The man stumbled through the woods, branches and shrubs clawing at his legs through the thin cloth of his pants. Behind him, that voice with that southern accent called, begging him to come back. Probably to buck him in the stomach for stealing her rope, that bitch.

The rope…

The man didn’t have the slightest idea what had happened there. One moment, he was up there, the noose tightening around his neck, the little orange pony looking up at him with that questioning look on her face, and the next, he was lying on the ground. There had been a snap, though. A snap. That was it! The cheap-assed rope had snapped! He reached up to his throat, feeling the strip of heat tracing around his neck from the moment before the rope had snapped, when it had clenched around his neck and his vision had started to go dark…and the next thing he knew, he had been on his back with that same pony looking down at him, eyes wide, her mouth forming that question again: Why?

Why. As if she didn’t know. As if she had no clue about the years she spent chasing after him, haunting his every move from the first moment he stepped onto her farm. For God’s sake, the first thing she did when they met was buck him in the stomach! And for what!? The crime of setting foot in her fields!? For daring to think the loving honesty she shared with everypony else might be extended to him!? She knew! She had to know!

But…

What if?

What if she really didn’t know?

All at once, the deep, roiling sadness melted away, leaving anger in its wake. Anger so great, his stomach twisted with it. He tripped over a branch and landed heavily on the ground, his hand clenching at a few tufts of wild grass, the anger boiling over. The years of abuse and rejection; that he could understand. He was a stranger in a strange land, and they were a bunch of xenophobic mockeries of the ponies he had known and loved in his world. Easy. Heartless, but he could understand it. But this? For that little pony to have the sheer audacity to look him in the eye and ask “Why?” As if she didn’t know about the years of abuse she and her friends had heaped on him for no reason at all? For her to just deny everything!?

The man rose to his knees. It was amazing what one little question could do. It could give a man a new purpose. It could renew his zeal for life, in a way. It could take all the pain and turn it into anger. Probably pointless, meaningless anger, but still, something new to hold onto. Something to justify putting one foot in front of the other again. Something besides the crushing depression he had known for over two years now.

Because of them.

Because of the ponies he loved.

Applejack’s cries were growing softer now, more faint. He was losing her. That suited him just fine. He approached the dark cave he called home, the only shelter he could find here in a land of supposedly loving ponies, and he just kept walking. There was nothing for him there anymore. Just a bunch of rags that at times made for a decent pillow.

He walked for hours with no sense of direction or any destination in mind, nothing but the anger welling up in his heart at the thought of every rejection, every undeserved hit, every attack and insult he’d suffered for the crime of being different. Applejack’s question had bought it all back to him. For him to suffer through it all was bad enough, but for the ponies to not remember? For it to be so casual to them they couldn’t even remember any of it? As if it was just part of the daily routine? Brush teeth, comb hair, torture the human, pick up eggs!? Was that how it fucking went!?

By the time Celestia’s sun started to dip beneath the horizon, his feet were aching enough to break through the whirlwind of rage spinning in his head. He paused and laid on the ground, not knowing if he was even in Equestria anymore and not caring.

As he closed his eyes, that strange, questioning look on the farm pony’s face rose up in his head again. His jaw clenched as a sneer twisted his cracked lips. “I don’t know how and I don’t know when,” he whispered. “But you’ll pay for this, Equestria. Every single one of you, even if it takes the rest of my life. You will pay.”