It didn't take long for the search to begin.

A pack of guards hurry past, golden armour glinting in the midday sun as it clanks, their gold-encrusted legs a flurry of movement. I stand with muscles tense and breath short, axe gripped firmly in a whitening fist as my back presses harshly against the marble wall.

The street outside the alley is hectic, a scene of fire and debris. A shop has its window smashed from rocks kicked up by magical bolts striking the road during the initial invasion. A wagon, laid on its side like a wounded animal, has its wooden form engulfed in fire.

With winged ponies darting in squads, like larger and more intimidating flocks of birds, the gravity of the situation meets me head-on. My legs feel weak at the revelation, bending as my back slides down the wall limply.

"I have no chance getting out. Maybe I could just get a guard to hear what their captain did to me, and have me freed as compensation?" I ask mindlessly, whispering to myself.

I hear more coming hoofsteps and duck behind some discarded cardboard boxes, keeping breaths quiet. A pair of guards casually walk into view, one coming to a halt at the entrance of the alley to peer in. His companion, a shorter mare, comes to stand besides him as well. She looks at him with a smirk.

"Didn't think you of all ponies would put so much effort into finding this thing. Why don't you let it be some other guard's problem?" She asks

I duck my head behind the cardboard barrier as the stallion guard's eyes once again scan the shadowed alleyway, his eyes squinting as he tries to spot anything close to the description the guards were given.

With the invasion happening earlier in the day, he'd been running around and using his unicorn magic to the point of exhaustion. And he was in no mood to go in an alley where he couldn't see, and some alien could jump him whilst he's tired. It was better to find it in the open, and have his partner chase it down whilst he delivered the killing blow.

Sighing, he shakes his head as he turns back to his expectant partner. I peer my eyes around my wall of dirtied cardboard as they continue their hushed exchange.

"Haven't you heard that 'Prince Shining Armour' has got a reward out for this thing?" He asks flatly to the mare beside him, making her give a confused expression, tilting her head at the guard.

"Really?" She asks. "A big pile of bits for some hairless monkey? How are we meant to drag something taller than us back to the palace?" She finishes. The guard besides her grunts.

"We're not dragging ALL of it back." He says mysteriously. His partner's confused expression deepens.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She questions, curiosity thick in her features. My own curiosity mixes with coming dread, as I anticipate the next words.

I see him start walking away as his mare companion starts into a light trot to catch up with him. Coming out from behind the cardboard, I shuffle my back against the wall before peering around the brick wall to continue listening. My eyes immediately lock onto their moving forms, ears open.

"Shining only needs the head. Confirmed kill, or something. The royalty have confirmed it." He answers quietly, his companion beginning to chatter to him about how much the bounty it.

I don't really hear the rest of the conversation, even though it takes a moment before they vanish around a corner. My eyes just stare forwards, blankly, at the wall across the alley. My heart races as my blood runs cold. My fears were confirmed, and my hopes die with that.

I'm far too close to the palace to stay here long, they'll have more disciplined guards searching high and low in the area. I can't go back to the palace with nothing but an axe and hope to get to this captain-turned-prince without dozens of guards swarming me. As I see it, my only option is down. To the lower city, where they must have an exit. It wouldn't make sense not to have one. But this world itself doesn't make much sense anyway, but I want some hope left in my heart.

If surviving today and getting to the captain cannot both be accomplished, then I will just come back. No way can I let my treatment at these ponies' hooves go unpunished. A month of false imprisonment whilst some captain treats me like a punching bag when I can't defend myself? I will not die with them getting to continue their lives as normal, like it never happened.

I have a promise to fulfil.

Bracing myself for any hardships, I push my back off the wall and start to properly escape. I won't hide and wait for some guard's greed to motivate my murder. Scanning the darkened alley for some alternate route, I see that the alleyway ends with a chain link fence.

Feeling blessed by this opportunity, I make sure to keep my back against the dry bricks of the alleyway wall, and shuffle myself sideways towards the back of the alley. At least here, where light struggles to reach, I would be able to hide in case someone came into the alley. Not that I plan to stay long.

The fence is old. Rusted and gaping with holes in some spots. Thankfully, they hadn't anticipated someone my size trying to get over it, and so I reach a hand up to give leverage. I then pull myself over the fence and land in a squatting position, keeping low as I glance to see I've infiltrated some house courtyard.

With only minimal sound from the leather soles of my boots scraping the stone tiles, I awkwardly walk with my knees bent and head to a metal garden gate at the front of the courtyard. The lights are off inside, so I hope that this means whatever residents had abandoned during the invasion, and will be coming back once I've left the property.

Grabbing the flaking metal gate's handle, orange splashes of rust across most of the metal, I push on the latch and simply push it open with my shoe. It gives a deathly croak as rusted joints move against each other. I pay no mind as I see the destruction before me.

What was once a marketplace is now engulfed by a great fire that peers at me with its fiery glare from across a demolished shopfront. Like a bombsite, I can see entire roofs caved in from the force of aerial magic strikes. Tiles dot the ground, having once been shrapnel from an earlier battle.

I raise my axe to be ready for combat, looking at the sky and to the sides for guards. But as I scan my surroundings, I notice something crucial.

No exits.

The only way out here, besides going back, would be on the other side of the debris pile. But I can't see anything over it, so I could be walking into a trap. They must have guards where the alley was, so its only a matter of time before they head the way I went, or find some clue that I was in that alley. Sighing, I ready my axe and use my left arm to climb up the brick and tile mess.

At this point, I wish I had gloves on. The shattered rock isn't as sharp as glass, so I'm not cut, but the feeling off edged stone is not pleasant on bare skin. But I have a task to do. Pushing through the discomfort, I eventually pull myself to the top of the pile, but I have little time at the peak before rolling down and landing in a squat at the base of the rubble mountain.

Right in front of a trio of guards.

They noticed the sounds of me clambering over the rubble on the other side, and their suspicions were confirmed when I came sliding down. But with me before them, the officer smirks at her companions before lowering her head in an aggressive stance.

Looking at the group, I notice that the unicorn officer and her two winged helpers aren't calling for aid. Perhaps the bounty has made the guards competitive and less cooperative in my killing? Regardless, I doubt the great flame billowing smoke will allow any of the winged ponies flying by to see us. Good thing the wind is blowing the gases into the sky rather than around me.

I think of the bounty, the readiness of the guards, and I'm met with the realisation that they will not let me leave this courtyard with a head on my shoulders. The two winged guards, wearing the base golden armour of the grunts, start to hover with their white-feathered wings beating fast. They use their now free forelegs to better control their spears, pointing their wicked steel tips towards me.

I see the officer take a few, bold steps towards me. With silver armour lavishly engraved with a phoenix on the breastplate and unknown symbols on the rest, her fur's colour is hidden completely by the fully-encompassing exoskeleton of metal. She wears the same style helmet as her companions, but the metal is a silver and not a gold, with the crest being a blood red instead of the deep blue.

Her smirk grows as her horn lights up and she turns to her sheath strapped with leather to her side, grabbing at a short sword housed within in a magical teal aura. Her opposite side having a pouch inlaid with the red "plus" symbol for first aid. These are thinking creatures, like humans for god's sake! I can't just kill them.

"Look..." I say, backing up against the rubble behind me with my axe shaking in the mix of fear and adrenaline coursing through my veins. The officer stops, and her stone-faced companions stare at me blankly. "No one has to die, right? Just let me go and forget you saw me. Please?" I finish, breathing growing faster as panic sets in.

The officer releases her magical hold from her sword's handle as she laughs hysterically, although her companions just look slightly unnerved by her. Tears line her eyes as she jabs a hoof towards at me.

"For an alien to have beaten one of our sergeants half to death when he first invaded our city, you're rather pathetic!" She growls, grabbing her sword's handle firmly in a teal glow. Yanking it free, she levels its point towards me. I flex my hold on the axe handle, readying it up.

Beat a sergeant? First thing? What lies has this guard been told? I was unconscious when I first appeared, so no way could I have even fought a trainee, let alone a fully trained sergeant.

"It's me... or them..." I say shakily to myself, legs feeling like coiled springs and skin crawling.

The officer screams out as she charges easily bringing the sword up high before swinging it down in an arc. I use the top of the axe to bat away the strikes, but they just keep coming and coming. No way will I be able to hold out for long, and one slip up will mean an easy hit from her blade.

So, as her blade once again wildly swings, I use the "bearded" bottom point of the axe head as a hook, grabbing the sword by its edge. Her crazed grin washes away and her squinting eyes open in surprise as her blade is grappled. In the same split-second, I glance the sword to the side as the momentum of her arcane swings make it go wide, leaving her open.

When my axe is free from its prisoner, I swiftly deliver a hard jab with the bottom of its wooden handle to the area on top of her helmet not covering her head, the gap for her horn. With a hard smack into the bony protrusion, she screeches out horrifically before the magic around her sword's handle dissipates. With her unarmed, I use my bare left hand to deliver a solid punch to the front of her helmet, in the huge gap their guard helmets share. Who thought having such an exposed area was a good thing?

She crumples to the ground, wheezing as her throat closes up from the force. She won't die, but she won't be an immediate threat. I hear two rough battle-cries from the guards, them rushing towards me with spears level to me.

Grunting, I roll to the side as they close in. They narrowly avoid lancing their own officer by altering their path at the last moment, sending them rolling on the ground and hitting into the pile of rubble. Getting up from the ground first, I see one is dazed with a smudge of blood on a bit of debris as one guard struggles to stand with a forehead speckled with crimson.

Seeing the other guard alive and still a threat, I ready my axe as they lower their stance like a bull ready to charge. Hopefully my bipedal anatomy will give me much better mobility over the quadrupedal one. Charging much like a bull at a bull fight, the stallion rushes forth as best they can with only three hooves, the fourth holding the spear towards me.

Gold-armoured hooves pound the stone ground as he speeds towards me, giving me but a moment to step to the side and swing my axe towards the back of his head. With my own cry of force, the world slows down as my axe head goes closer and closer to the metal armour covering the back of his neck. I see the steel head puncture through the softer gold. I see the blood droplets fly out and I hear the crunch of metal and bone.

And I see his limp body crumple to the floor, motionless.

My own eyes widen as I watch. The sickening feeling of the axe penetrating the metal and losing all resistance as fur, flesh and bone cave in to the steel fury.

The world continues turning forwards as normal, and I am left staring at my bloodied axe. Sticky droplets run down the steel from splotches, slowly dripping off of the axe head. Little clumps of white fur stuck to the edge with blood make my stomach twist and the feeling of nausea overpowers my senses.

With an beastly shout of disdain, the once-staggered guard swings his spear like drunk man with bat, knocking my hand's fingers painfully and letting my axe fall to the ground. The distant pain, diluted in a pool of adrenaline and shock, knocks me out of my frozen state as I block a return swing with both of my palms.

As my face scrunches in pain from the sharp impact, my fingers lock around the spear shaft as I use my upper-body strength to drag the stallion onto his stomach, his lack of balance sending him to the floor. I flip the shaft and point the tip towards the back of his neck, but I stop before actually delivering the killing blow. This is just long enough for the dazed captain to swing her magically-held sword at me, severing the shaft in two.

Holding the two halves in either hand, I block a second strike from her blade by letting the sword's edge bite ferociously into the solid wood of the end without the steel point. I then use the other spear half like a club, swinging it in a wide arc to bludgeon the side of her helmet, the shock waves of the impact going through the metal shell and into her skull.

She once again crumples to the floor, clutching her head as another harsh attack was sent to her cranium. The pain in her horn must have reignited, as she doesn't attempt to pick up the sword again.

Distracted, I didn't notice the guard I could have finished stand onto his back legs to shove his whole body weight into me, making me crumble to the ground with spear halves in hand. Hitting the back of my skull on the hard ground, my teeth clench as I hiss in pain. He takes no notice, as he climbs on top of me and starts pushing both hooves on my throat.

Choking, my eyes start to tear up as I wheeze and cough through a closed airway. Corners of my sight growing darker, my eyes lock onto the exposed throat of the guard and instinctively thrust the spear point into the opening.

The affect is immediate, and his hooves leave my throat entirely as he stumbles back. But not before heavy dollops of red gore splash onto my face and neck. Scurrying backwards as I clutch my neck with an empty hand, I realise the spear point used to be held in the same hand now holding my throat.

The guard stumbles around with gaping wound in his neck, clean white fur rapidly staining crimson as the spear's point remains lodged in their flesh. After a moment, the stallion's eyes fully roll back into his skull as he stares lifelessly before flopping to the side twitching.

At this point, the officer stands shakily as she sees the carnage around her. The butchering I caused. I'm left like her, stood on shaken legs with eyes just glossing over the splatters and nose wrinkling from the metallic smell. I can only imagine how I look, doused in the blood of her comrades with droplets of my own tears edging my eyelids.

I barely even register the crackling of the fire nearby, or the smoke billowing into the sky. Not the golden roofs of the palace towers far in the distance. Just the red around me. Without feeling, I recover my axe and raise it back into a fighting stance. Like a spectator in my own body, I watch as this monster continues to fight against his final prey. A monster not like the ponies and their unjust fury towards me.

A monster acting on instinct is what I see, watching my own body almost act without me telling it to.

I see the fear in her eyes, that cocky look born of number superiority dwindling around her. But facing the bloodied demon before her, she braces herself by baring her teeth and blade at me. I do the same, spinning my somewhat puny axe and using my free hand to give a "come hither" gesture.

Taunted by the slayer of her companions, she screams and runs towards me. But her hooves slid slightly on the bloodied pool formed by the pair of downed guards, making her balance fail and her magic aura to weaken as surprise took over. My body only registered her sword going wide the moment before she slipped, meaning I had started to swing the axe head for her neck opening before she slid.

The world once again starts to slow down to a crawl, as I see her eyes widen up and the officer sees the last thing she wants in the path of a swung axe. With a mighty "crack", like the sound of thick glass being shattered, the world returns to its normal speed as the officer shrieks a horrific and pain-induced sound that leaves me covering my ears protectively.

It continues on, weakening like a dying flame. I open my squinted eyes and see her a good distance from me, crawling away. Furious, I catch up quickly with her and flip the unicorn onto her back. Tears stain her eyes as her pupils remain pinpricks. A tiny drizzle of blood leaks from her fresh wound and to the tip of her snout. Then I see what damage I had caused.

A bony stump now resides on her skull, with jagged edges and a brown-looking substance inside. My axe had completely demolished her horn.

I raise my axe in the air, ready to down the starter of all this. But all the macho chemicals racing through my body dwindle as I look in her eyes. She's defenceless and weak, tear-filled eyes and soft fur.

"I can't do it..." I say, turning from her.

Before I can even manage to take a step away from the downed pony, I feel a sharp pain in my calf. Diving to the floor, I see the unicorn trying to stand whilst holding her sword in her jaws this time. Pain and fury in her heart, fur now matted in tears, she takes shaky steps towards me. I scramble to my feet and limp slightly at the cut in my skin.

Still holding the axe, I let her attempt one last swing of her sword. But because of the pain and poor stance, she simply crumbles onto her stomach. When she falls, she grunts and her teeth release the sword. It falls to the floor with a metallic "ring", sliding out of her reach.

I approach soundlessly, looking down at her with my face emotionless. I'd just crippled this attacker. I can walk away from this. She doesn't have to die. She turns around and lies on her back, chest harness of metal rising and falling with her breathing.

But she could have listened to me. No one had to die.

She made me a killer.

I roar out as I swing the axe wide and lodge it into her face. The edge easily penetrates a couple inches deep into her skull, and her eyes retain a blank stare, mouth lolled open with blood now thickly matting her features. I breath heavily, the sight and smell of the blood making me feel ill. I grunt as I stumble back, the axe head coming loose to follow me with a wet "slurp".

I quickly roll up the jeans of my right leg, revealing the cut in my calf. It isn't deep, and has already stopped bleeding. But the pain and threat of infection remind me that I need to care for it. And I can't go to a doctor. Ruffling through the bag strapped on the officer's corpse, the one with the first aid symbol, I procure a deep green bottle of what seems like disinfectant and roll of bandages.

I know next to nothing about first aid, so I just dump out the disinfectant on the wound and hiss as the pain burns before quickly rolling bandage around the skin. Tying the bandage tightly to my calf, I roll down my jeans in an attempt to help keep the bandage tight to my leg.

Stepping away from the massacre around me, I turn and see an open street leading out of the marketplace. Taking a deep breath, I let it go as I start walking towards the exit.

I hope I find the city gate soon.

Author's Note

Would you believe me if I said this chapter was half of what I planned? I had to cut the planned chapter in half, but now I already have the full plan of the next chapter.

Thanks for reading!