Marcus knew it was time. Guards were beginning to venture further and further into the Everfree in a half-assed attempt at finding him. But even with his runes, at the rate they were appearing they might soon be enough to slow him down enough so that the Elements could get away.

So he had to act now.

He knew who always accompanied Flutterbitch. The blue speeder. She was extremely loyal.

Loyal enough that her Queen’s word was more important than anything else. That would have been a problem...

Except for the fact that that was in the future. Here, she would probably care more about her friends than anything else. Not even her own life.

Perfect.

Marcus slowly got up. His claws held in place by dried blood, rags, and his own flesh. His club sanded down to a rough finish and tucked under his belt. He walked over to the lake and fished out a white orb, with just a hint of blue at one side. Marcus took a few deep breaths, hooked it onto his belt, then rushed outside. He immediately headed towards town, making sure to rustle every leaf and snap every twig underfoot he could. If he was to trick Dash into revealing herself, he knew he would have to offer a target she couldn’t resist.

Marcus was brought back to reality as he heard a Captain order his men to chase after him. He quickly climbed up the strongest tree he could find.

And he waited.

And waited.

And-FUCK!

Marcus’s head snapped back as he felt himself falling off the branch he was perched on. He quickly flickered his runes, making sure the impact with the ground wouldn’t kill him, but at the same time leaving no evidence of his rune use. As he hit the ground face-down, a massive crater formed around his body. Marcus made sure to stay completely still.

“Hah! Not so tough now, are you?”

Keep on dreaming, assfuck.

“Wow, I knew you were a weakling, but really? Just one punch? But then again, it was one of my punches. Guess I did manage to beat you in ten seconds flat.”

It didn’t even hurt. The only reason it managed to knock him down was because she was travelling so fast and because he was caught off-guard.

Dash gently landed on the ground and trotted over to Marcus’s lifeless body. She was so close. Five yards...three yards...a yard...

Without warning, Marcus got on his arms and legs and pounced onto Dash. She immediately started trying to buck him off, but the fact that a heavily muscled beast twice her size was balancing on her back eventually forced her to collapse to the ground. "Let me go!" Dash grunted, struggling against Marcus's grasp.

"You know, I never really know why you bunch always scream that," he commented. "Seeing as you never showed mercy when our people cried out those same words. And I'm not just going to let you go, just like that, no questions asked." He brought a foot up to her back, and slowly got up, making sure to keep Dash pinned to the ground. He reached down and grabbed her wings. “I see you’ve gotten these fixed up quite nicely,” he growled. “Shame if I were to finish what I started. Oh wait!” He grabbed her wings and brutally ripped them off. No torture, no inevitability. He just ripped them off and tucked them in his pockets. “Now that no one’s here to help you, looks like you’re twenty percent weaker.” Marcus leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Maybe now you’ll even die in ten seconds flat...”

He grabbed his club and gave Dash a few good blows to her head. She gasped in pain after each blow as she watched specks of her blood water the wild grass around her. Noticing that Dash still wasn’t dead, Marcus removed his foot from her spine and grabbed her by her mane, pulling her head back. “Hm. You’re more resilient than I thought. No wonder we had so much trouble getting rid of you. But don’t worry, I’m here now. I’ll make sure you die. This is before you were undyingly loyal to your queen, isn’t it? Then surely you must be happy committing yourself to the greatest sacrifice you could possibly make to justice.” He ripped a chunk of her mane off and stuffed it into her mouth. “Now taste the rainbow and DIE!”

He threw her to the ground and lifted his club as far above his head as he could.

And brought it down.

On nothing.

Marcus glanced to his sides and noticed Dash to his left weakly trying to crawl away. She seemed to have used the last of her energy to roll away from his attack. He exchanged his club for the eye on his belt, walked over to her, and squatted down. “Tell you what. You eat this, and I let you live.” Marcus dangled the eye in front of Dash by its stem.

Dash’s eyes immediately widened, recognizing instantly the eye’s previous owner. She ever so slowly lifted up her head, and spit on Marcus’s foot.

His grin instantly froze. He put away the eye and whispered, “You are loyal. That is respectable. What else could you ask for from a soldier? It’s simply a shame that you were loyal to the wrong leader; blindly so.” He put his hands on either side of her head, and Dash began whimpering. “I will grant you a quick death. This is my tribute to your scrap of honor and humanity before the war.”

Marcus twisted. There was a loud thud.

He walked away.

[/hr]

After a few minutes of relative silence, a platoon of guards sudden dropped down from the trees and pointed their weapons at Marcus. A unicorn broke off from the rest of the formation and stood in front of him. “You! By Celestia’s Royal Decree, you are under arrest for battery on six civilians and the murder of three of the aforementioned civilians. Drop any weapons you have on you and do not resist the arrest, or we will use force.”

Marcus simply stood there. The leader of the guards began counting down. “You have five seconds...four seconds...three seconds-”

“Or what?” Marcus interrupted. “You’ll turn me into one of you? Go on, try.” He nodded to a purple canteen hanging off of the unicorn’s saddle pack. “I dare you.”

The unicorn blinked in surprise, then hesitantly ordered, “Detain this beast with any non-lethal means necessary!”

Marcus concentrated on his runes, causing them to flare brightly. A shower of crossbow bolts pinged off his back, and he felt a few spells splash off. He grabbed a nearby guard and used him as a shield against the charging spearponies. Unable to change their course, they skewed their comrade, spraying droplets of blood on their faces. Marcus threw the corpse to the ground and ripped a spear from the equine’s ribcage. His clawed hand automatically went for his club, and he went straight for the healer of the group. Marcus plunged the spear straight through the pony’s heart before being hit in the face with a barrage of different spells. He let go of the spear, and grabbed a fiery ball out of midair. He threw it straight back at its caster.

The unicorn mare screamed as her flesh seared under her armor and her eyes burst into flames. All of the fighting ceased as they watched the pony roll on the ground in agony, leaves and sticks adhering to the blackened remains of her hide. As the flames died out, so did the screech forcing its way through a dry, crisp throat.

Then, instead of routing, each guard simultaneously let loose a roar of anger and charged Marcus.

Picking up the mare’s casting sword, Marcus prepared to face the onslaught. He ducked and whirled, leapt and bound, catching and throwing back arcane missiles, stunning and slicing and stabbing and clawingandbashingandbitingandscreamingand-

Panting for breath, Marcus found himself in the aftermath of a massacre. Bloodied sacks of flesh were everywhere, scorch marks on every tree, heads rolling down little hills. An eerie cackling began echoing off the mounds of red armor. Marcus’s eyes darted about, trying to locate its source. It wasn’t until he suddenly had to bend over because his stomach hurt that he realized that the twisted cacophony was emerging from his mouth. He clapped a hand over his mouth, but the laughing continued. He tried to force his jaws shut, but they wouldn’t close.

Marcus heard a distant clamor from behind, and quickly deduced that they were reinforcements. He sprinted back to his cave, and sat there on the ground without moving for a few minutes.

He looked outside. The moon was shining brightly, as if it were any other peaceful camping trip he’d gone on as a kid.

Or was it a few hours? Marcus sighed, and slowly stood back up, hearing his joints crack and pop. A grinding noise alerted him to the fact that he was still clenching his fist tightly around the platoon leader’s sword. He leaned it against the wall, along with his club. It proved its worth in battle, and it would be handy to keep around. It seemed he had garnered another trophy.

Marcus then remembered the wings in his pocket. He pulled them out and softly stroked the feathers that oh so finely overlapped each other. He felt an odd source of glee from stroking them, and immediately put them away. He was killing these monstrosities to make sure they could never annihilate the human race.

He was killing them for justice against the atrocious crimes they had committed.

For humanity.

SO WHY DID HE FEEL JOY WHEN HE KILLED THEM?

He wasn’t hunting them for sport or fun. There was no reason to feel joy until the queen cocksucking whore behind everything was brutally ended.

Troubled, Marcus went to sleep. But one little seed of doubt remained.

What happens when the predator begins to enjoy the hunt?

Author's Notes:

Please don't sue me, Skittles. Please don't.
Sorry for the long wait. I had procrastination and AP/Honors summer work slowing me down. So don't expect anything after August, because more likely than not AP World will have killed me.
I wanted to have this preread, but unfortunately I can't because of the vow I made in Chapter 3. So I have no idea how people will react to it. I'm expecting so much hate mail right now...
In case anyone wanted to know, I'm kind of imagining Marcus as this guy right now.
TL;DR: Here. It's Marcus now.

OH YEAH DON'T HATE IN THE COMMENTS WITHOUT TELLING ME WHY THIS STORY SUCKS. SAME WITH DISLIKING.