Author's Note

i'm not sure when i'll do it, but i might Edit a few things in this chapter. cause i felt like i sort of rushed through it. but i hope what i posted is still good, please leave your thoughts in comments.

Chapter 6: Conflict

All of Ponyville was in quite a buzz right now, as mere moments ago, a thunderous booming sound all over the place. Ponies were startled a bit from the out of nowhere booming sound, but things have somewhat settled down. But to make sure nothing has happened; Red Hawk flew into the air to scout out the area. A moment later and Scootaloo along with her friends watched as Red Hawk flew off from his spot in the sky, to where the white tail woods were. the three fillies thought about following after him, but the human did tell the three of them to stay put, and from the somewhat serious look on his face, they listened and stayed in town.

“So what do you two think that BOOM was?” Apple Bloom asked as the fillies went back to Scootaloo’s house.

“Don’t know.” Scootaloo said as she brought her scooter inside, while Sweetie Belle brought the wagon in. “But I’m sure that nothing terrible is going on, besides, Red Hawk will be fine.”

“You know Scootaloo. I’ve noticed that you seem to be fangirling over Red Hawk, more so than Rainbow Dash lately.” Sweetie Belle commented, which actually caught Apple Bloom by surprise as she realizes that Sweetie was right.

“Well don’t get me wrong, I still admire Rainbow Dash because she’s the best flyer there is, and that’s what I want to be.” Scootaloo said as the trio left the house, and headed out to wonder around town. “But…with Red Hawk, it’s like he understands me, like…” Scootaloo trailed off as she tries to put her feelings for the human into words.

“It’s hard to really explain it. But I think the best way I can explain why I’ve been looking up to Red more, is that he notices me.”

Scootaloo’s friends were just about to ask what she means by noticing her, when they, and everypony around them, heard several rumbling blasts in the distant. Followed by low rumbling booms, as if something struck the ground. the fillies and ponies all scrambled about because of the sudden noise, but soon everypony heard what sounded like an eagle screeching, before seeing big wafts of fire being launched into the air, in the direction of the White Tail Woods. Scootaloo instantly knew that eagle screech was Red Hawk’s, and just hearing it caused the filly to gallop as fast as she could towards the woods, her friends soon followed after her as they didn’t want her to go alone. right behind the trio of fillies were Twilight and her circle of friends, as they to were making their way to the White Tail Woods.

The ponies continued to gallop towards the woods at full sprint, still hearing the eagle screeches and the deep rumblings impacting the ground, but as they drew closer they could feel the heat of the flames they saw before. Another minute later and the ponies found what they were looking for, and what they did find, was something they couldn’t believe. In a large clearing the ponies watched as Red Hawk, with wings set on fire, arms turned into large bird talons, all the while fighting…something that looked like a giant metal monster. It easily towered over Red Hawk in size and mass, swinging around some kind of large metal, thing, that was sparking with blue lightning. Or firing large blue magical blasts!

Red Hawk was flying all over the place, flapping his wings to send out gusts of fire that didn’t seem to faze the large metal giant, the only thing that seemed to affect the giant was Red Hawks talons, which tore through the strange fabric surrounding its body, and gouging through the metal parts. But every time Red Hawk went in for a swipe, the giant either struck back with its broadsword, weapon thing, or simply swatted at him with its right metal claw.

“What happened to Red Hawks wings!?” Scootaloo cried out as she watches the human fly around. “They’re on fire, and wha—what happened to his arms!?”

“I just want to know what in Equestria’s name is that thing supposed to be?” Rainbow Dash asked as she and the others watched the fight continue, with Red Hawk dive bombing the giant and toppling it over, and then proceeded to hack and slash with his talons.

“It must be one of those Collectors that Red Hawk told us about.” Applejack summarized as she and the others jumped, when they heard Red Hawk screech in pain as he was struck in the chest by a blue magic blast by the giant! The young man was sent back into the air, clutching his chest, as he began swinging his wings like arms, sending out gouts of fire at the giant.

“We can’t just stand here and watch this; Red Hawk needs our help!” Scootaloo was about to charge right in, ready to fight the giant herself, but she was stopped by Twilight’s magic. “Twilight put me down!”

“Scootaloo you’re no match for something like that. You and your friends stay put, we’ll handle—” Twilight was cut off when they heard another thud, but this time it was Red Hawk being slammed into the ground.

The giant somehow managed to reach Red Hawk and bring him down crashing into the ground. the metallic behemoth then lumbered its way over to the staggered young man, it’s right arm transforming into, what looks like a small cage. As Red Hawk got to his hands and knees, the giant clamped the cage over the Un-Naturals head, causing Red Hawk to try pry the cage off his head.

“Target captured.” The giant’s voice was hollow sounding as it spoke. “Proceeding with termination.” The ponies watched as the giants claw began sparking with electricity, causing Red Hawk to screech in pain and flail about more wildly.

“RED HAWK!” the nine ponies screamed in unison, before finally springing into action.

“Let him go!” Both Twilight & Rarity then charged up their horns, and fired the strongest magical blasts they could at the giant. The bolts of magic struck true, but the giant barely nudged an inch, but it did stop its electrocution of Red Hawk as it turned to look at the ponies. The giants two slit eyes glowed with an ominous light, before it spoke up again.

“Nine additional Un-Natural signatures located.” The giant droned as it released Red Hawk, causing the young man to slump to the ground, before grasping its weapons. “Targets locked.”

The giant then began firing blasts of blue magic at the ponies, causing them to scatter and run. As the giant was focused on the grounded ponies, Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to dive bomb the giant, thinking she could knock it over and give the others a chance to counter attack. But the moment the cyan mare collided with the giant, pain jolted up her leg and into her hip and up her spine. Pulling her leg back, and cradling it, Rainbow rubbed her leg as to dull out the pain, but as she was trying to get the pain out of her leg, Rainbow was then pulled to the ground by a blue aura. Just before the giants weapon struck her, and by the force of the swing, it would’ve sent her flying…if not worst.

“Rainbow you got to be careful!” Twilight shouted as she continued to fire magical blast after blast. “Red Hawk said these things were built to take down Un-Naturals, so you can’t charge at it like it’s a cloud. Keep your distance and just distract it.”

“Alright!” Rainbow said as she flew back to put some distance between her and the giant. But as she flew back a few feet, the giant ceased its actions as its eyes glowed and started to scan over the clearing.

“Kinetic energy projectile times two. Flight capability. Various types of mutated gene scans documented.” The giant drooled as its eyes glowed again. “Threat assessment of multiple targets, Grade C. Targets are slated for capture and questioning. Begin subjugation.”

“I don’t like the sound of that girls.” Pinkie said as she, Fluttershy, Applejack and the crusaders finished hauling Red Hawk over to a nearby tree, the fillies immediately checking to see if the young man was alright. “You three stay here with Red Hawk, we’ll handle this.”

Pinkie then left the fillies to join in trying to deal with the giant. As Pinkie Pie joined in the fray, she pulls out her party cannon from her tail, and began firing thick blast of cake batter at the giant. Who still was unfazed by the attack, or looked to be affected, even with Twilight’s and Rarity’s own magical blasts clashing into the giant, same with Rainbow Dash still dive bombing or blitzing past it. the giant continued to just take the attacks, and firing its weapon at the ponies, or swinging it like a giant broadsword.

One swing from the weapon caused it to strike the ground, the weight of the weapon and the force behind it, caused the ground to shake, and causing all the grounded ponies to topple over and fall either on their flanks or sides. The ponies scrambled to get to their hooves as the giant made its way over to them, it’s metal claw ready to snatch them up. Applejack and Fluttershy rushed over to their friends to help them up, and pull them away just when the giant reached down to grab them.

“Targets proving difficult to capture.” The giant groaned, as the gauged parts of its body start spark with electricity, and expose its entrails. “Damage levels sixty-seven percent and deteriorating gradually.” The giant then turned to face the other end of the clearing.

“Entry point compromised during skirmish…relaying emergency signal. Requesting back—”

the giant’s head was cleaved right off it’s shoulders, exposing flailing wires and cables, sparking with electricity. As the ponies wondered what the heck just happened to the giants head, the ponies saw Red Hawk slump to the ground, wings slightly on fire with embers wafting off them, his right claw holding the crushed head of the giant.

“Red Hawk!” Scootaloo cried out as she, and the other ponies, rushes over to the human, passing by the giants body, before skidding to a stop, and each one fussing over him. “Red Hawk, are you alright?” Scootaloo asked among the murmurs.

“…exhausted, sore…but…alive.” Red Hawk said as he turned to face the filly, while assuring to the others that he’s fine. But as he turned to look at Twilight, Red Hawk saw the Collectors body move…and aimed its weapon at the group.

“GET DOWN!”

Red Hawk pushed past his friends, raised his wings, and held them in front of himself, while bracing his wing shield with his claws. The ponies were startled by the action, but they all jumped in gasped in fright when a sudden energy blast echoed across the clearing, which was followed by a painful wail from Red Hawk as he was knocked into the group. As Red Hawk crashed into them the ponies were sent rolling a foot from the point of impact, but it wasn’t too bad of a fall, and as they regained their balance they all saw Red Hawk charge at the giant, and thrusted one of his arms into the body of the giant! The impact of the attack knocks over the Collectors body, but as the giants body topples over the ponies watched Red Hawk stumble backwards and nearly fell over, but a flap of wings managed to right himself. But that’s when the ponies saw the damage the Collector did to Red Hawk.

The ponies screamed in horror as they saw that most of Red Hawks wings were blasted off, and that his left arm was missing the entire forearm and hand, only a ft. long stump protruding from the elbow remained. They all cautiously gathered around Red Hawk, eyes focused solely on the injured limbs. And out of the nine ponies, Scootaloo was the most devastated, as she was on the verge of tears as she looked at her guardian, especially his wings.

“No.” the filly shuttered in a whispered as she reached out for Red Hawk’s left crippled wing. “…your wings…”

“Don’t worry about my wings and arm.” Red Hawk groaned as he clutched his stump arm. “We need to get rid of the Collector’s body, before the emergency signal goes off.”

“Red Hawk don’t you know what state your body is in!” Twilight shrieked at the young man, un-able to believe how disregarding Red Hawk is of his injures.

“For Celestia’s sake your arm is gone, and…your beautiful…wings…” the mare blubbered as she reached a hoof out to one of Red Hawks wings, but she quickly pulled it back as she and the other ponies saw the damaged limbs began to smoke.

“I told you, my limbs are not important right now. What is important, is getting rid of this thing before its sends out a back up signal, and have a have a platoon or more coming to Equestria.”

The ponies were still befuddled on how Red Hawk was just ignoring his wounds, and was solely focused on getting rid of the remains of the Collector. But agreed to help dispose of the machine. The group slowly dragged the heavy ‘corpse’ of the Collector back to Ponyville, and after talking to the construction crew that was building new homes in the east side of town, thanks to Rarity, the group were able to use their heavy machinery. Where they used them to turn the remains of the Collector pretty much into a twisted pile of scrap metal, and once the body was now in smaller pieces, so to speak, Red Hawk ignited his wings to the point where they were two giant planks of fire. The sight marveling the ponies at the display of fire control, before watching as Red Hawk’s wings swung downward, creating a wave of fire that bathed the remains of the body, and ponies watched as the metal started to glow white hot before becoming liquidized metal, with sparks of electricity popping out before dying down to a still silence.

About five minutes of being set ablaze, the ponies were now staring at a large puddle of liquid metal, which was levitated over to a large cauldron, provided by the construction crew, by Twilight’s magical aura.

“You might want to tell the princess about this, just in case something else pops up.” Red Hawk said as sat down on the ground, his limbs now steaming and smoking a bit more.

“We will darling, but can we please get you to the hospital first. Who knows if those wounds of yours are infected, or worst!” Rarity lamented as she was about to pull Red Hawk to his feet.

But the mare gave out a very un-lady like screech as Red Hawk’s wings and arm just, burst into flames, as Red Hawk groaned in pain as he gripped the ground with his remaining hand. The still transformed hands sharp talons digging into the ground. with one final cry of pain, the ponies watched as Red Hawk’s arm just, sprouted back out! The ponies and the construction crew then watched as Red Hawk’s wings then sprouted from where they were blasted off. None of the ponies could say anything, in fact they were unable to fully grasp what they just saw, all the while Red Hawk slowly stood up as he flexed the digits of new arm, before transforming them back to normal and giving his newly formed wings a few flaps to actually get a foot off the ground.

“Man, it’s been awhile since I had to regrow a limb or two.” Red Hawk said like what he just did was the most normal thing to do. And when he turned to look at the ponies, and saw their utterly shocked faces.

“…I suppose I have a few things to explain, yeah?” Red Hawk said while giving a small chuckle as he scratches his cheek with a finger.