Red Hawk

Red Hawk has never been in a train before, but he could already tell he doesn’t like the experience. whether it was the seats which were too hard, or there wasn’t enough room to stand in, he doesn’t like being in the train. When Red Hawk dropped Scootaloo and her two friends down at the farm, Twilight managed to track and him down and said that the princess wanted to meet him, so now Red Hawk was sitting in fairly spacious car…but was still sitting in a not to comfortable seat.

“Are we there yet?” Red Hawk asked Twilight, already itching to leave the train car.

“We’re almost there Red Hawk.” The unicorn said to her human friend before turning to look out the window. “In fact, we’re just entering the station right now.”

The train did start to slow down until it came to a full stop, and once it did, Red Hawk and his pony friends began leaving the car, and when they were out Red Hawk spread his wings to stretch them out. And as he did so, every pony at the station looked upon them in awe. after stretching his wings, and his body, Red Hawk then followed Twilight and her friends to the castle, while having numerous ponies gawked and watch them as they trot by. Eventually the group made their way to the castle, following Twilight as she apparently used to live in this city, before moving to Ponyville a few months ago.

Roughly fifteen or so minutes of walking later, the group eventually made it to the castle and Red Hawk whistled as he looked the structure over, after all, it was a freaking castle. They don’t really have those in the US where Red Hawk is naturally from. The rest of Twilight’s friends also had the same astonished looks on their faces, as this was also their first time coming to the castle, let alone be able to visit it. Twilight then lead her friends through the front gate of the castle, before steering them through the winding hallways towards the throne room, where Celestia was waiting for them. but as they were making their way to the throne room, the guards they passed by kept their eyes solely on Red Hawk, which the young man didn’t mind. As he was more focused on examining the interior of the castle.

“Here we are.”

Twilight said as the group closed on some very large golden double doors, which began to slowly open to allow the group to enter the room. and as they did so, Red Hawk saw a large white winged unicorn sitting on a throne.

“I take it that’s the princess?” Red Hawk whispered to Rarity.

“Yes. That is princess Celestia, so make sure you’re on your best behavior darling.” The posh unicorn whispered back as the group stopped half-way to the throne, as the princess left her seat, and proceeded to make her way over to the group. As the six ponies bowed to the princess, she gave them all a small curt nod, before making her way over to Red Hawk.

The young man remained perfectly still as the princess brought her face within a foot of his, her rosy violet eyes peering into Red Hawk’s off-colored eyes. The six mares watched the bizarre spectacle with confusion, never expecting to see their princess to be so, enthralled with something. As for Red Hawk himself, he was starting to feel a little, un-easy. The princess then broke eye contact with the young man, and started to slowly pace around Red Hawk, as if she were examining his entire form from head to toe, which was only making Red Hawk go from un-easy to greatly un-comfortable. The princess eventually made her way back to the front of Red Hawk, where she finally spoke, her voice sounding like a very maternal mother figure.

“In all my years of governing Equestria, and meeting with delegates from other races…never have I seen anything quite like you before.” Celestia said, her voice full of wonder and general curiosity. Like a little girl being fascinated by a new toy.

“I hope this doesn’t come off as rude, or impolite…but…could you possibly, extend your wings?”

Both the ponies, including the four guards in the room, along with Red Hawk, quirked their brows and looked at the princess with a baffled or confused expression. But Red Hawk decided to play along with the princess’s curiosity, and spread out his wings to their fullest, creating a pronounced ‘swooshing’ sound which was soon followed by a small gasp form Celestia, and a few more louder ‘awwws’ from the guards. Celestia then started to look the wings over, examining ever primary and secondary feather, and every other part of the young man’s massive wings, which were larger than herself if she would out stretch her entire body. She even opened her own large wings, but they were barely half the size of Red Hawk’s.

“You truly do have an impressive set of wings.” Celestia said before folding her own wings to her side. “I’m sorry for having you indulge in my curiosity, without formally introducing myself.” The princess apologized before giving a bow.

“My name is princess Celestia, the first princess of Equestria.” Red Hawk took a step back, and gave a polite bow of his own, while also using his wings to frame his body.

“My name is Red Hawk princess Celestia, and I accept your apology.” The young man said before standing up straight. “So Twilight told me that you wanted to meet me?” Celestia confirmed as she nodded her head.

“When Twilight wrote to me about meeting a winged bipedal creature, that has beautiful crimson wings—” the five other mares looked to Twilight with small smiles, as the unicorn was blushing slightly. “—I was quite intrigued to see what this winged biped was.” Celestia’s smile then lessened slightly before she continued on.

“I’ve also read that you were looking for a way home, and Twilight has been trying to aide you in this manner.” Red Hawk nodded to the statement. “If I may be so bold, how did you come to be in Equestria?” Red Hawk looked a little disheartened, something that the six mares weren’t exactly used to seeing, after knowing Red Hawk for almost two weeks.

“…I honestly don’t know. I was just flying over the desert where I lived, and then…well, I’m not exactly sure what happened honestly.” Red Hawk remarked as he tried to remember the exact details of what happened that day.

“All I remember was seeing someone just popping into existence in front of me, then the kid crashed into me…and then I felt like I was being twisted like a pretzel, and that’s when I found myself in your world.”

“How peculiar.” Celestia said as she rubbed her chin.

“I guess I must’ve collided with someone with some kind of teleporting power.” Red Hawk said as he rubbed the back of his head. “Well whatever the case, at least I can live in peace.” The young man’s words seemed to catch the ponies off guard.

“Were you being pursued by somepony?” Celestia asked the young man.

“You could say that.” Red Hawk said with a hit of unease in his voice, before going into a brief explanation of the state of Earth at the moment.

“You see ponies, for people that are like me, the normal humans are afraid of us because they don’t know if we’ll lose control or abuse our powers. So to make sure we, Un-Naturals, are kept in line or are made sure that we don’t get the chance to use our powers…they have a government force called ‘the Collectors’.

“The Collectors?” Rainbow asked sarcastically as she quirked a brow.

“Trust me, these guys are a lot worst than their name suggest. Because if these guys even catches even a hint that someone is an Un-Natural, they will either abduct them and send them off to live the rest of their lives in a small cell, and to be treated like a caged animal. Or they’ll just straight up kill you…even if your only a kid.” The ponies, along with the princess & the guards in the room, were all shocked to even hear about this.

“Red Hawk you can’t be serious. These people wouldn’t really go that far, just because they maybe different?” Celestia asked in disbelief, but the look on Red Hawk’s face told her that it was indeed true.

“…that’s just how it is Princess. And unless something changes that fact, people like me always have to hide to make sure that doesn’t happen to us.” Red Hawk said before giving off a tired sounding sigh.

“But what’s wrong with you having your wings?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, that’s not dangerous. How could any pony think your wings are a dangerous thing?”

Red Hawk didn’t say anything to respond to Fluttershy’s question, instead, the ponies watched in amazement as Red Hawk’s arms slowly start to avian raptor talons. Now this was shocking for the ponies to see those delicate hands, turn into large strong bird talons with large black claws. But this wasn’t all Red Hawk had to show. The young man then fully outstretched his wings, and raised them high into the air…before they were set on fire, scaring the ponies out of pure shock and surprise.

“Red when—how did you—WHAT?!” Twilight stammered as she circled Red Hawk as she examines the young man’s now blazing wings.

“This is the full extent of my power, which I call Phoenix.” Red Hawk said before raising his left talon, and flexing the digits.

“My talons can crash rocks even with half my full strength.” Red Hawk then ran a single nail against the floor…showing the ponies that it was able to carve 5inches into the ground. “My talons are able to cut through stone or even steel.” Red Hawk then flapped his wings lightly, giving off a small circular pulse of fire and intense heat.

“And I’m able to produce flames that I can be launched when I flap my wings, and my flames can burn someone to death in a few seconds.” Red Hawk said before snuffing out the flames coating his wings, which look perfectly normal, as if they weren’t even set on fire. The young man then reverted his arms back to normal.

“I could pass as a normal human, but I can’t make my wings disappear like my talons or flames.” He then looked at the group of ponies who were just looking at him in astonishment. “…that’s why I’ve spent twelve years alone in the desert…staying away from people, people I thought I could trust…” images and memories flashed by Red Hawk’s eyes, before he shook his head to clear them away. Celestia walked over to the young man and placed a wing over his back to comfort him.

“Well you don’t have to worry about any pony thinking that you’re a danger, or that you’ll be judged differently.” The rest of the ponies trotted over to Red Hawk, and each gave him a comforting hug or pat.

“I know, and I appreciate it.” Red Hawk said as he gave each pony a pat, a gentle scratch behind the ears, even to the princess. All of which hummed in delight. “That’s why I’m in no hurry to go back to Earth.”

The rest of the visit was spent with Celestia giving a private tour of the castle, having an extravagant lunch while also getting to meet Celestia’s sister. Now at first Luna was a little hesitant around Red Hawk, but once she & the young man were able to talk to one another, they seemed to get along, so much so that Celestia was happy to see her sister connect with someone other than herself or Twilight and her friends. there was only one thing that soured the whole visit, and that’s when the ponies & Red Hawk came across prince Blueblood, who thought it would be fun to run his mouth. But a quick scare by Red Hawk setting his wings on fire, was enough to cause the stallion to run away screaming like a frighten foal.

When it was getting close to night time Red Hawk and his escort left the castle, where both Celestia and Luna bid them farewell. Now while the ponies rode the train home, Red Hawk decided to flay back to Ponyville, stating that he couldn’t spend another two hours ride in a cramped space. As Red Hawk was flying over the open fields, Red Hawk started to have more buried memories came to his mind, memories of his parents and happier times caused a frown to form on his face.

‘Fly away Jeremy! Get as far away from here, NOW!’ a tall blonde woman said as she held a shattered lamp in her hand, blood splattered on the front of her body, as a young 12yr old Red Hawk hovered in the middle of his families backyard. ‘GO!’

The memory end with the sound of a gunshot, causing him to shake his head, to get the memory out of his head. once the images and memories were gone, Red Hawk continued to fly back to Ponyville, and to his new home at Scootaloo’s. but even with the memories gone for now, a few stray tears still flew from his eyes as he made the final stretch.