“It’s still awake!”

“Oh Celestia it stole somepony’s clothes!”

“It’s not knocked out!”

“Help uuuus!”

“What ‘n tarnation…”

‘This isn’t quite what I expected when I jumped into the Boundary’ Hazama frowned, still standing in place where the ropes had fallen on him. The mare holding them had not made any move to tighten them, so either she was very bad at her job as door guard, or she realised that he wasn’t dangerous. It would be a false realisation, but he’d really like her to make it regardless.

And why did a horse need ropes so heavy? If he wasn’t as strong as he was, he’d have been immediately been bowled over by the weight behind them. In fact, he should probably have done so anyway, because now it seemed to everyone watching that he was very strong.

Time would tell if that was a good thing or not.

But for now, he had to deal with the fact that at least eighty percent of the crowd was panicking over the sight of him, even though he was clearly not moving and he very much hoped that he didn’t look to be afflicted with whatever those other Humans had.

He saw one of the horses at the front of the crowd turn to the one with the end of the rope in her…Hooves?! How? There was no possible way that it could be holding anything. And yet the evidence was right in front of him.

“A-Applejack…?” the purple one asked, a barely noticeable quiver in her tone.

The one with the hat grunted in response, giving the rope another fruitless tug.

Hazama had a choice to make. Keep up appearances by falling over with the pull, or continue to stand and make everyone watching even more nervous.

What was the benefit of making them nervous? Almost nothing. It would make him more likely to get discovered, more likely to get lynched in public, and if not that then at least more likely to be restrained in a dungeon. Not that it would keep him held for very long, but it was the sentiment that counted.

In contrast, it made perfect sense that he should do as expected and fall down.

But he wouldn’t allow it. Even if nobody from his old world found out about what he did, the thought would stick with him forever that he submitted and bowed low to a bunch of scared horses with girly names.

That last part was extremely vital to his decision making.

So the horse tugged, but Hazama didn’t budge even a little bit. It made louder grunts, pulled harder than before, but still nothing.

When it got to the point that the horse took the rope into her mouth, the purple one from before stepped in, taking it from her friend with her telekinesis. Hazama was quick to note that her magic was a different colour to the horse from before.

“It’s alright, Applejack, I don’t think he needs to be tied up anyway. If he was infected, he’d have already tried to break free and attack us.”

The orange horse’s body seemed to sag as she panted for air, shooting the Human a suspicious glare from the side. Clearly she didn’t quite believe the idea that he was harmless. Smart horse.

Hazama had been studying how the purple one acted just as she turned to face him, a hoof under her chin as she drew closer, one eye wider than the other.

“But how did he bypass the lightning wards I placed…?”

Hazama winced internally. He should have guessed that would be hard to explain, and he didn’t see a way that he could assuage that particular suspicion.

The lightning bolt hadn’t even hurt, and he didn’t feel like faking it either. One tended to gain a large tolerance for lightning bolts after being opposed to Rachel Alucard for such a long time, and those were much, much stronger than the paltry trap that had been set at the door.

That by no means prevented the effects of being hit by lightning, however, and he got the distinct impression that taking off his hat would reveal a mass of now statically spiked hair, and he didn’t particularly want to see that. Not with how similar it would make him look to Terumi.

Seriously, though, he had no idea what he was going to do. If he was outed as a freak of nature in front of the entire town, then it would be trouble. Not dangerous trouble, not to him at least, but still highly irritating.

If only those other Ponies hadn’t gone and flew away at the first sign of danger, then he’d have some kind of alibi. He had liked their absence at the time, but now their swift escape served to put them somewhere down the line on Hazama’s shit list.

“Twilight, dear, no! You musn’t hurt him!”

“P-Please don’t!”

Shit list? What shit list? These Ponies were his best friends! They were the best of chums, and he was actually grateful to see somebody for once in his life.

The crowd, including the two Ponies at the front, turned their eyes away from him (thankfully) to the two Pegasi and the Unicorn that they were holding, who they quickly set on the ground.

“Rarity?” The purple one asked. The fact that her mouth hung open after saying the word was a good indicator that she didn’t expect this at all. “You’re…Defending a Human? But I thought you couldn’t stand them!”

The fashionista sighed somewhat guiltily as a large portion of the crowd mumbled similar opinions. She paused for a moment, brushing some stray strands of purple hair out of her eyes. The fast trip through the air had obviously not done wonders for her nerves. Or mane.

“I’m aware of my disdain for Humans, darling, but this one is different. He’s incredibly well behaved, and listens to commands extraordinarily well!”

“And you like him ‘cause of the clothes, right?”

“Not to mention his clo-“ Rarity trailed off, arching an eyebrow towards Rainbow Dash, who was currently reclining in mid-air, laying on nothing.

“Yes, actually,” she resumed, “the clothes are important to note. It means that somepony trusted this Human enough to wear all those expensive clothes without damaging them. Nopony spends that many bits on their Human without extreme amounts of training, Twilight.”

The purple horse seemed to consider this for a moment, glancing between Rarity, the Human, and the length of rope she was holding with her magic. She didn’t seem sure just yet.

Fluttershy stepped forward, placing a hoof on the Human’s side, prompting him to look down at her with a blank expression. The crowd seemed to suck in air all at once, waiting for something to happen. When she wasn’t brutally attacked after ten seconds, everypony exhaled at once.

“S-see? He’s a good boy, T-Twilight…” she smiled lightly towards her friend, continuing to pat the Human’s waist.

‘Urgh. Even this is getting too demeaning, but it’s far better than the alternative’ Hazama thought ruefully to himself, getting tired of having his arms ‘restrained’ but not making any move to struggle.

The purple mare thought for a few moments longer, before bowing her head with a sigh and dropping her magical control. The rope unravelled around the Human, allowing him to stretch his arms out until they clicked. The horde once again looked ready to spring forward (or backward) if he swung at anypony, but he simply grunted and put his arms back to his side once he was satisfied.

The purple one regarded him for a second, humming in confirmation of something and then turning around to check how the crowd was doing.

Hazama’s eyebrow quirked upwards, but he fixed it before any of the Ponies could notice. The purple horse had wings. But she already had a horn. From what he could see of the other townsfolk, none of them had both features. Was this one special in some way? She did seem to be a ringleader of some description. Was the leader of a village or tribe or whatever born with wings and a horn?

He was too caught up in his musings to hear exactly what the Pegasus-Unicorn was saying, but he got the general gist of the speech as the crowd seemed to relax massively, starting to chatter among themselves. Clearly whatever had been said helped to calm them down.

The purple one turned back to the trio of her friends and trotted closer, the one with the hat following not too far behind. She leaned in to the unintentionally formed circle with a hiss, holding a hood to the side in a childish attempt to prevent lipreading.

“There are still infected Humans out there! Did you see them on your way here?!” She whispered loud enough to be considered a normal talking voice. Luckily, the other town residents were busy calming down their foals or pets after the brief drama from earlier.

Twilight hadn’t been expecting her friends to glance at each other grimly. Only Rainbow Dash wasn’t frowning, but her lips were set in a straight line. A nervous chuckle escaped the Pegasus’ mouth.

“That’s…Not gonna be a problem, Twi. The Royal Guard were in the market, and the Humans were, uh, ‘dealt with’.”

The Unicorn-Pegasus sighed a breath of relief and perked up, rubbing her now-tired-looking eyes with the back of one hoof.

“Thanks Celestia… Did they have any problems with it?”

Another meaningful look between the three, and this time it was Rarity that spoke up.

“No, darling. There weren’t any issues whatsoever, because… Because the Humans were k-killed before the Guard arrived.”

The group of five Ponies stood quietly as they processed that information. Killed? Without the Guard? But who? What could have killed two infected Humans? The only one outside at the time would… have… been…

Hazama did his best to look as gormless as possible as the five horses turned to him. They had no way of pinning it on him doing it on purpose. It was the stall. Just an accident. He had been running away from the scary Humans, and they’d barrelled over the apple stand by complete chance, crushing them both. He had absolutely no reason to worry.

“H-How? How the hay did this fella…?”

Oh dear, they already suspected him.

“I-I-It wasn’t him! W-we left him all alone and scared, and h-he ran away… The I-Infected Humans got k…ki…ki… hurt by Applejack’s apple stall when they knocked it over chasing after him. That’s…What we heard the G-Guard saying, anyway…”

To everypony’s surprise, it was Fluttershy that leapt to the Human’s defence, though she struggled to get the ‘k’ word out, to nopony’s surprise. Everyone had a different reaction.

Applejack wasn’t happy to hear that her stall had to be toppled over to take out the Humans, but it was far better than anypony getting hurt, especially this new Human that Fluttershy looked quite attached to. She was, however, morbidly pleased that Big Macintosh had built the stand to be heavy enough to deal with not one but two infected Humans.

Rainbow Dash was more wary of the Human than before, staring at the side of his stupid green hair as he overlooked the crowd in the throne room. It was too convenient that both of the Humans had been killed by one falling market stand. She knew the Human was fast enough to get far enough away from the infected, because he’d managed to get away from her dive-tackle from earlier. Something was definitely up with this new Human, but she wouldn’t push her friends too hard on it. Yet.

Twilight considered this a lot of information to take in. In one day, there’d been a potential mass outbreak of infected Humans, she’d unwittingly assaulted a new Human dressed in clothes almost as formal as a Canterlot dinner party, and it turned out that the diseased ones had been defeated by an apple stand, of all things. And it wasn’t even past one o’clock yet!

Rarity was mostly distracted. She needed to find her sister. The news of the attack would mean she was probably hidden away somewhere, surrounded by the other Crusaders for comfort. The fashionista nudged Applejack’s side.

“Where might I find Sweetie Belle?” She mumbled, only loud enough for the farm mare to hear. The farmer looked to her friend with a grim frown on her lips, and mouthed ‘th’ corner at th’ back-left’. Rarity nodded, and made her departure.

Fluttershy was relieved. When she saw Twilight and Applejack holding the Human captive with rope, she panicked a bit. Ok, more than a bit. It’s what allowed her to shout out in his defence after all. It must have been the first time that most of the Ponyville folk had ever heard her speak louder than a whisper.

She wished she could call him something other than ‘The Human’ in her head, though. It seemed a little unfair. Glancing over him, a list of names ran through her mind. Billy, perhaps? That sounded like a sweet little name. But he was so formal looking, and well behaved, and…Old.

Fluttershy stopped short. How old was he? He seemed to be fully mature, and even getting on in years a little bit. But he seemed really healthy, at the same time. He had white teeth, and that alone was a massive indicator of health. Most Humans had very yellow or nearly brown shades of teeth. He also didn’t seem to have trouble moving, so no arthritis. His skin seemed clean, from what she could see that wasn’t covered by clothes, at least.

The amount of care that had been put into the Human was already a big part of convincing the crowd of Ponies that he was completely safe, but Fluttershy was just now realising how far it went.

Wait. Shouldn’t his owner have been in this very room? Wouldn’t they have come out in his defence? It wasn’t as though they wanted to get rid of their Human, not after putting this much obvious work and care into him.

Something strange happened on his face that made Fluttershy pause. She could only see him from the side, but as he’d turned to look up at the ceiling while holding his hat on his head with one hand (something that seemed to be a habit of his) something odd caught her eye.

He was smiling.

Author's Note

Not a particularly eventful chapter, but it needed to be out of the way. Some suspicions raised, some quelled, but Fluttershy's definitely peaked.

We're back with the music segment, and i've run out of themes involving Hazama specifically. While I could then do characters specifically tied to him, i'm just going to start posting tracks that I like regardless.

So here's the theme of Kokonoe Mercury, that one character from chapter one that was there for like half a chapter? Yeah.