feelings for me, if it were to not work out in the end, you would be devastated, and I couldn’t ever do that to Spikey-wikey,” Rarity explained with a gentle but assured tone. Spike never thought of it that way, and in a way, it helped his heart mend itself a little. Not much, but, a little.

“So… does that mean that I’ll never get my chance with you?” Spike asked with an ever so slight spark of hope pushing through his tone. Rarity smile and rubbed his head plates with her hoof.

“Now, I wouldn’t necessarily say that, dear. But there’s a lot of souls out there, and it’s a world full of wonder that not even the imagination can do justice. You may find the one that is right for you before you get that chance. I ask you to please keep an open mind about it,” Rarity finished off with a hopeful optimism that rang through the air. Spike looked up at her and smiled faintly, giving her a gentle nod.

“I’ll try, Rarity. I really will,” Spike said quietly, his voice getting back it’s confidence as he did.Rarity smiled back and gave him a kiss on the cheek, making him blush bright red and shudder in emotion.

“Never change, Spike. You’d be doing the world a disservice if you do,” She said quietly, giving off a slight blush of their own. Just as they wrapped things up, Twilight knocked on the door.

“Come in.” Spike said with a flutter in his voice as he put a claw on his cheek softly. Twilight opened the door and walked in, her face beaming a grin as she walked up to Spike, knowing that she would get an explanation to what happened later.

“The doctor just finished talking with me; Cobalt did a lot better than they had expected, and he should be ready for visits now. Do you want to go see him?” Twilight asked him gently as she gave him a playful hoof bump. Spike got up slowly and nodded.

“Take me to him, please. I need to make sure he’s okay myself before I stop shaking.” Spike said with a small, nervous chuckle. “Thanks for the talk Rarity, I’ll definitely take what you said to heart, I promise!” Spike said with growing enthusiasm.

“Good, I hope I eased your nerves, Spike.” Rarity responded with her usual certainty. With that, Spike, Twilight and Rarity both walked outside; Rarity joining the others and Spike and Twilight walking into the visiting rooms.

Upon entering the room, they saw Cobalt laying on a elongated bed that let him sit up a little. His whole mid-section was bandaged up and there was an IV hooked up to his right claw. He also had 3 bandages where stitches were put for when Spike accidentally clawed him.

“H-Hey, Poofer; hey, Twilight. I got pretty banged up out there, huh?” Cobalt said with a weak chuckle, followed by a quiet grunt. “Sorry, still recovering from the meds. They had to put a triple dose on me because they didn’t have any dragon anesthetics,” he continued as he shifted slightly. Spike walked up to him and took Cobalt’s hand in his.

“I’ll leave you two alone. If you need anything, let me know, okay Spike?” Twilight said as she started for the door. Spike gave her a notion of approval before turning his attention back to Cobalt.

“Cobi… by Celestia, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault, I shouldn’t have run off like that.” Spike said with a couple hot tears streaming down his face. “I could have killed both of us because I was selfish, I’m so sorry…”

“Hey, enough with the sob story, sweetie. Trust me, it’s no big deal. You owe me for giving me ANOTHER claw mark on my face, but I’m totally not mad, I promise. Just, don’t run away like that again, I’m not going to hurt you just because you did something out of instinct, that’s more my fault than yours.” Cobalt said groggily. “Did you at least explain why this all went down to-”

“Rarity?” Spike said, finishing Cobalt’s sentence and blushing brightly. “Yeah… she was okay with it, and she told me why she didn’t really want to be in a relationship with me- not yet at least.” He said while scratching the back of his head.

“That’s good.” Cobalt said quietly, a slight blush appearing on his face as well. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two as they looked away from each other. Finally, Cobalt couldn’t take it anymore. “So… you’re on the market then are-OOMPH” Cobalt exclaimed as Spike turned and pressed his lips to Cobalt’s, catching him off guard. Spike looked into Cobalt’s eyes and then shut them tight, showing that he wasn’t going anywhere soon. Cobalt collected himself and leaned his head into Spike’s kiss, closing his eyes as well. They let their lips hold against each other for what seemed like an hour before they both pulled away; Spike breathing heavy and Cobalt in disbelief.

“That… was a little long overdue.” Spike said quietly.

“Well, you work fast. So… I’m going to say that you like me huh?” Cobalt said with a slight smile. Spike looked at him and blushed bright, giving him a shy nod before putting his hands behind his back..

“Look, I don’t know if this is going to work. I’m not really sure if I like guys in the first place, or if this is some sort of lash out from Rarity or something. But I’ve had really strange feelings around you… and hell, why not, you know?” Spike said with a stutter, trying to find the right words to say. “I’m sorry, I’m really new to this whole guy to guy relationshi-” He said before Cobalt stretched out his head and pressed his nose to Spike’s.

“Take it as slow as you want, I’m a patient dragon” Cobalt stated in his low voice, making Spike shudder slightly. “Also… your lips are really soft, Poofer.” Cobalt said with a chuckle before he pecked Spike’s lips. Spike couldn’t help but give a little giggle himself to as he returned Cobalt’s peck.

“Hey, you mind if we don’t tell anyone for now? Not even Twilight? I don’t want to go out in the open with this unless I’m sure this is what I want, or even until I’m sure of what this is...” Spike said quietly, the blush on his face getting bigger and bigger.

“You have my word, love” Cobalt answered happily. “Now, you wanna come on up and spend the night? I’m awful lonely around here” He said with a chuckle. Spike looked at him and gave him a confused grin.

“Won’t they be upset about it?”

“Yeah, but I’m a 7 foot tall, 380 pound storm calling, thundertail dragon. I don’t think there’s much they can do about it” Cobalt said factually. Spike giggled and nodded before crawling up next to Cobalt, settling in beside him and laying his head on Cobalt’s chest, listening to his powerful, heavy breathing. Once they both got settled, Cobalt closed the main light and wrapped his arm around his somewhat-more-than-friend. “Gnight, Poof.”

“Night, Cobalt” Spike said tiredly, snugging himself into Cobalt happily. “I love you.”

Sky Temple of Secrets

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Spike slowly woke up to the sound of the heartbeat monitor beating slowly. He looked up to Cobalt who was snoring quietly, looking like he was almost TRYING to get as much sleep in as possible. Spike shifted slightly and rested his head against Cobalt, glancing over to the clock on the wall. “Great,” He thought, “5:30 in the morning. Well, at least the nightmare didn’t come around this time.” Spike just laid there, thinking about what happened last night, letting it run through his mind over and over. Then he remembered the kiss Cobalt and him shared before bed, and it made his mind go nuts. He didn’t know what got over him last night, he didn’t understand why he decided to do what he did… but the more it went through his mind, the more it made him sick. Just as he was going to get out of the bed, he felt Cobalt shift and stir.

“Mmmhh… hey, Poof. sleep well?” Cobalt said as he cracked his back. Spike looked up to him and gave him a depressed look.

“Not really… Cobalt, I… I don’t know why I did what I did last night with… well THAT.” Spike said, starting to feel a little sick from the thought. “I just… Dammit why do I feel this way!? You’re not just a friend, but you’re not someone I can have a relationship with. Why do I feel like I’ve known you for such a long damn time, but we met 3 weeks ago. I don’t get it!” Spike said with anger, springing up from the bed and starting to pace around the room. Cobalt frowned and watched Spike as he frantically paced.

“I… I’ve been having a similar issue, Spike. I thought we nailed it last night with the relationship thing… but I got to thinking about it and, well I just didn’t feel it.” Cobalt said as he slowly turned on his side. “But I do know what you mean, I feel like I’ve known you for a very long time.”

“So what in the name of Celestia does that mean?” Spike asked to himself as he pulled up a chair and sat backwards on it, facing an ever more confused Cobalt. “Also, just getting this out there, let’s not talk about that kiss anymore. No offense, but… gosh it’s starting to make me feel sick, I’m sorry.” Spike said, shaking his head and shuddering. Cobalt smirked and chuckled, nodding his head in agreement.

“You know what, we need answers, lots of them. Remember when I told you I knew someone who could help me with those dreams we’ve been having? Well, I think we should pay him a visit. Today,” Cobalt said dryly as he slowly got up from the bed. Spike stood up and pushed the chair aside, pointing at Cobalt with purpose.

“Sit, you have questions I need answered before we go anywhere, and you’re in no condition to walk yet.” Spike said powerfully, his anger for the situation fuelling his attitude. Cobalt stared at him for a minute before nodding and sitting back down.

“Shoot.”

“First off, what the hell happened last night? You were all different colours and your eyes were bright blue and you spoke… you acted nothing of how you usually do. What happened?” Spike stared into Cobalt’s eyes in anger laced with fear, his image of Cobalt on the line with what happened last night. Cobalt sighed heavily and looked down, almost as if he was ashamed to talk about it.

“I was… hoping I didn’t have to explain it.” Cobalt said half heartedly, his ears falling slowly and his tail falling to the ground.

“Well now you do. I’m glad you were there to save me, but you scared me big time last night. Was that even you?” Spike said as he tried to contain his emotion, seeing how sad Cobalt suddenly looked as they spoke of what happened.

“Yes… yes that was me, Spike. Well, mostly” Cobalt started, his eyes looking like every word that he spoke he was ashamed of and hated. “When I saw you against the wall, that mare holding her blade to your neck… I felt angry, enraged. When that happens in a storm, it gets amplified. That’s when I turn into… it.” Cobalt said, uttering the ‘it’ like it was a black curse. “It’s called many things, Black storm, Thunder ghost; I believe that mare used the name ‘Storm Siren’, Correct?” He asked with a factual tone appearing from his sorrow. Spike simply nodded and let him continue. “The real name is Vhietei Keikuina - White Demon. It’s the curse of being a storm dragon. The powerful spirits of the storm can be hear in whispers and can be felt as you move. And if it’s not kept in check, well… you saw what happens.” Cobalt breathed heavily, awaiting for Spike’s response.

“So… why did it stop when that mare ran off?” Spike said gently, seeing how sensitive a topic this was. Cobalt shrugged and shook his head.

“I don’t know. All I know is that by all accounts, you should be dead.” Cobalt said with a very dry tone. Spike got a lump in his chest and his body went cold as he felt the detest in Cobalt’s tone. “When it happens, I have very little control of what I do, the reason I told you to run wasn’t just because of the hooded ponies. If I had seen you in my full form, like I did when I was fending off that mare, I feared that you’d be next.”

“But… you didn’t. You didn’t even touch me.” Spike said optimistically, trying to lift Cobalt’s spirits a little. Cobalt looked up and gave him a hollow smirk before looking back down at the floor.

“It just makes everything more confusing, Poof” Cobalt started with a heavy sigh. Spike cocked his head to the side in confusion. “The only people who aren’t attacked are ones I truly know. But that normally takes years to do, no matter how quickly they gain my trust. It just makes things so much more perplexing.” Cobalt said as he slammed his fist on the nightstand in frustration. “Look, Spike, I don’t know why all this is happening, but what I do know, is that I need answers and I need them -today-.” Cobalt said authoritatively. He got up once again and pulled the IV and heat beat monitor off of him.

“C-Cobalt! You know you can’t do that! The doctor said-” Spike said as he stood in front of Cobalt to stop him. Cobalt looked down and him and grinned, making Spike immediately regret this decision as he closed his eyes and turned away..

“The doctor?” Cobalt started as he pulled the bandages off him to reveal that the wound was completely healed over and only a faint part in his scales remained. “The doctor knew very little about how fast dragons heal.” Cobalt extended his hand out to Spike, who was now looking over him intensely, eyes wide opened in awe. “Wanna get some answers with me?” Cobalt asked him with a calm enthusiasm. Spike slowly took Cobalt’s hand and nodded; both of them walking out of the room and into the lobby.

Twilight and the gang were all waiting for them as they got out of the elevator. Upon their arrival, everypony started conversing amongst each other, unsure of what was happening. Twilight trotted up to them both and noticed that Cobalt was completely healed up.

“Cobalt!? How did you-” Twilight started as she examined Cobalt’s healed wound.

“Dragons are mysterious creatures, Twilight. We can do many things that most do not know.” Cobalt said with a chuckle. “Hey, look. There’s been a lot of stuff that’s been happening between Spike and I-”

“I’ll say.” Applebloom mumbled a little too loud out of the corner of the lobby waiting room. Attracting the attention of everyone else.

“Pardon? We didn’t quite hear you, Bloom.” Spike said innocently with the raise of his brow. Applebloom shook her head and blushed.

“N-Nothing, sorry.” She said quickly, trying to avoid the situation as best she could. Spike and Cobalt looked at each other and shrugged.

“Well, anyway, a lot of strange things have been happening between Spike and I, and we really need at least a couple answers. It’ll be a good way to get him out of the city for a while too, make sure we lose the trail of whoever that was last night.” Cobalt said factually, looking at Spike and giving him an affectionate ruffle of his head plates and a playful smile, to which Spike growled at and blushed from.

“You sure it’s going to be safe Cobalt?” Twilight asked immediately, her main concern being Spike’s safety.

“Yeah, scales, how do you know that they’re waiting for you wherever you’re going?” Dash added in, her usual negative tone towards Cobalt shining particularly bright today. Cobalt looked at her and gave her a quick snort.

“No pony, or any other species for that matter knows about this place. It’s a sacred dragon hold. There’s, quite literally, no safer place on the planet for him.” Cobalt said with a smile. Twilight gave him a look that mingled with disbelief and worry, but she sighed and nodded eventually.

“Alright, you guys can go, but I want you back by the end of today.” Twilight said sternly, making sure her point was very clear with Cobalt; whom nodded sincerely at her statement.

“Alright, we’re off, we’ll see you guys later on tonight.” Cobalt said as him and Spike both walked outside. Once they were a good distance from the entrance, Cobalt spread his wings and went on all fours, squatting down towards Spike, who was confused to what Cobalt was doing. “Get on, Poof, the place we’re going to isn’t accessible on foot.”

“Wha… you want to fly with me on your back?” Spike said with a hint of fear escaping his voice. Cobalt looked at him and gave him a look of annoyance. “I know, I know! Stupid question. Just give me a minute, I didn’t like it when Twilight flew me around and I’m pretty sure you flying me around isn’t going to make me feel any better.” Spike said defensively as he slowly got up onto Cobalt’s back.

“Heh, well the difference between Twilight and I is that I probably have a little more experience with flying. Now hurry up, the faster you get on, the more time we’ll have.” Cobalt said impatiently as Spike settled himself in. Cobalt got into a pouncing position and looked back to Spike. “Hold on tight, Poof. The takeoff and landing are the bumpiest parts.” Cobalt said with a grin before getting back into position and extending his wings out wide. Spike held on to Cobalt’s neck tightly and held his legs firmly against his side.

Cobalt took off with a good jump and a hard beat of his wings. The extra weight proving a little difficult to handle, but he managed and got up to a comfortable height rather quickly. He looked back to see Spike holding on for dear life, which made him laugh.

“Haha, you alright back there, buddy!?” Cobalt yelled out as to beat the sound of the wind passing over them. Spike opened his eyes and looked at him with considerable fear.

“No! How long is it until we reach the ground!?” Spike said back as he breathed heavily, finding it hard to catch his breath with the speed of the wind. “It’s kinda hard to breathe too, think you can slow down a bit!?”

“I can’t we’re still climbing; just breathe through your Ventricles!” Cobalt said as he pointed to the holes on the corner of his upper lips. Spike felt along the side of his lip before he took a breath from them, finding it much easier to breathe now.

“So that’s what those are for!” Spike said with surprise at his recent discovery, which made Cobalt laugh again.

Cobalt eventually got to his cruising height and speed, which made things a lot quieter and a lot easier on Spike, who was now growing used to being on Cobalt’s back. He slowly let go of his death grip around Cobalt’s neck and had a look around. He saw all of Ponyville, everything from the smallest suburbs to the largest of skyscrapers, The mountains, the forests and lakes. It was something to behold.

“Is this what you see every time you fly up here, Cobalt?” Spike asked in admiration. Cobalt looked up at him and smiled.

“It’s a sight to behold, isn’t it?” Cobalt responded happily, getting a look at the scenery himself. “I’ve been flying for years now and I still never get over how incredible the view is” Cobalt said with a happy sigh, looking around at the world below.

“I can’t wait to start flying.” Spike muttered to himself as he looked back at his wings, a little upset that they weren’t growing in much faster. Spike got settled in for the long haul, they had about an hour and a half left of flying before they got to wherever Cobalt was talking them.

Cobalt and Spike landed in a clearing on top of a large hill. In front of them was a small temple that looked like it had been there since the beginning of time. Spike walked behind Cobalt cautiously, unsure of what to make of the place.

“Alright, there’s a couple things that you need to know before we head in. One, you do exactly as I do unless I say otherwise. Two, let me do the talking in the beginning, you don’t know what to say and this is all very sacred.” Cobalt said sternly, looking down at Spike with a serious expression. Spike nodded quickly and continued to follow closely behind.

“Who are we meeting, Cobalt?” Spike asked as they reached the door of the temple.

“My teacher.”

Cobalt knocked on the door and waited quietly, barely even moving as the silence grew. Spike’s imagination started to run wild with what was going to happen once they got into the temple and he started to scare himself with what his imagination brewed. Thoughts of a big, monstrous dragon of some sort that they’d have to tame in order to get what they want, or maybe it wasn’t a dragon and it was some other being. The fear of the moment made him shake in his scales as the suspense got bigger and bigger. After a moment of waiting, the door slowly opened to darkness, the silence broken by the creaking of the wooden door

“C’mon” Cobalt said quietly as he took Spike’s hand and walked him in slowly. As they walked deeper into the temple, torches started to light themselves. Spike cowered behind Cobalt quickly, squeezing his hand tight as they ventured in deeper into the hallway.

After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the main room. Spike’s eyes widened as he took in the enormity of the temple. The whole place was white marble, even the floors. The windows allowed the golden sunlight to bask into the temple, creating a warm, inviting environment all around. The centerpiece of the room was a huge water feature that seemed to be forming from nothing as it flowed down from the wall and through the center of the room, covered by glass as to be able to walk over it.

“Impressive, eh? Only dragons can tread through that hallway. Everyone else is redirected to the entrance again.” Cobalt said with a hint of pride as he guided Spike to the front of the temple.

“Hairtn.” Said a deep booming voice from behind them. Spike jumped at the sharpness behind the tone, how it sounded barbaric as it shook his bones. Cobalt turned quickly without looking at the owner of the voice, and got on his right knee, motioning Spike to follow. Slowly, Spike did the same as Cobalt, keeping his eyes averted from whoever called to them. “Staitei Euoihn Naikeish.”

“Cobaltin Thoinkehn-Taiern Sertingue. The one beside me bears no soul name, only afore name, Spike.” Cobalt said in a confident voice, his head bowing low.

“Ah, so I would imagine he does not know the tongue either?” Said a heavily accented voice, the sound of the tone clearly stating it to be a dragon. Cobalt simply shook his head and awaited further response. “Then you must forgive my mispronunciations, for the language of moderns is not my native tongue. Tell me, my student, why bring a stranger to our temple? Can he be trusted to guard our sacredness with his life?” The dragon asked, his voice reeking with purpose and concern.

“Yes, Master. Spike is sealed by my oath of Alpha, he is to be trusted.” Cobalt replied quickly. The dragon started to chuckle in his deep voice, sending chills down Spike’s spine.

“Well then, we should welcome our guest shall we?” The dragon said as his voice changed from heavy and concerned to light and inviting, still terrifyingly deep though. As spike got up, he finally got the first glimpse of the dragon. The dragon wasn’t the largest he’s ever seen, but he was a good 15 feet tall, his tail doubling that length as he stood on two legs, robes down his shoulder and around his waist. He was an obvious male, had cream white scales, yellow horns and golden headplates. His eyes were a glorious crystal blue and his teeth were tipped with the same colour.

“Spike, this is my Teacher, Dahxolin Spiehietn-Tuinjei, you can call him Dax like I do” Said Cobalt proudly as he introduced his mentor. Spike simply waved nervously as he gazed upon the large dragon.

“The pleasure it mine, Spike. Now, what brings you both to the Skie Teikrei, the Sky Temple?” Dax asked as he walked to the front of the temple and sat on one of the marble benches off to the side.

“Well, master, we have had some… interesting predicaments happen between us as of recent. Most notably, we’ve been having a recurring nightmare that seems to be intertwined. We’ve also had an incident that was revolving around both of us we would like to discuss.” Cobalt stated heavily, the memories of last night and the nightmares coming back to haunt him. Dax simply hummed in thought and nodded.

“What occurs in your Pheikuina, your Premonition, my student?”

“Well, Spike’s element is magic, It would be better to get it from him.” Cobalt said as he motioned to Spike, who jumped at the sudden acknowledgement. Dax nodded and leaned in close to spike, who backed up in fear as he got close.

“Do not be afraid, young one, I’m not your enemy” Dax said in his booming deep voice as he put a large claw on Spike’s shoulder. Spike felt his whole body tingle as everything around him started to get brighter. He squinted his eyes to adjust as the light got more intense. Just as soon as the light came in, however, it quickly dissipated to the dark forest of his dreams.

“Is this what you see in your dream, young Spike?” Dax said observantly as he watched Spike’s dream with a concentrated stare.

“GAH! Wh-whoa, where are we? Is this my dream… I-Is that… me?” Spike noted quietly as he watched his dream self get up off the ground.

“You are viewing your dream from a third person, I want to get a full view of it.” Dax said as he followed dream Spike through the forest. Spike, on the other hand, looked back at Ponyville, which was already ablaze.

“Wh-Why can I see Ponyville already? I haven’t even gotten there in my dream…” Spike asked Dax in confusion. Dax turned around to see what Spike was saying, his expression going from one of concentration to one of concern.

“It’s because, this isn’t a dream, Spike. This, is a premonition.”

“A… A wha?” Spike said with confusion. Dax turned to him and gave him a troublesome look.

“This is an event that has not yet happened, Spike.” Dax said dryly as his focus returned to Ponyville, his eyes scanning for anything else that might come up. His eye caught a flash of light out in the distance, which turned out to be Cobalt as he seemed to be looking for something. Spike’s hears dropped like stones as he heard that this is the future.

“You mean, this is going to happen?” Spike said with a heavy lump in his chest. Dax simply nodded as he watched Cobalt get ever closer to Spike.

“It would be the only explanation. WHEN this is going to happen, I’m not sure, there is no indication to it. But I would prepare yourself for it.” Dax stated with importance. Spike watched in horror as Ponies and dragons slaughtered each other, the city in flames and everything in disarray. The only thing that eventually caught his attention was Dax nudging his shoulder with his claw; pointing at Cobalt as he ran after the pony that attacked him in his premonition. With the blue flash of light, both dragons returned to the temple, Cobalt staring at them with worry.

“So, is it what I think it is, Master?” Cobalt stated with a tremble.

“I’m afraid it is, young Spiehietn. It is prophecy by nature. I have instructed Spike on what to do, it would be wise to heed the warnings, the Gods do not simply give premonitions for no reason. Now, is there anything else that is troubling you, young ones?” Dax asked with calmness, keeping both of them in check with the whole situation. Cobalt nodded and spoke with concern.

“We’ve… had strange feelings towards each other, Master. Not feelings of adoration, but a certain knowledge of each other. It’s like we’ve known each other for years but… we’ve only seen each other for 3 weeks.” Cobalt stated as he looked over at Spike, who was still in serious distress from the news he had received. Dax grinned slightly and motioned both of them to follow. Cobalt bumped Spike with his wing to snap him out of his trance and walked with him to another room, this one much darker and Cobblestone. The room seemed very empty, only a small pedestal in the centre filled any space.

“The best way to determine this is through bloodline. I imagine Spike does not know the value of dragon blood?” Dax remarked as he looked at Spike directly, making Spike nervous.

“Unfortunately not, Master. He was raised by ponies, one of which hatched him from his egg.” Cobalt remarked quickly, allowing the attention to be lifted from Spike.

“Impressive.” Dax said with a grin. “Now, young hatchling, a dragon’s blood is much like a family tree. In it, you carry your whole family line with you, all the way to the first Khaijuina Kiena, the First Dragon kin. all that is needed is a small sample within the pedastel, and we shall watch your family line come to life.” Dax said as he felt up the side of the wall with his claw. Spike looked at Cobalt and frowned.

“Is this the only way to do this?” Spike whispered to Cobalt with a hint of fear. “I’m not too keen on hurting myself.”

“Sorry, Spike, but this is the best way, now, c’mere.” Cobalt said as he motioned for Spike to come. Reluctantly, Spike walked over to Cobalt, who took his hand and extended one of his claws, placing it on Spike’s wrist. “Ready?”

“Let’s do this.” Spike said quietly as he closed his eyes tight and looked away. Cobalt siply nodded and with a quick swipe, cut a small opening in Spike’s arm, making Spike wince and snarl quietly. Spike slowly opened his eyes to watch the drop of blood flow from his arm and drop into the water-like substance in the pedestal. As soon as the liquid settled, a bright blue line started to travel down the floor and up the wall, Stopping at a certain point and highlghting a name. Dax immediately snarled and turned to Spike.

“Young one, this cannot be right. The name you are born below has been deceased for over 600 years. This would mean that you were the hatchling of a dragon almost 750 years ago.” Dax Stated with confusion. Spike’s eyes widened at Dax’s remark, his breath growing short.

“Wh-WHAT!?” Spike yelled as he pulled his hand from Cobalt’s grasp and looked at the name and date of his parents. Sure enough, the names were dated to be around 750 years. “Cobalt… Put your blood in the Pedestal, NOW!” Spike shouted as he looked at Cobalt with confusion and disarray.

“Okay! Okay! Jeez man, breathe.” Cobalt said as he cut into his wrist and allowed a drop of blood to flow. As the liquid settled another line travelled through the Cobblestone, growing up to the exact same spot that Spike was placed. Cobalt looked in shock as the same names were re-highlighted. “B-but that doesn’t make any sense, I have parents!” Cobalt said with increasing worry. Dax simply shook his head in correction to Cobalt’s statement.

“The bloodline never lies, young one, you are born of a different parenthood.” Dax stated as he watched Cobalt slowly fall to his knees, tears slowly beading from his eyes as he softly spoke.

“if we’re from the same line… does that mean we’re…”

“It would appear so,” Dax stated in wonder. “Both you and Spike, are brothers.”

The Grand Siren and a sort-of date

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Cobalt sat on the temple balcony, looking on aimlessly to the city of Dragonto below them as the sun started to set on the day. His eyes were still red from crying and his stomach ached as thoughts buzzed through his head. He didn’t know what to think, everything he knew; his parents, his siblings, his place in the world. All of it was a lie. And all he had now was parents he couldn’t even remember and a brother which he’s only known for 3 weeks out of the 21 years of his life.

Next to him sat Spike, who didn’t know what to do. He was happy to know where he came from, but he could hardly believe he was older than all of his friends and sister combined 2 times over. He wondered how he managed to stay an egg for so long, why was he held and who were his parents? In reality, the answers they got today only opened more questions. They sat there in silence, watching the sun set into the mountains behind the city, the lights of skyscrapers and towers slowly flicker on, as if the city was only now coming to life. More than 2 hours had passed before Cobalt finally spoke.

“Hoikkn, I need a drink,” Cobalt said monotonously as he looked over to Spike. “What do you make of all this, Poof?”

“I don’t know, Cobalt. I’m still shocked to know I’m three quarters of a millennia old and I’m not even 18 yet” Spike said quietly, scooting up next to Cobalt and leaning against him. They both sat there quietly once again; Cobalt looking back to the city with an empty gaze. After a couple more minutes, Spike decided to break the silence again. “I do know this, though, I’m glad I have you as a brother. I don’t think I could have asked for a better dragon to be it.” Cobalt looked down slowly at Spike and managed to give him a soft smile as he wrapped his arm and wing around his little brother.

“Makes two of us, sweetie.” He said as he gave Spike a gentle kiss on the head. Spike smiled and laid his head on his brother as they sat there together, snuggled up in silence. “Also, if you ever kiss me on the lips again, I’m going to chop yours off and feed them to a hydra” Cobalt said with a chuckle. Spike’s eyes suddenly widened as a look of horror came over his face.

“By Celestia… Oh GROOOOHOHOOHOHOSS! I made out with my freaking brother! EW EW EW EW EW!” Spike shouted out as he wiped his tongue with his claws as his body shuddered violently. “If I ever do that again, you can do whatever the hell you want to my face, preferably ripping it apart. Deal?” He said as he looked up at Cobalt, his face looking like he just ate the most vulgar thing in his life. Cobalt burst out laughing at his little brother as he hugged him in tight.

“Deal. You know, I was crying because of the loss of my brother and my family, but I cried harder when I remembered that I thought you have soft lips. EEUGH, gods I wanted to skin you alive.” Cobalt said with a chuckle, making Spike punch him in the arm before snuggling up tight against his brother’s big frame.

“You gonna be okay, Cobalt?” Spike said as he settled in and looked up to his big brother. Cobalt looked at him, then at the city, sighing deeply before nodding his head.

“Yeah… I’ll be okay, Spike.”

Just then, Dax called for them to come inside to see something that he had found whilst looking for more information on the brothers. In one quick move, Cobalt got up and picked Spike up, holding him under the tail with one arm and letting him hold on as they walked back inside.

“Come here, young ones, take a look at this” Dax stated as he pointed to a book that he had set on one of the Altars in the temple. “I knew the names of your parents well, so on a hunch I looked up the history of the great war. Look what I found” Dax said as he pointed to the passage and began to read. “‘The war had begun when the two sons of the Alpha male, Vexus Staihriojhtn-Kraivh Sertingue and the Grand Siren, Coltorus Ainjeiroish-Fuiiekei Sertingue, were stolen from their nest on the 15th of the first dew, 1266.’ Those are your parents, boys,” Dax finished as he pointed to the painted image of the two dragons in the old book. Spike looked over them intensely as Cobalt set him down on the floor.

His attention immediately turned to the image of his father, who looked massive in size, his large, rock frame supported the most majestic wings, which looked a lot like Cobalt’s. His Copper scales and brilliant bronze head crest complimented his green eyes, which looked exactly like his. His attention slowly shifted to his mother who looked to be rather small for a dragon. She also had what looked to be like a mane and feathers on her tail. But the way everything looked seemed to work very well, in fact, it made her look beautiful. Her nearly white mane was contrasted with deep sapphire blue scales and purple chestplates. Her eyes were a hybrid red and gold like Cobalt’s and her wings were feathery like a gryphon, but they were spectacular.

“My mother’s so pretty…” Spike said as he touched her portrait. Dax smiled and nodded at the young dragon.

“I would imagine so, young one. Your mother was the Grand Siren, the most powerful of all sirens. At her time, the age of Grand Sirens raising the sun and moon were long gone, but they still existed. Sirens are very beautiful creatures, and she was the queen,” Dax stated as Spike looked up at him. “I remember the day her and your father announced of the heirs to the dragon empire. I was just a high priest in the temple out in Diamondtooth city before the war destroyed it.” Dax said nostalgically as he remembered back to the days. Spike looked at Dax with surprise.

“You were there when we were laid? B-But how?” Spike said as his eyes grew ever wider. Cobalt put his claw on Spike’s shoulder gently, which made Spike turn to him.

“Dax is not a regular dragon, Spike. Spirit Whisperers like him live for thousands of years. He’s only 1728 years old, right, Master?” Cobalt said as he looked up to his teacher with a smile. Dax nodded and chuckled.

“You are correct, my young student.” Dax said with a hint of pride as he puffed up his chest playfully, which made Cobalt laugh. Spike, on the other hand, couldn’t stop looking at his parents, all he could think about was how much he wanted to know them. His father looked so big and powerful, like the whole world bowed to the very thought of him. His mother, on the other hand, looked sweet and gentle, like just about every dragon was her child and she would treat them as such.

“What were they like, Dax?” Spike said with his concentration fixed to the image.

“Your parents, young one? Your father was a brilliant male, strong body, strong mind. He was the son of the great Zaurun Stuinei-Aihka Sertingue, the greatest Alpha male that the dragon empire ever had. In fact, I was your father’s birth Priest, and I was yours as well.” Dax stated warmly, wrapping his tail around both of them as he told his stories. “Now that I know it was both of you who were his children, I can feel an easy rest in the winds. He guarded you both like the finest gold. No dragon could see you two except for your mother and I. The night you two vanished, it was as if his mind shattered. Never before have I seen a dragon so violent in my life.” Dax stated as he delve deeper into his memories.

“But… how did we go missing?” Cobalt asked as he leaned forward, becoming ever more entranced in the story as Dax spoke.

“The only clue we ever got was a blue feather belonging to a pegasus. Your father immediately blamed the poaching that was making the Ponies rich in Equestria and there was little they could do to calm his wrath. Do not believe what you see in books, young ones, the ponies could do little to hold back your father’s war machine when he attacked. The old Pony castle was destroyed within hours, the city within days and within a month, the Pony losses were so bad that pegasi almost went extinct, the only city that held the attacks off was Cloudsdale, thanks to the ancestor of one known as Rainbow Dash, have you met her?” Dax stated questioningly. Both Cobalt and Spike slowly looked at each other with surprise..

“Yes, we know her pretty well.” Cobalt said with a stutter. Dax simply nodded, not getting into whatever they were getting worked up for.

“Your Mother, on the other hand, well… her heart barely beat some days with how devastated she was. She wouldn’t talk, she barely ate and she rarely sang. Singing for a siren is sacred and she just couldn’t bring herself to it most days. But when she did... by Atkias’ tongue it was the most heartbreaking singing you ever heard.” Dax stated as he started to tear up, a chill growing down his spine as if he was hearing it now.

“Why’s that, Dax?” Spike asked innocently.

“When a siren sings with a heavy heart, you can feel it in the very pit of your soul, and her being a grand siren, her voice was powerful enough to raise and lower the sun and moon. She conveyed emotion like nothing else on this planet.”

“What… what happened to her, Dax?” Spike said with his heart sinking into his feet.

“When the ponies attacked the city, she couldn’t take it anymore. Your mother’s element was ice, and because of her state, she was powerful enough to freeze entire cities forever. The ruins of Diamondtooth, along with the inhabitants and invaders, are still encased in ice. It has endured nearly a millennia of summers” Dax finished with a heavy sigh. He looked down and growled frustratingly. “She was never seen again. Most think she died when she cast the city in ice, some say, however, she may still reside in the northern regions of the earth, hidden away from the world. Sirens are the longest living creatures on the planet, they can outlive most dragons easily.” Dax sighed heavily and looked outside with a blank expression.

“Master… something confuses me.” Cobalt stated quietly, bringing Dax out of his gaze as he looked down at the young dragon.

“Ah...Yes, what is it hatchling?” Dax said with a small smile as he shook himself out of his glare.

“Why do I have the same last name as them and my foster parents?” Cobalt asked with a chirp, the question coursing through his mind. Dax squinted as a look of forgetfulness crept over his face.

“If I remember correctly, Cobalt, your family name is given to the next Grand Dragon to fill the hierarchy after the dynasty fell from the war. There was no real heir to the throne so the eldest dragon known took the seat as a Grand Dragon. Because there was no true Alpha, the name had to carry” Dax said as he looked up to the ceiling to remember. “That would mean that you and Spike are the true Alpha males because you’re technically twins.”

Both Cobalt and Spike looked at each other again, this time in awe as they thought over the idea of them being the real heirs to the Dragon empire. They would have a lot to explain to Twilight… Twilight! They had to get going!

“Oh Jeez, Spike, I have to get you home before the sun goes down! And at this rate, we need to get going now.” Cobalt said as he looked outside at the sun which just barely peeked over the mountain tops. “Master, thank you so much… for everything. Spike and I are extremely grateful.” Cobalt said as he turned to his teacher and gave him a hug. Dax chuckled softly and returned it gently and nuzzled Cobalt’s head.

“Of course, my student. Please, do visit more often.”

“I plan on taking Spike here every few days so he can learn his element” Cobalt said as he started to walk to the door. Spike stopped in his tracks and looked up at his brother.
“We’re… you’re gonna help me tain? That’s so AWESOME!” Spike shouted as he joyfully bounced on his tail. Cobalt chuckled and shook his head.

“C’mon, Poof, let’s go home.”

“Fly safely, young ones” Dax stated with a smile as he watched them walk out the door. Once they were gone, he turned back to the book and stared at the portrait of their mother.

“Theei Riefei, Kei Sveeitn Qoeeina. Kaei Eouihn Souirn bei aitn heistn.”

“It’s just not fair!” Applebloom protested as she walked down the road with Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell, “He knew I had feelings for him, I told him I did! And then he goes and does that?” She ranted as she walked with an angry stomp. Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell looked at each other with a stumped expression, unsure of what to say to Applebloom as she stormed down the street.

“A-Apple Bloom…” Scootaloo started, trying to figure out what to say, “Maybe it’s not what it seems, are you sure you saw them kissing?” She asked with a bit of disbelief.

“Clear as day, Scoot. Lip to lip, goin in on-”

“Okay! Okay! Please don’t tell me more.” Scootaloo interjected quickly before she turned and shuddered.

“Look, Bloomie, maybe this is for the best, you know? I mean, Spike’s a dragon, you’re a pony. You don’t think you’re going to run into problems down the road?” Sweetie Bell added, trying to reason with Applebloom.

“That’s the point, Bell! He has so much on me, I’m a pony, he’s a dragon!” Applebloom said as she stopped to talk to Sweetie Bell.

“Tha-That’s not what I-” Sweetie Bell replied before she was cut off by Applebloom

“It’s easy for him to get Spike wrapped around his finger because Spike is so interested in dragons. Shoot, he can make Spike his lap dog complete with black studded collar if he wanted to!” Applebloom blared out, making ponies turn to see what the commotion was all about. Scootaloo quickly caught noticed and pushed Applebloom’s shoulder with her hoof.

“Hey, pipe down! Let’s not make this the whole city’s issue, huh?” She said as she motioned her head to the people who were watching them. Applebloom immediately took notice and blushed.

“Ah, sorry girls. I’m just… I dunno, I feel like I just don’t got a chance with him. It’s not like I knew I had much to begin with, anyway.” Applebloom hung her head and sighed, the very beginning of a tear starting to bead in the corners of her eyes. “What the hay is wrong with me? Why do I like him so much?”

“Oh c’mon, Applebloom, don’t be like that. We all have our preferences.” Sweetie Bell said sympathetically as she put her hoof on Bloom’s shoulder.

“Yeah, remember when Dash came out? We don’t think anything’s wrong with her, it’s a preference, nothing wrong with that!” Scootaloo added with a determined voice. Bloom gave Scootaloo a harsh look, but slowly resolved to an understanding one as she started to understand what she was trying to get at.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, Scoot. But… it doesn’t change the fact that he took my chance away!” Bloom started to trudge angrily down the road again, being followed sheepishly by her friends. As Applebloom continued on her rant about how Cobalt was a coltstealer and that he was a liar for saying that he wasn’t interested in Spike, Cobalt and Spike themselves had just arrived at the edge of the city, right around where the three were walking.

“So what do we do now, Cobalt? I’m… not really that experienced with how dragon siblings act.” Spike said with a nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. Cobalt just chuckled and slapped his hand onto Spike’s back playfully.

“Nothing that you would understand or have the strength for just yet. But how about we go for some ice cream or something, hmm?”

“That sounds great! Sugarcube corner has some crazy good ice cream.” Spike said with a chirp as they began to walk down the street. Just as they started to get into the city, Spike noticed the crusaders as they were walking on the other side. “Hey, there’s Bloom and the gang! Can I go ask them if they wanna come with?”

“Sure thing buddy” Cobalt replied with a smile and a nod. Spike jogged over to the three as they walked, none of them noticing Spike until he spoke.

“Hey guys, fancy meeting you here! Cobalt and I are going for Ice cream, you wanna-OUGH!” Spike was cut off by Applebloom pushing him to the ground. Cobalt watched as Bloom pushed him down and the gang surrounded him. He got on all fours and charged over to the group.

“What in the name of Celestia are-”

“SHUT UP, SPIKE! Take you and that jerk Cobalt and go fall off a cliff!” Bloom Yelled at Spike’s face. Spike felt confused and worried, did he do something wrong? Why did everyone look so upset with him, and why was Bloom yelling about some sort of betrayal? Through the yelling he could swear he heard what sounded like claws scraping against stone. He realized the sound was from behind him and he looked back to see Cobalt running towards the group with sparks shooting from his maw. With wide eyes and a sudden burst of adrenaline, Spike shot up and pushed Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell out of the way as he ran towards Cobalt.

“C-Cobalt, stop!” Spike shouted out as he stood in front of Cobalt’s path. Cobalt flipped onto his heels and slid to a stop just inches from Spike. Spike breathed heavy as the frame of his brother’s chest stopped so close to his muzzle. He looked up to see Cobalt’s gaze fixed on Applebloom, a deep, hostile growl shaking the ground around him. Spike gulped in fear before mustering up the courage to speak. “L-Look, we can figure this out WITHOUT turning people to ash, okay?”

“One, minute. She has ONE minute to explain.” Cobalt said with a nasty snarl, smacking his tail on the ground to arc a bolt of lightning. Spike nodded quickly before turning and walking back to the trio.

“Bloom… what’s going on?” Spike said timidly. “And make it quick, I can’t hold him back for long.” Applebloom looked at Cobalt, who had just about the angriest glare he could muster up, even despite her mood, it did send a chill down her spine.

“Well, I saw what you two did last night, and after what I told him… You betrayed me, Cobalt! You said you didn’t want to and then lied to me!” Bloom shouted out to Cobalt. He looked at her for a moment, trying to understand what she was trying to say. His face slowly turned to one of embarrassment.

“Cobalt, what’s she talking about?” Spike said perplexedly as he turned to his older brother.

“The kiss… she’s talking about the kiss…” Cobalt said as he sat on his tail and sighed. Spike looked back at Applebloom, then to Cobalt.

“What’s… what’s going on here?”

“Bloom, you wanna tell him? It’s not my place.” Cobalt said as he twiddled his thumbs in shame. Applebloom’s face turned to a bright red blush as she tried to think of what to say.

“I… well… oh, for the love of Celestia. Spike, I like you, okay!? I like you a lot!” Bloom finally blared out as she looked away and closed her eyes tight. Spike was dumbfounded, he never really realized that Bloom ever even liked him like that.

“R-Really? You like me? But… I don’t understand, what does that have to do with Cobalt and that kiss?” Spike said with a slight shudder.

“I told Cobalt when you guys came over to help my sister, so he knew I had feelings for you. But he went ahead and got together with you anyway, I saw the kiss.” Bloom said as she pointed her hoof to Cobalt who went from raging mad to petting his tail in nervousness. Spike took Bloom’s hoof in his claw as his ears drooped.

“I...I kissed him. I didn’t know that he knew because he never told me. But we’re not a couple, actually… well there’s so much to explain, and I have a lot of questions too. Maybe you can take up our offer for ice cream and we’ll sort everything out?” Spike looked at all three of them with a hopeful smirk, hoping that they would comply. After the trio glanced at each other quickly, both Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo nodding in approval, Applebloom looked down in sorrow and sighed.

“Sure… why not” Bloom said with a growing smile as she looked back up at Spike. “Sorry for causing a scene, boys. C’mon, I’ll pay, my treat.”

Love comes in many ways to a Dragon

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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.

The voices of angels to the clues of a crimescene

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After choir practice, all the sirens, Spike, Cobalt and Dax went downstairs into the basement for lunch. To Spike’s surprise, he learned that sirens are actually vegetarians, which came as a nice relief to him. Of course Dax and Cobalt weren't and he knew that, but they decided to have what the sirens were having anyway, probably for his best interest. The music the choir had sung earlier was unbelievable, the sound of the group melded so perfectly with each other, it was truly something to behold. Something else Spike quickly learned was that Sirens didn’t talk all that much. He found out that it wasn't because they didn’t like talking to him or were nervous, but because sirens need to preserve their voice for when they needed it, which was daily, so they didn’t speak unless they needed to.

After lunch, the sirens flew down to the city and headed home. He was sort of sad to see them go, but it was a pretty cool experience, one he hope would happen again. As he walked back into the main hall, Spike noticed that Cobalt was looking over the book that Dax had pulled out a couple days ago to show them their parents. He cautiously walked over and noticed that Cobalt was staring at the same page intensely, a look of sadness in his face.

“Hey, Cobalt, you okay?” Spike said innocently. Cobalt jumped a bit at his voice before realizing who it was and looking over to him. He could see that Cobalt was upset about something, his eyes looked like his mind was elsewhere. Cobalt gave him a dissatisfied smirk before returning his attention to the book. He lifted his claw and made a motion to Spike, telling him to come to the pedestal. Spike quickly walked over to his brother’s side looking at the book with him. The book was on the same page that it was turned to the other day. “What’s wrong?” Spike asked his brother as he tried to follow where Cobalt was reading.

“Something doesn’t add up.” Cobalt said factually as he kept reading it over. The book was in Mhalotian, so Spike couldn’t understand, a fact proven by his confused face. Cobalt looked up at his younger sibling and couldn’t help but smile. “See this?” Cobalt said as he pointed to a paragraph. “This paragraph states that when we were stolen, all that was left was a blue feather.”

“Yeah, so? Doesn’t that mean that it was a Pegasus?” Spike responded, giving Cobalt a raised eyebrow of confusion.

“It might, but then there was last week’s incident with the whole spying thing. What was left? A blue feather.” Cobalt said as he took his attention away from the book to explain things to Spike.

“There’s a lot of Pegasus’ that have blue feathers, Cobalt. I really don’t see what you’re getting at.” Spike said as he put a hand on his brother’s arm. Cobalt shook his head in frustration.

“But you don’t get it. A Pegasus has their wings closed when they’re walking about, feathers don’t come off at that time, they’d come off if they were flying. And yet we found the feather behind a bush where it didn’t even come into contact with the shrub, and the feather found in the nursery was left beside the nest, where you can’t fly even if you’re a pegasus.” Cobalt said as a look of thought replaced his look of worry. Spike started to understand why Cobalt was so concerned about it.

“So… what does that mean?”

“It means that whoever is behind both events was either covering their tracks… or injured.” Cobalt said, almost as if he just realized what was happening. “Look at the feather in the book; it leans to the right. If you remember, the feather that was left behind that night was also leaning to the right.”

“Okay, THAT is a little much. How can you even tell if it’s right side up, upside down or backwards?” Spike responded with a skeptical tone.

“You can tell by how the plumage fans up and out, that’s a distinct trait of Pegasus feathers. the way this one is drawn is shown right-side up. I saw the feather we found up close, it was the same thing.” Cobalt said as he read on, trying to find out more about the night they were stolen. “Mmmmhh… If only I could catch the scent of the feather 750 years ago… I would be sure then.”

“But wait, didn’t we already find out it was rainbow dash’s?” Spike asked as he leaned up to look at the book. Cobalt looked down at him with a confused scowl, making Spike retract a little. “I mean, isn’t that who you were pointing to at Sugarcube corner?”

“Oh… n-no. Did you guys think I was?” Cobalt said hesitantly, his look of confusion quickly changing to apprehension with a nervous twiddle of his thumbs. “Is that why you guys… Oh dear, I’m so sorry.” Cobalt said in somber as his ears dropped. Spike put his hand on Cobalt’s arm and leaned into his big brother quickly in comfort.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. We kinda jumped to conclusions anyway, was everyone’s fault, not just yours.” Spike looked at his brother with an increasingly mischievous look before tickling Cobalt’s side, making him jump in surprise and giggle. “C’mon, let’s get rid of that frown!”

“Hehehehehahah! O-Okay okay! Jeez!” Cobalt said quickly as he snatched his little brother up and held him tight. “Hehe, you know, you’re good at that.”

“Good at what?” Spike returned as he got his legs around Cobalt’s upper waist and locked tight.

“Making me smile.” Cobalt replied warmly with a nuzzle to his brother’s nose. “It’s good to have you around, especially with this whole anxiety thing.”

“I’m glad you’re around too, Cobalt. You’ve taught me so much in such little time I can barely comprehend it. I just wish Twilight could see it too.” Spike trailed off as he looked down and away, sliding down from his brother and walking to a bench to sit. “I… I don’t know what happened last night. I felt… angry. It was like she was denouncing my family, but she is family and… and-”

“She’s right.”

Spike looked up at Cobalt in disbelief, a harsh look slowly following.

“A-Are you serious!? She called you a bad influence! Y-You’re anything but!” Spike responded with a growing anger within.

“Am I? Listen to yourself. How many times have you flown off the handle and just screamed? If I wasn’t here would you have lost it on Rainbow Dash for pushing you over? If I wasn’t around when Rarity showed off her boyfriend, would you have stormed out like that? I’m teaching you to be a dragon. Dragon’s are inherently very passionate, it’s in our blood. I’ve spent most of my lift till now trying to control it and I’m still new to it all. You’ve been at this for what? 3 weeks?” Cobalt said factually, looking at Spike with a stern expression at the end. Spike froze and looked forward, then slumped and very slowly started to tear up.

“You’re not a bad influence…”

“I’m not, I know I’m not. You know it too. But her… She doesn’t understand this; it’s just as new to her as it is you.” Cobalt took Spike sat him into his lap, letting the young dragon face him and cry into his chest as he held him close. “It’s okay, little one, let it out.”

“I… I just… I’m so scared that I ruined-ruined everything,” Spike said through his heavy breathing. “Sh-She looked so h-h-heart broken when I screamed at her. I-I should have been more patient.”

“Shhhhh, don’t worry about that. She’s your sister, blood or not, she’s your sister. All you need is time and patience, love. Hey, look at me.” Cobalt stated softly as he nudged his little brother’s head up to gaze into his puffy, red eyes. “You mean everything to me. You’re my blood, my brother and the only true family I have left. It’s been 2 days and I can already say that I’ll always love you, no matter what. She’s been your sister from day 1. I’m VERY certain the same rules apply.” Spike wiped his snout on his arm and stared into his brother’s brilliant eyes.

“Y-You think so?”

“I know so.” Cobalt said with a big smile, leaning in and giving Spike a soft kiss on the nose. “Love ya, lil guy.” Spike couldn’t help but smile and nuzzle Cobalt’s nose in return.

“Love you to, Cobalt.” Spike curled up in Cobalt’s lap as they sat there, listening to the soft pitter patter of rain as it started to come down. “Hey… Speaking of Dash, are you still going to race her tomorrow?” Spike asked as he looked up to Cobalt. Cobalt's ears flared up as he remembered the bet he had made a few nights before.

“Hmm… Well, I suppose I should, so… ah why not. Just don’t make any bets for me in the future without me asking, okay?” Cobalt said as he gazed at his brother authoritatively. Spike’s ears pinned back as he grinned sheepishly, earning an eye roll from his older sibling. The two got up and walked out of the room, chatting idly as the door closed behind them.

“She’s been like this all day. I don’t know what to do.” Fluttershy said in her quiet worry as she looked on to Twilight’s bed. Twilight hadn’t slept the night before and she sure didn’t feel like getting up that morning. The word that Spike shouted at her felt just as loud in her head as it was when he uttered them. It just rang over and over, earning a knot in her stomach and a lump in her throat every time. Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all stood down in the library and talked among themselves.

“What happened to her, Fluttershy? I’ve never seen her like this before.” Applejack stated as she looked back to Twilight, who was obviously not paying attention.

“Better yet, why is this place in such a heap?” Dash added with a confused head swivel.

“I don’t know. The only thing I could get out of her is something about Spike having a real sibling.” Fluttershy responded, looking up at Twilight in worry.

“Well, we’re not going to get answers standing down here and talking amongst each other.” Applejack said sternly as she walked upstairs to the bed area and put her hoof on the side of Twilight’s bed, making Twilight jump a little in surprise. “Twilight? C’mon, sugarcube, you’ve been there all day. We need to get you up.” There was a moment of silence before Twilight finally spoke.

“I don’t want to get up… I don’t want to do anything.” Twilight said emptily as she hunched over more in bed. Fluttershy and Dash slowly followed behind Applejack and stood behind her.

“C’mon, Twilight, you have to. You’re a princess now.” Dash added.

“So what? Being Princess isn’t going to change anything.” Twilight said with a slightly annoyed tone.

“Twi, c’mon. At least tell us why you’re like this and the library is in such a mess?” Applejack said in a softer tone to try to convince her. Twilight said nothing for a moment before sighing and slowly sitting up. Her face showed just how distressed she was and her eyes we’re bloodshot red. All three of the ponies stepped back in shock as they looked at her; shock turning to worry as Twilight looked down at the foot of the bed.

“...Spike and I got into a fight last night.” Twilight said quietly and half-heartedly. “It was about how he was acting with Cobalt-”

“I knew it! I knew it had something to do with-” Dash interjected, but was quickly silenced by a stern look from Applejack. “Ahhh… sorry.”

“No… it’s fine.” Twilight said as she got up out of the bed and walked past all three of them. She looked down at the library, now seeing it in daylight as all the books were thrown everywhere from Spike’s outburst. “I was saying that he was a bad influence to Spike, but he defended him really strongly. And then…” Twilight trailed off as she looked down at the floor. Applejack walked up behind her and put a hoof on her side.

“And then what, Twi?”

“He told me that… Cobalt and him are Brothers. Like; real, blood related brothers.” Twilight said defeatedly as she sat down where she was. The other three Mares exchanged confused glances as they tried to make sense of what Twilight just said.

“What are you talking about, Twilight? they don’t even look like each other!” Dash said confused as she walked up next to the purple mare.

“That may be true, but they are brothers.”

“WHAT!?” exclaimed everyone in their own way.

“What the hay are you talking about, Twi!?” Applejack stated firmly. Twilight simply started to walk to the pedestal that held the dragon book, which was just about the only book untouched by Spike. Using her magic to flip the pages, she stopped at page 11 495 and began to read a bookmarked paragraph.

“‘15th of the First dew, 1266 G.C.E. The royal hatchlings of the Grand Siren and Alpha Male we’re stolen by a perpetrator supposedly of blue feathers. The next three months saw the fall of most of the Pony empire under the rule of Princess Celestia.’ Look at the drawing of one of the eggs. Look familiar?” Twilight said as she pointed to the drawing of a purple and green egg. Everyone gathered round and quickly looked at the picture, immediately recognizing the egg.

“Is… Is that Spike’s egg?” Fluttershy said quietly in the back of the group.

“At first I wasn’t too sure. I thought it was just a strange coincidence. But then I remembered Spike said something about being related by blood so I decided to look up blood relations and dragons on a hunch.” Twilight said as she used her magic to flip to another bookmarked page. “It says here that the best and only way to relate two dragons is by checking their bloodline. Dragon blood acts almost like a time machine and can relate two dragons back thousands of years. Dragon bloodline testing is a very serious and crucial part of dragon culture and can only be done by a spirit whisperer in a Sky Temple. That’s where Cobalt and Spike went last night. So putting two and two together wasn’t hard at that point.” She sat down as she looked to her friends , who were all still trying to come to terms with the fact that Spike was so much older than they realized.

“Is that all Twi?” Applejack said worriedly, noticing the spark that Twilight had just a few moments ago started to vanish once again. Twilight shook her head in despair and turned around to the book again.

“After learning all that, I found this. It’s a drawing of Spike’s father, look.” Twilight said as she stepped aside. The three mares gathered around the book and all gasped quietly as they looked at the image.

“Well I’ll be…” Applejack stated quietly.

“It’s a spitting image of Spike, just… older and more bronze-y.” Fluttershy said in her timid voice.

“Yeah, it looks like Spike jumped in a mud pool and then took a picture!” Dash stated as she moved aside for Twilight to get through.

“That’s exactly my thought, girls.” Twilight said as she flipped the book to near the beginning. “The last thing I looked at was Dragon behaviour. I wanted see if they had anything on why Spike acted so violently last night…”

“Wait, what do you mean… Violently?” Dash said with a concerned expression. Twilight looked at her and then all around the library.

“This was all him.” Twilight said monotonously. Everyone’s jaws practically hit the floor as they looked around to see all the books strewn everywhere. “On top of that… well, he said some pretty nasty things to me. Before reading this I thought that he had gone completely insane, but…” Twilight started to tear up again, her voice trembling quietly. Applejack quickly got beside her and wrapped her hoof around her shoulder.

“Aww c’mon, sugarcube. We’re all here for you now; go ahead and tell us what you found.” Twilight looked at her and nodded gently before getting back up and reading the marked paragraph.

“‘Young Dragons often have troubles coping with their emotions because dragons can be easily irritated and their moods can change very swiftly. Emotions tend to circle around things that are important to the dragon in question. Because of this, close relationships like blood-related siblings, often share a much stronger bond than any other Draconian relationship. Siblings will heavily and sometimes violently defend their family member, even when faced with a life-threatening situation.’” Twilight ended her reading with a defeated sigh. “I really wish I knew that before I decided to go off on him. I thought… I thought it was Cobalt who was making him like that, but I guess I was wrong. And now, not only have I probably gone down a rung with him in the ways of family, I also probably lost him for good after what I did.” Twilight began to sob quietly, feeling completely lost and defeated at the whole situation. The Three other mares looked at each other in sorrow and confusion. Applejack finally spoke up to break the silence.

“Hey, c’mon now. Spike and Cobalt may be a closer relation, but he grew up as a pony, with you. There’s a lot of things that Spike doesn’t do as a dragon, and I’m certain that he hasn’t forgotten that.” Applejack tightened her embrace around Twilight as she spoke, making her look up to listen. “You’re his sister, that ain’t gonna change, no matter what comes yer way.” Twilight looked at her friend and managed to put on a faint smile followed by a nod.

“I sure hope so, Applejack. Right now, though, I have to clean all this stuff up. Mind giving me a hand, girls?” Twilight said as she levitated the books and started to sort them back to how they were. Both Applejack and Fluttershy nodded and started to help.

“Sure thing, but I have to work fast. That race with Cobalt is tomorrow and I’m gonna make sure that I win!” Dash said as she reared up and hoofed the air. Twilight couldn’t help but laugh a little before looking back to her books and sorting them out.

Cobalt awoke with a quick flutter of his eyes, quickly squinting as the light from outside shone down on him. He looked back under his arm to see Spike holding it tightly as he curled up under the larger dragon’s wing. Carefully, Cobalt nuzzles his little brother’s head, hugged him tight and then got up and walked outside onto the balcony. He arched his back and lifted up his tail to touch his nose, cracking his back and stretching out his body. His wings spread out and stretched, cracking all the joints and wiggling them before getting up on the railing. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes as he ever so slightly leaned forward, letting the breeze caught by his wings hold him up as he angled steeper and steeper.

“Cobalt?” Said spike as he rubbed his tired eye. He watched as his brother turned back to look at him, smile and then lean off the ledge. “Cobalt!” Spike yelled as he ran to the ledge and looked down, finding no trace of his brother as he frantically looked.

Cobalt followed the slope of the mountain as he gained speed at an incredible pace. The wind blistered by his face, making him switch from breathing through his nose to breathing through his mouth vents as he neared a change of direction in the mountain. he angled his wings up and followed it flawlessly as he maintained his blistering speed up, blazing past the edge of the mountain to fly in the open sky.

Spike finally found his brother as he blazed past the mountain before flipping up and coming back up towards him. He watched as Cobalt barely even flapped his wings to maintain his incredible speed as he got closer and closer. Spike’s eyes went from awestruck to terrified as he realized that Cobalt was headed straight for him. His body froze in place as Cobalt passed by him at a distance of no more than a couple centimeters. Spike’s head snapped back to watch his brother clear the top of the temple and do a loop before spiraling around the entire structure and using that jet-stream to power himself forward into a barrel roll.

“Wow…” Spike exclaimed dumbfound as he watched his brother fly so effortlessly. he looked back at his wings and flapped them, becoming a little disappointed that they were still so small. Suddenly, Cobalt landed behind him with a thud, causing him to jump in surprise. He turned and looked at his brother, watching all of his muscles flex with every powerful exhale. Cobalt looked at his sibling and smiled as he shook his whole body .

“Heh, sorry, bud. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” Cobalt said through his heavy breaths. Spike blushed and smiled.

“Aww, it’s alright, I was already kind of awake. Didn’t get much sleep last night.” Spike said as his ears pinned back. Cobalt quickly walked up to Spike and hugged him, holding Spike’s head to his chest.

“mmmh, was it about your sister, buddy?” Cobalt asked quietly. Spike simply nodded and clung to his brother tight.

“Every time I close my eyes, I see her face... It looks so broken. Cobalt, I messed up so bad. I really hope you’re right,” Spike said as he buried his head into Cobalt’s chest. Cobalt rubs down his brother’s headplates and comforted him as best he could. They stayed there for a few moments in silence before Cobalt decided to speak.

“Well, we’re not going to find out just standing here. C’mon.” Cobalt got down on all fours and let Spike climb on his back. A little struggle and adjustment later, Spike was holding on tight as Cobalt took to the skies once again.

It was about an hour and a half before they cleared the brush and got to open field. It was at about this point where Spike decided to break the weird silence between the two with his stomach which made a grumbling sound that even Cobalt could hear with the wind rushing past him. Spike blushed and chuckled nervously, to which Cobalt shook his head and smiled.

“Looks like we’re taking a lunch break. Hey, there’s Cloudsdale, we’ll stop off there.” Cobalt said as he leaned to the right and changed course to the cloud city. Spike looked down at his brother in confusion.

“Wait… I thought only Pegasus’ can land on clouds?” Spike noted with a hint of concern.

“Oh, right, you haven’t flown yet. No, dragons can too. Remember that Cloudsdale isn’t made with regular clouds. Also, if they’re anything like the other Pegasus we should be caught up by the air force. You guys call them... Wonderbolts, right?” Just as Cobalt finished his sentence, Two Pegasus’ flew up beside him, one of which getting close enough to speak to them both.

“You are in Cloudsdale sanctioned airspace, state your intentions or we have orders to take you down!” The Pegasus stated in a deep voice as he pointed to the anti-air cannons they had directed at them. Spike suddenly got a lump of anxiety in his throat as the cannons followed ahead of them in the air. Cobalt, on the other hand, seemed like this was routine to him and he calmly answered.

“We need to stop off and get provisions, chipper over here needs some chow. I can give full I.D. once on ground.”

“Alright, let’s bring you in.” As the Pegasus motioned to his wing man to take the two in, he got on his earpiece and radioed in to the tower off in the distance. “Tower this is Bolt 9, we’re bringing in the unknown craft. Be advised the runway needs to be cleared, he is a big one. We’ll be coming in at 245.” The Pegasus gave them a signal to follow him in as his wing man got behind them. As they neared the runway, Spike could see all the airmen getting out of the way as the two pegasus’ taxiing them in landed out of the way. Cobalt leaned in sharp and flapped his wings hard to slow the descent, the turbulence caused by his wings kicked up all kinds of rubble on the runway as he glided in for a landing. Even with his preparations, he still had to jog a little bit on all fours before he got to a complete stop.

“Nice landing.” said a voice behind them as Cobalt let Spike down. Both turned to see Spitfire accompanied by two sergeants trotting up towards them as they both turned to face her. “well, this is an interesting sight. Didn’t think I’d be seeing you here before you got your wings, Spike.” She walked up to Spike, who gave her a hoof bump and chuckled.

“Well, didn’t think I could come up here to begin with. This big guy over here proved me wrong. Spitfire, this is my older brother, Cobalt. Cobalt, this is Rainbow Dash’s C.O; Spitfire.” Spike backed up as Cobalt nodded and saluted Spitfire as she returned the gesture.

“Corporal Cobaltin Sertingue. It’s an honor, Ma’am.” Cobalt shook hoof with Spitfire and stood at attention as she spoke.

“So besides a visit, what’s two dragons doing in my airspace?” She asked with a hint of playfulness.

“Well, we were headed to Ponyville until Poofer here’s stomach started piping in. I was hoping you can spare a few provisions for the lil guy in the mess hall?”

“Yeah, I think we can spare a few. You’ll need to go through reg, first, but I can vouch for Spike. Head on in to the tower and the desk is there as soon as you head in.” Spitfire and Cobalt exchanged salutes as she took Spike to the mess hall. Cobalt went into the tower and completed his registration. On his way out, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“So, you decided to show up after all.” Cobalt turned around to see Rainbow dash standing behind him, leaned up against the wall. “You got a lot of nerve showing up around here after what happened. Where’s Spike?”

“Follow me.” Cobalt said with a sorrowed undertone. They both walked over to the mess hall where Spike was gorging himself into what he got for lunch. “He got hungry on the way here.” Cobalt looked over to Dash who was giving him a stern stare down. Cobalt grunted and laid down, laying his head on his arms. “Look… I know what you’re thinking. I’m not stupid, I know what you’ve seen and heard. But I don’t control this. I can’t control this…” Cobalt looked on to Spike as he continued to pig out on his lunch. “If it was up to me I would have rather him not know we were brothers.” He continued with regret. Dash looked at him in surprise.

“Why would you want that?”

“Because he wouldn’t have been like that if he didn’t.” Cobalt replied with a sigh. “Look, he’s a young male dragon. This was going to happen whether I was here or not. The only major difference is that now he has an outlet because I’m his sibling. In fact I think if I came any later, this would have been much worse.” Cobalt shifted his gaze from Spike back to Dash. “Hey, I know a lot of strange things have really stirred up since I’ve come around… but you have to understand that I never wanted this. I’m scared of hurting others, I’m nervous in big crowds because of these freaking wings… I never wanted to endanger or hurt you or anyone else.” Dash’s look slowly shifted from harsh to pity as Cobalt barely kept eye contact. “Everywhere I go I’m labeled dangerous. I can turn a being into red mist if I wanted to, I can snap someone in half with my wings… but I couldn’t bring myself to do it even if I wanted to. I’m bullied for being an anomaly with my element AND these pieces of shit strapped to my shoulders. I just want to escape that… just once.” Cobalt let a tear slip from his eye and splash the floor.

Dash suddenly started to feel rather crummy, finding out that Cobalt wasn’t the monster that he was capable of being. She slowly walked up and put a hoof on his shoulder. Cobalt looked up at her in surprise as she returned a gentle smile.

“Hey, you know I was bullied too. I was… and well, still am, very headstrong in flight class. I often tried to show off… most of it resulting in Dash imprints on the clouds,” Dash said with a chuckle; Cobalt returning it with a small smile. “I’m sorry, Cobalt. It wasn’t as much as I didn’t trust you as it was I just wanted to make sure my friends and where I lived was safe. I’m like that with most outsiders, and… well you’re a dragon. The only interaction I’ve had with dragons, besides Spike, is when they’ve tried to kill me.”

“I know… and I understand. I would have defended myself if I hadn’t known that. You’re headstrong, yes, but you’re also very loyal. You’d make a great dragon.” Cobalt couldn’t help but laugh, which Dash followed up with. After they both chuckled at Spike making a mess of himself, Cobalt decided to speak once again. “Can you guys do me a favour?”

“Sure, what’s up?” Dash responded quickly.

“Give him time… those wings are going to start growing fast within the next few weeks. He has never been with dragons before so all these emotions that he SHOULD have started going through a few years ago are all bundling up and showing at once and it’s a lot to handle. He’s going to be very unstable for the next little while. I’ll do what I can to quell it, but he’s going to slip every now and again. Please don’t hold it against him… he’s the only true family I have now.” Dash nodded immediately with an approving humm.

“What’s going to happen with him and Twilight?” Dash said as she motioned back to the purple dragon.

“He’s a dragon. He’ll have hardcore fights with his siblings, but he’s known her all his life. He threw up after the incident and it’s been making him lose sleep. They’ll be fine.” Dash smiled and sighed.

“Good. Now, I believe we have a race to attend. Shall we?”

“You’re on.”

A Race to Remember

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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.

Best Brother Ever

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Spike grunted as he slowly came to, his head throbbing madly and his vision blurry. He slowly started to look around the room, which he couldn’t make out even if he wanted, and noticed a familiar silhouette laying on what looked to be a couch. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t say anything more than a whisper.

“C-Cobalt?”

Cobalt’s ears perked at the faint call from the hospital bed next to him as he turned his attention away from the magazine he was reading.

“Poofer? Was that you?” Cobalt asked in surprise as he got up and immediately knelt beside Spike’s bed.

“C-Cobalt…? Y-You’re not dead.” Spike said as he grabbed Cobalt’s big claw weakly. Cobalt looked down and smiled as he held his little brother’s hand softly, his other hand very gently rubbing Spike’s arm.

“N-no, sweetie, I’m right here. How you feeling?” Cobalt said quietly as he comforted his little brother.

“I… my head hurts, ugh.” Spike said as he slowly tried to bring his other hand to his forehead and rubbed his dimple, but pulled his hand back quickly and winced in pain. “Wh-what happened?”

“You uh, hit your head on a flagpole. Only you can hit the only thing on a cloud colosseum that can hurt you, Poofer.” Cobalt said as he started to laugh quietly. Spike only groaned in pain as he shifted a little bit. “The doctor said you have a nice concussion, nothing life threatening, but you should stay in bed for the next week and a half or so,” Cobalt said softly as he gently nuzzled Spike’s hand. Spike snorted in frustration as he relaxed a little more.

“Uuuuugh, this is just what I needed. How long have I been out?” Spike turned slightly and looked at Cobalt as his vision started to correct.

“A couple days. I dunno, I haven’t really been keeping track.” Cobalt looked away for a moment as he motioned over to the couch, where there was a blanket scrunched up under a pillow. Spike’s eyes widened slightly as he tried to get up, but was stopped by Cobalt’s careful claw on his chest. “No no, no moving for you, you need to rest.”

“Have you been here the whole time?” Spike said with wide eyes as he looked at his brother as best he could. Cobalt simply nodded and smiled slightly.

“I’ve got nowhere else to go, and I’m not about to leave my baby brother alone when he needs me.” Cobalt said as his smile grew softly. “Twilight’s been here too, she just left to go tend to something urgent about an hour ago, she wouldn’t tell me what it was.” Spike’s ears slowly dropped as he looked down at his feet.

“Did you guys talk at all? It wasn't awkward in here, was it?” Spike asked half heartedly, expecting the worst. To his surprise, however, Cobalt shook his head as he pulled up a chair from the other side of the bed with his tail and sat on it.

“At first we didn’t even pay attention each other, we were more worried about you. After things got stable, there was a bit of tension between us. Dash and Rarity were talking to me and asking me questions, the others were having small talk with her. It eventually got to just us, as we both had plans to stay here overnight. We ended up talking about a lot, mostly about you and what was happening. She seemed really happy that she got to see you again. She feels really bad for how she acted, and I told her you felt the same. I told you she would be alright.” Spike’s eyes sparkled as he looked back at Cobalt and smiled a hopeful grin.

“Wow, really? Gods, that’s a million tons off my shoulders. Are you and her okay?” Spike asked optimistically.

“We’re okay. A little shaky; we both decided to let things unfurl slowly, but we’re gonna actively try bond a little better. You’re the glue that’s binding us, buddy,” Cobalt said with a little chirp at the end of his phrase. Spike sighed happily and settled back into his bed, closing his eyes and growling lightly.

“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that. I don’t think I would have been able to choose between you both if it came to that.” Spike said quietly, holding back a tear as best as he could.

“I wouldn't have let it anyway, Poof.” Cobalt stretched his back to crack it, leaned against the wall behind him and settled into his chair. “So, nice screech there, Poof. Didn't think you had it in you,” Cobalt said mockingly. Spike gave him an evil stare and an unimpressed pout.

“Yeah, about that, we were going berserk trying to catch your attention, why did the scream win out?” Spike said with a slowly growing concerned tone. Cobalt froze, as if Spike caught him doing something heinous. He looked down slightly and lowered his ears, before breathing heavily and opening his mouth to speak.

“I couldn't see you.” Cobalt looked up at Spike and gave him a small shrug and nervous smile. Spike shook his and and rolled his eyes.

“Never mind, at least I got your attention. Is everyone okay? I saw a few Wonder Bolts get hit pretty hard.”

“Yeah, everyone’s alright. A couple Wonder Bolts are in intensive care and a few civilians got injured in the chaos, but everyone’s expected to live. There’s a big blackout in the south-east corner of the city that they’re still trying to fix, though.” Cobalt said dryly. Spike grew suspicious immediately from Cobalt’s reaction.

“I don’t remember the dragon hitting any power lines. There weren't any transformers around him, either.” Spike said with a distrustful gaze. Cobalt dodged his little brother’s eye contact as he tried to muster up the courage to speak again.

“The dragon didn’t cause it, I did.” Cobalt said quietly. Spike’s emotions quickly went from suspicious, to concerned as he took a deep, concerned, breath.

“Okay, now I need to know. What happened to you? I saw you get stomped on by that dragon. I was sure he killed you. But now you’re telling me that not only did you survive, but you managed to black out a quarter of a city and I presume you also chased the dragon off. What in the name of Celestia did you do?” Spike said as he closed his eyes and settled back into his bed. “And no bull, I want the whole story as it happened.” Cobalt looked up to his brother and hummed quietly in approval. There was a bit of silence as Cobalt tried to find the right words, but he eventually got himself together and started to explain.

“It all started to happen after he stomped his foot on me…”

“C’MON, LET’S GO! MOVE IT! EVERYONE GET TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY!” Spitfire yelled out over the screaming crowd and roars of the dragon as she ushered the crowd down the crowded city. “Dash, get up the line with the others and see what you can do! I don’t know how long Cobalt can hold that guy off!”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Dash shouted as she zipped through the city to meet up with Fluttershy and a few other Wonder Bolts. “How’s everything going over here!?”

“We’re doing our best to get everyone moving but the streets were never meant to handle chaos like this! We need more time!” Shouted one of the Wonder Bolts as he ushered more ponies through the streets.

“Sweet Celestia, we may not have the time! FLUTTERSHY!” Called out Dash as she flew over to her friend. Fluttershy jumped in surprise but managed to keep a level-ish head as she saw Dash zooming towards her. “You need to find Twilight and Rarity, see if they can use any sort of magic to make the crowd move faster, we need to get everyone going if Cobalt can’t hold this dragon!”

“Oh… oh dear! I-I’ll try!” Fluttershy yelled out… or, well, called out in her usual quiet tone, as she flew ahead of the crowd to try and find her Unicorn friends. With her orders carried out, Dash decided to gain a little altitude to see how Cobalt was faring against the large, Feral dragon. As she got a view, she could see the moment right as the dragon slammed his foot down on Cobalt. Her heart skipped a beat and her pupils almost disappeared. It felt like her whole body had turned to stone and for a moment, she hovered dumbfoundedly in the air.

“Oh…. oh no. Cobalt!” Dash hollered in fear as she immediately took off towards the big feral dragon. “What- what are we going to do no-wait, what’s- WHOA!” Dash had to vigorously change course as a bolt of lightning surged out and barely missed her. She looked down at the big dragon’s claw as bolts of lightning started to shoot from it savagely. A low humming sound started to waver from within the city as the street lights began to glow intensely and power lines started to surge. The shots of lightning became more frequent and violent, hitting buildings, anything metal and everything that was in close proximity. The humming sound got louder and started to climb in pitch as light bulbs started to glow progressively more intense. Electronic signs, appliances and devices started to overload and surge. Dash immediately flew herself back to Spitfire, who was watching everything go haywire.

“Dash!” Spitfire called out as she flew up to dash and grabbed her tightly. “Get down and cover yourself!” Spitfire hit the ground hard and put her hoof over Dash’s head. “EVERYBODY GET DOWN!” Spitfire watched as everyone looked at her and Dash in confusion before getting down and putting their hooves over their head as sparks started to fly everywhere. Spitfire put her free hoof over her mane and kept her head down.

The bulbs in street lamps exploded violently, as well as the lights in buildings and signs. The power lines surged and shot bolts of lightning into the air. As everything electronic overloaded, the humming sound suddenly broke and a huge sphere of electricity smashed its way through the streets, causing anything electronic to either fail catastrophically or explode. Power lines flew off their posts and surged on the ground as the transformers on the posts blew and even caught fire. After the blast of electricity came a HUGE and heavy pressure wave that knocked trees over, blew out windows and even managed to knock over mailboxes and flip over kart stands. The pressure wave kicked up a lot of dirt and visibility went down to zero.

Cobalt slowly stood up from the huge crater that surrounded him and stared menacingly at the massive dragon that was flung onto his back and struggling to get up. Cobalt looked little of his former self. His whole body was a deep, shiny blue. His extremities, such as his horns, wing membranes and claws, were a charcoal black and his eye sockets glowed a bright white. He opened his mouth slowly as he walked towards the large, injured dragon; sparks falling out of his mouth like a waterfall. As Cobalt got next to the dragon, he opened his hand to the large feral. As he did, a ring of electricity locked itself around the dragon’s neck and acted as a restraint that leashed back to Cobalt’s hand.

“Do you believe now?” Cobalt said in a heavily distorted voice that almost seemed to shake the ground as he spoke. The large, feral dragon looked at the small half-siren in horror as he struggled to speak.

“Y-you’re an anomaly.” The dragon said with a raspy, almost-whispery tone.

“And you’re a dull-clawed hatchling who must learn his place.” With his remark, Cobalt flew up in the air like a bolt of lightning, an electric rope connecting his hand to the restraint around the large dragon’s neck. “You come to MY territory, harm MY friends and threaten MY family.” Cobalt pulled on the rope hard, pulling the entire dragon into the air. As the dragon flew up into the air, Cobalt flipped himself upside down and shot back towards the dragon. Just before he slammed his arrowed body into the dragon’s stomach, a small explosion of electricity sparked between them and made a small cushion as the dragon was forced down at twice the speed he was pulled up. The large dragon roared loudly as he fell to the ground with a loud thud. A massive plume of dust kicked up around the two as everything fell silent.

Meanwhile, Dash stood up and scanned the scene around her. To her relief, it didn’t look like anyone was seriously injured, but the city was in a wreck. Minute sparks of electricity erupted from the severed power lines that fell to the ground and from the broken bulbs in the street lamps. the first thing on her mind was what happened after the explosion, and what happened to Cobalt.

“M-Ma’am? I’m going to go assess the situation with the dragon.” She said as she dusted herself off. Spitfire took her first look at the damage and failed to answer Dash. “Ma’am?” Spitfire quickly shot her attention to Dash as she shook her head and slowly got up.

“Uhhh… yes, go get a sit-rep and report back to this location immediately. Don’t go too far, all our radio’s are out” Spitfire said as she fumbled with her comms. She stumbled to her hooves and looked over the scene in a mix of concern and awe.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Dash immediately took to the air and made a beeline for where Cobalt and the dragon had recently fought, only to find the large plume of dust that obscured what she could only guess were the two dragons. With a nervous gulp, she slowly flew herself down to ground zero. As she landed, she was met with the slowly moving dust cloud, making her cough and wheeze as she tried to navigate it. With a bit of patience, and a lot of coughing, she managed to get a clearing. Her jaw practically hit the ground at what she saw. In front of her rested the two dragons; Cobalt standing inches from the upside down feral dragon’s nose. She could see his chest expanding and contracting powerfully as he stared down the barely conscious feral. The large dragon was barely alive, its breathing was short and shallow. Dash paid little attention to the dragon and concentrated on who she believed to be Cobalt. She squinted and hesitantly spoke to the figure. “C-Cobalt? Is that you?”

“Hmm?” Cobalt’s ears perked as he turned his head towards the voice that called his name. Through the dust, he could make out the shape of a Pegasus, not just any Pegasus, but Dash. His eyes returned to their red and gold and his body changed pigment to his natural color. As soon as it did, Cobalt’s legs quickly gave out and he fell to his hands and knees.

“Cobalt!” Exclaimed Dash as she galloped to her downed friend. Cobalt looked up at her briefly before gagging and throwing up. Dash stopped before him and pulled her hooves to her body in disgust. “Eww…uhh, are you okay? Do you need help?” Dash asked begrudgingly, hoping Cobalt would decline. She sighed in relief as Cobalt shook his head and grumbled.

“No, I’m good, just a little winded. How bad’s the damage?” Cobalt said weakly before puking once more.

“Well, besides the fireworks display in the town, nobody was seriously injured. What in the name of Celestia happened, anyway?”

“EMP.” Cobalt said through his gritted teeth as he wiped his mouth. Dash raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“A what?”

“An EMP? Electro-Magnetic-Pulse? I basically burst and electricity field to make sure I didn’t become a pancake. The result is an EM-HURGHK” Cobalt stated through his heavy breathing before he heaved yet again. “Gods I hate this.” Dash reluctantly rubbed Cobalt’s scaled back in effort to soothe him. After about a minute of staying in a braced position, Cobalt slowly got up and sat on his tail.

“You okay now?” Dash asked as she stepped back from him. Cobalt nodded tiredly before returning his attention to the Large feral dragon. “Is he going to… y’know, die?”

“No. He’s not going to be going anywhere fast, though.” Cobalt said as he pointed to the dragon’s hind leg, an electric chain binding it to the earth. “It’s all so strange. That wasn't feral behavior in the slightest. Usually they don’t challenge an Alpha male unless there’s a good reason behind it. He was so rage-stricken that he didn’t even catch my scent. He’ll probably be out for a couple days but I want to talk to him when he wakes.”

“Talk to him? He just tried to kill you!” Dash exclaimed with her hoof pointing at the crater behind them. Cobalt looked back and raised his eyebrows, almost seeming surprised at the large crater he had made.

“Damn, I didn’t expect the field to be that big. How far in did it reach the city?” Cobalt asked with a worried tone. Dash scratched the back of her head and looked back towards the city as the dust cloud began to clear.

“Uhh… I’m not sure. I was a good 5 blocks in when the… EMP, ran through the city.” Cobalt bit his lip and thought for a moment.

“Hmm… I judging by the size of the crater, that would have been the extremity of it. That’s a bit of a relief. I thought you were going to tell me I blacked out more than half the town for sure!” Cobalt said with a nervous chuckle that quickly fell into an awkward silence. Suddenly, Cobalt's ears perked at the sound of wings flapping. He put his finger to his lips and motioned with his eyes to where the sound was coming from. Dash took notice and turned to where Cobalt had gaze-pointed. Both of them got ready for whatever was coming through the clearing dust cloud. To their relief, it was Scootaloo, who landed just in front of them and was awestruck by the damage around them.

“Hey, Scoot. You really shouldn't be here, it’s a dangerous area.” Dash said with a suspicious look across her face. Scootaloo quickly snapped her glance off the scenery and focused on Cobalt, a look of desperation on her.

“Cobalt, you have to come quickly! Spike is hurt!” Scootaloo said through heavy breaths. Cobalt’s eyes shot open and his pupils dilated.

“Wh-What? How!?”

“There was a big explosion and he got blown back and hit his head on a flagpole!” Scoot said with a frantic buzz of her wings. Cobalt felt like he had just been punched in the chest. He looked over to Dash with an increasingly worried expression.

“For Atkias sake, it doesn't end! Dash, I need to get up there, can you guys take care of your wounded?” Dash nodded quickly and took to the skies to return to Spitfire. “C’mon, Scoot. Let’s get up there!” Cobalt took off frantically and darted to the Colosseum, where a small crowd surrounded paramedics that were tending to Spike and what looked to be Applebloom. Cobalt landed outside of the circle and immediately started to push his way though. “Everyone get back, move! I’m his sibling!” The Pegasus’ around the paramedics looked back a Cobalt in apprehensiveness before quickly moving out of his way. Cobalt’s heart sank to his feet as he watched the two Pegasus Paramedics carefully place Spike onto a stretcher with a neck brace and pick him up.

“Hey, you’re related to him, right?” Said one of the medics as Cobalt got in next to him.

“Yeah, I am. Is he going to be alright? How bad is it?” Cobalt asked fearfully, expecting the worst.

“It’s alright, don’t worry. He’s unconscious right now. It doesn't look like he has any broken vertebrae or bones in general, his breathing is fine. He does, however, have a pretty nasty concussion. We’re taking him to Mare Mercy Hospital if you would like to fly behind the hospital craft?” Cobalt sighed in relief at the news before nodding his head in approval.

“I would. Is she okay?” Cobalt said as he looked to Applebloom.

“She’s alright. A bit of bruising from grazing the pole and a pulled leg, but she’ll be fine. Now let’s head to the hospital ASAP.”

Spike’s mouth was hinged open in awe as he listened to Cobalt wrap up his story.

“...and once we got to the hospital, they put you into ICU overnight, just in case you had any hemorrhaging. The next morning they transferred you to patient care and to this room. I've been here ever since.” Spike closed his mouth and smiled softly at Cobalt, who smiled back and even chuckled a little bit. “I’m so sorry, Poof. I didn’t expect it to be that strong.”

“Don’t you dare, Cobalt. If you didn’t you would have been killed, for sure. Nobody died and that’s thanks in large part to you. I don’t think a banged head and a few broken light bulbs are worth trading for your life.” Spike winced in pain, laying back slowly into his bed and relaxing his head. “Sweet Celestia my head is still killing me. Like, really. Of all places to hit, I hit the only thing that ISN’T a cloud on a CLOUD COLOSSEUM.” Cobalt couldn't help but laugh at his brother’s misfortune before sliding his chair up and holding onto his brother’s hand once more.

“As long as you’re still kicking, I’m okay.” Cobalt stated affectionately as he held his brother’s hand softly. Spike exhaled in happiness and relaxed in his bed.

“So, what was that whole ‘electronic field’ thing you spoke of? What does it do?” Spike asked through a yawn that escaped him.

“It’s basically a personal shield that can be used to protect yourself from things like arrows and bullets. If you overload it, the field bursts and acts like a bomb. The more concentrated the blast, the more powerful the explosion. And the more energy you draw, the stronger the focus. The one I did the other day was actually a very small one. It takes a lot out of you and if you do it too strong, it can actually kill you. Because mine is electric, it also causes an electromagnetic pulse, which disables and destroys electronic equipment, usually beyond repair.”

“You wouldn't go killing yourself over one of those blasts, would you?” Spike said with a worried tone, looking over at Cobalt with dilating pupils. Cobalt couldn't help but smile as he shook his head.

“I wouldn't dare leave you, my sibling. Not if there’s another solution.”

“Good. Now… if you’ll excuse me, I’m kinda tired.” Spike said as he closed his eyes and settled in. Cobalt rolled his eyes and huffed, leaning in and giving his little brother a soft lick on the cheek.

“Sleep well, young Haitchrienje.” Cobalt held his brother’s hand for only a moment longer before a wonderbolt stepped into the room.

“Corperal Sertingue? You have to come with me. The dragon’s awake.” Said the wonderbolt quietly. Cobalt looked at her, then to Spike and sighed begrudgedly.

“Very well.” Said Cobalt as he got up. He walked to the edge of the doorway and looked back, smiling softly at his sleeping sibling before walking off with the Wonderbolt. As he did, Spike quickly shot his eyes open to see his brother exiting the room. He settled into his bed a little more and sighed happily.

“Best brother ever.”

Making Connections

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“There are many questions that I need to ask you, Heihairn. First being if you are in need of any medical treatment?” Cobalt said as he knelt down and then sat in front of the large feral, the wonderbolt escort readying for any sort of aggression from the large feral. To their surprise it seemed to be calm, for now at least.

“Ie aika weirrn, Ieuoinje Airphai. I am fine, young Alpha. I am surprised you did not end my life in battle.” The large dragon replied, his english broken and somewhat accented. The dragon did not keep any eye contact to Cobalt as he spoke.

“Juuikh. I had no intent to kill you. I only wish to defend my territory.” Cobalt said firmly. “My name is ‘He who bears a Tunder-Tail, Thoinkehn-Taiern’, what is yours?”

“Thoinkehn-Taiern? There is a name I have not heard in many Amber moons. My name is ‘Eikbeiheikh-Heairtn’ or ‘He who is of Embered-Heart’ for your flat tongue… friends.” The dragon replied with a glare at the wonderbolts behind him.

“What does flat tongue mean?” Asked one of the wonderbolts to Cobalt, who turned his head to them.

“It means you don’t speak Dragon. Regardless, I want to know why you intruded and threatened my subjects, Eikbeiheik-Heairtn? May I refer to you as Ember?”

“Subjects? Who does this guy think he is?” Whispered one of the wonderbolts to another as the large dragon spoke once again.

“Yes, Airphai. I would like to ask you the same question.” Said the large dragon, finally seeming to muster up the courage to look Cobalt in the eye. “Your… subjects, stole my kin.” The dragon almost spat his words as he stared menacingly at the ponies behind him, who all backed up a little bit and got ready to defend themselves. Cobalt opened his mouth to rebuttal, but stopped himself and slowly grew curious.

“They did? Tell me more. Is there any evidence to what you have accused?”

“Yes, Airphai. The scent still remains in my Heikairei-sn Neisrn, in my Female’s nest. And there was a feather of Pegasus origin.” Said the large dragon almost threateningly. Cobalt’s suspicions were further enticed by the mention of the feather.

“Was it a blue feather, Ember?” Cobalt asked with a decisive tone. The Large dragon’s eyes widened and got down low on his forelegs, bearing teeth and grinding his claws into the ground.

“How do you know? Did you take my kin!? Answer me now!” The dragon snarled through his clamped teeth.

“Do not speak to me in that tone, you are still on my territory. And no, I have not taken your kin. I have an idea on who has, however. I do require your assistance to help me. In return, I will attempt to locate your kin and return them to you.” Proposed the young dragon as he pointed to the electric restraint on the dragon’s ankle. The dragon stared at him sternly, his anger seeming to dissipate slowly.

“And if I refuse?” The dragon uttered almost under his breath, the deepness of it, however, shaking the earth.

“You will lose your kin for good. You know my senses surpass yours, Heihairn. And if you return to my land once again, your female will lose another. I am offering my hand and my time to you in good faith. Do not try my patience, or my word.” Cobalt stated firmly, showing he wasn’t going to back down. The dragon seemed to retract slightly before looking away in thought. After a moment of thinking, the dragon once again turned his attention back to Cobalt.

“Very well, Airphai. If you release me, I will take you to my nest. But you must come alone. I do not want any of these Poithiekh Vienjeikh Hierthf in my den.” Cobalt suddenly smiled and nodded, putting his hand over his face to hold in laughter before gliding quickly to the shackled foot of the large feral.

“Uhh, Cobalt, is this really a good idea?” Said one of the wonderbolts as he and the others backed up slowly. Cobalt looked back at him and raised an eyebrow.

“You question a dragon’s word?” Cobalt said in a deep, authoritative tone. The wonderbolt, who looked to be rather young, shook his head quickly in apprehension from Cobalt’s sudden attention. With a roll of his eyes and a shake of his head, Cobalt flicked the electricity shackle around Ember’s ankle with his tail, absorbing the energy and freeing the large dragon from his entrapment. Ember rolled his heel and stretched his back to open up his large wings. “Go and ready yourself for flight, I must speak to my subjects before we part.”

“Very well, please make haste, young Airphai.” said Ember with a quick nod before walking off to the edge of the field. Cobalt nearly collapsed as he exhaled shakily, giving up his ruse behind Ember’s back. He quickly met up with the wonderbolts, who all seemed to be taking in what happened completely differently from one another.

“Subjects? Who in the hay do you think you are, Cobalt?” Said one of the older wonderbolts. Cobalt shook his head and twiddled his thumbs, reverting back to his shy personality.

“Ahh- sorry guys, I had to. If I didn’t he wouldn’t have cooperated with us. He likely knows you’re not anyway just by the way you act, but it was still necessary. And by the way, I think I’m the guy who saved your life. You’re lucky Ember didn’t have my hearing or you would have been a charred mess. You NEVER speak while an elder is speaking, even if you’re an ‘Alpha male’s subject’.” Cobalt said with his usual shyness showing through despite his best efforts. The wonderbolt who uttered the question under his breath suddenly tensed up and shivvered.

“Still, you don’t think you were a little harsh on the guy? I mean, you offer to help him and say you’ll kill him if he says no.” Said another wonderbolt as she took off her goggles and set them on her head.

“‘Harsh’ as you call it, would have been killing him on the spot. Talk like that is normal for dragons. It’s very stern, but there’s a reason to it. Showing that I want to use my time to help him even if he’s on my territory is a huge sign of respect.”

“And what about him? Will he actually help you or is this a trap?”

“If there’s one thing that a dragon will never do, is go against his word. ESPECIALLY on another dragon’s turf. As far as he’s concerned, his life is on the line as long as he’s around here.” Cobalt explained as he cracked his back and spread his wings. “Now, he wants to go with me alone, there’s a good reason to that. I’m the Alpha male, you are not even dragons. Do not follow me, do not ask me where I’m going, this never happened. Call it a covert op if you want.”

“I can’t let you do that, Cobalt.” Said the senior Bolt firmly as he stepped in. “This is a pony and dragon-related matter, you can’t just simply butt us out of it on some sacred grounds, it doesn’t work like that.”

“Oh yes it does. As soon as you step into that forest, you are no longer in pony territory. It’s his territory and he can choose what he wants in it. You can try to follow if you desire, but I can’t protect you from the consequences. I am bound by my word to not bring you.” Cobalt stated factually, his shyness being replaced by urgency.

“Why did you agree to that then!? You knew that Command would be interested in this.” Retorted the senior officer as he stomped his hoof.

“Look, it was either that or another damn battle and I think you guys are in no condition to do anything right now-”

“Are you coming, Airphai?” Shouted Ember from across the field, stopping Cobalt mid-sentence.

“Yes, I am coming!” Cobalt replied quickly before turning back to the Wonderbolts in front of him. “Look, I cannot protect you the moment I cross into the forest. I am bound by dragon code, and I will take you down if he desires. You may not work in the same ways that dragons do, but I obviously do. I’m trying to save unnecessary bloodshed, please do not follow.” Begged Cobalt as he started to walk backwards towards an increasingly impatient Ember. The senior bolt looked at Cobalt in anger, but sighed and gave in, nodding begrudgingly.

“Very well, you can go alone. However, DO NOT expect hospitality upon your return. You’re going to be in violation of many regulations when you do. One more thing, what did he call us?” Asked the senior officer to when Ember had called them some sort of name. Cobalt couldn’t help but snort and cover his mouth.

“Ehhh… it doesn’t really translate. As for the violations, I’ll deal with those when they come up. If it’s any consolation, I will tell you everything that happened when I return!” Cobalt said before taking off and flying to Ember’s side. The two dragons took off to the south and entered the Everfree forest territory. The senior bolt looked on and sighed heavily.

“If you return.”

The first little bit of the travel between Ponyville and Ember’s nest was awkwardly quiet. Cobalt had a plethora of questions to ask, but didn’t know how to even approach them. He looked at Ember, who showed a little strain as he flew.

“You’re hurt.” Cobalt said as he watched ember lean slightly towards him in an effort to stay up, long gashes on his back.

“It is a scar that I choose to bear. We Heihairn let our wounds heal naturally to remind us of our failure. Do not fear for me, I have been through worse.” Replied the dragon, shaking his head to try and weather the pain. Cobalt felt guilty just letting him stay as he was, it was his fault that he was hurt in the first place. Despite what Ember said, Cobalt yawed overtop of Ember and sparked his claws. Ember looked overtop of him to see what the young dragon was doing, but was too weak at that point to protest. Cobalt’s claws started sparking continuously, and he ran them alongside Ember’s wounds, causing them to clot and then seal up almost instantly. Ember felt the immediate relief and was soon flying normally.

“I need you to make it to your nest if I want to help you.” Cobalt said as a guise of the fact it was because he couldn’t stand to see the dragon injured by his own hand. Ember simply grunted, not wanting to show that he was, in fact, grateful that Cobalt sealed him up. They both flew for a little while longer, neither of them speaking to the other as they were lost in their own thoughts.

“So you said you knew my name, Ember?” Cobalt asked to break the silence as the two dragons kept flying southward. The large dragon turned to him momentarily and smiled.

“Your name, it is the name of one of the lost sons bearing the Emperor's surname. Many Reije Vairkeihsh, leg walkers, have forgotten the story. The Heihairn, the feral, have not forgotten your name and its legacy. If what you speak is true, you are one of two heirs to our fallen Empire. And as much as it would go against my pride to say, it is a true honour to have fought with you.”

“Is that it? Would you just believe me off of my word.” Cobalt asked with a touch of dryness as he scanned the horizon.

“I just had a Hatchling the size of my forearm flip me onto my belly and knock me out for hours. At this point, I would believe you if you said you were Haos himself.” Cobalt giggled and smiled wide at Ember’s remark. Ember himself even chuckled under his breath. “You are incredibly young. Most alpha males don’t have your power until they are at least in their late decades.”

“I had a lot of help. My teacher, Daxholium-”

“Daxholium…” Interrupted Ember. “I see. That explains quite a bit.”

“You know him?”

“Of course. There are many things we know. both of our kind used to live together, long ago. Daxholium used to be the speaker to the rest of the great city. He was the only dragon that was equal in being as feared and awed as your father. I remember when I first saw him come down from the Great ascension temple to give me my first blessing from Haos to gift my element. I had been only 10 years of age when the war started. My parents decided it would be safer to be outside of the city. Then, your mother… well, It’s been a very long time since a name from the old empire crossed my tongue. Good to see the golden line still lives after so many years.” Cobalt could only imagine what it would have been like to be born when he was supposed to. The way Ember’s eyes seemed to sparkle when he talked about the Big dragon city. Dax had told stories to Cobalt when he was younger, explaining that the city was twice the size of Dragonto and had the biggest Spirit temple ever built. But even he said that his stories could never live up to the beauty that was the ‘Golden City’

“What was he like? My father, I mean.” Asked Cobalt hesitantly, almost unsure if he wanted to know the answer.

“Vexus? He was a strange dragon. What many didn’t know is that he had a hybrid element. He was born a Chimera, absorbing his brother long before their eggs had formed. As such, he had two elements instead of one; the strength of an earth dragon, and the rage of a fire dragon. At one end, he was a brilliant mind. His father had taught him well on how to run an empire. At the other, legendary rage.” Cobalt could hear the underlying fear in Ember’s voice as he spoke of his father. Cobalt could almost picture the differing scenarios given to him by the large feral, making his stomach flutter in a weird mix of curiosity and nervousness.

“What about my mother? What was she like?” Cobalt asked, his curiosity growing exponentially. Ember slowly drew a soft grin and sighed in contempt as Cobalt asked of her.

“Your mother, Coltor… she was the sole reason so many came to the city during the various Equinoxes and eclipses throughout the year. Even Celestia, herself, came with thousands upon thousands of ponies to listen to your mother sing to raise the Amber and Blood moon. Her voice never needed amplification, never went off pitch… for as long as I draw breath, I will never forget it. She was the only one who could calm your father in anger. He loved her more than a feral loves their horde, and you and your brother were his true testament of love to her.” Ember’s expression slowly changed from content, to sadness as he continued on.

“When you and your nesting sibling were stolen, it was like every bit of love and compassion your mother was known for, was drained to an empty sadness. No one came for the equinox that year as per her request. And when she sang, it was as if the whole city stopped and wept with her. And her sorrow didn’t end there. Your father grew extremely ill and passed away in the late stages of the war. Your mother, already stricken by grief and cornered by the pony army who were attacking, froze the whole city in infinite ice. Some say she died from the outburst of energy, others say she fled and still lives in the ice caverns in the most northern parts of the world.”

Cobalt felt numb. He didn’t know how to process all of this. If his mother was still alive… he needed to find out. But for now, there was a more pressing issue at hand.

“Is that your cave” Cobalt asked as he pointed to a large opening in the side of a smaller mountain down the range.

“Yes, follow me in.” Exclaimed Ember as he banked off to the right and headed in, closely followed by Cobalt. As they landed upon the mouth of the cave entrance, Cobalt could hear the quiet whimpers of what he could only guess was Ember’s mate. Sure enough, as they entered the main chamber, Cobalt could see his mate, a smaller, cream white female dragon coiled around an empty nest.

“How long have the eggs been missing?” Cobalt asked as he stood a little ways away from the nest.

“Two days.” Responded Ember as he slowly wrapped around his mate and attempted to comfort her. “Love, this is Cobalt. He is here to help us find our eggs.” Ember said softly as he pressed his muzzle to her cheek. She looked up slowly to the small dragon and sniffled quietly.

“Please, young one… help us.” She spoke almost with a whisper, her voice fragile and broken. Cobalt simply nodded before slowly walking up and kneeling down at the nest. He looked it over closely, all the while sniffing the air for any trace of a foreign scent.

“Do you still have the feather?” Asked Cobalt as he turned to look up at the two dragons. Ember’s tail slowly moved behind the nest in response, taking the feather softly in his tail tip and presenting it to Cobalt. He sniffed it over before turning and sniffing the air. “I got the scent. Follow me.”

Ember nodded and quickly got up, nuzzing his mate tenderly before following behind the young dragon, who had already spread his wings and took off. Cobalt, concentrated on following the scent, didn’t notice Rainbow dash flying towards him, who also not paying attention. Cobalt’s ears perked at the sound of another pair of wings, turned to the sound source and had to suddenly dodge out of the way as Dash just narrowly avoided smacking right into his side.

“Whoa! Dash? What are you doing here?”

“I’d like to ask you the same question. We found someone sneaking around the base, and I’ve been following them here. I just lost the trail about a minute ago. Hey, you okay? You look a little nervous.”

“Dash you need to get out of here, now!” Cobalt said as he put his body between her and Ember. “The dragon behind me is the one that attacked the city. Somepony got into his nest and whoever stole the eggs left this.” Cobalt put the feather in front of Dash, whose eyes widened.

“But that… that’s not even my colour.”

“It doesn’t matter, he’s already upset. If he sees you, he’s gonna-”

“Airphai, what’s goin- You…” Ember stopped in midair and glared in disbelief at Dash and Cobalt. “What is the meaning of this? Did I not tell you to come alone!?” Cobalt and Dash could see the flame brewing and flickering at the corners of Ember’s mouth as his breathing increased. “And she’s the same colour- You… you LIAR.”

“Ember, Wait!” Cobalt said as he placed himself in front of dash. “She wasn’t following us, she was following something else!”

“Why should I believe you!?” Ember snarled out as smoke started to plume out from his nostrils. Just as things started heating up, Cobalt heard a faint crackle off in the distance. He turned his attention to the sound and started to faintly sniff the air.

“Because the person she was following might be the same one that has your eggs. Follow me.” Cobalt muttered before darting towards the sound source and leaving Ember and Dash hanging.

“H-hey! Cobalt, wait up!” Exclaimed dash as she darted after him. Ember looked on towards the two, then back to his nest and sighed.

“By Haos’ light, this better not be a trap.”

Cobalt flew briskly just above the tree line, following the scent and sound of whatever was moving below the trees.

“Gosh, for something with such big wings, you sure are nimble.” Exclaimed dash as she finally caught up with Cobalt.

“Bigger wings means more control surface.”

“What are you following?”

“I have no idea. All I know is that it has the same scent as the feather, and the eggs.” Cobalt said quickly, brushing off the questions to focus on his flying as he made a sharp left turn.

“H-Hey, whoa!” Said dash as she had just seconds to dodge Cobalt as he corrected his course. “Watch it!”

“Stay out of my way. This could be my- our, only chance.” Dash raised a brow at Cobalt’s remark and spread out a bit from him to avoid any collisions.

“Why do I have a feeling there’s more to this than just finding those eggs?” Asked Dash as she tried to find what Cobalt was following. Cobalt stayed silent for a moment, and Dash thought that she wasn’t going to get an answer.

“This could be the same pony that stole Spike and I. I have questions that need answering.” Dash looked at Cobalt with concern, but nodded in understanding.

“Alright, let’s find this guy… or gal, whatever it is. What about...”

“His name’s Ember. He’ll be fine, he’s just a fire dragon. Follow me in.” Cobalt dipped below the treeline and into the forest as a small clearing emerged. Dash quickly followed him in and they were both joined by Ember, who was not too far behind.

Cobalt’s ears wiggled to catch the sound of faint rustling. The sound was suddenly drowned out by growling, and it forced him to lose concentration. He looked back to see Dash and Ember glaring at each other in distrust and anger, and sighed deeply in frustration.

“Okay, look. If you two are going to be like this, leave. I don’t have to drag you both along with me, and quite frankly, I don’t have time to deal with two Haivh Srietteikh bhiettrei Sheirrsh. Now, Keiiph ieuoihn suihtn skaireish uina and grow up or you can find your own dammed eggs, understood?” Said Cobalt with painful seriousness. Ember’s jaw dropped to the ground in shock. Dash took quick double takes between the two Dragons, trying to figure out what was going on. Cobalt snorted in frustration and quickly turned his attention back to following the scent; following the trails through the forest. He found some tracks and started to follow them deeper into the brush.

“What… do I want to know what he said?” Dash asked hesitantly to Ember, who still had his maw fully agape.

“If I were to repeat it, I would shame my ancestors and heirs for generations. I did not know the young one carried such a… strong vocabulary.” Ember said as he pulled himself together and slowly started to follow behind Cobalt, Dash closely following suite. “Regardless, he speaks truth, we have much more important matters than bickering like children. He says you are not responsible, I have no evidence to oppose, so I must trust his judgement.”

“I didn’t even know that you existed prior to yesterday.” Responded Dash as she looked ahead to Cobalt, who was cautiously moving through the brush. They all soon came to a small clearing, the trees hiding most of the sunlight and a dirt patch grassy floor revealing faint footprints that lead to an opening in the trees, where 3 large eggs sat in a depression of dirt. Ember’s ears perked at the sight of the eggs and his heart started to race.

“My kin… I must get to them!” Ember pushed the other two aside as he made a beeline for his eggs.

“Ember, Wait!” Cobalt said as he sprung to his feet. Just as he was about to run after him, there was a large thump, followed by ember falling onto his back dazed and confused.

“Atkias’ spirit! Wh-What sorcery is this!?” Said the dazed feral as he tried to get his bearings. Cobalt slowly walked up to the rubbery membrane that had stopped Ember in his tracks and pressed against it, recoiling his hand in pain immediately after.

“Ah! Hoikkn! It’s a magic barrier!” Cobalt examined his claw for any injury and then shook it as it returned to his side. He studied the barrier closely, trying to find any weakness. Dash slowly came up to his side and examined the membrane that was as far as she could see.

“S-so what do we do?” She asked with a puzzled expression. Cobalt huffed in frustration.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a barrier of this strength. This is way above my level…” Cobalt slowly walked the perimeter, before flying up to try to see if he could find a way around, but was disappointed to find that the barrier followed him. Ember, finally gaining his bearing, stood back up on all fours and studied it closely.

“I may have a solution, young leg walker.” Ember called out as he backed up from the barrier. Cobalt heard him and quickly made his way back.

“You know a way around?” Asked Cobalt as he watched Ember get into a strange position. The older male simply shook his head.

“Not around, through.” Exclaimed Ember as he got down low on his claws and started to whisper an incoherent enchantment. As he did, Cobalt and Dash could feel the air around them heat up, and could visually see little wisps of flame dance through the air. Cobalt turned at a sudden simmering sound and could see the barrier starting to burn and singe, holes forming as the burnt parts got large enough. Cobalt stared on in wonder as the Dragon behind him continued to chant quietly to himself, ripping a hole big enough to fit Cobalt.

“Ember… you’re-” Started Cobalt, but he was interrupted by Ember who grunted loudly as he repositioned his stance, the hole in the barrier getting temporarily smaller before opening back up.

“Hurry, young one, I cannot hold this for long!” Ember called out as he adjusted again. Cobalt quickly shot his glance to Dash and ran over to her.

“Dash! I need you to go get the eggs, The brush is too thick here and I’m too big.” Exclaimed Cobalt as he started to run back to the hole. Dash was taken aback and hesitated.

“C-Cobalt, I dunno about this…” Dash said as she held back in reluctance. Cobalt stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to Dash.

“Look, I really need you to help us here, you’re the only one who can do this! Just nab the eggs one at a time and then throw them to me through the hole, they can take it. Please, Dash.” Pleaded Cobalt. Dash, shook her head as if to ask herself what she was thinking, and started to run with Cobalt to the hole Ember was desperately trying to keep open. “Ember, how much longer can you keep that open?” Asked Cobalt as he pointed at the hole to tell Dash where to go. Ember opened one of his eyes, visibly in strain as he tried to answer.

“Agh! Not long, young one. You must hurry, I am not what I used to be!” Begged the dragon in desperation as he snarled loudly and forced the hole open a little more.

“Dash, Go!” Shouted Cobalt. Dash Nodded and Gulped, focusing on the 3 eggs a little ways down. She inhaled deeply and then exhaled to slow her heartbeat, her wings slowly opening up.

“I can do this… I can do this!” She exclaimed to herself as her wings started to flap quickly. With a fast breath, she took off like a bullet. Flying very low to the ground, she darted after the eggs. Within seconds she was at the clutch. She took one of the large eggs, almost as big as her, and powered through back to the opening; it was surprisingly light. “That’s one down,” Dash exclaimed as she handed the egg off to Cobalt. As she did, the barrier started to slowly shrink, followed by Ember grunting and starting to stumble a little bit. Dash quickly looked back at the eggs and then back to Cobalt. “I’ll get on it!”

“Hurry!” Called out Cobalt as Dash flew her way as quickly as she could to grab the second egg. As quick as she grabbed it, she had it back at the opening of the forcefield and rolled the second egg through it into Cobalt’s hands. By now the Barrier was just big enough to fit her, and there was no telling how long Ember would last. Without hesitation, she bolted back to the final egg, snatching it in her hooves before making an impressive beeline to the now barely opened hole. She squeezed the egg through first and then attempted to push through, herself. The barrier had all but closed up again and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to get through.

“Go! Get the eggs out of here!” She demanded as the barrier started to close around her, searing marks starting to burn her hair as it kept closing.

“Like hell! Shield your eyes!” Cobalt called out as he ran over towards Ember. Dash looked on in fear as Cobalt headed away, but did as he asked and closed her eyes, covering them with her hooves. Cobalt turned quickly about midway from both of his friends and dug into the dirt with his foot claws. With a deep exhale and a flick of his wrist, the ground started to hum with electric energy. The energy pulled up onto his body more and more until it started to collapse. cobalt held onto it for as long as he could before finally letting go, the energy dissipating and everything slowing down to the point where the leaves blowing in the wind of the shockwave he created looked like they were fake. The surge also beveled the force field, opening up the hole just enough for dash to fit through, but not for very long. Cobalt quickly made his way over to Dash, who at that point didn’t even realize what was happening because it was so quick. He slowly grabbed a hold of her hoof and very carefully pulled her back. He could have easily torn her arm clean off with how fast he was travelling, so he had to move at a ridiculously slow pace and make sure that nothing came in contact with dash other than his hands. The shockwave had already dissipated and the forcefield started to revert back to its original form before Cobalt could even move her a few centimeters. Slowly creeping up on them. Cobalt looked up in concern as he saw it start to pull back and decided Dash would survive a little strain on the forearm, and moved a little quicker, allowing him to pull her free just in the knick of time.

The forcefield blew out in elasticity and then slowly reverted back, the hole completely sealing up, and Ember falling to the ground in exhaustion. Cobalt blinked and breathed sharply, time around him catching up to him as things slowly sped up. All three of them kind of sat there doing their own thing; Ember trying to stand up, Dash trying to process what just happened, and Cobalt trying not to trip out like he was on acid. The three of them eventually collected themselves and managed to stand up.

“What… was that?” Asked Dash as Cobalt slowly stumbled to his feet. Cobalt looked at her, still slightly in limbo.

“It... well, it’s a thing my teacher taught me. I-I think he called it ‘Time Warp’. It lets me move at very quick speeds, but I have to be careful, I could end up really hurting someone, or worse.” Cobalt stumbled as he tried to walk, leaning against a tree for temporary support as he struggled to stay on his feet. “Gods, it drains you, though. I have no energy right now. Gimme a breather and I should be okay. Ember, are you alright? Ember?” Cobalt looked up to find that the Feral Dragon had made his way over to his eggs and sat there in a plethora of emotions. Dash slowly made her way to him, limping slightly from the sharp pain in her shoulder. Cobalt slowly followed behind her, stumbling every so often.

“You’ve… You’ve done it. They’re all here; my kin.” Ember spoke softly, slowly becoming overwhelmed with joy. Cobalt and Dash couldn’t help but smile as Ember brought his large head down and rubbed his cheek against his eggs. Cobalt sighed in relief as he regained his full composure. He looked over and noticed that Dash wasn’t putting as much weight on the arm that he pulled.

“Dash, you okay?” He asked as he gently put his claw on her shoulder. She reacted quickly and gritted her teeth.

“I think so. It’s just a little strained right now.” She said as she rolled her shoulder, a little pop escaping as it seem to set back into place.

“Okay, good.” Cobalt’s ears perked up as he still heard the sound of rustling, and it was very close by. He looked back at Ember, who was practically glued to his eggs and made his way over to him. “Ember, we’re not out of the woods yet. We must get your eggs back to your nest.” Ember looked up at him and nodded. “Take the eggs back, I will follow soon. There is something I must do first. Dash, go with him.”

“Do not stay here long, young Dragon. This place does not feel right. Please return to my nest once you are finished here.” Exclaimed ember as he quickly scooped up all three eggs and took off. Dash, on the other hand, stayed behind for a moment.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Responded Cobalt as he searched for the source of the rustling. “Just wanna make sure nobody is following us. Go with Ember, you’re in no condition to stick around should things get hairy. I’ll meet you back at his nest.” Dash wanted to protest, but the sharp pain in her shoulder reminded her that he had a point.

“Don’t do anything stupid. We’ve already pushed our luck here.” She said as she started towards the opening in the sky and flying off to catch up with Ember. Cobalt watched her fly off before turning back and sniffing the air.

“I know you’re here. Was it you that made this barrier?” Cobalt stated as he looked at the barrier from a distance. To his surprise, the barrier suddenly began fizzling and dissipating right before him, disappearing without a trace. The deconstruction of the barrier was followed by a voice seeming to come from all around him.
“You still live. I have waited a long time to see your return.” Called out a distinctively female voice. Cobalt’s head went on a swivel as the voice seemed to be moving from one point to another.

“A-are you the one who took my brother and I from our nest all those years ago? Where are you?” Asked Cobalt as the trees and bushes started to shuffle and rustle as if they were blowing in the wind.

“This is an Unfortunate truth. My time here is very limited, we are both being watched. Only you can hear me.” Called out the voice as it started to get distant.

“W-Wait! I have so many questions! Please don’t go.” Cobalt said as he began to run after the voice.

“Do not worry, our paths will cross again, young dragon. For now, find peace that I am pleased to see you have lived. “ Said the voice as it completely disappeared. Cobalt stopped in his tracks, completely dumbfounded at what just happened. He still had so many questions to ask, and he kicked the dirt in response to his frustration. He sat on the ground and laid up against a tree, momentarily forgetting what the voice told him about being watched. He sat up and thought idly about what just happened; was it her that put up the barrier? Why didn’t she show herself, what did she mean about being watched-SHIT. Cobalt’s eyes quickly shot up to a bunch of red eyes staring right back at him. Before he could process it, he was up and taking off into the air, looking back quickly to see if he was being followed, he breathed a sigh of relief when he found that whatever was watching him either couldn’t fly or didn’t want to follow. He headed up to a very high altitude and took a much longer, more convoluted way back to Ember’s Cave, however, just to be safe.

The sun was just about to disappear over the horizon by the time he got back to Ember’s cave. Dash had already left to go back to Cloudsdale for the night, and Ember and his mate we’re settled in for the day, both of them happy to have their eggs back. Cobalt walked into the main chamber and smiled warmly to the sight of both of them idly caring to their eggs. Ember noticed his presence and looked over to him as his ears perked.

“Young Airphai, you return, Good. I wanted to thank you in person for what you’ve done. I have already thanked Rainbow Dash for her work as well. I also want to give my deepest apology, I had acted so rash as my element often does. I should have inquired before I had acted upon my emotions and suspicions, the outcome could have been much much worse had you not been there.” Ember lowered his head in embarrassment, the words he spoke seeming to hit him harder than he had anticipated. Cobalt simply chuckled and shook his head.

“I have never been one to hold a grudge, Ember-”

“Tavek, young one. My actual name is Tavek. You have proved beyond a doubt that you are deserving of my name.” Interrupted Ember as he spoke. “Though, if you wish to still refer to me as Ember, I am quite fine with that too.

“Tavek, that’s a beautiful name.” Cobalt remarked. “Though I have grown fond of the name Ember, so if you don’t mind I will still call you that.” Ember smiled and chuckled.

“Very well, young one. Still, my mate and I are forever thankful for what you’ve done. You have a home here should your strength fail you or your home abandon you. We will welcome you with open arms.” Exclaimed Ember as he pressed his head against his mate’s. She reciprocated before speaking herself.

“I remember your face very well, young Alpha. It’s very similar to your mother’s. I used to be one of her closest friends in school and in life. It seems fate has brought her legacy to me once more.” Exclaimed the older Dragoness as she reminisced of her younger life. Cobalt’s eyes dilated and his heart began to race.

“Y-you did? That’s amazing! I… I can’t really ask many questions right now, I have to get back to my brother in the hospital. But I would love to ask about my mother if I can?” Asked Cobalt enthusiastically. The dragoness nodded her head.

“Of course young one. You have saved my hatchlings, you may ask anything you want to know about your mother whenever you like.” Cobalt smiled from ear to ear as she said that, the excitement causing butterflies to erupt in his stomach.

“Thank you, thank you so much. I promise I will come visit when I can, it is an honour to have been accepted in your home.”

“The honour is our, Airphai.” Exclaimed Ember as Cobalt slowly walked back towards the mouth of the cave. “Please do return when you can.”

Cobalt nodded and turned, opening his large wings once more and causing turbulence that kicked up large amounts of dust at the opening as he took off into the late evening sky.

The Call of Service

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“Is Cobalt back yet?” Inquired Spike to his sister, whom was looking out the window for his dragon brother as the sun just barely dipped below the horizon. She looked back and shook her head.

“No, Spike, I don’t see him, but I’m sure he’ll be back soon. How are you feeling?” Asked Twilight, trying to change the subject. Spike winced in pain as he was suddenly reminded of his concussion.

“Agh… still pretty crummy. It’s slowly getting better though, the painkillers are starting to set in. Have you heard anything from the princesses about Cobalt’s Step-Dad?” Spike said as he slowly laid back down to relax his head and darted right back to the topic of his brother. Twilight looked back with unrest as she walked back to his bedside.

“Yes, not much of it is good. But we’ll get into that more when he arrives,” exclaimed Twilight as she shot a quick glance behind her towards a large, darkened figure sitting on the couch behind her at the end of the room. She leaned in to Spike and spoke in a whisper “I don’t really know if we can say anything with ‘him’ in the room.” Just then, there was a knock at the door, which caught Twilight’s attention.

“Come in.” Twilight called out in Spike’s stead, and In came Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“Look who we found in the Main Lobby.” Exclaimed Dash as she moved aside to let Cobalt duck through the doorway. Spike looked up in excitement as his brother walked in and greeted everyone, unaware of the figure in the corner.

“Cobalt, you’re okay!” He exclaimed before his headache surged and he had to lay back down. “Agh, dammit! How did things go?”

“Things went... alright. There’s still a few unanswered questions - actually; a lot of unanswered questions. But, I think it’s safe to say we won’t be getting any unwarranted violent visits from that particular Dragon again. I’m kind of getting a little irritated that I’m not getting any answers to all of this though, only more loose ends. But, I think I may have found someone who can tell us about our mother, Spike.” Cobalt sat down and exhaled as he finally had a chance to relax. Spike’s ears perked upon hearing the news about his mother.

“Our mom? What did you find out?” Spike asked enthusiastically as he slowly turned himself to face Cobalt, his tail thumping softly against the hospital bed in excitement. Cobalt huffed quietly and smiled at his brother’s excitement, bringing him a little bit of comfort.

“Nothing yet,” He responded, “But she was one of our mother’s close friends and she was with her since they were very young. Enough about that, though, how are you feeling, Poof?”

“Dizzy, head still feels like someone’s bucking it every 3 seconds, but, I’m getting better.” Spike said with a trailing chuckle. Cobalt smiled and let out a small chuckle himself.

“Good. So, what did I miss while I was gone? And… has another dragon come by? It definitely smells like it.” Cobalt said with a grunt as he laid back on the sofa in the room. Twilight and Spike shot a quick glance at each other before Twilight began to speak.

“Well, I have a few things that might peak your interest. But, more importantly, someone’s here to see you.” Exclaimed Twilight as she stepped aside, letting a large figure get up off the couch on the other side of the room and walk into the light. Cobalt perked his ears in interest and watched the figure step into light, revealing a large, deep green dragon in military Fatigues. Cobalt took a quick look at the new stranger and immediately stood into salute.

“Corporal Cobaltin T.T. Sertingue, Tag I.D: 11564729-9957-A, sir!” The dragon smiled and saluted in return.

“At ease, Corporal. I have no doubt you know who I am.” Exclaimed the dragon as he and Cobalt shook hands.

“Absolutely, sir! Ace Nordin Avalon Telikoliath, Squad lead of Corsair squadron, the top Reaper division squad. It’s a true honour to meet you officially, sir!” Cobalt exclaimed with a powerful enthusiasm, almost like he was meeting a celebrity.

“It’s good to finally meet you, too, Corporal Sertingue. I’ve seen a lot of impressive things in your dossier, an Avery’s Crest and 7 distinguished service ribbons in 2 years of service, that’s not something you see every day. On top of that, it’s rumoured you’re one of the fastest fliers in the Reaper Division.” Exclaimed Ace Nordin Avalon as he guided Cobalt to the sofa and invited him to sit. Cobalt, like a hawk, watched Avalon sit down and immediately sat down on the other side of the couch as he was told. Spike looked on from his bed and he could tell that Cobalt was very excited, and nervous. Why, however, was something he couldn’t figure out. What was a Reaper Division? What’s an Avery’s Crest… Corsair? What did this all mean?

“Well, I suppose the rumour is true, I am able to easily coast and reach supersonic speeds in level flight, but I haven’t been placed in a supersonic squadron as of yet. I find that a bit strange; they don’t usually like supersonic dragons in subsonic squads, it makes travelling in a formation difficult” Cobalt exclaimed as he twiddled his thumbs in his lap. Avalon nodded in accordance and laid back against the backrest of the couch.

“They don’t. Problem is, the supersonic squads require… places to be put in. Historically, we haven’t had large squads of supersonic Dragons for the sole reason that there are very few around. As a matter of fact, out of the 9 Reaper Division squads AND the entire might of the Combined Dragon armies, only 3 are supersonic. Fortunately for you, a bunch of places have opened up due to soldiers retiring and… other circumstances.” Exclaimed Avalon with a very strict ‘business’ tone to his explanation.

“Other… circumstances?” Cobalt asked in confusion. Avalon shot his eye to the smaller dragon and smiled slightly.

“Not important. What IS important, is that I want to get you out of a subsonic squadron and into a supersonic one. You fit the bill near perfectly, supersonic flight, outstanding service record, hell, you’re even an Alpha male!” Avalon stated with a bit of a chuckle, causing Cobalt to smile slightly and snicker a bit, himself. “There’s currently trials for all 3 supersonic squadrons; Thunderbolt, Mustang, and my own squad, Corsair, in the works. I am personally making sure that you get into my trials for my squad, I could really use a Dragon like you.” Spike had the perfect view of Cobalt’s face as they talked, and he watched as his older brother’s pupils grew exponentially in size as he heard Avalon ask him to join the trials. Cobalt’s eyes lit up like fireworks as the young dragon didn’t know which emotion to process first.

“I… you want ME to join Corsair?” Cobalt asked in complete disbelief, thinking to himself that this couldn’t be happening.

“I do. We usually just send letters for your formal induction into the trials, but seeing as you’re the the son, or step-son, if this dragon on the stretcher here is to be believed, of the Grand Dragon Nitrius; I felt it much more suitable to offer the acceptance in person.” Avalon sat up and gave Cobalt a serious gaze. “I won’t sugar coat it for you, we deal with some really Screwy shit, Corporal Sertingue. I cannot, in any way, assure or guarantee your survival or return home. There are no ceremonies for being killed in action, and none of your loved ones are allowed confirmation of your death until your records are officially declassified. I want you to understand that the trials are very bodily taxing and mentally stressing, and more than 99% of those who try out for the top 3 reaper squadrons fail the test. My own squad is only looking for 2 members and we have something around 100 soldiers in and outside of the Reaper Division foregoing the trials. Most of them will be cut within the first week, those who are left will be slowly whittled down to 5 finalists and of those, 2 will be selected. Are you sure that you want to forego these trials as well?” Cobalt nodded furiously the second Avalon finished talking.

“Absolutely, sir. I am confident in my abilities and my chances of success.” Fireworks were going off in Cobalt’s head; the thought of being a Corsair had been a lifelong dream of his ever since his brother tried out (and unfortunately failed.) Avalon grinned and stood up, Cobalt standing with him.

“Then I congratulate you on your promotion, Whelp Nordin Sertingue. If you succeed the trials, your rank will be promoted to Nordin Basic. Should you fail the trials, your Corporal rank shall be re-rewarded to you and you will continue your service in the regular ranking hierarchy. You are to report to Gialliborn base on the 5th of Emberkindle at 0730 for registration. I have given you pre-approval for supersonic flight over civilian airspace to make your way there, give you some time to spend with family,” Avalon stated as he pulled a letter out of a pouch on his tail base and handed it to Cobalt. “Here’s the official letter, bring this with you as documentation of your acceptance into the course.” With that, him and Cobalt shook hands once more.

“Thank you, sir. Is there anything else you need,” Cobalt asked as he walked with Avalon to the door. Avalon stopped and turned to the younger dragon.

“Actually, there is. When you get in, I want you to do a full report on the attack that took place here two days ago. I want full details and the situation afterwards. Commander Spitfire’s second in command was up in arms in the fact that you refused wonderbolt escorts despite you actually complying with the treaty agreements. She knows that you made the right decision, but she needs a full report either way.” Avalon chuckled and shook his head. “Darn Featherduster hasn’t changed in 15 years,” he muttered under his breath before looking back at Cobalt and nodding. Cobalt Saluted and Avalon returned the salute before walking out of the room and taking off once outside with a wingbeat so strong it practically shook the whole hospital.

Cobalt nearly collapsed right there, the rush of relief washing over him as he stumbled back onto the couch in stupification.

“Did that just happen?” Cobalt said as the words practically spilled out his mouth. Spike wasn’t sure how to answer him, he didn’t understand what the hell just happened.

“I… I think so, yeah. What was that all about?” Asked Spike with a gentle cock of his head. Cobalt, staring holes into the wall adjacent to him, answered dryly, his mouth agape with disbelief.

“I just got accepted into Corsair trials, Spike. That’s-That’s what happened.” Cobalt turned to Spike with his mouth still hung open. “I just got accepted into Corsair Trials.”

“What the hay is a ‘Corsair Trial,’ Cobalt?” Asked Dash as she waved her hand in front of Cobalt’s face. Cobalt shook his head and nearly whimpered in a mess of emotion.

“Corsair Trials are for the most prestigious and elite soldiers to try out for the most decorated and feared military squadron in history. And the lead just came to my brother’s hospital room, and asked me to try out,” Cobalt said in the same tone, going back into a drone. Cobalt looked to Spike and laughed in an overwhelm of emotional outpour. “I think I should be the one in that hospital bed, I’m hallucinating things.”

“No I’m pretty sure we all saw it, I did at least,” Spike said with a smile “Though I’d check with everyone else, I’m not exactly the best witness right now as you could tell.” Cobalt, finally able to shake off his shock, chuckled a little nervously and smiled.

“Well, this is a series of interesting events.” Cobalt stated as he rubbed his eye. “He said the 5th of Emberkindle, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what that means-OW!” Spike said as he tried to sit up out of impulse and was met with throbbing head pains.

“That would be the name for the month of July for Dragons, Spike.” Replied Twilight with a studious tone. “At least, that’s what the book says.” Cobalt turned back to her and nodded, giving her the thumbs up.

“So the 5th of July? That’s in 10 days!” Spike exclaimed in sudden realization. “We only have 10 more days together?”

“Yeah it seems so, but we’ll make the best of it! I’ll take you to the dragon city, maybe introduce you to some of my step-siblings, it’ll be great!” Cobalt said with an enthusiastic smile. Spike’s ears perked up in excitement, but as they did, the throbbing headache that responded reminded him of where he was.

“B-But Cobi… I can’t.” Spike said as his ears dropped like stones. Cobalt was confused at first, but quickly remembered where he was in the first place as well.

“E-Even with dragon healing? Don’t you remember how long they gave me for recovery?” Cobalt said as he sat down on the chair next to the hospital bed.

“It was a draconian doctor that gave him the diagnosis in the first place.” Chimed in Twilight as she walked to the other side of the bed. “He has to be here for at least a week and a half. He said if he were a pony, he’d likely be in a Coma for weeks,” exclaimed Twilight as she helplessly watched as both dragons slowly lost their excitement and grew sombre.

“I-I’m sorry Cobalt, I can’t go… I really wish I could.” The room went silent, a slow creep of sombre slowly filling it.

“I bet you’d have heaps of fun on your own, Sugarcube, you can take Spike out to party when you get back.” Chimed in Applejack as she tried to cheer Cobalt up. Cobalt looked at her and gave her a slow shake of his head.

“That’s the thing, Applejack. This training takes years, 2 and a half to be exact. 1 year for training and a year and a half for a preliminary tour of duty should I get in. And because it’s spec-ops, I’ll barely be able to write home let alone visit. Gialliborn Base is nearly halfway across the world. I’d be flying at supersonic speeds to get there in a few hours, it usually takes weeks by cart. And if I get in, well… Nordin City is the most northern city on the planet.”

“It takes what!? Ah-Shit!” Exclaimed Spike as he practically jumped out of his bed, only to be pushed back down by his concussion. “I won’t see you for 2 years!? W-We just met, Cobi! I have so many questions I need to ask! I-I still wanna spend time with you!” Spike said as he started to get a little emotional. Cobalt looked back and put on a soft grin for his brother.

“Spike, it’s okay, I’ll be back-”

“I don’t care! I want you here now! I-Isn’t there anything I can do to speed up the healing? Anything!?” Spike pleaded, looking up at Cobalt in desperation. Cobalt bit his lip in thought, his ears soon perking up as an idea crossed his mind.

“There might be… But, I can’t do it. It’s too advanced for me. Dax, on the other hand…” Cobalt remarked as he started to walk towards the door. “I’ll be back in the morning, you guys stay here and make sure Spike gets his rest!” Cobalt said as he quickly zipped around the door and down the hall.

“D-Dax? What can he--W-What!? Cobalt, Wait! GAH! FOR PONY’S SAKE!” Spike cried out as he started to tear up from the pain.

“Where in the name of Celestia is he going?” Asked Applejack as she poked her head out the door to watch Cobalt Burst out the front doors and take off like a rocket; his backdraft almost blowing the doors off their hinges and shaking the plants violently.

“mmh… I think I know. Don’t worry, he’ll be back.” Exclaimed Spike as he rubbed his forehead slowly. “He didn’t even get to hear what was happening with his step dad.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, Spike.” Twilight said as she shook her head in slight disbelief of what just happened. “It’s probably better that he doesn’t know right now, anyway. He seems really happy. I’m sure he’ll find out from his siblings.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Hey, speaking of siblings; Applejack, is Bloom alright?” Spike inquired as Applejack retreated back to the room.

“She’ll be fine, Spike, it was only a few minor injuries.. I’d like to know why she was up there in the first place, though.” Applejack stated with a bewildered scratch under her hat. “Do you have any ideas, Spike?” Spike’s ears perked at the question and he suddenly became nervous, unsure if Bloom had even told her sister yet.

“A-ah, well, I think they just wanted to get a better view of the race is all.” Responded Spike with a slight blush. Applejack sighed and shook her head.

“Sometimes I really worry about her…”

“Hey, c’mon Applejack. She’s done pretty well for herself. I mean, she’s really taken a huge part of the farm off your hands and she seems to know what she’s doing.” Responded Spike, slightly confused by Applejack’s sudden shift of pace.

“It’s not that, Spike. She seemed troubled about something over the past few months and every time I try and ask her about it, she seems to deviate from the question. I reckon something happened to her that she’s not wantin’ to get out. Even Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo are tryin’ to avoid me and it has me worried. I just hope she hasn’t gotten herself into somethin’ she can’t get out of.” Applejack said with a sombre undertone. Spike suddenly felt ashamed that he lied to Applejack about Applebloom, not that he didn’t feel bad already. But it didn’t seem like his place to break it to her about them, and from what it looked like, she hadn’t. Spike debated on what to do for a little bit as an awkward silence once again filled the room, only to be broken by the doctor walking in.

“I’m sorry, Girls, visiting hours are over. Spouse and immediate family are the only ones that can stay after hours.” The doctor said as he walked over to Spike’s bedside and pulled out a bloodletting needle from the cupboard. “Besides, we have to take a couple blood samples to make sure that there’s no hemorrhaging or scarring and then take Spike for an MRI. I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna see that.”

“Sure thing, take care, Spike.” Dash said as she caught the door just as it was about to close “Don’t go hitting any more flagpoles with your noggin, okay?” Dash teased, to which Spike blushed a bit in embarrassment.

“Heh, yeah I should probably look after that.”

“Take Care, Sugarcube.” Applejack followed as she walked closely behind Dash, giving Spike a quick smile and tip of her hat before she closed the door behind her.

Spike sighed and settled back into his bed as the doctor took his arm and parted his scales to look for a place to set the needle. He couldn’t stop thinking about Cobalt, Applebloom and Applejack, Dragons, his mother… everything. It was as Cobalt had said, no answers, just more loose ends.

“You okay, Spike?” Twilight remarked as she trotted up to her brother’s side. “You seem lost in thought.” Spike looked over to her and winced for a second as the doctor pushed the needle into his arm and started to take a couple blood vials.

“It’s… complicated, Twi. In about a month’s time, everything just got flip turned upside down. Everything I knew, or at least, thought I knew, seems to be thrown out the window. Cobalt is at the centre of it; he has managed to simultaneously give me answers to questions that I’ve wanted answers to for years, and at the same time created thousands of new ones. Ones that I don’t think I’m going to hear answers to for a very long time by the looks of it. I-I don’t know how to process this.” Spike said as he turned his head back and just stared up at the ceiling. “How can someone I just met completely change my life in a matter of days?”

“You mean like when I first came to Ponyville?” Twilight remarked studiously. Spike’s eyes widened quickly at his sister’s remark, quickly starting to draw parallels in his head.

“This is how you felt?”

“Well, maybe not as strongly; I mean I didn’t find out that I have a long lost brother and that I was more than 750 years old. But my life changed quite a bit that day. At the time I didn’t really know how it was going to affect me, but what mattered wasn’t so much how it was going change me, but what I did with it. You’ll figure it out, Spike, you’re a smart dragon. And I do have to say, after talking with Cobalt, I know you’re in very capable hands.” Twilight settled her wings a bit as she spoke, the memories of her first day in Ponyville rushing in once more. Spike laid there and thought about what she said, smiling softly and taking a deep breath.

“I’m so glad you guys reconciled, I don’t know what I would have done if you two hated each other--Actually, can I ask what you guys talked about?” Spike said as he looked over to his sister.

“Well,” She began, “He asked me if I was still mad at him, to which I replied no. I wasn’t really as mad at him as I was worried that he was… taking you away from me.” Admitted Twilight shamefully as she looked down and away in a mix of shame and embarrassment.

“Cobi? Take me from you? Why would he ever want to do that?”

“I never thought that he wanted to, Spike. I thought that because you were so enamoured with finding out what it means to be a dragon, you’d end up going back with him. And then I heard from Applebloom that you two were… well, long story short there was a lot of build up and you know how I like to bottle things up before I get a little… crazy.” She said as she tried to find the right words, to which Spike shot her a glare disbelief.

“A little?”

“Okay, maybe more than a little.” Twilight admitted with a quiet laugh. “Anyway, he explained to me that it was nothing like that. He had no intent on ever taking you away from me, actually, he seemed very opposed to the idea of you living around him at all.” Spike scowled as he suddenly became confused.

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, when I told him what I thought was happening, the first thing he did was very sternly refute the idea that he wanted you to go live with him or anything of the sort. I believe he mentioned that he didn’t want you to be around his step father. That’s an entirely different conversation for another time, but, I think he’s actually afraid to show you to his step-family, or his stepfather at the very least. I can’t help but feel sorry for him, really.” Twilight trailed off. Spike had the same feelings as his sister on that topic. He never really had concrete parents, but at the very least his adoptive family treated him well. He couldn’t imagine what it felt like to have someone you were to look up to as a father treat you like he didn’t want you.

“I dunno, Twi, I don’t think I’d be able to split from you just yet. I mean, after I tried figuring out what it meant to be a dragon all those years ago, I came to the very sound conclusion that I’m not moving until I’m sure I’m ready,” Spike said as he slowly turned his head to her and spoke. Twilight chuckled softly and shook her head.

“You always have a home with me, little brother. By the way, you seemed a little jumpy about the topic of Applebloom, do you know what’s going on?” Spikes ears perked suddenly and then folded back as he thought about what to say.

“I… well, I’m going to need you to promise not to say anything to Applejack, at least not yet,” Spike remarked, to which Twilight nodded.

“My lips are sealed, promise.”

“Okay. I… Well, she’s apparently taken a pretty significant liking to me. And it’s been bothering her for a long time; dragons and ponies aren’t really known for their romantic interactions, at least as far as I’ve heard. But uh… well we’re trying something out and seeing if it’s gonna work. I don’t personally have high hopes, she’s really unsure about everything, but I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong.” Spike blurted out as quickly as he could so he didn’t chicken out. Twilight blinked in confusion for a moment, taking time to process. She let out an impressed ‘hmph’ and raised her brow. Spike looked down and away slowly as he continued. “I don’t think it’s my place to tell her, Applebloom needs to say it, and I don’t want to force it out of her. I realize it’s a bit of a doozy.”

“It’s definitely an interesting situation. I would talk to her about telling Applejack, though, you know how much she cares for her family. As for me, it isn’t much of a surprise to me that you would probably try dating ponies, you’ve been around them for so long, and, you know, Rarity.” She said with a smile, to which Spike replied with a somewhat embarrassed scowl and frown. Meanwhile, the doctor finished up his blood samples and set them into a little holding pouch on his saddle. He then unlocked the wheels on Spike’s hospital bed and started to pull him from his spot.

“Well, we’re off to get your MRI, Spike, you ready to go?” Spike looked at the doctor and nodded slowly.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Cobalt flew swiftly just above the treeline of the forest, the sound of rustling in the branches kicking up behind him. The backdraft from his massive wings caused a stir in the tops of the trees as he bolted by close to the speed of sound. His mind was pulled between flying, the fact that he was requested to go to training for the top Special Task Force squad in the military and his brother, whom he would have to be separated from for at least a year before he could see him once again. The initial excitement of the moment was over, and the second thoughts started to creep in. This meant a lot, this meant that everything that he had hoped to show his brother would have to wait for years, and just as he started to really get comfortable with everything that has happened to him over the past month or so. But this was a dream come true for him, a dream he didn’t even get to express with his brother because of everything that had happened the whole time he was there.

Cobalt landed with a thud at the magic entrance of the Temple, quickly walking down the long, dimly lit hallway before knocking on the door and waiting for it to slowly creak open so he could come inside. He quickly headed to the upper floor of the Temple, where he found Dax going over a few texts in the study.

“Master? May I enter?” Cobalt asked quietly as he peered his head between the door and frame. Dax shot his attention up to his pupil up and smiled warmly.

“Of course, young one. What brings you to my temple at this hour?” Dax inquired as he put the book he was reading down and got up from his place to greet Cobalt with a hug. Cobalt returned the embrace before grabbing his teacher’s hand and pulling him towards the door.

“I need your help.” He said as he tried to pull Dax from the study. The Elder dragon chuckled and stayed put where he was.

“Heh hold up, young one, where are we going?” Dax said as he turned Cobalt around to ask him. “Deep breath, keep your composure.” Cobalt stopped and looked up at his teacher, doing as he was told. He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, calming himself down.

“Spike was hurt a few days ago, and I was hoping you could perform your healing magic on him so that I can take him out to the city before I ship out.” Cobalt stated calmly. Dax raised a brow and cocked his head in interest.

“Ship out? I thought you didn’t have to go back from leave for another 6 months.” Dax questioned as he started to walk out the door with Cobalt, going down the stairs and towards the alter.

“Well… yeah I did, but then I got a visit by a Reaper lead, and he gave me this:” Cobalt stated as he pulled the letter from his tail satchel and handed it to Dax. The older dragon took the letter and read it over slowly, his face dawning difference expressions as he read on. As he finished, he smiled proudly and brought his student in for a tighter hug.

“What an opportunity for you, my student. I am very proud of you, and I have no doubt that you will succeed. However, remember that this is a very big responsibility, and a very challenging task. It is almost certain you will not return the same dragon you are now. Physical attributes aside, the things that you will go through should you become part of the squadron are certain to challenge the way you see things in life. I would hope that I have taught you enough to understand how to handle such situations should they be thrust upon you.” Dax slowly sat down on the bench before the altar, Cobalt following quickly, shifting a bit uncomfortably as he started thinking about what his teacher had just told him.

“I… I have been juggling those thoughts for the last hour or so. I mean, I’m not going to back out now. I’ve always wanted to do this, ever since I was still soft on my belly scales. Well, what young dragon didn’t want to be a Corsair at one point, right?” Cobalt twiddled his thumbs nervously as he spoke, justifying both sides in his mind as he explained. “But, at the same time, I’ve seen those guys around base. They look so… blank. And they sure don’t talk much. They mostly take care of the stuff the military deems too dangerous or can potentially have too much ‘collateral damage,’ so there’s no ceremonies or even recognition of their service outside of Command and the other reaper squadrons. And usually the stuff is bad, like, real bad.” Cobalt sighed in defeat as he leaned against Dax, who put his arm around the younger and smaller dragon. “I was so happy when Ace Nordin Telikoliath told me. Now? I don’t know anymore.”

“Do you really want to go for this trial, my student?” Dax asked as he looked down at the perplexed young dragon. Cobalt looked up at his teacher and nodded slowly.

“I do, I really really do.”

“Then your heart knows what it wants, it’s a matter of getting your mind to agree.” Dax said as he ruffled the young dragon’s hair. “And I presume a lot of what your mind is unsure on is your brother?”

“Well, of course. I’ve gotten about a month in on knowing my brother that I hadn’t known existed for all my life and now my dream comes knocking at my door while I’m trying to make up for… a ridiculous amount of lost time. If it wasn’t for him I’d be so much more certain on my decision. I… I don’t want to back out of this, hell, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. But, I need to have Spike at the very least and spend a good couple of days with just him. I-I want him to see nothing but Dragon culture, and I want it to be an experience I can recall upon anytime I think of home. The Gods know this is going to be very hard, I know it’s going to be very hard. And I’m going to need something to keep me going. If it’s going to be anything, it’s going to be him.” Cobalt leaned back against the Marble Bench and sighed deeply. His ears flickered a bit as he remembered a few other things as well. “Dax… what will this mean for me and the choir? I mean, I just joined.” Asked Cobalt as he looked up at his teacher, whom looked down and chuckled deeply.

“My Student, don’t you worry about such things. You’re the son of the Great Mother, If you have a shred of her musical talent, you’ll catch up just fine. Speaking of which, why don’t you put yourself into music more? It seems to be something you love, and you’re indeed very talented in it. I’ve heard you play your guitar late at night, and it’s breathtaking the way you work with it while you hum to yourself.” Dax remarked softly as he gently pet Cobalt’s head. Cobalt blushed slightly and kicked his feet.

“Y-you’ve heard that? I… I dunno, I just don’t think I’m that good. And well, you know how much of a nervous wreck I become in public. At least with the choir, the focus isn’t entirely on me so it’s bearable.”

“Not that good? Nonsense. You play two different parts on one guitar using your tail. How did you ever learn to do that, anyway, young one?” Asked Dax as he got up and began lighting candles at the alter. Cobalt smiled a bit as he started to remember back years ago, when he first picked up the guitar.

“Well, I had a lot of time on my hands when I was alone in the palace. My brother used to let me stay in his room for the day because he didn’t want me going around Nitrius or getting into trouble. He had an old acoustic, still does, that he used to play for fun and at the time I was too small to play it normally, so I would just use my tail tips to pick the strings while I held the strings with my other hand. As I got bigger, I started to play it the right way and added my own style to it. And, well, when you pretty much play the guitar 10-12 hours a day, nearly every day for 15 years, you learn things very quickly.” Cobalt recalled happily as the images of him being barely big enough to hold the guitar, let alone play it and then showing his brother what he learned later in the day danced through his mind.

“Tail TIPS?” Dax inquired with a raised brow. Cobalt giggled and lifted his tail into view, the tail emblem popping open and two smaller and thinner tail tips branching off in separate directions. “Ah, right, I forgot. Another supposable ‘Side effect’ to your egg being sealed for over 700 years.” Dax stated with a smirk, to which Cobalt stuck his tongue out to and giggled, before leaning back against the bench once more and staring up at the ceiling.

“Jeez, I was 8 years old when I first started fiddling around with that guitar. Time seems to have sped up a whole lot since then. It’s strange to look back after all that and see where you’ve come. Hey, speaking of which, I had an Idea of what Spike can do while I’m not around.” Cobalt said as he looked down at Dax, whom just finished lighting the last of the many candles.

“What did you have in mind, young Alpha?” Dax inquired as he sat back down on the Bench, right next to his pupil. Cobalt leaned into the larger dragon, and settled in as Dax wrapped his wing comfortingly against him.

“I was thinking since Spike really hasn’t been able to figure his element out or even anything dragon-related even after all these years, you could give him some of the same training you gave me?” Cobalt asked with a slight yawn. Dax let out a little hmph of thought, realizing he hadn’t even thought of such a thing, though he really should have.

“That sounds like an interesting idea. One that I’m sure he’ll be more than interested in taking up. I, for one, am more than happy to do so if he’s okay with it. You should definitely pitch the idea to him when you get the chance. Now, what was that about me taking care of an injured Spike?” Dax asked as he got back on the original topic.

“Heh, Poof somehow managed to smack his head against the only metal object on a cloud coliseum. He has a decent concussion, now. The doctor said he has about two weeks before he can leave the hospital, even with dragon healing. It’s going to take something much stronger to heal him, and I was hoping you had something?” He asked with a hopeful spark in his eye. Dax chuckled deeply and nodded.

“I can certainly give you a hand with that. I’ll prepare the ingredients for the spell tonight and we’ll take care of it tomorrow.” Dax stated with a gentle smile. Cobalt threw himself on the larger dragon and hugged him tightly, catching Dax off guard momentarily.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“Any time, my student. Now, I would love to hear some of your wonderful guitar playing while I prepare, do you think you can do that for me?” He asked as he got up, pulling up the smaller dragon with him. Cobalt blushed and nodded.

“Of course, it’s the least I could do.” He said as he walked with him back upstairs for the night. The sound of gentle guitar playing soon started filling the entire temple with a gentle echo and creating the illusion of warmth and tranquility as it rang beautifully through the air.

A dragon a Dozen

by Cobaltin

New scale on the block

Encounter of the Dragon Kind

Information and Incubation

Scaredy scales and dragon pacts

Sweets, sexuality and Serious beats

Nightmare of the Dragons

High-speed, Heartbreak.

Old wounds, New scars and a Love interest

Sky Temple of Secrets

The Grand Siren and a sort-of date

Love comes in many ways to a Dragon

The voices of angels to the clues of a crimescene

A Race to Remember

Best Brother Ever

Making Connections

The Call of Service