Rainbow Dash was having a pretty good day.

Her work for the day was done, the skies were clear, the sun was out with a pleasant warmth, and the other Weatherponies had decided to setup a game of Hoofball.

Screw napping on a cloud, wrecking her co-workers at Hoofball was way more interesting! It was, like, the best game in the world! She still held the record for keeping a ball in the air to prove her dedication to the art.

The Ponies that invite Rainbow Dash to play Hoofball do so knowing that they'll lose. It's just a matter of how much they can stand up to her

Several shots into the game, and the theme ran true.

She had possession of the ball from the moment the referee began the game, ducking and weaving under and over each attempt to remove it from her grasp. The other players in her team had, to the unyielding rage of the opposing side, decided to start lounging around on the surrounding clouds.

The game had gone 6-0 in favour of her team, and there was only a minute left on the timer. Thunderlane, by means of a goal resetting the field, had the ball, although he appeared intensely nervous of the hungry gaze that Rainbow was directing at the ball. At least he hoped it was towards the ball. If she wanted to gun for him specifically, then there wasn't much he could do to stop her.

Strangely, though, her gaze dropped from him. The whistle blew, the game began, and he took off immediately in a blind panic, desperate to lose hold of the ball before getting slammed into. When no such event occurred, he naturally found it strange, but didn't think anything of it. He even scored! 6-1, with ten seconds left! The team must have been so proud of him. If they'd been looking.

Rainbow Dash herself had looked down, intending on giving her friends down below the briefest of glances just to check what they were doing, but upon seeing the black figure trailing behind them, sneaking about, she froze. Rarity would never let a Human walk near her, not even one controlled by Fluttershy, who didn't seem to have noticed the creature at all.

Without a word to anyone, she'd taken off, barreling towards the ground at an ever increasing speed. Not quite enough to perform her legendary sonic rainboom, but definitely approaching that level.

The ground grew closer, and the Pegasus would have smiled if the g-force allowed it. The dastardly Human had no idea what was about to hit him...

Hazama watched in bemusement as his attempted attacker struggled to remove their front half from the ground.

The fact that they had been able to survive a face-first impact at that speed told him quite a bit about the durability of these creatures. Every bit of information counted, especially if he found himself needing to fight off any Ponies in the near future.

The two mares behind him surged forward after a moment of shocked silence with a cry of 'Rainbow Dash!'

Rainbow Dash? Seriously?

He was glad he'd already laughed himself silly on the names of the other two, because if he hadn't been prepared for a name like that, then he'd have collapsed in fit of laughter comparable to a seizure. Rainbow Dash. Good lord.

Hazama stayed where he was as the two Ponies dug out the Pegasus they apparently knew. If she attacked him once, then she would likely do so again, and it paid to have as much distance as possible between him and her. Of course, he assumed it was a 'her' purely because if a male of any species had that name, then they'd have legally changed it out of disgust.

They'd succeeded in freeing the newcomer at this point, the mare in question shaking her entire body like a wet dog to get rid of the clumps of dirt that clung to...Her rainbow coloured hair.

He could see where her parents got the idea for that fucking name, then.

When she was apparently satisfied that she'd done all she could to dislodge the earth from her fur, she looked around at her surroundings, potentially still dizzy from the impact as her eyes seemed to dilate rapidly, as if focusing was a chore.

"What in Equestria were you trying to do, Rainbow Dash? Look at all the dirt in your mane..." Rarity scolded, horn lighting up blue as flakes of crusty earth detached themselves from her body.

The Pegasus had the grace to wince for a moment before pointing angrily at the Human, still standing a fair distance away with his suspicious hat and suit, like some cosplayer had gotten their human involved in some secret agent convention.

"That Human was about to attack you guys! L-let me at him, I got this...!"

It was evident to even a child that the mare did not, in fact, have this. She stumbled to her feet...hooves? She stumbled to her hooves and sort of fell towards him, chin meeting the dirt for the second time in half a minute. Her friends jumped forward again to pull her up.

Fluttershy was the one to speak up, shaking her head in disappointment. "We were taking him to town, Rainbow Dash. He wasn't going to hurt us! He's very docile," she turned to face him smiling gently, "Yes you are. You're a good Human, aren't you?"

Hazama winced. He was fairly certain that a large portion of his pride had just offed itself out of shame. Getting treated like a child was not high on his list of things that he wanted his new life to include. He endured it, however, and stared blankly at the yellow horse. Taking a moment to consider what a 'normal' Human would do, he stepped 'nervously' towards the Pony cooing at him.

The last of his self-esteem fled his body when Fluttershy patted his leg.

Rainbow Dash, still held back by Rarity, stared open-mouthed, eyes flicking between the fashionista and the Human. "But...But Rarity, you hate Humans..."

The white mare tutted towards the Pegasus, shaking her head. "I don't hate every Human, Rainbow. Only the vicious ones."

"But Sweetie Belle-"

"Is not here right now, and will never have to cross paths with him." Rarity's eyes hardened, more than enough to tell Rainbow dash to drop the subject immediately, or she'd meet with much harsher words.

Hazama mulled that exchange over in his mind, analysing it every which way. He'd noticed previously that Fluttershy seemed to panic when Rarity noticed him, and the words spoken by his assaulter confirmed that the white Pony had something against Humans in general. He had no idea who this 'Sweetie Belle' was (and spared a moment to gag internally at the name) but it seemed as though she had a much larger hatred for his kind. Rarity's words implied that whoever she was, they were close to one another. A sister, perhaps?

It didn't matter overly much, but focusing on the information he was getting turned out to be a good way of distracting himself from the fact that he was playing dumb to a bunch of multicoloured horses.

God, he was itching to find somewhere isolated again. He had more things he needed to check, but absolutely couldn't do them while being watched. For example, if he still had the ability to use Ouroboros. Would the Nox Nyctores even function on this planet? He certainly hoped so, because while he was still more than capable of fighting without it, the chain was an essential part of his style.

He could vaguely hear the Ponies talking about something, so he brought himself out of his thoughts for the moment.

"-and i'm gonna be watchin' you the whole time, you got that?" the rainbow horse finished threatening, scowling in his direction.

He really needed to start paying more attention to these things.

Drawing closer to the town, Hazama felt highly reassured about his chances of survival in this world.

Primarily, the technology level was obviously far, far beneath even the most backwater areas in Kagutsuchi, including the unspoken Kaka Clan. The thatch roofs were enough of a sign, but the scattered wagons on the outskirts didn't hurt.

And if the species wasn't technologically advanced, then he had very little to fear from any scientists in this world, if there even were any.

Unless they were all just gathered in one place like Sector Seven, hidden away with a basement full of nuclear fucking missiles poised to destroy the world if necessary. And boy, wasn't that a fun piece of information. Really gave some of their boldness some context.

The Ponies in front (and behind, in Rainbow's case) seemed on edge as the motley group came closer, though he didn't see why.

"Where...Where is everypony?" spoke up Fluttershy from his left, just as they emerged into a circular clearing in the buildings, lined by abandoned stalls and marketplaces not dissimilar to those found in Orient Town, Kagutsuchi.

Hazama shouldn't have thought about that place. Now he was somehow even hungrier than before, which was a damned impressive achievement considering he hadn't eaten in what felt like weeks. What he wouldn't give for a bowl of rice from one of the vendors there.

His mind on food now, his eyes teased him by seeming to highlight the vacated baskets of fruit and other fresh produce. He impressively managed to withhold his urges, keeping his hands to himself. Except for the one apple he swiped the moment he noticed that even the suspicious Pegasus behind him had become distracted with the lack of activity.

"I don't know, darling. It's practically noon, and even Applejack's stall is empty!"

'Isn't that an alcoholic drink?' Hazama wondered idly, tossing the now-demolished apple core into a nearby bush. What could he say? He was hungry, and very quick. 'Unfortunate name conventions aside, I might have to swipe more of those apples if they're all as good as that. Oh, shit, I can blame it on my Human curiosity, too!'

Caught up in his various musings, he didn't notice that the three Ponies had stopped moving until his leg bumped into Rarity's side, who proceeded to jump backwards slightly and glance up at him with a light gasp, although she calmed down quickly.

The rainbow one was immediately beside her, glaring up at him as she threw a hoof over her friend's side.

"What'd he do? Try to grab you or somethin'?"

Rarity shrugged off Rainbow's grasp, laughing somewhat shakily.

"No, no, dear, it was just a mistake. I don't see why you're so on edge about him, when there are bigger concerns to worry about. For example, why everypony appears to have vanished!"

Hazama heard footsteps. And they were definitely footsteps, as he'd grown accustomed to hearing hooves after walking to town surrounded by the Ponies. Which meant that there were other Humans nearby. The noise seemed to be coming from behind a corner, tucked in an alleyway. Another noise, shuffling and rustling, like rifling through papers.

The others had heard it too, heading to where the alley opened into the marketplace, Hazama following behind at a reasonable distance.

The shuffling ceased as they got closer, all four of them staring into the shadowed alley.

Two Human figures were hunched over, groaning as if in pain and sifting through rubbish. One of them stopped their actions, and growled a noise to the other one. It sounded odd, especially to Hazama, who had intricate knowledge on the noises that a Human voice box should and should not be able to make.

They both clutched the wall as they stood, turning to face the group with a growl.

The three Ponies went pale as sheets, and Hazama had to quirk both eyebrows, hand trailing up to his hat in curiosity.

If these things used to be Human, it wasn't a very good resemblance. Like making a sandcastle out of coarse sand, there were bumps and boils covering their mottled green and black skin as they made that same inhuman groaning noise.

"I-I-Infected Humans!" came the cry from all three Ponies simultaneously, so loud that it almost hurt Hazama's ears.

Rarity froze in place, images flashing through her mind. Sweetie Belle...

Rainbow Dash took to the skies immediately, holding tightly onto Rarity to help her retreat, knowing that she wasn't the fastest runner even at the best of times, and this was the opposite of a good moment for her. Fluttershy was slower on hoof, yes, but she could just as easily fly upwards and out of reach, which she did almost immediately, joining her friends as they flew away as far as they possibly could.

That was the closest that either Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy had ever come to an Infected Human, but Rarity was in a much worse state. She was still frozen as they retreated, and only started to breathe normally again once the market was no longer in eyesight.

Just as they were reaching a safe distance, Fluttershy cried out in fear, holding her hooves to her mouth, eyes wide in terror.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash both asked what was wrong, the latter turning both of them around in the air to face their scared friend.

Fluttershy looked to them with tears starting to sparkle in the corners of her eyes.

"H...He's not here! I left him there!"

Author's Note

This time around for the music segment, we'll have the theme that played in the second game of the series if you reached the end of your arcade run with any character. Your opponent would be Hazama in a much more powerful form, with bullshit hidden moves and a permanant life-draining ring around himself. Fun times. Hence why the track is called Endless Despair, AKA What Fluttershy is going to feel if Hazama ends up hurt!