Chapter 17: Birds of a Feather
Chapter 17: Birds of a Feather
Rainbow snarled as she chewed on the hempen rope in her jaws. The taut cord was securely tied around a heavy wooden beam suspended from the roof of the post office, and Rainbow was pulling with all her might to haul it up to her level. The old rope scratched at her tongue and jaws, but Rainbow only narrowed her ruby eyes and gave another sharp tug with her neck.
“C’mon… keep it steady,” Hawk called out from just out of sight. The brown stallion held the underside of the angled beam over his head while his wings pumped vigorously to help Rainbow lift it. Careful adjustments from his wings kept the beam from rotating too far to the left or right in the gentle summer breeze, and together, the two pegasi made slow but sure progress.
“Alright, you’re good!” Hawk finally shouted, maneuvering the beam against the side of the tower. Rainbow Dash nodded and backpedaled towards the nearest support, making sure to keep the rope taut. Carefully leaning around the wooden pillar, she looped the rope around and lashed it tight. A few tentative tugs on the rope let the knot settle firm, and she nodded towards Hawk Tail.
“Good!”
Hawk Tail let out a soft grunt and drifted away from the swaying beam. He pulled out several long iron nails, a flat wooden block, and a horseshoe from the pouch under his left wing and set them on the lip of the elevated platform closest to the beam. While Rainbow Dash approached, he snatched the wooden block between his teeth and fit a nail in the cylinder carved out of the bottom, making sure that the piece of iron was securely fastened.
Glancing up, he exchanged a quick smile with Rainbow Dash. “Hold the beam against the wall, would you?” he asked. “Make sure it’s flush with the surface.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Here I am, just a little more than a week after I broke my wing, and you’re having me do manual labor.”
“Hey, you didn’t complain when we were knocking over trees the other day.”
“Because that was fun,” Rainbow said, smirking slightly. “Watching them fall? Nyeeeeeerrrrrrboom!! There’s just something great about knocking over a twenty foot tree, you know?” Nevertheless, she placed her hooves on either side of the wooden beam and held it against the side of the office’s balcony.
“I suppose,” Hawk mused for a second. Then his rear hoof stomped onto the horseshoe, allowing it to firmly grip his hoof, before dropping below the wooden beam. He carefully slotted the nail into the groove carved into the beam and made sure it was perpendicular to the office’s siding. Fluttering back a few feet, he spun in place and kicked out his shod hoof so it hit the wooden block dead on.
Kerthunk!
The wooden block popped off of the head of the buried nail, and Hawk Tail swooped low to grab it before it hit the ground. When he rose back up to get another nail, Rainbow was looking at him with one eyebrow raised. “That’s some way to hammer a nail, eh?”
Hawk shrugged. “It works,” he merely claimed, socketing another nail to the wooden block. “Better than trying to swing a hammer while flying. It doesn’t really work that well.”
“I can imagine,” Rainbow said, watching the pegasus dip back down to slot the next nail and repeat the process. It took two bucks to drive the nail in this time, and Hawk nearly fumbled the wooden block as it popped free. “Why didn’t you get Wrangler or Combine to help you with this? They’re earth ponies. Wrangler probably could’ve hauled the beam up by herself.”
“Because,” Hawk began, pausing to take the block in his teeth and fit a third nail, “I already asked for their help after the storm that brought you here. They helped fix most of the office before you woke up; it was in pretty bad shape after the storm. There were just a few things that they couldn’t get to, like this truss. It’s a little hard to reach when you don’t have wings, right?”
“I swear, you need a freaking fire exit on this thing,” Rainbow commented. “You know, in case poor little ponies like me get stuck up here and can’t get back down.”
Another solid thunk, and Hawk’s head reappeared above the platform. “Yeah, well it makes it easier to keep you from escaping.”
Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him. “Jeez, Hawk, I didn’t think you’d resort to anything to get a mare.”
“Only the pretty ones,” he countered, giving Rainbow a wink. When he disappeared below the truss to hammer in the last nail, the mare’s muzzle scrunched up. He rose back up just in time to see the last vestiges of it disappear from Rainbow’s face. “What?”
Rather than answering, Rainbow gave him a playful frown and flicked his nose with her good wing, then went to sit by the raptors’ cages while Hawk rose up to buck in the nails to secure the truss to the roof.
A half-hearted screech tipped Rainbow’s head back towards the cage above her. Inside, the raptor that had hissed at her the last time she’d visited the post office kept its avian eyes fixed on her. It angled its head first one way, then the other, and gave a sharp tug on the door of its cage with its hooked beak.
Rainbow smirked at it. “Sorry, bub, I’m not letting you out.” Sighing, she folded her forelegs across her chest and leaned back, her eyes dancing over the contours of the canopy across the clearing. Unfortunately she didn’t get to rest long; a sudden tug on her scalp made her yelp and scramble away from the cages, where the falcon held a few yellow and orange hairs in its beak. Grumbling, Rainbow rubbed at the sore spot on her head and turned towards Hawk. “Hawk, your birds hate me!”
Hawk Tail finished bucking the last nail into the beam and fluttered down to the platform, kicking off his horseshoe and dropping the wooden block at his hooves. He only raised a skeptical eyebrow at Rainbow Dash and shook his head, chuckling. “Somebody needs to be taught some manners.”
“I know, right?” Rainbow muttered, still rubbing the spot where the falcon had liberated some of her mane.
“I wasn’t talking about the bird,” Hawk replied, playfully flicking the tip of Rainbow’s wild mane with a wing.
Rainbow pressed a hoof to her chest. “Who, me? C’mon, Hawk, I’m about the most manners-ist pony there is!” Her sarcastic smile got a chuckle out of Hawk, who shook his head. “Alright then, why don’t you show me how it’s done, oh Master of Birds?”
“Sure,” Hawk answered, turning towards the cages. A masterful flick of his hoof unlocked the cage of the falcon that’d bit off part of Rainbow’s mane, and he whistled to it as he opened the door.
Rainbow meanwhile shied away from the door. “Uh… how about not that one? It’s already got a taste for my flesh.”
The stallion rolled his eyes and stuck his foreleg in front of the cage, and the falcon cried out once before hopping on his fetlock. “Oh, don’t be such a foal, Rainbow,” he said, turning and holding his hoof out so Rainbow could get a good look at the bird. “Besides, they can sense fear.”
“Pfff. I’m not afraid of him,” Rainbow said, although she kept her ruby eyes locked on the falcon the whole time. The bird only turned its head sideways at her and made a short cooing noise before flipping its beak around and preening some of the feathers on its back.
“Her,” Hawk Tail corrected, pulling his hoof slightly towards his body so he could get a good look at the preening falcon. “Isabella’s just playful, is all. She was the youngest of a clutch of four, and she acts it.” Motioning to Rainbow, he held his hoof out to her. “Go on. She likes being held.”
Rainbow bit her lip and gingerly extended her hoof towards the bird. The falcon watched her cyan hoof extend with one golden eye, pausing in its preening as it did so. When Rainbow’s hoof was within reach of the raptor, however, it quickly spun around and threateningly opened its beak, making a strange hissing noise as it did so. Rainbow quickly withdrew her hoof, and the bird made a sort of yawning motion before closing its beak and standing up straight again, where it went back to preening.
“She doesn’t like me,” Rainbow said, half-disappointed and half-relieved, as she set her hoof back down.
The corners of Hawk’s mouth turned up and he once more extended his hoof towards Rainbow. “Be a little more confident. She doesn’t bite hard unless you make her mad. Just stick your hoof under her belly and move towards her legs. She has to step onto it then if she doesn’t want to get knocked over.”
Gulping, Rainbow once more held out her hoof towards Isabella. This time, when the falcon hissed at her, Rainbow quickly reached for the raptor’s chest. The bird bit Rainbow’s fetlock once, but it more startled Rainbow than anything; it didn’t really bite that hard. Trying again, Rainbow managed to get her hoof under the falcon and lift, causing the irritated falcon to hop onto her cerulean foreleg.
“Ha… H-Hawk, I did it!” Rainbow exclaimed, her wide eyes fixated on the bird. After gently pecking at Rainbow’s leg once or twice, the falcon tightened its taloned grip on Rainbow’s leg and held out a wing to start preening it.
“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Hawk asked, walking over to stand by Rainbow’s side. Wings brushing against each other, both pegasi looked on as the raptor made itself comfortable on Rainbow’s foreleg and occasionally let out a quiet, contented chirp.
“She’s a merlin falcon,” Hawk said, his eyes focused on the raptor as his cheek drifted closer and closer to Rainbow’s. “They’re very intelligent and very skilled hunters. They like chasing other birds and each other, like they’re playing a game of tag. And they’re very fast, too.”
“Huh… sounds like my kind of bird,” Rainbow said, head slowly tilting side to side as she got a better look at the falcon.
“Well, according to a book written a few centuries ago by a knight named Albans, merlin falcons are a lady’s falcon,” he said, shooting a glance at Rainbow.
Rainbow blinked once, then drew her head back. “I am not a lady,” she insisted, raising one eyebrow at him. “Not in the slightest.”
“Really?” Hawk countered, shooting a teasing glance at her. “You certainly look like one to me.”
“Mare, yes, lady, no,” Rainbow shot back. “I mean, do you even know me?”
“Only as much as you do,” Hawk answered. He rubbed a hoof against his chin as if he was thinking something over. “You know, I think you’d look good in a dress. I bet Flurry has a few old ones lying around her place; she likes to play dress-up when she’s not knee deep in ice sculptures.”
Rainbow stuck her tongue out at him. “Now hold on a second,” she started, bringing her fetlock around to point at Hawk. The sudden motion, however, caused Isabella to flare out her wings as she lost balance. Rather than dig her talons into Rainbow’s foreleg, however, the merlin falcon instead gave a few flaps of her wings to get airborne, where it spun in place and landed squarely between Rainbow’s ears. Chirping once, the raptor settled down and went back to preening as if nothing was wrong.
Rainbow, however, was cringing as she felt the falcon’s sharp talons wiggle around on top of her skull. She held the crest of her good wing over her shoulder, as if she was trying to make herself as small as possible, and her broken wing likewise twitched in its sling as it tried but failed to mirror the motion. Keeping her worried ruby eyes on the falcon’s tail, which was hanging out just over her muzzle, she called out in a low voice, “Hawk…”
Hawk Tail, meanwhile, was struggling not to laugh. “Having fun there, Rainbow?” he asked, casually pointing a wing towards the bird perched on Rainbow’s head. “She likes you.”
“Yeah, well I’ll like her a lot more if she doesn’t poop on my nose,” Rainbow said. “Please help.”
Chuckling, Hawk whistled two notes and held out his wing. The falcon perked up at the tone, and with a little answering cry, spread its wings and hopped onto Hawk’s outstretched wing. He gave the bird a small nuzzle behind its neck before carefully placing it back in its cage, where it chirped once and began to pick at some mouse meat it had sitting in the back, tearing the flesh into red strands which it readily gulped down.
With the bird gone from her head, Rainbow lowered her wing and let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks,” she said, her eyes regarding the falcon as it happily tore into its meal. “She’s a pretty cool bird.”
“And you thought she was pure evil,” Hawk teased, shutting the cage door and draping a wing over Rainbow’s side. The smaller mare gave a little shrug of her shoulders and leaned against Hawk, her eyes wandering over all of the different cages.
“Well when something hisses and lunges at you and rips out your hair, it doesn’t make a good impression, does it?” Rainbow asked, taking her eyes away from the cages to stare into Hawk’s from below.
Hawk shrugged. “There’s more to people than how they act on the outside.”
Rainbow hummed her agreement. Comfortable silence lingered between them for a minute more before Rainbow asked, “So they all have names?”
An excited smile appeared on Hawk’s face. “Oh, you bet. Here, let me show you.”
And the couple went towards the far end of the post office, where Hawk Tail began to show Rainbow the raptors one by one. Rainbow only half paid attention to the birds, but she was fully content to listen to Hawk excitedly tell her about each one. It was all she needed, and all she really wanted. She happily sighed to herself and let her coat brush against Hawk’s as he talked.
This day was going to be perfect.
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It's a nice, sweet chapter - a good way to relieve the tension and show more of Dash and Hawk's new dynamics. Definitely enjoyed it and definitely looking forwards to more
So much fluff
I approve, haha.
That just means it's going to happen in the next chapter.
But, I'll enjoy the adorableness.
But enough about you, Rainbow, what do you think about the hawks?
Foreshadowing? Changelings!?
Good job on writing/spelling/grammar btw. Keep it up!
Finally caught up to this, interesting story and an adorable chapter.
Also
24 pls
Update!
Thank you !
Imagine Rainbow's surprise when she remembers that she picked a turtle over a falcon...
Hmm... When shall the next chapter be released, if i may so ask?
5858243
I alternate updates of this with my other in-progress story, Summer Lands. When I finish the next chapter of Summer Lands, I'll be working on the next one for this story. With college finals and the like around the corner, however, it might take a while. Also, I'm not sure when you started reading, but a few weeks ago (March 27th) I rewrote the first chapter entirely, so if you haven't read that, I'd recommend going back and reading it again.
Loving this story. Looking forward to the next chapter, whenever that time comes.
When can we expect the next update?
6040500
I'm about to start writing the next chapter sometime this week. I'll be updating my other story, Summer Lands, then possibly releasing a one-shot I wrote while in Europe. I foolishly forgot to download my original copy of this story to my laptop before going on vacation, so I wasn't able to get any work done on it in the ample time I had. Rest assured that more is coming, and soon.
....so THAT'S what happened to her after she and her hive got blasted out of Canterlot....
She's Queen Chrysalis with amnesia and stuck looking like Rainbow!