//------------------------------// // Episode Eighteen: The Wings of Hate Arc - Part 1 // Story: The Drake Six // by JNKing //------------------------------// Spike wondered if Hawk specifically came at them on that day because said day had been going rather well.  As the group watched their new friends Astral and Aurora settling into Ponyville - Applejack helping them set up a blacksmith and ice sculpturing shop - Spike almost found himself wanting to stay back rather than go on another journey.  “What do you guys think about sticking around here for a bit?” Spike asked. “I can touch base with Twilight, you guys can touch base with the other Elements…” Night Fire gasped. “I could go see my mom again,” she remembered. She smiled. “That’s something I wasn’t able to do in… ever, if I’m being honest.”  “Why not?” Diamondback agreed. “After that whole business with the Dragon Kingdom, I imagine we could all use a little break.” “Eh, I can take it ‘r leave it,” Jackknife replied. “I mean, some of us spent too much time in cells. I wanna make up for that.”  Right at that moment, a bolt of magic shot from the mountains, and hit Jack square in the back.  He thudded to the ground, encased in what looked like either diamonds or ice.  Swift immediately spun to the source. “Sniper!” he barked. “Get down!” The dragons scattered to various hiding places, but no more shots came down from on high. Cautiously, Spike poked his head out, staring up at where the shot had come from. Night poked her head out as well. “What the heck was that?” she whispered.  Spike shook his head in confusion before looking to Jack. The poor sea serpent was frozen stiff, his eyes darting around from inside his icy prison, wide with shock and outrage.  “What the heck is that stuff?” Phoenix asked.  Night and Spike exchanged a glance. “Well,” Night noted. “It’s definitely magic of some sort.”  “Not unicorn though,” Spike noted, indicating the lack of sparkles. “It’s something else.” He turned. “Maybe we should take this into Ponyville and have Twilight…” “Spike, no!” Diamondback said. “Are you crazy? What if this is some sort of infectious magic; the kind that could spread to Twilight or the ponies?”  Spike winced. “Shoot, that’s right. I can’t let Twilight get hurt for her curiosity.” He grimaced at Jack. “But what are we supposed to do with him?”  Diamondback grinned. “You forget, I have an entire library on various topics. Give my dogs five minutes, and I’m sure we could come up with something.” She chortled as activated a magical link to her dogs. “Shiva, could you be a dear and start researching types of magical ice?”  Her grin slowly faded.  “Shiva?”  The others glanced at each other. “DB?” Swift asked.  Diamondback tapped at her comm. “She’s not answering. That’s peculiar.” Her eyes widened. “Unless…”  Instantly, Diamondback was in the air, flying back towards her home.  “DB!” Spike yelled. “D…” he groaned and hopped onto Swift. “After her!” Swift obeyed, leaping after DB with Night in hot pursuit. Phoenix almost followed, before remembering Jackknife. With a groan, Phoenix took the plunge and seized Jackknife’s body.  Thankfully, whatever magic was containing him didn’t spread, and Phoenix was able to hoist him over her shoulder, and race after her friends as they sped after DB.  ## When they reached Diamondback’s home, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Her cave still sat perched at the top of the mountain as it had been before.  But Spike immediately noticed a lack of any diamond dogs.  Evidently, Diamondback did too, as she stormed into her cave, yelling for her dogs.  “Shiva?!” she screamed. “Luke? Celine!”  Night gasped. “DB, wait!” she said. “What if it’s a…” DB had just raced into the cave and out of sight… when an explosion ripped right through the mountain.  “...trap?” Night squeaked out before the shockwave of the explosion hit them.  Night, Swift and Spike were flung through the air, crashing hard into Phoenix and Jackknife.  As the five dragons tumbled to a stop, however, they didn’t even get time to worry for Diamondback and the Diamond Dogs.  A strange variety of animal-men rose from the shadows and set upon the five dragons.  Jackknife was still contained in ice, and was immediately snatched away. When Phoenix tried to pull him back, some sort of weird bear man kicked her in the calf, sending her to the ground before getting her in a stranglehold.  Night lunged to try and help Phoenix, only for several diamond dog-like creatures to tackle her to the ground. Briefly, Night flung them off herself, but more minions quickly surrounded her.  She was going to need help! Spike pulled himself off a still groaning Swift, and ran to assist Night as she was dog-piled. However, a new creature stood in Spike’s way: some sort of simian like creature with a monkey tail and a mischievous face, marred by a brutal looking scar that stretched from his lips to his ear, giving him a distorted glasgow grin.  He twirled a wooden staff and aimed it at Spike. “Go ahead, Dragon Boy,” the creature declared. “Try to be a hero.”  Spike glanced briefly at Night; she managed to punch two of the creatures off her, but five more took their place. Glaring at the monkey creature, Spike roared and let out a plume of green fire.  Unfortunately, the monkey flipped over the blast, and cracked Spike across the back of the head. Still unused to combat, Spike hit the ground, clutching his head, before the creature’s hand-like foot gripped his nape like he was a stray kitten.  “Pathetic,” the monkey creature said, glancing apathetically over at the dog pile containing Night, which stopped shivering with Night’s resistance. As for Phoenix, she was starting to turn blue as the bear-man held her in an unrelenting sleeper hold. The monkey man turned. “Verko, are you sure these guys are worth this much trouble?”  Spike wriggled to look at Swift, who had gone stock still as some strange mole creature waddled up before him.  “Don’t be angry that there wasn’t much of a challenge, Luco,” Verko replied. “Be glad that the plan went off without a hitch.” He knelt down and gripped a still recovering Swift by the beak, though his interest seemed to be more in Swift’s draconic flank. “After all,” Verko’s voice oozed with malicious glee. “This one was promised to me far too long ago.”  “And now,” a horribly familiar voice noted, as another figure came out of the shadows. “I finally brought him to you.” Swift’s feathers turned pale as his eyes widened in terror. “Hawke…” he whispered. “Why…?” Hawke sneered down at her nephew. “Did you honestly think I was going to be denied, boy?” She almost kicked at him, but Verko stopped her.  “Hey-hey!” Verko snapped. “No damaging my merchandise.”  Hawke rolled her eyes, but stepped back, fixing Swift with a smug glare. “All you had to do was accept the leash, and go with Verko here like a good boy.” She grinned cruelly at the rest of the dragons. “But since you wanted to be selfish… all of them get to share your fate.”  Spike tried to push himself up, only for Luco to push him back down. The motion caught Hawke’s attention, and she strutted over to Spike.  “What’s the matter, runt?” she mocked. “Misery loves company, doesn’t it? Or does your friendship not extend to sharing some time in slavery?”  “You leave him alone!” Swift roared, yanking himself away from Verko.  Verko sneered and readied himself to snap his fingers, but Hawke waved him off, using her wings to rise into the air.  “And what are you gonna do about it, wimp?” Hawke demanded of Swift. Swift trembled, giving a nervous look to his friends, and at all the goons surrounding them.  In his moment of distraction, Hawke struck, launching down to slash at his beak. But she missed.  Spike pushed himself up in shock, and even Luco was too delighted to stop him: Swift dodged Hawke, and retaliated with a swipe of his own.  Feathers - Hawke’s feathers - flew into the air as she stumbled back, clutching at her neck where Swift had slashed her. Her eyes were wide in disbelief, before Swift shot at her again, his beak stabbing into her chest and eliciting a scream of agony from her.  “That’s it, kid,” Luco cheered. “Yeah; give us a fight, why don’t ya?” “Go, Swift!” Night cheered from under her dog pile.  “Gggugg…” Phoenix choked out, her eyes starting to roll up in her head.  Spike noticed. “Swift, Phoenix needs air!”  Noticing, Swift jumped back, as Hawke’s disbelief turned to rage. With a shriek of fury, she launched at him, but Swift used her fury like a bullfighter, redirecting her right into the bear man.  The bear man was sent tumbling, while Phoenix flopped to the ground, the rapid rise of her chest the main sign that she was still alive. Seething, Hawke glanced at her prone form, and an evil look came into her eyes.  Spike gasped. “No-no-NO!” But Luco forced him back down, as Hawke struck for Phoenix.  “HEY!” Swift yelled, launching at her.  But just like how he had used Hawke’s anger against her, now she used his worry against him. Catching his strike, Hawke redirected Swift into the ground and pinned him by his shoulders.  “You stupid…” Hawke sneered as she slashed at Swift’s face, “Ungrateful… pretentious… whiny little…” Swift’s screams drowned out her curses as she carved into him. His feathers were flying and Spike feared it wouldn’t be long before blood started to show.  “Stop it!” Spike screamed, pushing with all his might against Luco… but the monkey man stood on his back and forced him to the ground. Same for Night, as ten more goons jumped onto her to hold her in place.  Poor Phoenix was barely coherent, coughing feebly as she squirmed pitifully over to Jackknife, who was only able to let out a low moan of humiliation as the ice held him.  As the bear-man walked over to make sure Phoenix couldn’t do anything else, Swift began to go limp from Hawke’s abuse, and Spike feared that this was the end for them.  But as Verko sauntered over, waving for Hawke to stop… a frightening roar shook the ground before them.  Everyone turned as Diamondback marched out from the rubble of her mountain, her lapis blue eyes nearly pupilless with rage. Her purple robe was burned and shredded, revealing a very muscular frame underneath that - under different circumstances - Spike would’ve found very attractive.  But there was nothing attractive in the look of cold fury Diamondback had, as with a running kick, she punted Luco off Spike’s back, and sent him hurling over the horizon.  At the same moment, Swift found a second wind. Seizing the distracted Hawke, he buried his beak in her neck, and she gagged as he managed to puncture something. Hawke threw him back, but clutched at her neck with a gagging sound, stumbling back and away from him as Swift squirmed free and kicked her away, his wings flapping and creating a gust that threw Hawke into the forest.  At the same time, Diamondback yanked the bear-man harassing Phoenix up by his collar, delivering two brutal punches to his jaw and stomach before hurling him into the ground hard enough to create a crater.  At the same time, the entire diamond dog pack launched onto the dog-creatures burying Night. And as the diamond dogs ripped away their mobster counterparts, Night was finally able to break free and aid the pack in beating down their attackers. With a final roar, Diamondback swung her tail and shattered Jackknife’s icy prison. With a roar of his own, Jackknife launched up to battle… only to find the mooks taken care of:  Night and the dogs stood over the beaten mobsters, Phoenix was still against a tree and recovering, Swift staring after where Verko and Hawke had fled, and Diamondback took a calming breath before going over to Spike.  “Are you alright, darling?” she asked, offering him a hand. “Y-Yeah,” Spike said, taking her hand and pulling himself up. “What about you?” She sighed, glancing down at her ruined robe and up at her ruined cave. “I’ve been better,” she admitted. She turned to her dogs. “Everyone alright?” Shiva turned to her. “We’re fine,” she said. “It doesn’t look like that blast was meant to kill anyone; just incapacitate us long enough for them to capture us.” She turned. “Myst, did you get everyone?” Myst scoffed. “Like I was going to let another psychotic tyrant take even one diamond dog as his slave?” She paused. “No offense, Phoenix.” Phoenix shrugged. “It’s…”  “APPLESAUCE!” Jackknife complained, kicking at one of the unconscious dog mooks with a snarl. “Stinkin’ cowards!” he snapped. “Encase me in ice so I can’t do diddly-squat?! I said I wanted to MAKE UP for being in a dang cell all the last adventure!”  Spike suppressed a grin at Jackknife’s rather comical tantrum, but Swift’s voice knocked the grin clean off Spike’s face.  “You’ll get your chance, Jack,” Swift replied.  The others joined him, finding him staring down at Verko’s footprints. Alongside the mole creature were prints from a griffon. Prints speckled with a dark substance. A dark substance that grew less and less prominent as the prints stopped, implying Hawke had managed to take to the sky.  Swift glared up at the clouds. “Hawke’s still out there,” he growled. “And I think we can assume she’s not going to stop until she’s taken everything I care about.”   Night sighed and stretched. “Welp,” she noted. “Not the first time I’ve had someone swear vengeance against me.” She pat Swift’s back. “When she comes back, we’ll handle her.”  Spike tried to smile, but his smile faded when Swift didn’t even grin back. His eyes - now an odd ice blue - were narrowed on the horizon. And when he spoke, it was in a far more pronounced growl than his usual nervous twitter.  “No,” Swift said. “She’s not coming back.” He turned to the others, and even Diamondback stepped back from the look in his eyes. “We’re tracking her down. And we’re gonna make sure she never gets the chance to hurt any of us again.”