The week after Allan had came and went, Crow slipped into a bit of a fugue. Business had been slow, thus leading to him throwing himself into his butler-ing duties, leaving the whole of the crystalline palace glimmering so brightly that Queen Twilight actually needed to cover it in a layer of dust so as to prevent the accidental blinding of Ponyville’s populace.

Such peace was unfortunately never a permanent occurrence, and thus one night, the peace of Ponyville was shattered by the sound of shrieking metal and heavy footsteps.

Alarms sounded out through Ponyville as the citizens of the rural little town scattered into special bunkers purpose-built for such an event. From the east, cresting a small hill and crushing trees, came a towering behemoth of reinforced steel and magic.

They called him Angron the Annihilator; a mechanical beast forged six thousand years ago by the heretic Cults of Smooze to destroy the land given and blessed by the goddess Faust. With a nearly indestructible, partially exposed power core dyeing the sky a menacing red and mana turrets tracking all movement, the golden destroyer filled out an impressive sixty meters of height and a staggering seven hundred tons, cratering the earth beneath it with each step. The annihilator also gave off an astonishing amount of heat, the grass igniting upon contact with its massive feet and clouds vaporizing at its passing.

When it cleared the hill, leaving a massive trail of burning footprints in its wake, it spotted the crystalline castle dominating the skyline of Ponyville. A mighty bellow issued forth from its mechanical maw, shaking the ground and causing birds to take flight for miles. Angron burst into frenzied motion, mana lasers firing in every direction as he stormed toward the offending piece of multi-hued architecture, not noticing the tiny cloud of feathers swirling around its back.

Inside the castle, Crow awoke to the sound of alarms well before his actual alarm was set to go off. Springing out of bed, he stared out the window and brought up his visor to scan the approaching object.

“....Holy…” Crow muttered. The thing’s readings were way too high for its size. The image from the thermal scan nearly blinded him, same with the radiation scan and the magic scan. As he stared in awe, the queen burst into his room with a cry of, “Crow! Do something about that! Normal Equestrian magic doesn’t work on it!”

With that, Crow sprung into action, flurrying away, only to reappear an instant later, still clad in his white-with-black-crows pajamas and similar nightcap, cursing angrily, “Dammit, my clothes are still in the dryer!” He pulled on his boots and swished his backup cloak around himself, wishing that he hadn’t put off his laundry until only a few hours prior and grabbing a small black object. Then he leapt out into the night air, slapping the object onto his chest as it extended straps around his torso. Cloak flaring with the updraft, Crow slapped the disk on his chest and shouted, “Nevermore Harness!” The next instant, his descent slowed and he rose into the air, trailing a stream of feathers that formed into an indistinct mass resembling a phantom pair of wings and a tail.

“Alright you ugly bastard… you come into my town, blow up my streets, and approach my castle with the intent to destroy it? Do you have any idea just who the hell I am!? I’ll tell you: I’m the man who’s gonna kick your metal ass all the way back to the pit you came from.” He struck an impressive pose, cloak billowing out behind him and phantom wings spread out to make him seem bigger than he really was. Of course, the pajamas and night cap ruined the effect.

Silence as more of the town ignited under Angron’s oppressive heat aura. Then, a repetitive shriek of metal issued forth from the behemoth’s golden maw, its shoulder pauldrons shaking up and down as it doubled over and gripped its massive abdominal area.

“Are… you’re… you-” Crow temporarily lost his ability to speak as he glared daggers at the massive laughing being below him. “You know what? Fuck it. Knife.”

Angron perked up in confusion, cocking his head at the tiny flying one’s phrase. Then he reeled back in surprise as a massive cloud of daggers appeared out of nowhere and stabbed into the robot’s cyclopean visor, blinding it and cracking the six thousand year old enchanted ruby.

“How’d you like that, bitch?” Crow taunted, propelling himself in a shallow arc around Angron.

A mighty bellow rippled the air, slamming into Crow and launching him deep into the Everfree Forest as Angron followed the shouting and cursing assassin’s trail, half blinded and turrets poised.

Crow groaned and pushed himself out of the splinters of a tree. Thankfully, he hadn’t been too injured, but his ears still rung, and the harsh noise around him didn’t help. He finally opened his eyes, taking in the slowly focusing scene around him.

Birds. Birds everywhere. A veritable wall of blacks, browns, and blues. Crows, ravens, jackdaws, jays, rooks, nutcrackers, treepies, choughs, hundreds of birds. Some of them larger than normal, some of them looking like hybrids of other bird families.

“Where the fuck am I?” Crow muttered, moving slowly so as to not agitate the flock.

‘You’re in my Nesting Grounds, human.’

“Holy shit!” Crow spun to face the being behind him, some small part of his brain wondering why the voice had a harsh cawing in the background.

He found a crow, a massive one. Standing easily six feet tall and covered in bright white feathers, the large bird’s piercing red eyes bored into Crow’s own, exuding a presence that felt distinctly king-like.

‘I am Daiō Reivun. The lord of this hallowed ground. Human, why have you come here?’ The newly named Daiō Reivun perched expectantly upon the trunk of a fallen tree, gazing upon Crow with cool amusement.

“The town I live in is under attack by a massive robot, I got knocked over here and I’m pretty sure it’s following my trail. This area might not be safe anymore… uh… sir…” Crow’s gaze darted around, noting the steadily increasing crimson glow coming in from the west.

‘I was born in this patch of forest and I shall die here, human. I sense that you are trustworthy, so my clan will aid you. Come, my brethren! We shall fight!’

As the king crow announced this, a massive cacophony rose into the air with the massive flock, each bird trailing a streamer of light; a flock of thousands of corvids. The single largest gathering of corvids on mainland Equestria. Each bird with their own magic, each bird with the drive to destroy the marauding robot smashing its way through the Everfree.

They took flight, Crow and all, flying toward the behemoth tearing through the Everfree as if it had personally offended the golden destroyer. Which it had, what with all the latent nature magic and all.

Back to Crow, he found himself with a curious passenger; a rather large raven was perched upon his head even as he flew with the rest of the flock.

“And… who the hell are you?” Crow asked, preparing his feather blades even as his aetherial wing constructs propelled him through the air.

‘I’m Yatagarasu, Daiō Reivun’s grandson. Hey, what’s your name?’

“Cameron Murder. You can call me Crow. So, what can you guys even do? This guy’s really big and all…”

Angron was now in sight, tearing a blazing trail through the forest. The flock of birds converged upon Daiō Reivun and there they waited as the magitech behemoth strode forth.

‘Hold... hold…’ the old crow muttered, flaring a brilliant gold as the rest of the flock did the same, each bird creating a differently colored aura.

Fifty meters. Angron had spotted them.

Forty. Angron lifted its arm turrets in preparation, scanning over the flock and aiming directly at Crow himself.

Thirty. The beams charged.

‘ATTACK’

But they never fired. Or rather, they never hit anything other than scattered feathers and air.

The screaming flock of birds descended upon the golden behemoth like a whirlwind of blades, wingtips carving trenches into armor, beaks piercing delicate joints, claws rending alloy as if it were mere butter.

Angron roared in annoyance, swinging his arms wildly in a futile attempt to either squash the birds or swat them out of the air. The birds retaliated viciously in their defense of their nesting ground, damaging Angron’s delicate runic matrices and causing an ever increasing amount of systemic failures.

Back in Ponyville, disaster relief efforts chipped away at the flames engulfing the town. Twilight, meanwhile, stared worriedly out the window towards the horizon line, where the flailing form of Angron could just barely be seen beyond the canopy of the Everfree.

“Crow I hope you know what you’re doing….” She muttered, mentally preparing herself for what may lay ahead.

The other Elements of Harmony had assembled as soon as Crow had drawn away Angron, and were silently waiting for the go ahead to Rainbow Power blast the mecha should it become necessary.

After a good, tense fifteen minutes of waiting, a roar shook the earth one final time even as the crimson glow on the horizon receded.

A moment of silence.

And then a massive explosion rocked all of Ponyville from miles away, flattening a massive chunk of the Everfree and sending scorched chunks of gold raining from the heavens up to a hundred miles away.

Back in the castle, all six girls (And one diminutive dragon) stared in silent shock and worry at the massive bonfire engulfing the Everfree’s deeper reaches.

“Is… is Crow alright?” Fluttershy whimpered, eyes staring transfixed at the blaze slowly creeping over the horizon.

All of the girls stared at each other, wondering the same thing. Just then, a pegasus burst into the room via the balcony, reeking of exhaustion and soot.

“Rainbow Dash! We need you to help us organize the weather team! We have to put out the blaze before it spreads further!”

Rainbow shook herself and straightened up, grabbing the collapsed pegasus under his shoulders and hoisting him up. “Right! C’mon girls, we should probably see if we can’t find Crow in that mess, right?” With that, she rocketed off, anonymous pegasus dangling over her shoulder.

Twilight’s back straightened, unconsciously slipping into ‘Queen Mode’, as Pinkie dubbed it. “Alright girls, let’s head out! Crow may be injured out there and we won’t know for sure until the fire’s put out. But, we should at least head over there and check, even if we can’t help with the weather teams!”

A general consensus filled the room as all five girls (And one diminutive dragon) rushed out of the room and out towards the Everfree Forest.

Far away, at the very epicenter of the blaze, Crow extricated himself from the ruins of Angron’s massive ruby core, protected from the blast only by the core’s very own nigh indestructibility.

“Ugh… two outta ten. Would not do again,” Crow coughed out, already feeling the exhaustion and pain of the burns all over his uncovered areas.

“Owww… my feeeeeet…..”

Up in the still standing trees, all of the birds still alive and mostly healthy guarded the scene, protected by their own magical auras.

As the blaze intensified and the rush of smoke and dry wind deafened Crow, he stood shakily and noticed that many of the birds were all gathered around the wreckage of a single tree. Limping over and trying desperately to ignore the burning in his feet and legs. He was in a terrible state, clothes all but shredded and skin covered in burns and scratches. All this was ignored as he gently pushed his way through the crowd of corvids, finding a nearly dead Daiō Reivun laying in the shattered remnants of a tree.

“Oh… lord…” Crow murmured, taking off his still undamaged visor in shock.

“Human… come closer…” The massive crow was majestic even when mortally wounded, stark white feathers still glowing. Crow stepped forward, finally seeing the gaping hole torn through Daiō Reivun’s left wing, a hole large enough to nearly separate the wing entirely from the bird’s torso.

“Daiō Reivun, you wanted to see me?” Crow asked, kneeling next to the wounded king.

“Yes… You have proven your valor in combat… You… are worthy. Though long since unprecedented, you are my heir. Take my magic, fledgling… and use it to soar to new heights, such that none has ever reached before.” He shuddered, the golden flames around his form sputtering to a halt and collecting in his chest. And with his final breath, Daiō Reivun pushed the ball of golden light into a startled Crow’s chest, where it expanded into a swirling inferno around Crow’s whole body. The teen shook his head at the warmth, noticing the single streak of white in his hair as it fell around his face.

“I… What?” Crow didn’t know what to think, not used to the concept of any being naming him their heir so soon after he’d met them. What he did do was whip off his tattered cloak and use the ragged length of fabric as a makeshift burial shroud. A single portion of Crow’s mind idly noted that the cloak had torn and burned in the exact manner so as to form a raven as it draped over Daiō Reivun’s corpse.

The sky above opened into a torrential rain as all of the birds gathered shrieked at the heavens in a mournful song.

Crow stared up at the clouds and the gathered pegasi, waving idly at Rainbow Dash as she descended, slipping his visor back on and never noticing the slight flash of red in his eyes.

Author's Notes:

Uuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhh.

I hope this isn't TOO shitty.