Marcus sat in front of a dying fire, facing Ponyville. It was getting dark. He went and grabbed a piece of wood to throw into a fire. With a haphazard throw, he lobbed it halfway onto the fire.

He then picked it back up and promptly threw it on top of a stack of dead timberwolves.

He watched with glee as orange flames began consuming the pile of splintered wood, licking at some low-lying branches of a couple of nearby trees.

Perfect.

He ran through the woods, knowing a wild forest fire would attract far more attention than a few snapped branches. He rapidly approached the border of the Everfree, making sure to slow down and move more stealthily as light began creeping through the bushes and trees. He eventually was able to make out a small wooden cabin, primarily because of the yellow glow emanating from the windows. Marcus watched as a bird flew by and into the cabin. Seconds later, a buttery pony barged out through the door and flew as fast as it could to town.

A minute later, he could hear panicked shouts of “FIRE IN THE EVERFREE!” and “WE’RE DOOMED!” Soon after, a small platoon of Solar Guards and five other ponies charged into the forest, barely missing Marcus.

He had a pretty good idea of who those five other ponies were.

Marcus crept after the small army, shadowing their footsteps. He watched with amusement as a certain pink-maned pegasus split off from the group. Probably to go watch over her poor, precious squirrels. Obviously, a few thousand rodents is much more important than a few billion sapient beings.

He climbed up a tree and began leaping from branch to branch, using dexterity developed from a few weeks of having to hunt for himself while learning to fight (or run away from) larger predators.

Not once did the battered Stetson crammed on top of his head fall off.

Marcus sensed the pegasus slowing down, and readied his weapons. Three timberwolf claws clenched between the fingers on his left fist, and his club wielded in his right. He jumped down, runes glowing on his legs as he landed with enough force to make a small crater in the hard earth. As Fluttershy whipped around, he swung up with his club, and heard a satisfying crack as the hardened timberwolf tail shattered her lower jaw. As Fluttershy fell to the ground, screaming in pain and choking on her own blood, Marcus quickly pounced on top of her.

This one would receive no taunting. She wasn’t worthy enough to be spoken to.

Marcus silenced her cries with a swift slash to the throat.

He leaped back onto the branches and bounded away. Certainly, some of those ponies would have heard her cries. They certainly would find her cold, lifeless body.

Let them.

Marcus grinned as he traversed the dense treetops. He looked down at what was carefully held in his fist. He had long since put his weapons away.

A cloudy blue eye stared straight back at him.

He eventually found a small cave. He ventured inside, and saw a lake with a smooth surface that reflected his being with mirror-like precision.

Marcus saw a beast. Unkempt hair, a straggly beard, a wild fire in his eyes. Tattered rags were his clothes, and yellowed tombstones were his teeth. He was in every way a monster, as much of a monster as they were.

But he would never be their monster.

No, they would fear him.

Author's Notes:

7,000 words now, yay!
Sorry about the super late, super short, super unfulling chapter.
I'm not a power-hungry writer. All the time, anyways. So even though most of my favs and follows come from this story, I just don't like writing it very much. It's more stress relief than anything. I prefer to write my HiE story, because it gives me more freedom and lets me be who I want to be. Mainly because I'm the main character, just with a slightly different name/age/look/stuff. So even though writing more for this story will get me more fame, I'm not going to as much. Sorry.
Most of my time is eaten away by school and procrastination. Heck, this chapter was written when I have a huge project due in...2, 3 days?
I'm going for a new writing style following Marcus's slight descent into insanity from the last chapter, I hope you guys don't mind. What I'm doing is I'm going to stop writing (read: copy-pasting) huge chapters, and I'm going to do more small chapters like this, with a small glimpse into Marcus's life each time. I won't edit it more than I do during the writing process. No prereaders, no re-reading, no editing. Just me squeezing my brain juices onto Word and sending it into Drive, then here.
Each chapter will end in some generic one-liner, obviously.
So yeah, expect shorter chapters and longer update times.
Please don't hate me.