The ponies of the town gathered around our group below as more and more of the town heard about what was happening. Luna hid behind Celestia, who had a worried look on her face, and Starswirl made a flickering dome around them. He had a terrified look on his face as the crowd pressed closer. And with the shield up he couldn’t teleport out. “BE QUIEEEEEET!!” Shouted Bullseye from below. I watched from above, ready to dive in at a moments notice. Though I had a feeling the town ponies wouldn't hurt them. “Now ah know your all excited!” Bullseye continued. “But we’ve been through a rough spot recently! So we wouldn’t mind if you would all kindly back off for a while! Just long enough for us to get some rest at an inn!”
“You can stay at my inn for free!!”
“I’ll pay you to stay at my inn!!!” The ponies all began offering free accommodations to the group, excitedly pestering them. With a grimace Starswirl’s shield fell down. The ponies began to press closer and Luna got a scared look on her face. Stone Slab and Bullseye got worried looks, along with the rest of the ones not being mobbed. As the crowd grew a little too close a few tears came to Luna’s eyes. Thats enough of that.
“KEEEEEEEEAR!” I dropped like a bullet, opening my wings at the last moment, and landed with a wave of air beside the sisters. “CAAAAW!!” I spread my wings around them and glared at the ponies.
“Oh yeah! He’s with us to!!” Bullseye said, looking relieved. The locals looked between me, the sisters under my wings, and Starswirl. Swirl let out a tired sigh.
“We’ll stay with whoever will take us.” Swirl announced. All the hooves raised into the air. “All, of us.” Most of the hooves went down. Most ponies didn’t have the space for that many guest. “Including him.” Swirl pointed at me. At this only one hoof remained. Yes yes, let’s all exile the giant hawk. I thought wryly. I was a little insulted, but not enough to care. Swirl went up to the pony with their hoof up. The crowd parted as he walked through it, a couple even bowed. “What’s your name?” He asked the mare.
“Tidy house!” She practically yelled. She slapped her hooves over her mouth. “Sorry. I’m just excited.” Starswirl had a look of irritation and slight relief as he looked around at the crowd.
“Yes, well. We have had a.....long trip. Could you please take us to where we can rest? We can discuss payment letter.” Swirl told the mare. She paled slightly at the mention of payment, but nodded and started walking through the town excitedly. The crowd parted to let us through, though I saw one or two cautious looks sent my way. The crowd around us murmured quietly as we passed and it slowly began to disperse. By the time we reached the little two story building, we only had a few ponies still following us. And they left when we went through the doors. I was holding Luna under my wing while Celestia stuck close to Starswirl. Everyone except for Tidy seemed to relax when we got inside.
“That was....interesting.” Misty looked around the main room. She went to land but winced when her foot touched the ground. “Hey uh, Tidy.” She looked over at the earth pony. “Would you happen to know where I could find a doctor? My leg is pretty messed up.” Tidy gasped when she saw her leg.
“Oh, you poor thing! What happened?” She ran up to Misty and started cradling her leg. Much to Misty’s discomfort.
“Uh, Timberwolf. Sooooooo where is the doctor?” She forcefully pulled her leg out of Tidy’s grip.
“Just down the road, it’s the building with the scalpel on the sign.”
“Thanks, and uh. Would you know where the blacksmith is too?” Misty asked.
“At the end of the same road.” With that, Misty flew out the door and went to get her leg healed. Now, if you will all follow me, I will show you to your rooms!” She happily pranced down a hallway forcing us to hurry after her. She stopped in front of a door near the end of the hallway. “You two love birds can stay here.” She pointed at Bullseye and Stone Slab.
“What!? No, we’re not-!” Stone Slab started, while Bullseye just made a fish impression. Tidy moved to the door right across from it.
“You and your daughters are welcome to this room!” She told Starswirl.
“Thank you. We appreciate this very much.” Swirl thanked her. The sisters smiled at her as well before they went into the room to rest. The mare looks at me nervously and led me to the last room.
“The only room big enough left is this one.” She stood by the plain white door. I reached out a talon to open it, but I stopped when she flinched. Instead I tried to use my telekinesis to open it. After a moment of concentration a black aura appeared around the handle. Giving it a twist, the door swung inwards to reveal a standard hotel room....for this time period. No plumbing and all that. Still had a bathroom, sink, and bedroom/living room. The mare looked around the hall for a minute before looking back at me. “Did you open the door?”
“Chirp.” I nodded my head. Her eyes got a little wider for a moment before she remembered something.
“Oh! Right. You’ll have to share this room with that pegasus from earlier. This is the only room I have left at the moment. Some ponies came into town yesterday and are using the other rooms.” Yay.... I didn’t really mind. I would most likely be gone for a few hours anyway. I was getting hungry.
“Chirp!” I bowed my head at her in thanks. She quickly, and excitedly, walked away to the front desk. I looked at the room then shook my head and closed the door. I would rest later. I wasn’t really tired. I went down the hall and to the front room. Nodding to Tidy on the way out, I opened the front door and took off into the sky. Soaring away from the town was hard to do without attracting attention. Ponies below looked up as I flew by. I focused for a moment and my feathers appeared to burst into fire. I smirked as I heard several gasp from below. I am fire. I am death. I joked with myself.
Soon enough the town disappeared and was replaced by forest. Keeping an eye out, I searched for anything to eat. It’s been awhile since I last ate. Or slept. Pondering over my situation, I spotted something small moving through the woods below. I looked closer to see a white bunny running through the woods. I swooped down towards him as quietly as I could. Which was apparently pretty quiet. “KEEEEEEAAR!!!” I cried as I sunk my talons into it, blackening the flesh with frostbite. Sinking my beak into the dead animal was like a knife through hot butter. It tasted just as good as the last rabbit I ate. Some part of me was a little disturbed by eating raw rabbits. But it was quickly shoved aside. The red meat tasted amazing and I made short work of it. Leaving the pile on bones where they were for some animal to find, I took off. I flew back towards town until I noticed I had some blood on my beak. Diving down into a passing river quickly solved that problem. I resumed my journey back to the inn and spotted Misty going through town. She was heading to a building that was spewing smoke from a large chimney. Must be the blacksmith. I’d like to see that actually. Deciding to take a small detour, I headed down to meet up with Misty. She jumped a little as I landed beside her.
“Jeez! Fly a little louder would you? I’m gunna have a heart attack.” Misty scolded me. I smiled and just pointed at her leg. “Oh yeah, the doctor fixed it up! Good as new! The unicorns have one thing going for them, and that’s magic. It has its uses.”
“Chirp?” I pointed at the blacksmith.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind some company. I’m just going to get my blades repaired.” She opens her wing and showed her broken wing blades underneath. “Yeah, they took a beating. But they’ve been with me forever. So I’m not getting new ones till I destroy these.” She smiled at the blades. She must really like those blades.
We walked up to the entrance of the blacksmith. Loud bangs and clangs came from inside. The banging was followed by a loud hissing. Like water getting put on a fire. Misty knocked on the door and a voice yelled out. “Just a minute! I’ll be right there.” A moment later a large earth pony opened the door. He narrowed his eyes at Misty, and narrowed them even more when he saw me. “What do you want?”
“Well you see. I was hoping to get my wingblades fixed-.”
“No.”
“What?” Misty got an angry look on her face.
“I said no. I ain’t fixing no blades for a pegasi and her weird pet. Now get going.” He said before slamming the door. PET!? Oh come on! Where has this guy been the last few hours? I walked up to the door, raised a talon and beat the door half to death. The same earth pony opened the door. “Now I’ve done said no!! Take your business else where!” I glared at him and levitated the wings blades over to me. “No.” He looked at Misty. “Now get your freaky bird away from here. Before I call the guard.”
“Oh come on!!” Misty was furious. “At least let us talk!!”
“I’m not fixing anything for a pegasus. Not ever.” The earth pony stated. Misty got a contemplative look on her face.
“What if we just used your forge? You wouldn’t have to do anything.” Misty asked. The earth pony thought about it.
“I don’t see why not. Good luck finding someone to work it though. I’m the only pony in town who knows how.” He smirked. “Now go on! Unless you find someone to work the forge your not allowed in here!” He promptly slammed the door.
“Great. How are we going to find someone to work the forge.” Misty looked around irritated.
“Chirp.” I pointed towards the inn. From what I remembered Silver Anvil was a blacksmith.
“Your right! Silver! I’m sorry for all the times I called you a feather brain in my head!” She took off towards the hotel. Im not sure whether to be insulted or not.
An hour later saw us knocking at the door again. “Now Look here. I said don’t come back till you found a smith!”
“We did! This here is Silver Anvil. He was a smith back at my town!” Misty introduced Silver. Silver waved shyly at the big stallion.
“All right, fine. I suppose a deals a deal.” He visibly deflated. “It’d probably be quicker to just let you get it over with. Darn stubborn pegasi.” He moved aside and let us into the building. “But if you leave a mess, or break my tools, I’m billing you! With that he walked off to sit and grumble behind the main counter. We continued into the back of the shop where the big forge was.
“Here’s my blades Silver. Take care of them.” Misty gave her wing blades to Silver. A smile came onto his face as he took them in his magic. At the same time, half the tools lit up with his magic and the forge burst to life. He stuck the blades into the fire for awhile before pulling them out red hot. Tools began to fly around the room as he looked through them and chose which ones he would need. Something tells me this is going to be interesting.
The chapter is very well in my book. I hope more come soon. Also, may good fortune smile upon you.
There's lots of birds that can mimic speech, maybe a little effort?
Caw.
You could probably do owl noises, if you wanted to. Birds' syrinxes can do a surprising amount. That's how some parakeets learn how to talk - it seems to be mostly a matter of intelligence. The bird noises here might just be muscle memory.
My parrot makes clicking noises to simulate music it sounds like the noise you'd make to call your dog or cat, he can make a high pitch squeak to show he's happy, and he makes this weird growl thing when he flies around that sounds like a zombie growl... I love my bird
Arah is a predatory caw
8809321
there's this thing called moulting and preening, both of which remove dead or broken feathers. They grow back.
8809860
I’m considering it, but I think I’m going to have him not talk. Ever. Except for for specific circumstances. Like Vulcan mind melding. Or having your dreams invaded by blue pony princesses. Or maybe some other diabolical mind......thing. Like an inverted TARDIS. Try in-visioning THAT!!!
Kakaw, craAa, reEEEEEEEEEEEE, “chirp chirp I’m a birdy too” come to mind for bird sounds
This is a really unique and well written story, keep it up!
The only thing that I would like is more Luna if you could?
Otherwise this is awesome!
8812235
Okay so trying to communicate is an issue but couldn't he write out what he wants to say on his body? His feathers act as an illusion that he has full control of. It would be one of the more interesting ways to communicate. "Talk with body art".
Also with the high amount of detail his feather illusions have, couldn't they act as a TV and play memories/thoughts?
Also does he have control over feathers not attach to him anymore? He could essentially act as a spy drone if he can.
I like this story so far! Its giving me so many ideas! I still want to know the extent of his abilities, though. He also seems to have ice powers but we don't know how far those go.
Update?
8815380
Ah yes. Your very smart.....to smart. Lol. I do have plans for feather communication (lol) and for detached feathers. Those are really important. And scratching stuff in the dirt? Psh who needs that when you can write with levitation!?
8812361
Luna shall have her time. Much of it. Sort of. NMM kinda happens, so she loses 1000 years worth of time by default.....
8812347
Cacaw! Cacaw! Tooki Tooki!! (Ever seen that movie? XD)
8815801
Cool
(OH MY GOD THESE ARE THE NICEST PEOPLE ON EARTH)
Sorry I just got here
8815878
Of course, but I thought we established that it didn’t work
8816290
....should he start singing? It worked then.....
I know ravens can croak, not sure about crows though. Other than the fact that crows can imitate small amounts of speech the only other big sound i can think of is cooing, clicking the beak or tapping with the beak or the talons, it's a big bird so the tapping would be pretty loud. I'll link the same video as i did last chapter for the crow imitating speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ0yrG-Yz88
here's an example of the cooing, but i think there's alot of variety to their ability there (hence being able to imitate speech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOfNKNXLijA
8811573
tail feathers aren't totally necessary for flight, but they certainly would make it easier.
8815801
Thanks for the complement! I completely forgot about levitation and since he can do some/all unicorn magic he probably has more options now given how much he can learn. Though have a magical genius and 2 alicorns he can probably figure this out quicker then in any another situation.
I'm also wondering if he can use his illusion feather like flash bombs if he throughs them at the shadow beast. I'm making the assumption light hurts the beast.
8821218
Eh. It’s not strictly made of shadows. It simply exudes shadows. So light may or may not effect it.
8809860>>8809955>>8809957
I can just imagine his first 'Words'. Either 'Fuck you' or doing the 'Let the bodies hit the floor' screaming the last 'Floor!' while diving on a target...
8812235 (no talking birdy) Aww... Anyway, eagles whistle, Doves coo/purr and warble, Cockatiels caulk. I had the image of Him floofing his feathers over Woona like a protective father and cooing like a dove. Or Woona needing to be cheered up or distracted, so he floofs up his chest and neck, blinking one eye at a time, looking absolutely ridiculous.
eagle sounds:
There's a falcon that lives in my neighborhood and just yells KI KI KI KI KI. Similar to the KEAR you already have, I guess, but short and fast.
8890815
Car alarm? The crows around here LOVE imitating car alarms
8975632
Maybe just have him say "CAR!" or "KAR!"
That sounds like something a bird of prey would say.
There's a video on the internet of a cockatiel(?) barking similarly to a dog.
8976216
Or Shriek, maybe some whistling, or clicking, we have a family of hawks in our trees that make some of those sounds.
Just thought of this now: Night Wing using his feathers to show images. Maybe pulling a Bill Cipher, too.
You know, just got an idea. Maybe it would be neat if his changes could be tied to emotions too. Maybe getting red when embarrased? Or only a red head? Just thought that this might be funny seeing as the color change can happen on instinct alone.
8815801
Not to mention, ASL, which you'd have to modify for the fact that his talons only have three "fingers" plus "thumb".
Pay attention to "F" & "U" for those occasions Nightwing might need them -- but there's also the universal sign:
i0.wp.com/bitsandpieces.us/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/imagesbirdflip.jpg?w=630
The specisism is still strong around Equestria i see
Hissing birds. Have you seen that one episode ofImpractical Jokers where Sal had to catch the chickens? They had hissing chickens.
I think we found Fluttershy's ancestor!
9311958
But they don't have fingers.... So why would flipping them off mean anything?
I'm what 5 year's late maybe but...why not talk using the feather changing ability. You know writing with the illusions. If Nightwing can look like teeth, shy with clouds, or hell even bloody space I don't see why he can't just talk with it two