Hazama was pacing. Back and forth, forward and back, all along the width of the barn. Over and over again. At regular intervals, angered snarls would tear themselves from his throat, and he would decide to kick a hole in another one of the paddocks.

Nothing! All that he had done, and nothing! No feeling, nothing! The excitement he’d thought that he’d felt for that one instant in time was just a candle-flame, snuffed out in an instant the moment he realised that it was all fake.

His head snapped around to glance thunderously towards the women, cowering in the corner as they stared at him. Good. They should be scared of him. That’s what he wanted. His hand strayed to the hat that had reappeared on his head as he tried in vain to calm himself down.

But he wouldn’t be calm. Not now.

He had foolishly thought that perhaps going through the Boundary, entering a new world, all of that would have fixed his body, but instead it only exacerbated the problem. The gaping hole in his left shoulder blade had grown wider. Larger. Splintering cracks running around the edges like spider-webs. A window into what he really was.

Nothing. Empty. A body formed of Magic Element to serve as nothing more than a vessel for somebody else. He wasn’t a person, he was a doll. A puppet. All the times he’d laughed in the Vermillion girl’s face for her circumstances, and he was no. Fucking! Better!

The noise that wrenched itself from his mouth was not quite a scream, and not quite a shout. His hand shot forward, and the familiar green-black chain flew forward, tearing straight through a thick wooden column like it were wet tissue. At the noise of the impact and the horrifying sound, the other Humans in the barn had whimpered in fear, recognising how much danger they were now in. Some had scurried back to their cells, or paddocks or whatever.

Hazama didn’t care, and it wouldn’t help them if he actually decided to take his frustration out on them. Fortunately, he was much too preoccupied cursing the universe over and over again for the mere fact that he was forced to exist.

‘Rags thinks he’s got it bad? Oh, boo-hoo, your brother cut your arm off, killed your sister, then burned your shitty house and shittier guardian down. What a fucking shame! But you know what, Raggy boy? I fucking envy you. I wish I had your goddamn life. For one. Single. Reason.’ He fumed, now taking to flipping a knife from his pocket and trailing it along the wall of the barn, leaving deep slash marks as he walked, ‘YOU’RE the one who gets to kill Terumi. Not me! You get to avenge your ‘suffering’ and all the people you care about or whatever. I don’t get shit! I get to jump into the goddamn Boundary, and end up in a world run by fucking horses!’ Hazama finished with another feral shriek, which only served to feed his irritation in a loop. Why could he scream, rave, and shout, but not fucking talk!?

In his unyielding frustration, he finished off the still-standing column with a kick, sending it flying through the air until it crashed into the back set of doors, breaking a splintered hole straight through them.

Hazama knew he’d made a misstep when he heard shouting from outside, and the sound of armour clanking slightly as the being wearing it sprinted towards trouble.

The Guards. The fucking Guards. How stupid. How stupid did they have to be!? Why couldn’t he just be left alone? They wanted to chase him, hound him down until he submitted? Good luck with that. He refused to submit. He would never submit to anyone ever again. Not to Terumi, not to Izanami, and definitely not these stupid, childlike, arrogant little shitstains that thought they could even remotely stand up to him!

Well, if he had anything to say about it, and he did have a whole lot to say about it, then they would learn to leave him the fuck alone. What he had planned was a bad idea, anyone in their right mind could have told him that. It would ruin his chances for a relatively peaceful new life. It would end badly if he had underestimated the horses this whole time. It would do a lot of things.

But even knowing all of these things, Hazama gripped his knife tighter in his hand, facing the barricaded front door with a murderous expression on his face. Right now, he was absolutely pissed beyond belief.

If they wanted a violent Human, then they were going to fucking get one.

Shining Armour held up a hoof to his lieutenant.

The Guards that had been closing the circle tighter around the barn halted as the order was passed around the circle, all glancing towards their Captain for answers.

He didn’t have any, but something about the situation felt distinctly off about the entire situation.

A minute prior, a noise had come from the structure. A noise that even those specialised in training the watchhumans couldn’t stand to listen to, and those Humans were stupidly loud. It was a horrifying thing to hear, the screech of a creature that angry. It was the Human they were after, no doubt about it, but Shining Armour was still hesitant to approach. Because the noise stopped.

Usually, when a Human was enraged, they made noise constantly, snarling and shrieking and growling until they calmed down. But ever since that first cry of anger, the barn had been menacingly silent. That is, until one of his Guards reported that a very large hunk of wood had been sent shooting out of the back doors into the nearby woods.

He had ordered them to hold position, and signal him if the Human tried to escape through that route. It hadn’t been needed. The barn was silent again.

The Guards were starting to get antsy, though they tried to hide it from him. He understood their impatience, however. He would have to apologise profusely to his sister and the mayor for the fairly large-scale disruption later, but it would be a great benefit to have the dangerous creature finally under wraps.

It was the investigation into the infected Humans that had gotten them the information they needed. The two creatures had obviously shambled into town, but Twilight had obviously been more than prepared thanks to her friend Applejack already being present, and the citizens were all in complete shelter sans several Pegasi and miss Rarity.

Shining Armour and his platoon had arrived on the scene, however, to find the Humans both dead, seemingly crushed under a market stand. Obviously, somepony or Human had been fleeing from the infected creatures and had either tipped over or caused the Humans to tip over the stall, conveniently neutralising them both.

That should have been the end of the investigation, and the Guards were ready to consider the threat ended until one of the more sharp-eyed soldiers had pointed out something strange. Once they had pulled the stand away from the corpses, it had become evident that they had several strange injuries that didn’t correlate to their story.

Bruises and heavy fracturing around one of their necks, and the other one was completely missing their lower jaw alongside having a ton of broken bones itself. Whatever had gotten into a scuffle with the two of them, they had done serious damage. In fact, the stall seemed to have been a completely unnecessary touch, but presumably whoever did it wished to inflict as much damage as possible.

The issue stemmed from the fact that no Pony could have inflicted those kinds of wounds. An Earth Pony pulling tight on a lasso might have explained away the larger Human’s neck injuries, but there was no rope nearby and all the Earth Ponies in town were hidden away in the castle. A Unicorn could potentially have torn off the other Human’s lower jaw with magic, but that was the least efficient way to fight off an infected Human, and there were absolutely no other signs of magical injuries. A Pegasus was also out of the question, because there was no reason that they would have to engage the Humans at all. Even the bearer of Loyalty wasn’t brash enough to face off two burly infected Humans when they could simply fly out of range.

That left only the possibility that a Human caused the damage, but the implications of that were worrying indeed. For a Human to have fought off two presumably bigger Humans as handily as they did, they must have been extraordinarily savage, but more worryingly they possessed battle instincts. No regular Human would have gone for bone-shattering attacks to the neck, and only the neck. There should have been fractures and injuries all over the body of the infected if a proper fight had broken out. But whatever happened had not been a fight: it had been a slaughter.

They needed to find whatever Human did something like that, and apprehend it for the safety of everypony in town. Having something around that could brutalise two bigger Humans with ease and worrying strength was not a good idea for anypony involved.

When Shining Armour had made a beeline for the castle to tell the townsponies that the threat was over, however, he had come across a very strange sight indeed. The Ponies were already filing out of the castle, chatting amiably and preparing to go about their daily lives, although some stopped to wave at him.

Just inside the door, he greeted his sister and the rest of the Element bearers with his usual grace until something caught his eye.

A Human in the background, sitting against a wall and staring intently in his direction. Taking in the creature’s strange appearance, Shining Armour knew from that moment of eye contact that that was the Human who’d done it. He did not voice as such to his sister, though. Upon learning that Miss Fluttershy intended on taking it home, the Captain was quick to formulate plans.

Within two hours, he’d requisitioned a group of watchhumans from Canterlot and had them posted around Ponyville, and set up his squad of Guards to keep vigil over the town.

And sure enough, after over a week of waiting, his extended stay had paid off.

Now the entirety of the Royal Guard platoon surrounded one of the bigger barns in Sweet Apple Acres, edging closer and closer as they prepared to subdue the Human.

The plan was simple: his most trusted lieutenant, Stout Shield, would raise the massive piece of wood that Miss Applejack had placed, and fling open the door with his magic. Without giving the Human time to react, the entire squad would fall upon it in a coordinated attack. The Pegasi would throw weighted nets over it, while the Unicorns were to fight strictly from range, and to focus on holding the Human down with telekinesis. The few Earth Ponies of the group had a comparatively simple but much more difficult job: keeping the Human distracted so that it couldn’t go after any of the others.

That was how it was supposed to go, at least, until the first step of the plan was complete. Stout Shield’s horn lit up, and the log of wood floated gently and slowly upwards so as to make as little noise as possible. No sense in alerting the Human, after all.

Just as the Unicorn started to focus on the doors, they started moving of their own accord, or so it seemed. They swung open until the space in the middle was just enough to fit a Human through, and that’s exactly what happened.

From the darkness within, their target emerged from the shadows, its black outfit making him appear like a spectre in the night. It was clutching its hat, and had a furious scowl on its face. More worryingly than all of this, however, was the call that came from one of the slightly closer Guards.

“A weapon! Celestia, it’s got a knife!” cried one of the Pegasi.

Sure enough, the Human was clutching a wicked-looking butterfly knife in its hand. Where it had acquired such a thing, Shining Armour couldn’t begin to guess, but the threat level of the creature had almost tripled if it knew how to wield it. Much to their horror, it did; flipping the handle around in its hand, the knife folded and unfolded several times until the Human settled on having it unsheathed.

Without their Captain needing to say a word, the squad leapt into immediate action.

The four closest Ponies consisted of three Earth Ponies and a Pegasus. The former three split into a triangle formation, charging the Human and simultaneously allowing two supporting Unicorns further back in the line to envelop them in a glimmering turquoise barrier. Several Pegasi took to the air, holding folded nets made of thick rope and weighted down with heavy steel balls. They flew over the head of the Human, quick to drop both of the nets in a way that was almost unavoidable. The rest of the Guards, all Unicorns, started focusing their magic to grip the creature, attempting to stop it in its tracks before it could even retaliate. It was overkill, really.

They never stood a chance.

Shining Armour blinked once, and the Human had moved, already many meters off to the left of where he once was. The nets dropped from the sky, flopping uselessly to the floor as the Earth Ponies had to stop their charge in confusion.

It held onto its hat tighter, and crouched low to the ground for all but a second. The Captain didn’t even have time to shout out a warning as he realised what was happening. The Human sprang upwards, higher than any normal Human or Pony should ever be able to jump. The Pegasi weren’t ready either, still staring down at the missed nets as it flew up towards them.

Tempest Wing didn’t even get to cry out as the Human twisted its body, flipping around in a somersault and sticking its leg straight outwards. The Pegasus was axe-kicked straight downwards, sent streaking into the ground with a bad-sounding smack.

The two remaining Pegasi charged immediately, assuming that the Human was vulnerable now that he’d used up all his momentum and was out of his element, flailing in the air. They were disproven quickly when he turned in the air to face the trio as he fell, seeming to regard them curiously.

Hazama glared at the three approaching fliers, debating how badly he felt like hurting them, and whether or not it was worth revealing Ouroboros at this stage. It probably wasn’t, given how much of an advantage it could give him so long as they were unaware of it. But how to deal with these flying idiots now that he had less momentum…?

He didn’t have time to think about that as a bolt of purple light whizzed past his ear, missing by an inch thanks to him moving his head sideways just in time. Unfortunately it missed any of the Pegasi, but it did make him hurry his thought process. The fact that they were shooting their magic at him now meant that they had already given up on simply subduing him, if the heat behind that beam was any indication. Fine by him, it would only make things more fun when they failed.

His hand slipped his knife back into its pocket. He wouldn’t need it.

As the closest of the flying horses closed the distance by another inch, Hazama acted. He flipped forward so that his body was facing towards them, his hand held out. His fingers clenched tightly around the Pegasi’s outstretched hoof, and pulled backwards.

The horse let out a yelp of surprise as his body changed trajectory, dragged underneath the Human’s body. At this rate, this close to the ground, he was going to be what broke the Human’s fall, and there wasn’t much he could do to stop it.

Hazama faintly heard one of the voices barking an order, and within a moment the speed of their descent dropped, floating gently downwards a meter or so from the ground. In order to save their companion, they had to save him too. Perfect.

Now with a platform of sorts beneath him, Hazama stood up, ignoring the pained groans of the horse beneath him. He turned sideways and raised an arm, flexing it.

The next Pegasi didn’t realise what the Human was trying to do until he was met with a solid elbow to the helmet, sending him crashing into the floor along with the one from before.

Not missing a beat, Hazama leapt from the horse he was standing on and allowed its friends to take it to safety, turning to face the remainders of the squad sent to capture him. All of the flying ones had been successfully taken care of, leaving only the trio of basic horses and five of the magical ones. Heading the group was the same stallion from back at the castle, ‘Shining Armour’ if his memory served correctly. That one seemed to be the one giving the orders. Perhaps it would be best to deal with him first…?

They were all watching him, infinitely more wary than they had been previously. While Hazama could get forward and take out the commander before they could do anything about it, he felt that it would be much more fun to simply watch back, enjoying the sight of them squirming over what to do. Oh, and he’d make sure to appear as gormless and stupid as a regular Human while he waited, too.

Shining Armour glared angrily at the Human, and the groaning bodies nearby. This Human, or whatever it was… It was unnatural, and like nothing he had ever seen before. Humans could be vicious fighters, that was true, but never like what he’d just witnessed. But then he had witnessed it, so it must have been the truth.

The remainder of his squad were muttering to each other through clenched teeth.

“W-What is that thing?”

“Tempest Wing…”

“What can we do…?”

“It just took them all out! One hit! It only took one hit!”

And then it was Shining Armour’s turn to speak up, turning to face his companions with an uneasy gaze. “Then don’t get hit.”

The Guards were not satisfied with that explanation. Frowns dotted all of their faces, and they stared at one another nervously. The Earth Ponies took the brief lull in activity to re-join the rest of the unit, all of them looking extremely grim.

“Did you see how fast it was moving, sir?” One of them spoke gruffly, keeping its eyes locked on the Human who currently looked like any other Human, albeit with clothes. And knives in those clothes.

Shining Armour nodded. “I did, Boulder Dash. It’s much too fast to be caught with conventional methods,” he said, before turning to face the Unicorns, “Why were you not apprehending him with telekinesis?”

“We tried! No matter how hard we all focused, the spell just seemed to fade when it reached him!” One black-coated Unicorn spoke out, not entirely happy with the implication that they had been watching their teammates get dismantled.

The Captain fixed them with a stern glare, “So you’re telling me that magic’s out as well?”

Upon receiving hesitant nods, Shining Armour let out a rare curse, turning to face the waiting Human properly. He hated looking at the creature, if only because he disliked it looking at him. Though it was impossible, it looked like it was studying him with those golden eyes. That was another thing. The eyes, they weren’t… Weren’t natural. Whenever they flickered over in his direction after scanning the rest of the squad, the Captain felt a deep shudder run through the back of his spine.

Everypony in the platoon tensed up as the Human apparently grew bored of standing around. The creature took a step to the left, inching closer to the still-downed body of Tempest Wing. Stout Shield was the first one to draw his spear, no longer willing to take any risks against the creature. He was stopped in his tracks just as he started to advance as the Human's sharp gaze locked straight onto him, staring him down as neither moved an inch.

The Human raised his foot off the ground, standing on one leg much to the confusion of the Ponies gathered. They weren't given much time to try and comprehend the inexplicable balancing act before it turned on its remaining heel, bringing its foot down hard upon the body of their comrade.

'I'm sick of this', he crushed the horse under his boot and lifted his foot up again 'damned', he did the same thing again, faster than before, 'planet' again the body of the horse let out a choked cry, swiftly silenced as his foot came down once more 'and its goddamn horses!'

Hazama didn't stop after that. Time after time, faster than the horses watching in horror could even decipher, he stomped the bruised, battered Guard again and again, years upon years of hidden frustration and anger boiling to the surface. Even as the horse's choking screams stopped entirely, it took him a solid ten seconds of continued punishment before the pace of his assault slowed.

Not even out of breath, he gave a few final strikes before halt entirely with a last kick, planting his shoe against the side of the Pegasus' face. 'Not even worth my time anymore' Hazama mused bitterly, drawing his leg backwards for one last sideways hit to the back. The horse went through the air and hit a tree, sinking to the ground without a squeak.

Whatever spell that the rest of the horses were under broke at that point. An array of snarling faces directed right at him, now filled with the intent to kill, to put down the creature that dared disrespect their companion in such a way.

'Good.' Hazama thought, turning to properly face the remnants of the squad as he pulled his hands out of his pockets, 'Maybe now they'll suck less at fighting.'

He really didn't have anything left to lose. If his secret wasn't gone by this point, there was no helping them. Any chance of mercy he might have had was also long absent, and the frenzied assault on their friend can't have helped matters. He wished somewhat that he hadn't lost control of himself. It had never happened before, and it felt disturbingly similar to when Terumi would assume direct control. All restraint went out the window, and any respect for the opponent along with it. Not to say that Hazama had any of the latter to begin with, but still.

Actually... An idea began to form in his mind. Something that no being in their right mind would fall for, but just might work against creatures that were as dumb as these. He would have to probably reveal his secret, but if he were to let them know that he'd been, say, not in control of his own actions due to an outside force...

His face, once entering the stages of a cocky smirk, dropped into a sudden, frightened frown. He whipped around towards the fallen Pegasus from before, and sprinted over to him, ignoring the cries of dismay from the Guards behind.

When he came up to the broken body, he knelt down, placing his hands atop its... chest? Body? Whatever it was called, he went through the signs of checking for life. When he found a light, shaky rise and fall, he sighed in relief, leaning back against the tree. It took a herculean amount of effort, but he forced himself to cry. Tiny streaks of tears running down his cheeks, making him seem for all the world to just be a scared Human.

The Guards finally approached, hesitant at first but now marching at full strength, intent on dealing grevious harm to the Human. That is, before they saw what he was doing. Upon seeing them approach and subsequently halt in confusion, Hazama stifled a smirk of satisfaction and continued to cry, scrambling away from the horses in apparent abject terror.

"What... What the hay is it doing?" asked one, still trying to keep a threatening growl in his voice but failing out of sheer confusion.

The one recognised as the Captain tore his gaze from the weeping Human and back to Tempest Wing's thankfully living body. "I... I don't know. I honestly don't know, Yellow Scroll."

"Who gives a buck?!" A particularly angry voice cried out from beside the Captain, "That pile of horseapples just buckin' killed Tempest!"

"He's not dead, Boulder."

"So BUCKIN WHAT, CAPTAIN? He might as well 'ave!"

'Damn' Hazama mused, forcing more and more tears out from his eyes. Calling them Crocodile tears would be an understatement of the highest calibre, 'One of them's actually got some sense about them. Seriously, who'd fall for this shit?'

The stallion leading the merry group threw a hoof over the angry one's side, holding him back and comforting him at the same time.

"I know you're frustrated. Believe me, we all want justice for what happened here today. But this Human, whatever it is, isn't normal. Something's very wrong with it, and it's been obvious ever since the incident in town. It was my fault for underestimating it. However, I've never seen or heard of one showing remorse like that before, or fight anything like it did just a second ago. This could be a huge discovery for all we know, and as much as I would like to, we can't beat the hay out of it just yet."

Its face turned to glare down at the Human, whose eyes were locked onto the body he'd been destroying just a moment ago in fear.

"We'll leave that up to the Princesses. You were recording the encounter as protocol, right Watchful Eye?"

That garnered a nod from one of the Unicorns.

"Right then. Boulder, Stout Shield, pick up Tempest and get him to the hospital in Ponyville. Yellow Scroll, you and I will take Zephyr and Monsoon as they're less injured." Shining Armour commanded, pointing out the Ponies he requested, and their targets. Then he waved a hoof towards the Human on the floor, "The rest of you, restrain him. We're taking him to Princess Celestia."

Hazama had to resist the urge to grin, frown, and scream in frustration yet again. They seriously bought his little act? Seriously?

Sometimes he wasn't sure if dealing with creatures this stupid was a massive curse, or a massive blessing.

Author's Note

Feel like the last bit went by a bit too quickly, but I had to close off the chapter somehow I suppose. A bit more could have been done with the Guards mistrusting him before agreeing to not slaughter him in cold blood, but that would have been redundant in my opinion.

And yes, if it wasn't blatantly obvious, the barn scene isn't happening. I should never have even mentioned it, really.

If any of you are looking for a visual representation of what just the stomping looked like, however, well... This isn't the smoothest gif, and it's not the full version i'm thinking of, but it's the best I could find.

Music section! Here we have 'In the Shadows', the theme of Hibiki Kohaku. Or, as he has a colour scheme and weapons that directly reference it, 'Attack on Titan man'