• Published 19th Feb 2013
  • 9,018 Views, 800 Comments

The Lion and the Lamb - CrazyChickenLady



After following a baby griffon into a dangerous situation, Fluttershy finds herself rescued by a kind-hearted dragon and ends up befriending him.

  • ...
36
 800
 9,018

PreviousChapters Next
Chapter Fifty-Two: An Embarrassing Misunderstanding

Chapter Fifty-Two: An Embarrassing Misunderstanding

Allowing Fluttershy to enter the establishment first, the dragon in disguise followed her inside. Door closing behind him, his eyes wandered around the interior, admiring the building’s welcoming atmosphere. The place was quite quaint, though it had an unusual design to it, mixing a malt shop from the 1950’s with a feudal teahouse from Japony.

Tearing his eyes off the décor, he trotted up beside Fluttershy and Chenoa to scan the various tubs of ice cream through the sneeze guard.

“What will you be getting, my dear?”

“Oooh, I don’t know.” Fluttershy surveyed the various flavors then looked up at the menu displayed on the wall behind the counter. “I was hoping for a butterscotch sundae, but I don’t see one listed on the menu…”

“Butterscotch sundae?” piped a voice from the back before the owner of the voice burst in, looking incensed and focused with a wild passion. A white-furred unicorn with a thick and coarse mane of green hair that extended all the way down the back of his neck with a matching straight tail. The emerald green hair had a streak of chocolate brown in both the mane and tail. His eyes were a deep seated green and his flank bore an image of what appeared to be a silver bowl with three scoops of sprinkled ice cream and a tower-shaped biscuit. “Did somepony say… butterscotch sundae?!”

“Oh dear,” replied a calmer voice from the back room. “Sweet Treat, please don’t--”

“Where is she??” The unicorn spun around. “Is she here? I don’t see her! Leaf!!”

“Come now, brother, why would she--” A second white unicorn, with hair colors inverted from the first emerged and spotted Fluttershy, Chenoa, and Smokey. Smiling, he ignored his elder but physically smaller brother as he came up to the counter. “Well, good afternoon! How are you doing this fine day?”

“Fine, thank you. May we request two butterscotch sundaes, please? I know it’s not on the menu, but… I would really like it if my friend gets one,” said Smokey, smiling underneath his mask.

“I… uh… Well… soft treats isn’t really my thing.” The taller unicorn turned to display his cutie mark -- a pair of tea leaves and steaming hot tea in a blue ceramic cup. “However, I would be more than happy to try.”

There was a crash from the back room, followed by a shout of “BUTTERSCOOOOOTCH”, as the smaller stallion had stormed back there after his initial cry. An awkward pause followed.

“… Ignore him. He has a rivalry with a unicorn up in Canterlot -- or claims he does. Personally, I highly doubt Miss Butterscotch even knows my brother exists.”

Blinking on an awkward lapse, the dragon exchanged a worried look with Fluttershy then returned his vision to the unicorn.

“So… you can make a couple of butterscotch sundaes?”

There was another pause, before the unicorn forced a smile.

“… I’ll certainly try my darnedest! Too bad my wife’s out at the time. I would love to have her help…”

He turned around, disappearing into the back room again, the doors swinging shut. Fluttershy turned to Smokey, smiling lightly as she moved to take a seat at a nearby table, setting Chenoa down onto the flat surface.

Halting beside the table before sitting down, Smokey allowed his animals to hop up onto it and settle down side-by-side.

“I think I’ll treat them with a couple bites of my sundae. After all, they try so hard in my shows. They deserve to be spoiled once in a while.”

“Oh, I agree,” Fluttershy said, grinning maternally at the animals and reaching across to nuzzle Ross, who was closest to her. “They were incredible on stage with you.”

About half an hour later, the larger unicorn stumbled out, balancing a massive bowl of sundae on his back. He gave a sheepish smile to the mare and dragon, arching his brow as he trotted up to them and levitated the bowl onto the table between them.

“I deeply apologize for the extended delay. I had to scrounge up some ingredients to make this, of which I didn’t realize we were low on, and, well, I… erm… happened to make far more than I anticipated. And I noticed you had a little one, too, so, ah, as a treat, I decided to make your two sundaes into a large one at no extra charge for you.”

“Well… thank you, sir. This certainly looks delicious!” Smokey could feel himself beginning to salivate at the sight of the large sundae. Restraining himself from digging in, he plucked one of the cherries off of his side. About to break it up, he came to the realization that it would stain his costume, he handed it to the rabbit. “Ross? Would you mind dividing this out?”

Nodding, he accepted the cherry and tore it to pieces, feeding one to each dove. Licking his own lips, he popped the remaining piece into his mouth.

“He’s such a good boy, isn’t he?” the draconic being crooned as he touched his covered hand to the mammal’s head to stroke it.

“Oh, he is!” the rosy-maned mare agreed. “A bit more behaved than Angel bunny at times it seems. He’d have just sulked if I asked that -- even though he would’ve done it anyway. Though, Angel IS a good boy.”

Taking the second cherry, the mare tore it up and fed the bits to Chenoa one-by-one.

“Num-num!” the griffon hummed in delight as she wolfed down the bits of cherry.

“Hehe. I love seeing our little girl enjoy her food…” Smokey sighed with an affectionate look on his face underneath the costume. Digging his spoon into the ice cream, he invited each of his critters to have a bite.

The pegasus nodded, taking a bite of her own and offering the child a spoonful, which she just as enthusiastically ingested.

“Now, now, sweetie,” Fluttershy warned. “Don’t eat so fast. You’ll get a tummy ache.”

Smiling, she leaned in to kiss the baby’s head, her eyes closing partially.

“She sure has put on weight fast! She no longer looks like she’s starving to death,” the dragon brought up, eyeing the baby’s newly acquired girth before taking another bite of butterscotch-drizzled ice cream.

“I know!” The pegasus beamed. “I’m so happy! I was so worried she was so emaciated. I wonder how the poor thing was even able to survive as long as she did… She had to have been wandering around for days!”

A pause.

“I still wonder what happened to her,” she murmured. “And her parents.”

“As do I, my dear… I just hope… nothing horrible happened to them… Yet at the same time…” The dragon exhaled deeply, setting down his spoon. He knew he was being selfish the times he hoped Chenoa’s parents wouldn’t show up, but… he loved this child. He wanted himself and Fluttershy to keep her. He wanted to care for her, protect her, watch her grow up… “I don’t want to give her up.”

“I know.” Fluttershy nodded. “… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but part of me doesn’t want to let her go”

Sliding a foreleg around the baby, she drew her closer and nuzzled her.

“I mean, she’s so cute and so sweet -- I… if the agents from the orphanage came by today, I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to give her up. I never even considered even having a baby at all…” The mare blushed. “Who knows? Maybe… we could… possibly get her a sibling one day?”

“That all depends on how often you try!”

Fluttershy went shock still, staring over at their unicorn server, who had returned with glasses of water.

“Sorry,” the stallion apologized. “Wasn’t really paying much attention to your conversation. Y’all tryin’ ta have another baby? Or, rather, a baby, I take it? I see y’all decided to adopt -- a noble and heartwarming gesture to be sure, it’s always touching to see a happy family such as yourselves, but really you shouldn’t give up! I know I thought I’d never be a father myself one day. Me and my wife tried so hard to have a foal of our own before Sweet Tum was finally born…”

Smokey’s jaw dropped, his entire face going completely crimson. Slowly, he turned his gaze to the waiter in pure unadulterated befuddlement.

“E-e-excuse me??”

The unicorn silenced himself, glancing between the two of them with a confused expression.

“Err… Did I… say something?”

“… Um… Pardon me, sir, but… we’re not… He and I aren’t…”

“… You’re not?” The unicorn balked and let out a nervous laugh. “OH! Hahaha… ha… Wow, then! That’s embarrassing! I’m sorry, I just sort of assumed you two were… I mean… you two look so cute together I automatically thought--”

“”Oh, no. No,” Fluttershy cut him off, a bright red spread over her visage. “We’re not.”

“W-we’re just friends who happened to have taken a shine to this wonderful child,” Smokey corrected the stallion, tilting his head into Chenoa’s direction as she burbled at Fluttershy for more ice cream.

“Really now?” The waiter blushed slightly as Fluttershy spoon fed the baby another helping. “Again, I do apologize for the misunderstanding.”

“It’s quite all right,” the winged pony reassured, still a bit pink in the cheeks. “I can… see where somepony could make the mistake. It’s… not the first time it’s happened to us.”

Smokey nodded.

“Even our friends have made that mistake. They tried to set us up with a fancy date.” The winged reptile chuckled, his embarrassment slowly ebbing away. “That didn’t go very well.”

“Really now! Heh. Yeah, I can bet. So long as it didn’t involve anypony storming out after a shouting match, I suppose.” The stallion rolled his eyes. “I’ve had a small number of dates end badly in here. Heck, one particularly nasty one involved a good deal of our best dishes getting smashed, but, ah, I’d probably rather not get into that one.”

“Oh dear. I’m sorry that had to happen to you, sir,” Smokey said gently, a grin pulling at the corners of his maw. It felt so good to finally have a decent conversation with more ponies now that he was under a disguise. He didn’t need to worry about scaring anyone.

“Well, things happen.” The waiter gave a nonchalant shrug. “I’ve seen some weird things pass through that door. Not as weird as a bar, mind you, but we’ve had our customers.”

“Hey, Leeeaaaf!” The other owner called from the back. “Coffee machine’s on the fritz! Again…”

The unicorn sighed, leaving Fluttershy, Chenoa, and Smokey in a hasty trot.

“Hang on, Treat, I’ll be there in a sec!”

“That… was… embarrassing” Smokey chuckled nervously, meeting Fluttershy’s eyes after a few seconds of avoiding them.

“… True.” Fluttershy smirked, dropping her gaze to the table. “But at least it wasn’t like at the restaurant. Pinkie and the others aren’t here…”

Following the statement, she checked over her shoulder as if to make sure. Copying the equine, Smokey searched the perimeter of the area to make sure the pink party pony was nowhere around. Over his short time knowing her, he had become increasingly aware of her ability to spontaneously appear in any place, and he wanted to be certain she wasn’t around.

They both scanned their surroundings for several more moments before they finally settled.

“I think she’s not around. I think we gave her the slip,” she assumed, looking back at Smokey. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Pinkie Pie, but sometimes I worry about her… She tends to pop up when you least expect it.”

“You are not the only one, Miss Fluttershy,” the dragon stated, taking another bite of the sundae. “She is the only pony I know who can… do the things she does.”

“She’s the only pony ANYPONY knows who can do the things she does,” she relayed with a surprisingly calm and serious mask. “Even Twilight can’t understand her, and she’s the foremost expert there is on any and all things magic.

“… I daresay, even Princess Celestia might not even know how Pinkie does things.”

“I suppose we’ll never figure her out,” he said with a dosage of finality, turning his attention back to the ice cream. As he ate, he occasionally stole glances of the mare sitting across from him and the baby griffon, who was constantly begging for more bites.

“Chenoa, you can’t always be begging for ice cream. It’s not healthy for you.” Fluttershy smiled as she said this, but despite herself, she couldn’t bring herself to say no to the baby, spoiling her and giving her a little more whenever she chirruped for some.

“Careful not to give her too much,” Smokey chimed in, smile widening. “It might spoil her lunch,” he tacked on, knowing that the possibility of Chenoa turning down her lunch after eating a lot of ice cream was unlikely. The child was quite a voracious eater.

Fluttershy giggled.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a small baby eat so much!” She nuzzled the chick, making sure to give her, yet, another spoonful. “I suppose it means she’ll grow up big and strong… I wonder how quickly griffon children grow? I swear it seems she’s already swelled up another centimeter or two…”

“Maybe we should consult Miss Twilight,” the reptilian suggested, offering another bite to his rabbit.

“Maybe! I’ll ask when I next see her. I’m sure has something to say on the subject…” She turned to Chenoa, drawing a hoof along her down. “I’m going to make sure you grow up as best as you can, to the best of my ability.”

“Mama,” the little one chirped, eyes wide with affection.

“Mama is not alone in this. You also have Dada to help take care of you,” he chortled, allowing his birds to peck at his next spoonful.

“He’s right!” Fluttershy beamed, nuzzling her adoptive baby. “And we’ll love you, no matter what!”

She felt almost foolish for saying that, but she meant it. ALL of her animals were like children to her, even the ones that already had families of their own. She loved them and she found comfort in the fact that they loved her in return. She had almost always been able to tame any creature she had come across. She had helped to deliver and raise countless baby animals, but she had never raised a baby of a race that -- for all intents and purposes -- was considered truly sentient under the Equestrian government.

She had never dreamed of actually being a mother… though she was finding she was taking to the role surprisingly well.

PreviousChapters Next