The Drake Six

by JNKing

Episode Eleven: An Appropriate Response

With both Night Fire and Diamondback’s outbursts on his mind, Spike was pretty sure there would be a few ponies that didn’t fully trust his new dragon friends.

Unfortunately, one of those ponies turned out to be Fluttershy.

As Spike learned when he went to check on Fluttershy’s cottage, and found no sign of the dragon-griffon hybrid Swift.

“Uh, Fluttershy?” Spike asked, knocking on her door.

Fluttershy reluctantly opened the door, before noticing it was Spike. “Oh, hi Spike,” she said softly.

“Are you okay?” Spike asked. “Where’s Swift?”

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy glanced away. “He… he wandered into the forest. Said he…” she gulped. “Said he didn’t want to bother me.”

Spike tilted his head. “Why would he be bothering you?”

Fluttershy looked down. “I…” she winced, letting out a small squeak of nervousness.

Spike found himself recalling what had happened with Gilda, a full-blooded griffon. While he didn’t think Swift was anything like Gilda…

“Has Swift… done anything to you?” Spike asked, wincing at how ominous that sounded. “We don’t want a repeat of what happened with Gilda. You know that right?”

Fluttershy didn’t meet his gaze. But before Spike could leave, Fluttershy told him what happened:

##

At first, Swift and Fluttershy had just spent a minute… looking at each other. Nervousness was clear on both their faces, and neither one knew whether it was a good idea to make the first move or not.

The whole time, Fluttershy couldn’t help but think of Gilda. Swift had the same sort of feathers and beak and talons.

Yet… there was something a little different about him. His eyes were a much softer blue as opposed to Gilda’s harsh gold. He didn’t carry himself with the same angry attitude she had.

Fluttershy started to gather her wits about her: she was supposed to be the Element of Kindness. She shouldn’t let old fears get ahold of her. She was better and stronger than she was before. She could do this!

So, she approached Swift, and tried to speak. “H-Hi…”

But at that moment, Swift had gotten distracted by a bird flying by. And at Fluttershy’s word, he jumped and backed up into a tree.

And a bee hive fell on his back.

Swift reared up with a shriek… and in that moment, Fluttershy didn’t see him anymore.

She saw Gilda. Raging at her over just being in her way. In Swift’s cry, she heard Gilda’s roar.

##

“I… I ran back inside… and I didn’t come out even when he knocked.” Fluttershy looked down in shame. “I’m sorry, Spike.”

A bad feeling grew within Spike’s chest, and he turned to the forest. “Okay, hang on,” he said, “I’ll go find him and explain.”

Please, Swift, he thought as he searched. You’ve always been the kindest of us. Please understand.

##

Spike found Swift conversing with birds.

It was actually quite interesting to watch: as Spike approached the bird houses, he couldn’t help but gaze in awe at how perfectly Swift was replicating bird songs.

The birds would twitter and tweet at him, and he’d patiently let them sing before twittering right back, with them happily falling silent to listen as well. It was beyond anything Spike had seen Fluttershy do; she had always conversed with her birds in the native tongue.

Remembering Twilight’s first meeting with Fluttershy and how she had scared the birds away unintentionally, Spike chose to sit and wait for Swift and the birds to finish their songs. It took a while, but at least the music was nice to listen to.

Eventually, Swift turned away, a small smile on his face. Though the smile quickly dropped as he saw Spike.

“Oh, hey Spike,” he mumbled, turning back to the bird houses. “I’m uh…”

“First meeting didn’t go well?” Spike asked.

Swift didn’t say anything, but Spike saw the shake of his head. Spike sighed and walked over to him, sitting down next to the hybrid.

“You’re not in trouble, you know?” Spike assured him. “I just want to know what happened.”

“Well, it wasn’t anything… dramatic,” Swift said. “No arguments or explosions like with DB or Night. But… the whole time I was there… Fluttershy kept… looking at me.”

Spike nodded. “She kept looking at your griffon half.”

Swift nodded sadly. “Yeah. And I could tell I frightened her. And it…” His feathers drooped as he looked down. “And it reminded me of something.”

Spike nodded encouragingly, motioning for Swift to tell his story.

##

It had been years ago; when Swift was still growing up. He had been training with Hawke, trying to figure out how to fight.

But as Hawke had thrown him to the ground, his rough landing had disturbed a mouse nest. A little white mouse poked her head out of the dirt. And for what felt like an hour, Swift and the mouse just gazed at each other.

The mouse didn’t look on Swift with anger or rage the way Hawke did. It looked at him with cautious curiosity. It was a new feeling, to be regarded as something new rather than a disappointment. Even if it was from something as simple as a mouse.

Hesitantly, Swift started to raise his talons in a show of harmlessness… only for Hawke to stomp his beak into the dirt and spring at the mouse herself.

As Swift pulled himself up, his heart settled by a fraction as he saw the mouse get away from his cruel aunt. But when the mouse looked back, it no longer held that curiosity. It was replaced with fear.

No longer was Swift seen as something new. Now he was seen as something scary. Something dangerous. A…

“Freak,” Hawke spat at him. “How dare you not make that thing afraid of you! You’re a hybrid; dragon and griffon unnaturally aligned. Everything should be afraid of you! EVERYTHING SHOULD RUE THE DAY THEY MET YOU!”

##

Spike could only shake his head as Swift started trying to smooth his bristling feathers down.

“I know what she said was wrong,” Swift said. “But… when Fluttershy looked at me… it was just like that little mouse. The look in her eyes just said… ‘You are a monster.’ ‘You are a freak.’” He looked down. “Everything my aunt wanted me to be.”

Spike stood and gripped Swift’s shoulders. “You’re not a freak, Swift,” he assured his friend. “And Fluttershy doesn’t think that either. She just had a bad run in with another griffon.” He grimaced, almost wanting to compare Gilda to Hawke, though he wasn’t sure if even Gilda deserved to be compared to that horrendous bird Swift had to call family.

“I don’t know how to change her mind,” Swift admitted, gazing down at his feathers. “How am I supposed to change what I am?”

At that moment, a bird flitted down next to Swift’s shoulder, and offered him a worm. As Swift took the worm in confusion, the bird twittered at him, and nipped affectionately at one of his feathers, trying to smooth it back down.

Spike smiled. “Maybe you don’t have to,” he noted. He hesitantly offered a talon to the bird, before pausing. “Er… can you tell the bird that…”

“He calls himself Thunder Talons,” Swift replied with a vague grin.

Spike chuckled. “Alright then… can you tell Thunder Talons that I have an idea?”

Swift twittered at Thunder Talons, who tweeted back. Swift snickered. “He says you can tell him yourself; he knows how our tongue is spoken, even if he can’t replicate it.”

##

Spike returned to Fluttershy’s cottage with Thunder Talons and Swift in tow… only to find that Fluttershy had the same idea. Heading out with a bucket of bird seed, she froze as she saw Swift again.

Swift, for his part, froze as well. Caution and fear shined bright in his eyes.

“Remember the plan, buddy,” Spike soothed, grinning down at the little songbird in Swift’s talons. “Can you give him a, uh… talon?”

Twittering, the bird flew out of Swift’s talons and landed on Fluttershy’s nose. It began to tweet at her as she stared cross-eyed at the songbird.

“Oh!” Fluttershy gasped, bringing the little bird in. “While hello Timothy.”

The bird began a series of chirps and tweets.

“Is that right?” Fluttershy asked.

More tweets and a few twitters.

“He did?” she exclaimed.

Swift leaned over to Spike as Thunder continued to tweet. “Is this… normally how conversations go with them?”

“More or less,” Spike admitted.

Swift smiled fondly at that, but then Fluttershy gazed up at Swift, her eyes turning from worry and caution to shame. Letting Thunder Talons fly off her nose, the yellow pegasus hesitantly walked over to the two.

At first, Swift and Fluttershy avoided eye contact. But then…

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said.

Swift and Spike looked at her in surprise.

“You’re nothing like… like Gilda,” Fluttershy said. “And it was wrong of me to see you that way.” She teared up. “I just…” She sniffled. “She was so scary. And I didn’t know what I did wrong…”

Swift winced, glancing at Spike before hesitantly coming forward. “Hey-hey,” he said. “It’s okay…”

Fluttershy looked up at him, and he backed up, holding his arms up in a show of harmlessness. Spike, however, gently nudged him.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “Keep going.”

Swift still looked very uncertain and worried. But as Fluttershy gazed at him, the fear being replaced with the curiosity that Swift had spoke of, the hybrid gently embraced Fluttershy with a hug.

“I…” Swift admitted. “Don’t know if I’m doing this right. I never…”

Smiling faintly, Fluttershy embraced him as well. “Just like this,” she said gently.

Tears coming to his own eyes, Swift hugged Fluttershy close. And in that moment, all the fear and doubt melted away from them.

Then the doubt briefly came back to Swift. “Um… how long do we…”

Fluttershy chuckled and released him. “That’s enough for now,” she said, separating from him.

The two grinned awkwardly before Swift glanced up at Thunder Talons. “So… did you know he likes to go by Thunder Talons?”

Fluttershy giggled. “I thought that was just what his rivals called him,” she admitted.

“Well, he takes a lot of pride in it,” Swift admitted. “Same for Shiny Feathers; I think we can both assume why he likes his shiny feathers, right?”

Fluttershy smiled. “Oh, I know exactly why. He always wants me to leave out bird baths and plenty of things for him to wash himself with.”

Swift shrugged, preening his own feathers. “It’s important to keep one’s feathers clean.”

Fluttershy brushed at her own wings. “Sure, but… I worry sometimes about him.”

The two chuckled and continued to bond over their avian friends. And as they talked, Spike found his work to be once again complete for now. Leaving them to their bird talk, Spike returned home to make another letter:

##

My friends Twilight and Princess Celestia,

Kindness always takes a special kind of courage; the courage to believe that a person is a friend you haven’t met yet.

It can be difficult to see others like this; especially when you’ve been hurt in the past, and don’t know who you can trust.

Fluttershy showed me this when interacting with Swift, as it was apparent that her encounter with the griffon Gilda left her less than certain that Swift could be a friend.

But Fluttershy and Swift both share the hearts of lions. And utilizing the courage to step up and take a chance with each other, I’m happy to say that not only has Fluttershy made a new friend, but she’s also come to see that while some griffons can be mean or nasty…

…Some of them can be as sweet as songbirds.

Your assistant and friend,

Spike

Comments

[Comickook]

Again, a wonderful job on the exchanges, characterizations, general wrap-up and future chapter set-up in all the right places. REALLY appreciated Spike working with Swift and Fluttershy concerning working through their initial issues with each other. And, yeah, makes sense that Fluttershy's issues with Gilda combined with her phobia of adult dragons would lead to them getting off on the wrong hoof/talon. And, yeah, Spike, unknown to himself at this time, had a point about how Gilda DOESN'T deserve to be compared to Hawke (something Spike and his friends might find out for certain if the Drake Six have an adventure in Griffonstone after teaming up with the Mane Six against Sombra [which could lead to the Drake Six becoming a positive inspiration to Gabby and Gallus as well as helping out Gilda]). Also loved seeing Swift help out with those birds, leading to him and Fluttershy overcoming their initial bad first impression.

REALLY looking forward to more of this.

[AstralFlare42]

Nice. I'm guessing that next is either Twilight or Applejack.

[Comickook]

11551050
Applejack, actually. Spike himself is the one with Twilight's role in the Drake Six and Twilight and Spike have already known each other for the entirety of Spike's life and the majority of Twilight's.

[AstralFlare42]

11551082
You never know.

[JNKing]

11551032

Really happy you're enjoying.

Agreed on Gilda not deserving to be compared to Hawke. I'm definitely going to enjoy any adventures where Swift is able to see the better side of his father race.

11551050

And Applejack's definitely going to be next. Her part with Phoenix might be as dramatic as Diamondback's or Swift, but I'm hoping it'll still be fun to read them overcoming it.

Thank you both for reading, and I look forward to sharing more.

Until then.

👍

[Thomlight Sparkle 1]

This was a beautiful chapter. Well written.

[JNKing]

11551635
Thank you so much.