• Published 19th Feb 2013
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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.

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Chapter Fifty-Seven: Fun At the Lake

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Fun At the Lake

“Isn’t this exciting, Miss Fluttershy? Introducing our baby girl to the water… Well, water that expands on a greater scale than the sink and bathtub.”

Smokey was really looking forward to teaching Chenoa how to swim. She could flail in the water and stay afloat -- she had proved that during her and Fluttershy’s near-death experience, but the dragon hadn’t been around to see her do it, and had been told by the pegasus herself.

“She’s not exactly…” Fluttershy began, wanting to bring that point up, but she wasn’t sure whether or not she should. “Come to think of it, I wonder how she will take to it. She’s been fine in the sink or tub, but…”

She had wondered if the trauma would have left some fear of water or enclosed spaces. Or, deep water, to be exact. They would find out soon enough.

“But what?” the draconic being prompted, raising his brows.

“… Well… I’m worried,” she said, dropping her eyes to the baby griffon in her hold, and then back over at Smokey. “She was able to float and flounder about back in… back in the well, before you saved us. I know Chenoa wasn’t scared in the sink or tub, but… do you think she’ll take to the lake well?

“I…” Fluttershy paused, staring at the path ahead. “I don’t know if she’ll even really remember any of this anyway, since she’s so young…”

A frown descended upon his scaly face at the thought of his adopted child possibly being frightened of the lake.

“Well… let us hope she doesn’t remember that day.”

“We’ll see. I suppose I should be a little more worried about her developing claustrophobia rather than hydrophobia…” She went silent for a moment, then turned back to her companion. “But… but… we’ll both be there… And we’ll help with anything that comes up, right?”

“Of course. We’re her parents. It’s our job to make sure we’re there for her,” he responded with a wide grin.

“Yes…” Fluttershy glanced down at Chenoa again, fluttering alongside her scaly friend in silence for a moment. “Smokey? Did you… ever really expect this? I mean, parenthood? It’s one thing to care for a baby, babysit one, but… to actively raise one? To keep one as your own? Did you ever dream of anything like this?”

“I have dreamed about it, yes.” The dragon nodded with an affectionate smile gestured at the griffon. “But I never thought I would since I wouldn’t fit in with other dragons… Nor did I fit in with ponies.”

“Neither have I, to an extent. I always viewed my animals as my babies. I love them all so very much and I would certainly hate to see any of them hurt or scared or…” She shook her head. She knew she had said something like this before, but it never hurt to say it again. “But… never once did I ever think I would ever truly be… well… a mother. A true mother.”

“I feel the same for my animals, but you already know that.” Smokey sighed as a veil of sadness descended upon him. “I noticed a couple of my doves have found mates and are already settled in nests. I am happy for them they’ll be having chicks, but I wonder if they’ll come back to visit me.”

“I’m sure they will.” The mare leaned in to lightly nuzzle him. “I’ve had many of my animal friends find mates and come back to me for problems, even after they’ve had families and the little ones of their own have grown up and started families, too.

“In a way, I suppose, I’m not just a mother, I could be a grandmother.” There was a brief lapse as the mare giggled. “Though, I’d really rather not think about THAT right now.”

Smokey purred to the mare as she nuzzled him.

“Right. And I won’t be ready for that for many years. I just hope my protectiveness won’t interfere with Chenoa’s life too much.”

“I’m sure you’ll be just fine,” she reassured him. “I’ve often been protective of my animals, and I worry if I’ll be over-protective of Chenoa… but, I have no doubt we’ll do fine.”

He smiled with a nod, lightly squeezing Fluttershy’s hoof.

“As long as we have our friends to help us out. I had no experience with babies before Chenoa, except for Ross and the doves when they were tiny.”

“Me neither. Not an actual baby, anyway. Outside of what little experience we have with Chenoa. To be perfectly honest, I think Applejack’s had the most experience -- but she’s had help from Granny Smith and Big Macintosh.

“I know Spike has been with Twilight since birth, but from what she told me he was raised by Princess Celestia. But… even Pinkie’s had some experience with babies. Mr. and Mrs. Cake told me she’s really good.”

“Maybe she can give us good advice,” Smokey suggested, thumb stroking the mare’s pastern.

A small shiver went up the pony’s foreleg and down her spine.

“I’ll ask Pinkie how she takes care of the Cake babies. Maybe ask her to take care of Chenoa if she wants to, though, I think griffon babies are different than foals…”

“I wouldn’t think they’d be that different at this age…” Smokey shifted his attention to the child curled up in Fluttershy’s other foreleg. He was surprised how patient she was being.

As the two of them crossed over a knoll on the path they were taking, as the lake came into view, Fluttershy removed her hoof from Smokey’s clawed hand to rub her chin.

“True, I suppose not. At this stage, anyway. And I know we discussed giving Chenoa a herbivorous diet, but… I still kind of wonder slightly.” There was another pause as she turned back to Smokey, not noticing Spike run past them with a large plastic beach ball held above his head. “You know, I’ve often wondered that about YOU. I know we talked about that, too. I suppose it still slightly blows me away thinking about it.”

“What about Spike, my dear,” Smokey brought up. “Did you forget about him?”

“No, I guess… I never thought about him. I mean, he’s a young dragon and, like you, he was raised by ponies, but…” She idly glanced off at nothing in particular, a butterfly soon grasping her attention. “Spike always had SOMEPONY in his life, be it Princess Celestia or Twilight… and…”

Fluttershy was silent another moment, before she turned back to her dragon pal to wrap her foreleg around his shoulders as best as she could to pull him in for a hug and causing them both to halt.

“Hm?” He was confused as to why the equine suddenly hugged him. Lifting his arms, he furled them around her and Chenoa to return the embrace. “You’re a sweet mare.”

“I recall you telling me your story about when you were young,” she whispered into his ear frill. “I know it wasn’t my fault, but I’m still sorry to hear all of that. Especially comparing your childhood to Spike’s. He’s still a baby dragon, but… he still has his own childhood to grow through, and you’re… already more-or-less full grown.”

One of the dragon’s hands left the pegasus’ mid-section to coast it gently over her mane in repeated strokes.

“I have you now. And our friends. And, of course, the animals and Chenoa.”

The pegasus smiled and blushed, nuzzling him softly. She shivered as his claws went through her hair, and she drew back slightly and gazed into his eyes for a couple of seconds before she realized just how close her face was to his.

“Hey! You guys coming or what?” Spike called out to them from the lakeside

Pulling away, Fluttershy witnessed Pinkie Pie leaping to perform a perfect swan dive into the lake -- only to slow down in midair and slip into the water without even creating a splash.

Blushing himself, Smokey stepped away from Fluttershy, his stomach nervously flopping in his abdomen.

“C-coming!” Turning back to the mare, he offered her a shy smile. “So… sh-shall we… m-meet our friends then?”

The pale yellow mare nodded as she turned to flutter towards the lake. Pinkie Pie had attempted to start a new game where she was splashing the other mares, and had targeted Twilight Sparkle at first until the alicorn decided to put her wings to use to rise over the water where she couldn’t reach her.

The pink pony indignantly cried out that wasn’t fair, but shifted her focus on Applejack when the farm pony had used her distraction to splash her from behind.

Following his friend and taking Chenoa, Smokey slowly stepped into the water, wading in until he was waist deep. Then he lowered the baby in, still keeping a hold on her. The chick didn’t seem to remember that first day she and her adoptive mother’s close encounter with death. She was smiling, splashing and squealing in merriment.

Fluttershy exhumed a significant sigh of relief, seeing Chenoa was not at all scared of the water. Fluttering down, she dipped into the lake herself and lightly splashed around with her to play.

Twilight Sparkle, still airborne, spun to Rainbow Dash located at her side, to give her a mischievous smirk.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

A sinister glint glimmered in the cyan pegasus’ eyes in response.

“I think I am.”

Grinning, Twilight Sparkle motioned for her to follow her and climbed higher into the air while Pinkie Pie and Applejack were occupied.

“We’ll fly higher and then dive down together! The momentum should cause a huge splash that should drench them both!” she called to her rainbow-maned friend over the rush of the wind.

Chuckling briefly, Rainbow Dash nodded before she and the alicorn bolted into the sky and came back down to create a monstrous splash that not only soaked Applejack and Pinkie Pie, but Fluttershy, Spike, Smokey, and Chenoa as well.

The red-scaled dragon clenched his teeth in worry as he waited for the baby’s reaction. Surprisingly, she had enjoyed it, and belted out laughter.

Surfacing, Twilight Sparkle smiled over at Rainbow Dash as she came back up -- though, as she heard Chenoa laughing and squealing, she turned over to the others and chuckled nervously.

“Hehe… Whoops?” she said, acknowledging their now thoroughly soaked forms, including Fluttershy who did not look particularly pleased.

“Eh… Sorry about that.”

Rainbow Dash issued an apologetic smile before flapping her wings to hover above the water.

“It’s all right, I suppose. At least Chenoa’s not crying,” said Smokey, tilting his head down at the chick as her giggling came to a stoppage. Attention now on Spike, she attempted to wriggle away from her father in order to get closer to him. Chuckling, the larger dragon waded over to the smaller, holding her out. “Somepony wants to see her Uncle Spike.”

Sputtering a bit and removing some seaweed from his head -- despite the fact this was a freshwater lake -- Spike spun around as he heard Smokey speak. Beaming, he stretched out his arms to accept the chick.

“Hey! How’s the big girl?” he asked, giving her a very gentle noogie. “You ain’t giving Mom and Dad a hard time, are ya?”

Chenoa squealed, wrapping her forelegs around the dragon to the best of her ability before bestowing a big sloppy kiss on his nose.

“Awww… That was utterly adorable,” Smokey gushed.

Spike hadn’t QUITE been expecting that, and had pulled Chenoa away partially to hold her at arm’s length for a couple of seconds. Twilight Sparkle, however, had seen, and had began giggling -- as did Fluttershy.

“That was rather sweet. She likes you!” said Fluttershy.

“You might be getting a girlfriend there, Spike,” the alicorn teased.

“What? Her? ME?” Spike incredulously exclaimed. “Oh, come on, Twilight! No way! There’s too big of an age difference!”

“What if there wasn’t any age difference?”

Smokey smirked, deciding to tease the little dragon as well.

“Um, well, I…” Spike began, unsure of what to say.

“I’d say it would be rather darling!”

Spike whirled around to spy Rarity, now having been showered, still had her mane and tell wet and hanging down. She was also sporting -- of all things -- a fetching two piece bathing suit that caused the baby dragon to stare in an unabashed manner.

“Oh, my,” Fluttershy said, scanning Rarity’s outfit.

“You like it?” Rarity asked, posing for them and ignoring Spike’s slack-jawed expression. “I figured I might as well if I’m joining you at the lake -- I was already wet…”

“You mean you’re going swimming?” Twilight Sparkle queried, having been splashed by Pinkie Pie and thrusting her forelegs forth to retaliate.

“Oh, heavens, no!” Horn glowing a light blue, Rarity summoned over a lounge chair from out of nowhere and flung herself upon it. “I’m going to lay here and work on my tan!”

Fluttershy blinked, staring at Smokey in confusion. The dragon himself opened his mouth to ask what would be the point of tanning be if she was always white when he felt something clamp on the tip of his tail.

“Something’s got my tail,” he announced, lifting the lengthy extremity to find a crawdad dangling from it.

The rosy-maned pegasus did not wish to ask that question, though it had been burning on the tip of her tongue nevertheless. As Smokey spoke, she turned her attention to the crustacean hanging from the reptilian’s tail. For some reason, she found this funny, and she almost immediately giggled.

“Come on. Let go.” As much as he shook his tail, the crawfish would not relent his hold. Feeling another one crawl over his foot, the alarmed dragon lunged aback and disappeared beneath the water with a splash. After he surfaced, more of the small creatures were dangling from his lower lip, one of his nostrils, and a few on the leathery fringes of his ear frills. Face contorting in pain, he swung his head back and forth in an attempt to dislodge them, but he failed to do so. “Why is everything out to get me?”

Rainbow Dash was too busy laughing to help the poor dragon. She didn’t get a chance to laugh very long, for a familiar rainbow macaw emerged from a nearby tree and resumed the chase with the cyan pegasus.

Author's Note:

THREE chapters in ONE DAY! I AM SO POWERFUL!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

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